A US federal agency was successfully targeted by a previously unknown backdoor malware called Firestarter, according to CISA cybersnoops and their UK counterparts – neither of which disclosed the agency’s name.
Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies include NASA; Homeland Security itself (cyberworkers at CISA are part of an operational unit in Homeland Security); the FBI; the DoJ; the IRS; the Department of Veteran Affairs; the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); and more. Described as a backdoor with remote access capabilities, Firestarter was named after Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD), the two products the malware targeted.
Read more…
Source: The Register News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Open Source Vulnerabilities Converging DevOps & SecOps
May 20, 2021
Workplace evolution is in favor of traditional siloes being torn down and replaced with increased cross-functional collaboration, working in lockstep to deliver better outcomes. But it is not as easy as it sounds. Security and development teams have historically worked in siloes, which has created a long- standing disconnect between them. Both teams are responsible for ...
- Hackers scan for vulnerable devices minutes after bug disclosure
May 19, 2021
Every hour, a threat actor starts a new scan on the public web for vulnerable systems, moving at a quicker pace than global enterprises when trying to identify serious vulnerabilities on their networks. The adversaries’ efforts increase significantly when critical vulnerabilities emerge, with new internet-wide scans happening within minutes from the disclosure. Read more… Source: Bleeping Computer
- Windows PoC Exploit Released for Wormable RCE
May 19, 2021
A researcher has released a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit for CVE-2021-31166, a use-after-free, highly critical vulnerability in the HTTP protocol stack (http.sys) that could lead to wormable remote code execution (RCE). Microsoft discovered the flaw internally, releasing a patch in its May 11 Patch Tuesday update. This was the most severe bug in that batch: an http.sys ...
- May Android security updates patch 4 zero-days exploited in the wild
May 19, 2021
According to info provided by Google’s Project Zero team, four Android security vulnerabilities were exploited in the wild as zero-day bugs before being patched earlier this month. Attacks attempting to exploit these flaws were targeted and impacted a limited number of users based on information shared after this month’s Android security updates were published. Read more… Source: Bleeping ...
- Stalkerware Apps Riddled with Security Bugs
May 18, 2021
Android stalkerware apps – used to surreptitiously track people’s movements and digital activities – turn out to themselves be rife with security holes that put victims in even danger. Stalkerware can track the GPS location of a victim’s device, record conversations, capture images and snoop on browser histories. And overall, according to ESET researcher Lukas Stefanko, ...
- Cross-browser tracking vulnerability tracks you via installed apps
May 14, 2021
Researchers have developed a way to track a user across different browsers on the same machine by querying the installed applications on the device. Certain applications, when installed, will create custom URL schemes that the browser can use to launch a URL in a specific application. Read more… Source: Bleeping Computer