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Showing posts with label Zero-Day Attack. Show all posts
zero-day exploit
Online Security User Security Vulnerabilities and Exploits Zero-Day Attack zero-day exploit

What is a Zero-Day Attack And How You Can Safeguard Against It?

 

The cyberthreats that are still unknown to us are the most severe. The majority of cyberdefenses rely on having prior knowledge of the attack's nature. We just don't know what zero days are, which is why they are so lethal. 

A zero-day attack occurs when cybercriminals abuse a software or hardware flaw that is totally unknown to developers and the larger cybersecurity community. Because no one is aware of the issue, no defences have been designed against it, making systems vulnerable. This implies that even if you're using top-tier cybersecurity software, such as the finest VPN or antivirus, you may still be vulnerable to zero-day assaults.

The term "zero-day" refers to the fact that security firms had zero days to repair or patch a vulnerability. Zero-day attacks are particularly dangerous because they are frequently leveraged by sophisticated hackers or nation-state groups to access highly guarded networks. These attacks can go undetected over an extended length of time, making them incredibly tough to defend against. 

In this article, I will explain what zero-day attacks are, how they work, and how you can safeguard yourself or your business from these hidden threats.

What are zero-day attacks? 

A zero-day attack is when a hacker exploits a previously unknown flaw. These vulnerabilities are defects or weaknesses in programming that allow for unintended actions, such as unauthorised network access. Once a hacker has identified a vulnerability, they can use it to access a network, install malware, steal data, or do other types of damage.

Zero-day exploits

This leads us nicely into the concept of zero-day exploits. Zero-day exploits are coded by hackers to cause a system to perform something it would not normally do by exploiting a vulnerability. This is the hacker's hidden weapon, allowing them to breach systems while remaining undetected. A hacker group may keep a large number of zero-day exploits on hand, ready to be used when the need arises.

These exploits are used to launch a zero-day assault. In most cases, a zero-day assault occurs when the public becomes aware of a vulnerability. Once the attack is identified, the race is on to remedy the vulnerability and avoid further abuse. 

Prevention tips

Install updates: It should go without saying that updating your software is essential. Upon the identification of a flaw and the release of a patch, it is imperative to promptly implement the update. Even while a zero-day attack may start with a very small number of targets, hackers can quickly create their own exploits once the larger security community is made aware of a vulnerability. 

Stay updated: Threat intelligence services also help you stay up to date on the latest emerging threats. These feeds provide real-time information on new vulnerabilities, exploits, and attack methodologies, allowing you to mitigate the risk by modifying your defences to resist them. 

Bolster the overall security of the network: Remember that a zero-day is not a skeleton key. It's a particular specific issue that enables a hacker to bypass a specific defence in your system. The more safeguards you put in place, such as two-factor authentication, antivirus, and antimalware, the better your chances of stopping a hacker in their tracks.
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Zero-Day Attack
BoldMove Backdoor Chinese Actors Fortinet Fortinet FortiOS FortiOS Google Hackers Linux Mandiant Threat Intelligence Vulnerabilities and Exploits zero-day Zero-Day Attack

Hackers Designs Malware for Recently Patched Fortinet Zero-Day Vulnerability


Researchers who recently disclosed and patched the zero-day vulnerability in Fortinet's FortiOS SSL-VPN technology have identified a new backdoor, specifically created in order to run on Fortinet’s FortiGate firewalls. 

Initial evidence collected by Google-owned security firm Mandiant suggests that the exploitation occurred in October 2022, nearly two months before the vulnerability was patched. Targets included a government entity in Europe and a managed services provider in Africa. 

According to a report published by Mandiant, the malware appears to have been created by a China-based threat actor that conducts cyber-espionage operations against individuals and groups associated with the government. 

It is the most recent instance of attackers from the country attacking firewalls, IPS, IDS, and other technologies used by businesses to secure their networks that are internet-facing. 

BoldMove Backdoor 

The attacks involved the use of a sophisticated backdoor known as BOLDMOVE, a Linux variant created especially to run on Fortinet's FortiGate firewalls. 

The intrusion vector in question is the exploitation of CVE-2022-42475, a heap-based buffer overflow flaw in FortiOS SSL-VPN that could allow for unauthenticated remote code execution through carefully constructed requests. 

Earlier this month, Fortinet revealed that the unidentified hacking groups had taken advantage of the flaw to attack governments and other major institutions with a generic Linux implant capable of delivering additional payloads and carrying out remote server commands. 

Mandiant findings also indicate that the hackers managed to exploit the zero-day vulnerability to their advantage, accessing target networks for espionage operations. "With BOLDMOVE, the attackers not only developed an exploit, but malware that shows an in-depth understanding of systems, services, logging, and undocumented proprietary formats," Mandiant added. 

The BoldMove Backdoor malware, written in C, is apparently available in both Windows and Linux versions, with the latter being able to read data from a Fortinet-exclusive file format. 

Moreover, according to Fortinet’s report, an extended Linux sample comes with a feature that allows attackers to disable and manipulate logging features in order to evade detection. Despite the fact that no copies of the backdoor have been found in the wild, metadata analysis of the Windows variations reveals that they were created as early as 2021. 

"The exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities in networking devices, followed by the installation of custom implants, is consistent with previous Chinese exploitation of networking devices," Mandiant noted. 

Schooled in FortiOS 

Meanwhile, Fortinet itself described the malware as a variant of “generic” Linux backdoor designed by threat actors for FortiOS. According to the company's analysis, affected systems may have had the malicious file disguising itself as a part of Fortinet's IPS engine. 

According to Fortinet, one of the malware's more advanced features included manipulating FortiOS log-in to avoid detection. The malware can search FortiOS for event logs, decompress them in memory, and search for and delete a specific string that allows it to reconstruct the logs. The malware can also completely disable logging processes. 

"The complexity of the exploit suggests an advanced actor and that it is highly targeted at governmental or government-related targets," says Fortinet. 

Fortinet adds that designing the malware would have required the threat actors to have a “deep understanding” of the FortiOS and its underlying hardware. "The use of custom implants shows that the actor has advanced capabilities, including reverse-engineering various parts of FortiOS," the vendor said.  

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Zero-Day Attack
Cyber Attacks User Security Windows Users Zero-Day Attack

Microsoft Office Users Targeted in a New Zero-Day Attack

 

Microsoft issued a warning to Windows users on Tuesday that attackers are actively exploiting an unpatched remote execution zero-day vulnerability in MSHTML, a proprietary browser engine for the now-discontinued Internet Explorer using weaponized MS Office documents. 

Tracked as CVE-2021-40444, the vulnerability affects Windows Server 2008 through 2019 and Windows 8.1 through 10 and has a severity level of 8.8 out of the maximum 10.

"Microsoft is investigating reports of a remote code execution vulnerability in MSHTML that affects Microsoft Windows. Microsoft is aware of targeted attacks that attempt to exploit this vulnerability by using specially-crafted Microsoft Office documents," the company said in a security advisory. 

"An attacker could craft a malicious ActiveX control to be used by a Microsoft Office document that hosts the browser rendering engine. The attacker would then have to convince the user to open the malicious document. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights," it added.

ActiveX is a software framework from Microsoft that adapts its earlier Component Object Model and Object Linking and Embedding technologies for content downloaded from a network. 

Microsoft credited researchers from EXPMON and Mandiant for reporting the flaw, although the company did not provide further details about the nature of the attacks, the identity of the adversaries exploiting this zero-day, or their targets in light of real-world attacks. 

The researchers at EXPMON stated they discovered the issue after detecting a "highly sophisticated zero-day attack" directed at Microsoft Office users, adding they shared the findings with Microsoft on Sunday. "The exploit uses logical flaws so the exploitation is perfectly reliable (& dangerous)," EXPMON researchers said. 

However, the risk can be mitigated if Microsoft Office operates with default configurations, wherein documents downloaded from the web are opened in Protected View or Application Guard for Office, which is designed to prevent untrusted files from accessing trusted resources in the compromised system. 

Microsoft, upon completion of the investigation, is expected to publish a security patch or an out-of-cycle security update as part of its Patch Tuesday monthly release cycle "depending on customer needs." In the interim, the Windows maker is advising users and organizations to disable all ActiveX controls in Internet Explorer to mitigate any potential threat.
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