Publications

AUSCERT Week in Review for 9th April 2021 Greetings, Welcome back from the Easter long weekend. This week we kicked things off by releasing a blog piece on the topic of the recent Facebook data leak of over five-hundred million of its users. We’d be remiss not to mention the good work done by the folks from Have I Been Pwned in this particular instance. Tune in next week and join our Director, Dr. David Stockdale as he discusses the focus on securing remote access as a key step in the zero-trust journey. “Securing the people, systems, and assets in a higher education org is no small task. With over fifty-thousand students supported by over seven-thousand staff members, learn why UQ chose Duo Security as its 2FA solution.” For further details on the webinar and to register, please visit the AUSCERT website here. Members – another reminder that all nominated Primary and Organisation contact person(s) would have received details regarding your organisation’s member token(s), part of your AUSCERT membership perks which allows you to attend our annual conference for free or as a partially subsidised delegate, please make sure you utilise the token(s) by midnight on Sunday 18 April! Conference registrations can be completed via our website here. Until next week, have a good weekend everyone. Cisco fixes bug allowing remote code execution with root privileges Date: 2021-04-07 Author: Bleeping Computer Cisco has released security updates to address a critical pre-authentication remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability affecting SD-WAN vManage Software’s remote management component. The critical security flaw tracked a CVE-2021-1479 which received a severity score of 9.8/10. It allows unauthenticated, remote attackers to trigger a buffer overflow on vulnerable devices in low complexity attacks that don’t require user interaction. “An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted connection request to the vulnerable component that, when processed, could cause a buffer overflow condition,” Cisco explained. The company fixed two other high-severity security vulnerabilities in the user management (CVE-2021-1137) and system file transfer (CVE-2021-1480) functions of the same product allowing attackers to escalate privileges. Successful exploitation of these two bugs could allow threat actors targeting them to obtain root privileges on the underlying operating system. Scraped data of 500 million LinkedIn users being sold online, 2 million records leaked as proof Date: 2021-04-06 Author: CyberNews Days after a massive Facebook data leak made the headlines, it seems like we’re in for another one, this time involving LinkedIn. An archive containing data purportedly scraped from 500 million LinkedIn profiles has been put for sale on a popular hacker forum, with another 2 million records leaked as a proof-of-concept sample by the post author. The four leaked files contain information about the LinkedIn users whose data has been allegedly scraped by the threat actor, including their full names, email addresses, phone numbers, workplace information, and more. Too slow! Booking.com fined for not reporting data breach fast enough Date: 2021-04-06 Author: Naked Security The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) – the country’s data protection regulator – has fined online travel and hotel booking company Booking.com almost half a million Euros over a data breach. Interestingly, the fine was issued not merely because there was a breach, but because the company didn’t report the breach quickly enough. Facebook data leak: How to know if your business has been affected, and what to do next Date: 2021-04-06 Author: SmartCompany The personal data of more than 533 million Facebook users has been leaked online. But, if you’re a business owner, there are a few things you can do to make sure your professional page is as safe as possible. Contact books of Australian diplomats hacked in major ‘phishing’ scam Date: 2021-04-07 Author: Sydney Morning Herald Senior Australian diplomats, including United States ambassador Arthur Sinodinos, have been caught up in a sophisticated identity theft scam in which cyber attackers impersonated them on encrypted messaging services WhatsApp and Telegram in a bid to get sensitive information from their contacts. Under the scam, senior politicians and diplomats are being sent messages asking them to validate new WhatsApp and Telegram accounts. Once they click on the link or download the app, the hacker then has access to their contact book and the ability to impersonate them on the new account. ESB-2021.1131 – VMware Carbon Black Cloud Workload appliance: Administrator compromise – Remote/unauthenticated VMWare addresses a critical vulnerability in Carbon Black Cloud. ESB-2021.1163 – ALERT Cisco SD-WAN vManage Software: Multiple vulnerabilities Multiple Vulnerabilities in Cisco SD-WAN vManage software can lead to arbitrary code execution. ESB-2021.1165 – ALERT Cisco Small Business RV Series Router products: Execute arbitrary code/commands – Remote/unauthenticated Cisco released an advisory on a critical RCE on End of Life RV Series routers. ESB-2021.1183 – Jenkins (core) and plugins: Multiple vulnerabilities Jenkins has released security updates for different Jenkins deliverables including Jenkins (core). ESB-2021.1176 – Cisco Webex Meetings: Multiple vulnerabilities Cisco addresses XSS vulnerability in Webex Meetings. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Easter's Facebook Revelations Initial Release 2021-04-06   Well it has made the news that Facebook had a data leak of 533 Million of its users, including 106 Countries [1].  What better time for this to be made public than on an Easter Sunday.  To avoid taking most of your time reading this blog, the spoiler is that the data seems to be data from 2019 [2] and that there seems to be no passwords leaked. Although there may be a little discrepancies at the date of when the fix could have been made effective, one party stating August 2019 [2] and another stating January 2020 [3][4] it may be a reasonable conclusion to say that the data has been out there for a while already. Now that we have a fair idea that this data has been out for a good amount of time, it would be nice to be able to find out what type of data was released.  After all, just in case that the news is now proportionately reported [3][5], and it is only now with the news articles that the security team is asked to perform some checks. So, a data breach makes an impact when data types are associated with each other. Single types of data listed out have limited effect, but an association on two data types carries more effect than the sum of two separate lists.  Also, some data pairs, when associated, have more impact than other pairs.  For example, two data type associations such as Email Address and Password, has a deeper impact than the associations of the types, Email Address and Name.  Luckily, it seems that passwords are not in the mix of the data that is said to be available from the 533M leak.  Of the 533 Million the association of information are: [4] Predominantly Account to Phone Number; Mostly includes Names and Gender; Many including Date of Birth, Location, Relationship Status and Employer; and 2.5 million records including Email Addresses. In case you have to check[ 5] your account holders if they have been part of the Facebook 533 Million data records leak, the service from HaveIBeenPwned [6] may be used. As for recommendations arising from this new old-news, there is nothing novel in the following steps: Check if the emails that you take care of are part of this breach by domain search; [7] Check if the breach is from the Facebook leaks;(time permitting follow through with other breach(s) if listed in the Domain Search report.) Check credential pairs, if listed but not in this case of 533M Facebook, are not active; Check it is understood the impact of other information associations have, yet keeping perspective that: Data association may be on other social media services, Further associations could be made on other social media services. Recommend settings to restrict searchability; [8] Advocate the usage of strong passwords, password managers and MFA use;Although not within the scope of effect of this instance of a data leak. Be aware that Phishing campaigns may increase due to this “news”. [9] Last but not least feel better that Facebook has officially discontinued API access to those fields as of 2018 [10], and in turn raise your concern should other social media API access provide these same searchability.   References:  [1] 533 million Facebook users’ phone numbers leaked on hacker forumhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/533-million-facebook-users-phone-numbers-leaked-on-hacker-forum/ [2] “This is old data that was previously reported on in 2019. We found and fixed this issue in August 2019.”https://twitter.com/liz_shepherd/status/1378398417450377222 [3] “In early 2020 a vulnerability that enabled seeing the phone number linked to every Facebook account was exploited, creating a database containing the information 533m users across all countries”https://twitter.com/underthebreach/status/1349674272227266563 [4] HIBP – Facebook Dataleakhttps://haveibeenpwned.com/PwnedWebsites#Facebook [5] How to check if you’re part of the Facebook data breachhttps://www.theverge.com/22367727/facebook-data-breach-haveibeenpwned  [6] HaveIBeenPwnedhttps://haveibeenpwned.com/ [7] Domain Searchhttps://haveibeenpwned.com/DomainSearch  [8] How do I control who can look me up on Facebook using my email address or mobile phone number?https://m.facebook.com/help/131297846947406https://www.facebook.com/help/131297846947406 [9] Possible Phishing Campaigns Arising from Facebook’s Data Leakhttps://www.csa.gov.sg/singcert/advisories/ad-2021-004 [10] Facebook Graph API – Userhttps://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api/reference/user 

AUSCERT Week in Review for 1st April 2021 Greetings, Here we are, at the end of Quarter 1 2021. What a year it’s been for our sector so far! The wave of vulnerabilities and associated attacks we’ve observed has certainly kept all of us busy. This week we saw an urgent out-of-band Apple security update for its iOS and iPadOS mobile operating system, see bulletin details below. We also witnessed Nine Media recovering from what’s been described as a “significant and complex” cyber-attack, a timely prompt to re-visit “The Essential Eight” a prioritised list of mitigation strategies issued by the ACSC. Last week, the AUSCERT team were privileged to attend our first in-person conference event in over a year – BrisSEC21, an event hosted by the AISA Brisbane chapter. Our Director, Dr David Stockdale presented a talk on the theme of cybercrime at the event. An article based on this talk will be submitted to the next edition of the Women in Security magazine and we will share it when it’s published. We look forward to our next event, our very own annual conference, AUSCERT2021. On that note, members – a reminder that all nominated Primary and Organisation contact person(s) would have received details regarding your organisation’s member token(s), part of your AUSCERT membership perks which allows you to attend our annual conference for free or as a partially subsidised delegate – please make sure you utilise the token(s) by 18 April. Conference registrations can be done via our website here. AUSCERT will maintain minimal coverage for the Easter holidays from Friday 2 April to Monday 5 April. AUSCERT staff will be on-call for emergencies only and email will not be monitored during this time. Any AUSCERT member with an emergency may contact on-call AUSCERT staff on the AUSCERT Incident Hotline, details available here. Until next week, have a good long Easter weekend everyone. Stay safe and let’s keep up with our Covid-safe practices. Apple patches exploited iOS, iPadOS zero-day Date: 2021-03-28 Author: iTnews Apple has issued an urgent out-of-band security update for its iOS and iPadOS mobile operating system, after a zero-day vulnerability that is under active exploitation was found. The vulnerability in the WebKit browser engine can lead to universal site cross-scripting, Apple said. Cross-scripting allows attackers to inject their own scripts via maliciously crafted web page content. VMware fixes bug allowing attackers to steal admin credentials Date: 2021-03-30 Author: Bleeping Computer VMware has published security updates to address a high severity vulnerability in vRealize Operations that could allow attackers to steal admin credentials after exploiting vulnerable servers. vRealize Operations is an AI-powered and “self-driving” IT operations management for private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments, available as an on-premises or SaaS solution. Automated Clean-up of HAFNIUM Shells and Processes with Splunk Phantom Date: 2021-03-26 Author: Splunk The Splunk team have released a couple of blogs on this topic, concentrated on two things: 1. Detecting HAFNIUM Exchange Server Zero-Day Activity in Splunk: Explaining the vulnerabilities and associated exploits 2. Detecting Microsoft Exchange Vulnerabilities – 0 + 8 Days Later…: Sharing SPL to detect and hunt for malicious behavior withrelated to the exploits and detections you can use with Splunk Enterprise Security Docker Hub images downloaded 20M times come with cryptominers Date: 2021-03-29 Author: Bleeping Computer Researchers found that more than two-dozen containers on Docker Hub have been downloaded more than 20 million times for cryptojacking operations spanning at least two years. Docker Hub is the largest library of container applications, allowing companies to share images internally or with their customers, or the developer community to distribute open-source projects. Holding the news to ransom? What we know so far about the Channel 9 cyber attack Date: 2021-03-30 Author: The Conversation As is often the case in the early stages of a major cyber incident, details are scarce, and it’s very hard to know who is behind it. What happened? There is no official statement of cause, but it is clear that malware spread between devices at Channel 9’s Sydney headquarters, leaving data and production systems inaccessible. ESB-2021.1067 – ALERT Apple Products: Cross-site scripting – Remote with user interaction The bug is under active exploitation by unknown attackers and affects a wide range of devices, including iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches. ESB-2021.1082 – Cisco Products: Multiple vulnerabilities Multiple vulnerabilities on OpenSSL affecting Cisco Products. ESB-2021.1087 – VMWare Products: Multiple vulnerabilities VMware vRealize Operations updates address server side request forgery and arbitrary file write vulnerabilities. ESB-2021.1107 – Google Chrome: Multiple Vulnerabilities Google released stable channel update for Chrome addressing multiple vulnerabilities. ESB-2021.1116 – GitLab: Multiple vulnerabilities Gitlab released new versions for GitLab CE and EE to address multiple vulnerabilities. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

AUSCERT Week in Review for 26th March 2021 Greetings, This week we released the results from our joint 2020 AUSCERT and BDO in Australia Cyber Security Survey. Thank you to all those who helped us with this endeavour! For the fifth year in a row, we surveyed member organisations across Australia and New Zealand, allowing us to clearly unpack the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts on cyber – detailing significant shifts in the way organisations are impacted by, and responding to, evolving cyber threats. “Adaptation is key to winning the battle.” Download a copy of the report here. Also this week, the AUSCERT team conducted yet another analysis on the evolving MS Exchange ProxyLogon vulnerabilities based on a latest report from the Shadowserver team – this report (article) has been highlighted below. Those of you who’d been affected would have been contacted on Wednesday. Members, please check your inbox. This is also a timely reminder to keep your organisation’s IPs and domains up to date on the AUSCERT member portal. Members, a reminder that all nominated Primary and Organisation contact person(s) would have received details regarding your organisation’s member token(s), part of your AUSCERT membership perks which allows you to attend our annual conference for free or as a partially subsidised delegate – please utilise the token(s) by 18 April. Conference registrations can be done via our website here. Also a reminder that AUSCERT2021 has been approved to be a part of the Australian Government’s “Restarting Australia’s Business’ opportunity grant application scheme.” Applications for this grant scheme are due on Tuesday 30th March. To find out more about our sponsorship options, please visit our conference website here. Until next week, have a good weekend everyone. … RIFT: Detection capabilities for recent F5 BIG-IP/BIG-IQ iControl REST API vulnerabilities CVE-2021-22986 Date: 2021-03-18 Author: NCC Group Research On Thursday (Friday, Australian time) cybersecurity firm NCC Group said that it detected successful in the wild exploitation of a recently patched critical vulnerability in F5 BIG-IP and BIG-IQ networking devices. Shadowserver Special Report – Exchange Scanning #5 Date: 2021-03-24 Author: The Shadowserver Foundation Over the past 12 days we have published 5 one-off Special Reports that provided information about the recently patched recently patched zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server (CVE-2021-26855, CVE-2021-26857, CVE-2021-26858 and CVE-2021-27065). This latest Special Report represents our most comprehensive effort yet to enumerate as many vulnerable and compromised Microsoft Exchange Servers as possible. Much of the detection of potentially vulnerable Microsoft Exchange servers performed to date has been based on internet-wide scanning of all ~4 billion IPv4 addresses (IPv4 /0 scanning), which is effective at identifying Exchange/OWA environments which are configured to use the default IP address. However, this kind of mass scanning will not always identify potentially vulnerable Microsoft Exchange servers, since they can also be configured to use web server virtual hosting on fully qualified domain names (FQDNs), rather than simply binding to the default web site instance or a server’s main IP address. In such cases, it is possible that virtual host-based Microsoft Exchange Server instances may be missed during IPv4 /0 scans. Cisco addresses critical bug in Windows, macOS Jabber clients Date: 2021-03-24 Author: Bleeping Computer Cisco has addressed a critical arbitrary program execution vulnerability impacting several versions of Cisco Jabber client software for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Cisco Jabber is a web conferencing and instant messaging app that allows users to send messages via the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). The vulnerability was reported by Olav Sortland Thoresen of Watchcom. Cisco’s Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) says that the flaw is not currently exploited in the wild. Additionally, the vulnerability does not affect Cisco Jabber client software configured for Team Messaging or Phone-only modes. University of Queensland uplifts its vulnerability management Date: 2021-03-23 Author: iTnews The University of Queensland has upgraded its vulnerability management tooling as part of an ongoing security improvements program. The university said it had selected cloud-based Tenable.io to “to see, predict and act to reduce cyber risk across its domestic campuses.” Tenable.io is used to scan the university’s “complex environment made up of tens of thousands of personal devices, vendor partnerships and connections to remote teams and other institutions,” information technology services deputy director Dr David Stockdale said in a statement. Australian firms to spend $4.9b on infosec, risk management in 2021 Date: 2021-03-23 Author: iTWire Organisations in Australia are forecast to spend more than $4.9 billion on enterprise information security and risk management products and services in 2021, an increase of 8% year-on-year, the technology analyst firm Gartner says. The forecast was made during the online Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit APAC which is being held this week. Senior research director Richard Addiscott said the focus on security and risk was due to major attacks like the SolarWinds supply chain incident, proposed legislation such as the Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill 2020 and regulatory obligations “Many of the conversations we’re having with government and private sector clients in Australia revolve around the Essential Eight, varying state government cyber security frameworks, and regulatory instruments such as APRA’s Prudential Standard CPS 234,” said Addiscott. ESB-2021.1010 – ALERT Cisco Jabber: Multiple vulnerabilities Multiple Vulnerabilities in Cisco Jabber could allow for Arbitrary Code Execution. ESB-2021.1003 – Firefox: Multiple vulnerabilities Mozilla has released Firefox 87 fixing multiple vulnerabilities including Remote Code Execution. ESB-2021.1043 – McAfee Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Endpoint for Windows: Increased privileges – Existing account McAfee released update to address privilege escalation vulnerability for Windows. ESB-2021.1056 – OpenSSL: Multiple vulnerabilities OpenSSL version 1.1.1h and newer are affected with multiple vulnerabilities. ESB-2021.1012 – sudo: Root compromise – Existing account An update that addresses one vulnerability in Sudo is now available for Suse products. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

AUSCERT Week in Review for 19th March 2021 Greetings, Another big one for the AUSCERT team with several items we’d like to highlight from this week. We kicked things off on Monday by releasing our Year in Review 2020 piece. Members, we hope you find our review useful and we thank you for your continued support! Last week we highlighted the following “HAFNIUM special report” courtesy of the team from Shadowserver. Since then, the AUSCERT team has conducted a number of analyses based on this information and several follow-up reports from the Shadowserver team. Those of you who’d been affected by the ProxyLogon vulnerabilities would have been contacted throughout this week. Members, please check your inbox. This is also a timely reminder to keep your organisation’s IPs and domains up to date on the AUSCERT member portal. In conjunction with the above, our team also released a blog article and a work flow diagram titled “Patching for HAFNIUM is just half of the story” – link to the blog highlighted below. We strongly recommend reading this piece as it has been created by our analyst team and should assist Microsoft Exchange server caretakers to check and see where within this task-flow they are placed at within their organisation’s incident response plan. Last but not least, another exciting update with respect to AUSCERT2021, we’ve updated our Program page to now include all of our tutorials and hands-on workshop offerings. Members, please note that all nominated Primary and Organisation contact person(s) would have received a reminder email this week pertaining to your member token(s), part of your AUSCERT membership perks – please utilise this by 18 April. Also a reminder that AUSCERT2021 has been approved to be a part of the Australian Government’s “Restarting Australia’s Business’ opportunity grant application scheme.” To find out more, please visit our conference website here. Until next week, have a good weekend everyone. Patching for HAFNIUM is just half of the story Date: 2021-03-16 Author: AUSCERT On the 2nd of March, a posting by The Department of Homeland Security (U.S.) didn’t mince its words and placed an Emergency Directive to perform a thorough check of any Microsoft Exchange servers at your control. This article served a guide for “agencies that have the expertise” to “forensically triage artefacts”. Since then there have been a number of tools that have been made available to enable the task of identifying, checking, mitigating, patching, and cleaning of your servers and systems. The key take-away here is that there has been (and this continues to grow) a huge amount of effort in making sure that caretakers go beyond the simple sole act of patching. Guidance for responders: Investigating and remediating on-premises Exchange Server vulnerabilities Date: 2021-03-16 Author: Microsoft Security Response Center Microsoft has provided the latest information for IT Pros and incident response teams with updated tools and investigation guidance to help organizations identify, remediate, defend against attacks associated with the recent Exchange Server vulnerabilities. Melbourne’s Eastern Health hit by suspected cyber attack Date: 2021-03-18 Author: iTnews One of Melbourne’s largest metropolitan public health services has postponed some elective surgery procedures after experiencing a “cyber incident”. The incident, which took place late on Tuesday, has forced Eastern Health to pull a number of its IT systems offline as a precaution. Eastern Health operates the Box Hill, Maroondah, Healesville and Angliss hospitals, as well as a number of health services, including Yarra Ranges Health and Wantirna Health. Microsoft releases one-click Exchange On-Premises Mitigation Tool Date: 2021-03-15 Author: Bleeping Computer Microsoft has released a one-click Exchange On-premises Mitigation Tool (EOMT) tool to allow small business owners to easily mitigate the recently disclosed ProxyLogon vulnerabilities. This month, Microsoft disclosed that four zero-day vulnerabilities were being actively used in attacks against Microsoft Exchange. These vulnerabilities are collectively known as ProxyLogon and are being used by threat actors to drop web shells, cryptominers, and more recently, the DearCry ransomware on exploited servers. Today, Microsoft released the EOMT one-click PowerShell script so that small business owners who do not have dedicated or security teams can get further help securing their Microsoft Exchange servers. IC3 Releases 2020 Internet Crime Report Date: 2021-03-17 Author: FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has released its annual report. The 2020 Internet Crime Report includes information from 791,790 complaints of suspected internet crime—an increase of more than 300,000 complaints from 2019—and reported losses exceeding $4.2 billion. State-specific statistics have also been released and can be found within the 2020 Internet Crime Report and in the accompanying 2020 State Reports. The top three crimes reported by victims in 2020 were phishing scams, non-payment/non-delivery scams, and extortion. Victims lost the most money to business email compromise scams, romance and confidence schemes, and investment fraud. Notably, 2020 saw the emergence of scams exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic. The IC3 received over 28,500 complaints related to COVID-19, with fraudsters targeting both businesses and individuals. Survey: Australia, NZ organisations now realise their security overconfidence Date: 2021-03-16 Author: CSO Online It took a global pandemic, but enterprises and government agencies in Australia and New Zealand are now rethinking their approach to cybersecurity—taking it seriously for the first time in a while. That’s the conclusion of a survey of about 435 people in Australia and about 40 in New Zealand by the Australian arm of the global business services firm BDO and Australia’s AUSCERT cybersecurity rapid response team. Fewer organisations (55%) now feel confident in managing cyber incidents, down from 62% just a year earlier, the survey found. New PoC for Microsoft Exchange bugs puts attacks in reach of anyone Date: 2021-03-14 Author: Bleeping Computer A security researcher has released a new proof-of-concept exploit this weekend that requires slight modification to install web shells on Microsoft Exchange servers vulnerable to the actively exploited ProxyLogon vulnerabilities. Security flaws in Microsoft email software raise questions over Australia’s cybersecurity approach Date: 2021-03-12 Author: The Conversation On March 2, 2021, Microsoft published information about four critical vulnerabilities in its widely used Exchange email server software that are being actively exploited. It also released security updates for all versions of Exchange back to 2010. Microsoft has told cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs it was notified of the vulnerabilities in “early January”. The Australian Cyber Security Centre has also issued a notice on the vulnerabilities. The situation has been widely reported in the general media as well as specialist cybersecurity sites, but often inaccurately. But the situation also highlights a contradiction in government cybersecurity policy – there is a basic conflict between building offensive cybersecurity capabilities and protecting our own businesses and citizens. ASB-2021.0048.5 – UPDATE ALERT Microsoft Exchange Server: Execute arbitrary code/commands – Remote/unauthenticated Microsoft’s out-of-band critical updates address a number of Microsoft Exchange Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities. ESB-2021.0872.2 – UPDATED ALERT BIG-IP Products: Multiple vulnerabilities F5 Networks identifies more BIG-IP Products impacted by the Advanced WAF/ASM buffer-overflow vulnerability. ESB-2021.0906 – ALERT Google Chrome: Multiple vulnerabilities Google’s update for Google Chrome fixes multiple vulnerabilities. ESB-2021.0943 – shadow: Multiple vulnerabilities Several vulnerabilities discovered in the shadow suite of login tools. ESB-2021.0950 – Cisco Products: Multiple vulnerabilities Cisco has released software updates that address multiple vulnerabilities in Cisco RV132W VPN Routers. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Patching for HAFNIUM is just half of the story UPDATE 2021-03-17  Altered the diagram with respect to new guidance from Microsoft [6]   On the 2nd of March, a posting by The Department of Homeland Security (U.S.) didn’t mince its words and placed an Emergency Directive to perform a thorough check of any Microsoft Exchange servers at your control [1]. This article served a guide for “agencies that have the expertise” to “forensically triage artefacts”. Note that the 2nd of March was two weeks ago now – since then there have been a number of tools that have been made available to enable the task of identifying, checking, mitigating, patching, and cleaning of your servers and systems [2][3][4]. These tools were created to help caretakers of Microsoft Exchange Servers that are deemed vulnerable to quickly AND efficiently purge – to the best effort possible – any compromise(s) of the servers.  The lesson here is that there has been (and this continues to grow) a huge amount of effort in making sure that caretakers go beyond the simple sole act of patching. Currently there are activities from third-parties to help notify those caretakers of Exchange Servers should their systems appear flagged as being vulnerable. More often than not, the response may be is “It’s OK, we have just patched!”. Whilst this in itself is good, in the light of the fact that these vulnerabilities were 0-day, and the patch came after exploit activities were detected, ALL instances of the Exchange Server needs to be checked if any compromise(s) have happened – due to the fact that persistent mechanisms, such as a webshell(s), may have been already installed.  Indicators of Compromise are being gathered on a daily basis [5], and the tools are being revamped so it also means that each time there is an update to the tools made available, it may also be wise to check if the newest version picks anything up! A diagram (see below) has been created by our team, which should assist Microsoft Exchange server caretakers to check and see where in their task-flow they are at.  Let it be noted there is no real hard-stop listed on this diagram. Until there are no more indicators being published and the tool(s) have stopped being updated, we recommend referring to it. Additionally, there are bound to be more useful tool(s) made available after the publication of this article – so do stay vigilant!     Good luck, stay informed and stay safe. AUSCERT Team    References [1] https://cyber.dhs.gov/ed/21-02/ [2] https://github.com/microsoft/CSS-Exchange/tree/main/Security [3] https://github.com/ANSSI-FR/DFIR-O365RC [4] https://checkmyowa.unit221b.com/ [5] https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/alerts/aa21-062a [6] https://msrc-blog.microsoft.com/2021/03/16/guidance-for-responders-investigating-and-remediating-on-premises-exchange-server-vulnerabilities/    Resource noted in Diagram  NMAP Scan Report – http-vuln-cve2021-26855.nse https://github.com/microsoft/CSS-Exchange/tree/main/Security#http-vuln-cve2021-26855nse Shadowserver Reports March 11 ’21 https://www.shadowserver.org/news/shadowserver-special-reports-exchange-scanning/March 12 ’21 https://www.shadowserver.org/news/shadowserver-special-reports-exchange-scanning-2/March 15 ’21 https://www.shadowserver.org/news/shadowserver-special-reports-exchange-scanning-3/March 15 ’21 https://www.shadowserver.org/news/shadowserver-special-reports-exchange-scanning-4/ Microsoft Defender for Endpoint https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/microsoft-365/security/endpoint-defender Check My OWA https://checkmyowa.unit221b.com/ ExchangeMitigations.ps1 https://github.com/microsoft/CSS-Exchange/tree/main/Security#exchangemitigationsps1   PATCH THE SERVERS https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/released-march-2021-exchange-server-security-updates/ba-p/2175901   microsoft/CSS-Exchange https://github.com/microsoft/CSS-Exchange/tree/main/Security   aa21-062a https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/alerts/aa21-062a  

2020 Year in Review AUSCERT Year in Review for 2020, originally published here: https://auscert.shorthandstories.com/auscert-year-in-review-2020/index.html The various PDF files listed below reflect the various infographs showcased on the report. Some key highlights below: > We saw a rise in the number of AUSCERT membership organisations, reflecting the current sentiment around our country – cyber security is everyone’s responsibility. > In 2020, the AUSCERT team handled over 3800 incident management tickets. > Despite the challenges in 2020, the team stayed engaged with our member constituents and sector; emphasizing the importance of this aspect as a part of our 2021 strategy (re-visit this here: https://wordpress-admin.auscert.org.au/blog/auscert-what-expect-2021)   Attached Documents auscert-year-in-review-2020.pdf currentmembers.pdf incidents_bymonth.pdf incidents_byclassification.pdf incidents-3d.pdf bulletins_totals.pdf bulletins.pdf msin_byincidentclassification.pdf msin_byclassificationpie.pdf msin_byclassificationtotals.pdf

AUSCERT Week in Review for 12th March 2021 Greetings, What a week it has been for the folks in our sector! With admins already struggling with Microsoft Exchange updates and hacked servers – along comes Microsoft’s March 2021 Patch Tuesday, and not to forget, celebrating and honouring the many women in our lives for International Women’s Day. We wanted to start by highlighting a “HAFNIUM special report” courtesy of the team from Shadowserver. Members, please note that the AUSCERT team has conducted an analysis based on this information and those of you who’d been affected would have been contacted by our analyst team. Please check your inbox. This is also a timely reminder to keep your organisation’s IPs and domains up to date on the AUSCERT member portal. We kicked off things this week by releasing this piece on the “The heroes of AUSCERT2020 … the women in security who made it happen.” which was first featured on Edition 1 of the Women in Security magazine by Source2Create. Be sure to catch up on our summary of critical vulnerabilities and advice on SEVERAL issues this week, all highlighted below: BIG-IP, F5, Microsoft and Adobe Creative Cloud. Last but not least, our team’s elated to announce that AUSCERT2021 has been approved to be a part of the Australian Government’s “Restarting Australia’s Business’ opportunity grant application scheme.” To find out more, please visit our conference website here. Until next week, have a good and restful weekend everyone. March 2021 Patch Tuesday: Microsoft fixes yet another actively exploited IE zero-day Date: 2021-03-09 Author: Help Net Security [With admins already struggling with Microsoft Exchange updates and hacked servers – along comes Microsoft’s March 2021 Patch Tuesday, and releases from Adobe and Apple too! Please refer to the multiple AUSCERT security bulletin alerts in-line below.] Microsoft has fixed 89 CVEs. Among those are the seven Microsoft Exchange flaws fixed last week, one Internet Explorer memory corruption flaw that’s being exploited in the wild, and one Windows Win32k EoP flaw that is publicly known. [See related AUSCERT bulletins ASB-2021.0050 51, 53, 54 and 56, which we marked as “alerts”. CVE-2021-26411 and 26897 are considered critical by Microsoft and covered in these bulletins. We also published other MS bulletins 55 and 57, which are not alerts.] Adobe has delivered security updates for Connect, Creative Cloud Desktop Application, and Framemaker […] [See ESB-2021.0860. These are ranked by Adobe as critical, but aren’t as urgent as some of Microsoft’s.] Apple has pushed out security updates to fix a critical RCE flaw in WebKit. [ESBs 821, 825, 826 and 827.] HAFNIUM targeting Exchange Servers with 0-day exploits Date: 2021-03-02 Author: Microsoft Security Blog [Please see AUSCERT bulletin ASB-2021.0048.3 for further information. See also https://github.com/microsoft/CSS-Exchange/tree/main/Security for information on some security scripts that automate all four of the commands listed on the blog below.] “Microsoft continues to see increased use of these vulnerabilities in attacks targeting unpatched systems by multiple malicious actors beyond HAFNIUM. To aid customers in investigating these attacks, we are sharing the following resources.” F5 urges customers to patch critical BIG-IP pre-auth RCE bug Date: 2021-03-10 Author: Bleeping Computer [See related AUSCERT bulletin ESB-2021.0872.] F5 Networks, a leading provider of enterprise networking gear, has announced four critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities affecting most BIG-IP and BIG-IQ software versions. F5 BIG-IP software and hardware customers include governments, Fortune 500 firms, banks, internet service providers, and consumer brands (including Microsoft, Oracle, and Facebook), with the company claiming that “48 of the Fortune 50 rely on F5.” The four critical vulnerabilities listed below also include a pre-auth RCE security flaw (CVE-2021-22986) which allows unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands on compromised BIG-IP devices: – CVE-2021-22986 iControl REST unauthenticated RCE – CVE-2021-22987 Appliance Mode TMUI authenticated RCE – CVE-2021-22991 TMM buffer-overflow – CVE-2021-22992 Advanced WAF/ASM buffer-overflow Adobe Critical Code-Execution Flaws Plague Windows Users Date: 2021-03-09 Author: Threatpost [See related AUSCERT bulletin ESB-2021.0860 for further information.] Adobe has issued patches for a slew of critical security vulnerabilities, which, if exploited, could allow for arbitrary code execution on vulnerable Windows systems. While these vulnerabilities are classified as critical-severity flaws, it’s important to note that they were given “priority 3” ratings by Adobe. This means that the update “resolves vulnerabilities in a product that has historically not been a target for attackers,” and that administrators are urged to “install the update at their discretion.” Peter Dutton launches Cyber Security Industry Advisory Committee Ransomware Paper Date: 2021-03-11 Author: iTWire The Federal Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, and his office say that “ransomware continues to be a prevalent global threat, and cyber criminals pose a significant risk to Australians and Australian businesses.” To build awareness about the ransomware threat, the Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, and Chair of the Cyber Security Industry Advisory Committee, Telstra CEO Andrew Penn, have released the Committee’s first paper: “Locked out: Tackling the ransomware threat.” ASB-2021.0048.4 – UPDATE ALERT Microsoft Exchange Server: Execute arbitrary code/commands – Remote/unauthenticated Microsoft have released a major revision increment of the CVEs to address Exchange Server vulnerabilities. ESB-2021.0870 – ALERT F5 Products: Multiple vulnerabilities F5 have released updates for critical vulnerabilities in BIG-IP components. F5 recommends that all customers install a fixed software version as soon as possible. ESB-2021.0860 – Creative Cloud Desktop Application: Multiple vulnerabilities Adobe has released patches for widely-used Creative Cloud Desktop Application for Windows resolving multiple critical vulnerabilities. ASB-2021.0051 – ALERT Windows: Multiple vulnerabilities Microsoft released its monthly security patch update for March 2021 which resolves 59 vulnerabilities. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

AUSCERT Week in Review for 5th March 2021 Greetings, This week we would like to congratulate the team from Source2Create on the launch of their 1st edition of the Women In Security magazine. Our team were lucky to have been given the opportunity to spread the word about our upcoming AUSCERT2021 conference as well as publish an article covering the work of the various women in security involved in making AUSCERT2020 a success last year! In honour of International Women’s Day, we will be sharing this piece on our social media channels next Monday 8th March. If you haven’t already, please do subscribe to the Women In Security magazine here. Members, please look out for an email which would have landed in your inbox earlier this week detailing your member token details – part of your AUSCERT membership perks. These tokens can be applied against both modes of registrations: In-Person OR Remote (Virtual). Should you have any further queries regarding these tokens, please feel free to reach out to our membership team. Be sure to catch up on our summary of critical vulnerability and advice on Microsoft Exchange this week. The relevant details can be found below. Last but not least, thank you to those who supported our partnership with the team from Tessian.. The Human Layer Security Summit was a successful virtual event and for those of you who missed the live event, you’ll be able to catch up on all of its content on-demand. To our friends and colleagues in Sydney, Happy Mardi Gras weekend and stay safe. Until next week, have a good weekend. Google patches actively exploited Chrome browser zero-day vulnerability Date: 2021-03-03 Author: ZDNet [ Additional resource available here, Google’s Project Zero tracking sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lkNJ0uQwbeC1ZTRrxdtuPLCIl7mlUreoKfSIgajnSyY/edit?usp=sharing.] Google has warned of reports that a zero-day vulnerability in the Chrome browser is being actively exploited in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2021-21166, was reported by Alison Huffman from the Microsoft Browser Vulnerability Research team on February 11 and is described as an “object lifecycle issue in audio.” Google has labeled the vulnerability as a “high” severity security flaw and has fixed the issue in the latest Chrome release. Microsoft issues emergency patches for 4 exploited 0-days in Exchange Date: 2021-03-03 Author: Ars Technica [Please refer to the following AUSCERT security bulletin: ASB-2021.0048.] Microsoft is urging customers to install emergency patches as soon as possible to protect against highly skilled hackers who are actively exploiting four zero-day vulnerabilities in Exchange Server. The software maker said hackers working on behalf of the Chinese government have been using the previously unknown exploits to hack on-premises Exchange Server software that is fully patched. So far, Hafnium, as Microsoft is calling the hackers, is the only group it has seen exploiting the vulnerabilities, but the company said that could change. Universal Health Services lost $67 million due to Ryuk ransomware attack Date: 2021-03-01 Author: Bleeping Computer [Additional reading: an English version of the CERT-FR Ryuk ransomware report is now available for perusal via https://www.cert.ssi.gouv.fr/cti/CERTFR-2021-CTI-006/] Universal Health Services (UHS) said that the Ryuk ransomware attack it suffered during September 2020 had an estimated impact of $67 million. UHS, a Fortune 500 hospital and healthcare services provider, has over 90,000 employees who provide services to roughly 3.5 million patients each year in more than 400 US and UK healthcare facilities. UHS said last week that the Ryuk ransomware attack “had an aggregate unfavorable pre-tax impact of approximately $67 million during the year ended December 31, 2020.” “The substantial majority of the unfavorable impact was attributable to our acute care services and consisted primarily of lost operating income resulting from the related decrease in patient activity as well as increased revenue reserves recorded in connection with the associated billing delays,” UHS added. Australia’s new ‘hacking’ powers considered too wide-ranging and coercive by OAIC Date: 2021-03-02 Author: ZDNet The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has labelled the powers given to two law enforcement bodies within three new computer warrants as “wide-ranging and coercive in nature”. The Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020, if passed, would hand the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) the new warrants for dealing with online crime. The first of the warrants is a data disruption one, which according to the Bill’s explanatory memorandum, is intended to be used to prevent “continuation of criminal activity by participants, and be the safest and most expedient option where those participants are in unknown locations or acting under anonymous or false identities”. The second is a network activity warrant that would allow the AFP and ACIC to collect intelligence from devices that are used, or likely to be used, by those subject to the warrant. ESB-2021.0803 – ALERT Google Chrome: Multiple vulnerabilities Google reports that an exploit for CVE-2021-21166 exists in the wild. ASB-2021.0048.3 – UPDATE ALERT Microsoft Exchange Server: Execute arbitrary code/commands – Remote/unauthenticated There are reports that these zero-day RCE vulnerabilities are being exploited in the wild. ESB-2021.0780 – Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO): Access confidential data – Remote/unauthenticated Cisco released a raft of advisories and updates this week, including this one. ESB-2021.0748 – grub2: Multiple vulnerabilities These grub2 issues affect many linux and unix-like systems. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

AUSCERT Week in Review for 26th February 2021 Greetings, This week we are very excited to announce a number of updates with respect to AUSCERT2021. For the first time ever, the annual AUSCERT conference will be delivered in a hybrid format. Registrations are now open, and we’d like to highlight several sections of the conference website which might be of interest: a list of our selected Speakers, our up-to-date Program details, details on our conference costs, details regarding our venue & accommodation and last but not least, a list of frequently asked questions. To our AUSCERT members, look out for a separate email landing in your inbox next week detailing your member token privilege(s) – part of your AUSCERT membership perks for the conference this year. Be sure to catch up on our summary of critical vulnerabilities and patches affecting VMware and Cisco. The list of relevant bulletins and further details can be found below. And last but not least, AUSCERT is proud to be an official partner of the 4th Human Layer Security Summit hosted by the team from Tessian. This is a virtual event and by signing up to participate as a delegate, you’ll be able to catch up on all of its content on-demand. Until next week, have a good weekend everyone. More than 6,700 VMware servers exposed online and vulnerable to major new bug Date: 2021-02-24 Author: ZDNet [Please refer to the following AUSCERT security bulletin ESB-2021.0677.] More than 6,700 VMware vCenter servers are currently exposed online and vulnerable to a new attack that can allow hackers to take over unpatched devices and effectively take over companies’ entire networks. Scans for VMware vCenter devices are currently underway, according to threat intelligence firm Bad Packets. The scans have started earlier today after a Chinese security researcher published proof-of-concept code on their blog for a vulnerability tracked as CVE-2021-21972. This vulnerability impacts vSphere Client (HTML5), a plugin of VMware vCenter, a type of server usually deployed inside large enterprise networks as a centralized management utility through which IT personnel manage VMware products installed on local workstations. Qantas urges govt to chip in for cyber incident interventions Date: 2021-02-22 Author: iTnews Qantas has joined other sectors in asking the government to at least partially cover the cost of complying with proposed laws aimed at better defending the country’s critical infrastructure networks and systems from cyber attacks. In its submission to the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security review of the Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill, the airline said funding was necessary to support the bill’s objectives. Airplane maker Bombardier data posted on ransomware leak site following FTA hack Date: 2021-02-23 Author: ZDNet Canadian airplane manufacturer Bombardier has disclosed today a security breach after some of its data was published on a dark web portal operated by the Clop ransomware gang. “An initial investigation revealed that an unauthorized party accessed and extracted data by exploiting a vulnerability affecting a third-party file-transfer application, which was running on purpose-built servers isolated from the main Bombardier IT network,” the company said in a press release today. While the company did not specifically name the appliance, they are most likely referring to Accellion FTA, a web server that can be used by companies to host and share large files that can’t be sent via email to customers and employees. Ransomware gangs are running riot – paying them off doesn’t help Date: 2021-02-17 Author: The Conversation In the past five years, ransomware attacks have evolved from rare misfortunes into common and disruptive threats. Hijacking the IT systems of organisations and forcing them to pay a ransom in order to reclaim them, cybercriminals are freely extorting millions of pounds from companies – and they’re enjoying a remarkably low risk of arrest as they do it. At the moment, there is no coordinated response to ransomware attacks, despite their ever-increasing prevalence and severity. Instead, states’ intelligence services respond to cybercriminals on an ad-hoc basis, while cyber-insurance firms recommend their clients simply pay off the criminal gangs that extort them. Neither of these strategies is sustainable. Instead, organisations need to redouble their cybersecurity efforts to stymie the flow of cash from blackmailed businesses to cybercriminal gangs. Failure to act means that cybercriminals will continue investing their growing loot in ransomware technologies, keeping them one step ahead of our protective capabilities. Cyber Security Pilot to Bolster Small to Medium Business Against Hack Attacks Date: 2021-02-23 Author: Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre (CSCRC) In an Australian first, the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre (CSCRC) will lead a ‘hands on’ pilot project focused on uplifting cyber security across Australia’s small to medium business sector (SMEs). The pilot, which was launched in Adelaide yesterday, will involve six South Australian SMEs across a broad range of critical sectors, from medical services to satellite technologies, measuring their baseline cyber security and providing practical, cost effective uplift solutions over six months. A collaboration between the CSCRC, CyberCX, CSIRO’s Data61 and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), and supported by the Government of South Australia, the pilot will provide a blueprint for SME cyber uplift that can be rolled out across the nation. The CSCRC is part of the Federal Government’s Cooperative Research Centres program, administered by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources. ESB-2021.0677 – ALERT VMware Products: Multiple vulnerabilities Remote Code Execution issue with multiple Proof-of-Concept exploits available ESB-2021.0705 – ALERT Cisco NX-OS: Multiple vulnerabilities Multiple remotely exploitable vulnerabilities have been patched ESB-2021.0698 – Cisco ACI Multi-Site Orchestrator (MSO): Multiple vulnerabilities Critical Cisco authentication bypass vulnerability ESB-2021.0675 – Mozilla Firefox and Firefox ESR: Multiple vulnerabilities Mozilla updates available Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

AUSCERT Week in Review for 19th February 2021 Greetings, This week we hosted our very first event for the year! We hosted a joint webinar session which took place yesterday (Thursday 18th February) with the folks from Digital Shadows. The topic of this webinar was “Automation when you can’t automate – the human process journey”, a copy of the recording can be viewed here. We are also pleased to announce that our AUSCERT2021 Call for Speakers panel managed to review and score all of the submissions for this year. Congratulations to all speakers whose submissions were accepted and thank you to everyone else who submitted. As always, we were lucky to receive an overwhelming number of submissions and the decision making process wasn’t easy. A big shout-out to our panel which comprised of AUSCERT internal staff and colleagues from a range of external organisations and roles who assisted us along the process. We couldn’t have done it without you! We look forward to sharing the details regarding our speakers and program in the coming days. To stay up to date on our conference details, please visit our website. Last but not least, a reminder to all members that you can join us at the AUSCERT – Members Slack space by logging in with your member portal credentials. The space is a safe and quick way to stay engaged with the AUSCERT team. If you’re having any issues with the process, drop us a line and we’ll be able to assist. What is Slack? Find out more about it here. Until next week, have a good weekend everyone. Malvertiser abused WebKit zero-day to redirect iOS & macOS users to shady sites Date: 2021-02-16 Author: ZDNet A cybercrime group specialized in showing malicious ads has abused an unpatched zero-day vulnerability in WebKit-based browsers to break security restrictions and redirect users from legitimate portals to shady sites hosting online gift card scams. The attacks were first spotted in June 2020 and are still active today; however, patches for the WebKit zero-day have been released at the start of the month. 2021 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report: Information Security Edition Date: 2021-02-16 Author: EDUCAUSE [EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit higher education technology association that helps higher education elevate the impact of IT. They are based in the USA.] This report profiles important trends and key technologies and practices shaping the future of information security, and envisions a number of scenarios and implications for that future. It is based on the perspectives and expertise of a global panel of leaders from across the higher education landscape. How Australian cyber experts got comms back up in PNG tribal war Date: 2021-02-16 Author: Australian Financial Review A Canberra-based cyber-security firm has helped a multi-organisation operation get critical communications back up for a hospital in Papua New Guinea in the midst of an outbreak of tribal fighting. Local media reported at least 19 people were killed during the tribal violence outbreak in the country’s Hela province, many more injured and around 6000 people, mainly women and children, fleeing into the surrounding forests due to the violence. Robert Potter, security adviser and chief executive at Canberra-based cyber defence consultancy Internet 2.0, said the firm was invited to help with the relief effort, co-ordinated by the Papua New Guinea Police and security firm Black Swan, along with the United Nations and Internet 2.0’s partner on the ground Astrolab PNG. Microsoft will alert Office 365 admins of Forms phishing attempts Date: 2021-02-15 Author: Bleeping Computer Microsoft is adding new security warnings to the Security and Compliance Center default alert policies to inform IT admins of detected phishing attempts abusing Microsoft Forms in their tenants. This cybersecurity threat costs business millions. And it’s the one they often forget about Date: 2021-02-16 Author: ZDNet While ransomware is the cyberattack most feared by businesses, another form of cybercrime is slipping under the radar, one that is proving highly lucrative for internet fraudsters – and costly to business. A business email compromise (BEC) attack sees cyber criminals use social engineering to trick an employee at a business into transferring a large sum of money to an account controlled by the crooks. ESB-2021.0542 – SUSE Manager Client Tools: Multiple vulnerabilities SUSE Security Update fixes four vulnerabilities in SUSE Manager Client Tools. ESB-2021.0555 – McAfee Endpoint Security: Multiple vulnerabilities The update for McAfee Endpoint Security for Windows fixes five vulnerabilities. ESB-2021.0581 – Google Chrome: Multiple vulnerabilities The Stable channel update for Windows, Mac and Linux fixes multiple vulnerabilities. ESB-2021.0602 – Cisco Webex Meetings Desktop App & Webex Productivity Tools: Access confidential data – Existing account Cisco has released software updates that address a vulnerability in Cisco Webex Meetings Desktop App and Webex Productivity Tools for Windows. ESB-2021.0609 – McAfee Web Gateway: Root compromise – Existing account Security updates fix sudo vulnerability in the Linux-based appliances and virtual machines. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

AUSCERT Week in Review for 12th February 2021 Greetings, This week saw our team supporting the 2021 Safer Internet Day initiative, it is such an important topic and we’ve shared some tips on how to “start the chat” via a blogpost here. With Patch Tuesday taking place this week, be sure to note our Security Bulletins highlighted below. A couple of important ones to note from the folks at Adobe and Microsoft. Members, look out for a copy of our membership newsletter aka The Feed which landed in your inbox earlier this week. Our first edition for the year was a bumper one with updates on our strategy for the year, how to optimise your engagement with our team, an update on the AUSCERT2021 conference and a section featuring AUSCERT in the media – we hope you found the February issue a valuable read. Last but not least, a reminder that we will be hosting our very first event for the year, a joint webinar session will take place next Thursday 18th February with the folks from Digital Shadows. The topic of this webinar will be “Automation when you can’t automate – the human process journey”, further details and the link to register can be found here. Until next week, have a good weekend – to our friends and colleagues in Victoria, we are thinking of you, stay safe and let’s remember to keep washing our hands and practise those good Covid-safe habits; and to those who celebrate the Lunar New Year festivities, may the Year of the Ox be a prosperous and kinder one for all. Attackers Exploit Critical Adobe Bug, Target Windows Date: 2021-02-09 Author: Threatpost [Refer to bulletins ESB-2021.0443 and ESB-2021.0444] Adobe is warning of a critical vulnerability that has been exploited in the wild to target Adobe Reader users on Windows. The vulnerability (CVE-2021-21017) has been exploited in “limited attacks,” according to Adobe’s Tuesday advisory, part of its regularly scheduled February updates. The flaw in question is a critical-severity heap-based buffer overflow flaw. Microsoft urges customers to patch critical Windows TCP/IP bugs Date: 2021-02-09 Author: Bleeping Computer [Refer to bulletin ASB-2021.0044] Microsoft has urged customers today to install security updates for three Windows TCP/IP vulnerabilities rated as critical and high severity as soon as possible. The three TCP/IP security vulnerabilities impact computers running Windows client and server versions starting with Windows 7 and higher. Federal government launches $26.5 million grants scheme to boost cyber security workforce Date: 2021-02-08 Author: SmartCompany A $26.5 million grants program is set to bolster Australia’s cyber security workforce, in a move that could give a boost to the Aussie industry, and start “the right kind of conversations” around cyber. The Federal government’s Cyber Security Skills Partnership Innovation Fund is intended to provide both industry participants and education providers with the funding to deliver projects to “improve the quality or availability” of cyber security professionals. It’s about ensuring a future pipeline of skilled workers in this sector, and it’s specifically targeted at bringing more women into the industry. The scheme is also designed to build stronger partnerships between the industry and education providers. Grants of between $250,000 and $3 million will available for projects that see partnering entities working together to “build the next generation of cyber security experts”, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews said in a statement. Intel Patches Tens of Vulnerabilities in Software, Hardware Products Date: 2021-02-10 Author: SecurityWeek Intel on Tuesday announced the release of updates that patch tens of vulnerabilities across many of the company’s software and hardware products. The list of high-severity flaws includes a privilege escalation issue in the Intel Solid State Drive Toolbox, and a denial-of-service flaw in the XMM 7360 Cell Modem that can be exploited by an unauthenticated attacker who has network access. [All 19 advisories are published on our site between ESB-2021.0457 and 486.] What’s most interesting about the Florida water system hack? That we heard about it at all Date: 2021-02-10 Author: Krebs on Security Stories about computer security tend to go viral when they bridge the vast divide between geeks and luddites, and this week’s news about a hacker who tried to poison a Florida town’s water supply was understandably front-page material. But for security nerds who’ve been warning about this sort of thing for ages, the most surprising aspect of the incident seems to be that we learned about it at all. “It’s a difficult thing to get organizations to report cybersecurity incidents,” said Michael Arceneaux, managing director of the Water ISAC, an industry group that tries to facilitate information sharing and the adoption of best practices among utilities in the water sector. ASB-2021.0044 – ALERT Windows: Multiple vulnerabilities Microsoft released its monthly security patch update for February 2021 which resolves 28 vulnerabilities. ESB-2021.0444 – ALERT Magento: Multiple vulnerabilities Magento’s updates for Magento Commerce and Magento Open Source edition resolve vulnerabilities rated important and critical. ESB-2021.0443 – ALERT Adobe Acrobat and Reader: Multiple vulnerabilities The security updates for Adobe Acrobat and Reader for Windows and macOS address multiple critical and important vulnerabilities. ASB-2021.0047 – Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Services and Web Apps: Multiple Vulnerabilities Microsoft’s patch Tuesday updates for the month of February 2021 resolves 11 vulnerabilities across Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Services and Web Apps. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team