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Microsoft has disclosed an unpatched zero-day in Office that, if successfully exploited, could result in unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information to malicious actors. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-38200 (CVSS score: 7.5), has been described as a spoofing flaw that affects the following versions of Office - Microsoft Office 2016 for 32-bit edition and 64-bit editions Microsoft Office LTSC 2021 for 32-bit and 64-bit editions Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise for 32-bit and 64-bit Systems Microsoft Office 2019 for 32-bit and 64-bit editions Credited with discovering and reporting the vulnerability are researchers Jim Rush and Metin Yunus Kandemir.  "In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a website (or leverage a compromised website that accepts or hosts user-provided content) that contains a specially crafted file that is designed to exploit the vulnerability," Microsoft said in an advisory. "However, an attacker would have no w

A new zero-day pre-authentication remote code execution vulnerability has been disclosed in the Apache OFBiz open-source enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that could allow threat actors to achieve remote code execution on affected instances. Tracked as CVE-2024-38856 , the flaw has a CVSS score of 9.8 out of a maximum of 10.0. It affects Apache OFBiz versions prior to 18.12.15. "The root cause of the vulnerability lies in a flaw in the authentication mechanism," SonicWall, which discovered and reported the shortcoming, said in a statement. "This flaw allows an unauthenticated user to access functionalities that generally require the user to be logged in, paving the way for remote code execution." CVE-2024-38856 is also a patch bypass for CVE-2024-36104 , a path traversal vulnerability that was addressed in early June with the release of 18.12.14. SonicWall described the flaw as residing in the override view functionality that exposes critical endpoi

For years, securing a company's systems was synonymous with securing its "perimeter." There was what was safe "inside" and the unsafe outside world. We built sturdy firewalls and deployed sophisticated detection systems, confident that keeping the barbarians outside the walls kept our data and systems safe. The problem is that we no longer operate within the confines of physical on-prem installations and controlled networks. Data and applications now reside in distributed cloud environments and data centers, accessed by users and devices connecting from anywhere on the planet. The walls have crumbled, and the perimeter has dissolved, opening the door to a new battlefield: identity . Identity is at the center of what the industry has praised as the new gold standard of enterprise security: "zero trust." In this paradigm, explicit trust becomes mandatory for any interactions between systems, and no implicit trust shall subsist. Every access request, regardless of its origin,

A zero-day security flaw in Telegram's mobile app for Android called EvilVideo made it possible for attackers to malicious files disguised as harmless-looking videos. The exploit appeared for sale for an unknown price in an underground forum on June 6, 2024, ESET said. Following responsible disclosure on June 26, the issue was addressed by Telegram in version 10.14.5 released on July 11. "Attackers could share malicious Android payloads via Telegram channels, groups, and chat, and make them appear as multimedia files," security researcher Lukáš Štefanko said in a report. It's believed that the payload is concocted using Telegram's application programming interface ( API ), which allows for programmatic uploads of multimedia files to chats and channels. In doing so, it enables an attacker to camouflage a malicious APK file as a 30-second video.  Users who click on the video are displayed an actual warning message stating the video cannot be played and urges t

SolarWinds has addressed a set of critical security flaws impacting its Access Rights Manager (ARM) software that could be exploited to access sensitive information or execute arbitrary code. Of the 13 vulnerabilities, eight are rated Critical in severity and carry a CVSS score of 9.6 out of 10.0. The remaining five weaknesses have been rated High in severity, with four of them having a CVSS score of 7.6 and one scoring 8.3. The most severe of the flaws are listed below - CVE-2024-23472 - SolarWinds ARM Directory Traversal Arbitrary File Deletion and Information Disclosure Vulnerability CVE-2024-28074 - SolarWinds ARM Internal Deserialization Remote Code Execution Vulnerability CVE-2024-23469 - Solarwinds ARM Exposed Dangerous Method Remote Code Execution Vulnerability CVE-2024-23475 - Solarwinds ARM Traversal and Information Disclosure Vulnerability CVE-2024-23467 - Solarwinds ARM Traversal Remote Code Execution Vulnerability CVE-2024-23466 - Solarwinds ARM Directory

An advanced persistent threat (APT) group called Void Banshee has been observed exploiting a recently disclosed security flaw in the Microsoft MHTML browser engine as a zero-day to deliver an information stealer called Atlantida . Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, which observed the activity in mid-May 2024, said the vulnerability – tracked as CVE-2024-38112 – was used as part of a multi-stage attack chain using specially crafted internet shortcut (URL) files. "Variations of the Atlantida campaign have been highly active throughout 2024 and have evolved to use CVE-2024-38112 as part of Void Banshee infection chains," security researchers Peter Girnus and Aliakbar Zahravi said . "The ability of APT groups like Void Banshee to exploit disabled services such as [Internet Explorer] poses a significant threat to organizations worldwide." The findings dovetail with prior disclosures from Check Point, which told The Hacker News of a campaign leveraging the same shortc

The Problem The "2024 Attack Intelligence Report" from the staff at Rapid7 [1] is a well-researched, well-written report that is worthy of careful study. Some key takeaways are:  53% of the over 30 new vulnerabilities that were widely exploited in 2023 and at the start of 2024 were zero-days . More mass compromise events arose from zero-day vulnerabilities than from n-day vulnerabilities. Nearly a quarter of widespread attacks were zero-day attacks where a single adversary compromised dozens to hundreds of organizations simultaneously. Attackers are moving from initial access to exploitation in minutes or hours rather than days or weeks. So the conventional patch and put strategy is as effective as a firetruck showing up after a building has burned to the ground! Of course, patch and put could prevent future attacks, but taking into account that patch development takes from days to weeks [2] and that the average time to apply critical patches is 16 days [3], devices are vulner

A China-nexus cyber espionage group named Velvet Ant has been observed exploiting a zero-day flaw in Cisco NX-OS Software used in its switches to deliver malware. The vulnerability , tracked as CVE-2024-20399 (CVSS score: 6.0), concerns a case of command injection that allows an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary commands as root on the underlying operating system of an affected device. "By exploiting this vulnerability, Velvet Ant successfully executed a previously unknown custom malware that allowed the threat group to remotely connect to compromised Cisco Nexus devices, upload additional files, and execute code on the devices," cybersecurity firm Sygnia said in a statement shared with The Hacker News. Cisco said the issue stems from insufficient validation of arguments that are passed to specific configuration CLI commands, which could be exploited by an adversary by including crafted input as the argument of an affected configuration CLI command. W

Crypto exchange Kraken revealed that an unnamed security researcher exploited an "extremely critical" zero-day flaw in its platform to steal $3 million in digital assets and refused to return them. Details of the incident were shared by Kraken's Chief Security Officer, Nick Percoco, on X (formerly Twitter), stating it received a Bug Bounty program alert from the researcher about a bug that "allowed them to artificially inflate their balance on our platform" without sharing any other details Within minutes of receiving the alert, the company said it identified a security issue that essentially permitted an attacker to "initiate a deposit onto our platform and receive funds in their account without fully completing the deposit." While Kraken emphasized that no client assets were at risk due to the issue, it could have enabled a threat actor to print assets in their accounts. The problem was addressed within 47 minutes, it said. It also said the fl

The China-nexus cyber espionage actor linked to the zero-day exploitation of security flaws in Fortinet , Ivanti , and VMware devices has been observed utilizing multiple persistence mechanisms in order to maintain unfettered access to compromised environments. "Persistence mechanisms encompassed network devices, hypervisors, and virtual machines, ensuring alternative channels remain available even if the primary layer is detected and eliminated," Mandiant researchers said in a new report. The threat actor in question is UNC3886 , which the Google-owned threat intelligence company branded as "sophisticated, cautious, and evasive." Attacks orchestrated by the adversary have leveraged zero-day flaws such as CVE-2022-41328 (Fortinet FortiOS), CVE-2022-22948 (VMware vCenter), and CVE-2023-20867 (VMware Tools) to perform various malicious actions, ranging from deploying backdoors to obtaining credentials for deeper access. It has also been observed exploiting

Threat actors linked to the Black Basta ransomware may have exploited a recently disclosed privilege escalation flaw in the Microsoft Windows Error Reporting Service as a zero-day, according to new findings from Symantec. The security flaw in question is CVE-2024-26169 (CVSS score: 7.8), an elevation of privilege bug in the Windows Error Reporting Service that could be exploited to achieve SYSTEM privileges. It was patched by Microsoft in March 2024. "Analysis of an exploit tool deployed in recent attacks revealed evidence that it could have been compiled prior to patching, meaning at least one group may have been exploiting the vulnerability as a zero-day," the Symantec Threat Hunter Team, part of Broadcom, said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The financially motivated threat cluster is being tracked by the company under the name Cardinal. It's also monitored by the cybersecurity community under the names Storm-1811 and UNC4393 . It's known to mon

An unnamed high-profile government organization in Southeast Asia emerged as the target of a "complex, long-running" Chinese state-sponsored cyber espionage operation codenamed Crimson Palace . "The overall goal behind the campaign was to maintain access to the target network for cyberespionage in support of Chinese state interests," Sophos researchers Paul Jaramillo, Morgan Demboski, Sean Gallagher, and Mark Parsons said in a report shared with The Hacker News. "This includes accessing critical IT systems, performing reconnaissance of specific users, collecting sensitive military and technical information, and deploying various malware implants for command-and-control (C2) communications." The name of the government organization was not disclosed, but the company said the country is known to have repeated conflict with China over territory in the South China Sea , raising the possibility that it may be the Philippines, which has been targeted by Chi

Check Point is warning of a zero-day vulnerability in its Network Security gateway products that threat actors have exploited in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2024-24919 (CVSS score: 8.6), the issue impacts CloudGuard Network, Quantum Maestro, Quantum Scalable Chassis, Quantum Security Gateways, and Quantum Spark appliances. "The vulnerability potentially allows an attacker to read certain information on Internet-connected Gateways with remote access VPN or mobile access enabled," Check Point said . Hotfixes are available in the following versions - Quantum Security Gateway and CloudGuard Network Security Versions - R81.20, R81.10, R81, R80.40 Quantum Maestro and Quantum Scalable Chassis - R81.20, R81.10, R80.40, R80.30SP, R80.20SP Quantum Spark Gateways Version - R81.10.x, R80.20.x, R77.20.x The development comes days after the Israeli cybersecurity company warned of attacks targeting its VPN devices to infiltrate enterprise networks. "By May 24, 2024, we identi

Microsoft has addressed a total of  61 new security flaws  in its software as part of its Patch Tuesday updates for May 2024, including two zero-days which have been actively exploited in the wild. Of the 61 flaws, one is rated Critical, 59 are rated Important, and one is rated Moderate in severity. This is in addition to  30 vulnerabilities  resolved in the Chromium-based Edge browser over the past month, including two recently disclosed zero-days ( CVE-2024-4671  and  CVE-2024-4761 ) that have been tagged as exploited in attacks. The two security shortcomings that have been weaponized in the wild are below - CVE-2024-30040  (CVSS score: 8.8) - Windows MSHTML Platform Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability CVE-2024-30051  (CVSS score: 7.8) - Windows Desktop Window Manager ( DWM ) Core Library Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability "An unauthenticated attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain code execution through convincing a user to open a malicious

Cybercriminals are vipers. They're like snakes in the grass, hiding behind their keyboards, waiting to strike. And if you're a small- and medium-sized business (SMB), your organization is the ideal lair for these serpents to slither into.  With cybercriminals becoming more sophisticated, SMBs like you must do more to protect themselves. But at what price? That's the daunting question many SMBs are forced to ask. Amidst your everyday challenges, the answer seems obvious: forgo investing in a robust cybersecurity solution for the time being. However, the alternative is to cross your fingers and hope hackers don't find you. That, of course, isn't the most prudent strategy, as the uncomfortable truth is threat actors now see your organization as a quick path to profit. Therefore, if your defenses are weak—or just not there—these digital crooks are likely to disrupt your operations, access sensitive data, and extort a heavy ransom. In this article, we'll explore the financial burdens