IT NEWS

Important update! iPhones, Macs, and more vulnerable to zero-day bug

On Monday, Apple released a long list of patched vulnerabilities to its software, including a new zero-day flaw affecting Macs and iPhones. The company revealed it’s aware that threat actors may have been actively exploiting this vulnerability, which is tracked as CVE-2022-32917.

As it’s a zero-day, nothing much is said about CVE-2022-32917, only that it may allow malformed applications to execute potentially malicious code with kernel privileges. Apple says it’s patched this flaw with improved bounds checks. Below is a list of products this bug affects:

  • Macs running macOS Monterey 12.6 and macOS Big Sur 11.7
  • iPhone 6s and later, iPad Pro (all models), iPad Air 2 and later, iPad 5th generation and later, iPad mini 4 and later, and iPod touch (7th generation)

CVE-2022-32917 is the eighth zero-day flaw that Apple has addressed since the beginning of 2022. The first seven are as follows:

As this latest vulnerability is already being exploited, it’s really important that you update your devices as soon as you can. Stay safe!

Steam account credentials phished in browser-in-a-browser attack

Steam users are once again under threat from a particularly sneaky tactic used to steal account details. As with so many Steam attacks currently, it accommodates for the possibility of users relying on Steam Guard Mobile Authentication for additional protection. It also makes use of a recent “browser within a browser” technique to harvest Steam credentials.

The attack leans into a common threat tactic where Steam is concerned, which is E-sports and other tournament related events. This is a tactic that has been around for years, and it usually takes one of two forms.

  1. Steam users are asked via Steam Chat or forum posts to “vote” for someone’s favourite team on a competition website. These requests often come from compromised accounts themselves. The bogus site phishes the victim at what claims to be the voting stage. These sites may also ask users to turn off their Steam Guard protection before submitting their username and password.

  2. Scammers ask Steam users to join a team or league, and direct them to malware or phishing pages.

It’s the second of these possibilities that is used as this particular scam’s launch pad.

A browser in a browser

In this case, people are asked if they can play. If not, they’re asked if they can at least vote for the scammer’s non-existent team. In this case, it’s a Roblox team in the “Metanola Cup”.

The fake site emulates what appears to be a site dedicated to organising and promoting various E-sport competitions and teams. This is where the sneaky part comes into play. This particular scam makes use of a “browser in a browser” attack first mentioned on Bleeping Computer in March of this year. The fake browser window sitting inside the real thing can make it very difficult to realise you’re looking at a phishing attempt.

In this case, most potential victims would assume the popup inside the main browser window, which appears to display the genuine Steam URL and “Valve Corp. [US]” next to the green padlock, is the real thing. It even detects your language from the browser preferences and then selects one of 27 different types.

Finally, the site asks for the user’s Steam Guard authentication code. This is the 2FA code displayed on the Steam mobile app when logging into your account. Without the code, you can’t login. The scammers will harvest these codes and either have the details entered automatically, or do it manually. If they choose to do this manually and they’re not around when victims are handing over details, their window for success is going to be quite short.

Avoiding Steam-focused attacks

As mentioned in the Bleeping Computer article, this is not an easy tactic to spot in the wild. Blocking JavaScript is one way to do it, but you risk compromising the functionality of many websites if you go down this path. The best defence is to studiously ignore any and all messages sent your way from strangers in relation to the below, and this includes topics unrelated to E-sports:

  • Joining an E-sports league

  • Joining or helping out an E-sports team

  • Voting for a team or individual

  • The promise of cheap items or trades/discounts

  • Free games, bonus promotional offers and items

  • The “I accidentally reported you” scam

Stay safe out there!

Facebook engineers aren’t sure where all user data is kept

If it takes a village to raise a child, apparently it takes Facebook a team to tell you what data the company keeps about you and where they keep it.

In the recently unsealed transcript of a hearing led by “Discovery Special Master” Daniel Garrie, an expert appointed by the court, two Facebook engineers were grilled regarding what user data the company keeps about its users and where they are. To everyone’s frustration, their response was, essentially, “We don’t know.”

The hearing is part of an ongoing lawsuit concerning the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Garrie has attempted to get Facebook to reveal where personal data is stored in its 55 subsystems, but two veteran Facebook engineers—Eugene Zarashaw and Steven Elia—who were present at the hearing, couldn’t give satisfying answers.

“I don’t believe there’s a single person that exists who could answer that question,” Zarashaw said, according to the transcript. “It would take a significant team effort to even be able to answer that question.”

The Intercept, which first reported this story, has noted Garrie’s seeming disbelief over simple questions left unanswered. However, the engineers’ inability to give solid answers as to where Facebook user data is kept doesn’t surprise Dina El-Kassaby, a spokesperson from Meta. In a statement, she said, “Our systems are sophisticated and it shouldn’t be a surprise that no single company engineer can answer every question about where each piece of user information is stored.”

“We’ve built one of the most comprehensive privacy programs to oversee data use across our operations and to carefully manage and protect people’s data. We have made—and continue making—significant investments to meet our privacy commitments and obligations, including extensive data controls.”

The engineers not knowing where user data is kept also lends credence to an internal document leaked in April 2022, claiming Facebook can’t tell where all the data it gathers comes from or is stored.

This internal document was written in 2021 by Facebook privacy engineers on the Ad and Business Product team, the group tasked to build and maintain the social network’s ads system.

“We do not have an adequate level of control and explainability over how our systems use data, and thus we can’t confidently make controlled policy changes or external commitments such as ‘we will not use X data for Y purpose.’ And, yet, this is exactly what regulators expect us to do, increasing our risk of mistakes and misrepresentation,” the document read.

6 patch management best practices for businesses

Patching is a thorn in the side of many businesses today: Everything from keeping up with the volume of patches to prioritizing what needs to be patched first can cause major delays in a business’s patching process.   

Needless to say, businesses are looking to streamline their patch management process as much as possible. Patch management refers to applying software updates for operating systems and applications and deploying them to eliminate known security vulnerabilities. With certain patch management best practices, you can help ensure a smoother patching process. 

In this post, we’ll give you six patch management best practices for businesses. 

1. Establish a baseline inventory 

It is essential to start with a baseline inventory of your production systems because you’ll need it to assess the current state of patching in your organization. Here it would be best if you had a solution that uses CVSS 3.1 because the severity of the patch is key to making a decision later.  

Besides CVSS, standardization is an essential part of the patch management process. However, multiple versions of an application running in production drive up support costs and increase security risks. Therefore, one of your primary goals should be to determine the version of each operating system and application your users should be running and devise a plan for standardizing around your preferred version. The process sometimes involves more than just upgrading to the latest version. There may be dependencies that must be upgraded before deploying your chosen version, or hardware requirements to consider.

2. Categorize and group each asset by risk and priority 

Performing all these upgrades and patch deployments at the same time would be incredibly risky; for example, servers that host critical applications require testing (to verify) and scheduling a possible reboot. 

In terms of organization best practices, one recommendation is creating a nested group. Take a group of endpoints in sales, for example, where “revenue recognition” is a subgroup of sales. Grouping and subgrouping in Malwarebytes Nebula allows the administrator to apply critical severity patches to a specific group of endpoints. For further reading, see this document.

3. Test the patch stability 

The need for testing must be balanced against the need to address the security vulnerability. Some organizations use a relatively short testing phase for critical patches but perform more in-depth testing for patches that are designed to address less serious vulnerabilities.

So, what’s the difference between short-testing and in-depth testing? Short testing is installing the patch on one or two target host machines and ensuring the critical application and operating system remain operational after a reboot. Long testing includes the steps in short testing but adds a “soak period” where the testing includes a variety of host systems, and the testing period is extended to ensure compatibility.

4. Identify endpoints that need patching 

The next step in the process is to determine which endpoints to patch. A good patch management application can help you with a nested grouping of your endpoints. The collection of your endpoint should represent how essential they are to your organization. 

Note: If the team decides not to deploy a particular patch, your organization needs a compensating control or solution to mitigate the risk of exploitation (mitigation versus prevention). In addition to an EDR solution, we recommend cyber insurance to mitigate worst-case scenarios. 

5. Pilot deployment of sample of patches 

A pilot deployment to a representative sample of the user base prior to performing an organization-wide deployment helps to verify that the patch is indeed safe for production use. It gives you one last chance to catch any issues that did not surface during lab testing. 

Note: Microsoft VSS snapshots were explicitly designed to roll back an endpoint image if a patch causes a catastrophic failure. Therefore, schedule your patch deployment to be after VSS snapshots, in case you need to roll back an endpoint image quickly. 

6. Document systems pre- and post-patching 

Documenting the state of your systems before and after a patch is applied is essential. That way, if problems begin to occur later, it will be easier to determine if they can be attributed to an applied patch. The documentation can be as simple as a spreadsheet with the hostname, the patch level, the date when the patch was applied, the specific patch, and the type of testing performed (short versus long) if any. Regardless, documentation is important, so that you know what happened, when it happened, and who did it—this information will assist you in troubleshooting problems, should one arise.

Act swiftly through the patching process and neutralize the greatest risks  

In a world where so many data breaches happen because a patch for a known vulnerability was available but not applied, businesses are right to be proactive in their patch management activities. However, patching is still a challenge for many businesses, who can’t easily track whether vulnerabilities are being patched in a timely manner or who are adverse to taking critical applications offline in order to patch them. 

The six patch management best practices we outlined in this post can help frame a logical workflow to your patch management activities, helping you reduce the risk of issues arising during your patching process. 

Want to learn more about what vulnerability assessment and patch management look like in action? Check out our Vulnerability and Patch Management landing page or watch the demos below.

Vulnerability Assessment:
Patch Management: 
More resources:
What is patch management?
What is vulnerability assessment?
Podcast: Why software has so many vulnerabilities

The MSP playbook on deciphering tech promises and shaping security culture

The in-person cybersecurity conference has returned.

More than two years after Covid-19 pushed nearly every in-person event online, cybersecurity has returned to the exhibition hall. In San Francisco earlier this year, thousands of cybersecurity professionals walked the halls of Moscone Center at RSA 2022. In Las Vegas just last month, even more hackers, security experts, and tech enthusiasts flooded the Mandalay Bay hotel, attending the conferences Black Hat and DEFCON. 

And at nearly all of these conferences—and many more to come—cybersecurity vendors are setting up shop to show off their latest, greatest, you-won’t-believe-we’ve-made-this product. 

The dizzying array of product names, features, and promises can overwhelm even the most veteran security professional, but for one specific group of attendee, sorting the value from the verve is all part of the job description. 

We’re talking today about managed service providers, or MSPs. 

MSPs are the tech support and cybersecurity backbone for so many small businesses. Dentists, mom-and-pop restaurants, bakeries, small markets, local newspapers, clothing stores, bed and breakfasts off the side of the road—all of these businesses need tech support because nearly everything they do, from processing credit card fees to storing patient information to managing room reservations, all of that, has a technical component to it today.

These businesses, unlike major corporations, rarely have the budget to hire a full-time staff member to provide tech support, so, instead, they rely on a managed service provider to be that support when needed. And so much of tech support today isn’t just setting up new employee devices or solving a website issue. Instead, it’s increasingly about providing cybersecurity. 

What that means, then, is that wading through the an onslaught of marketing speak at the latest cybersecurity conference is actually the responsibility of some MSPs. They have to decipher what tech tools will work not just for their own employees, but for the dozens if not hundreds of clients they support. 

Today, on the Lock and Code podcast with host David Ruiz, we speak with two experts at Malwarebytes about how MSPs can go about staying up to date on the latest technology while also vetting the vendors behind it. As our guests Eddie Phillips, strategic account manager, and Nadia Karatsoreos, senior MSP growth strategist, explain, the work of an MSP isn’t just to select the right tools, but to review whether the makers behind those tools are the right partners both for the MSP and its clients. 

As Karatsoreos said:

“You need to do your research… Do they have the right background to match what you’re offering? Do they have training for you? Do they have integrations? … Do they have a partner program? Because, as we know with MSPs, they don’t just want a product that just gets installed… They need that support of the partner program. Do they allow you to have a trial or a demo to make sure that it works in your environments? Are they constantly updating? And what does their security system look like? Are they protected?”

She continued:

“These are all things behind the technology that an MSP really needs to consider when considering those vendors.”

Tune in today to listen to Karatsoreos and Phillips discuss the many responsibilities of being an MSP today. 

You can also find us on Apple PodcastsSpotify, and Google Podcasts, plus whatever preferred podcast platform you use.

Show notes and credits:

Intro Music: “Spellbound” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Outro Music: “Good God” by Wowa (unminus.com)

A week in security (September 5 – 11)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs:

Stay safe!

The North Face hit by credential stuffing attack

The North Face clothing brand, which specialises in outdoor and heavy weather outerwear, has experienced a “large-scale” credential stuffing attack. This has resulted in no fewer than 194,905 accounts being compromised. What is credential stuffing, and how did it affect The North Face customers?

What is credential stuffing?

Credential stuffing is an attack reliant on service users being a little lax with their password practices. If users of Site A reuse their password on sites B and C, this is a problem. Should Site A ever be compromised, those login details are exposed. They might end up on data dumps, or forums, or anywhere else you care to imagine. People with access to the credentials from Site A will then try them on sites B and C, often via automation. If the user has reused their password, the accounts on those additional sites will also be vulnerable.

Indeed, sometimes people will also reuse credentials from one site as their password for their email address too. This provides attackers with further inroads for all accounts tied to the address, and could end with a user losing access to many more of their online accounts.

Password reuse is tempting, because it’s impossible to remember a different password for each online account. That’s why people are encouraged to use tools like password managers, as they make it easy to generate and remember all your passwords. With this in place, victims are limited to “just” the fallout from the initial attack and can quickly take appropriate action.

Which details are at risk from attackers?

According to Bleeping Computer, the North Face attacks began on July 26, with site operators detecting unauthorised activity on August 11. The attacks were shut down completely by August 19. Some of the information potentially accessed includes:

  • Name
  • Billing address
  • Purchase history
  • Shipping address
  • Telephone number

No payment details were accessed, which is very good news for anyone impacted by the stuffing attacks.

Please notice this breach

Data breach notices are being sent to anyone affected. Additionally, passwords have been reset and new login details will be required. Hopefully users will take note of the following suggestions:

Please change your password at thenorthface.com and other sites where you use the same password. We strongly encourage you not to use the same password for your account at thenorthface.com that you use on other websites. If a breach occurs on one of those other websites, an attacker could use your email address and password to access your account at thenorthface.com.

In addition, we recommend avoiding using easy-to-guess passwords. You should also be on alert for schemes known as “phishing” attacks, where malicious actors may pretend to represent The North Face or other organizations. You should not provide your personal information in response to any electronic communications regarding a cybersecurity incident. We have included below further information on steps you may consider taking to protect your credit.

It remains to be seen what the fallout from this one will be. With the type of data listed above, it’s fair to say that phishing and social engineering will likely be close to the top of the follow-up threat pile. Stay safe out there!

Ransomware review: August 2022

Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence builds a monthly picture of ransomware activity by monitoring the information published by ransomware gangs on their Dark Web leak sites. This information represents victims who were successfully attacked but opted not to pay a ransom.

As expected, LockBit remained the dominant ransomware variant in August, as it has all year. At the other end of the scale REvil’s revival in slow motion continued with a single victim listed, RansomEXX posted its first victim for four months, and Snatch posted a single victim after fourty days of inactivity. Intriguingly, the victim listed on the Snatch site was also listed by REvil in April. It’s not unusual for victims to be attacked multiple times, so this is not necessarily a sign of cooperation.

Known ransomware attacks in August 2022 by gang
Known ransomware attacks by gang, August 2022

As we wrote in June, part of LockBit’s success comes from avoiding the kind of fatal missteps made by rivals like Conti, REvil, and DarkSide, all of whom attracted a great deal of public attention from US law enforcement. We cannot help wondering how long that will last though. LockBit has been the most active ransomware threat for all of 2022 and it is impossible to imagine there isn’t a team of FBI agents somewhere plotting its demise.

Over the last six months, between March 2022 and August 2022, LockBit has racked up 430 known attacks in 61 different countries, including 128 in the USA. In that period it was responsible for one in three known ransomware attacks—more than the next four most active gangs combined, and 300 more than its nearest rival. Between March and August it averaged about 70 known attacks per month, while the median average for the gangs we monitor has never exeeded seven.

Known ransomware attacks by gang, between March 2022 and August 2022
Known ransomware attacks by gang, between March 2022 and August 2022

The USA continues to bear the brunt of ransomware attacks, although its preeminence likely reflects the size of its service economy and the large number of potential vicitms rather than a deliberate targeting. Few countries escape attention and the 175 known attacks in August spread across 43 countries as diverse as Luxembourg, Qatar, and Gabon.

Known ransomware attacks in August by country
Known ransomware attacks by country, August 2022
Known ransomware attacks by industry sector, August 2022
Known ransomware attacks by industry sector, August 2022

The future of ransomware

Two events in August hinted at how ransomware gangs’ tactics may evolve beyond “double extortion”, the biggest innovation in ransomware tactics in recent years.

Originally, ransomware encrypted files and its operators demanded a ransom in return for a decryption tool. It was all but impossible to decrypt the files without the decryption tool, but victims could avoid paying a ransom by restoring encrypted files from backups.

In late 2019 the group behind Maze ransomware began stealing files from its victims before encrypting them, and then threatened to leak the stolen files on a dark web website. This gave victims an incentive to pay the ransom even if they could restore their system from backups. The tactic was quickly copied and it is now standard for large ransomware groups.

Triple extortion

In August, LockBit stole data from security company Entrust in a double extortion attack. According to LockBit, which spoke to VX-Underground, the victim’s unusual response was to prevent LockBit from publishing the stolen data by launching a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against the group’s leak site.

The attack delayed the leak but does not seem to have prevented it. However it does seem to have inspired LockBit to try the same thing. Having seen how effective DDoS attacks can be, the group took to a hacking forum to explain that it is now planning to use DDoS as a third stick to beat victims with, alongside encryption and extortion.

LockBit announces a DDoS service
LockBit rants about the alleged Entrust DDoS and then copies the idea

The utterings of ransomware gangs should always be taken with a pinch of salt, but the idea is worth taking seriously because it isn’t new. In fact DDoS extortion is an older tactic than encrypting files and demanding a ransom. It has simply fallen out of favor in recent years.

The end of ransomware?

Data leaking has been such a successful tactic that some groups, like Karakurt, don’t bother to encrypt files at all and rely entirely on the threat of leaked data. We believe that we will see more gangs taking this approach in future.

Since ransomware gangs started adopting “big game” tactics about five years ago, the skills required for a successful attack have changed. In a “big game” attack the encrypting malware is a commodity—the expertise that determines an attacker’s likely success are their ability to find a target, understand its value, and then break into its network and operate undetected.

This has led to significant specialization, with some criminal groups providing the software, some working as initital access brokers, and others actually performing the attacks. The skills that access brokers and attackers have developed have lucrative uses beyond deploying ransomware, such as surveillance, sabotage, espionage, and data exfiltration.

If encrypting ransomware ceases to generate significant revenue, its operators will simply pivot to other forms of attack. The pressure to do that started with improved backups triggering the switch to “double extortion”, and has increased as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Since the start of the war, ransomware gangs have found it harder to get paid because of the threat of sanctions, and one of the most high profile gangs has disappeared completely as a direct result.

Ransomware operator Mikhail Matveev was asked in a recent interview with The Record if he thought ransomware will remain the best monetization model for cybercriminals over the next three years. His response: “ransomware will soon die—not in three years, but sooner. Literally, everything has changed over the last six months. Since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine, almost everyone has refused to pay.”

Some members of the security industry have gone further, predicting ransomware’s imminent demise.

We believe that while the long term trend may see gangs moving away from encryption, we don’t expect a sudden change. The reality is that some groups find it difficult to obtain their demands without the use of encryption, and encryption is still the tactic of choice for 2022’s most successful ransomware group, LockBit.

New groups

It seems that some cybercriminals haven’t received the memo about the imminent end of ransomware-as-a-service, and a handful of new groups appeared in August, just as they did in July. The new groups are D0nut, IceFire, DAIXIN, and Bl00dy. Unusually, Bl00dy doesn’t have a leak site and instead use the Telegram messaging app.

D0nuts ransomware
The banner of the D0nut leak site
IceFire ransomware
The IceFire leak site
Daixin ransomware
The DAIXIN leak site

InterContinental Hotels’ booking systems disrupted by cyberattack

In a statement filed at the London Stock Exchange, InterContinental Hotels Group PLC reports that parts of the company’s technology systems have been subject to unauthorized activity. The activity significantly disrupted IHG’s booking channels and other applications.

The InterContinental Hotels Group, also known as IHG Hotels & Resorts, operates 17 hotel brands around the world, including established brands like InterContinental, Regent, Six Senses, Crowne Plaza, and Holiday Inn. IHG has over 6,000 hotels in more than 100 countries.

Ransomware?

Obviously, ransomware is not the same as “technology systems have been subject to unauthorized activity,” but in cases like these it is an automatic reflex to assume that it’s a ransomware attack. Especially when—as reported by BleepingComputer—the Lockbit ransomware group last month claimed an attack on Holiday Inn Istanbul Kadıköy, one of the hotels operated by IHG.

IHG didn’t disclose whether the attack was the result of ransomware or some other malware. For now, it is in the process of notifying authorities about the intrusion, and working with their technology suppliers. In addition, experts from outside of IHG are being brought in to help with the investigation.

Booking system

The unavailability of the online booking system must be a major pain for IHG. The website is unresponsive and a message in the booking system says the company is working to resolve the issues as quickly as possible, suggesting customers with questions to call the hotel directly.

message booking site IHG

“At this time, you may have challenges booking a new reservation, accessing information about your upcoming reservations and accessing your IHG One Rewards account.  We’re working to restore all service as soon as possible. If you have an urgent request for an upcoming stay or need to make an urgent reservation, you can call the hotel directly to make, amend or cancel a booking. Thank you for your patience.”

The company says IHG’s hotels are still able to operate and to take reservations directly.

How to defend against ransomware

A complete set of defenses against ransomware should cover three stages:

  • Prevention and detection

The least painful time to thwart a ransomware attack is before it can do any harm. Use anti-malware software, and keep all operating systems, software, and firmware up to date. (Timely patching is one of the most efficient and cost-effective steps an organization can take to minimize its exposure to cybersecurity threats.)

Block and/or flag emails that could contain malicious links and attachemnets. And educate and train your staff about how to handle such emails.

  • Monitoring and containment

Authentication policies can help to limit the lateral access that ransomware operators often exercise before they actually deploy the ransomware. Segment networks to prevent the spread of ransomware and disrupt lateral movement. Identify, detect, and investigate abnormal activity with a network monitoring tool. Endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools are particularly useful for detecting lateral connections as they have insight into common and uncommon network connections for each host. Disable unused ports.

Disable command-line and scripting activities and permissions. Privilege escalation and lateral movement often depend on software utilities running from the command line. If threat actors are not able to run these tools, they will have difficulty escalating privileges and/or moving laterally.

  • Recovery and removal

Put your backups outside of the reach of attackers, and make sure they work by testing that you can restore working systems from them. Implement a recovery plan to maintain and retain multiple copies of sensitive or proprietary data and servers in a physically separate, segmented, and secure location (i.e., hard drive, storage device, the cloud). Some security solutions offer built-in ransomware rollback options.

A complete removal is key if you want to prevent the threat actor from coming back. It’s not just about closing the door they got in through, they could also have planted a backdoor they can leverage to come back. Many of the tools they deploy are legitimate, but will still have to be removed or disabled for unauthorized access.

Customer data

At this point it is unclear whether any customer data were compromised, but we will keep you updated.

Vulnerability response for SMBs: The Malwarebytes approach

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At Malwarebytes, we understand that small-and-medium sized businesses find it uniquely difficult to quickly respond to vulnerabilities. Often, these organizations simply don’t have enough resources to keep up with the volume of patches. 

The stakes are obviously high: According to Ponemon Institute, almost 60% of low-security maturity organizations suffered a data breach because “a patch was available for a known vulnerability but not applied”. 

At first glance, the solution to SMB patching challenges seems pretty simple. With increased automation and security staff, organizations can significantly reduce the time it takes for businesses to respond to vulnerabilities—and we all know that time is of the essence in the patching world.

However, most SMBs don’t have the budget to hire an IT team dedicated to patching. On top of that, automated patch management tools typically aren’t integrated into businesses’ security stack. That means IT teams can find themselves hopping from one security tool to the next, losing visibility, speed, and efficiency in the process. 

The Malwarebytes approach

How we approach vulnerability response at Malwarebytes directly reflects the pain points of SMBs, and it all starts with an intuitive user experience.

Intuitive

With Malwarebytes Vulnerability Assessment, IT teams can easily identify, classify and prioritize vulnerabilities in drivers, applications, macOS, and Windows server and desktop operating systems (OSes). 

Our cloud-native Nebula management console is easy to-use and provides broad visibility across your attack surface, so you can rapidly identify security gaps and eliminate attack vectors. 

The following information is displayed for each endpoint vulnerability.

  • CISA recommended: Shows if the vulnerability is found in the CISA managed catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities.  Provides a link to the CISA catalog for the vulnerability if recommended in the column. 

  • CVE: Shows the CVE number as reported in the National Vulnerability Database. You can click on the CVE number to view additional vulnerability information and recommended remediation steps. 

  • Description: Description of the vulnerability and how it is used to exploit the application. 

  • Endpoint: Host name of the vulnerable endpoint.

  • Identified date: Date the vulnerability was detected on the endpoint.

  • OS platform: Operating system platform of the endpoint.

  • OS type: Type of operating system installed on the endpoint.

  • Severity: Severity level of the detected vulnerability. Severity is set using the CVSS standard. For more information, see CVSS Score System

  • Vendor: Vendor name of the installed software which is vulnerable.

easset upload file92124 234944 e

Effective

We use the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) to automatically assess the degree of risk associated with detected vulnerabilities. From within the dashboard in our Nebula cloud-based console, users can see at a glance which endpoints are at risk and the projected degree of risk for each: High, Medium, or Low.

You can install available system patches with our Patch Management module. The following information is available for each patch:

  • KB ID: Knowledge base ID of the patch.
  • Description: Short description of the patch.
  • Category: Type of patch.
  • Endpoint: Host name of the endpoint.
  • Identified date: Date the patch was detected on the endpoint.
  • Size: Size of the patch.
  • Restart required: Requirement of a restart to complete installation of the patch.
  • Vendor: Vendor of the patch.
  • Patch: Name of the patch.
  • Severity: Severity level of the patch.

To apply a system patch, all you have to do is select all or check specific boxes for system patches you want to install and then click “Apply patch”. Done.

easset upload file59890 234944 e

You can also install updates on outdated software programs. On our Software Inventory page, you can deploy software code revisions across OSes and a wide range of third-party legacy and modern applications, including Adobe, Chrome, and cloud storage apps (such as Box).  

In addition, with our advanced scheduling feature, users can pick and choose which applications to include in scheduled updates and which OS patches get deployed based on a combination of category and severity.

easset upload file14555 234944 e

Inclusive

Not only do you gain instant visibility into potential vulnerabilities in your applications and operating systems, but you can do so all from the same platform you use for your endpoint protection.

Our VPM is built on the cloud-based Nebula security platform, making it easy to manage all your Malwarebytes solutions from a single platform: Malwarebytes Incident Response (IR), Endpoint Protection (EP), and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

easset upload file17171 234944 e

The Nebula security platform provides an intuitive guided user interface; next-generation threat intelligence; multi-layered security, including industry leading remediation; and easy integration with SIEM, SOAR, and ITSM solutions to simplify detection and response and resolve IT tickets with ease.

Intuitive, effective, and inclusive vulnerability response for SMBs

A combination of factors is responsible for SMBs not doing timely patching, but can mainly be chalked up to a lack of automation and dedicated IT patching staff. In fact, vulnerability and patch management activities for most SMBs are either only partially deployed or not even planned or deployed at all. 

That changes with Malwarebytes VPM modules

Our approach to vulnerability response is designed for SMBs with limited IT staff, and who understand how valuable automation is in the patching process. Not only that, but our VPM modules are add-ons to the cloud-based Nebula security platform, making it easy to manage all your security solutions in a single pane-of-glass.

Want to see Malwarebytes Vulnerability Assessment and Patch Management in action? Watch the demos:

Vulnerability Assessment:

Patch Management: 

More resources:

What is patch management?

What is vulnerability assessment?

Podcast: Why software has so many vulnerabilities