From The Blog
-
ConnectWise Slash and Grab Flaw Once Again Shows the Value of Input Validation We talk to Huntress About its Impact
Written by Sean KalinichAlthough the news of the infamous ConnectWise flaw which allowed for the creation of admin accounts is a bit cold, it still is one that…Written on Tuesday, 19 March 2024 12:44 in Security Talk Read 680 times Read more...
-
Social Manipulation as a Service – When the Bots on Twitter get their Check marks
Written by Sean KalinichWhen I started DecryptedTech it was to counter all the crap marketing I saw from component makers. I wanted to prove people with a clean…Written on Monday, 04 March 2024 16:17 in Editorials Read 1566 times Read more...
-
To Release or not to Release a PoC or OST That is the Question
Written by Sean KalinichThere is (and always has been) a debate about the ethics and impact of the release of Proof-of-Concept Exploit for an identified vulnerability and Open-Source…Written on Monday, 26 February 2024 13:05 in Security Talk Read 1099 times Read more...
-
There was an Important Lesson Learned in the LockBit Takedown and it was Not About Threat Groups
Written by Sean KalinichIn what could be called a fantastic move, global law enforcement agencies attacked and took down LockBit’s infrastructure. The day of the event was filled…Written on Thursday, 22 February 2024 12:20 in Security Talk Read 1068 times Read more...
-
NetSPI’s Offensive Security Offering Leverages Subject Matter Experts to Enhance Pen Testing
Written by Sean KalinichBlack Hat 2023 Las Vegas. The term offensive security has always been an interesting one for me. On the surface is brings to mind reaching…Written on Tuesday, 12 September 2023 17:05 in Security Talk Read 2120 times Read more...
-
Black Kite Looks to Offer a Better View of Risk in a Rapidly Changing Threat Landscape
Written by Sean KalinichBlack Hat 2023 – Las Vegas. Risk is an interesting subject and has many different meanings to many different people. For the most part Risk…Written on Tuesday, 12 September 2023 14:56 in Security Talk Read 1837 times Read more...
-
Microsoft Finally Reveals how they Believe a Consumer Signing Key was Stollen
Written by Sean KalinichIn May of 2023 a few sensitive accounts reported to Microsoft that their environments appeared to be compromised. Due to the nature of these accounts,…Written on Thursday, 07 September 2023 14:40 in Security Talk Read 2109 times Read more...
-
Mandiant Releases a Detailed Look at the Campaign Targeting Barracuda Email Security Gateways, I Take a Look at What this all Might Mean
Written by Sean KalinichThe recent attack that leveraged a 0-Day vulnerability to compromise a number of Barracuda Email Security Gateway appliances (physical and virtual, but not cloud) was…Written on Wednesday, 30 August 2023 16:09 in Security Talk Read 2088 times Read more...
-
Threat Groups Return to Targeting Developers in Recent Software Supply Chain Attacks
Written by Sean KalinichThere is a topic of conversation that really needs to be talked about in the open. It is the danger of developer systems (personal and…Written on Wednesday, 30 August 2023 13:29 in Security Talk Read 1876 times Read more...
Recent Comments
- Sean, this is a fantastic review of a beautiful game. I do agree with you… Written by Jacob 2023-05-19 14:17:50 Jedi Survivor – The Quick, Dirty, and Limited Spoilers Review
- Great post. Very interesting read but is the reality we are currently facing. Written by JP 2023-05-03 02:33:53 The Dangers of AI; I Think I Have Seen this Movie Before
- I was wondering if you have tested the microphone audio frequency for the Asus HS-1000W? Written by Maciej 2020-12-18 14:09:33 Asus HS-1000W wireless headset impresses us in the lab
- Thanks for review. I appreciate hearing from a real pro as opposed to the blogger… Written by Keith 2019-06-18 04:22:36 The Red Hydrogen One, Possibly One of the Most “misunderstood” Phones Out
- Have yet to see the real impact but in the consumer segment, ryzen series are… Written by sushant 2018-12-23 10:12:12 AMD’s 11-year journey to relevance gets an epic finish.
Most Read
- Microsoft Fail - Start Button Back in Windows 8.1 But No Start Menu Written on Thursday, 30 May 2013 15:33 in News Be the first to comment! Read 116513 times Read more...
- We take a look at the NETGEAR ProSafe WNDAP360 Dual-Band Wireless Access Point Written on Saturday, 07 April 2012 00:17 in Pro Storage and Networking Be the first to comment! Read 87450 times Read more...
- Synology DS1512+ Five-Bay NAS Performance Review Written on Tuesday, 12 June 2012 20:31 in Pro Storage and Networking Be the first to comment! Read 81992 times Read more...
- Gigabyte G1.Sniper M3 Design And Feature Review Written on Sunday, 19 August 2012 22:35 in Enthusiast Motherboards Be the first to comment! Read 80304 times Read more...
- The Asus P8Z77-M Pro Brings Exceptional Performance and Value to the Lab Written on Monday, 23 April 2012 13:02 in Consumer Motherboards Be the first to comment! Read 70956 times Read more...
Apple Pushes Out Patches for Three Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Exploited in the Wild
Written by Sean KalinichApple has rushed to release patches for CVE-2023-32409, CVE-2023-28204, and CVE-2023-32373 all of which are in the WebKit Browser engine and across all Apple platforms (IOS, IpadOS and macOS). These three flaws have also been seen to be actively exploited in the wild. This increases the significance of them and should be remediated as soon as possible by applying any available patches.
Apple Launches ChatGPT app Wile Banning it from Use by Employees
Written by Sean KalinichAfter learning that there were malicious ads containing links to ChatGPT apps (for Windows), Apple launched a legitimate app for IOS. The app brings the very popular LLM to Apple users at a time when some are becoming more hesitant about its use. It has not been that long since Samsung accidentally leaked confidential information via the platform. This prompted both Microsoft (a heavy investor) and OpenAI themselves to start work on private environments where data put into the model is not used to train it.
Well Crap, New Flaw in KeePass Allows Attackers to Recover Master Password via Memory Dump
Written by Sean KalinichKeePass has a bit of a memory issue. It seems that the master password is passed in clear text through memory. This tiny little (sarcasm) bug was identified by a security researcher who goes by the name as vdohney. A proof of concept (POC) has already been published which usually leads to in-the-wild exploitation of the flaw (tracked as CVE-2023-32784). Oh, and if you did not know KeePass is a password manager/vault.
More Repo Issues as Malware Found in NPM Node.js Packages
Written by Sean KalinichPopular open-source repository NPM is back in the news as a pair of packages were found to have malware in them. The malware in question is TurkoRat. TurkoRat is an open-source information stealer that has a few features attached to it. Among some of the components are things like a wallet grabber (wallets.js) which seems geared towards stealing crypto currency. Other components are ones you would expect from an InforStealer like credential theft etc. The package was found by ReversingLabs after it had been in place for two months.
Apple Rolling out a Feature that Lets Your iPhone Sound Just Like You, What Could Go Wrong
Written by Sean KalinichI’ll take stupid features for $500 Alex. It seems that Apple is looking to deploy a feature that would allow your phone to sound and reply just like you do. The feature called “Personal Voice” uses a form of AI to replicate the sound and speech pattern of your voice in as little as 15 minutes (queue GEICO joke here). The feature is part of an update to their built-in accessibility features toolkit and on the surface is intended to help people that have speech challenges. Personal Voice can be used for in-person conversations and via phone calls. This feature will be tied to something called Live Speech which allows someone to type in messages and have them spoken by your phone.
Microsoft Stops Pushing Defender Update That Hid a Bug Due to Bugs
Written by Sean KalinichOver the last few months Windows 11 users have dealt with an annoying bug in Windows Defender. The bug was a continuous restart prompt to “enable” LSA protection. The problem is that LSA was enabled the whole time. The system just did not acknowledge that his was complete and had a flag requiring a reboot to finish the configuration. To combat this Microsoft pushed out a patch that was really little more than removing the reboot flag from the registry.
Fake ChatGPT and Midjourney Sites used in Cyber-Attacks *** Updated ***
Written by Sean KalinichIt was only a matter of time before something like this happened. As services like ChatGPT, Midjourney, Bard and other “AI” platform we viral, threat actors were bound to start trying to get in on the action. ChatGPT and Midjourney were easy targets for this as neither has a standalone app yet. To use them you have to get to their online presence; ChatGPT’s website or Midjourney’s Discord. This gap allowed the threat group known as BatLoader to start impersonating both of them via cleverly crafted Google search ads.
Inside a Ransomware as a Service Operation Shows How Simple and Profitable This can Be
Written by Sean KalinichAs part of our ongoing (really never ending) series on modern ransomware, we are taking a look at a recent study of one Ransomware as a Service operation. In this case the look is at the Qilin scheme which was brought to light by Group-IB. They were able to infiltrate the group through a conversation with a recruiter (nothing like being invited in). The cybersecurity firm started their inside look in March of 2023 and what they found was eye opening. It shows that RaaS clearly pays well and that services like this make things easy and profitable for people looking to get in on the “fun” but might not have the skill set or infrastructure to do it on their own.
Steam Brings Their Own Version of the Short Attention Span Review
Written by Sean KalinichWhen DecryptedTech was much more hardware and gaming focused we used to have a review style called Short Attention Span. It was a very quick 90-minute test of a game which included first launch, general configuration and any game play that could be accomplished inside a 90-minute window. If the game could capture our attention, we noted it and it got a follow on review. If it did not, usually there was no further mention of it unless we had a direct request for a more complete review. To me the 90-minute window was enough to get a good understanding of how a game worked, what hurdles to actual play time there were and if I would like it or not. It was very subjective with some basic objective observations around game engine, enemy AI, and startup complexity/cut scenes.
Azure Serial Console being Abused for VM Takeover
Written by Sean KalinichGoogle owned Mandiant has released findings on a group known as Roasted 0ktapus, Scattered Spider and UNC3944 (sort of rolls off the tongue there). This group has been seen to abuse the Microsoft Azure Serial Console to push out their own remote management tools in previously compromised environments. The fact that this new technique is not available from outside of an existing environment is a good thing, but it does mean organizations should monitor access and improve controls to avoid account compromise.
More...
Microsoft Visual Studio Marketplace Found to Have Malicious Extensions Targeting Developers
Written by Sean KalinichAttackers are always looking to get targets coming and going. As such you have a very rich ecosystem of attack types to cover as much ground as possible. A concerning one has always been direct supply chain attacks. These attacks seek to compromise software during the development stage, so the malicious pieces get bundled into the released code and signed with a trusted certificate. The highly publicized attack on SolarWinds is one of those types of attacks and shows just how effective and dangerous they can be. Supply chain attacks some in multiple flavors including (but certainly not limited to) compromising code repositories, poisoned plugins or open-source packages, and targeting of developer systems.
Microsoft CEO Hints that New Games Might not be Available in the UK While Claiming Pro Competition Stance
Written by Sean KalinichYesterday we talked about how the Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal had been approved by the European Commission (on antitrust) touting licensing deals that were pro competition. As we stated in that article, the licensing agreements only extend to cloud gaming services, they exclude consoles and other non-Microsoft controlled hardware. The EC and Microsoft are calling this very pro-competition even though cloud gaming represents around 1% of the market.
ChatGPT-4 Seems to Show Sparks of Near Human Reasoning
Written by Sean KalinichThere is a quote from the movie “The Matrix” that has always stuck with me. It was a scene where Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) is explaining to Neo (Keanu Reeves) the state of the real world and the history that allowed it to get there. The line is “We marveled at our own magnificence as we gave birth to AI.” There is another important line from the HBO series “From the Earth to the Moon. This line take place when Frank Borman (David Andrews) was asked what caused the Apollo One fire, he replied “A failure of imagination.” These two lines compete for how I view the state of AI development. As we marvel at our own magnificence, we should not stop thinking about the potential risks involved as we push to advance AI. Yet that seems to be what is happening.
Microsoft gets a Green Light from the European Commission on Activision Blizzard Buy
Written by Sean KalinichIt looks like the folks at the European Commission have decided that Microsoft buying out Activision Blizzard for $69 billion (with a B) is not going to be a violation of their antitrust rules. The approval means that there are only a few roadblocks to the deal going through. South Korea and China have not decided yet, while the US and UK have challenged it. The deal has been called the world’s biggest gaming takeover and is viewed by many as a bad thing for competition as it would leave Microsoft in control of a majority of game development groups.