Category: Warnings

The attack is particularly dangerous as Apache web servers are among the most well-known and widely-used in the world and are used by numerous companies.

“With so many web servers running Apache, potentially hundreds of thousands of sites are vulnerable to this hard-to-detect threat. Traffic to the website may be directed to other sites, where some of the redirects are to sites that carry the notorious Blackhole Exploit Kit,” said Zwienenberg.

The influx of new sophisticated attacks has caused numerous security vendors and government groups to call on industry to improve their cyber defences. Most recently, Metropolitan Police Central e-crime Unit head Charlie McMurdie said businesses must work more closely with law enforcement to protect themselves from advanced threats.

Link: http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2264874/hackers-hit-thousands-of-websites-with-apache-backdoor-attack

Working with organizations affected by Dirt Jumper DDoS attacks revealed a threat scenario in which the threat actor first performed a short-lived “test” DDoS attack to determine if the actor’s botnet could make the targeted site unusable.

If the test was successful, then the threat actor performed another DDoS attack in the near future, but this time the DDoS attack occurred shortly after an unauthorized wire or Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfer out of a compromised account. DDoS attack patterns revealed that short-lived attacks were an indicator of an unauthorized wire transfer, while longer attacks, which could last hours to days, were indicators of a fraudulent ACH transfer.

Visibility on these attacks proved to be quite useful in some cases, the DDoS attack was the initial notice that high-dollar fraud was occurring. Some of the fraud attempts and losses are staggering, with total dollar values of attempted fraud ranging from $180,000 to $2.1 million.

Link: http://www.cyberwarzone.com/ddos-used-cover-fire-parallel-attacks-21-million-unauthorized-wire-transfer

The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2013-2423, was one of the 42 security issues fixed in Java 7 Update 21 that was released by Oracle last week, on April 16. The company gave the flaw’s impact a 4.3 out of 10 rating using the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) and added that “this vulnerability can be exploited only through untrusted Java Web Start applications and untrusted Java applets.”

An exploit for CVE-2013-2423 was integrated into a high-end Web attack toolkit known as Cool Exploit Kit and is used to install a piece of malware called Reveton, an independent malware researcher known online as Kafeine said Tuesday in a blog post.

The vulnerability started being targeted by attackers one day after an exploit for the same flaw was added to the Metasploit framework, an open-source tool commonly used by penetration testers, the F-Secure researchers said.

This wouldn’t be the first time when cybercriminals have taken Metasploit exploit modules and adapted them for use with their own malicious attack toolkits.

Users who need Java on their computers and especially in their browsers are advised to upgrade their Java installations to the latest available version — Java 7 Update 21 — as soon as possible. This version also made changes to the security warnings displayed when websites attempt to load Web-based Java applications in order to better represent the risk associated with allowing different types of applets to execute.

Browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox also have a feature known as click-to-play that can be used to block plug-in-based content from executing without explicit consent.

Link: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9238652/Recently_patched_Java_flaw_already_targeted_in_mass_attacks?source=CTWNLE_nlt_pm_2013-04-24

This will not be the first Internet blackout in protest of a government bill. On January 18, 2012, more than 7,000 websites, including Wikipedia, Reddit and Google, protested SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), which were accused of similar breaches on online privacy.

President Barack Obama has threatened to veto CISPA for failing to adequately address privacy concerns.

Link: http://www.sify.com/news/hacking-collective-anonymous-calls-for-internet-blackout-on-april-22-to-protest-cispa-news-international-nevombfigca.html

“The Java 7u21 release introduces changes to security messages related to running Java applets and applications,” Oracle said in a technical document that explains the changes.

In cases where the risk of an attack is lower, like when the applet is digitally signed with a CA-issued certificate, the messages displayed to users will be minimal and there will be an option to automatically trust applications from the same vendors in the future.

The company has published an overview of all use cases of signed and unsigned applets with example of how the warning dialogs will look in each case.

This new release is the result of Oracle’s plan to accelerate its patching cycle for Java and will coincide with the release of security updates for other Oracle applications and middleware products that used to be updated separately.

Link: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9238423/Java_7_Update_21_to_fix_bugs_change_applet_warning_messages?source=CTWNLE_nlt_pm_2013-04-16