November 2, 2024 - Red Dot Security

Hello all,

Thankfully the US quadrennial election cycle is nearly finished. The incessant and continual droning of half-truths, outright lies, click-bait email and advertisements, deep-fakes, fear and doubt mongering, deceptive text messages, and just downright evil that has been so prevalent is alarming. And that’s just the threat actors that we in cyber security deal with on a regular basis. Don’t get me started on what we’ve witnessed because of the election! It will be a blissful relief to only deal with one assault on my sense of justice again. So, onward to the cyber security news.

As usual, my commentary is followed by a plethora of links to other items that are worth skimming to see if they interest you or pertain to your particular environment or of those you support.

Headline NEWS:

Apple has thrown down the gauntlet and has challenged hackers to break into their Private Cloud Compute (PCC) server, offering up a bounty of up to $1 million. While not exactly small-change, if Cupertino manages to withstand the inevitable greedy hordes, it will be a tremendous advertising victory for them. May the odds be ever in their favor!
Google patched a critical vulnerability in Chrome, that Apple told them about. Maybe Apple does have this security stuff figured out. Update your Google Chrome please.
CyberPanel a webhosting control panel was recently warned of a critical vulnerability. Within 30 minutes of being informed of the issue, a patch was made available. Unfortunately, someone leaked the details before CyberPanel users were able to be alerted about the need to patch. Subsequently, over 22,000 CyberPanel managed servers were ransomwared by some evil named PSAUX. Thankfully, for those affected, LeakIX has made a free decryptor available. See the article for more information.
PTZOptics cameras have patches available to plug two zero-days that were discovered via the use of AI vulnerability hunting software. They are being actively exploited, so if you have PTZOptics camera equipment, check yours for updates immediately.
QNAP and Synology both were recently successfully exploited in Ireland’s Pwn2Own. Both manufacturers have now released several updates to address vulnerabilities that were used and subsequently responsibly reported. At least one of these requires no clicks on the part of the intended target. If you use either, update as soon as is practical to avoid becoming a victim.
Windows Themes has another zero-day vulnerability which allows threat actors to steal NTLM credentials. This defect is not very difficult to exploit, but thankfully does require some user interaction to detonate. Hopefully, Microsoft will plug this hole in this month’s patch cycle.

In Ransomware, Malware, and Vulnerabilities News:

China is either ramping up their efforts to hack the planet, or security agencies are becoming more aware and better at detection. There are at least six different articles in this section reporting on and describing various nefarious activities of the Middle Kingdom and its denizens. Of course, they are not alone, Russia and DRPK are rather prominent as well this week.
Nvidia has released updates for some high-severity vulnerabilities in their GPU products. Update quickly if you rely on them.

In Other News Events of Note and Interest:

Google has been fined $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (that’s 20 decillion dollars) by Russia in fines for blocking their content. The blocking started in 2020, so the court imposed a fine of 100 thousand rubles ($1,025) per day, with the total fine doubling every week. The total amount owed now is more money than exists on the planet. Maybe they can write them a check?
Windows Server 2025 is here. On Saturday, Microsoft announced the General Availability of Windows Server 2025. There are a few known issues, so read the documentation before stepping out onto the bleeding edge of computing.

In Cyber Insurance News:

Cyber Insurance and Deepfakes reports on what this phenomenon is (if you didn’t already know) and the implications and potential impacts on both the insured and insurance companies. The article advises the insured to “…clarify that their coverage does extend to these types of risks, and that the types of claims that arise shouldn’t be excluded by the fact that some kind of AI tool was used to propagate them…”

Musings:

As mentioned earlier, the US quadrennial election is nearly over. No matter which political party prevails, there will be a new US President taking office in a few months. There will be change. However, our job as cyber defenders does not change with the election cycle or political winds. It remains the same; be vigilant, safeguard our networks, our people, and to keep the shields up!

Headline NEWS

Ransomware, Malware, and Vulnerabilities News

Other News Events of Note and Interest

Cyber Insurance News

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