TechBlog

Norwegian company Opera Software has released Opera 12.00 just a few minutes ago. Opera users who start the browser on their system should see update notifications displayed to them in the next couple of hours. Those who do not want to wait that long can run a manual check for updates with a click on Opera > Help > Check for Updates. The update should then be picked up by the browser and downloaded automatically to the local system. ...

v3.co.uk: Card processing firm Global Payments has provided more detail on the attack on its computer systems earlier this year, warning that the attackers may have had access to unspecified personal data. Global Payments confirmed the attackers had access to details of 1.5 million cards, but it said the attack had now been contained. Global Payments also revealed the attacks had gained access to servers containing personal information “from a subset of US merchant applications”. While it could not ascertain whether the data had been copied, it would be notifying affected customers in the coming days. ...

Is this the perfect recipe for a cybercriminal ?: Hacking LinkedIn’s password (and possibly user-) database. Sending an email to all obtained email addresses, which is urging you to check your LinkedIn inbox as soon as possible. A user unawarely clicking on the link. An exploit gets loaded. Malware gets dropped. Malware gets executed. User’s computer is now a zombie (part of a botnet). I would definitely say YES. A reader of my blog contacted me today, he had received an email from LinkedIn which was looking phishy. We can verify that Step 1 is accomplished, by the simple fact that in the “To” and/or “CC” field of the email below, there are about ~100 email addresses. A quick look-up of a few of them on LinkedIn reveals the unconvenient truth… Here’s the email in question: ...

The H-Online: In response to the Flame worst-case scenario, Microsoft has now integrated a custom block list feature for its certificate store under Windows. The feature was deployed as part of this month’s Patch Tuesday. The Flame worm had spread via Windows Update feature by manipulating the certificates that were intended to protect Windows updates from tampering. As described in a Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) blog post, the latest modification automatically causes compromised certificates to be regarded as untrusted. To achieve this, the certificate store checks a Microsoft-maintained list on a daily basis for certificates that are no longer trustworthy. Certificate Authorities are required to inform the company of any revoked certificates, which will then be added to the list. According to a Windows PKI blog post, this method is considerably faster than the deployment of Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs). ...

The H-Online: Microsoft has released seven security bulletins fixing a total of 27 security holes, 13 of them in Internet Explorer. The rest of the patches affect all currently supported Windows versions, the .NET Framework, Remote Desktop, Lync and Dynamics AX. A patch that had been announced for Visual Basic for Applications has yet to be released. The most important updates are bundled in the cumulative Internet Explorer patch (MS12-037), which includes fixes for the holes that were targeted by Pwn2Own exploits. Microsoft is the last of the companies to close the exposed holes that were targeted during the Pwn2Own competition; Google and Mozilla fixed their browsers in March. According to Michael Kranawetter, Microsoft’s Chief Security Advisor in Germany, the IE patch also affects the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, and therefore Internet Explorer 10. ...

The H-online: Google has closed several cross-site scripting (XSS) holes in its Gmail email service – which has more than 350 million active users – that could have allowed an attacker to inject a malicious client-side script into a victim’s system. Security researcher Nils Juenemann discovered the three different XSS vulnerabilities in Gmail and disclosed them to Google’s Security Team as part the company’s Vulnerability Reward Program, in which researchers are rewarded with up to $20,000 for reporting qualifying bugs in its web-based services. ...

The H-Online: Adobe has announced the release of an update for Flash Player on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android 3.x and 4.x, and within its own AIR runtime. The update addresses several critical vulnerabilities which involve memory corruption, stack overflows, integer overflows, security being bypassed, null dereferencing and binary planting (DLL hijacking). All, except the security bypass, could lead to code execution. The updates also include a number of security enhancements on various platforms. The Windows version of Flash Player now offers a production version of “Flash Player Protected Mode for Firefox” which brings a sandbox to the running of Flash, making it harder for attackers to get at other processes. ...

The H-Online: There have still been no official statements on the causes and extent of the recent password leaks at LinkedIn, eHarmony and Last.fm. A credible source is now reporting that the published 2.5 million Last.fm MD5 hashes, for example, are just the tip of a 17 million hash iceberg. That iceberg has reportedly been circulating since summer 2011.16.4 million of these – 95 per cent – have, the source claims, already been cracked, a claim which, for unsalted hashes, is entirely credible. ...

The H-Online: A list with several million passwords belonging to users of the music community site Last.fm has been posted on the internet. The site owners have posted a statement saying that the company is investigating the leak and that all users of the service should change their passwords immediately. This is the third major compromise of a popular web site’s passwords in as many days. The H’s associates at heise Security are in possession of a list containing approximately 2.5 million password hashes. Like the recently leaked data from eHarmony, these are unsalted MD5 hashes that are trivial to crack in today’s world of fast CPU and GPU hardware and specialised techniques such as using rainbow tables. At least one million of these hashes have already been cracked and the clear text passwords have also been posted on the internet. The hashes that were leaked from LinkedIn were generated using the SHA-1 algorithm. ...

H-Online: Internet forums are currently circulating a list containing over six million password hashes which allegedly originate from LinkedIn. The passwords are being cracked collaboratively with about 300,000 passwords already published as plaintext. The list contains pure SHA1 hashes with no name or email addresses. If decrypted, the passwords will not easily give access to an appropriate account. However, it is probable that the person who captured the hashes also has the corresponding email addresses. In an initial sampling, The H‘s associates at heise Security didn’t find any known LinkedIn passwords in the list, but with over 160 million members that doesn’t mean a lot. The already cracked passwords often contain “linked” or even “linkedin” in the form, for example, of “lawrencelinkedin”. This suggests that the passwords actually come from the LinkedIn social network. However, this has not yet been confirmed. ...