Many Linux distributions are at risk due to a recently disclosed flaw in systemd: a flaw in its DNS resolver could cause a denial-of-service attack on vulnerable systems. The vulnerability is exploited by having the vulnerable system send a DNS query to a DNS server controlled by the attackers. The DNS server would then return a specially crafted query, causing systemd to enter an infinite loop that pins the system’s CPU usage to 100%. This vulnerability was assigned CVE-2017-15908.
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Intel recently released a security advisory detailing several security flaws in its Management Engine (ME). The advisory provides critical ME, Trusted Execution Technology (TXT), and Server Platform Services (SPS) firmware updates for versions 8.X-11.X covering multiple CVE IDs, with CVSS scores between 6.7 and 8.2.
But there is also another notable vulnerability that can pose a bigger risk especially to corporate computers and networks: CVE-2017-5689, a privilege escalation flaw. While there are certain factors and/or triggers for this vulnerability, it can provide attackers administration access and enable them to remotely reset or power off the vulnerable system if exploited successfully. This security issue was divulged in the research, “Silent Bob is Silent.” Compared to the recently identified ME vulnerabilities, CVE-2017-5689 was assigned a CVSSv3 score of 9.8.
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We encountered a few interesting samples of a file-encoding ransomware variant implemented entirely in VBA macros called qkG (detected by Trend Micro as RANSOM_CRYPTOQKG.A). It’s a classic macro malware infecting Microsoft Word’s Normal template (normal.dot template) upon which all new, blank Word documents are based.
Further scrutiny into qkG also shows it to be more of an experimental project or a proof of concept (PoC) rather than a malware actively used in the wild. This, however, doesn’t make qkG less of a threat.
Read More October’s macOS security update contained a fix for a vulnerability that Trend Micro privately disclosed to Apple earlier this year. The vulnerability (designated as CVE-2017-13811), was in the fsck_msdos system tool. This tool checks for and fixes errors in devices formatted with the FAT filesystem, and is automatically invoked by macOS when a device using FAT (such as a USB disk or an SD card) is inserted.
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The waves of backdoor-laden spam emails we observed during June and July that targeted Russian-speaking businesses were part of bigger campaigns. The culprit appears to be the Cobalt group, based on the techniques used. In their recent campaigns, Cobalt used two different infection chains, with social engineering hooks that were designed to invoke a sense of urgency in its recipients—the bank’s employees.
Of note were Cobalt’s other targets. The hacking group’s first spam run also targeted a Slovenian bank, while the second run targeted financial organizations in Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Spain.
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