TALOS

Cisco Talos examined several frequently used code repositories. We looked specifically at the security afforded to developer accounts, and how difficult it would be for an attacker to take over a developer account.

By Jaeson Schultz. Over the past several years, high-profile software supply chain attacks have increased in frequency. These attacks can be difficult to detect and source code repositories became a key focus of this research. Developer account takeovers present a substantial risk to the software supply chain because attackers who successfully compromise a developer account could conceal malicious code in software packages used by others. Talos analyzed several of the major software repositories to assess the level of developer account security, focusing specifically on whether developer accounts could be recovered by re-registering expired domain names and triggering password resets. Many software repositories have already begun taking steps to enhance the security of developer accounts. Talos has identified additional areas where the security of developer accounts could be improved. Talos worked with vulnerable repositories to resolve issues that we found. Software supply chain att...

From the World Cup in Qatar to robotics manufacturing in east Asia, this incident responder combines experience from multiple arenas  By Jon Munshaw.  Yuri “Jerzy” Kramarz helped secure everything from the businesses supporting the upcoming World Cup in Qatar to the Black Hat security conference and critical national infrastructure.  He’s no stranger to cybersecurity on the big stage, but he still enjoys working with companies and organizations of all sizes in all parts of the world.  “What really excites me is making companies more secure,” he said in a recent interview. “That comes down to a couple things, but it’s really about putting a few solutions together at first and then hearing the customer’s feedback and building from there.”  Yuri is a senior incident response consultant with Cisco Talos Incident Response (CTIR) currently based in Qatar. He walks customers through various exercises, incident response plan creation, recovery in the event of a cyber attack and much more unde...

“You have completely different angles in preparing different customers for defense during major global events depending on their role, technology and function,” Kramarz said.

“You have completely different angles in preparing different customers for defense during major global events depending on their role, technology and function,” Kramarz said.

Cisco Talos has released new coverage to detect and prevent the exploitation of two recently disclosed vulnerabilities collectively referred to as "ProxyNotShell," affecting Microsoft Exchange Servers 2013, 2016 and 2019. One of these vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to execute remote code on the targeted server. Limited exploitation of these vulnerabilities in the wild has been reported. CVE-2022-41040 is a Server Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability, while CVE-2022-41082 enables Remote Code Execution (RCE) when PowerShell is accessible to the attackers. While no fixes or patches are available yet, Microsoft has provided mitigations for on-premises Microsoft Exchange users on Sept. 29, 2022. Even organizations that use Exchange Online may still be affected if they run a hybrid server. Cisco Talos is closely monitoring the recent reports of exploitation attempts against these vulnerabilities and strongly recommends users implement mitigation steps while waiting for securit...

Even organizations that use Exchange Online may still be affected if they run a hybrid server.

Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Sept. 23 and Sept. 30.

Today, Talos is publishing a glimpse into the most prevalent threats we've observed between Sept. 23 and Sept. 30. As with previous roundups, this post isn't meant to be an in-depth analysis. Instead, this post will summarize the threats we've observed by highlighting key behavioral characteristics, indicators of compromise, and discussing how our customers are automatically protected from these threats. As a reminder, the information provided for the following threats in this post is non-exhaustive and current as of the date of publication. Additionally, please keep in mind that IOC searching is only one part of threat hunting. Spotting a single IOC does not necessarily indicate maliciousness. Detection and coverage for the following threats is subject to updates, pending additional threat or vulnerability analysis. For the most current information, please refer to your Firepower Management Center, Snort.org, or ClamAV.net. For each threat described below, this blog post only lists...

By Jon Munshaw.  Welcome to this week’s edition of the Threat Source newsletter.  I’ve spent the past few months with my colleague Ashlee Benge looking at personal health apps’ privacy policies. We found several instances of apps that carry sensitive information stating they would share certain information with third-party advertisers and even law enforcement agencies, if necessary.  One of the most popular period-tracking apps on the Google Play store, Period Calendar Period Tracker, has a privacy policy that states it will "share information with law enforcement agencies, public authorities, or other organizations if We’re [sic] required by law to do so or if such use is reasonably necessary. We will carefully review all such requests to ensure that they have a legitimate basis and are limited to data that law enforcement is authorized to access for specific investigative purposes only."  A report from the Washington Post also released last week found that this app, as well...