The National Security Agency released the source code of Ghidra, its reverse engineering tool.
This source code repository includes instructions to build on all
supported platforms (macOS, Linux, and Windows). With this release,
developers will be able to collaborate by creating patches, and
extending the tool to fit their cybersecurity needs.
The source code is available for download at ghidra-sre.org along with the 9.1.1 patch.
Ghidra is a software reverse engineering (SRE) framework developed by NSA’s Research Directorate for NSA’s cybersecurity mission.
It helps analyze malicious code and malware like viruses, and can give
cybersecurity professionals a better understanding of potential
vulnerabilities in their networks and systems.
For more NSA releases, check out CODE.NSA.GOV for open source, and NSA’s Technology Transfer Program for other technology.
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Access of Russian Troll Factory on Day of 2018
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UPnP-enabled Connected Devices in the Home and
Unpatched Known Vulnerabilities
We expect services to protect themselves from fraudulent activity. Automated
services tend to be particularly tempting to unscrupulous individuals that seem to think that they can pull one over
on an unmanned operation. So it makes plenty of sense
for Google AdSense to be constantly vigilant for any bot activity trying to
extract artificial ad views to collect on the bounty of ad revenue. But what if
our fences become cages?
Security
researcher Brian Krebs details a new extortion scheme that recently targeted
one of his readers involving a Denial of Service attack on the victim’s source
of ad revenue, Google AdSense. The attacker threatens the victim with the loss of
revenue by flooding the victim’s website with traffic that is indicative of
fraudulent activity. It seems obvious how a criminal mind would use fraudu-
Emotet banking Trojan has been around since 2014 as banking malware. As the software was changed, the developers added additional spamming and malware delivery services found in other
banking malware. Key to Emotet is how it incorporates functionality allowing the software to evade detection by antimalware products.
Emotet also uses Worm-like capabilities to help spread to other connected computers. Because of
this, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) concludes that Emotet malware is one of the most costly and destructive pieces of malware out there. Emotet spreads on a connected network using a list of common passwords in a brute-force attack. The primary off network propagation mechanism used by Emotet is spam laced with malware. By 2018 newer versions included stealth, new targets, and the ability to install other malware such as ransomware onto infected machines. This was the cause of the July 2019 Lake City, Florida ransomware attack.
Malwarebytes Labs reported a botnet-driven spam campaign in September of 2019 where opening the infected attached Microsoft Word document initiates a macro which downloaded Emotet. A key functionality to Emotet is the ability to deliver custom modules or plugins suited for specific tasks such as stealing Outlook contacts or spreading over a LAN.
Binary Defense has identified a new functionality that uses the wlanAPI interface to enumerate all Wifi networks in the area, and then attempts to spread to these networks and infect all devices that
it can access. With this new propagation method, if a nearby Wi-Fi-capable host is infected, it can attack another Wifi using the same brute-force weak password attacks used on a local network. Zdnet summarized the Wifi spreader’s modus operandi nicely as follows: Once a host is infected Emotet downloads and runs the Wi-Fi spreader module. The Wi-Fi spread-er module lists all Wi-Fi devices enabled on the host and extracts a list of all the locally reachable Wi-Fi networks. The module then performs a brute-force attack on each Wi-Fi network by using two internal lists of easy-to-guess passwords. If the brute-force attack succeeds, the Emotet Wifi spreader now has direct access to another network and moves into a second brute-force attack attempting to guess the usernames and passwords of servers and computers connected to this Wifi network much like a connected network attack. If this second brute-force attack succeeds, Emotet begins its infection cycle again widening its reach.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a warning on the increased activity related to targeted Emotet attacks roughly two weeks ago, advising admins and users to review the Emotet Malware alert for guidance. Fortunately, all it takes to stop the malware’s spread is having effective passwords on your infrastructure, hosts, and accounts. Emotet will thrive on users who don’t use such good passwords, or who never changed the factory-default access pass-words when they set up their routers.
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Bluetooth technology seems to be nearly everywhere now. It is an extremely convenient method to make all sorts of different devices speak the same language and perform greater functions. As we already know though, when computing devices can communicate trouble soon follows in one form or another. This week the details of 12 different security vulnerabilities, collectively called SweynTooth, targeting Bluetooth low energy devices became public. 11 of the 12 vulnerabilities are just denial of service vulnerabilities. The twelfth however allows a complete security bypass on affected devices.
The group releasing the vulnerabilities is comprised of 3 researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design, Matheus E. Garbelini, Sudipta Chattopadhyay, and Chundong Wang.
Most devices that implement Bluetooth connectivity do not implement it from the ground up. They instead rely on a specialized system on a chip (SoC) from a larger manufacturer to handle the inner Bluetooth workings and interface with it via a software development kit (SDK). The SDK can allow them to configure specific parameters for connectivity as well as receiving/sending information over the link. Due to most devices sharing SoCs with other devices it is no surprise that a vulnerability in a specific SoC may affect hundreds or thousands of otherwise unrelated devices.
The vulnerabilities released this week affect SoCs from Texas Instruments, NXP, Cypress, Dialog Semiconductors, Microchip, STMicroelectronics, and Telink Semiconductor. The devices using these SoCs range from smart watches, smart locks, and even medical devices.
As stated the majority of these vulnerabilities are able to trigger denial of service. They trigger a denial of service by sending specially crafted packets to the target device to put it into a deadlocked state where it can no longer process incoming or outgoing data.
To make the device functional again a reboot is required. Most of these attacks require only 1 or 2 packets to be transmitted to exploit successfully. The most dangerous vulnerability of the set is CVE-2019-19194, which can allow an attacker to completely bypass secure communication protections. An attacker using this vulnerability may be able to access functions on the affected device as if they were an authorized user. This could lead to information leakage or even code execution in certain cases.
This specific vulnerability only appears to affect the Telink SMP family of SoCs.
Before releasing the vulnerability details to the public the researchers followed responsible disclosure guidelines and notified the affected vendors. After 90 days the research went public, with 6 of the 12 vulnerabilities still without patches. When updates become available affected devices should be upgraded to prevent these attacks.
Sources:
A ransomware variant referred to as Ragnar Locker is specifically targeting services
used by managed service providers and threatening the public release of found documents. Managed service providers remotely manage a customer’s IT infrastructure and end-user systems. With the remote management services stopped, the ransomware can infect without intervention. The scariest thing about this ransomware is that it also claims to perform data exfiltration. According to the attackers, before the execution of the ransomware, they will perform reconnaissance and specific pre-deployment tasks on the network and the devices connected to it. The attackers state that one of these pre deployment tasks is to steal files and upload them to their server. They then say that if the ransom is not paid, the data will be publicly released.
The idea of ransomware coupled with a data breach seems similar to blackmail but is a relatively new concept. While not the first ransomware to claim that data was stolen, in October 2019, Maze ransomware released 700MB of stolen data from an affected company after they refused to pay the ransom. Then, in December, the criminals behind Maze created a website dedicated to those who refused to pay. This site contained the company names, date of infection, and any data stolen from that company. Around this time, the Sodinokibi ransomware also stated that they would start exfiltrating user data. While there haven’t been any observed dumps related to Sodinokibi, researchers confirmed that they are exfiltrating data as part of their attacks. However, just because the ransom note says that data theft is part of the attack, doesn’t mean that it was.
Telling users that their data will be made public if the ransom isn’t paid can be a convincing tactic to increase the rate of payment. In the business setting, the disclosure of sensitive data could make the organization liable for fines exceeding the cost of the ransom demand.
If the ransom note says that data theft occurred, it is essential to independently verify this as it is often used as a scare tactic. If unable to determine whether data theft occurred, a search of the ransomware variant may provide details as to its behavior. In addition to this, ensuring that backups are in place is an essential part of any ransomware recovery plan. Ragnar Locker is just one of
many ransomware strains that now say that they are exfiltrating data. Expect to see more and more ransomware variants claiming data exfiltration with some following up on that promise.
Sources
Modern communication revolves around the internet and the digital age, allowing people to communicate instantaneously no matter where they are in the world. There are many messaging applications that have come along through the years, but one of the most popular ones used today is WhatsApp. However, security researchers at PerimeterX recently found a vulnerability in WhatsApp that could allow Remote Code Execution (RCE) and the ability to remotely view files on a target system.
WhatsApp, now owned by Facebook, is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. The desktop platform alone has over 1.5 billion monthly active users. WhatsApp is known for its end-to-end encryption of messages, making it popular among political dissidents in countries where such activities could be severely punished, as well as among criminal groups and privacy enthusiasts.
The vulnerability, CVE-2019-18426, is related to the app’s use of JavaScript and was discovered by PerimeterX cybersecurity researcher Gal Weizman. An attacker can modify both links and website previews in messages to appear legitimate through code manipulation of the JavaScript, while also redirecting the victim to malicious sites or downloads. This Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attack can inject malicious links into messages that appear to be coming from friends of the target. The payload of these malicious links could be malware that allows an attacker to remotely execute code on the target’s machine for a variety of purposes. The XSS vulnerability stems from a gap in the Content Security Policy (CSP) used by WhatsApp, which also leads to an attacker being able to gain read permissions on the local file system for both Mac and Windows desktop apps.
The vulnerability has been patched in desktop version 0.3.9309 and newer. Also, newer versions of Chrome protect against these types of JavaScript modifications, but other browsers such as Safari do not. Always ensure that your browsers and apps are up to date with the latest patches to ensure maximum protection on the technical side. User training to always be suspicious, especially of links, can also go a long way towards protecting organizations from these types of attacks.
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Take a look around and note all of the electronics around you. How many devices
are in the room with you? How many are communicating? Look beyond the
obvious computer, cell phone, and smart watch. Are there headphones? Key
fobs? Door locks? Anything with a circuit board can be hacked and anything
that is trying to connect makes it easier. Every device comes with vulnerabilities
– it’s just a matter of whether someone has found them yet.
When security researchers come across a vulnerability they typically report it to
the company that develops the product before going public with the discovery.
This is done in good faith so that the company has time to issue a patch. In a
perfect world, the vulnerability is announced and includes a statement that it’s
already been fixed so we can all grab the update if we need to. Unfortunately,
that isn’t always the case.
This week, researchers from SonicWall reported active exploitation of proof of
concept code for a critical vulnerability in the Nortek Linear eMerge E3 access
controller. This is a physical access control that determines who can use which
door and when. The Linear eMerge E3 has been deployed across multiple industries
from healthcare to banking to manufacturing and more. According to the
SonicWall team, “It runs on embedded Linux Operating System and the system
can be managed from a browser via embedded web server.”
But SonicWall didn’t discover the vulnerability. It’s over eight months old and
it’s actually 10 vulnerabilities that exist on the E3 controllers. It was originally
made public in a May 2019 research report from Applied Risk where six of the
10 vulnerabilities were identified as critical. Some of the issues, such as default
credentials on the devices and stored cleartext credentials, should be shocking.
But sadly they are all too commonplace, especially in the world of IoT.
After Nortek neglected to issue patches, Applied Risk released proof of concept
exploit code in November 2019 with the hope of forcing the company to address
the issue. At this time, no patch has been released. SonicWall noted that
over 2300 eMerge devices could be easily found – a small number compared to
how many connected devices there are in total – but this is just one model from
one manufacturer. There are still millions of IoT devices out there, easily discoverable,
and every single one has vulnerabilities waiting to be found.
Sources