A popular plug-in for sharing blog content on social networks was discovered to have hidden code that was injecting WordPress blogs with links to phony Pay Day Loan offers and other spam, according to the firm Sucuri. The plug-in, named Social-Media-Widget (SMW) was compromised with malicious code 12 days ago, in concert with an update of the widget. The new version of the plug-in contained a hidden call to a remote PHP script that inserted “Pay Day Loan” spam text and links into WordPress web sites running the plugin. The goal was to infect as many web sites as possible with text that would increase the web reputation and visibility of a web site run by the spammers, according to the post on Tuesday, by Daniel Cid, Sucuri’s CTO. SMW is among the most popular add-ons for Wordpess sites. It allows bloggers who use WordPress to configure sharing buttons that will […]
Tag: Facebook
That Facebook Account Hijack Vulnerability Is Still Dangerous. Here’s Why.
Did you hear about that really dangerous security hole that allows attackers to manipulate third party Facebook applications to hack into your Facebook account? Skype and Dropbox both said they fixed a web site redirection vulnerability that both companies fixed before the vulnerability was disclosed? Great news, right? Right. Except for the fact that the same vulnerability may exist in hundreds, or even thousands of other Facebook applications and still provides a ready pathway into Facebook accounts, according to Nir Goldshlager, the Israeli security researcher who discovered the vulnerability. Goldshlager described the vulnerability, which he named the “UnFix Bug” on his web site in a post on Wednesday, after discussing details of the hole with the online publication TechCrunch. It is just the latest in a string of security holes he has discovered in OAuth, an open authentication standard used by social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The vulnerability allows a […]
The End Of Privacy: Facebook ‘Likes’ Reveal Sensitive Personal Data
We all know that, to online marketers, we’re just the sum of our Facebook Wall posts and “Likes” – the ubiquitous, virtual “thumbs up” that we attach to all manner of online ephemera. But all those ironic comments and votes of approval may be revealing a lot more about us than we’re willing to share, according to a new report from researchers at the University of Cambridge and Microsoft Research in the UK. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), the researchers demonstrated that it is possible to use knowledge of an individual user’s “Likes” on Facebook to “automatically and accurately predict a range of highly sensitive personal attributes including: your age, and gender, you sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious and political views. The list of guessabl`e information goes on to include other less quantifiable characteristics like your personality traits, intelligence, happiness, your preference (or not) […]
Many Watering Holes, Targets In Hacks That Netted Facebook, Twitter and Apple
The attacks that compromised computer systems at Facebook, Twitter, Apple Corp. and Microsoft were part of a wide-ranging operation that relied on many “watering hole” web sites that attracted employees from prominent firms across the U.S., The Security Ledger has learned. The assailants responsible for the cyber attacks used at least two mobile application development sites as watering holes in addition to the one web site that has been disclosed: iPhoneDevSDK.com. Still other watering hole web sites used in the attack weren’t specific to mobile application developers – or even to software development. Still, they served almost identical attacks to employees of a wide range of target firms, across industries, including prominent auto manufacturers, U.S. government agencies and even a leading candy maker, according to sources with knowledge of the operation. More than a month after the attacks came to light, many details remain under tight wraps. Contacted by The Security […]
EverNote Latest Site Hacked In Coordinated Attack
The online personal and business productivity service Evernote.com said on Saturday that it is the victim of a hack that exposed encrypted user password information, forcing password resets across a broad swath of the service’s 50 million registered users. The Redwood City, California-based firm revealed in a blog post that its internal security team discovered “suspicious activity on the Evernote network” that “appears to have been a coordinated attempt to access secure areas of the Evernote Service.” The company said it sent password reset messages to its users as a “precaution” but didn’t believe that stored information in users’ accounts or payment information had been exposed. The hack is just the latest of a prominent online firm. In recent weeks, Twitter, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft have all reported compromises of their internal networks. Those intrusions were linked to attacks aimed at developers and relied on exploits of previously unknown “zero day” […]
