Microsoft starts off 2019 relatively smoothly with 49 security patches and two advisories — seven of these vulnerabilities were rated Critical and 40 were Important. Ten of these were disclosed through the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) program.
Read More The just-released Patch Tuesday for December includes a fix for the actively exploited Win32k Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability (CVE-2018-8611). The flaw allows an attacker to exploit a bug in the Windows Kernel and run arbitrary code to install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. It is also pointed out as likely being used with other bugs in targeted attacks.
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We uncovered an operation of a hacking group, which we’re naming “Outlaw” (translation derived from the Romanian word haiduc, the hacking tool the group primarily uses), involving the use of an IRC bot built with the help of Perl Shellbot. The group distributes the bot by exploiting a common command injection vulnerability on internet of things (IoT) devices and Linux servers. Further research indicates that the threat can also affect Windows-based environments and even Android devices.
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We recently found a malware that abuses two legitimate Windows files — the command line utility wmic.exe and certutil.exe, a program that manages certificates for Windows — to download its payload onto the victim’s device. What’s notable about these files is that they are also used to download other files as part of its normal set of features, making them susceptible to abuse for malicious purposes.
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We discovered a malware family called Maikspy — a multi-platform spyware that can steal users’ private data. The spyware targets Windows and Android users, and first posed as an adult game named after a popular U.S.-based adult film actress. Maikspy, which is an alias that combines the name of the adult film actress and spyware, has been around since 2016.
Multiple Twitter handles were found promoting the Maikspy-carrying adult games and sharing the malicious domain via short links.
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