Apple Security Advisory 11-19-2024-4 - iOS 17.7.2 and iPadOS 17.7.2 addresses code execution vulnerabilities.

    -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----Hash: SHA256APPLE-SA-11-19-2024-4 iOS 17.7.2 and iPadOS 17.7.2iOS 17.7.2 and iPadOS 17.7.2 addresses the following issues.Information about the security content is also available athttps://support.apple.com/121754.Apple maintains a Security Releases page athttps://support.apple.com/100100 which lists recentsoftware updates with security advisories.JavaScriptCoreAvailable for: iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch2nd generation and later, iPad Pro 10.5-inch, iPad Pro 11-inch 1stgeneration and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 6thgeneration and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and laterImpact: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrarycode execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have beenactively exploited on Intel-based Mac systems.Description: The issue was addressed with improved checks.WebKit Bugzilla: 283063CVE-2024-44308: Clément Lecigne and Benoît Sevens of Google's ThreatAnalysis GroupWebKitAvailable for: iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch2nd generation and later, iPad Pro 10.5-inch, iPad Pro 11-inch 1stgeneration and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 6thgeneration and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and laterImpact: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to a crosssite scripting attack. Apple is aware of a report that this issue mayhave been actively exploited on Intel-based Mac systems.Description: A cookie management issue was addressed with improved statemanagement.WebKit Bugzilla: 283095CVE-2024-44309: Clément Lecigne and Benoît Sevens of Google's ThreatAnalysis GroupThis update is available through iTunes and Software Update on youriOS device, and will not appear in your computer's Software Updateapplication, or in the Apple Downloads site. Make sure you have anInternet connection and have installed the latest version of iTunesfrom https://www.apple.com/itunes/iTunes and Software Update on the device will automatically checkApple's update server on its weekly schedule. When an update isdetected, it is downloaded and the option to be installed ispresented to the user when the iOS device is docked. We recommendapplying the update immediately if possible. SelectingDon't Install will present the option the next time you connectyour iOS device.The automatic update process may take up to a week depending onthe day that iTunes or the device checks for updates. You maymanually obtain the update via the Check for Updates buttonwithin iTunes, or the Software Update on your device.To check that the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad has been updated:* Navigate to Settings* Select General* Select About. The version after applying this update will be"iOS 17.7.2 and iPadOS 17.7.2".All information is also posted on the Apple Security Releasesweb site: https://support.apple.com/100100.This message is signed with Apple's Product Security PGP key,and details are available at:https://www.apple.com/support/security/pgp/-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----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+VKC-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Apple Security Advisory 11-19-2024-4

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-9689-03 - An update for binutils is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. Issues addressed include a buffer overflow vulnerability.

    The following advisory data is extracted from:https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/advisories/2024/rhsa-2024_9689.jsonRed Hat officially shut down their mailing list notifications October 10, 2023.  Due to this, Packet Storm has recreated the below data as a reference point to raise awareness.  It must be noted that due to an inability to easily track revision updates without crawling Red Hat's archive, these advisories are single notifications and we strongly suggest that you visit the Red Hat provided links to ensure you have the latest information available if the subject matter listed pertains to your environment.- Packet Storm Staff====================================================================Red Hat Security AdvisorySynopsis:           Low: binutils security updateAdvisory ID:        RHSA-2024:9689-03Product:            Red Hat Enterprise LinuxAdvisory URL:       https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:9689Issue date:         2024-11-21Revision:           03CVE Names:          CVE-2018-12699====================================================================Summary: An update for binutils is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Low. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.Description:The binutils packages provide a collection of binary utilities for the manipulation of object code in various object file formats. It includes the ar, as, gprof, ld, nm, objcopy, objdump, ranlib, readelf, size, strings, strip, and addr2line utilities.Security Fix(es):* binutils: heap-based buffer overflow in finish_stab in stabs.c (CVE-2018-12699)For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, acknowledgments, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.Solution:https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258CVEs:CVE-2018-12699References:https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#lowhttps://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1595427

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-9689-03

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-9679-03 - An update for webkit2gtk3 is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Telecommunications Update Service, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Update Services for SAP Solutions. Issues addressed include code execution, out of bounds read, and use-after-free vulnerabilities.

The following advisory data is extracted from:

https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/advisories/2024/rhsa-2024_9679.json

Red Hat officially shut down their mailing list notifications October 10, 2023.  Due to this, Packet Storm has recreated the below data as a reference point to raise awareness.  It must be noted that due to an inability to easily track revision updates without crawling Red Hat's archive, these advisories are single notifications and we strongly suggest that you visit the Red Hat provided links to ensure you have the latest information available if the subject matter listed pertains to your environment.

- Packet Storm Staff

====================================================================  
Red Hat Security Advisory

Synopsis:           Important: webkit2gtk3 security update  
Advisory ID:        RHSA-2024:9679-03  
Product:            Red Hat Enterprise Linux  
Advisory URL:       https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:9679  
Issue date:         2024-11-21  
Revision:           03  
CVE Names:          CVE-2022-32885  
====================================================================

Summary: 

An update for webkit2gtk3 is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Telecommunications Update Service, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Update Services for SAP Solutions.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.

Description:

WebKitGTK is the port of the portable web rendering engine WebKit to the GTK platform.

Security Fix(es):

* webkitgtk: Memory corruption issue when processing web content (CVE-2022-32885)

* webkitgtk: arbitrary javascript code execution (CVE-2023-40397)

* webkitgtk: Arbitrary Remote Code Execution (CVE-2023-42917)

* webkitgtk: type confusion may lead to arbitrary code execution (CVE-2024-23222)

* webkitgtk: Processing web content may lead to arbitrary code execution (CVE-2023-42852)

* chromium-browser: Use after free in ANGLE (CVE-2024-4558)

* webkitgtk: webkit2gtk: Use after free may lead to Remote Code Execution (CVE-2024-40776)

* webkitgtk: webkit2gtk: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected process crash (CVE-2024-40789)

* webkitgtk: webkit2gtk: Out-of-bounds read was addressed with improved bounds checking (CVE-2024-40780)

* webkitgtk: webkit2gtk: Out-of-bounds read was addressed with improved bounds checking (CVE-2024-40779)

* webkitgtk: webkit2gtk: Use-after-free was addressed with improved memory management (CVE-2024-40782)

* webkitgtk: Processing web content may lead to arbitrary code execution (CVE-2024-27808)

* webkitgtk: Processing web content may lead to arbitrary code execution (CVE-2024-27820)

* webkitgtk: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution (CVE-2024-27833)

* webkitgtk: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution (CVE-2024-27851)

* webkitgtk: webkit2gtk: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected process crash (CVE-2024-44185)

* webkitgtk: webkit2gtk: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to an unexpected process crash (CVE-2024-44244)

For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, acknowledgments, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.

Solution:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

CVEs:

CVE-2022-32885

References:

https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#important  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2236842  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2238945  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2253058  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2259893  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2271456  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2279689  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2301841  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2302067  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2302069  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2302070  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2302071  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2314697  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2314698  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2314700  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2314704  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2323263  
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2323278

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-9679-03

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-9678-03 - An update for squid is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 Extended Update Support. Issues addressed include a denial of service vulnerability.

    The following advisory data is extracted from:https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/advisories/2024/rhsa-2024_9678.jsonRed Hat officially shut down their mailing list notifications October 10, 2023.  Due to this, Packet Storm has recreated the below data as a reference point to raise awareness.  It must be noted that due to an inability to easily track revision updates without crawling Red Hat's archive, these advisories are single notifications and we strongly suggest that you visit the Red Hat provided links to ensure you have the latest information available if the subject matter listed pertains to your environment.- Packet Storm Staff====================================================================Red Hat Security AdvisorySynopsis:           Important: squid security updateAdvisory ID:        RHSA-2024:9678-03Product:            Red Hat Enterprise LinuxAdvisory URL:       https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:9678Issue date:         2024-11-21Revision:           03CVE Names:          CVE-2024-45802====================================================================Summary: An update for squid is now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 Extended Update Support.Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having a security impact of Important. A Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base score, which gives a detailed severity rating, is available for each vulnerability from the CVE link(s) in the References section.Description:Squid is a high-performance proxy caching server for web clients, supporting FTP, Gopher, and HTTP data objects.Security Fix(es):* squid: Denial of Service processing ESI response content (CVE-2024-45802)For more details about the security issue(s), including the impact, a CVSS score, acknowledgments, and other related information, refer to the CVE page(s) listed in the References section.Solution:https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258CVEs:CVE-2024-45802References:https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#importanthttps://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2322154

Red Hat Security Advisory 2024-9678-03

Apple Security Advisory 11-19-2024-3 - iOS 18.1.1 and iPadOS 18.1.1 addresses code execution vulnerabilities.

    -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----Hash: SHA256APPLE-SA-11-19-2024-3 iOS 18.1.1 and iPadOS 18.1.1iOS 18.1.1 and iPadOS 18.1.1 addresses the following issues.Information about the security content is also available athttps://support.apple.com/121752.Apple maintains a Security Releases page athttps://support.apple.com/100100 which lists recentsoftware updates with security advisories.JavaScriptCoreAvailable for: iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch3rd generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later,iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 7th generation and later, andiPad mini 5th generation and laterImpact: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrarycode execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have beenactively exploited on Intel-based Mac systems.Description: The issue was addressed with improved checks.WebKit Bugzilla: 283063CVE-2024-44308: Clément Lecigne and Benoît Sevens of Google's ThreatAnalysis GroupWebKitAvailable for: iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch3rd generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later,iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 7th generation and later, andiPad mini 5th generation and laterImpact: Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to a crosssite scripting attack. Apple is aware of a report that this issue mayhave been actively exploited on Intel-based Mac systems.Description: A cookie management issue was addressed with improved statemanagement.WebKit Bugzilla: 283095CVE-2024-44309: Clément Lecigne and Benoît Sevens of Google's ThreatAnalysis GroupThis update is available through iTunes and Software Update on youriOS device, and will not appear in your computer's Software Updateapplication, or in the Apple Downloads site. Make sure you have anInternet connection and have installed the latest version of iTunesfrom https://www.apple.com/itunes/iTunes and Software Update on the device will automatically checkApple's update server on its weekly schedule. When an update isdetected, it is downloaded and the option to be installed ispresented to the user when the iOS device is docked. We recommendapplying the update immediately if possible. SelectingDon't Install will present the option the next time you connectyour iOS device.The automatic update process may take up to a week depending onthe day that iTunes or the device checks for updates. You maymanually obtain the update via the Check for Updates buttonwithin iTunes, or the Software Update on your device.To check that the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad has been updated:* Navigate to Settings* Select General* Select About. The version after applying this update will be"iOS 18.1.1 and iPadOS 18.1.1".All information is also posted on the Apple Security Releasesweb site: https://support.apple.com/100100.This message is signed with Apple's Product Security PGP key,and details are available at:https://www.apple.com/support/security/pgp/-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----iQIzBAEBCAAdFiEEsz9altA7uTI+rE/qX+5d1TXaIvoFAmc9JA8ACgkQX+5d1TXaIvrGzw/+PXf2fGgzCN5of6OYK0sWiJRRLZoL0uSZ9dOaD7I0/CyAx91Mv4OyH9Vveo9k84ZABNk4IO401WWLM8XSRSVILTcskT+SdXZrtOMYvmtUHUPKI35OWf1GBFdkgfnnFSRYf/B+WWb4PV0iO01lyFQVU5qDLcrUCAUQLwighfAX2yEn+Zml3NX6i2E5o2Rhc93Nac5a2cIcOGOSKrwsor0sh8NkAl9DcyPW6i6K3t59lUjiUY9XZQtEi6AyrChA84mo6Hb8wLwVIY17b8LVuruOSn3xg+Cc5eO5bOXp1O5lnR3dhuiZ2bl5BKawrp8+MDRsBZuTPS0k2Di3rmzuZ/GnvaQdtQKhcbOQ7tWW6evk/8TnFwlULaCr26OVbuLj0NWJ7GJYWpPuRWO0lFy9z9Fjdk4n+ptA7qmSWrhbdl+/uwUxJA5X58pVRWeWBExGP3S/ST/5YgAfZXBjHuDLiHKMOtQ3PktaMuEWhLFgGXNllXGQDihL4lS/XUQ1/E+mpWyY+kAbjtmCYlpez5MgeLkVv66yEWhOhsBMNIM+jkkRjktJo2SfhJMSryNLQlY37zn/VWf8Av+L60YoZhoMmx7DJLIr+HI257zbIE35CVZ+badn18d3eA+fq3RPtsDD8nlUePyZeNhEvc30Y5hXsIyK+Z0Ny+JgJfP1E6BeAJjjci0==ifwz-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Apple Security Advisory 11-19-2024-3

Building on its broad security portfolio, Microsoft's new exposure management is now available in the Microsoft Defender portal, with third-party-connectors on the way.

Source: Wavebreak Media ltd via Alamy Stock Photo

Microsoft is the latest big name to add continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) to its formidable security portfolio with the release of its new Microsoft Security Exposure Management offering. Microsoft made the announcement at its annual Microsoft Ignite conference this week.

Security experts describe CTEM, or proactive exposure management, as a programmatic and unified approach to detecting and mitigating threats. Gartner predicts that by 2026, organizations that embrace CTEM will see two-thirds fewer breaches.

Enterprise Strategy Group principal analyst Tyler Shields describes exposure management as the next iteration of vulnerability management.

"It's centered on the overlap of continuous asset discovery and management, threat and exposure analysis, and vulnerability discovery," Shields says. "If you can understand the assets you have, the state they are in, the vulnerabilities that exist, and the active threats against them, you are all prepared to secure your environment."

Microsoft initially introduced Security Exposure Management in March as a technical preview. It is now available in the Microsoft Defender portal, included with its E5 licenses, and as an option for various other Microsoft 365 licenses.

**Unified Views of Attack Surfaces**

With its entry, Microsoft seeks to enable defenders to prevent successful attacks by providing comprehensive and unified views of their organizations' broad attack surfaces, allowing them to take a more proactive approach to identifying and mitigating threats.

"Exposure management is critical for enabling teams to understand the posture of the organization, and it helps security teams see all the potential attack paths to critical assets as if they were looking through it, through the eyes of the attacker," said Vasu Jakkal, Microsoft's corporate VP for compliance, identity management, during the opening session at Ignite, which took place in Chicago.

The tooling is designed to identify attack paths and evaluate vulnerabilities in the context of an organization's critical assets in a more proactive and expansive manner than traditional vulnerability and threat detection offerings. Security Exposure Management uses Microsoft's new exposure graph APIs to identify attack paths and evaluate vulnerabilities in the context of critical assets.

Analysts say Microsoft's entry is poised to reshape the competitive environment of exposure management solutions offered by Cisco/Splunk, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks Rapid7, Tenable, Trend Micro, and Wiz, as well as various others that provide more specialized capabilities.

"Exposure management is becoming an incredibly competitive market, and Microsoft is demonstrating that it wants to be a leader in this space," says Omdia principal analyst Andrew Braunberg.

Adds Forrester senior analyst Erik Nost, since Microsoft is initially allowing access to exposure management through a variety of licensing options, customers will have widespread access to insights.

"The data Microsoft possesses on existing customer environments without needing to ingest third-party data is the biggest opportunity for Microsoft to set it apart from competitors," Nost says. "Microsoft is building a platform that integrates a very broad set of security posture management telemetry."

**Building an Ecosystem of External Connections**

While the initial release is available and included with various Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Defender licenses and will ingest telemetry from those offerings, Microsoft announced it will enable integration with competing external third-party tools, including Qualys, Rapid7, Tenable, and ServiceNow's CMDB.

Microsoft released public preview versions of its third-party connectors, slated to become generally available next quarter.

Unlike Microsoft telemetry, which customers can ingest at no additional cost, they will incur charges to gather data from external sources, said Microsoft product director Brjann Brekkan, during a session on security exposure management at Ignite.

"We don't own that data," Brekkan explained. "We need to charge a little bit of cost to bring that third-party signal in, to attach those new data points from those services as well. But this is there for you to unify your data."

Security Exposure Management collects data through these connectors and normalizes it through its exposure graph, which maps relationships and exposes new attack paths. In a blog post, Brekkan said this provides "comprehensive attack surface visibility."

Microsoft exposure management also provides insights on the most critical assets, Internet exposure, and context related to business applications incorporated from the connected tools. Customers can view the integrated data, which can be visualized through the Attack Map tool or analyzed using advanced hunting queries via KQL (Kusto Query Language), Microsoft's Azure-based tool designed to identify anomalies in large data sets.

The offering now consists of three primary tools:

*   Attack Surface Management: Defenders have access to continuous views of their organization's attack surface. Notably, the tool identifies the most critical assets and those that are the prime targets of attackers
    
*   Attack Path Analysis: Security teams can visualize and prioritize high-risk attack paths, particularly those targeting those critical assets
    
*   Unified Exposure Insights: Administrators can view their organization's threat exposure, allowing them to prioritize risks and tie remediation priorities with business imperatives.
    

Omdia's Braunberg says it remains to be seen how many customers will build their exposure management strategies around Microsoft's offering, it is likely many will evaluate it, especially considering its potentially low cost.

"As per Microsoft's usual playbook, exposure management is attractive because it pulls together a lot of existing Microsoft functionality into an integrated solution with small incremental costs," he says.

**About the Author**

Jeffrey Schwartz is a journalist who has covered information security and all forms of business and enterprise IT, including client computing, data center and cloud infrastructure, and application development for more than 30 years. Jeff is a regular contributor to Channel Futures. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of Redmond magazine and contributed to its sister titles Redmond Channel Partner, Application Development Trends, and Virtualization Review. Earlier, he held editorial roles with CommunicationsWeek, InternetWeek, and VARBusiness. Jeff is based in the New York City suburb of Long Island.

Microsoft Highlights Security Exposure Management at Ignite

In a first, Russia's APT28 hacking group appears to have remotely breached the Wi-Fi of an espionage target by hijacking a laptop in another building across the street.

For determined hackers, sitting in a car outside a target's building and using radio equipment to breach its Wi-Fi network has long been an effective but risky technique. These risks became all too clear when spies working for Russia's GRU military intelligence agency were caught red-handed on a city street in the Netherlands in 2018 using an antenna hidden in their car's trunk to try to hack into the Wi-Fi of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Since that incident, however, that same unit of Russian military hackers appears to have developed a new and far safer Wi-Fi hacking technique: Instead of venturing into radio range of their target, they found another vulnerable network in a building across the street, remotely hacked into a laptop in that neighboring building, and used that computer's antenna to break into the Wi-Fi network of their intended victim—a radio-hacking trick that never even required leaving Russian soil.

At the Cyberwarcon security conference in Arlington, Virginia, today, cybersecurity researcher Steven Adair will reveal how his firm, Volexity, discovered that unprecedented Wi-Fi hacking technique—what the firm is calling a “nearest neighbor attack"—while investigating a network breach targeting a customer in Washington, DC, in 2022. Volexity, which declined to name its DC customer, has since tied the breach to the Russian hacker group known as Fancy Bear, APT28, or Unit 26165. Part of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency, the group has been involved in notorious cases ranging from the breach of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 to the botched Wi-Fi hacking operation in which four of its members were arrested in the Netherlands in 2018.

In this newly revealed case from early 2022, Volexity ultimately discovered not only that the Russian hackers had jumped to the target network via Wi-Fi from a different compromised network across the street, but also that this prior breach had _also_ potentially been carried out over Wi-Fi from yet another network in the same building—a kind of “daisy-chaining” of network breaches via Wi-Fi, as Adair describes it.

“This is the first case we’ve worked where you have an attacker that’s extremely far away and essentially broke into other organizations in the US in physical proximity to the intended target, then pivoted over Wi-Fi to get into the target network across the street,” says Adair. “That’s a really interesting attack vector that we haven’t seen before.”

A slide describing the “nearest neighbor attack” that Russian hackers used to breach a DC network via Wi-Fi, from the Cyberwarcon presentation of Volexity founder Steven Adair.

Illustration: Volexity

Based on the hackers' targeting of individuals within their customer's network, Adair says that the GRU hackers appear to have been seeking intelligence about Ukraine. It's no coincidence, he says, that the daisy-chained Wi-Fi-based intrusion was carried out in the months just before and after Russia's initial full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Adair argues, though, that the case should serve as a broader warning about cybersecurity threats to Wi-Fi for high-value targets—and not just from the usual suspects loitering in the parking lot or the lobby. “Now we know that a motivated nation-state is doing this and has done it,” says Adair, “It puts on the radar that Wi-Fi security has to be ramped up a good bit.” He suggests organizations that might be the target of similar remote Wi-Fi attacks consider limiting the range of their Wi-Fi, changing the network's name to make it less obvious to potential intruders, or introducing other authentication security measures to limit access to employees.

Adair says that Volexity first began investigating the breach of its DC customer's network in the first months of 2022, when the company saw signs of repeated intrusions into the customer's systems by hackers who had carefully covered their tracks. Volexity's analysts eventually traced the compromise to a hijacked user's account connecting to a Wi-Fi access point in a far end of the building, in a conference room with external-facing windows. Adair says he personally scoured the area looking for the source of that connection. “I went there to physically run down what it could be. We looked at smart TVs, looked for devices in closets. Is someone in the parking lot? Is it a printer?” he says. “We came up dry.”

Only after the next intrusion, when Volexity managed to get more complete logs of the hackers' traffic, did its analysts solve the mystery: The company found that the hijacked machine which the hackers were using to dig around in its customer's systems was leaking the name of the domain on which it was hosted—in fact, the name of another organization just across the road. “At that point, it was 100 percent clear where it was coming from,” Adair says. “It's not a car in the street. It's the building next door.”

With the cooperation of that neighbor, Volexity investigated that second organization's network and found that a certain laptop was the source of the street-jumping Wi-Fi intrusion. The hackers had penetrated that device, which was plugged into a dock connected to the local network via Ethernet, and then switched on its Wi-Fi, allowing it to act as a radio-based relay into the target network. Volexity found that, to break into that target's Wi-Fi, the hackers had used credentials they'd somehow obtained online but had apparently been unable to exploit elsewhere, likely due to two-factor authentication.

Volexity eventually tracked the hackers on that second network to two possible points of intrusion. The hackers appeared to have compromised a VPN appliance owned by the other organization. But they had also broken into the organization's Wi-Fi from _another_ network's devices in the same building, suggesting that the hackers may have daisy-chained as many as three networks via Wi-Fi to reach their final target. “Who knows how many devices or networks they compromised and were doing this on,” says Adair.

In fact, even after Volexity evicted the hackers from their customer's network, the hackers tried again that spring to break in via Wi-Fi, this time attempting to access resources that were shared on the guest Wi-Fi network. “These guys were super persistent,” says Adair. He says that Volexity was able to detect this next breach attempt, however, and quickly lock out the intruders.

Volexity had presumed early on in its investigation that the hackers were Russian in origin due to their targeting of individual staffers at the customer organization focused on Ukraine. Then in April, fully two years after the original intrusion, Microsoft warned of a vulnerability in Windows' print spooler that had been used by Russia's APT28 hacker group—Microsoft refers to the group as Forest Blizzard—to gain administrative privileges on target machines. Remnants left behind on the very first computer Volexity had analyzed in the Wi-Fi-based breach of its customer exactly matched that technique. “It was an exact one-to-one match,” Adair says.

The notion that APT28 would be behind the daisy-chained Wi-Fi hacking makes sense, says John Hultquist, the founder of Cyberwarcon who also leads threat intelligence at Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant and has long tracked the GRU hackers. He sees the technique Volexity uncovered as the natural evolution of APT28's “close-access” hacking methods, in which the GRU has sent small traveling teams in person to hack into target networks via Wi-Fi if other methods failed.

“This is essentially a close-access op like they’ve done in the past, but without the close access,” Hultquist says.

The switch to hacking via Wi-Fi from a remotely compromised device rather than physically placing a spy nearby represents a logical next step following the GRU's operational security disaster in 2018, when its hackers were caught in a car in The Hague attempting to hack the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in response to the OPCW's investigation of the attempted assassination of GRU defector Sergei Skripal. In that incident, the APT28 team was arrested and their devices were seized, revealing their travel around the world from Brazil to Malaysia to carry out similar close-access attacks.

“If a target is important enough, they’re willing to send people in person. But you don’t have to do that if you can come up with an alternative like what we’re seeing here,” Hultquist says. “This is potentially a major improvement for those operations, and it’s something we’ll probably see more of—if we haven’t already.”

Russian Spies Jumped From One Network to Another Via Wi-Fi in an Unprecedented Hack

Threat actors with ties to Russia have been linked to a cyber espionage campaign aimed at organizations in Central Asia, East Asia, and Europe.
Recorded Future's Insikt Group, which has assigned the activity cluster the name TAG-110, said it overlaps with a threat group tracked by the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) as UAC-0063, which, in turn, overlaps with APT28. The

Russian Hackers Deploy HATVIBE and CHERRYSPY Malware Across Europe and Asia

Malware bypasses Microsoft Defender and 2FA, stealing $24K in cryptocurrency via a fake NFT game app. Learn how…

Malware bypasses Microsoft Defender and 2FA, stealing $24K in cryptocurrency via a fake NFT game app. Learn how it compromised devices and evaded security.

Cybersecurity researchers at SafetyDetectives revealed that Microsoft Defender, the default Windows antivirus, was deceived by malware, enabling the theft of cryptocurrency from an unsuspecting user. The issue was uncovered during the analysis of a seemingly harmless NFT game app, which was actually designed to steal cryptocurrency.

The application also compromised the device by bypassing **Google’s two-factor authentication** and stole over $24,000 in cryptocurrency. According to researchers, the malware, once installed, quietly operates in the background, gathering sensitive information and may even hijack the user’s Google account, which is protected by two-factor authentication (2FA). It achieves this by installing a malicious Chrome extension disguised as Google Keep, bypassing the 2FA security measures.

During the investigation, SafetyDetectives’ team tested Microsoft Defender against the malware-laced app, using Wireshark to monitor network traffic and detect the malware’s location.

Surprisingly, Microsoft Defender failed to stop the virus during its installation and execution, allowing the malware to gain access to system operations, download suspicious files, collect sensitive information, and even determine the user’s location.

The malware was programmed to shut down if the user was in Russia, Ukraine, or Belarus, likely due to its origin. The **fake Chrome extension** enabled the malware to access every website visited, steal login data, and monitor anything copied from the browser. The virus collected everything necessary to remotely control the system, and Microsoft Defender didn’t send an alert.

****Bitdefender and Malwarebytes to the Rescue****

To assess the effectiveness of other antivirus solutions, the team also tested Malwarebytes and Bitdefender. While neither antivirus was able to prevent the initial installation, they did intervene at later stages of the attack. Bitdefender blocked the malware’s attempt to access critical information, while Malwarebytes prevented the installation altogether. 

“While Malwarebytes stopped the breach faster than Bitdefender, neither is inherently better in dealing with this specific malware, as both were able to prevent critical compromise. Bitdefender may even have the benefit of having fewer false positives,” they explained in the **blog post**.

It could be that in recent years, Microsoft Exchange Server has been targeted by a **series** of zero-day vulnerabilities, some of which could have impacted Microsoft Defender’s ability to protect systems. Or supply chain attacks, like the **SolarWinds hack**, can compromise software updates and tools, potentially affecting the integrity of security solutions like Microsoft Defender.

Nevertheless, the investigation emphasizes the importance of investing in stronger antivirus software and exercising caution when downloading and installing applications, especially from unverified sources. Staying informed about cyber threats and taking proactive measures can significantly reduce the risk of malicious attacks.

1.  Microsoft Defender Flags Tor Browser as Malware
2.  Fake ChatGPT Extension Hijacks Facebook Accounts
3.  Malicious Extensions Bypass Google’s MV3 Restrictions
4.  Fake Sites Spread Malware as Malwarebytes, Bitdefender
5.  Phemedrone Exploits Windows Defender SmartScreen Flaw

Malware Bypasses Microsoft Defender and 2FA to Steal $24K in Crypto

Google Workspace has quickly become the productivity backbone for businesses worldwide, offering an all-in-one suite with email, cloud storage and collaboration tools. This single-platform approach makes it easy for teams to connect and work efficiently, no matter where they are, enabling seamless digital transformation that’s both scalable and adaptable.
As companies shift from traditional,

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