Greetings, It’s Cyber Security Awareness Month in October which, given the recent breadth and severity of data leaks seen in Australia, is an opportune reminder to be mindful of current threats and vulnerabilities. Now in its seventh year, the BDO and AUSCERT Cyber Security Survey allows organizations to benchmark their approach to cyber risk. The information provided will then provide the chance to assess and optimise organizational cyber security. There’s also the chance to win one of two Apple Airpod Pros so be sure to complete your survey before Friday, November 18! It was announced yesterday that a proposal by the federal government had been made to allow Australian banks temporary access to government identification details by telcos in the wake of the Optus data breach. The move is to assist in preventing fraud, but banks would need to adhere to strict requirements to reduce the risk of further compromise of customer data. This Monday, October 10 will see the next full moon, referred to as the Pink Moon, signifying the arrival of the first spring flowers. Apart from the pink moon, the other October full moon names in the southern hemisphere are Egg Moon, Seed Moon, and Waking Moon whilst in the northern hemisphere, they will experience the Hunter’s Moon. The name derives from a time when the full moon signified the time to start preparing for the coming winter by hunting animals and preserving meat. If you live north of the equator, be sure to learn how you can view one of the year’s most stunning celestial events! Cisco Patches High-Severity Vulnerabilities in Communications, Networking Products Date: 2022-10-06 Author: SECURITY WEEK Cisco announced on Wednesday that it has patched potentially serious vulnerabilities in some of its networking and communications products, including Enterprise NFV, Expressway and TelePresence. Windows 11 22H2 breaks provisioning with 0x800700b7 errors Date: 2022-10-06 Author: Bleeping Computer Microsoft says the Windows 11 2022 Update is breaking provisioning, leaving Windows 11 enterprise endpoints partially configured and failing to finish installing. Meta sues app dev for stealing over 1 million WhatsApp accounts Date: 2022-10-06 Author: BLEEPING COMPUTER Meta has sued several Chinese companies doing business as HeyMods, Highlight Mobi, and HeyWhatsApp for developing and allegedly using “unofficial” WhatsApp Android apps to steal over one million WhatsApp accounts starting May 2022. Sydney man charged for allegedly trying to scam Optus breach victims – Telco/ISP – iTnews Date: 2022-10-06 Author: ITNEWS A 19-year-old Sydney man has been charged with allegedly trying to blackmail Optus customers whose data was leaked onto the internet as proof of a data breach. Optus ups number of Medicare cards breached – Security Date: 2022-10-07 Author: ITNEWS Optus has revised the number of its customers whose Medicare card numbers were exposed in a recent data breach to 43,000. Microsoft Updates Mitigation for Exchange Server Zero-Days Date: 2022-10-05 Author: Dark Reading [AUSCERT Bulletin: ASB-2022.0191.2] Microsoft today updated its mitigation measures for two recently disclosed and actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in its Exchange Server technology after researchers found its initial guidance could be easily bypassed. Microsoft’s original mitigation for the two vulnerabilities — CVE-2022-41040 and CVE-2022-41082 — was to apply a blocking rule to a specific URL path using the URL Rewrite Module on IIS Server. According to the company, adding the string “.*autodiscover\.json.*\@.*Powershell.*” would help block known attack patterns against the vulnerabilities. It’s Telstra’s Turn for a Data Breach, This Time It’s Staff That Are Affected Date: 2022-10-04 Author: Gizmodo The term ‘data breach’ has, in the last few weeks, worked its way into everyday conversation in Australia, thanks mostly to the failings of Optus. But now, details have emerged of another data breach affecting the Aussie telco sector – this time, it’s Telstra and it is employees that are at risk. Brought to our attention first by The Australian, Telstra reportedly sent out a memo to staff over the weekend informing them of the data breach. It has since been confirmed by Telstra, with a spokesman telling Gizmodo Australia that the data breach affecting a third party included “limited” Telstra employee information from 2017. It is understood the third party handled Telstra’s rewards program for staff. ESB-2022.4906 – chromium: CVSS (Max): None Debian has released a new Chromium package version that fixes arbitrary code execution, denial of service or information disclosure. ESB-2022.4967 – nodejs: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Debian has released an update for nodejs that address multiple vulnerabilities. ESB-2022.5007 – LibreOffice: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Ubuntu has released a new package version that fixes several security issues in LibreOffice. ASB-2022.0191.3 – ALERT Microsoft Exchange Server: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Microsoft has made significant updates to its advisory regarding Exchange Server Zero-Day Vulnerabilities which could lead to remote code execution. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, The fallout from last week’s Optus data breach has impacted customers across Australia. There has been a flurry of reports and statements advising the varying options available to affected individuals in relation to attaining a replacement Driver’s Licence, many of which have indicated that they will pursue Optus to cover the cost. Earlier today, Optus agreed to pay for the replacement of passports exposed in the leak and, that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) had launched Operation Guardian which would prioritise the protection of the 10,000 records that were revealed last week before the hacker had a change of mind about releasing additional data. Today, September 30, is International Podcast Day, an opportunity to explore seemingly endless genres that anyone can access just about anywhere. There are millions of podcasts available across an array of platforms, including our very own series, Share Today, Save Tomorrow, which features episodes that range in topics including ITOT Convergence, Diversity and Culture in Cyber Security and more! You can download or stream an episode, kick back and enjoy a cup of coffee this Saturday, October 1st, which just so happens to be International Coffee Day. Over three billion cups of coffee are consumed each day across the globe, making it a significant part of many people’s daily routines. This year, members, and partners of the International Coffee Organization (ICO) wish to highlight their commitment to coffee farmers’ prosperity and efforts to reduce the coffee industry’s impact on the environment and mitigate climate change with the vision of an effective Circular Economy. Two Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities Patched in WhatsApp Date: 2022-09-27 Author: Security Week WhatsApp has patched two serious vulnerabilities that could be exploited for remote code execution. WhatsApp only has three security advisories for 2022, with the first two released in January and February. The latest advisory, released this month, informs customers of two memory-related issues affecting the WhatsApp mobile applications. One of the flaws, tracked as CVE-2022-36934 and rated ‘critical’, is an integer overflow issue that affects WhatsApp for Android prior to 2.22.16.12, Business for Android prior to 2.22.16.12, iOS prior to 2.22.16.12, and Business for iOS prior to 2.22.16.12. Attackers abuse web security flaw in Sophos Firewall Date: 2022-09-26 Author: The Daily Swig A recently resolved vulnerability in Sophos Firewall has been abused by attackers in targeted attacks, the vendor warns. The critical vulnerability (CVE-2022-3236) poses a remote code execution (RCE) risk. Sophos Firewall v19.0 MR1 (19.0.1) and older are potentially vulnerable to the security bug in the User Portal and Webadmin of Sophos Firewall. In a security advisory published on Friday (September 23), Sophos said that it has issued a patch that installs automatically in default installations of its firewall technology. This is just as well given the vulnerability has already featured in attacks in the wild. Hacking group hides backdoor malware inside Windows logo image Date: 2022-09-29 Author: Bleeping Computer Security researchers have discovered a malicious campaign by the ‘Witchetty’ hacking group, which uses steganography to hide a backdoor malware in a Windows logo. New Microsoft Exchange zero-day actively exploited in attacks Date: 2022-09-29 Author: Bleeping Computer Threat actors are exploiting yet-to-be-disclosed Microsoft Exchange zero-day bugs allowing for remote code execution. Hackers now sharing cracked Brute Ratel post-exploitation kit online Date: 2022-09-28 Author: Bleeping Computer The Brute Ratel post-exploitation toolkit has been cracked and is now being shared for free across Russian-speaking and English-speaking hacking communities. For those unfamiliar with Brute Ratel C4 (BRC4), it is a post-exploitation toolkit created by Chetan Nayak, an ex-red teamer at Mandiant and CrowdStrike. Red teamers are cybersecurity professionals whose job is to try and breach a corporate network to learn its flaws, while those on the blue team attempt to defend against these attacks. Russia Planning Cyberattacks on Ukraine’s Energy Grid Date: 2022-09-27 Author: Dark Reading As protests against military conscription rage inside Russia, the country is planning to continue its offensive into Ukraine with cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. The Odessa Journal reported Ukrainian military intelligence has learned the first cyberattacks will soon be launched against the Ukrainian energy sector, informed by previous Russian cyberattacks on the country’s electricity infrastructure in 2015 and 2016. After energy supply operations are crippled by cyberattacks, the Russian military plans to ramp up missile strikes on those facilities to shut down the electrical service throughout the war-battered country. Microsoft finally adds a Task Manager link to the Windows 11 taskbar Date: 2022-09-29 Author: Bleeping Computer Microsoft has finally re-added a link to the Task Manager to the taskbar’s contextual menu in the latest Windows 11 Insider preview build. ASB-2022.0190.3 – Optus Data Breach Following a cyberattack, Optus has advised its customers to be vigilant about any suspicious activities. ESB-2022.4826 – Cisco IOS XE: CVSS (Max): 5.5 Cisco has released software updates that address a vulnerability in the web UI feature of Cisco IOS XE software. ESB-2022.4848 – chromium: CVSS (Max): 7.8 Debian has released an upgrade package for Chromium that addresses a vulnerability which allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code denial of service or information disclosure. ASB-2022.0191 – ALERT Microsoft Exchange Server News is currently emerging regarding possible Microsoft Exchange Server Zero-Day Vulnerabilities which could lead to remote code execution. ESB-2022.4884 – Google Chrome: CVSS (Max): None Google has released a new Chrome update for Windows, Mac and Linux. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, The cyber attack on Optus on Thursday (September 22) is said to impact current and former customers with information including names, birth dates, email addresses and phone numbers said to have been disclosed. It remains unknown how many of the 9.7 million Optus customers have been compromised with Scamwatch issuing an alert, warning customers to be vigilant to mitigate any potential harm. An unknown time factor is associated with the attack as data can be retained indefinitely. Of particular focus is individuals’ financial accounts with suggestions on what to do to help protect your personal information provided by the ACCC division. What may be causing others in the community a bit of undue stress is the school holidays that are underway or just getting started. With the addition of a public holiday, potentially utilised to create a long weekend, along with some less-than-ideal weather, you may be looking for something to fill your time or, distract from the kids playing or warring with one another. If so, AUSCERT has something to help. In fact, we have two ‘somethings’ for you to choose from! Our YouTube channel has over 50 videos from this year’s conference that cover a diverse range of topics that will inform, inspire and illicit reactions of varying scope. The other option available to you is fifteen episodes of our podcast, Share Today, Save Tomorrow. You can select from several subjects that provide insights and understanding as well as an understanding of potential challenges. EZVIZ video cameras can be accessed remotely – Security Date: 2022-09-19 Author: IT News Full device takeover possible. Researchers at security vendor Bitdefender have found a series of serious vulnerabilities which could be used to remotely control EZVIZ networked cameras without authentication, in order to download and decrypt images. Bitdefender was able to create an attack chain of four different bugs to take over the EZVIZ cameras, exploiting a stack buffer overflow, and vulnerable application programming interface endpoints. Google, Microsoft can get your passwords via web browser’s spellcheck Date: 2022-09-17 Author: Bleeping Computer Extended spellcheck features in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge web browsers transmit form data, including personally identifiable information (PII) and in some cases, passwords, to Google and Microsoft respectively. While this may be a known and intended feature of these web browsers, it does raise concerns about what happens to the data after transmission and how safe the practice might be, particularly when it comes to password fields. Australian business owners urged to shorten web addresses to avoid cybercrime attack Date: 2022-09-17 Author: ABC news Business owners across Australia are being told to update their domain names or risk being targeted by cybercriminals. New rules are being introduced to allow Australian businesses, organisations and individuals to shorten their web address to a simpler .au domain name instead of .com.au, .net.au, .or .org.au. For example, www.abc.net.au could become www.abc.au, or www.books.com.au could be shortened to www.books.au. Microsoft 365 phishing attacks impersonate U.S. govt agencies Date: 2022-09-19 Author: Bleeping Computer An ongoing phishing campaign targeting U.S. government contractors has expanded its operation to push higher-quality lures and better-crafted documents. The lure in these phishing emails is a request for bids for lucrative government projects, taking them to phishing pages that are clones of legitimate federal agency portals. This is the same operation that INKY reported about in January 2022, with the threat actors using attached PDFs with instructions on going through the bidding process for the U.S. Department of Labor projects. ESB-2022.4669 – Nessus Network Monitor: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Tenable has released Nessus Network Monitor 6.1.0 to fix multiple third-party vulnerabilities in Nessus Network Monitor. ESB-2022.4662 – Hitachi Energy AFF660/665 Series: CVSS (Max): 9.8 A vulnerability in Hitachi Energy AFF660/665, an industrial firewall could overflow a buffer on the device and fully compromise it. Hitachi Energy recommends its users to follow the security practices and firewall configurations to help protect from outside attacks. ESB-2022.4601 – OpenShift Virtualization: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Red Hat has released an update to OpenShift Virtualization which fixes several bugs and add enhancements. ESB-2022.4611 – Google Chrome: CVSS (Max): None Google has updated its stable channel to 105.0.5195.125 for Mac and Linux. This update includes 11 security fixes. ESB-2022.4655 – SUSE Manager Server: CVSS (Max): 9.8 A security update that solves four vulnerabilities in SUSE manager server has been released. ESB-2022.4634 – connman: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Debian recommends that Connman, a network manager for embedded devices be updated to the latest version to fix a few vulnerabilities, which if exploited could result in denial of service or the execution of arbitrary code. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, Members of the AUSCERT team recently ventured south from HQ in Brisbane to participate in the long-awaited conference, BSides Melbourne. With travelling returning to pre-COVID normality, our crew were excited at the opportunity to mingle with members of the industry and gain insights and hear of experiences from a wonderful collection of presenters. You can read about the highlights and experiences from one of our team in a recent blog, My Time on the BSide. With school holidays on the horizon, we wish all of those about to embark on travel all the best. Be it heading to the airport or enduring road trips of seemingly ceaseless requests to stop or cries of, “Are we there yet?”, travel safe and may the odds be ever in your favour. There are still a few spots remaining in our first online information gathering session on how you and your organisation use Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI). The short (1 hour) information gathering sessions via video conference so we can pick your brain about CTI with the first session next Tuesday, September 20 from 9 am until 10 am. To learn more or, register your interest, please click here. On a greener note, in parts of the world, September 16 is National Guacamole Day. Yes, the avocado-based dip, condiment, and salad ingredient is being celebrated today. The tasty green blend known as Guacamole (or “guac”) is said to date back to the Aztecs and is today, synonymous with Mexican cuisine. Traditionally served with tortilla chips, guacamole also goes well with corn chips, carrot sticks or even on its own., With the price of avocados dropping significantly recently, now is the time to go green with guacamole! We’ve found a recipe or 203 for you to peruse and use – enjoy! Zero-day in WPGateway WordPress plugin actively exploited in attacks Date: 2022-09-13 Author: Bleeping Computer [See also ESB-2022.3966] The Wordfence Threat Intelligence team warned today that WordPress sites are actively targeted with exploits targeting a zero-day vulnerability in the WPGateway premium plugin. WPGateway is a WordPress plugin that allows admins to simplify various tasks, including setting up and backing up sites and managing themes and plugins from a central dashboard. This critical privilege escalation security flaw (CVE-2022-3180) enables unauthenticated attackers to add a rogue user with admin privileges to completely take over sites running the vulnerable WordPress plugin. Ransomware gangs switching to new intermittent encryption tactic Date: 2022-09-10 Author: Bleeping Computer A growing number of ransomware groups are adopting a new tactic that helps them encrypt their victims’ systems faster while reducing the chances of being detected and stopped. This tactic is called intermittent encryption, and it consists of encrypting only parts of the targeted files’ content, which would still render the data unrecoverable without using a valid decryptor+key. For example, by skipping every other 16 bytes of a file, the encryption process takes almost half of the time required for full encryption but still locks the contents for good. Uber Says It’s Investigating a Potential Breach of Its Computer Systems Date: 2022-09-16 Author: The Hacker News Ride hailing giant Uber disclosed Thursday it’s responding to a cybersecurity incident involving a breach of its network and that it’s in touch with law enforcement authorities. The New York Times first reported the incident. The company pointed to its tweeted statement when asked for comment on the matter. Death of Queen Elizabeth II exploited to steal Microsoft credentials Date: 2022-09-14 Author: Bleeping Computer Threat actors are exploiting the death of Queen Elizabeth II in phishing attacks to lure their targets to malicious sites designed to steal their Microsoft account credentials. Besides Microsoft account details, the attackers also attempt to steal their victims’ multi-factor authentication (MFA) codes to take over their accounts. “Messages purported to be from Microsoft and invited recipients to an ‘artificial technology hub’ in her honor,” Proofpoint’s Threat Insight team revealed today. Rampant ransomware pushes cyber security premium up by 80% Date: 2022-09-12 Author: Cyber Security Connect Global insurance broker Marsh has identified that the cost of taking out cyber cover had doubled on average every year for the past three years, which has contributed to the sharp rise in premiums. Backed by data from another broker, Honan Group, the 80 per cent rise in premiums in the past 12 months has been determined following a 20 per cent increase in the cost of cover in each of the previous two years. According to Craig Claughton, a senior executive at Marsh, “cyber has become the new D&O”, referring to sharp rises in directors’ and officers’ insurance premiums since 2018. ASB-2022.0186 – ALERT Microsoft Windows: CVSS (Max): 9.8* Microsoft Patch Tuesday for September includes patches for various vulnerabilities affecting Windows ESB-2022.4508 – ALERT macOS Big Sur: CVSS (Max): 7.8* Apple released updates to Big Sur addressing multiple vulnerabilities out of which CVE-2022-32917 may have been actively exploited ESB-2022.4611 – Google Chrome: CVSS (Max): None A stable channel for Google Chrome has been updated to address multiple vulnerabilities ESB-2022.4555 – Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management: CVSS (Max): 10.0 Multiple security issues and bugs have been fixed in Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, The Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team (APCERT) recently conducted its annual drill, a means of maintaining and improving awareness and skills within the cyber security community through this collaborative undertaking. The APCERT drill aims to maintain and progress internet security and safety with the exercise, allowing participants to improve communication protocols, technical responses, and the overall quality of incident responses. Our recent blog provides insight into what took place and what was learnt, including solutions to real-world situations and challenges. You can read more about this year’s APCERT Cyber Drill HERE. R U OK? Day was held yesterday, September 8, which promoted the power and importance a question can have. It has been demonstrated that a conversation can change a life and we at AUSCERT had one of our own with Dr Carla Rogers. A renowned Holistic Psychologist, Dr Rogers is featured in our latest episode of Share Today, Save Tomorrow where she discusses the connection between mind and body along with techniques to help individuals identify, treat and overcome challenges in the workplace. Lastly, AUSCERT is really interested in how you and your organisation use Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI). We want to know about this to inform the services we provide to our members, and to ensure we’re doing the best we can to meet your needs. We’re running some short (1 hour) information gathering sessions via video conference so we can pick your brain about CTI. What’s in it for you? You’ll get to contribute your opinion about CTI so we can improve the services we provide to you and your organisation. You’ll have the opportunity to exchange information with other AUSCERT members and learn from their experiences. You’ll get the lovely warm* inner glow that comes from knowing you have performed a good deed by helping us help you. Please register your interest here. *Actual amount of warm inner glow varies from person to person. Google Releases Urgent Chrome Update to Patch New Zero-Day Vulnerability Date: 2022-09-03 Author: The Hacker News [Refer to Security Bulletin ESB-2022.4344] Google on Friday shipped emergency fixes to address a security vulnerability in the Chrome web browser that it said is being actively exploited in the wild. The issue, assigned the identifier CVE-2022-3075, concerns a case of insufficient data validating in Mojo, which refers to a collection of runtime libraries that provide a platform-agnostic mechanism for inter-process communication (IPC). An anonymous researcher has been credited with reporting the high-severity flaw on August 30, 2022. New EvilProxy service lets all hackers use advanced phishing tactics Date: 2022-09-05 Author: Bleeping Computer A reverse-proxy Phishing-as-a-Service (PaaS) platform called EvilProxy has emerged, promising to steal authentication tokens to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) on Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, GitHub, GoDaddy, and even PyPI. The service enables low-skill threat actors who don’t know how to set up reverse proxies to steal online accounts that are otherwise well-protected. Reverse proxies are servers that sit between the targeted victim and a legitimate authentication endpoint, such as a company’s login form. When the victim connects to a phishing page, the reverse proxy displays the legitimate login form, forwards requests, and returns responses from the company’s website. Fake Antivirus and Cleaner Apps Caught Installing SharkBot Android Banking Trojan Date: 2022-09-05 Author: The Hacker News The notorious Android banking trojan known as SharkBot has once again made an appearance on the Google Play Store by masquerading as antivirus and cleaner apps. “This new dropper doesn’t rely on Accessibility permissions to automatically perform the installation of the dropper Sharkbot malware,” NCC Group’s Fox-IT said in a report. “Instead, this new version asks the victim to install the malware as a fake update for the antivirus to stay protected against threats.” The apps in question, Mister Phone Cleaner and Kylhavy Mobile Security, have over 60,000 installations between them and are designed to target users in Spain, Australia, Poland, Germany, the U.S., and Austria. Home Affairs Could Be Looking Into TikTok’s Data Practices Date: 2022-09-05 Author: Gizmodo Back in July, we brought it to your attention that an investigation found that using TikTok on your phone gives the app access to your personal information. A lot of it, in fact. Analysis by Australian cybersecurity firm Internet 2.0 found TikTok requests almost complete access to the contents of a phone while the app is in use. That data includes calendar, contact lists and photos. As a result, the Australian Department of Home Affairs is going to be looking into the data harvesting practices of both TikTok and WeChat. QNAP patches zero-day used in new Deadbolt ransomware attacks Date: 2022-09-05 Author: Bleeping Computer QNAP is warning customers of ongoing DeadBolt ransomware attacks that started on Saturday by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Photo Station. The company has patched the security flaw but attacks continue today. “QNAP® Systems, Inc. today detected the security threat DEADBOLT leveraging exploitation of Photo Station vulnerability to encrypt QNAP NAS that are directly connected to the Internet,” explains the security notice. Ransomware gang’s Cobalt Strike servers DDoSed with anti-Russia messages Date: 2022-09-07 Author: Bleeping Computer Someone is flooding Cobalt Strike servers operated by former members of the Conti ransomware gang with anti-Russian messages to disrupt their activity. The operators of Conti ransomware completed turning off their internal infrastructure in May this year but its members have dispersed to other ransomware gangs, such as Quantum, Hive, and BlackCat. However, former Conti members continue to use the same Cobalt Strike infrastructure to conduct new attacks under other ransomware operations. Microsoft mistakenly rated Chromium, Electron, as malware Date: 2022-09-05 Author: The Register Microsoft appears to have fixed a problem that saw its Defender antivirus program identify apps based on the Chromium browser engine and/or Electron JavaScript framework as malware, and suggest users remove them. Numerous social media and forum posts made over the weekend detail how Windows has produced a warning of “Behavior:Win32/Hive.ZY” when users run everyday applications like Google’s Chrome browser or the Spotify music streamer. ESB-2022.4345 – WordPress: CVSS (Max): None WordPress has released WordPress 6.0.2 which includes 12 bug fixes on Core, 5 bug fixes for the Block Editor, and 3 security fixes. ESB-2022.4460 – Android OS: CVSS (Max): 9.8* Exploitation for many issues on Android is made more difficult by enhancements in newer versions of the Android platform. Google encourages all users to update to the latest version of Android where possible. ESB-2022.4472 – Linux kernel (Raspberry Pi): CVSS (Max): 8.2 Ubuntu reports the security issues detected in Linux kernel for Raspberry Pi systems can be fixed by applying the latest updates. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, It’s already September which seems to have arrived quicker than many of us expected. The AUSCERT team has already commenced planning for next year’s conference which, as we’ve experienced, will be upon us in no time. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, this year’s conference is still fresh in the minds of many thanks to the fantastic array of speakers and activities. If you missed a presentation due to a clash or would like to revisit a standout speaker, head over to our YouTube channel and peruse the AUSCERT2022 playlist! One aspect of this year’s conference that was of special importance, was the number of female presenters. Yesterday, September 1st, was International Women In Cyber Day. An initiative aimed at promoting and supporting the advancement and support of women in cybersecurity. Whilst the day has passed, each opportunity to create a more diverse and inclusive workforce should be encouraged. If you’d like to learn more about how you can get involved, visit the Women In Cyber Day website. If you’re new to the world of cyber or, you have a curious mind and would like to learn more about information security principles, the next round of AUSCERT’s Intro to Cyber for IT Professionals training is taking place in late October. Facilitated by our Principal Analyst and a guest industry trainer, our two half-day courses are aimed at engaging attendees with interactive content and a focus on delivering effective training outcomes. You can view the full list of our 2022 training schedule HERE. Critical hole in Atlassian Bitbucket allows any miscreant to hijack servers Date: 2022-08-29 Author: The Register A critical command-injection vulnerability in multiple API endpoints of Atlassian Bitbucket Server and Data Center could allow an unauthorized attacker to remotely execute malware, and view, change, and even delete data stored in repositories. Atlassian has fixed the security holes, which are present in versions 7.0.0 to 8.3.0 of the software, inclusive. Luckily there are no known exploits in the wild. WordPress 6.0.2 Patches Vulnerability That Could Impact Millions of Legacy Sites Date: 2022-08-31 Author: Security Week The WordPress team this week announced the release of version 6.0.2 of the content management system (CMS), with patches for three security bugs, including a high-severity SQL injection vulnerability. Identified in the WordPress Link functionality, previously known as ‘Bookmarks’, the issue only impacts older installations, as the capability is disabled by default on new installations. However, the functionality might still be enabled on millions of legacy WordPress sites even if they are running newer versions of the CMS, the Wordfence team at WordPress security company Defiant says. Log4Shell legacy? Patching times plummet for most critical vulnerabilities – report Date: 2022-08-30 Author: The Daily Swig The rush to patch systems affected by the landmark Log4Shell vulnerability has coincided with a wider improvement in patching rates for the most critical flaws, a report has found. The remote code execution (RCE) flaw in Apache Log4j (CVE-2021-44228), the near-ubiquitous open source Java logging utility, sent organizations across the ecosystem scrambling to fix applications or patch systems after it emerged in December 2021. Okta Says Customer Data Compromised in Twilio Hack Date: 2022-08-29 Author: Security Week Identity and access management provider Okta said last week that customer mobile phone numbers and SMS messages containing one-time passwords (OTPs) were compromised during the recent Twilio cyberattack. In early August, enterprise communications firm Twilio announced that it was hacked after an employee fell victim to a phishing attack and provided their login credentials to a sophisticated threat actor. The incident resulted in attackers accessing information related to 163 Twilio customers, with secure communications firm Signal and Okta already confirming being impacted by the incident. Apple backports fix for actively exploited iOS zero-day to older iPhones Date: 2022-08-31 Author: Bleeping Computers Apple has released new security updates to backport patches released earlier this month to older iPhones and iPads addressing a remotely exploitable WebKit zero-day that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on unpatched devices. This zero-day vulnerability is the same one Apple patched for macOS Monterey and iPhone/iPad devices on August 17, and for Safari on August 18. The flaw is tracked as CVE-2022-3289 and is an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in WebKit, the web browser engine used by Safari and other apps to access the web. Details Disclosed for OPC UA Vulnerabilities Exploited at ICS Hacking Competition Date: 2022-08-29 Author: Security Week Software development and security solutions provider JFrog has disclosed the details of several vulnerabilities affecting the OPC UA protocol, including flaws exploited by its employees at a hacking competition earlier this year. OPC UA (Open Platform Communications United Architecture) is a machine-to-machine communication protocol that is used by many industrial solutions providers to ensure interoperability between various types of industrial control systems (ICS). JFrog’s researchers discovered several vulnerabilities in OPC UA and disclosed some of them at the Pwn2Own Miami 2022 competition in April, where participants earned a total of $400,000 for hacking ICS. Google Fixes 24 Vulnerabilities With New Chrome Update Date: 2022-09-01 Author: Dark Reading Google’s first stable channel version of Chrome 105 for Windows, Mac, and Linux, released this week, contained fixes for 24 vulnerabilities in previous versions of the software, including one “critical” flaw and eight that the company rated as being of “high” severity. A plurality — nine — of the security issues that Google addressed with Chrome 105 were so-called use-after-free vulnerabilities, or flaws that allow attackers to use previously freed memory spaces to execute malicious code, corrupt data, and take other malicious actions. Four of the patched vulnerabilities were heap buffer-overflows in various Chrome components, including WebUI and Screen Capture. Ubuntu Linux 18.04 systemd security patch breaks DNS in Microsoft Azure Date: 2022-08-30 Author: The Register Microsoft Azure customers running Canonical’s Ubuntu 18.04 (aka Bionic Beaver) in the cloud have seen their applications fail after a flawed security update to systemd broke DNS queries. The situation is as odd as it sounds: if you’re running Ubuntu 18.04 in an Azure virtual machine, and you installed the systemd 237-3ubuntu10.54 security update, you’ve probably found yourself unable to use DNS within the VM, which causes applications and other software relying on domain-name look-ups to stop working properly. ESB-2022.4225 – Linux kernel (AWS): CVSS (Max): 9.8 Ubuntu reports the security issues detected in Linux kernel for Amazon Web Services (AWS)can be fixed by applying the latest updates. ESB-2022.4243 – zlib: CVSS (Max): 9.8 A heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the inflate operation in zlib has been reported which, if exploited could result in denial of service or execution of arbitrary code.Debian recommends upgrading the zlib packages. ESB-2022.4273 – Moodle: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Moodle reports that they have upgraded their Mustache template library to the latest version which includes a fix for a security issue. ESB-2022.4294.2 – UPDATED ALERT GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE): CVSS (Max): 9.9 Gitlab has released its monthly security release for August for GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE) which contains important security fixes. Gitlab strongly recommends that all GitLab installations be upgraded to one of the recommended versions immediately. ESB-2022.4288 – Hitachi Energy MSM Product: CVSS (Max): 9.8* Hitachi Energy reports multiple open-source software related vulnerabilities in MSM version 2.2 and earlier and released mitigation information including security practices and firewall configurations to help protect process control networks from outside attacks. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, Today, August 26, is Wear it Purple Day which is aimed at fostering supportive, safe, empowering, and inclusive environments for LGBTQIA+ youth. Founded in 2010, Wear it Purple has developed into an international movement in response to the challenges, obstacles, prejudice and dire situations queer youth face each day. There are events, training and educational tools amongst other resources aimed at raising awareness and promoting understanding at the Wear it Purple website that everyone can access and help be part of the change. Earlier this week, Google reported that it had blocked the largest Distributed Denial of Service, or DDoS, attack with over 46 million requests per second. A Senior Product Manager for Cloud Armor likened the attack to “receiving all the daily requests to Wikipedia – in just ten seconds”. The growth in DDoS attacks is on the rise with a 200+% increase in attacks thus far in 2022 and has progressed from being perceived as a minor nuisance to extremely sophisticated attacks. A recent blog explains what a DDoS is and, how it works. What commenced as a “hobby” twenty-five years ago on August 25, 1991, Linux is celebrating 31 years as a technological revolution! The importance of this innovation cannot be understated. It’s found in servers, desktop PCs, smartphones, routers and more. Even if a product isn’t deemed ‘Linux’, it’s quite likely that it was still influenced or affected by Linux along the path to its own creation. Lastly, today is also International Dog Day during which we celebrate all dogs, mixed breed and pure, with a focus on celebrating man’s best friend and encouraging adoption first rather than buying dogs from pet stores, backyard breeders or via the internet. If you already have a pet companion or are not quite ready to commit to a dog full time, there are plenty of ways to show your support and assist organisations like the RSPCA through volunteering, donating and even, fostering! Labor to overhaul national cyber security strategy Date: 2022-08-19 Author: Cyber Security Connect The Albanese government is set to reform former prime minister Scott Morrison’s $1.7 billion, 10-year cyber security strategy. As a top priority, Home Affairs Minister and Minister for Cyber Security Clare O’Neil has ordered her department to “recast the cyber security strategy” rushed out during the COVID-19 pandemic by the former prime minister in mid-2020. According to The Australian, Minister O’Neil outlined that the new strategy will be designed to focus on building closer links with Quad partners, the US, Japan and India, to accelerate the shift from ­reliance on China for critical technologies, amid concerns about Beijing’s global supply chain ­dominance. Google Blocks Record-Setting DDoS Attack That Peaked at 46 Million RPS Date: 2022-08-19 Author: Security Week In June 2022, Google mitigated a Layer 7 distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that peaked at 46 million requests per second (RPS). Disclosed this week, this is the third HTTPS attack this year to reach tens of millions of RPS, after two lower-volume assaults were mitigated by Cloudflare. The first of them peaked at 15.3 million RPS, Cloudflare announced in April, while the second reached 26 million RPS, the web security company announced in June. Ransomware variants almost double in six months Date: 2022-08-22 Author: Security Brief Ransomware variants have almost doubled in the past six months, with exploit trends demonstrating the endpoint remains a target as work-from-anywhere continues, according to the latest semiannual FortiGuard Labs Global Threat Landscape Report. “Cyber adversaries are advancing their playbooks to thwart defence and scale their criminal affiliate networks,” says Derek Manky, chief security strategist and VP global threat intelligence, FortiGuard Labs. “They are using aggressive execution strategies such as extortion or wiping data as well as focusing on reconnaissance tactics pre-attack to ensure better return on threat investment,” he says. ACCC warns of steady uptick in ‘Hi Mum’ message scams Date: 2022-08-23 Author: Cyber Security Connect More than 1,150 Australians have already fallen victim to the so-called “Hi Mum” scam in the first seven months of this year, with total reported losses of $2.6 million so far. Known as “Hi Mum” or “family impersonation” scams, victims are contacted most often through WhatsApp and text message by a scammer posing as a family member or friend. Following a significant rise in “Hi Mum” scams in recent months, Scamwatch is urging the public to be wary of phone messages from a family member or friend claiming they need help. Twitter savaged by former security boss Mudge in whistleblower complaint Date: 2022-08-23 Author: The Register Twitter’s former security chief Peiter “Mudge” Zatko accused the company and its board of directors of violating financial rules, of fraud, and of grossly neglecting its security obligations in a complaint to the US Securities & Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the US Justice Department last month. The Washington Post obtained and published a redacted copy of the complaint, which makes numerous allegations about occurrences and practices preceding and during Zatko’s time at the company, which ran from November 16, 2020 through January 19, 2022, when he was terminated by the new CEO Parag Agrawal. Zatko’s complaint was filed by nonprofit law firm Whistleblower Aid, which confirmed the authenticity of the Post’s republished document to The Register. ESB-2022.4149 – GitLab Community Edition (CE) and GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE): CVSS (Max): 9.9 A critical remote code execution vulnerability via Github Import has been fixed in the latest version of Github Enterprise Edition and Community Edition ESB-2022.4172 – Firefox: CVSS (Max): None Mozilla has fixed multiple vulnerabilities in its recent version of Firefox 104 ESB-2022.4177 – VMware Tools: CVSS (Max): 7.0 VMware Tools update addresses a local privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2022-31676) ESB-2022.4196 – Cisco FXOS and NX-OS Software: CVSS (Max): 8.8 A denial of service vulnerability affecting NX-OS and FXOS has been addressed by Cisco Systems Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, This Sunday, August 21, marks the final day of this year’s National Science Week. An annual celebration of science and technology, it’s a great opportunity to imbue curious minds with knowledge and insights into a plethora of areas. Everything from agriculture, health and medicine, technology and the great expanse of space is available to explore, analyze, experience and challenge as we seek to understand, innovate, and transform. Learn more about what others are doing and what you can do by visiting the National Science Week website. The realm of cyber is one area that is constantly evolving and something that we here at AUSCERT like to maintain awareness of which, we then share with our members. A fantastic way to gain insights and understanding on an array of topics is through our podcast series, Share today, save tomorrow. With fourteen episodes currently available, you can select from several areas that may pique your interest including ‘ITOT Convergence’, ‘Strategic Resilience and Psychology in Cyber Security’ and our latest edition, ‘Diversity and Culture in Cyber Security’. Another means of seeking to understand is through the tried-and-true method of simply asking. The team at RMIT University are doing just that in their survey that seeks to gain a more accurate picture of the security industry in Australia. You can share your insights and experience to help expand and diversify the workforce and help understand and prepare for future challenges. Apple releases Safari 15.6.1 to fix zero-day bug used in attacks Date: 2022-08-18 Author: Bleeping Computer [See AUSCERT Security Bulletin ESB-2022.4103 for more information] Apple has released Safari 15.6.1 for macOS Big Sur and Catalina to fix a zero-day vulnerability exploited in the wild to hack Macs. The zero-day patched today (CVE-2022-32893) is an out-of-bounds write issue in WebKit that could allow a threat actor to execute code remotely on a vulnerable device. “Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited,” warns Apple in a security bulletin released today. Google Chrome Zero-Day Found Exploited in the Wild Date: 2022-08-18 Author: Dark Reading [See AUSCERT Bulletins ESB-2022.4128 & ESB-2022.4102 for more information] A zero-day security vulnerability in Google’s Chrome browser is being actively exploited in the wild. The Internet behemoth released 11 security patches for Chrome this week, which are now being pushed out in stages to those with automatic updates enabled for Windows, Mac, and Linux; however, everyone can manually update now. The zero-day (CVE-2022-2856) is rated as high severity and involves “insufficient validation of untrusted input in Intents,” according to Google’s advisory. Intents, where the bug resides, are used by Chrome to process user input; if the browser doesn’t validate this input properly, an attacker is able to specially craft an input (say, a post in the comments section of a website) that’s not expected by the application. Twilio phish sees Signal users’ numbers at risk of re-registering Date: 2022-08-16 Author: IT News Locally stored user information can’t be compromised, company says. Fallout from the recent phising attack on communications company Twilio has spilt over to encrypted messaging app Signal, with users reporting bogus number re-registration attempts. Twilio provides Signal with phone number verification services, meaning the attacker may have been able to learn that some numbers were associated with Signal users. Digital Ocean dumps Mailchimp after attack leaked customer email addresses Date: 2022-08-16 Author: The Register Junior cloud Digital Ocean has revealed that some of its clients’ email addresses were exposed to attackers, thanks to an attack on email marketing service Mailchimp. This story starts last week when some of the blockheads in crypto-land noticed that email marketing service Mailchimp had suspended service for some of their fellow travellers. Reports such as this missive noted that Mailchimp has previously ditched crypto clients for generating more abuse reports than other customers, and the company’s Acceptable Use Policy therefore warns it may decide not to serve companies that offer “Cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies, and any digital assets related to an Initial Coin Offering.” How a spoofed email passed the SPF check and landed in my inbox Date: 2022-08-16 Author: WeLiveSecurity According to one study published in 2022, around 32% of the 1.5 billion domains investigated had SPF records. Out of these, 7.7% had invalid syntax and 1% were using the deprecated PTR record, which points IP addresses to domain names. Uptake of SPF has been slow and flawed indeed, which might lead to another question: how many domains have overly permissive SPF records? Zoom Patches Serious macOS App Vulnerabilities Disclosed at DEF CON Date: 2022-08-16 Author: Security Week [See AUSCERT Security Bulletin ESB-2022.4080 for more information] Zoom informed customers last week that macOS updates for the Zoom application patch two high-severity vulnerabilities. Details of the flaws were disclosed on Friday at the DEF CON conference in Las Vegas by macOS security researcher Patrick Wardle. Wardle, who is the founder of the Objective-See Foundation, a non-profit that provides free and open source macOS security resources, showed at DEF CON how a local, unprivileged attacker could exploit vulnerabilities in Zoom’s update process to escalate privileges to root. Thousands of VNC Instances Exposed to Internet as Attacks Increase Date: 2022-08-15 Author: Security Week Dark web intelligence firm Cyble reports seeing an increase in cyberattacks targeting virtual network computing (VNC). The VNC graphical desktop-sharing system relies on the Remote Frame Buffer (RFB) protocol to provide control of a remote machine over a network. Exposing VNC to the internet has long been deemed a security risk, yet Cyble has identified over 8,000 internet-accessible VNC instances that have authentication disabled. ESB-2022.4080 – Zoom Client for Meetings for macOS: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Zoom reported Local Privilege Escalation in Zoom Client for Meetings for macOS. Applying current updates or downloading the latest Zoom software is recommended. ESB-2022.4077 – Splunk Enterprise: CVSS (Max): 7.4 A vulnerability in Splunk Enterprise that affects connections between Splunk Enterprise and Ingest Actions Destination has been reported. Splunk customers are advised to upgrade Splunk Enterprise 9.0.0 to 9.0.1 or higher. ESB-2022.4102 – ALERT Google Chrome: CVSS (Max): None Google Chrome released an update for Stable Channel and Extended Stable Channel. Google advised that this update will be rolled out over the coming days/weeks. ESB-2022.4103 – Safari 15.6.1: CVSS (Max): None Safari 15.6.1 has been released to address an issue in WebKit and is available for macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina. Apple has reported that this issue may have been actively exploited. ESB-2022.3992.2 – UPDATE PAN-OS: CVSS (Max): 8.6 Palo Alto Networks has identified a vulnerability in URL Filtering, which , if exploited could allow a network-based attacker to conduct reflected and amplified TCP denial-of-service (RDoS)attacks. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, “Malvertising” is a term that has gained some attention this week as it grows in use to infiltrate networks and devices. (also known as a browser-in-browser (BitB) attack. The term refers to malicious advertising, a practice that uses online advertising that appears genuine that requires very little or even no interaction from the user. To help understand and combat such campaigns, National Cyber Security News Today provides an examination of the potential threat and, how to safeguard against it. AUSCERT wanted to remind folk that the deadline for the .au. direct domain availability, and its implications, are fast approaching. As per the ACSC alert, Australians have until 20 September 2022 to seek priority allocation of an .au direct domain name that matches their existing domain name. AUSCERT published a blog on the changes to assist members to understand potential threats and provide our members with an analysis of the situation. Lastly, we wanted to acknowledge World Youth Day, a UN initiative that focuses on education, employment, the environment, delinquency, girls and young women, HIV/AIDS and intergenerational relations as well as conflict resolution and social justice, to name a few, held each year on August 12 (today!). Organizations Warned of Critical Vulnerabilities in NetModule Routers Date: 2022-08-10 Author: Security Week Flashpoint is warning organizations of two newly identified critical vulnerabilities in NetModule Router Software (NRSW) that could be exploited in attacks. Acquired by Belden earlier this year, NetModule provides IIoT and industrial routers, vehicle routers, and other types of wireless M2M connectivity products. All of NetModule’s routers run the Linux-based NRSW by default, and can be managed remotely using a remote management platform. Cisco hacked by Yanluowang ransomware gang, 2.8GB allegedly stolen Date: None Author: Bleeping Computer Cisco confirmed today that the Yanluowang ransomware group breached its corporate network in late May and that the actor tried to extort them under the threat of leaking stolen files online. The company revealed that the attackers could only harvest and steal non-sensitive data from a Box folder linked to a compromised employee’s account. Meraki firewalls blocked Office365 traffic as attempted intrusion Date: 2022-08-11 Author: iTnews Microsoft Office365 users behind Cisco Meraki firewalls found themselves unable to reach their services, after the security vendor inadvertently blocked legitimate traffic. The firewalls were identifying legitimate traffic as an attempted denial-of-service attack against Windows IIS, as reported in this Reddit post. “We use Meraki firewalls and starting this morning Meraki was blocking valid Microsoft IPs in the Security Center. The SNORT rule details were ‘Microsoft Windows IIS denial-of-service attempt” and the destination IPs were Microsoft’,” the post states. SNORT is an open source signature-based intrusion prevention system. Patch Wednesday fixes two-year-old Dogwalk vulnerability Date: 2022-08-10 Author: iTnews Microsoft has fixed a remote code execution vulnerability in its MSDT diagnostics tool for Windows, first reported to the company two years ago and rediscovered in May this year. The fix is part of this month’s Patch Wednesday, and was named Dogwalk by security researchers. Although researcher Imre Rad reported the bug to Microsoft in January 2020, and despite the vulnerability raising its head again this year, the software giant initially declined to fix the issue. New GwisinLocker ransomware encrypts Windows and Linux ESXi servers Date: 2022-08-06 Author: Bleeping Computer A new ransomware family called ‘GwisinLocker’ targets South Korean healthcare, industrial, and pharmaceutical companies with Windows and Linux encryptors, including support for encrypting VMware ESXi servers and virtual machines. The new malware is the product of a lesser-known threat actor dubbed Gwisin, which means “ghost” in Korean. The actor is of unknown origin but appears to have a good knowledge of the Korean language. Dark web investigation uncovers ransomware marketplace Date: 2022-08-05 Author: Cyber Security Connect A new Venafi dark web investigation has uncovered 475 webpages of sophisticated ransomware products and services, with ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) being the most accessible for procurement. The research was conducted between November 2021 and March 2022 in partnership with criminal intelligence provider Forensic Pathways. Over 35 million dark web URLs were analysed, including marketplaces and forums, using the Forensic Pathways dark search engine. The researchers found that many strains of ransomware being sold have been successfully used in high-profile attacks, with 87 per cent of the ransomware found on the dark web capable of delivering malicious macros in order to infect targeted systems. These include Babuk, GoldenEye, Darkside/BlackCat, Egregor, HiddenTear and WannaCry. Windows devices with newest CPUs are susceptible to data damage Date: 2022-08-08 Author: Bleeping Computer Microsoft has warned today that Windows devices with the newest supported processors are susceptible to “data damage” on Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022. “Windows devices that support the newest Vector Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) (VAES) instruction set might be susceptible to data damage,” the company revealed today. Devices affected by this newly acknowledged known issue use AES-XTS (AES XEX-based tweaked-codebook mode with ciphertext stealing) or AES-GCM (AES with Galois/Counter Mode) block cipher modes on new hardware. Over 60% of Organizations Expose SSH to the Internet Date: 2022-08-05 Author: Infosecurity Magazine A majority of global organizations are exposing sensitive and insecure protocols to the public internet, potentially increasing their attack surface, according to ExtraHop. The vendor analyzed a range of enterprise IT environments to benchmark cybersecurity posture based on open ports and sensitive protocol exposure. It found that 64% of those studied have at least one device exposing SSH, which could allow attackers to probe it for remote access. Microsoft’s big Patch Tuesday fixes exploited zero-day flaw and 120 more bugs Date: 2022-08-10 Author: ZDNet Microsoft has released patches for 141 flaws in its August 2022 Patch Tuesday update including two previously undisclosed (zero-day) flaws, of which one is actively being exploited. The total patch count for the August 2022 Patch Tuesday Update actually includes 20 flaws in Edge that Microsoft had previously released fixes for, leaving 121 flaws affecting Windows, Office, Azure, .NET Core, Visual Studio and Exchange Server. The Zero Day Initiative noted that the volume of fixes released this month is “markedly higher” than what is normally expected in an August release. “It’s almost triple the size of last year’s August release, and it’s the second largest release this year,” the bug hunting group said. Hackers Exploit Twitter Vulnerability to Exposes 5.4 Million Accounts Date: 2022-08-06 Author: The Hacker News Twitter on Friday revealed that a now-patched zero-day bug was used to link phone numbers and emails to user accounts on the social media platform. “As a result of the vulnerability, if someone submitted an email address or phone number to Twitter’s systems, Twitter’s systems would tell the person what Twitter account the submitted email addresses or phone number was associated with, if any,” the company said in an advisory. Slack Resets Passwords After a Bug Exposed Hashed Passwords for Some Users Date: 2022-08-06 Author: The Hacker News Slack said it took the step of resetting passwords for about 0.5% of its users after a flaw exposed salted password hashes when creating or revoking shared invitation links for workspaces. “When a user performed either of these actions, Slack transmitted a hashed version of their password to other workspace members,” the enterprise communication and collaboration platform said in an alert on 4th August. ESB-2022.3942 – Intel Data Center Manager: CVSS (Max): 9.0 Intel reports that a vulnerability in the Intel Data Center Manager may allow escalation of privilege or denial of service. ESB-2022.3975 – OpenShift Container Platform 4.11.0: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Security updates for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.11 contain packages and images that fix several bugs and add enhancements. ESB-2022.3966 – Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source: CVSS (Max): 9.1 Adobe’s most recent update for Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source resolves critical , important and moderate vulnerabilities which , if exploited could lead to arbitrary code execution, privilege escalation and security feature bypass. ESB-2022.3962 – ALERT Open AMT Cloud Toolkit: CVSS (Max): 9.9 Intel has released updates to mitigate a potential vulnerability in the Open AMT Cloud Toolkit software which , if exploited could allow escalation of privilege. ASB-2022.0182 – ALERT Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Microsoft’s security patch update for August 2022 resolves 29 vulnerabilities across Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft reports this vulnerability is publicly disclosed and actively exploited and recommends updating the software with the version made available. ASB-2022.0181 – ALERT Microsoft Windows: CVSS (Max): 9.8* Microsoft’s security patch update for August 2022 contain fixes for 61 vulnerabilities in Windows, Windows RT and Windows 7. Microsoft reports this vulnerability is publicly disclosed and actively exploited and recommends updating the software with the version made available. ESB-2022.3764.2 – UPDATE ALERT VMware products: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Multiple vulnerabilities were reported in VMware Workspace ONE Access, Access Connector, Identity Manager, Identity Manager Connector and vRealize Automation. VMware recommends that these critical vulnerabilities should be patched or mitigated immediately. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, It’s been three years since the smell of dagwood dogs filled the air along with the screams and laughter from people on rides at Sideshow Alley but, the Ekka is back in full swing for 2022! An event that brings the country and the city together, the Ekka is much loved in Brisbane and sees over 400,000 people attend each year. So, if you’re visiting the River City between August 6 – 14, perhaps a trip to the RNA Showgrounds is in order? There’s plenty to see, do and eat – including the popular and delicious strawberry sundaes! Another audible array that may delight, is the sound of discussing topics that inform, entertain and perhaps, make you think! Such a treat can be found in the latest episode of our podcast, Share Today, Save Tomorrow that focuses on Diversity and Culture in Cyber Security. The episode features chats with Sasenka Abeysooriya, about changing behaviours and influencing organisational culture and Jasmine Woolley, a proud First Nations woman, on how she utilises Indigenous knowledge to provide a fresh perspective on emerging threats to Australia’s security. If you’re new to the world of cyber or, you have a curious mind and would like to learn more about information security principles, the next round of AUSCERT’s Intro to Cyber for IT Professionals training is taking place in late August. Facilitated by our Principal Analyst and a guest industry trainer, our two half-day courses are aimed at engaging attendees with interactive content and a focus on delivering effective training outcomes. You can view the full list of our 2022 training schedule HERE. New Traffic Light Protocol standard released after five years Date: 2022-08-04 Author: Bleeping Computer The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) has published TLP 2.0, a new version of its Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) standard, five years after the release of the initial version. The TLP standard is used in the computer security incident response team (CSIRT) community to facilitate the greater sharing of sensitive information. Students at top universities in Australia, the US and UK at risk of fraud Date: 2022-08-02 Author: Cyber Security Connect Proofpoint’s new research has found that the top universities in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom are lagging on basic cyber security measures, subjecting students, staff and stakeholders to higher risks of email-based impersonation attacks. According to Proofpoint’s analysis, universities in the United States are most at risk with the poorest levels of protection, followed by the United Kingdom, then Australia. Australia charges dev of Imminent Monitor RAT used by domestic abusers Date: 2022-07-31 Author: Bleeping Computer ​An Australian man was charged for developing and selling the Imminent Monitor remote access trojan, used to spy on victims’ devices remotely. A remote access trojan is a type of malware that allows full remote access to an infected device, including the ability to execute commands, log keystrokes, steal files and data, install additional software, take screenshots, and even record video from the device’s webcam. These types of malware are very popular among hackers due to its cheap price and the unfettered access it provided to infected devices. However, they are also popular with domestic abusers who use them to spy on their victims. Decentralized IPFS networks forming the ‘hotbed of phishing’ Date: 2022-07-29 Author: The Register Threat groups are increasingly turning to InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) peer-to-peer data sites to host their phishing attacks because the decentralized nature of the sharing system means malicious content is more effective and easier to hide. Threat analysts with cybersecurity vendor Trustwave this week said the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is becoming the “new hotbed of phishing” after seeing an increase in the number of phishing emails that contain IPFS URLs. At the same time, Atif Mushtaq, founder and chief product officer at anti-phishing company SlashNext, told The Register that his company is detecting phishing hosted on ipfs.io, cloudflare-ipfs.com and other vendor systems. LockBit Ransomware Abuses Windows Defender for Payload Loading Date: 2022-08-01 Author: Security Week A LockBit ransomware operator or affiliate has been abusing Windows Defender to decrypt and load Cobalt Strike payloads during attacks, according to endpoint security firm SentinelOne. In April, SentinelOne reported that, in an attack involving LockBit ransomware, threat actors had leveraged a legitimate VMware command-line utility named ‘VMwareXferlogs.exe’ to side-load a Cobalt Strike payload. In a different attack observed by the cybersecurity firm, the attacker leveraged a command-line tool associated with Windows Defender. Specifically, the hackers used ‘MpCmdRun.exe’ to decrypt and load post-exploitation Cobalt Strike payloads. ESB-2022.3764 – ALERT VMware products: CVSS (Max): 9.8 VMware has released patches to address multiple vulnerabilities in affected VMware products ESB-2022.3793 – OpenJDK 17.0.4: CVSS (Max): 7.5 Redhat build of OpenJDK is now available for portable linux fixing several vulnerabilities ESB-2022.3837 – Cisco Small Business RV160, RV260, RV340, and RV345 Series Routers: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Cisco has released software updates to address several vulnerabilities affecting small business RV series routers ESB-2022.3876 – BIG-IP (all modules): CVSS (Max): 8.7 A bypass restriction vulnerability with a CVSS of 8.7 has been fixed on BIG-IP Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, Great ideas were delivered with enthusiasm and with a hint of competitiveness at the AUSCERT Team Planning and Strategy Day earlier this week. It was a great opportunity for the teams to collaborate, brainstorm and put forward ideas and projects that focus on improving internal efficiencies and delivering the best service possible to our members. Now, it’s up to all of us to turn the ideas into reality so, watch this space! An idea that wasn’t popular was the controversial use of facial recognition technology in Bunnings and Kmart stores which was ‘paused’ earlier in the week following a significant public backlash. Positioned as a means of preventing theft, the stores are insistent that the use of such technology is legitimate. However, as reported in a recent Choice article, the decision to use facial recognition technology in this manner will be a matter for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to decide. Tomorrow, June 30, Is World Friendship Day. Originally developed by Hallmark as a means of creating another holiday in which to exchange cards, the concept of honouring friendship soon took over and it became a popular custom to reserve a day to celebrate friends. With the growth in social media across the globe, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared in 2011 that June 30 shall be a day to celebrate, connect and bring together people from all backgrounds. Atlassian Patches Servlet Filter Vulnerabilities Impacting Multiple Products Date: 2022-07-21 Author: Security Week [See also: ESB-2022.3575] Servlet Filters are pieces of Java code designed to intercept and process HTTP requests sent between a client and a backend. Servlet Filters may offer security mechanisms such as auditing, authentication, logging, or authorization. Tracked as CVE-2022-26136 and described as a Servlet Filter bypass, the first of the flaws could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to send specially crafted HTTP request and authenticate to third-party apps, or to launch a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack, to execute JavaScript code in a user’s browser. Microsoft issues emergency fix for broken Windows 11 start menu Date: 2022-07-25 Author: Bleeping Computer Microsoft has addressed a known issue that was causing the start menu on some Windows 11 to malfunction after installing recent updates. This known issue affects only devices running Windows 11, version 21H2, and it was acknowledged on Friday after Redmond received customer reports of start menu issues affecting some systems. “A small number of devices are unable to open the Start menu after installing updates released June 23, 2022 or later,” the company explained in a recent update on the Windows health dashboard. Hackers scan for vulnerabilities within 15 minutes of disclosure Date: 2022-07-26 Author: Bleeping Computer System administrators have even less time to patch disclosed security vulnerabilities than previously thought, as a new report shows threat actors scanning for vulnerable endpoints within 15 minutes of a new CVE being publicly disclosed. According to Palo Alto’s 2022 Unit 42 Incident Response Report, hackers are constantly monitoring software vendor bulletin boards for new vulnerability announcements they can leverage for initial access to a corporate network or to perform remote code execution. However, the speed at which threat actors begin scanning for vulnerabilities puts system administrators in the crosshairs as they race to patch the bugs before they are exploited. Multiple Windows, Adobe Zero-Days Anchor Knotweed Commercial Spyware Date: 2022-07-28 Author: Dark Reading A cyber-weapons broker dubbed Knotweed has been outed, with Microsoft flagging it as being behind numerous spyware attacks on law firms, banks, and strategic consultancies in countries around the world. To boot, Knotweed has made a habit of incorporating rafts of Windows and Adobe zero-day exploits into its spyware since at least 2021, according to Microsoft. Hacker puts 5.4m Twitter account details on sale with $30k price tag Date: 2022-07-26 Author: Cyber Security Connect A hacker has put a database of phone numbers and email addresses belonging to 5.4 million Twitter accounts for sale on the dark web for $30,000. Twitter is currently investigating the breach according to reports by CyberWire. The hack is linked with a cyber breach that occurred in January this year according to Restore Privacy, after tracking down HackerOne reports that observed the January incident “had potential of exposing user information even when hidden behind privacy settings”. Restore Privacy has also found that Twitter paid a bug bounty to the researcher who had reported the breach, then enabled the short-form social media platform to close it, but that earlier vulnerability appears to have been “exploited to collect a very large tranche of user data”. Ransomware Continues to Disrupt OT Operations Date: 2022-07-28 Author: Cyber Security Connect At the end of 2021, Dragos assessed with high confidence that ransomware would continue to disrupt OT operations into 2022. So far, that assessment holds true. Although we don’t have substantive evidence that the quantity of ransomware incidents has increased year on year, a surge of ransomware initial access campaigns in 2022 shows specific ransomware groups like Conti are more active. Also, the political tension between Russia and western countries may only exacerbate this. Bunnings and Kmart halt use of facial recognition technology in stores as privacy watchdog investigates Date: 2022-07-25 Author: The Guardian Kmart and Bunnings have paused the use of facial recognition technology in their stores, amid an investigation from Australia’s privacy regulator. Consumer group Choice last month revealed Bunnings and Kmart were using the technology – which captures images of people’s faces from video cameras as a unique faceprint that is then stored and can be compared with other faceprints – in what the companies say is a move to protect customers and staff and reduce theft in select stores. The two companies are now being investigated by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) over their use of the technology and whether it is consistent with privacy laws. Microsoft Edge now improves performance by compressing disk cache Date: 2022-07-27 Author: Bleeping Computer Microsoft says Microsoft Edge users will notice improved performance and a smaller disk footprint because the web browser now automatically compresses disk caches. “Beginning with Microsoft Edge 102 on Windows, Microsoft Edge automatically compresses disk caches on devices that meet eligibility checks, to ensure the compression will be beneficial without degrading performance,” the Microsoft Edge Team said Wednesday. “This ensures compression of these caches largely improves performance and overall user experience.” ESB-2022.3656 – Firefox: CVSS (Max): None Mozilla has updated Firefox to version 103 to patch multiple vulnerabilities ESB-2022.3576 – Google Chrome: CVSS (Max): None Multiple vulnerabilities have been fixed in Google Chrome version 103.0.5060.134 ESB-2022.3706 – Samba: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Samba has addressed a security vulnerability that allows Samba AD users to forge password change requests for any user including Admin ESB-2022.3685 – Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2.1.3: CVSS (Max): 10.0 Red Hat has released a critical security update for Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh addressing a trivial bypass vulnerability ASB-2022.0175.2 – Sonicwall GMS (Global Management System)and Analytics On-Prem products : CVSS (Max): None SonicWall has released security advisories about an SQL Injection vulnerability affecting GMS (Global Management System) and Analytics On-Prem products Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, Yesterday saw the majority of Australia and New Zealand Microsoft users impacted by the Microsoft Teams outage, AUSCERT included. It is being reported that the outage was caused by "a recent deployment [that] contained a broken connection to an internal storage service". We hope this gave users the chance to celebrate National Lamington Day. The humble lamington has been a part of the Australian tradition since the 1800s. Yet, the lamington is another dessert that has its origins disputed, much like the pavlova. Car hacking is not just for the movies anymore, but came closer to reality this week with the discovery of the unpatched bug in the MiCODUS GPS device. The vulnerability can allow attackers to restrict fuel intake, monitor the location of vehicles and even stop the vehicles. Currently, there is no patch that can be applied to mitigate this bug. … Cisco Patches Severe Vulnerabilities in Nexus Dashboard Date: 2022-07-21 Author: Security Week [ESB-2022.3545] Cisco on Wednesday announced the availability of patches for multiple vulnerabilities in Nexus Dashboard, including a critical-severity issue that could lead to the execution of arbitrary commands. The Nexus Dashboard is a data center management console that provides administrators and operators with quick access to required resources across services and applications. The most severe of the newly resolved vulnerabilities affecting the console is CVE-2022-20857 (CVSS score of 9.8), which could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to access a specific API and execute arbitrary commands. Hacker Abusing Windows NFS Remote Code Execution Flaw Date: 2022-07-20 Author: Cyware The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2022-30136, was patched in June, however, the report provided more detailed information about potential exploitation. The flaw is contained within Windows NFS and occurs due to improper handling of NFSv4 requests. It could be abused by sending malicious RPC calls to a target server. Further, successful exploitation could result in arbitrary code execution as SYSTEM. On the other side, unsuccessful exploitation could even crash the system. Microsoft Teams outage widens to take out M365 services, admin center Date: 2022-07-21 Author: The Register Microsoft acknowledged the issue at 01:47 UTC on July 21 and offered the following update around 75 minutes later. The outage appears to be global, but Microsoft is perhaps a little fortunate that the incident struck when the working day was all but over in the US, and in the dark of the European night. Most of the reaction The Register can find is therefore from the Asia-Pacific region, where businesses such as an Australian horse-racing organization have been disrupted. LDAP Account Manager bug poses unauthenticated remote code execution risk Date: 2022-07-19 Author: Portswigger An unauthenticated arbitrary object instantiation vulnerability in LDAP Account Manager (LAM) has been discovered during an internal penetration test. LAM is a PHP web application for managing entries such as users, groups, or DHCP settings in LDAP directories via a web frontend, and is one of the alternatives to FreeIPA. It’s included in Debian repositories. But a vulnerability discovered by researcher Arseniy Sharoglazov could allow an attacker to create arbitrary objects and achieve remote code execution (RCE) in one request, and without any out-of-band connections. Critical flaws in GPS tracker enable “disastrous” and “life-threatening” hacks Date: 2022-07-20 Author: Ars Technica A security firm and the US government are advising the public to immediately stop using a popular GPS tracking device or to at least minimize exposure to it, citing a host of vulnerabilities that make it possible for hackers to remotely disable cars while they’re moving, track location histories, disarm alarms, and cut off fuel. Log4j vulnerabilities remain 'endemic', says US DHS Date: 2022-07-18 Author: iTnews The US Department of Homeland security has warned that the world is likely to be dealing with the fallout from the Log4j vulnerability for a decade or more. Log4j – also known as Log4shell – is a critical vulnerability in a Java logging library that can be used for remote code execution and to gain full control over millions of vulnerable enterprise systems. COVID-19 lockdowns see rise in bank and credit-card fraud as more people work and shop from home Date: 2022-07-18 Author: ABC News One in nine Australians have been victims of personal fraud, with card fraud the most common type due to more people banking and shopping online because of COVID-19. Card fraud is when criminals get a hold of your banking or credit-card details to illegally access your account and steal money. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said 11 per cent of Australians, or more than 2 million people, were victims of personal fraud in 2020-21, compared to 8.5 per cent in 2014-15. Westpac arms itself for cryptocurrency tilt – Finance – Software Date: 2022-07-20 Author: IT News Westpac has given a clear indication of its intent to enter the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, having previously been tight-lipped as to its ambitions. The bank posted an open call for a principal architect for digital assets and cryptocurrency in recent weeks, from which it is clear that Westpac wants to set itself up as a leader in what is is collectively calling “digital assets”. ESB-2022.3563 – Apple Watch Series 3: CVSS (Max): 5.5* Apple released security updates to fix vulnerabilities impacting Apple Watch. Users should upgrade their devices by installing watchOS 8.7. ESB-2022.3559 – macOS Monterey 12.5: CVSS (Max): 7.5* Apple addressed several arbitrary code execution flaws impacting Neural Engine, GPU Drivers, ImageIO, ICU, and Kernel. Users should upgrade their devices by installing macOS Monterey 12.5 ESB-2022.3553 – Safari 15.6: CVSS (Max): None Apple fixed arbitrary code execution issue that was addressed with the release of Safari 15.6: An out-of-bounds write issue was addressed with improved input validation. Safari 15.6 may be obtained from the Mac App Store ESB-2022.3522 – MiCODUS MV720 GPS tracker: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Exploitation of several vulnerabilities could allow an attacker control over any MV720 GPS tracker, granting access to location, routes, fuel cutoff commands, and the disarming of various features (e.g., alarms). MiCODUS has not provided updates or patches to mitigate these vulnerabilities. ESB-2022.3574 – Questions For Confluence: CVSS (Max): None An external party has discovered and publicly disclosed a hardcoded password for Questions for Confluence on Twitter. This issue is likely to be exploited in the wild now that the hardcoded password is publicly known. This vulnerability should be remediated on affected systems immediately. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team