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You can read our full-length blog here about the importance of Data Privacy Day and data privacy in general

Today is a special day, not just because January 28 marks Data Privacy Day in the United States and in several countries across the world, but because it also marks the return of our hit podcast Lock and Code, which closed out last year with an episode devoted to educators and the struggles of distance learning.

For Data Privacy Day this year, we knew we had to do something big.

After all, data privacy is far from a new topic for Malwarebytes Labs, which ramped up its related coverage more than two years ago, giving readers in-depth analyses of the current laws that shape their data privacy rights, the proposed legislation that could grant them new rights, the corporate heel-turns on privacy, the big-name mishaps, and the positive developments in the space, whether enacted by companies or authored by Congress members.

Along the way, Malwarebytes also released products that can help bolster online privacy, and we at Labs wrote about some of the many best practices and tools that people can use to maintain their privacy online.

We’ve been in this space. We know its actors and advocates. So, for Lock and Code, we thought we’d give them the opportunity to talk.

Today, in the return of our Lock and Code podcast, we gathered a panel of data privacy experts that includes Mozilla Chief Security Officer Marshall Erwin, DuckDuckGo Vice President of Communications Kamyl Bazbaz, and Electronic Frontier Foundation Director of Strategy Danny O’Brien.

Together, our guests talk about the state of online privacy today, why online privacy information can be so hard to find, and how users can protect themselves. Tune in to hear all this and more on the latest episode of Lock and Code, with host David Ruiz.

You can also find us on the Apple iTunes store, Google Play Music, and Spotify, plus whatever preferred podcast platform you use.

The post Why Data Privacy Day matters: A Lock and Code special with Mozilla, DuckDuckGo, and EFF appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Our Lock and Code special episode on Data Privacy Day, featuring guests from Mozilla, DuckDuckGo, and Electronic Frontier Foundation can be listened to here.

Today, January 28, is Data Privacy Day, the annual, multinational event in which governments, companies, and schools can inform the public about how to protect their privacy online.

While we at Malwarebytes Labs appreciate this calendar reminder to address data privacy head-on, the truth is that data privacy is not a 24-hour talking point—it is a discussion that has evolved for years, shaped by public opinion, corporate mishap, Congressional inquiry, and an increasingly-hungry online advertising regime that hoovers up the data of non-suspecting Internet users every day. And that’s not even mentioning the influence of threat actors.

The good news is that there are many ways that users can reclaim their privacy online, depending on what they hope to defend. For users who want to prevent their personally identifiable information from ending up in the hands of thieves, there are best practices in avoiding malicious links and emails. For users who want to hide their activity from their Internet Service Provider, VPNs can encrypt and obscure their traffic. For users who want to prevent online ads from following them across the Internet, a variety of browser plug-ins provide strong guardrails against this activity, and several privacy-forward web browsers include similar features by default. And for those who want to keep their private searches private, there are services online that do not use search data to serve up ads. Instead, they simply give users what they want: answers.

Today, as Malwarebytes commemorates Data Privacy Day, so, too, do many others. First conceived in 2007 by the Council of Europe (as National Data Protection Day), the United States later adopted this annual public awareness campaign in 2009. It is now observed in Canada, Israel, and 47 other countries.

Importantly, Data Privacy Day serves as a reminder that data privacy should be a right, exercisable by all. It is not reserved for people who have something to hide. It is not a sole function for covering up wrong-doing.

It is, instead, for everyone.

Why does data privacy matter?

Privacy is core to a safer Internet. It protects who you are and what you look at, and it empowers you to go online with confidence. By protecting your data privacy, the sites you visit, the videos you watch, even the devices you favor, will be nobody’s business but your own.

Unfortunately, data privacy today is not the default.

Instead, every-day online activities lead to countless non-private moments for users, often by design. In these “accidentally unprivate” moments, someone, somewhere, is making a dollar off your compromised privacy.

When you sign up to use a major social media platform or mobile app, the companies behind them require you to sign an end-user license agreement that gives them near-total control over how your data is collected, stored, and shared.

Just this week, the editorial board for The New York Times zeroed in on this power imbalance between companies and their users, in which companies “may feel emboldened to insert terms that advantage them at their customers’ expense.”

“That includes provisions that most consumers wouldn’t knowingly agree to: an inability to delete one’s own account, granting companies the right to claim credit for or alter their creative work, letting companies retain content even after a user deletes it, letting them gain access to a user’s full browsing history and giving them blanket indemnity.”

Separate from potentially over-bearing user agreements, whenever you browse the Internet to read the news, shop online, watch videos, or post pictures, a cadre of data brokers slowly amass information to build profiles about your search history, age, location, interests, political affiliations, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and more. In fact, some data brokers scour the web for public records, collating information about divorce and traffic records and tying it to your profile. The data brokers then serve as a middleman for advertisers, selling the opportunity to place an ad in front of a specific type of user.

Further, depending on where you live, your online activity may become the interest of your government, which could request more information about your Internet traffic from your Internet Service Provider. Or perhaps you’re attending a university that you would like to shield from your Internet traffic, as you may be questioning your sexuality or personal beliefs. Who we are online has increasingly blurred with who we are offline, and you deserve as much privacy in one realm as in the other.

In every situation described above, users are better equipped when they know who is collecting their data and where that data is going. Without that knowledge, users risk entering into skewed agreements with the titans of the web, who have more resources and more time to enforce their rules, whether or not those rules are fair.

Are you fighting alone?

You are not alone in fighting to preserve your data privacy. In fact, there are four major bulwarks aiding you today.

First, many tools can help protect your online privacy:

• Certain browser plug-ins can prevent online ad tracking across websites, and they can warn you about malicious websites looking to steal your sensitive information
• VPNs can prevent ISPs from getting detailed information about your Internet traffic
• Private search engines can keep your searches private and your search data away from any advertising schemes
• Privacy-forward web browsers can default to the most private setting, preventing advertisers from following you around the web and profiling your activity

Second, several lawmakers across the United States have heeded the data privacy call. Since mid-2018, Senators and Representatives for the country have introduced at least 10 data privacy bills that aim to provide meaningful data privacy protections for Americans. Even more state lawmakers have forwarded statewide data privacy bills in the same time period, including proposals in Washington, Nevada, and Maine—which successfully turned its bill into law in 2019.

Across the world, the legislative appetite for data privacy rights has outpaced the United States. Since May 2018, more than 450 million Europeans have been protected by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which demands strict controls over how their data is used and stored, and violations are punishable by stringent fines. That law’s impact cannot be understated. Following its passage, many countries began to follow suit, extending new rights of data protection, access, portability, and transparency to their residents.

Third, a variety of organizations routinely defend user rights by engaging directly with Congress members, advocating for better laws, and building grassroots coalitions.  Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union, Fight for the Future, Common Sense Media, Privacy International, Access Now, and Human Rights Watch are just a few to remember.

Fourth, a handful of companies increasingly recognize the value of user privacy. Apple, Mozilla, Brave, DuckDuckGo, and Signal, among others, have become privacy darlings for some users, implementing privacy features that have angered other companies, and sometimes pushing one another to do better. Companies that have taken missteps on user privacy, on the other hand, have drawn the ire of Congress and suffered dips in user numbers.

Through many of these developments, Malwarebytes has been there—providing thoughtful analysis on the Malwarebytes Labs blog and releasing products that can directly benefit user privacy. We know the companies who care, we talk to the advocates who fight, and we embrace a pro-user stance to guide us.

Which is why we’re proud to present today a special episode of our podcast, Lock and Code, which you can listen to here.

The future of data privacy

Data privacy has only increased in importance for the public with every passing year. That means that tomorrow, just like today and just like the many yesterdays, Malwarebytes will be there to defend and advocate for data privacy.

We will cover the developments that could help—or could be detrimental—to data privacy. We will release tools that can provide data privacy. We will talk to the experts in this field and we will routinely take pro-user stances because it is the right thing to do.

We look forward to helping you in this fight.  

The post Why Data Privacy Day matters appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we looked at changes to WhatsApp’s privacy policy, we provided information about Malwarebytes being targeted by the same threat actor that was implicated in the SolarWinds breach, we told the story of ZeroLogon, looked at the pros and cons of Zoom watermarking, studied the vulnerabilities in dnsmasq called DNSpooq, asked if TikTok’s new settings are enough to keep kids safe, and looked at how Google Chrome wants to make your passwords stronger.

Other cybersecurity news

• The European Medicines Agency (EMA) revealed that some of the unlawfully accessed documents relating to COVID-19 medicines and vaccines have been leaked on the internet. (Source: EMA website)
• Some laptops provided by the UK’s Department for Education (DfE) came with malicious files identified as the Gamarue worm. (Source: InfoSecurity Magazine)
• Cisco emitted patches for four sets of critical-severity security holes in its products, along with other fixes. (Source: The Register)
• The Brave team has been working with Protocol Labs on adding InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) support to its desktop browser. (Source: Brave website)
• Sharing an eBook with your Kindle could have let hackers hijack your account. (Source: The Hacker News)
• Attackers behind a phishing campaign exposed the credentials they had stolen to the public Internet, across dozens of drop-zone servers. (Source: CheckPoint)
• QNAP urged customers to secure their NAS devices against a malware campaign that infects and exploits them to mine bitcoins. (Source: BleepingComputer)
• Singapore widened its security labelling to include all consumer IoT devices. (Source: ZDNet)
• Thousands of Business Email Compromise (BEC) lures used Google Forms in a recon campaign. (Source: SCMagazine)

Stay safe, everyone!

The post A week in security (January 18 – January 24) appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

A common sentiment, shared by many people down the years, is that storing passwords in browsers is a bad idea. Malware, for example, would specifically target password storage in browsers and plunder everything in sight.

Password managers weren’t exactly flying off the shelves back in 2007, your only real options were home grown. People ended up saving logins in all sorts of odd places: Text files, email accounts…you name it. Naturally, security-minded folks gravitated towards saving passwords in browsers, because what else were they going to do?

The browser password wars

Even just 8 years ago, it was still a hotly contested debate. The problem then was that passwords were stored in plain text. They aren’t now, but if the device you’re using is compromised it doesn’t matter. Malware files can decrypt your passwords, or wait for you to do it. So, no matter how recently you look, many of the same threats still exist for browser passwords. And new ones emerge, like the rogue advertisers trying to grab autofill data.

Let’s be clear: things are better now for passwords in browsers than they used to be. Even something as basic as having to enter your Windows password to view or copy saved passwords is reassuring. Making use of encryption, instead of leaving data lying around in plaintext, is excellent. Browsers taking things one step beyond simply storing, and checking for stolen passwords is great. Real time phishing protection is the icing on an ever-growing cake.

With that in mind, Chrome continues to make inroads in the name of beefing up browser password safety.

Weak password? Chrome 88 can help

Beginning with Chrome version 88, you can now check for weak passwords (open Settings and search for “Passwords”) and alter them on the fly, with just a few clicks. The “Change password” button doesn’t alter anything inside the browser, which may disappoint. It simply takes you to the site where you use that feeble password. At this point, you’ll have to manually alter the details. The browser should then detect you’ve altered the password and update its password database, as it normally would.

If you really want to know what the stored password is but can’t remember it, you’ll need your Windows login, as mentioned earlier.

There’s not a huge amount to add about this new feature, as it is indeed incredibly simple to use. A list of all your potentially weak passwords is displayed, and off you go to fix them all. This is to its benefit. It’s easy to get bogged down in password minutiae and end up not bothering.

You don’t need bells and whistles while looking for weak passwords. You just want a list of sites, and to be told where there’s a problem. In this regard, the new functionality more than delivers.

Browser or password manager?

Having said all of that…you may still wish to ignore all the above and stick with a dedicated password manager. No matter what password features are added to browsers, some folks will never want anything to do with that. There are a wealth of choices available. Totally offline, or online functionality: the choice really is yours. I’d be surprised if there isn’t something for everyone in the options available. But if you really don’t want a password manager, then browsers are a better solution than nothing at all.

Do you prefer to keep all your tools in the browser basket, or cast passwords away into dedicated password managers? Either way, we wish you many years of secure password management to come.

The post Chrome wants to make your passwords stronger appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

TikTok, the now widely popular social media platform that allows users to create, share, and discover, amateur short clips—usually something akin to music videos—has been enjoying explosive growth since it appeared in 2017. Since then, it hasn’t stopped growing—more so during the current pandemic. Although the latest statistics continue to show that in the US the single biggest age group (32.5 percent, at the time of writing) is users between 10 and 19 years of age, older users (aged 25 to 34 years) in countries like China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are quickly overtaking their younger counterparts.

Suffice to say, we can no longer categorize TikTok as a “kids’ app”.

This, of course, further enforces the many concerns parents already have about the app. We’re not even talking about the possibilities of young children, tweens, and teens seeing dangerous challenges and trends, or pre-teens lip-synching to songs that make grown up eyes go wide, or watching some generally inappropriate content. We’re talking about potential predators befriending your child, cyberbullies who are capable of following targeted kids from one social media platform to another, and a stream of unrestricted content from users they don’t even follow, or aren’t even friends with.

Limitations and guardrails

Eric Han, TikTok’s Head of Safety in the US, announced last week that all registered accounts of users aged 13 to 15 years have been set to private. This means that people who want to follow those accounts need to be pre-approved first, before they can see a user’s videos. It’s a way for TikTok to give tweens an opportunity to make informed choices about who they welcome into their account.

Furthermore, TikTok will be rolling out more changes and adjustments, such as:

• Limitations to video commenting. Users within this age group will be able to decide whether they want their friends, or no one, to comment. Currently, anyone can comment, by default.
• Limitations to availability of Duet and Stitch. In September last year, TikTok introduced two editing tools: Duet and Stitch. These were made available only to users ages 16 years and above. TikTok also limited the use of video clips to Friends only, among 16 to 17-year-old users.
• Limitations to video downloads. Users ages 16 years and above only can download content within TikTok’s app. This feature is turned off by default for users ages 16 to 17, but they have the option to enable it.

Read: TikTok is being discouraged and the app may be banned

• Limitations to suggested accounts. Users who are 16 years and under are not allowed to suggest their TikTok account to others.
• Limitations to direct messaging and live streaming. Users who are 16 years and under are not allowed to live stream, and can’t be messaged privately by anyone.
• Limitations in virtual gifting. Only users who are 18 years and over can purchase, send, and receive virtual gifts.

Growing pains

This isn’t the first time TikTok has tried to prove that they’re serious about making and implementing such changes for the benefit of their userbase. Here is a rundown of the social media platform’s security and privacy growth and challenges from a couple of years back.

• After making a $5.7 million USD settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2019, for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by failing to seek parental consent for users under the age of 13, TikTok had set out to delete profiles of users who are within this age bracket.
• TikTok introduced account linking for parents and/or guardians in April 2019. Called Family Pairing, responsible grown-ups are now equipped to connect their TikTok accounts with their teen’s, enabling them to remotely modify settings of their accounts.
• In December 2019, TikTok teamed up with Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) to host internet safety seminars. Its aim was “to help parents better understand the tools and controls they have to navigate the digital environment and the resources FOSI offers through its Good Digital Parenting initiative.”
• In January 2020, TikTok updated their community guidelines, to clarify how it moderates harmful or unsafe content. It said it wanted to “maintain a supportive and welcoming environment”, so that “users feel comfortable expressing themselves openly”.
• In February 2020, the company partnered with popular content creators in the US, to create videos reminding users to, essentially, stop scrolling their phone and take a break—in true TikTok fashion. This is part of their “You’re in Control” initiative, a user-centric series of videos that tries to informs users of TikTok’s “safety features and best practices”.
• At the same time, TikTok was also trying to curb online misinformation, (which is rampant on social media platforms), by working with third-party fact checking and media literacy organizations, such as the Poynter Institute.

Are TikTok’s changes enough?

Tools provided by social media platforms like TikTok can be helpful and useful. However, these companies can only do so much for their users. Parents and/or guardians should never expect their child’s favorite social network to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to keeping young users safe. More than anything, grown-ups should be more involved in their children’s digital lives. Not just as an observer, but by being an active participant in one form or another.

There is no substitute for educating yourself about social media. Look into the pros and cons of using it, and then educate your kids about it.

Tell them it’s okay to say “no”, to not follow the herd, that although something may look fun and cool, to stop and think about it first before reacting (or doing).

Everything starts in the home. Choosing security and privacy is no different. You are their first line of defense, not those default settings. So, let’s take up that mantle, and be one.

The post Are TikTok’s new settings enough to keep kids safe? appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

The research team at JSOF found seven vulnerabilities in dnsmasq and have dubbed them DNSpooq, collectively. Now, some of you may shrug and move on, probably because you haven’t heard of dnsmasq before. Well, before you go, you should know that dnsmasq is used in a wide variety of phones, routers, and other network devices, besides some Linux distributions like Red-Hat. And that’s just a selection of what may be affected.

Publicly disclosed computer security flaws are listed in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database. Its goal is to make it easier to share data across separate vulnerability capabilities (tools, databases, and services). The vulnerabilities disclosed by the JSOF team have been listed as CVE-2020-25687, CVE-2020-25683, CVE-2020-25682, CVE-2020-25684, CVE-2020-25685, CVE-2020-25686 and CVE-2020-25681.

What is DNSpooq?

DNSpooq is the name the researchers gave to a collection of seven vulnerabilities they found in dnsmasq, an open-source DNS forwarding software in common use. Dnsmasq is very popular, and so far JSOF has identified approximately 40 vendors that use it in their products, as well as some major Linux distributions. DNSpooq includes some DNS cache poisoning vulnerabilities, and buffer overflow vulnerabilities that could potentially be used to achieve remote code execution (RCE).

Domain Name System (DNS) is an internet protocol that translates user-friendly, readable URLs, such as malwarebytes.com, to their numeric IP addresses, allowing the computer to identify a server without the user having to remember and input its actual IP address. Basically, you could say DNS is the phonebook of the internet. DNS name resolution is a complex process that can be interfered with at many levels.

Dnsmasq (short for DNS masquerade) is free software that can be used for DNS forwarding and caching, and DHCP services. It is intended for smaller networks and can run under Linux, macOS, and Android. In essence, dnsmasq accepts DNS queries and either answers them from a local cache or forwards them to an actual DNS server.

What is DNS cache poisoning?

If you have ever moved your website to a different server, you will have noticed how long it can take before everyone actually lands on the new IP address. This happens because DNS records are normally cached in a number of different places, for performance. Records can be cached in your browser, by your operating system, on your network, by your ISP, and so on. When a cache entry expires it will update from the next upstream cache. Because of this, it can take a while for new records to get updated in all the places they’re stored. This phenomenon is referred to as DNS propagation.

If false information is added to a compromised DNS cache, that information can spread downstream to other caches. This method of providing a false IP address is called DNS cache poisoning. Cache poisoning can be done at all levels, local, router and even at the DNS server level.

What is a buffer overflow?

A buffer overflow is a type of software vulnerability that exists when an area of memory within a software application reaches an address boundary and writes into an adjacent memory region. Buffer overflows can be used to overwrite useful data, cause network crashes, or replace memory with arbitrary code that the instruction pointer later executes. In that last case it may offer an opportunity for RCE.

Who should worry?

JSOF has identified over 40 companies and respective products they believe are using dnsmasq. You can find a complete list on their website about DNSpooq, under Vendors. Some names worth mentioning: Asus, AT&T, Cisco, Dell, Google, Huawei, Linksys, Motorola, Netgear, Siemens, Ubiquiti, and Zyxel. Check out the list if you want to verify whether you are using one of the affected devices.

What can be done about DNSpooq?

For users of dnsmasq the quickest fix is to update it to version 2.83 or above.

In the long run it would be better for all of us if we started using a less vulnerable method than DNS, like DNSSEC, which protects against cache poisoning. Unfortunately is still not very widely deployed. Neither is HSTS, which is a web security policy mechanism that helps to protect websites against man-in-the-middle attacks.

Stay safe, everyone!

Header image and research courtesy of JSOF

The post DNSpooq bugs haunt dnsmasq appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Metadata, which gives background information on pieces of data, is typically hidden. It becomes a problem when accidentally revealed. Often tied to photography mishaps, it can be timestamps. It might be location. In some cases, it can be log analysis. Many tutorials exist to strip this information out. This is because it can reveal more than intended when it hits the public domain. Default settings are often to blame. For example, a mobile photography app or camera may embed GPS data by default.

Some people may find this useful; quite a few more may object to it as a creepy privacy invasion.

Well, that’s metadata. Now you have an idea what kind of things can lurk without knowledge. We can see what happens when we deliberately enable a data / tagging related function.

Watermarking: what’s the deal?

An interesting story has recently emerged on The Intercept, of voluntary data (in the form of watermarks) wrapped into Zoom recordings, which could cause headaches in unexpected ways. Watermarks aren’t hidden—they’re right there by design, if people choose to use them. And the visual side of this data is supposed to be viewable during the call.

The Intercept talks about accidental identity reveals, via data embedded into calls, in relation to the ever-present videoconferencing tool. You’d be forgiven for thinking the identity reveal referenced in the article had something to do with the watermarks, but no.

The reveal happened because someone recorded a video call and dropped it online, with participant’s faces on display. The people involved appear to be at least reasonably well known. The secret identity game was up regardless of what was under the hood.

Cause and effect

What the rest of the article is about, is theorising on the ways embedded metadata could cause issues for participants. Zoom allows for video and audio watermarking, with video of course being visual and so easier to spot. Video displays a portion of a user’s email address when someone is sharing their screen. Audio embeds the information of anyone recording the call into the audio, and Zoom lets you know who shared it. You must ask Zoom to do this, and the clip has to be more than 2 minutes in length.

Essentially, video watermarking is to help you know who is sharing and talking during the call. Audio watermarking is to allow you to figure out if someone is sharing without permission. The Intercept explores ways this could cause problems where confidentiality is a concern.

Some identity caveats

If Zoom content is shared online without permission, it may not matter much if revealing metadata is included, unless the video call is audio only. This is because people can be easy to identify visually. Is a public figure of some sort involved? The game is already lost. If they’re not normally a public facing persona, people could still find them via reverse image search or other matching tools. And if they can’t, a well-known location, or a name-badge, could give them away. There are so many variables at work, only the participants may know for sure.

Hunting the leaker: does it matter?

While the other concern of identifying the leaker is still important, your mileage may vary in terms of how useful it is, versus how much of an inadvertent threat it presents. It’s possible the leaker may not care much if they’re revealed. They may have used a fake identity, or even compromised a legitimate account in order to do the leaking.

It’s also possible that someone with a grudge could leak something then pretend they’d been compromised. If this happened, would you have a way of being able to determine the truth of the matter? Or would you simply take their word for it?

Weighing up the risk

All good questions, and a valuable reminder to consider which videoconferencing tools you want to make use of. For some organisations and individuals, there’s a valid use for the metadata dropped into the files. For others, it might be safer on balance to leave them out. It might even be worth using a virtual background instead of something which reveals personal information. It might be worth asking if you even need video at all, depending on sensitivity of call.

The choice, as always, is yours.

The post Zoom watermarking: pros and cons appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

This is the story of a vulnerability that was brought about by the incorrect use of an encryption technique. After it was discovered by researchers, the vulnerability was patched and that should have been the end of the story. Unfortunately the patch caused problems of its own, which made it very unpopular. Cybercriminals seized the opportunity to use the vulnerability for their own purposes. This is the story of ZeroLogon.

What is ZeroLogon?

The ZeroLogon vulnerability was discovered by researchers at Secura and is listed in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database under CVE-2020-1472:

“An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when an attacker establishes a vulnerable Netlogon secure channel connection to a domain controller, using the Netlogon Remote Protocol (MS-NRPC), aka ‘Netlogon Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability’.”

This vulnerability exploits a cryptographic flaw in Microsoft’s Active Directory Netlogon Remote Protocol (MS-NRPC), which allows users to log on to servers that are using NTLM (NT LAN Manager). Researchers explained that the issue stems from the incorrect use of AES-CFB8 encryption, which requires randomly generated initialization vectors for each authentication message. Sadly, Windows didn’t take this requirement into consideration. An attacker can use zeros for the initialization vector, allowing them to take over a domain controller in a matter of seconds.

How bad is this vulnerability?

Very bad, is the short answer. ZeroLogon has been successfully weaponized by malware authors, who use it for the lateral infection of corporate endpoints. The sophisticated Trickbot Trojan uses ZeroLogon, which means that it can spread across a vulnerable network easily. Ryuk ransomware has also been seen using the ZeroLogon vulnerability.

Is there a patch?

Yes, but there’s a “but”. The vulnerability was actually patched in August 2020, and it wasn’t until a researcher published a report about the vulnerability in September that we started to see it used in malicious activity.

In late October, Microsoft warned that threat actors were actively exploiting systems that were unpatched against ZeroLogon privilege escalation.

In November Microsoft also added detection rules to Microsoft Defender to “detect adversaries as they try to exploit this vulnerability against your domain controllers.”

The general advice is to use Secure RPC to prevent these attacks. Secure RPC is an authentication method that authenticates both the host and the user who is making a request for a service. Secure RPC uses the Diffie-Hellman authentication mechanism, which uses DES encryption rather than AES-CFB8.

Why isn’t everything patched against ZeroLogon by now?

The problem with the patch is that it is not enough to update the server side (Domain Controller), because clients also need to be updated for the protocol to work. And even though Microsoft took care to issue patches for Windows devices, it didn’t provide a solution for legacy operating systems that are no longer supported, or for third-party products. This means that enforcing Secure RPC may break operations for these incompatible systems.

So, what’s next?

Now, Microsoft has announced that it will enforce the use of Secure RPC .

“beginning with the February 9, 2021 Security Update release we will be enabling Domain Controller enforcement mode by default.  This will block vulnerable connections from non-compliant devices.  DC enforcement mode requires that all Windows and non-Windows devices use Secure RPC with Netlogon secure channel unless customers have explicitly allowed the account to be vulnerable by adding an exception for the non-compliant device.”

Having read that you might be thinking: “But you said it might break incompatible systems!” True, so Microsoft has made a list of actions that will result in a detailed update plan.

The update plan outlined by Microsoft includes the following actions:

• UPDATE your Domain Controllers with an update released August 11, 2020 or later.
• FIND which devices are making vulnerable connections by monitoring event logs.
• ADDRESS non-compliant devices making vulnerable connections.
• ENABLE enforcement mode to address CVE-2020-1472 in your environment.

This probably means there is still no happy ending to this story. Addressing the non-complaint devices will not be as easy at it sounds, in many cases. In many cases it will end with sysadmins making an exception for such a device. It is advisable however to at least try and follow the steps. Because in the end it will pay off to remove (or at least limit) the vulnerable devices and machines on your network. The cybercriminals will not let go of this treasure so easily.

Stay safe, everyone!

The post The story of ZeroLogon appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

A nation state attack leveraging software from SolarWinds has caused a ripple effect throughout the security industry, impacting multiple organizations. We first reported on the event in our December 14 blog and notified our business customers using SolarWinds asking them to take precautionary measures.

While Malwarebytes does not use SolarWinds, we, like many other companies were recently targeted by the same threat actor. We can confirm the existence of another intrusion vector that works by abusing applications with privileged access to Microsoft Office 365 and Azure environments. After an extensive investigation, we determined the attacker only gained access to a limited subset of internal company emails. We found no evidence of unauthorized access or compromise in any of our internal on-premises and production environments.

How did this impact Malwarebytes?

We received information from the Microsoft Security Response Center on December 15 about suspicious activity from a third-party application in our Microsoft Office 365 tenant consistent with the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) of the same advanced threat actor involved in the SolarWinds attacks.

We immediately activated our incident response group and engaged Microsoft’s Detection and Response Team (DART). Together, we performed an extensive investigation of both our cloud and on-premises environments for any activity related to the API calls that triggered the initial alert. The investigation indicates the attackers leveraged a dormant email protection product within our Office 365 tenant that allowed access to a limited subset of internal company emails. We do not use Azure cloud services in our production environments.

Considering the supply chain nature of the SolarWinds attack, and in an abundance of caution, we immediately performed a thorough investigation of all Malwarebytes source code, build and delivery processes, including reverse engineering our own software. Our internal systems showed no evidence of unauthorized access or compromise in any on-premises and production environments. Our software remains safe to use.

What we know: SolarWinds Attackers Also Target Administrative and Service Credentials

As the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) stated, the adversary did not only rely on the SolarWinds supply-chain attack but indeed used additional means to compromise high-value targets by exploiting administrative or service credentials.

In 2019, a security researcher exposed a flaw with Azure Active Directory where one could escalate privileges by assigning credentials to applications. In September 2019, he found that the vulnerability still existed and essentially lead to backdoor access to principals’ credentials into Microsoft Graph and Azure AD Graph.

Third-party applications can be abused if an attacker with sufficient administrative privilege gains access to a tenant. A newly released CISA report reveals how threat actors may have obtained initial access by password guessing or password spraying in addition to exploiting administrative or service credentials. In our particular instance, the threat actor added a self-signed certificate with credentials to the service principal account. From there, they can authenticate using the key and make API calls to request emails via MSGraph.

For many organizations, securing Azure tenants may be a challenging task, especially when dealing with third-party applications or resellers. CrowdStrike has released a tool to help companies identify and mitigate risks in Azure Active Directory.

Coming together as an industry

While we have learned a lot of information in a relatively short period of time, there is much more yet to be discovered about this long and active campaign that has impacted so many high-profile targets. It is imperative that security companies continue to share information that can help the greater industry in times like these, particularly with such new and complex attacks often associated with nation state actors.

We would like to thank the security community, particularly FireEye, CrowdStrike, and Microsoft for sharing so many details regarding this attack. In an already difficult year, security practitioners and incident responders responded to the call of duty and worked throughout the holiday season, including our own dedicated employees. The security industry is full of exceptional people who are tirelessly defending others, and today it is strikingly evident just how essential our work is moving forward.

Update: Clarified statement about “Azure Active Directory weakness”.

The post Malwarebytes targeted by Nation State Actor implicated in SolarWinds breach. Evidence suggests abuse of privileged access to Microsoft Office 365 and Azure environments appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we looked at IoT problems, Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday, and how cybercriminals want access to your cloud services. We also explored how VPNs can protect your privacy, and asked if MSPs have picked the right PSA.

Other cybersecurity news

• Hot phishing targets: Some brands are more appealing to scammers than others (Source: ZDNet)
• Not so private: Student finds way to watch private YouTube videos (Source: The Register)
• Gone dark: Dark-web marketplace DarkMarket taken down (Source: Interpol)
• Don’t lose your keys: Researchers lock horns with Google Titan (Source: Naked Security)
• Malware under fire: Malware vulnerability database launches (Source: Daily Swig) 
• Holiday phishing: Iranian APT group launches not-so-festive attack (Source: Bank Info Security)
• COVID scams: Vaccine used as bait by criminals (Source: IT Pro)
• Holes in the safety net: Banks warned not to scrap protection (Source: This is money)
• Scam confusion: Pushy sales tactics mistaken for scam (Source: Guardian)
• Mac Malware on the run: Malware operation avoids detection for 5 years (Source: ZDNet)

Stay safe, everyone!

The post A week in security (January 11 – January 17) appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.