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:
- Linux Kernel Bug Opens Door to Wider Cyberattacks
April 27, 2021
An information-disclosure security vulnerability has been discovered in the Linux kernel, which can be exploited to expose information in the kernel stack memory of vulnerable devices. Specifically, the bug (CVE-2020-28588) exists in the /proc/pid/syscall functionality of 32-bit ARM devices running Linux, according to Cisco Talos, which discovered the vulnerability. It arises from an improper conversion of ...
- Apple fixes macOS zero-day bug exploited by Shlayer malware
April 26, 2021
Apple has fixed a zero-day vulnerability in macOS exploited in the wild by Shlayer malware to bypass Apple’s File Quarantine, Gatekeeper, and Notarization security checks and download second-stage malicious payloads. Shlayer’s creators have managed to get their malicious payloads through Apple’s automated notarizing process before. Read more… Source: Bleeping Computer
- Nvidia Warns About Severe Security Bugs in GPU Driver, vGPU Software
April 26, 2021
Nvidia has disclosed a group of security vulnerabilities in the Nvidia graphics processing unit (GPU) display driver, which could subject gamers and others to privilege-escalation attacks, arbitrary code execution, denial of service (DoS) and information disclosure. Meanwhile, the Nvidia virtual GPU (vGPU) software also has a group of bugs that could lead to a range of ...
- CVE-2020-24557 Trend Micro bug is being exploited in the wild
April 22, 2021
US-Japanese cybersecurity firm Trend Micro disclosed on Wednesday that a threat actor began using a bug in its antivirus products to gain admin rights on Windows systems as part of its attacks. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2020-24557, affects the company’s Apex One and OfficeScan XG, two advanced security products aimed at enterprise customers. The bug was discovered ...
- AirDrop bugs expose Apple users’ email addresses, phone numbers
April 21, 2021
A team of academics from a German university said it discovered two vulnerabilities that can be abused to extract phone numbers and email addresses from Apple’s AirDrop file transfer feature. The two bugs reside in the authentication process during the initial phase of an AirDrop connection, where devices try to discover each one another and determine ...
- Pulse Secure VPN zero-day used to hack defense firms, govt orgs
April 20, 2021
Pulse Secure has shared mitigation measures for a zero-day authentication bypass vulnerability in the Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) SSL VPN appliance actively exploited in attacks against worldwide organizations and focused on US Defense Industrial base (DIB) networks. To mitigate the vulnerability tracked as CVE-2021-22893 (with a maximum 10/10 severity score), Pulse Secure advises customers with gateways ...

