Tag Archive for: expose

Vulnerabilities in aircraft wireless network devices expose users to hacking

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Security researchers have discovered two vulnerabilities in wireless local area network devices commonly used on aircraft that could expose users to hacking.

Detailed Sept. 3 by Thomas Knudsen and Samy Younsi of Necrum Security Labs, the vulnerabilities were found in the FLEXLAN FXA2000 and FXA3000 series devices from CONTEC Co. Ltd., a Japanese electronics manufacturer. The vulnerabilities in the devices, mainly used in airplanes for Wi-Fi access, could allow an attacker to take over the devices.

The first vulnerability, named CVE-2022-36158, relates to a hidden system command page not listed in the Wireless LAN Manager interface that allows for executing Linux commands on the device with root privileges. With this access, the researchers gained access to all systems files and telnet access, giving them full control to the device.

The second vulnerability, CVE-2022-36159, involves weak hard-coded cryptographic keys and a backdoor account. A file on the devices was found to contain the hashed passwords of two users — root and user — that could be discovered in a brute-force attack. Although the owner can change the user password, the root account is reserved for CONTEC only, likely for maintenance purposes. With access to the root password, an attacker would have full access to the device.

The researchers recommend that the hidden engineering web page be removed from the devices in production because the default password is very weak. Further, they suggest that CONTEC generate a different password for each device during manufacturing.

In a security release, CONTEC said that there are “possibilities of data plagiarism, falsification and system destruction with malicious programs if this vulnerability was exploited by malicious attackers.” Firmware updates for both devices that address the vulnerabilities have been released.

“This vulnerability allows a hacker to set up a man-in-the-middle attack that can snoop on and modify users’ internet connections,” Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate with tech research company Comparitech Ltd., told SiliconANGLE. “Anyone using a plane’s compromised Wi-Fi could have their online activity spied on and potentially…

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Ransomware gang threatens to expose one million sensitive medical records online

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Ransomware operators Daixin Team are claiming to have stolen “more than a million records” from a U.S. healthcare organization, and are threatening to leak it all to the public. 

It’s unclear whether this means a million affected patients, or a million pieces of sensitive information belonging to fewer patients, but whatever the case, the threat actors stole sensitive data from OakBend Medical Center, which operates three hospitals in the state of Texas, and shut down its communications and IT systems in the process. 

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Over $2 Billion Stolen This Year In Blockchain Bridge Hacks Expose DeFi’s Achilles Heel

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If 2018 was the Year of the Hack for centralized crypto exchanges, decentralized blockchain bridges seem destined to win that honor this year.

Over $1.9 billion was stolen in cross-chain hacks in the first half of 2022, according to a new blog post by crypto analytic firm Chainalysis.

Cross-chain bridges have come under fire in recent weeks for their vulnerability. At their core, bridges allow users to exchange one token for another, say BNBBNB
 (Binance’s token) for ethereum; they are the key to expanding operability across blockchains.

“Having that interoperability is crucial,” says Kim Grauer, head of research at Chainalysis.

But in order to function, bridges must hold large amounts of both tokens. Such liquidity pools make them enticing to hackers. Bridges “allow for blockchains to talk,” says Grauer. “But we’ve also created these honey pots for malicious actors.”

“Regardless of how those funds are stored–locked up in a smart contract or with a centralized custodian–that storage point becomes a target,” she adds.

Their vulnerability may also be a result of DeFi growing too much, too fast. Cross-chain bridges, says Amit Dar, senior director of strategy at cybersecurity firm Active Fence, are “kind of afterthoughts.”

“Effective bridge design is still an unresolved technical challenge, with many new models being developed and tested,” adds Grauer.

Still, the bridges have become staples of decentralized finance, and as long as they remain vulnerable, hacks will also be commonplace.

“The promise of DeFi was that we could have trustless finance,” says Sam William, CEO of ArweaveAR
, a blockchain start-up behind the permaweb which aims to preserve Internet content. “But instead people have ended up trusting the marketing and subsequently trusting the code without verifying it.”

As DeFi grows, this “painful lesson,” as Grauer puts it, is costing users unprecedented amounts of money. Thefts in the first half of this year were up 58% from the corresponding 2021 period. “This trend doesn’t appear set to reverse anytime soon,”…

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Technion Hackers Expose Dangerous Vulnerabilities in Siemens PLC Firmware | The Jewish Press – JewishPress.com | Hana Levi Julian | 14 Av 5782 – August 10, 2022

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Photo Credit: Macedo Media / Pixabay

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A hacker group from the Technion in Haifa has successfully broken into Siemens’ Simatic S7 series open controller. Siemens is believed to have the highest security standards in the industry.

Researchers in the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology were set to present their decryption of Siemen’s programmable logic controller (PLC) firmware on Wednesday at the prestigious Black Hat Hacker Convention in Las Vegas.

The findings of the study were forwarded to the company.

The group succeeded in hacking the ET200 SP Open Controller, CPU 1515sp, of Siemens’ Simatic S7 series, which represents a new concept in controller planning among numerous vendors.

The concept is based on the integration of a standard operating system. In this case specifically, the Windows 10 operating system was integrated into the CPU 1515sp.

These controllers are used in a variety of civil and military applications, including transportation system, factories, power stations, smart buildings, traffic lights, and others. Their purpose is to provide an automated process control that delivers an optimal, fast response to changing environmental conditions.

Attacks against PLCs have posed a challenge for Siemens, which is considered a vendor that meets the highest of security standards in the industry.

The S7 PLC series is perceived as innovative and highly secure, largely thanks to the integration of built-in cryptographic mechanisms, and consequently, attacks against it pose a great challenge.

The Technion researchers attacked the CPU 1515sp and, for the first time, decrypted the firmware which is common to all PLCs in the series.

The successful attack enabled the researchers to study the software characteristics. They say the attack exposed possible vulnerabilities in this PLC, as well as in other controllers in the series, and intensifies the need for improved security of these devices. The researchers warned that because the PLC and other controllers in the series are deployed in critical systems such as power plants, water facilities, transportation system, etc.,…

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