Displaying items by tag: Security

First identified in January of 2023, Samsung has put a warning about a CVSS 4.4 vulnerability (CVE-2023-21492) that Is actively being exploited in the wild. The flaw, which impacts Samsung devices that are running Android 11, 12, and 13, was first disclosed to Samsung privately on January 17th, 2023. CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) has also issued a warning about the flaw.

After 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.

Over 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.

As 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.

Attackers 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.

The same Ransomware gang that hit MSI recently also appears to have hit Pharmacy services provider PharMerica and stole information on 5.8 million patents. The data that was exfiltrated as part of the attack includes social security numbers, full name and address, health insurance, medications, and date of birth. PharMerica disclosed the breach to the Maine Attorney General on March 12th, 2023.

There is a new player in the ransomware space. Dubber RA group this new organization appears to have had their grand opening last month (April 2023). RA Group published a data leak site on the dark web as part of the now all too familiar double extortion scheme that most ransomware brings to the table. RA Group is also one of the organizations that has leveraged the Babuk source code links to get things going, as reported by Cisco Talos.

A recent incident where ChatGPT users at Samsung unknowingly exposed sensitive data via ChatGPT has raised concerns in multiple industries. The banking and finance industry saw several companies put a stop on the use of ChatGPT and certain regulators began investigating how its use could leak PII, or other financial information. To combat this new obstacle to business adoption, Microsoft is looking to offer a private business model which would exclude user input from being used to train the LLM.

T-Mobile has disclosed their second breach of 2023. According to the mobile provider a threat actor gained access to their systems in February and was not detected until March. This allowed the attacker access to a small amount of customer data, 836 records. T-Mobile is stating that the data did not contain financial information, but it did contain enough Personally Identifying Information (PII) that the affected customers are exposed to identity theft.

After a three-year absence from Hacker Summer Camp, I finally returned to Vegas. Two of those years were related to Covid of course. However, three years is a long time to be out of the environment and the craziness that is both Black Hat and Def Con. To say I was excited to return to Vegas and everything that both cons have to offer would be an understatement. Both cons have their place in what I do here at DecryptedTech, but it was more than just the articles and conversations about security that I enjoy, it is getting to catch up with people I only see during the con and also the prospect of meeting new people and developing new relationships.