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Android Vulnerability Traps Devices in 'Endless Reboot Loop'

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<a class="url entry-title" href="http://www.hackthesec.co.in/2015/08/android-vulnerability-traps-devices-in.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #3d5a99; display: block; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 48px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 10px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Android Vulnerability Traps Devices in 'Endless Reboot Loop'</a><br />
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Poor Android users are facing a terrible, horrible, and awful week.</div>
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Few days ago, Trend Micro security researchers uncovered a Android crashing vulnerability in the widely used mobile operating system, impacting the majority of Android devices in use.</div>
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The report follows another significant Stagefright vulnerability that was revealed by separate researchers, who warned that nearly 950 Million Android phones can be hijacked by sending a simple text message or via malicious Android app or specially crafted web pages.</div>
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EXPLOIT TO TRAP ANDROID DEVICES IN ENDLESS REBOOTS</h3>
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Now, the security researchers have discovered a dangerous security bug in the Android operating system that they claim can "brick" your phone, making it unresponsive and completely useless.</div>
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The new vulnerability,<i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> CVE-2015-3823</i>, can be exploited by potential hackers to cause your Android device to endless Reboot, and is similar to the Stagefright bug in that the flaw exists in the ‘mediaserver’ built-in program.</div>
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The vulnerability affects even more Android users. Nearly <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">90 percent of Android devices</i> running<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">versions 4.0.1 Jelly Bean to 5.1.1 Lollipop are vulnerable</i></b> to the latest security flaw, affecting every 9 out of 10 Active Android devices.</div>
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HOW ANDROID EXPLOIT WORKS?</h3>
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A Hacker can trigger endless reboots in two ways:</div>
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In either case, the attacker lure victims to play malformed media file (.MKV file) using the buggy ‘mediaserver’ plugin. This will cause the mediaserver function to fall into an endless loop beyond the user’s control, forcing the Android device to get slow down until it reboots… again and again.</div>
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"<i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The vulnerability is caused by an integer overflow in parsing MKV files</i>," mobile threat response engineer Wish Wu of Trend Micro wrote in a Monday <a href="http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/android-mediaserver-bug-traps-phones-in-endless-reboots/" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #3d5a99; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">blog post</a>. This "<i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">causes the device to fall into an endless loop when reading video frames.</i>"</blockquote>
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SMALL QUIRK TO GET RID OF THIS FLAW</h3>
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The firm reported the issue to Google, but the company is not taking it seriously, classifying it as a low-level vulnerability.</div>
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Until the official patch is delivered by Google, you can do a simple quirk if this bug hit your devices. All you need to do is reboot your devices in Safe Mode by holding the power button down and pressing Power Off option until you see the pop-up box asking you to restart in Safe Mode.</div>
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Safe Mode will disable all third-party apps and information, allowing you to continue using your Android devices until a patch is released.</div>
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Android Vulnerability Traps Devices in 'Endless Reboot Loop'

Android Vulnerability Traps Devices in 'Endless Reboot Loop' Poor Android users are facing a terrible, horrible, and awful week. ...

Thunderstrike 2: World's First Firmware Worm That Infects Mac Computers Without Detection Tuesday

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<a class="url entry-title" href="http://www.hackthesec.co.in/2015/08/thunderstrike-2-worlds-first-firmware.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; color: #3d5a99; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 48px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 10px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Thunderstrike 2: World's First Firmware Worm That Infects Mac Computers Without Detection</a></h1>
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If you think Apple’s Mac computers are much more secure than Windows-powered systems, you need to think again. This isn’t true, and security researchers have finally proved it.</div>
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Two security researchers have developed a proof-of-concept computer worm for the first time that can spread automatically between MacBooks, without any need for them to be networked.</div>
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Dubbed <b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thunderstrike 2</u></b>, the new proof-of-concept firmware attack is inspired by previously developed proof-of-concept firmware called Thunderstrike.</div>
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Thunderstrike Attack, developed by security engineer Trammell Hudson, actually took advantage of a<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">vulnerability in Thunderbolt Option ROM</i></b> that could be used to infect <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Apple Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI)</i> by allocating a malicious code into the boot ROM of an Apple computer through infected Thunderbolt devices.<br style="content: " "; display: block; margin: 20px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div>
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Thunderstrike 2 Spreads Remotely</h3>
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<br style="content: " "; display: block; margin: 20px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Although the original Thunderstrike required an attacker to have physical access to your Mac computer to work, the new attack can be spread remotely.</div>
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Thunderstrike 2 can be delivered via phishing emails, malicious Web site, as well as through a peripheral connected to the Ethernet port or USB.</div>
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After downloaded on a computer, Thunderstrike 2 can infect Thunderbolt-connected accessories that use Option ROM. After that, the malware can automatically spread to any Mac that you plug the accessory into.</div>
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Thunderstrike 2 is developed by two security researcher Trammell Hudson and Xeno Kovah of firmware security consultancy Legbacore. The researchers also demonstrated their attack, which you can watch in the video given below.<br style="content: " "; display: block; margin: 20px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></div>
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 Infects Mac Computers Without Detection</h3>
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Given the vicious worm, Thunderstrike 2, targets and lives in the firmware and can even evade a whole system reboot, it’s a real pain for the Mac users.</div>
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"<i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thunderstrike 2 is really hard to detect, it’s really hard to get rid of, and it’s really hard to protect against something that’s running inside the firmware,</i>" Kovah <a href="http://www.wired.com/2015/08/researchers-create-first-firmware-worm-attacks-macs/" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #3d5a99; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">told</a> Wired.</blockquote>
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Many of the firmware vulnerabilities discovered by the researchers to develop Thunderstrike 2 are common to most EFI firmware. A total of six vulnerabilities affected PCs from Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, and others.</div>
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Five firmware vulnerabilities also affected the Mac's firmware, and of those, Apple has fully patched one flaw, partially patched another, and failed to patch the rests.</div>
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The researchers plan to present their findings at the <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Black Hat</i> and <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Def Con security conferences</i> in Las Vegas this week.</div>
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Thunderstrike 2: World's First Firmware Worm That Infects Mac Computers Without Detection Tuesday

Thunderstrike 2: World's First Firmware Worm That Infects Mac Computers Without Detection If you think Apple’s Mac computers are muc...

Unpatched Mac OS X Zero-day Bug Allows Root Access Without Password Tuesday

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<a class="url entry-title" href="http://www.hackthesec.co.in/" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; color: #3d5a99; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 48px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 3px 10px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Unpatched Mac OS X Zero-day Bug Allows Root Access Without Password</a></h1>
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Hackers have their hands on something of your concern. A severe zero-day vulnerability in the latest, fully patched version of Apple's Mac OS X is reportedly being exploited in the wild by the hackers.</div>
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The vulnerability could allow attackers to install malware and adware onto a target Mac, running OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) operating system, <b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">without requiring victims to enter system passwords</i></b>, a new report says.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsBVlOYLMKaxy8UpuzuV4DkVXvT27G9-k-c1fvQu5tGRw7iHDO9CIoCxCnAVEKrEkGzTrEKKdC2oiJnbplaXPAvYfi8oAq-LsqVx18xk-DAWE98fm5tfCN6XCg-0bgc9vyaU1MU2IRvdOV/s1600/hacking-mac-os-x-root-password.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsBVlOYLMKaxy8UpuzuV4DkVXvT27G9-k-c1fvQu5tGRw7iHDO9CIoCxCnAVEKrEkGzTrEKKdC2oiJnbplaXPAvYfi8oAq-LsqVx18xk-DAWE98fm5tfCN6XCg-0bgc9vyaU1MU2IRvdOV/s1600/hacking-mac-os-x-root-password.jpg" /></a></div>
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The zero-day bug came over a week after security researcher Stefan Esser discovered a privilege escalation zero-day vulnerability in the latest version of Apple's OS X Yosemite that caused due to environment variable <b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">DYLD_PRINT_TO_FILE</i></b> and <b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">dynamic linker dyld</i></b>, new error-logging features added to the operating system.</div>
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The developers failed to implement standard safeguards that are needed while adding support for new environment variables to the OS X dynamic linker dyld, allowing hackers to create or modify files with root privileges that can fit anywhere in the Mac OS X file system.</div>
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OS X Zero-Day Exploit in the Wild</h3>
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Now, security researchers from anti-malware firm Malwarebytes spotted a malicious installer in the wild that was exploiting the zero-day vulnerability to infect Macs with different types of adware including<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">VSearch, MacKeeper</b> and<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Genieo</b>.</div>
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The issue actually resides in a hidden Unix file – <b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sudoers </b>– which is actually a list of files as to which software are allowed to get root permissions on a computer. However, a modification to the Sudoers allowed the installer to gain root level permissions without the need of password from an administrator.</div>
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The issue was discovered by <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Adam Thomas</i> while testing a new adware installer.</div>
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<i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"The script that exploits the DYLD_PRINT_TO_FILE vulnerability is written to a file and then executed,"</i> Malwarebytes researchers explains in a <a href="https://blog.malwarebytes.org/mac/2015/08/dyld_print_to_file-exploit-found-in-the-wild/" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #3d5a99; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">blog post</a>. <i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Part of the script involves deleting itself when it's finished."<br style="content: " "; display: block; margin: 20px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" />"The real meat of the script, though, involves modifying the Sudoers file. The change made by the script allows shell commands to be executed as root using sudo, without the usual requirement for entering a password."</i></blockquote>
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No Way Out for Mac Users</h3>
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The zero-day flaw <b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">affects both the current stable Mac version OS X 10.10</i></b> (build 10.10.4) and the<b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">recent Beta build OS X 10.10.5</i></b> (Yosemite).</div>
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Good news for Mac users who are running Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta builds, as it appears that they are not affected by the zero-day flaw.</div>
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Until Apple patches this critical issue, you don't have any good options to prevent a skilled hacker from installing malware on your Mac systems, beyond using a patch created by Esser himself, which can be downloaded from <a href="https://github.com/sektioneins/SUIDGuard" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; color: #3d5a99; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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No doubt, Esser is a respected security researcher, but installing a patch from a third party developer can be a risky. Therefore, we advise you to fully investigate the patch before installing.</div>
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