Meltdown/Specter-based Malware Coming Soon to Devices Near You, Are You Ready?

It has been few weeks since the details of the Spectre, and Meltdown processor vulnerabilities came out in public and researchers have discovered more than 130 malware samples trying to exploit these chip flaws.

Spectre and Meltdown are security vulnerabilities disclosed by security researchers earlier this month in many processors from Intel, ARM and AMD used in modern PCs, servers and smartphones, among other devices.

These CPU vulnerabilities could enable attackers to bypass memory isolation mechanisms and access everything, including memory allocated for the kernel containing sensitive data like passwords, encryption keys and other private information.

Researchers from independent antivirus testing firm AV-TEST detected at least 139 malware samples, as of today, which are related to these CPU vulnerabilities, as shown in the growth graph.

You can find SHA256 hashes for all malware samples here.

Meanwhile, cybersecurity firm Fortinet also tracked and analyzed many malware samples 'trying to exploit' recently disclosed CPU vulnerabilities, most of which includes re-compiled or extended version of the JavaScript-based proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit released last month.

"The rate at which the cybercriminal community is targeting known vulnerabilities is clearly accelerating, with the WannaCry and NotPetya exploits serving as perfect examples of the need to patch vulnerable systems as soon as possible," Fortinet said.

"Which is why our concerns were raised when we recently learned about some of the largest vulnerabilities ever reported—ones that affect virtually every processor developed since 1995 by chip manufacturers Intel, AMD, and ARM."

Another news makes this situation, even more, worse—Intel halted all its CPU firmware patches for the Meltdown and Spectre flaws last week after it caused issues like spontaneous reboots and other 'unpredictable' system behaviour on affected PCs.

So, until Intel and other vendors do not come up with stable security patches for the Meltdown and Spectre attacks that don’t cause systems to break, users are recommended to keep their operating system, web browsers, antivirus and other software up-to-date.

Comments

iOS 11.3 coming this spring with battery and performance settings, ARKit 1.5, new Animoji

In a sign that Apple will continue to update iOS regularly instead of withholding features for its next major point-zero release, Apple on Wednesday revealed new features coming to an iOS 11.3 update this spring, including the ability to toggle the power management feature for iPhone models with aging batteries. Apple will implement new battery health information and the ability to customize power settings after it was revealed that the company throttles CPU performance on older devices where the battery is deteriorating. Apple's throttling is done to prevent random shutdowns of the device and ensure smooth operation, but some customers took offense to the fact that the slowdowns were occurring without transparency to the user. In a press release issued on Wednesday, Apple said that the iOS 11.3 update this fall will show battery health, and recommend to users if their battery needs to be serviced. The capabilities will be available for iPhone 6 and later. Users will...

[Guide] How to Protect Your Devices Against Meltdown and Spectre Attacks

Recently uncovered two huge processor vulnerabilities called Meltdown and Spectre have taken the whole world by storm, while vendors are rushing out to patch the vulnerabilities in its products. The issues apply to all modern processors and affect nearly all operating systems (Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, macOS, FreeBSD, and more), smartphones and other computing devices made in the past 20 years. What are Spectre and Meltdown? We have explained both, Meltdown (CVE-2017-5754) and Spectre (CVE-2017-5753, CVE-2017-5715), exploitation techniques in our previous article. In short, Spectre and Meltdown are the names of security vulnerabilities found in many processors from Intel, ARM and AMD that could allow attackers to steal your passwords, encryption keys and other private information. Both attacks abuse 'speculative execution' to access privileged memory—including those allocated for the kernel—from a low privileged user process like a malicious app running...

12 Android Oreo Hidden Features You Can Try

lthough I have a special place in my heart for this mobile operating system, I won’t say I am aware of every hidden Android feature that exists. But still, people who own a device want to explore it to the fullest. The same might go for most of the users. Being an owner of a Moto device, I am apparently deprived of the Android O update. But thanks to a friend of mine who lent me his expensive Pixel, I got to have a hand on the latest dessert from Google. Android’s most recent upgrade now runs on only 1.1% of Android devices worldwide, as per the numbers released by Google in February 2018. Certainly, it is an improvement over Nougat with features like Picture-in-Picture, system-wide autofill functionality, and Notifications improvements, and additional developments like Project Trebble. But people always have the urge find what they prefer to call hidden Android features. Personally, it has been hard for me to digest the term, as most of them are a few taps awa...

Tech Knock

Search This Blog