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Don’t Let the Grinch Steal Christmas December 16, 2014 Posted by: Stephen Coty, Chief Security EvangelistLeave a comment Blog Contributions by Tyler Borland, Sr. Security Researcher and Stephen Coty, Chief Security Evangelist, Alert Logic Since we are in the thick of the holiday season, we are analyzing which operating systems support the needs of e-commerce and brick and mortar retail shops. Due to the lower cost of ownership and efficiencies such as a non-resource heavy operating system that allow for applications to run more smoothly, we found that Linux is dominating when it comes to e-commerce site deployment. According...

A new zero day vulnerability that resides in all versions of Internet Explorer has been spotted in the wild, Microsoft confirmed late Saturday. The vulnerability, which could allow remote code execution, is being used in "limited, targeted attacks," according to an advisory issued by Microsoft. While all versions of the web browser, IE 6 through 11, are affected by the vulnerability, attacks are currently targeting IE versions 9, 10 and 11, according to security firm Fire Eye, which first reported the flaw Friday. The attack leverages a previously unknown "use after free" vulnerability -- data corruption that occurs after memory...

A source code mistake in the GnuTLS library – an open-source software building block used in a large number of different Linux distributions to handle secure Internet connections – could prove a serious threat to the privacy of Linux users, as developers rush to patch the vulnerability. Nikos Mavrogiannopolous, the developer of GnuTLS, announced Monday in a mailing list message that he had implemented a fix to the source code that closes the loophole. The flaw would have enabled an attacker to spoof GnuTLS’ system for verifying certificates, exposing supposedly secure connections to stealthy eavesdropping. By creating a specific type...

Article regarding alarming major Ruggedcom (Siemens) controller BACKDOOR vulnerability. These controllers are used widely in the electric grid, military, and transportation systems!

An unpatched critical flaw in 64-bit Windows 7 leaves computers vulnerable to a full 'blue screen of death' system crash. The memory corruption bug in x64 Win 7 could also allow malicious kernel-level code to be injected into machines, security alert biz Secunia warns. Fortunately the 32-bit version of Windows 7 is immune to the flaw, which has been pinned down to the win32k.sys operating system file - which contains the kernel portion of the Windows user interface and related infrastructure.Proof-of-concept code showing how to crash vulnerable Win 7 boxes has been leaked: the simple HTML script, when opened in...

In late December, Microsoft researchers responding to publicly posted attack code that exploited a vulnerability in the FTP service of IIS told users it wasn't much of a threat because the worst it probably could do was crash the application. Thanks at least in part to security mitigations added to recent operating systems, attackers targeting the heap-overrun flaw had no way to control data that got overwritten in memory, IIS Security Program Manager Nazim Lala blogged. It was another victory for Microsoft's defense-in-depth approach to code development, which aims to make exploitation harder by adding multiple security layers. However, it...

I have received notification of email breaches from Kroger, Best Buy and Home Depot so far. They seem legit as they are not asking for any info, just notifying me of probable phishing scams based on these breaches. so how many credit cards got info stolen recently?

"Here You Have" Virus Email spreading. DHS US-CERT Computer Emergency Readiness Team looking into issue. will issue bulletin.

Researchers have identified a kernel-level vulnerability in Windows that allows attackers to gain escalated privileges and may also allow them to remotely execute malicious code. All versions of the Microsoft OS are affected, including the heavily fortified Windows 7. The buffer overflow, which was originally reported here, can be exploited to escalate privileges or crash vulnerable machines, IT research company Vupen said. The flaw may also allow attackers to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges. The bug resides in the “CreateDIBPalette()” function of a device driver known as “Win32k.sys.” It is exploited by pasting a large number of color values...

Barack Obama announced Monday what the New York Times called a "new strategy," his Nuclear Posture Review: he is narrowing the conditions under which the U.S. would use nuclear weapons. For the first time since the U.S. became a nuclear power, the President of the United States has explicitly vowed that we will not use nukes even against countries that use chemical or biological weapons against us, or take us down with a massive cyberattack -- as long as those states are obeying the provisions of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. He also overruled his own Secretary of Defense and said...

So, is California's brittle Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer about to become the next Harry Reid? Which is to say, embattled at home. As Reid worked the wallets of San Francisco on Presidents' Day to raise money for his endangered seat in Nevada, some stunning new Rasmussen Reports poll out today makes a compelling point: For the second straight month the three-term senator is unable to break the 50% mark against any potential Republican opponents, the historical measuring mark of vulnerability for an incumbent nine months before an election.

Islamist terror’s Christmas present to America — a deadly fireball over Detroit International Airport — failed to materialize late Friday morning, but not for lack of ingenuity or dedication on the terrorist’s part. The incendiary device carried aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 by a Nigerian national identified by authorities as Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab didn’t work as designed — thus sparing 278 passengers and 11 crew members gruesome deaths. But he did manage to carry inflammable chemicals aboard the aircraft — and come perilously close to igniting them. Just how Abdulmutallab came to be on the aircraft is a compelling mystery....

Senior U.S. military officers working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed the danger of Russia and China intercepting and doctoring video from drone aircraft in 2004, but the Pentagon didn't begin securing the signals until this year, according to people familiar with the matter. The disclosure came after The Wall Street Journal reported insurgents in Iraq had intercepted video feeds from drones, downloading unencrypted communications from the unmanned planes. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber -- available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet -- to regularly capture drone video feeds, said a person...

From the 'Mission Accomplished?' files: For more than a year now I've heard lots of people in the Internet industry proclaiming DNSSEC (DNS Security Extensions) as the long-term solution to DNS cache poisoning vulnerabilities. That may not necessarily be the case. A new vulnerability is now out that attacks DNS servers  WITH DNSSSEC installed. In the summer of 2008, security researcher Dan Kaminsky made the whole world aware of potential security issues with DNS, which could have undermined the integrity of the Internet itself. DNSSEC is supposed to be answer, with most of the world's major Internet registries moving to...

Note: The original version of this page contained a simple workaround for this issue which I believed would protect users against this problem. I have since discovered (on 13 January 2009) that changing the default RSS feed reader application in Safari does not correctly disassociate Safari from all RSS feed URLs. The workaround section of this post has been updated with additional information. I regret that what initially appeared to be a simple workaround is now substantially more complicated and requires the installation of third-party software to perform. I have discovered that Apple's Safari browser is vulnerable to an attack...

Euthanasia Video, Turning the Tide, Incredibly Well Received September 10, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Turning the Tide, the powerful DVD on euthanasia and assisted suicide, has been incredibly well received. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has sold more than 700 copies of Turning the Tide since its release in April and Turning the Tide has received positive reviews from people across Canada and the US. Turning the Tide is produced by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and Salt and Light media foundation. Turning the Tide was designed to change the way secular society perceives the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Secular society views the...

No less than three critical vulnerabilities have been identified by Adobe affecting upon users of Flash Player 9.0.45.0 and earlier, 8.0.34.0 and earlier, and 7.0.69.0 and earlier. The cross-platform problem refers to an input validation error that could, potentially, lead to arbitrary code execution via content delivered from a remote location using web browser, email client, or pretty much any application that includes or references the Flash Player. Furthermore, a separate issue regarding an insufficient validation of the HTTP Referrer has also been identified in Flash Player 8.0.34.0 and earlier which could result in a cross-site request forgery attack. Although...

Google's security team has discovered vulnerabilities in the Sun Java Runtime Environment that threaten the security of all platforms, browsers and even mobile devices. "This is as bad as it gets," said Chris Gatford, a security expert from penetration testing firm Pure Hacking. "It's a pretty significant weakness, which will have a considerable impact if the exploit codes come to fruition quickly. It could affect a lot of organizations and users," Gatford told ZDNet Australia. Australia's Computer Emergency Response Team analyst, Robert Lowe, warned that anyone using the Java Runtime Environment or Java Development Kit is at risk. "Delivery of...

Attackers are targeting a flaw in the DNS service for Windows server OSes that could hijack the computers that run them, Microsoft warns. The software behemoth advises admins to employ workarounds pending completion of its investigation. The vulnerability affects Windows 2000 Server, Service Pack 4 and SP 1 and SP2 versions of Windows Server 2003, according to this Microsoft advisory. DNS functionality exposed over port 53 is not at risk. Nor are Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP and Windows Vista. An attack can be carried out by executing a stack-based buffer overrun in the DNS Server's remote procedure call (RPC)...

Yahoo has patched a buffer overflow vulnerability in its instant-messaging tool that would have enabled attackers to potentially execute code on a compromised machine.