February 2021 Update Summary

To my readers; I hope you and your families are safe and well. Sorry for the delay in publishing this post. However, it does contain information made available after the 9th February and should still prove useful.

Tuesday, 9th February was the release day for Adobe and Microsoft’s scheduled security updates. Adobe addressed 50 vulnerabilities and Microsoft resolved 56 vulnerabilities more formally known as CVEs (defined).

Let’s begin with Adobe’s security updates:

Adobe Acrobat and Reader: Addresses 23x Priority 1 (17x Critical Severity and 6x Important Severity) vulnerabilities

Adobe Animate: Addresses 1x Priority 3 (1x Critical Severity) vulnerabilities

Adobe Dreamweaver: Addresses 1x Priority 3 (1x Important Severity) vulnerabilities

Adobe Illustrator: Addresses 2x Priority 3 (2x Critical Severity) vulnerabilities

Magento: Addresses 18x Priority 2 (7x Critical, 10x Important and 1x Moderate Severity) vulnerabilities

Adobe Photoshop: Addresses 5x Priority 3 (5x Critical Severity) vulnerabilities

If you  use any of the above Adobe products, please make certain to install the relevant updates as soon as possible. This is especially important in the case of the critical severity updates.

Separately, Microsoft from the 16th February onwards began releasing an optional update for Windows 10 that removes the embedded version of Flash Player (that was previously used by Internet Explorer).

I installed this update on my 3x Windows 10 20H2 systems (2x physical and 1x virtual machine). The update never requested a reboot. It left behind some empty folders (the locations of which are detailed here). This was a very smooth removal. I will install this update on my 2x physical Windows 8.1 systems when it is offered to them (likely in March 2021).

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Microsoft currently lists 36 Known Issues within its monthly summary. Almost all have workarounds or resolutions (others have solutions currently being worked upon). Please review the list from the above link if you have any concerns.

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A further useful source of update related information is the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) (please see the “Information on Security Updates” heading of the “Protecting Your PC” page):

https://www.us-cert.gov/
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For this month’s Microsoft updates, as always I will prioritise the order of installation below:
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Microsoft Windows Win32k Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability: CVE-2021-1732

Windows TCP/IP Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2021-24074

Windows TCP/IP Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2021-24094

Windows DNS Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2021-24078

Windows Local Spooler Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2021-24088

Windows Graphics Component Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2021-24093

.NET Core for Linux Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2021-14112

Microsoft .NET Core and Visual Studio Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2021-26701

Windows Fax Service Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2021-24077

Windows Fax Service Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2021-1722

Sysinternals PsExec Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability: CVE-2021-1733 (a revised fixed was made available by Microsoft in March 2021)

Microsoft Windows Codecs Library Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2021-24081

Windows Camera Codec Pack Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2021-24091

Microsoft Windows Installer Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability: CVE-2021-1727

Microsoft .NET Core and Visual Studio Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2021-1721

Windows Console Driver Denial of Service Vulnerability: CVE-2021-24098

Windows DirectX Information Disclosure Vulnerability: CVE-2021-24106

As per standard best practice, I would recommend backing up the data on any device for which you are installing updates to prevent data loss in the rare event that any update causes unexpected issues.

I have also provided further details of updates available for other commonly used applications below.

To all of my readers; I hope you and your families stay safe during these tough times. Thank you.

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Mozilla Firefox
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In the first week of February Mozilla made available Firefox 85.0.1 and Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) 78.7.1 to resolve the following critical vulnerability:

Firefox 85.0.1 and Firefox ESR 78.7.1: Resolves 1x Critical severity CVE

A mitigation for the Windows 10 NTFS Corruption vulnerability was also added to Firefox 85.0.1. My thanks to BleepingComputer for their article on that issue.

Later on, the 23rd February, Mozilla made available Firefox 86 and Firefox ESR 78.8 to resolve the following vulnerabilities:

Firefox 86: Resolves 5x High severity, 4x Moderate and 3x Low severity CVEs

Firefox ESR 78.8: Resolves 3x High and 1x Low severity CVEs

Firefox 86 introduces Total Cookie Protection and multiple picture in picture (among other features detailed here).

Details of how to install updates for Firefox are here. If Firefox is your web browser of choice, if you have not already done so, please update it as soon as possible to benefit from the above change.

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Google Chrome
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Google has released 4 Chrome updates so far in February version 88.0.4324.146 , version 88.0.4324.150 and version 88.0.4324.182 for Linux, Mac and Windows to resolve 6, 1  and 10 security vulnerabilities (respectively). Version 88.0.4324.190 and 192 for Mac do not contain security updates. Version 88 of Chrome removes support for Adobe Flash.

Google Chrome updates automatically and will apply the update the next time Chrome is closed and then re-opened. Chrome can also be updated immediately by clicking the Options button (it looks like 3 vertically stacked dots) in the upper right corner of the window and choosing “About Google Chrome” from the menu. Follow the prompt to Re-launch Chrome for the updates to take effect.

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Cyberpunk 2077
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The popular video game Cyberpunk 2077 has released a security update, hotfix version 1.12 to resolve the following security issues:

Fixed a buffer overrun (defined) issue

Removed/replaced non-ASLR (defined) DLLs (defined)

My thanks to BleepingComputer for their article listing the availability of this security update.

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Apple Security Updates
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Apple had released the following security updates so far in February:

Apple macOS Big Sur 11.2, Security Update 2021-001 Catalina, Security Update 2021-001 Mojave: Addresses 66x CVEs

Apple Safari 14.0.3: Addresses 3X CVEs

Apple macOS Big Sur 11.2.1, macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Supplemental Update, and macOS Mojave 10.14.6 Security Update 2021-002: Addresses 3x CVEs

June 2020 Update Summary

I hope all is well during these challenging times.

Earlier today Adobe and Microsoft released their monthly security updates resolving 10 vulnerabilities and 129 vulnerabilities (respectively). These vulnerabilities are more formally known as CVEs (defined).

Adobe’s updates for this month are as following:
Adobe Experience Manager: 6x Priority 2 CVEs resolved (6x Important severity)

Adobe Flash Player: 1x Priority 2 CVE resolved, (1x Critical severity)

Adobe Framemaker: 2x Priority 3 CVEs resolved (3x Critical severity)

Adobe After Effects: 5x Priority 3 CVEs resolved (5x Critical severity)

Adobe Audition: 2x Priority 3 CVEs resolved (2x Critical severity)

Adobe Campaign Classic: 1x Priority 3 CVEs resolved (1x Important severity)

Adobe Illustrator: 5x Priority 3 CVEs resolved (5x Critical severity)

Adobe Premiere Pro: 3x Priority 3 CVEs resolved (3x Critical severity)

Adobe Premiere Rush: 3x Priority 3 CVEs resolved (3x Critical severity)

If you use any of the above Adobe products, especially Adobe Flash Player; please install these updates as soon as possible since both multiple critical vulnerabilities have been resolved.

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A further useful source of update related information is the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) (please see the “Information on Security Updates” heading of the “Protecting Your PC” page):

https://www.us-cert.gov/

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For this month’s Microsoft updates, I will prioritize the order of installation below:
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VBScript Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2020-1213 , CVE-2020-1216

Microsoft Browser Memory Corruption Vulnerability: CVE-2020-1219

Microsoft SharePoint Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2020-1181

Scripting Engine Memory Corruption Vulnerability: CVE-2020-1073

Windows GDI+: CVE-2020-1248

Windows OLE: CVE-2020-1281

Windows Shell Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2020-1286

Windows Remote Code Execution Vulnerability: CVE-2020-1300

Please install the remaining updates at your earliest convenience.

As per standard best practice, I would recommend backing up the data on any device for which you are installing updates to prevent data loss in the rare event that any update causes unexpected issues.

I have also provided further details of updates available for other commonly used applications and devices below.

To all of my readers and your families, I hope you are staying safe during these tough times. Thank you.

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Mozilla Firefox
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In the first week of June, Mozilla released Firefox 77 and Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) 68.9 to resolve the following vulnerabilities:

Firefox 77.0: Addresses 4x high severity CVEs, 1x moderate CVE and 2x low CVEs

Firefox 68.9 ESR: Addresses 4x high severity CVEs

Details of how to install updates for Firefox are here. If Firefox is your web browser of choice, if you have not already done so, please update it as soon as possible to benefit from the above changes.

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Google Chrome
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Last week, Google released Chrome version 83.0.4103.97 for Linux, Mac and Windows to resolve 5 security vulnerabilities.

Two further updates were released by Google in June resolving 4 and 2 vulnerabilities respectively. The latest version of Google Chrome in the stable channel is 83.0.4103.116

Google Chrome updates automatically and will apply the update the next time Chrome is closed and then re-opened. Chrome can also be updated immediately by clicking the Options button (it looks like 3 vertically stacked dots) in the upper right corner of the window and choosing “About Google Chrome” from the menu. Follow the prompt to Re-launch Chrome for the updates to take effect.

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Intel Security Advisories
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Intel have released a series of security advisories today. The advisories are prioritised below. If you use any of these products, software or devices, please update them as soon as possible especially in the case of the critical and high severity advisories:

Critical:

2020.1 IPU – Intel CSME, SPS, TXE, AMT, ISM and DAL Advisory

High:

2020.1 IPU – Intel SSD Advisory

2020.1 IPU – BIOS Advisory

Intel Innovation Engine Advisory

Medium:

Special Register Buffer Data Sampling Advisory

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Nvidia
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In late June Nvidia released security updates for its drivers which power their Geforce, Tesla and Quadro/NVS GPUs as well and updates for its vGPU software (for Linux, Windows, Citrix Hypervisor, VMware vSphere, Red Hat Enterprise Linux KVM, Nutanix AHV). Not all updates for the vGPU software are available at this time but are in progress and will be released over the coming weeks (timelines are provided within Nvidia’s security advisory).

As was the case with previous Nvidia security updates all of these vulnerabilities are local vulnerabilities rather than remote meaning that an attacker would first need to compromise your system before exploiting the vulnerabilities to elevate their privileges. The steps to install the drivers are located here. If you use the affected Nvidia graphics cards or software, please consider installing these updates. For Windows, this update also brings improved performance and functionality with Windows 10 Version 2004.

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Putty
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Putty, the open source and highly popular SSH (defined) client for Windows, was updated to version 0.74 in the latter half of June. It contains 2 security fixes (see below). Version 0.74 is downloadable from here.

If you use Putty, please update it to version 0.74. Thank you.

Security vulnerabilities fixed:

• vuln-agent-keylist-used-after-free: Key list from agent used after free if server rejects signature after PK_OK
• vuln-dynamic-hostkey-info-leak: Dynamic host key policy leaks information about known host keys

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VMware
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VMware released 4 security advisories to resolve vulnerabilities within the following products:

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Advisory 1: Severity: Important:

VMware vSphere ESXi (ESXi)
VMware Workstation Pro / Player (Workstation)
VMware Fusion Pro / Fusion (Fusion)

Advisory 2: Severity: Important:

VMware Horizon Client for Windows
Advisory 3: Severity: Low

VMware Tools for macOS
Advisory 4: Severity: Critical

VMware ESXi
VMware Workstation Pro / Player (Workstation)
VMware Fusion Pro / Fusion (Fusion)
VMware Cloud Foundation

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If you use any of the above VMware products, please review the above advisories and install the applicable security updates as soon as possible.

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Mozilla Firefox
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In the final week of June, Mozilla released Firefox 78 and Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) 68.10 to resolve the following vulnerabilities:

Firefox 78.0: Addresses 7x high severity CVEs, 4x moderate CVE and 2x low CVEs

Firefox 68.10 ESR: Addresses 4x high severity CVEs and 1x moderate CVE

Firefox 78 introduces a repair option within its uninstaller to attempt to fix issues the browser is experiencing and a refined version of the built-in PDF reader allowing downloaded PDFs to be easily read.

The day after the release of Firefox 78, Mozilla released 78.0.1 to resolve non-security issues:

1. All search engines are gone, list of one-click search engines is empty now
2. Auto complete in the address bar doesn’t work any longer
3. Search function on the start page doesn’t start a search any longer

Details of how to install updates for Firefox are here. If Firefox is your web browser of choice, if you have not already done so, please update it as soon as possible to benefit from the above changes.

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Google Chrome
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Two further updates were released by Google in June resolving 4 and 2 vulnerabilities respectively. The latest version of Google Chrome in the stable channel is 83.0.4103.116

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Apple Security Updates:
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On the 1st of June Apple made available the following updates.

Further details for these updates are as follows:
Apple iOS 13.5.1 and iPadOS 13.5.1 (resolves 1x CVE (defined))
Apple tvOS 13.4.6: Resolves 1x CVE.
Apple watchOS 6.2.6: Resolves 1x CVE
macOS Catalina 10.15.5 Supplemental Update, Security Update 2020-003 High Sierra: Resolves 1x CVE.

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Please see these links from Apple for advice on backing up your iPhone and iPad. Advice for updating tvOS is available here while the steps for updating the Apple Watch are available here.

As always; further details of these updates are available on Apple’s dedicated security updates page.

For advice on how to install updates for Apple devices, please see the steps detailed at the end of this Sophos blog post as well as this link (from my “Protecting Your PC” page).

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VideoLAN VLC
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On the 16th of June VideoLAN released version 3.0.11 resolving at least 3 known CVEs (other vulnerabilities were addressed by upgrading internal 3rd party libraries used by VLC). CVE-2020-13428 however only affected Apple macOS/iOS but was of high severity (CVSSv3 base score (defined) of 7.8).

The most recent versions of VLC can be downloaded from:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Highlights from Pwn2Own 2020

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TL;DR:

The following products were successfully exploited, please install the necessary updates for them when they become available: Apple Safari, Apple macOS, Ubuntu Desktop, Windows, Oracle VirtualBox and Adobe Reader
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As long-time readers of this blog will know, the Pwn2Own security conference with its white hacking contest is my favourite event of the year. Sophisticated vulnerability exploitation is showcased, the contestants receive large sums of money and we as consumers receive safer products to use on a day to day basis. It took place late last week virtually due to the Coronavirus. The results from both days of competition can be found here. The total prize was USD $270,000.

The winners of the competition were Richard Zhu and Amat Cama of Team Fluoroacetate winning the Master of Pwn title and USD $90,000 in prize money.

Returning to the trend of previous years, exploits against the Apple macOS kernel (defined) and Windows kernel were common again. These are high severity vulnerabilities but when addressed will make our systems safer.

The vendors have up to 90 days to resolve the vulnerabilities before public disclosure. Please expect and apply the necessary security updates to the affected as they become available

Thank you.

March 2020 Update Summary

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Update: 28th March 2020
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I have added the details of the security updates released by Apple on the 24th March near the end of this post. Thank you.

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Update: 25th March 2020
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Adobe has released a further update for Creative Cloud Desktop. I have added the details below to the Adobe updates list.

VMware have also released VMware Fusion 11.5.3 to more completely address a previously patched vulnerability. Details are below in the VMware updates list.

Thank you.

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Update: 23rd March 2020
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Since originally writing this post, Adobe published their security updates a week later than usual. Further details are listed below.

Thank you.

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Adobe
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Adobe Acrobat and Reader: 13x Priority 2 CVEs (defined)resolved (9x Critical and 4x Important severity)
Adobe Bridge: 2x Priority 3 CVEs resolved (2x Critical severity)
Adobe ColdFusion:  2x Priority 2 CVEs resolved (2x Critical severity)
Adobe Creative Cloud Desktop: 1x Priority 2 CVE resolved (1x Critical severity)
Adobe Experience Manager: 1x Priority 2 CVE resolved (1x Important severity)
Adobe Genuine Integrity Service: 1x Priority 3 CVE resolved (1x Important severity)
Adobe Photoshop: 21x Priority 3 CVEs resolved (15x Critical and 6x Important severity)

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Update: 15th March 2020:
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Security researcher Kevin Beaumont has provided further details of the critical SMBv3.1 vulnerability affecting Windows 10 Version 1903 and 1909. In summary the vulnerability is not trivial to exploit and the number of systems at the time of writing (13th March) vulnerability to the exploit had already dropped by 25%.

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Update: 12th March 2020:
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Microsoft have released an update to resolve the SMBv3 vulnerability now designated CVE-2020-0796, (EternalDarkness or SMBGhost) please apply it to any Windows 10 Server or Windows 10 workstation system running Windows 10 Version 1903 or 1909 as soon as possible. Please also make certain that such systems are not exposing port 445 to the internet (please seethe FAQ in their information on the relevant update).

An internet scan by security researchers of vulnerable estimates that there are 48,000 vulnerable Windows 10 systems. You can use the ollypwn scan (created by a Danish security researcher) can be used to check if a system is vulnerable.

I wish to add the following useful clarification (which was written before the Microsoft security update became available) from Richard Melick, senior technical product manager at Automox in relation to this SMBv3 vulnerability:

“Considering that SMBv3 is not as widely used as SMBv1, the potential immediate impact of this threat is most likely lower than past vulnerabilities. But that does not mean organizations should be disregarding any endpoint hardening that can happen now while Microsoft works on a patch…it’s better to respond today and disable SMBv3 and block TCP port 445. Respond now and vulnerabilities end today”.

To all of my readers, please stay safe during these challenging times. Thank you.

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Update: 11th March 2020
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As expected, yesterday Microsoft  released their scheduled updates to resolve 115 CVEs (defined). Unusually for this month, Adobe has not released any updates.

Microsoft’s monthly summary; lists Known Issues for 14 Microsoft products but all have workarounds or resolution steps listed just as the previous month’s did.

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A further useful source of update related information is the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) (please see the “Information on Security Updates” heading of the “Protecting Your PC” page):

https://www.us-cert.gov/

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As always for this month’s Microsoft updates, I will prioritize the order of installation below:
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For Windows or Windows Server system (Version 1903 and 1909) systems that uses SMBv3, please follow Microsoft’s guidance in the following security advisory while an update is not yet available. Please apply the update as soon as it is made available:

ADV200005 | Microsoft Guidance for Disabling SMBv3 Compression

Please also make certain that TCP port 445 is blocked at the enterprise perimeter firewall to prevent exploitation.

This vulnerability is “wormable” meaning that similar to the WannaCry malware and the BlueKeep vulnerability if exploited it may lead to a very large malware outbreak in a very short time.

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Windows LNK: CVE-2020-0684
Windows Media Foundation: CVE-2020-0801 , CVE-2020-0807 , CVE-2020-0809,  CVE-2020-0869
Microsoft Internet Explorer: CVE-2020-0824
Microsoft Browsers: CVE-2020-0768

Microsoft Scripting Engine: CVE-2020-0830 , CVE-2020-0847, CVE-2020-0833 , CVE-2020-0832, CVE-2020-0829 , CVE-2020-0813 , CVE-2020-0826, CVE-2020-0827 , CVE-2020-0825 , CVE-2020-0831, CVE-2020-0811, CVE-2020-0828, CVE-2020-0848, CVE-2020-0823, CVE-2020-0812

Microsoft GDI+: CVE-2020-0881, CVE-2020-0883
Microsoft Word: CVE-2020-0852
Microsoft Dynamics: CVE-2020-0905
Microsoft Edge: CVE-2020-0816

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Please install the remaining updates at your earliest convenience.

As per standard best practice; I would recommend backing up the data on any device for which you are installing updates to prevent data loss in the rare event that any update causes unexpected issues.

I have also provided further details of updates available for other commonly used applications and devices below.

To all of my readers, please stay safe during these challenging times. Thank you.

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Netgear
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On the 3rd of March, Netgear released 25 security advisories for its modem-router gateways, approximately 40 routers and a range extender. The vulnerability range up to critical in severity.

If you own a Netgear router, range extender or modem-router gateway, please use the guidance within this article (many thanks to Tom’s Guide for this advice and the appropriate how to check for updates steps) to locate your Netgear device model e.g. R6400 and to match it against the available security bulletins to check if your device requires a firmware (defined) update sometimes called a software update. Please install the update if one is available. The above linked to article also describes the varied methods to update your Netgear device.

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Intel Security Advisories
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Intel have released a series of security advisories this month. The advisories are prioritised below. If you use any of these products, software or devices, please update them as soon as possible especially in the case of the high severity advisories.

High
Intel Smart Sound Technology Advisory
BlueZ Advisory
Intel NUC Firmware Advisory

Medium
Intel MAX 10 FPGA Advisory
Intel Processors Load Value Injection Advisory
Snoop Assisted L1D Sampling Advisory
Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory Module Management Software Advisory
Intel FPGA Programmable Acceleration Card N3000 Advisory
Intel Graphics Drivers Advisory

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Mozilla Firefox
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Yesterday, Mozilla released Firefox 74 and Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) 68.6 to resolve the following vulnerabilities:

Firefox 74.0: Addresses 6x high severity CVEs, 6x medium severity CVEs and 1x low CVE

Firefox 68.6 ESR: Addresses 5x high severity CVEs and 3x medium severity CVEs

Firefox 74 also removes support TLS 1.0 (what is TLS, defined) and 1.1 as per Mozilla’s previous timelime, adds a Facebook Container add-in to limit how much the social tracks you across other sites and blocks the ability for other applications to install Firefox add-ons without your knowledge or consent. Further details of these features and other features added can be found within this article (my thanks to Lawrence Abrams of Bleepingcomputer.com for this information).

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Google Chrome
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Early last week, Google released Chrome version 80.0.3987.132 for Linux, Mac and Windows to resolve 4 security vulnerabilities with the most severe being of high severity.

Google Chrome updates automatically and will apply the update the next time Chrome is closed and then re-opened. Chrome can also be updated immediately by clicking the Options button (it looks like 3 vertically stacked dots) in the upper right corner of the window and choosing “About Google Chrome” from the menu. Follow the prompt to Re-launch Chrome for the updates to take effect.

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Apple Security Updates:
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On the 24th of March Apple made available the following updates. Notable fixes affect the kernels of macOS, iOS and iPadOS, WebKit (the renderer of Safari), Bluetooth and Safari.

These updates bring Safari to version 13.1 and add updates to its Intelligence Tracking Prevention (ITP) privacy feature while also introducing a block on all 3rd party cookies (defined) by default.

Further details for these updates are as follows:
Apple iOS v13.4 and iPadOS 13.4 (resolves 35x CVEs (defined))
Apple tvOS 13.4: Resolves 20x CVEs.
Apple watchOS 6.2: Resolves 17x CVEs
Apple watchOS 5.3.6 (no CVEs resolved)
Apple iTunes version 12.10.5 for Windows: Resolves 13x CVEs
macOS Catalina 10.15.4, Security Update 2020-002 Mojave, Security Update 2020-002 High Sierra: Resolves 27x CVEs.
Safari 13.1: Resolves 11 CVEs
Apple iCloud for Windows 10.9.3: Resolves 13 CVEs
Apple iCloud for Windows 7.18: Resolves 13 CVEs
Xcode 11.4: Resolves 1 CVE (?: Apple’s post provides little details)

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Please see these links from Apple for advice on backing up your iPhone and iPad. Advice for updating tvOS is available here while the steps for updating the Apple Watch are available here.

As always; further details of these updates are available on Apple’s dedicated security updates page.

For advice on how to install updates for Apple devices, please see the steps detailed at the end of this Sophos blog post as well as this link (from my “Protecting Your PC” page).

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OpenSSL
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On the 17th March the OpenSSL Foundation issued OpenSSL 1.1.1e (download/installation links included) which includes a low severity security fix.

FTP mirrors to obtain the necessary downloads are available from here.

Downloadable Tarballs (compressed/packaged code made for distribution) are available from here.

It should also be possible to use the package manager of a Linux/Unix operating system to update your OpenSSL installation as mentioned within the section titled “Installing updates for Linux distributions” on the “Protecting Your PC” page of this blog.

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VMware
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VMware have so far released 2 security advisories this month to resolve vulnerabilities within the following products:

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Advisory 1: Severity: Critical:
VMware Workstation Pro / Player (Workstation)
VMware Fusion Pro / Fusion (Fusion)
VMware Horizon Client for Windows
VMware Remote Console for Windows (VMRC for Windows)
====================
Advisory 2: Severity: Important:
VMware Workstation Pro / Player (Workstation)
VMware Fusion Pro / Fusion (Fusion)
VMware Remote Console for Mac (VMRC for Mac)
VMware Horizon Client for Mac
VMware Horizon Client for Windows
====================

Advisory 2 (above) has been updated by VMware to state VMware Fusion has been updated to version 11.5.3 to more comprehensively resolve the vulnerability designated CVE-2020-3950. Please make certain if you use VMwre Fusion that it is the latest version available.

If you use any of the above products, please review the above advisories and install the applicable security updates as soon as possible.

Responding to the WPA-2 Kr00k Vulnerability

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TL;DR
While this vulnerability degrades the security offered by WPA2 and WPA2-Enterprise the use of HTTPS / TLS on your network will keep your web browsing traffic secure. An attacker would need to be in close proximity to the in-use Wi-Fi to exploit it and could only gather small amounts of information (if it not already secured by TLS) over time. Please check if software or firmware updates are available for your Wi-Fi devices.
=====================

Yesterday at the RSA conference ESET Security researchers disclosed details of a vulnerability affecting very large numbers (more than 1 billion) of Wi-Fi devices. They named the vulnerability Kr00k.

How serious is this vulnerability?
Cisco has classified this vulnerability as medium severity with Apple further adding that “an attacker in Wi-Fi range may be able to view a small amount of network traffic”. It has received a CVSS base score of 3.1 (Low). While there is potential for an attacker to eavesdrop on your Wi-Fi it does not mean your Wi-Fi is completely open to attack. ESET clarifies this “eavesdropping on the communication of an unpatched device is simple enough for most black-hat actors”. In other words, an attacker would have to target your vulnerable network and be within Wi-Fi range to exploit it. With most traffic now secured by TLS (indicated by your web browser as HTTPS) an attacker could NOT view such traffic. An attacker could continuously trigger a disassociation between Wi-Fi devices and each time obtain several kilobytes of sensitive information (provided it isn’t already secured by TLS). Each disassociation could be used to gather a little more information.

How does this vulnerability work?
Affected Broadcom chips which are used in many of today’s Wi-Fi capable devices and Cypress chips used within many Internet of Things (IoT) devices. After disassociation between a device and a client device e.g. your laptop and your Wi-Fi access point, the session key used by the WPA2 encryption protocol to secure the connection which is stored within the Wireless Network Interface Controller’s (WNIC) is cleared (set to zero)(this is design). However, the data frames left within the transmit buffer of the chip are then sent and secured with an all zero key. This small amount of information could be captured by an adversary. If the information is not secured by TLS, the attacker may obtain sensitive information. They could then repeat this process over time.

How can you protect your organisation or yourself from this vulnerability?
This vulnerability was responsibly disclosed to Broadcom and Cypress who have released updates. ESET also worked with the Industry Consortium for Advancement of Security on the Internet (ICASI) to notify other possibly affected Wi-Fi chip manufacturers. For any Wi-Fi capable device, you own, please check if there are software or firmware updates available for it.

The ESET researchers did not test if the newer WPA-3 encryption protocol is vulnerable to this issue, however it is less likely to be.

Apples released updates for their iPod, iPad, iPhone, desktop and laptop systems in late October 2019 (please see the references below). The researchers confirmed the following devices are affected but this is not a definitive list.

A list of vulnerable, under investigation and not vulnerable Cisco devices is also linked to below:

Amazon Echo 2nd gen

Amazon Kindle 8th gen

Apple iPad mini 2

Apple iPhone 6, 6S, 8, XR

Apple MacBook Air Retina 13-inch 2018

Google Nexus 5

Google Nexus 6

Google Nexus 6S

Raspberry Pi 3

Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9505

Samsung Galaxy S8

Xiaomi Redmi 3S

Wi-Fi Access Points:

Asus RT-N12 (this access point has been confirmed to date back to early 2010)

Huawei B612S-25d (July 2017)

Huawei EchoLife HG8245H (March 2018)

Huawei E5577Cs-321 (February 2015)

My thanks to the ESET researchers for providing the necessary information to write this post.

References:
https://www.eset.com/int/kr00k/

https://www.welivesecurity.com/2020/02/26/krook-serious-vulnerability-affected-encryption-billion-wifi-devices/

https://www.welivesecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/ESET_Kr00k.pdf

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-15126

https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20200226-wi-fi-info-disclosure

https://www.zdnet.com/google-amp/article/new-kr00k-vulnerability-lets-attackers-decrypt-wifi-packets/

https://support.apple.com/en-ie/HT210721

https://support.apple.com/en-ie/HT210722

https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2019-15126

https://threatpost.com/billions-of-devices-wifi-encryption-hack/153267/

Pwn2Own 2019 Results

TL DR: With popular products such as the Tesla Model 3, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Oracle VirtualBox, VMware Workstation Pro and Microsoft Edge being successfully exploited; please install the necessary updates when they become available.

The annual white hat hacking contest known as Pwn2Own took place last week. Detailed results from all 3 days are available from this link.

Day 3 saw initially two teams attempting to exploit a Tesla Model 3 before one withdrew. The team Fluoroacetate made up of both Richard Zhu and Amat Cama successfully exploited the infotainment system of the Tesla earning them a further $35,000 and the car itself. They earned $375k in total and became the Master of Pwn for 2019. The contest overall distributed $545k for 19 vulnerabilities.

In contrast to previous years the researchers have targeted vulnerabilities other than those within the operating system kernel (defined) to obtain a total system compromise. Only 3 times were exploits on the OS kernel used this year (one exploit was used in conjunction when exploiting each of the web browsers Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox).

We can expect updates for each of the exploited products over the coming weeks and months (the vendors have up to 120 days to resolve the vulnerabilities before public disclosure). Mozilla released Firefox 66.0.1 and 60.6.1 to resolve the 2 Firefox CVEs (defined) disclosed during the contest.

If you use the affected products, please keep current with the necessary updates. Thank you.

Blog Post Shout Out March 2019

TL DR: If a device that stores your personal information has reached the end of it’s life, please strongly consider erasing it correctly before recycling or disposing of it.

A security researcher from Rapid7 purchased 85 used pieces of technology to check them for data left behind by their previous owners. 80 of the devices had data still remaining on them.

He was able to uncover the following:

• 214,019 images, 3,406 documents and 148,903 email messages
• 611 email addresses, 50 dates of birth, 41 Social Security numbers, 19 credit-card numbers, six driver’s license numbers and two passport numbers.

For these reasons I wanted to provide a respectful shout out to the following blog post by Josh Frantz of Rapid7:

https://blog.rapid7.com/2019/03/19/buy-one-device-get-data-free-private-information-remains-on-donated-devices/

When our devices have reached the end of their useful life we need to become better at removing our data from them. Please find below recommended guides for Apple iPhones, Google Android device and hard disks (both RAID and simple disk set ups). My thanks to Mr. Josh Frantz for collecting these links within his post.

Thank you.

====================
Apple iPhone:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201351

Google Android:
https://www.greenbot.com/article/2451612/how-to-properly-and-securely-erase-your-android-device.html

Hard disks (typically how they are set up):
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-erase-a-hard-drive-using-dban-2619148

Hard disks (when used in a RAID configuration):
https://linhost.info/2010/06/parted-magic-erase-a-hard-drive/
====================

Apple KeyChain Vulnerability Disclosed

Last week a security researcher publicly disclosed a vulnerability within Apple macOS’ Keychain (Apple’s password management system). The exact proof of concept code has not been released.

TL DR:  This vulnerability is currently unpatched by Apple. Be cautious of the links you click on, email attachments and applications you download/open. Keep your system current with already released updates. Watch for updates from Apple in the near future.

Why should this vulnerability be considered important?
This vulnerability affects all versions of Apple macOS up to the most recent 10.14.3 (Mojave). Apple Keychain is used to store passwords for application, websites and servers. This information is encrypted by default blocking access via other means without your permission.

However; the exploit allows an attacker to access this information from a standard user account (thus not requiring root (defined)(privileged) access) without generating a password prompt. The keychain must first be unlocked but it is when you are logged into the system. The System keychain which contains (among other items) is not affected. Thus, if the attacker can persuade you to run an application of their choice (e.g. substituting an app that looks like an app you regularly download manually); they could obtain your passwords/sensitive information. A YouTube video demonstrating the custom application designed to exploit this is provided below:

https://youtu.be/nYTBZ9iPqsU

How can I protect myself?
Please see the TL DR above. You should also consider manually locking your keychain or setting a keychain specific password (further details below).

===========

Lock your Keychain:
Open Keychain Access in the Applications: Utilities folder. Select your keychain (usually your user name) in the drawer (click on Show Keychains in the toolbar if it’s not visible). Then choose Edit: Change Settings For Keychain keychain name. Select Lock After 5 Minutes Of Inactivity (or lower according to your preference).

Password Protect Your Keychain:
Open the Keychain Access application, and select your keychain in the drawer. Select Edit: Change Password For Keychain keychain name, and then enter a new password.

With thanks to MacWorld:

===========

Why did the researcher not disclose this to Apple privately?
The researcher, Linus Henze chose not to privately disclose this to Apple since while Apple have a bug bounty for iOS which is by invite only; they don’t have such a program for macOS. The researcher wishes to highlight this omission. A quote from the researcher is included below (my thanks to Sergiu Gatlan of BleepingComputer.com) for this:

“Please note that even if it looks like I’m doing this just for the money, this is not my motivation at all in this case. My motivation is to get Apple to create a bug bounty program. I think that this is the best for both Apple and Researchers. I really love Apple products and I want to make them more secure. And the best way to make them more secure would be, in my opinion, if Apple creates a bug bounty program (like other big companies already have)”

Separately he is not the only researcher to be criticising Apple’s approach to vulnerability remediation. Ian Beer of Google Project Zero publicly criticised Apple last August for simply fixing vulnerabilities rather than thinking of them in an exploit context namely “Why is this bug here? How is it being used? How did we miss it earlier? What process problems need to be addressed so we could have found [the bug] earlier? Who had access to this code and reviewed it and why, for whatever reason, didn’t they report it?”

Thank you.

Linux and Windows Address Page Cache Vulnerabilities

In early January security researchers located further vulnerabilities in how Windows and Linux operating systems use a memory page cache.

How severe are these vulnerabilities and what is their impact?
One of the co-authors of the academic paper disclosing these vulnerabilities described the work as mostly “a matter of academic interest” meaning that attackers are less likely to take advantage of these vulnerabilities.

Local attacks:
For the localised rather than remote variant of utilizing these vulnerabilities; the attacker must already have gained access to the victim system to read the target memory page. The attacker could do this by “[having a] malicious process on the operating system or when processes run in sandboxes that have shared files”.

Other actions an attacker could potentially carry out are:

• Cloning an open window and replacing the legitimate application window
• Gathering the root (Linux) or administrator (Windows) password

Remote attack:
To exploit the vulnerabilities remotely; the researchers leveraged “timing differences between memory and disk access, measured on a remote system, as a proxy for the required local information”. This was achieved by measuring the times when soft page faults (the page is erroneously mapped, with the help of a process that runs on a remote server) occurred. The researchers were successful in sending data covertly from an unprivileged malicious process within the victim system to a remote server fulfilling the role of a web server. They used a technique from previous research namely the NetSpectre attack to distinguish cache hits and misses over a network connection. This was successful on systems with mechanical hard drives (HDDs) and solid-state disks (SSDs). SSDs were more complex since the timing differences were smaller but the researchers compensated by using larger files to distinguish between cache hits and misses.

How can I protect my organization/myself from these vulnerabilities?
Since these vulnerabilities are more academic in nature; attackers are less likely to exploit them. Linus Torvalds has explained that the code to resolve this vulnerability has been checked in and is undergoing testing before being more widely rolled out. For Windows; Build 18305 of the upcoming Windows 19H1 (otherwise known as Version 1903) due for release in April 2019 contains fixes for these vulnerabilities. It is anticipated Microsoft will back-port this patch to earlier Windows versions.

In addition; the mitigations for the Spectre vulnerabilities from last year should address the remote attack vector using the NetSpectre attack method.

Why are there so many timing attacks being disclosed lately?
Since modern systems rely on timing for almost every component e.g. the CPU (internal caches and registers respond in nanoseconds (ns)), the memory/RAM (e.g. CAS latency), HDDs (measured in milliseconds (ms) e.g. 8.9 ms), SSDs (e.g. 0.05 ms , much faster) we are likely to continue to see further vulnerabilities disclosed as further scrutiny is applied to devices and architectures that have been in use for many years.

E.g. the affected code from Linux was timestamped in 2000 and stated that further revision should be carried out when more information was known. 19 years later we know more and are revising that code. It’s a similar situation with Windows where the revised code works to ensure low privilege processes can no longer access page cache information or shared cache information. As The Register points out; “something complex that’s just working can remain untouched for a very long time, lest someone breaks it” and is more likely to contain vulnerabilities since nobody has taken the time to look for what has been there for years.

Thank you.

Blog Post Shout Out: June 2018

A number of varied security issues have come to my attention this week which I wanted to keep you informed of. I will provide a respectable shout out to the following sources:

Apple Encrypted Drive Information Disclosure:
At this time Apple macOS has an information disclosure vulnerability that affects encrypted drives in general (encrypted Apple HFS+ / APFS+ and VeraCrypt) that provide the potential for an attacker to obtain details of the files an encrypted hard drive is storing.

This vulnerability originates from the quick look feature of macOS; which allows a user to preview photos, files and folders quickly without having to open them. This feature stores the thumbnails (defined) of the files centrally in a non-encrypted area of the hard disk. This issue can also occur when a USB memory drive is inserted; the same feature stores thumbnails on the external drive and on the boot drive of the macOS system.

If you use an encrypted hard disk or value your privacy when using external drives, please run the following command documented at the end of the following news article after you have viewed sensitive info and want to clear that history/activity:

macOS Breaks Your OpSec by Caching Data From Encrypted Hard Drives: BleepingComputer by Catalin Cimpanu

This suggestion is a workaround until (and if) Apple patches this.

=================
Yubico WebUSB Bypass:
The two-factor authentication/secure login vendor, Yubico has published a security advisory for the use of their YubiKeys. The vulnerability does not reside within the hardware keys themselves but in the authentication steps a web browser (e.g. Google Chrome) uses to authenticate an individual.

In summary, if you are using Google Chrome, please ensure it is updated to version 67 or later and follow the additional suggestion from Yubico in their security advisory:

Security Advisory 2018-03-02 – WebUSB Bypass of U2F Phishing Protection: Yubico

Windows 10 Persistent Malware:
The security vendor BitDefender have published a 104 page report detailing a spyware (defined) which uses rootkit functionality (defined). This malware is noteworthy due to its longevity (dating back to 2012) and it’s ability to install even on modern versions of Windows e.g. Windows 10:

Six Years and Counting: Inside the Complex Zacinlo Ad Fraud Operation: BitDefenders Labs

=================
On a side note I am not too surprised this infection can persist on Windows 10. If a user is tricked into running malware e.g. by clicking a link or opening an attachment either of which can be contained in  a phishing (defined) email or an even more convincing spear phishing (defined) email from an organization or colleague you trust; strong defences won’t always keep you from becoming infected.

The BitDefender report can be downloaded from the above link (it does not request any personal information).

=================
The following news article links to 2 detailed but still easy to follow removal guides. If you are experiencing un-wanted adverts showing within websites that don’t usually show them (even though you are using an ad blocker) or are experiencing re-directs namely you wish to visit website A but are actually sent to website B, please follow these guides to remove this malware:

Rootkit-Based Adware Wreaks Havoc Among Windows 10 Users in the US: BleepingComputer: by Catalin Cimpanu
=================

Thank you.