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Samsung Smart TV: Like A Web App Riddled With Vulnerabilities

August 1, 2013 Paul Roberts

Smart television sets aren’t short on cool features. Users can connect to Facebook and Twitter from the same screen that they’re using to watch Real Housewives of New Jersey, or log into Skype and use a built in- or external webcam to have a video chat. Unfortunately, the more TVs start to look like computers, the more they are becoming subject to the same underlying code vulnerabilities that have caused headaches and heartache in the PC space. That was the message of two researchers at the Black Hat Briefings security conference Thursday, who warned that one such product, Samsung’s SmartTV, was rife with vulnerabilities that could leave the devices vulnerable to remote attacks. Vulnerabilities in the underlying operating system and applications on Samsung SmartTVs could be used to steal sensitive information on the device owner, or even spy on the television’s surroundings using an integrated webcam, said Aaron Grattafiori and Josh […]

Emergency Alert System: Vulnerable Systems Double, Despite Zombie Hoax

July 12, 2013 Paul Roberts

You’d think that the prospect of a zombie invasion would prompt our nation’s broadcasters and others who participate in the Emergency Alert System (EAS). Just the opposite is true. Months after a bogus EAS message warning about a zombie uprising startled residents in Michigan, Montana and New Mexico, the number of vulnerable EAS devices accessible from the Internet has increased, rather than decreased, according to data from the security firm IOActive. In a blog post Thursday, Mike Davis, principal research scientist at IOActive said that a scan of the public Internet for systems running versions of the Monroe Electronics software found almost double the number of vulnerable systems in July – 412 – as were found in April, when an IOActive scan of the public Internet using the Shodan search engine found only 222 vulnerable systems. IOActive first notified Monroe Electronics about vulnerabilities in its DASDECS product in January of […]

Updated: Exploit Code Released For Android Security Hole

July 8, 2013 Paul Roberts

A security researcher has published what he claims is a proof of concept program that exploits a security hole that affects hundreds of millions of Android mobile devices.* Pau Oliva Fora, a security researcher for the firm Via Forensics, published a small, proof of concept module that exploits the flaw in the way Android verifies the authenticity of signed mobile applications. The flaw was first disclosed last week by Jeff Forristal, the Chief Technology Officer at Bluebox Security, ahead of a presentation at the Black Hat Briefings in August. Oliva Fora posted his “quick and dirty” proof of concept on GitHub, a code sharing website, on Monday. The simple program leverages APKTool, a common, open source tool for reverse engineering Android applications – decompiling and then recompiling their contents. APKTool is widely used for analyzing and making modifications to closed binaries. His script allows a user to select an Android […]

Flaw Leaves 900M Android Devices Vulnerable

July 5, 2013 Paul Roberts

A security researcher claims to have uncovered a flaw in the Android security model that leaves almost all devices running the mobile operating system vulnerable to attacks and malicious software. Jeff Forristal, the Chief Technology Officer at Bluebox Security posted a description of the flaw on Wednesday. It affects Android devices running any version of the OS released in the past four years, starting with Version 1.6 (codename: “Donut” ) – a population of nearly 900 million devices. Discrepancies in how Android applications are cryptographically signed and then verified by Android allow a malicious attacker to modify the application package file (or APK) code without breaking the cryptographic signature. The implications of the flaw are huge. A malicious application installed on a vulnerable Android device could access any data stored on the device. For applications, such as mobile virtual private network (VPN), an attacker who could alter the application’s code or […]

Homeland Security Warns Of Expanding Medical Device Attacks

May 7, 2013 Paul Roberts

A bulletin published by the Department of Homeland Security has warned that the increasing use of wireless networking technology to enable medical devices expands the ways that those devices could be hacked. The bulletin, published May 4 by DHS’ National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, warns that advances in medical devices, including Internet connectivity and the use of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices in patient care “expands the attack surface” of medical devices. “Smartphones and tablets are mini computers with instant access to the internet or linked directly to a hospital’s network. The device or the network could be infected with malware designed to steal medical information if not upgraded with the latest anti-virus and spy-ware software,” DHS said. Advances in medical device technology have already greatly improved medical care, especially in areas like medical health records and remote monitoring of patients with implantable medical devices. However, too little […]