Displaying items by tag: Hacking

Juniper has acknowledged that “unauthorized code” was somehow inserted into their ScreenOS. The code appears to have been around since at least 2012 which means that it went unnoticed during multiple code updates, patches and even full version updates. Although the code was buried deep in cores parts of the OS it still should have been noticed during at least one update over the last three years.

You know that awkward moment when your security company actually fails and ends up exposing your data? Well that is happening for a, less than loved, Mac application called MacKeeper. It seems that they forgot all about data management and security. Now, that being said MacKeeper and the developer, Kromtech Alliance, are not know as a wonderful application in the Mac world. For the most part they are known as something to be avoided, but that does not mean that people have not bought and installed their software.

The average GPU is a pretty powerful computational device. The highly parallel design and efficient memory structure means that you can execute operations at a rate that puts most CPUs to shame. With the advent of Cuda and OpenCL the door was opened for developers to push workloads to the GPU and get back some pretty nice returns. Microsoft and many others joined in and began making access to the GPU simpler starting with DirectX 10.

When things are not quite right you always hope for that “ah-ha” moment when everyone realizes the issue and will actually begin to work on a solution. For connected devices we have been hoping for that since they were first introduced and are still waiting for the industry to have that moment. We thought that perhaps it would happen when a host of connected cameras were compromised allowing people to spy on and even talk to children that were being monitored by them. However, while the hole was covered up with tape (not really fixed) there was no general outcry to have these connected devices secure properly.

Back in 2007 or so I was asked to write a white paper on the subject of why Intel was able to pass AMD as quickly as they did. This is back in the AM2+ days when Intel was dropping Conroe on the world. Many people were surprised that Intel made this shift so quickly when you consider how badly AMD had beaten the P4. It was incorrectly assumed that AMD had reach a peak that Intel could not touch. Because of this they did not push their advantage. Instead they opted to move in a very different direction and purchase ATi for way more money than they should have. This one move started the long decline of AMD as we knew it. It was a massive strategic error and it all came down to one thing. A failure of management and stockholders’ to imagine that Intel could so easily blow past AMD’s performance lead. This type of failure can have catastrophic consequences in the business world and in security.

Cybersecurity is a fairly common buzz word used in Washington these days. It is tossed around to scare people that are ignorant of the way computer systems work so that legislation that is exceptionally pro-corporate friendly and anti-consumer can be pushed through. The latest of these is the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. This handy little bit of law just passed through the US senate on the 28th (74 to 21) and allow corporations to share customer data with the US government and other companies without any consequences for doing so. This effectively removes any recourse customers or users have about the sharing of their personal information.

This is not the first time that I have spoken out about cloud computing (internet based, or the Internet of Things and the way they are impacting the ability to secure a network. It is also not going to be the last. Simply put, the concept that everything needs to be controlled by a computer and talk back to some sort of internet based cloud show a level of ignorance that should not still be out there. Sadly it is and companies are still trying to push the cloud and connected device mentality despite the inherent and known security flaws that exist.

It seems that someone may have found a way around at least one of the latest hot fixes for OpenSSL. According to some talk around the darker places on the internet, a rehash of metadata can allow a malicious individual to get around the latest hot fix designed to stop someone from bypassing the CA check in OpenSSL. The original flaw was found to exist during certificate validation. When OpenSSL checks the certificate chain it will try to build an alternate route if the first attempt fails. Due to a flaw in the way this is done can allow a “bad guy” to actually force some of the secondary checks to be bypassed and allow an invalid cert to pass.

Just when you thought it was safe to use your credit card we are hearing rumblings of a breach at Hilton. According to Brian Kerbs and some of our own sources a payment card breach has taken place and the only unique feature about this was that all of the affected cards were used at a Hilton Property. This is not just the regular Hilton Logo properties, but also includes Embassy Suites, Doubletree, Hampton Inn and Suites, Waldorf Astoria Hates and Resorts, and potentially others. The exact timing of the breach is unclear at the moment, but could go as far back as November 2014.

Security and malware research company, Kaspersky has recently released a paper describing what they say is the “ultimate level of anonymity” used by any malicious hacking group. In their report they describe a new attack by the group Ouroboros as “exquisite”. This is the same group that was linked to the Turla malware last year so we are not talking about amateurs or script kiddies. The attack uses commercial satellites’ unencrypted communication channels to send and receive traffic to their C&C servers.