Tag Archive for: zeroday

For March’s Patch Tuesday, no zero-day flaws


Microsoft this week pushed out 61 Patch Tuesday updates with no reports of public disclosures or other zero-days affecting the larger ecosystem (Windows, Office, .NET). Though there are three updated packages from February, they’re just informational changes with no further action is required.

The team at Readiness has crafted this helpful infographic outlining the risks associated with each of the March updates.

Known issues

Each month, Microsoft publishes a list of known issues that relate to the operating system and platforms included in the latest update cycle; for March, there are two minor issues reported:

  • Windows devices using more than one monitor might experience issues with desktop icons moving unexpectedly between monitors or see other icon alignment issues when attempting to use Copilot in Windows. Microsoft is still working on the issue.
  • For Exchange Server, Microsoft published an advisory note: after you install the latest security update there is no longer support for the Oracle OutsideIn Technology (OIT) or OutsideInModule. For more information, see this service update.

February was not a great month for how Microsoft communicated updates and revisions. With March being an exceptionally light month for reported “known issues” for desktop and server platforms, our team found no documentation issues. Good job Microsoft!

Major revisions

This month, Microsoft published the following major revisions to past security and feature updates including:

  • CVE-2024-2173, CVE-2024-2174, and CVE-2024-2176: Chromium: CVE-2024-2173 Out of bounds memory access in V8. These updates relate to recent security patches for the Chromium browser project at Microsoft. No further action required.

Mitigations and workarounds

Microsoft released these vulnerability-related mitigations for this month’s release cycle: 

  • CVE-2023-28746 Register File Data Sampling (RFDS). We are not certain how to categorize this update from Intel, as it relates to a hardware issue with certain Intel chipsets. The mitigation for this vulnerability requires a firmware update, and a corresponding Windows update enables this third-party firmware-based mitigation. More information can be…

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DarkGate Malware Exploited Recently Patched Microsoft Flaw in Zero-Day Attack


Mar 14, 2024NewsroomMalware / Cyber Attack

Microsoft Flaw in Zero-Day Attack

A DarkGate malware campaign observed in mid-January 2024 leveraged a recently patched security flaw in Microsoft Windows as a zero-day using bogus software installers.

“During this campaign, users were lured using PDFs that contained Google DoubleClick Digital Marketing (DDM) open redirects that led unsuspecting victims to compromised sites hosting the Microsoft Windows SmartScreen bypass CVE-2024-21412 that led to malicious Microsoft (.MSI) installers,” Trend Micro said.

CVE-2024-21412 (CVSS score: 8.1) concerns an internet shortcut files security feature bypass vulnerability that permits an unauthenticated attacker to circumvent SmartScreen protections by tricking a victim into clicking on a specially crafted file.

It was fixed by Microsoft as part of its Patch Tuesday updates for February 2024, but not before it was weaponized by a threat actor called Water Hydra (aka DarkCasino) to deliver the DarkMe malware in attacks targeting financial institutions.

The latest findings from Trend Micro show that the vulnerability has come under broader exploitation than previously thought, with the DarkGate campaign leveraging it in conjunction with open redirects from Google Ads to proliferate the malware.

Cybersecurity

The sophisticated attack chain begins with victims clicking on a link embedded within a PDF attachment sent via a phishing email. The link deploys an open redirect from Google’s doubleclick[.]net domain to a compromised web server hosting a malicious .URL internet shortcut file that exploits CVE-2024-21412.

Specifically, the open redirects are designed to distribute fake Microsoft software installers (.MSI) masquerading as legitimate software, such as Apple iTunes, Notion, NVIDIA, which come fitted with a side-loaded DLL file that decrypted and infected users with DarkGate (version 6.1.7).

It’s worth noting that another now-fixed bypass flaw in Windows SmartScreen (CVE-2023-36025, CVSS score: 8.8) has been employed by threat actors to deliver DarkGate, Phemedrone Stealer, and Mispadu over the past few months.

The abuse of Google Ads technologies allows threat actors to increase the reach and scale of their attacks through different ad…

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Apple Zero-Day Exploits Bypass Kernel Security


Apple has released emergency security updates to fix two critical iOS zero-day vulnerabilities that cyberattackers are actively using to compromise iPhone users at the kernel level.

According to Apple’s security bulletin released March 5, the memory-corruption bugs both allow threat actors with arbitrary kernel read and write capabilities to bypass kernel memory protections:

  • CVE-2024-23225: Found in the iOS Kernel

  • CVE-2024-23296: Found in the RTKit component

While Apple, true to form, declined to offer additional details, Krishna Vishnubhotla, vice president of product strategy at mobile security provider Zimperium, explains that flaws like these present exacerbated risk to individuals and organizations.

“The kernel on any platform is crucial because it manages all operating system operations and hardware interactions,” he explains. “A vulnerability in it that allows arbitrary access can enable attackers to bypass security mechanisms, potentially leading to a complete system compromise, data breaches, and malware introduction.”

And not only that, but kernel memory-protection bypasses are a special plum for Apple-focused cyberattackers.

“Apple has strong protections to prevent apps from accessing data and functionality of other apps or the system,” says John Bambenek, president at Bambenek Consulting. “Bypassing kernel protections essentially lets an attacker rootkit the phone so they can access everything such as the GPS, camera and mic, and messages sent and received in cleartext (i.e., Signal).”

Apple Bugs: Not Just for Nation-State Rootkitting

The number of exploited zero-days for Apple so far stands at three: In January, the tech giant patched an actively exploited zero-day bug in the Safari WebKit browser engine (CVE-2024-23222), a type confusion error.

It’s unclear who’s doing the exploiting in this case, but iOS users have become top targets for spyware in recent months. Last year, Kaspersky researchers uncovered discovered a series of Apple zero-day flaws (CVE-2023-46690, CVE-2023-32434, CVE-2023-32439) connected to Operation Triangulation, a sophisticated, likely state-sponsored cyber-espionage campaign that deployed TriangleDB spying implants on iOS devices at a variety of…

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Dangerous Windows 10, 11, Server Zero-Day Exploited By Lazarus Hackers


The notorious and highly prolific North Korean Lazarus criminal hacking group has been exploiting an admin-to-kernel privilege escalation Windows security flaw using an updated version of its FudModule rootkit.

What Is CVE-2024-21338 And Why Is It So Dangerous?

In a detailed analysis of the exploit, Lazarus and the FudModule Rootkit, Jan Vojtěšek from the Avast Threat Labs explains how researchers found the exploit for this previously unknown zero-day vulnerability in the Windows appid.sys AppLocker driver.

Although the vulnerability itself, which is monitored as CVE-2024-21338, was reported to Microsoft by Avast in August 2023 along with a proof-of-concept exploit, it wasn’t patched until the February 13 Patch Tuesday updates were made available. However, when the updates were distributed, CVE-2024-21338 wasn’t listed as a zero-day with exploits in the wild.

“From the attacker’s perspective, crossing from admin to kernel opens a whole new realm of possibilities,” Vojtěšek says. “With kernel-level access, an attacker might disrupt security software, conceal indicators of infection (including files, network activity, processes,) disable kernel-mode telemetry, turn off mitigations, and more.”

As for the FudModule rootkit, Vojtěšek says this represents “one of the most complex tools Lazarus holds in their arsenal.”

Microsoft Issued Fix As Part Of February Patch Tuesday

Microsoft has now published an updated security advisory recognizes this as a zero-day vulnerability.

Impacting various versions of Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows Server, users are advised to check the updated security advisory and apply the patch if they have not already done so.

That Microsoft has now issued a patch for this vulnerability means, the Avast analysis says, that Lazarus’ offensive operations will undoubtedly be disrupted.

“While discovering an admin-to-kernel zero-day may not be as challenging as discovering a zero-day in a more attractive attack surface (such as standard user-to-kernel, or even sandbox-to-kernel),” Vojtěšek concludes, “we believe that finding…

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