Web Server Takedown Called Speech Threat
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Devin Theriot-Orr, a member a feisty group of reporter-activists called Indymedia, was surprised when two FBI agents showed up at his Seattle law office, saying the visit was a "courtesy call" on behalf of Swiss authorities.
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(InfoWorld) - The SANS Internet Storm Center on Friday raised its threat level to yellow after observing an increase in the number of Internet-based attempts to exploit a zero-day vulnerability discovered earlier in the week. Dozens of Web sites are exploiting the vector markup language and the number is growing, said Ed Skoudis, a SANS incident handler. The vulnerability, discovered Monday by Sunbelt Software, is also being exploited by an unknown volume of e-mail, he said. The VML exploit, which allows the remote execution of code, is worrisome to security experts because the only action required for infection is viewing a malicious Web site using Internet Explorer or viewing a specially formatted HTML e-mail with Outlook. So far, there are no reports of trusted Web sites trying to exploit the vulnerability. "We're anticipating that somebody is going to pop a trusted site and then we'll have a big problem," said Skoudis. "We went to yellow so people will do work-arounds." Microsoft said earlier this week it was aware of the problem and planned to issue a patch next month during its regularly scheduled update, "or sooner if necessary." Among the work-arounds is a patch being made available by the Zeroday Emergency Response Team (ZERT). The group also offers a Web page to test whether a machine has successfully been patched. Other temporary remedies include unregistering vgx.dll, the dll file that is targeted in attacks, or simply not using Internet Explorer and Outlook. Scott Deacon, a program manager with Microsoft's Security Response Center, said on the company's Web site that attacks remain limited. "Thereâs been some confusion about that, that somehow attacks are dramatic and widespread," Deacon wrote. "Weâre just not seeing that from our data, and our Microsoft Security Response Alliance partners arenât seeing that at all either." Microsoft cannot vouch for the quality of third-party fixes, and users should always install Microsoft updates as soon as they become available, Deacon added. But other groups also warned that the VML vulnerability was becoming a bigger target. Websense Security Labs said it has monitored attacks that include Trojan backdoors and code that is designed to steal information from end-user machines. Several Web sites are publishing example code, making it easier for others to pull off an attack, Websense said on its Web site.
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Several antispam organizations have been targeted by an attempt to knock them offline.
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Anti-virus experts at Sophos have advised that a new Internet worm is defacing web bulletin boards across the globe. The Santy worm exploits a vulnerability in a piece of software often used to provide discussion
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US authorities issued a court order on October 7 to Rackspace to physically remove Global Indymedia servers in the US and UK. The agency requesting the seizure was the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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(InfoWorld) - Skype users are under attack from aÂ new wormÂ that spreads through the peer-to-peer Internet phone application'sÂ chat feature. The attack begins when a user receives an instant message containing a link from someone in their contact list or an unknown Skype user, said Villu Arak, a Skype spokesman based in Tallinn, Estonia. There are several versions of the chat messages, which are "cleverly written" to fool users, Arak wrote on the Skype heartbeat blog. The link appears to contain a JPEG photo file, but if clicked causes the Windows run/save dialog box to appear, which asks whether the user wants to save or run a ".scr" file. The file is malicious software that can then access a user's PC via Skype's API (application programming interface). The malicious file has been named W32/Ramex.A. "Users whose computers are infected with this virus will send a chat message to other Skype users asking them to click on a web link that can infect" their computers, Arak wrote. To avoid trouble, users should not download the file. At least two security vendors, F-Secure and Kaspersky Lab, have updated their software to detect the worm, Arak wrote. Instant message programs are another way hackers can try to gain control over PCs. Access to one person's instant messenger or e-mail account can mean contact details for many others, allowing hackers to use malicious e-mails or instant messages to lure victims into downloading malicious software. Â
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Malware arrives in an e-mail message, launches denial of service attack.
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Handling of images could allow an attacker to take over your PC.
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According to security researchers, Windows Vista's speech-recognition feature is flawed and hackers could use it to remotely force a PC to execute commands.
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Have adware and spyware commandeered your computer? An extreme solution: erasing your hard drive and starting over.
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Good-guy sites, like CastleCops.com, are suffering Web site outages from distributed denial-of-service attacks.
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VOIP service Skype is warning users about a Windows worm that spreads through the Skype's chat service, posing as a legitimate chat message.
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Skype warns users password-stealing Trojan horse is making the rounds, disguised as a Skype security plug-in
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Online attackers have briefly disrupted service on at least two of the 13 "root" servers that are used to direct traffic on the Internet.
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Update addresses potential denial-of-service vulnerabilities as well as a flaw in QuickTime.
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An attack combining malicious codes on Web sites and end-user laziness could compromise millions of routers still configured with their out-of-the-box defaults.
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A directory reversal within "flat" extensions could lead to system profile attacks.