Tag Archive for: Weakness

BitMart Hack Puts Crypto’s Weakness on Display

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Well, crypto got hacked again. This time it was the exchange BitMart, which announced a hack of at least $150 million on the evening of Saturday, Dec. 4.

Blockchain security firm Peckshield — which spotted and tweeted out a warning of the leak about an hour and a half before BitMart CEO Sheldon Xia announced it — put the losses at closer to $200 million.

Read more: Crypto Exchange Bitmart Confirms $196M Lost in Security Breach

Saying that the stolen funds were “a small percentage of assets on BitMart,” Xia added that customers will not suffer any losses, promising “BitMart will use our own funding to cover the incident and compensate affected users.”

The theft comes less than a week after decentralized finance (DeFi) project BadgerDAO was hit for $120 million by a hacker who drained funds directly from users’ wallets. Which comes just four months after the mid-August attack in which a hacker drained a staggering $612 million from another DeFi project, Poly Network (and, strangely enough, promptly gave it all back).

DeFi is an especially inviting target, and the lack of central control means there’s less pushback against crooks. DeFi projects have been hit to the tune of $10 billion so far, according to a recnet report from crypto intelligence firm Elliptic.

Also read: DeFi Losses Top $10B From Exploits, Fraud, Theft

Then there were the 6,000 Coinbase users whose wallets were drained in a phishing attack in October.

So, what’s going on? Well, business as usual.

A Juicy Target

There’s a couple of reasons for all these hacks, starting with how large they are. When you’ve got the largest vault around, you’ll attract all the top criminals. Especially when, like crypto, your vault isn’t too secure.

Remember, one of the early ways bitcoin broke into mainstream consciousness was when a hacker drained $350 million in bitcoin from the Mt. Gox exchange in a February 2014 hack.

Part of the problem is that exchanges need “hot” wallets that are connected online for their ongoing transactions, which can run to billions of…

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Chinese hacking contest reveals weakness in iPhones, Windows and more

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Operating systems and software are put through thorough testing before public release. That doesn’t mean flaws don’t fall through the cracks. Hackers can exploit some of those flaws, forcing the developer to issue a quick update to patch them. Tap or click here for signs your device has been hacked.

It is also not common for people who don’t work in the cybersecurity industry to discover these flaws. After all, they are professionals who have made it their job to root out vulnerabilities.

So, when a hacking contest in China revealed significant problems in popular tech, it was a stark reminder that our devices are always at risk.

Here’s the backstory

The Tianfu Cup competition is held annually in China, and this year it tasked participants to hack into some of the most commonly used tech. It’s a cybersecurity summit aiming to highlight vulnerabilities in systems while also serving as an educational and awareness platform.

The event includes lectures and cybersecurity demonstrations, but the main attraction gives ethical hackers a chance to show off their skills. Participants of the hacking competition were given 15 targets to complete, with the winner walking away with some cash prizes.

Some of the target systems or apps were:

  • Google Chrome
  • Apple’s Safari
  • Adobe PDF Reader
  • Ubuntu 20/CentOS 8
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2019
  • Windows 10
  • iPhone 13 Pro

Each assigned target system had a specific vulnerability that the hackers had to breach. If someone managed to perform a Remote Code Execution on an iPhone 13 Pro, they would be $120,000 richer. Perform a remote jailbreak, and the winner gets $300,000.

Hacking for the big prize

The most shocking thing the hackers found was all but three of the 15 systems or devices suffered from a successful hack.

This includes:

  • Using Safari to browse remote URL, control the browser or System.
  • Run a specific program as an unprivileged user to escalate privileges and run the command as root in Ubuntu.
  • In Windows 10, run a certain program as an unprivileged user to escalate privileges and run…

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Malware Exploits Security Teams’ Greatest Weakness: …

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Users’ distrust of corporate security teams is exposing businesses to unnecessary vulnerabilities.

In early January, Colin McMillen, the lead developer at SemiColin Games, tweeted a warning about a popular Google Chrome extension, The Great Suspender. The utility came under fire after McMillen learned the developer sold it to a third party that silently released a version that could spy on a user’s browsing habits, inject ads into websites, or even download sensitive data.

After a community outcry, the new owner removed the offending code. Now aware of the change of ownership and breach of trust, many savvy users removed the extension.

Even so, The Great Suspender remained available in the Chrome Web Store until Feb. 3, when Google finally pulled the plug. Many of the extension’s 2 million users found out when they received a warning that simply stated, “This extension may be dangerous. The Great Suspender has been disabled because it contains malware.”

While Google eventually set things right, it took too long. McMillen’s tweet shone a bright light on this in January, but comments on the extension’s issue tracker indicate users reported the problem to Google as early as October 2020. This left Chrome users in a potentially vulnerable position for over three months.

How Personal Computers Put Work Devices at Risk
Sometimes, Google Chrome extensions installed on personal computers are automatically installed and synchronized to work devices. This brings their problems into the security team’s purview, which then must make difficult decisions because:

  1. The risks associated with running suspicious extensions like The Great Suspender usually impact the employee, not the company, more.
  2. Before the extension was banned in February, end users had no official indication the extension was potentially malicious.
  3. Despite the risks associated with the extension, users intentionally installed it and, presumably, were happily using it.

Security teams are accustomed to wielding impressive tools that can block, contain, and remediate clear threats. They work best in a world of absolutes, where software is either good or bad, and systems are either secure or vulnerable. In the case of The Great…

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Cisco IOS XR Vulnerability: Hackers Target Memory Exhaustion Weakness – Computer Business Review

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Cisco IOS XR Vulnerability: Hackers Target Memory Exhaustion Weakness  Computer Business Review
“exploit kit” – read more