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Category: cybercrime/malcode – Page 139

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Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has made its hardware vulnerability disclosure platform for white-hat hackers open source.

The platform, known as Finding Exploits to Thwart Tampering (FETT), was first launched last year, and the agency hopes that moving to an open-source structure will help ethical hackers to spot flaws with chip design and aid the creation of new processor prototypes.

The system virtualizes hardware and firmware, giving hackers a full range of access to chip designs before they are produced and installed into agency systems.

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A recent security report states that it is possible to hijack sessions on Google Compute Engine virtual machines to gain root access through a DHCP attack. While deploying this attack is impractical, an exploit attempt can be highly functional.

The report, published on GitHub, mentions that a threat actor could allow threat actors to take control of virtual machines because these deployments rely on ISC DHCP software, which employs a very weak random number generator. A successful attack clutters these virtual machines with DHCP traffic, forcing the use of a fake metadata server controlled by an attacker.

If the attack is successful, the virtual machine uses the unauthorized server for its configuration instead of an official Google one, which would allow cybercriminals to log in to the affected device with root access.

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In some cases, chain reactions fed more widespread disruption.

The Swedish Coop grocery store chain had to close hundreds of stores on Saturday because its cash registers are run by Visma Esscom, which manages servers for a number of Swedish businesses and in turn uses Kaseya.

Brett Callow, a ransomware expert at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, said he was unaware of any previous ransomware supply-chain attack on this scale.

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https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQfV2_sROBw&feature=share

On June 25, 2021 NASA published detail description of future missions for Ingenuity Mars Helicopter considering 2nd software update because of HD imaging issue. Ingenuity’s team determined that capturing color images may have been inducing the imaging pipeline glitch, which resulted in the instability (Flight 6 anomaly). So Mars Helicopter needs 2nd software update to make thing going well within upcoming 9th flight. Ingenuity’s first bug was solved by software update (watchdog timer issue). Another software update for Mars Helicopter is intended to return ability to make 13 Megapixels photos on mars without flight anomalies for Ingenuity. Last week Mars Helicopter completed 8th flight on flying to 160 meters South and Perseverance goes to new location SĂ©Ă­tah as well. Black and white images are from Ingenuity’s onboard camera directly. Mars Helicopter flew for 77.4 seconds. Maximal horizontal speed was 4 meters per second. Altitude was 10 meters. Ingenuity made amazing work to live on Mars autonomously.

Credit: nasa.gov, NASA/JPL-Caltech, NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Link to Ingenuity’s 9th flight preparation with 2nd software update: https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/308/fligh
ext-steps/

#mars #ingenuity #helicopter

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Businesses around the world rushed Saturday to contain a ransomware attack that has paralyzed their computer networks, a situation complicated in the U.S. by offices lightly staffed at the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

It’s not yet known how many organizations have been hit by demands that they pay a ransom in order to get their systems working again. But some cybersecurity researchers predict the attack targeting customers of software supplier Kaseya could be one of the broadest ransomware attacks on record.

It follows a scourge of headline-grabbing attacks over recent months that have been a source of diplomatic tension between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin over whether Russia has become a safe haven for cybercriminal gangs.

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Answer.

Financially motivated cybercriminals are increasingly turning to Cobalt Stike, a legitimate tool that cybersecurity professionals use to test system security, researchers at Proofpoint found.

The cybersecurity firm declined to disclose specific numbers but reported a 161% increase in attacks using Cobalt Strike in 2020 compared to 2019. Proofpoint researchers have already seen tens of thousands of organizations targeted by the tool this year and expect those numbers to climb in 2021, according to the report the firm released Tuesday.

Threat groups are able to get ahold of the tool from pirated versions circulating the dark web, according to Sherrod DeGrippo, senior director of threat research and detection at Proofpoint.

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