Last week, I evaluated the security of a recent GCHQ backdoor proposal for communications systems. Furthering the debate, Nate Cardozo and Seth Schoen of EFF explain how this sort of backdoor can be detected: In fact, we think when the ghost feature is active — silently inserting a secret eavesdropping member into an otherwise end-to-end … Read More “Hacking the GCHQ Backdoor” »
Category: hacking
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Construction cranes are vulnerable to hacking: In our research and vulnerability discoveries, we found that weaknesses in the controllers can be (easily) taken advantage of to move full-sized machines such as cranes used in construction sites and factories. In the different attack classes that we’ve outlined, we were able to perform the attacks quickly and … Read More “Hacking Construction Cranes” »
This is clever: How the attack works: Attacker added tens of malicious servers to the Electrum wallet network. Users of legitimate Electrum wallets initiate a Bitcoin transaction. If the transaction reaches one of the malicious servers, these servers reply with an error message that urges users to download a wallet app update from a malicious … Read More “New Attack Against Electrum Bitcoin Wallets” »
Wired has an excellent article on China’s APT10 hacking group. Specifically, on how they hacked managed service providers in order to get to their customers’ networks. I am reminded of the NSA’s “I Hunt Sysadmins” presentation, published by the Intercept. Powered by WPeMatico
The New York Times and Reuters are reporting that China was behind the recent hack of Mariott Hotels. Note that this is still uncomfirmed, but interesting if it is true. Reuters: Private investigators looking into the breach have found hacking tools, techniques and procedures previously used in attacks attributed to Chinese hackers, said three sources … Read More “Marriott Hack Reported as Chinese State-Sponsored” »
Kaspersky is reporting on a series of bank hacks — called DarkVishnya — perpetrated through malicious hardware being surreptitiously installed into the target network: In 2017-2018, Kaspersky Lab specialists were invited to research a series of cybertheft incidents. Each attack had a common springboard: an unknown device directly connected to the company’s local network. In … Read More “Banks Attacked through Malicious Hardware Connected to the Local Network” »
Back in October, Bloomberg reported that China has managed to install backdoors into server equipment that ended up in networks belonging to — among others — Apple and Amazon. Pretty much everybody has denied it (including the US DHS and the UK NCSC). Bloomberg has stood by its story — and is still standing by … Read More “That Bloomberg Supply-Chain-Hack Story” »
Back in January, we learned about a class of vulnerabilities against microprocessors that leverages various performance and efficiency shortcuts for attack. I wrote that the first two attacks would be just the start: It shouldn’t be surprising that microprocessor designers have been building insecure hardware for 20 years. What’s surprising is that it took 20 … Read More “More Spectre/Meltdown-Like Attacks” »
Interesting policy paper by Third Way: “To Catch a Hacker: Toward a comprehensive strategy to identify, pursue, and punish malicious cyber actors“: In this paper, we argue that the United States currently lacks a comprehensive overarching strategic approach to identify, stop and punish cyberattackers. We show that: There is a burgeoning cybercrime wave: A rising … Read More “How to Punish Cybercriminals” »
This is a long — and somewhat technical — paper by Chris C. Demchak and Yuval Shavitt about China’s repeated hacking of the Internet Border Gateway Protocol (BGP): “China’s Maxim Leave No Access Point Unexploited: The Hidden Story of China Telecom’s BGP Hijacking.” BGP hacking is how large intelligence agencies manipulate Internet routing to … Read More “China’s Hacking of the Border Gateway Protocol” »