Category Archives: black hat 2020

Old vulnerabilities die hard: researchers uncover 20-year-old code in Windows Print Spooler

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Every Microsoft Windows operating system has a file that manages commands to print documents. It is ubiquitous to the point of going unnoticed. But when researchers from security firm SafeBreach took a closer look at the file, which is called a Print Spooler Service, they noticed that some of the code is two decades old. A denial of service vulnerability the researchers reported earlier this year, which crashes the spooler service, worked not on only Windows 10, the latest operating system, but also on Windows 2000. It’s a glaring example of the old code that is bequeathed to popular software programs we take for granted. But the researchers weren’t done dissecting the spooler service. “We got intrigued, so we continued to dive in,” said Peleg Hadar, senior security researcher at SafeBreach Labs. They found another bug in the spooler service that could allow an attacker to gain system privileges on […]

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Hacking group has hit Taiwan’s prized semiconductor industry, Taiwanese firm says

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Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, a centerpiece of the global supply chain for smartphones and computing equipment, was the focus of a hacking campaign targeting corporate data over the last two years, Taiwan-based security firm CyCraft Technology claimed Thursday. The hackers went after at least seven vendors in the semiconductor industry in 2018 and 2019, quietly scouring networks for source code and chip-related software, CyCraft said. Analysts say the campaign, which reportedly hit a sprawling campus of computing firms in northwest Taiwan, shows how the tech sector’s most prized data is sought out by well-resourced hacking groups. “They’re choosing the victims very precisely,” C.K. Chen, senior researcher at CyCraft, said of the hackers. “They attack the top vendor in a market segment, and then attack their subsidiaries, their competitors, their partners and their supply chain vendors.” It was unclear which companies were targeted; CyCraft declined to name them. It was also unclear who was responsible for the […]

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Black Hat 2020: Satellite Comms Globally Open to $300 Eavesdropping Hack

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Attackers can listen in on internet traffic for high-value targets a continent away, like shipping fleets and oil installations, using some basic home-television gear. Continue reading Black Hat 2020: Satellite Comms Globally Open to $300 Eavesdropping Hack→

Black Hat 2020: Using Botnets to Manipulate Energy Markets for Big Profits

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Black Hat 2020 session discusses how high-wattage connected devices like dishwashers and heating systems can be recruited into botnets and used to manipulate energy markets. Continue reading Black Hat 2020: Using Botnets to Manipulate Energy Markets for Big Profits→

Top voting vendor ES&S publishes vulnerability disclosure policy

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Election Systems & Software, the biggest vendor of U.S. voting equipment, on Wednesday announced a policy to work more closely with security researchers to find software bugs in the company’s IT networks and websites. “Hackers are going to hack, researchers are going to research, whether or not there’s a policy in place,” Chris Wlaschin, ES&S’s vice president of systems security, told CyberScoop. “We think it’s important to have that safe harbor language out there to set expectations.” The policy allows researchers to probe ES&S’s corporate systems and public-facing websites, but not the election systems in place at jurisdictions around the country, which are subject to different testing regimes. The ES&S policy gives the company 90 days to fix vulnerabilities before researchers can report on them publicly — a standard timeline in the research community. For ES&S, the policy marks another step in collaborating with a white-hat hacking community with which it […]

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Researchers found another way to hack Android cellphones via Bluetooth

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Attackers looking to steal sensitive information like contacts, call history, and SMS verification codes from Android devices only need to target Bluetooth protocols, according to new DBAPPSecurity research presented at the 2020 Black Hat conference Wednesday. These exploits, one of which takes advantage of a zero-day vulnerability, could also allow hackers to send fake text messages if manipulated properly, researchers found. It works by allowing attackers to disguise themselves as a trusted application, requesting permissions that allow one Bluetooth-enabled device to share data with another device, such as a headset or car’s “infotainment” system. For the attack to run successfully, Bluetooth must be enabled on the target device and victims must approve the attackers’ request for privileges. In the end, this action gives attackers access to data on the victim’s device, according to the California-based company. The other attack allows researchers to take advantage of an authentication bypass vulnerability, dubbed “BlueRepli.” Would-be attackers […]

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Black Hat 2020: Linux Spyware Stack Ties Together 5 Chinese APTs

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The groups, all tied to the Winnti supply-chain specialist gang, were seen using the same Linux rootkit and backdoor combo. Continue reading Black Hat 2020: Linux Spyware Stack Ties Together 5 Chinese APTs→

Black Hat 2020: Scaling Mail-In Voting Spawns Broad Challenges

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Voting Village security celeb Matt Blaze delves into the logistics of scaling up mail-in voting ahead of November’s election. Continue reading Black Hat 2020: Scaling Mail-In Voting Spawns Broad Challenges→

There’s a new open-source project to detect cellphone-snooping technology

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In October 2016, during popular protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, a technologist named Cooper Quintin took a red-eye flight from San Francisco to North Dakota and made his way to the Standing Rock Reservation. There had been reports of police surveillance of the protesters, and Quintin suspected that involved a device known as an IMSI catcher or cell-site simulator. The technology, sometimes referred to as a Stingray, spoofs a cellular tower, tricking your phone into revealing its location. From there, data-stealing attacks on the phone are possible. Police and spies use the gear for surveillance. At Standing Rock, Quintin took out his software-defined radio, scanning for abnormal signals, and opened up an Android app known for spotting IMSI catchers. He didn’t get any hits. “I had no idea what I was doing,” said Quintin, a security researcher at the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation. He was using technology designed for […]

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Researchers uncover vulnerabilities in devices used at industrial facilities

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For the three Ukrainian power companies that suspected Russian hackers pried their way into in 2015, the pain wasn’t over when the attackers opened the companies’ circuit breakers and sent 225,000 people into darkness. The intruders also planted malicious code on key equipment at power substations, preventing engineers from remotely closing the circuit breakers and slowing the effort to restore power. The way the hackers blinded the Ukrainian power firms to their own operations is still studied by utilities around the world, and security specialists investigating critical electric equipment. A group of researchers at cybersecurity company Trend Micro on Wednesday added important data to those efforts by revealing multiple vulnerabilities in the same types of devices exploited by the Russians five years ago. By making their findings public, researchers are prompting organizations to further scrutinize the little black boxes that serve as translators on key networks. The research covered vendors in France, […]

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