Tag: Mobile Threats

Old Apache Code at Root of Android FakeID Mess

A four year-old vulnerability in an open source component that is a critical part of Google’s Android mobile operating system could leave mobile devices that use it susceptible to attack, according to researchers at the firm Bluebox Security. The vulnerability was disclosed on Tuesday. It affects devices running Android versions 2.1 to 4.4 (“KitKat”), according to a statement released by Bluebox. According to Bluebox, the vulnerability was introduced to Android by way of the open source Apache Harmony module. It affects Android’s verification of digital signatures that are used to vouch for the identity of mobile applications, according to Jeff Forristal, Bluebox’s CTO. He will be presenting details about the FakeID vulnerability at the Black Hat Briefings security conference in Las Vegas next week.

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Hacker Summer Camp: Security Cons Blossom In The Desert

The mercury is expected to top 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 C) in Las Vegas next week. And that could mean only one thing: it’s conference time for some of the world’s top computer hackers.   Indeed, next week brings the 22nd installment of the DEFCON hacker conference in Las Vegas, and the 18th of Black Hat, DEFCON’s younger, more straight-lace sibling. But, while Black Hat and DEFCON are still the main attraction on the Las Vegas strip, they’re hardly the only shows in town. B-Sides Las Vegas, an alternative mini-con, is in its fifth year and is attracting many of the “cool kids” in the security community to do presentations and demos on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 5 and 6th over at the Tuscan Suites and Casino. Running alongside B-Sides is Passwords 14, a conference that started in Norway and is in its second year on U.S. soil. As its name would […]

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TRUST: Threat Reduction via Understanding Subjective Treatment

It has become obvious (to me, anyway) that spam, phishing, and malicious software are not going away. Rather, their evolution (e.g. phishing-to-spear phishing) has made it easier to penetrate business networks and increase the precision of such attacks. Yet we still apply the same basic technology such as bayesian spam filters and blacklists to keep the human at the keyboard from unintentionally letting these miscreants onto our networks. Ten years ago, as spam and phishing were exploding, the information security industry offered multiple solutions to this hard problem. A decade later, the solutions remain: SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance). Still: we find ourselves still behind the threat, rather than ahead of it. Do we have the right perspective on this? I wonder. The question commonly today is: “How do we identify the lie?” But as machine learning and data science become the new norm, I’m […]

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RSA: Boleto Fraud Ring in Brazil Linked To Billions in Bogus Transactions

RSA, the security division of EMC Corp. said on Wednesday that its researchers uncovered a massive online fraud ring that has infiltrated The Boleto, a popular payment method in Brazil. RSA said in a blog post on Wednesday that a coordinated investigation a “Boleto malware or ‘Bolware’ fraud ring that may have compromised 495,753 Boletos transactions over a two-year period. The value of the transactions is estimated at $3.75 billion USD, or $8.57 Brazilian Reals.  The Boleto is a popular and regulated electronic payment system that is the second most popular form of payment in the country, after credit cards. According to RSA, the malware in question allows attackers to carry out man-in-the-browser attacks that modify transaction details on an infected client system so that funds are directed into mule banking accounts controlled by the fraudsters. RSA researchers discovered 8,095 fraudulent Boleto ID numbers tied to 495,753 compromised transactions. The Bolware botnet is […]

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This Week In Security: Poking Holes In Two Factor Authentication

It was another busy week in the security world. There was big news on the legal front, as The U.S. Supreme Court took steps to protect the data stored on mobile devices from warrantless searches by police. (That’s good news.) But the week also plenty of concerning stories about the security of data stored on mobile phones, tablets and the like. One of the stories that gained a lot of attention was DUO Security’s report on a flaw in PayPal’s two factor authentication feature that could expose the accounts of  security-conscious PayPal users. As The Security Ledger reported, DUO researcher Zach Lanier discovered a flaw in mobile APIs published by PayPal that would allow anyone with a valid PayPal user name and password to sidestep two-factor authentication when accessing PayPal accounts that had that option enabled. After DUO went public with information on the flaw, PayPal disabled two factor authentication […]

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