Christian Wenz's Blog: SANS Top-20 Internet Security Attack Targets
635724
In a new post on his blog, Christian Wenz mentions the latest results of the SANS Institute's Top 20 Internet Security Attack Targets list which both includes a new entry ("Users") and several mentions of PHP and PHP-related applications.   Of course you can debate how such a Top list came together and what the real value behind that is, but there are two specific points in this year's list that I found quite interesting.   There's two targets for the PHP community to worry about - sysadmin/hosting and things developers need to keep in mind. Items on these lists include:  Always test and deploy patches and new versions of PHP as they are released Use Intrusion Prevention/Detection Systems to block/alert on malicious HTTP requests. Consider using Apache's mod_security to block known PHP attacks If you use PHP, migrate your application to PHP 5.2 as a matter of urgency. Encode all output using htmlentities() or a similar mechanism to avoid XSS attacks  You can check out the full information over on the SANS Institute website.
44372
A flaw in the way the Firefox and Opera browsers handle an image file could allow an attacker to see what Web sites a person has visited.
739909
(InfoWorld) - Hackers are hitting paydirt in their search for browser bugs. According to Symantec's twice-yearly Internet Security Threat Report, hackers found 47 bugs in Mozilla's open-source browsers and 38 bugs in Internet Explorer (IE) during the first six months of this year. That'sÂ up significantlyÂ from the 17 Mozilla and 25 IE bugs found in the previous six months. Even Apple's Safari browser saw its bugs double, jumping from six in the last half of 2005 to 12 in the first half of 2006. Opera was the only browser tracked by Symantec that saw the number of vulnerabilities decline, but not by much. Opera bugs dropped from nine to seven during the period. And while Internet Explorer remained theÂ most popular choice of attackers, no one is invulnerable. According to the report, 31 percent of attacks during the period targeted more than one browser, and 20 percent took aim at Mozilla's Firefox. "There is no safe browser," said Vincent Weafer, senior director with Symantec Security Response. "If you've got a browser, make sure you're configuring it correctly," he added. "That's a far better strategy than running some browser just because you haven't heard of it." Part of the rise is due to the growing market for vulnerabilities, Weafer said. Legitimate companies such as 3Com's Tipping Point and Verisign' s iDefense pay for this information, and there is also a growing black market for exploits. "People are encouraged and getting money for finding vulnerabilities, so now you have more people looking," said Weafer. Browser bugs are also relatively easy to find and exploit, said Marc Maiffret, chief technology officer with eEye Digital Security. "Everyone has realized that targeting the applications on the desktop is a better way to break into businesses and consumers and steal things than server flaws," he said via instant message. Businesses and consumers may both be targets, but home users are the victims in about 86 percent of all attacks, according to Symantec. And the U.S. is the biggest source of online attacks, thanks to its large number of compromised machines with broadband connections, Weafer said. About 37 percent of all online attacks originate in the U.S., he said. While there may have been more bugs in Mozilla than in IE, Symantec gave the open-source project high marks for its bug-fixing. On average, it patched bugs within one day of their public disclosure -- the fastest turn-around of all measured browsers. Opera came in second, averaging two days. Safari was next, with a five-day window, followed by Microsoft, which averaged nine days per patch. Microsoft may lag as a browser patcher, but when it comes to operating systems, the company leads the pack, according to Symantec. The slowest? Sun Microsystems.
285360
Blog: Researcher shows how URLs can be spoofed and content arbitrary within Safari 3.0 beta.
387344
On 20 November 2004, a major malicious-code attack emerged targeting European Web sites via banner ads. This two-step attack exploits two previously identified security vulnerabilities: the Bofra (or IFRAME
191229
A bug in Microsoft&#39;s Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000 and Proxy Server 2 can let hackers spoof Web content, such as a trusted site, with their own fake content, the Redmond
95492
Did you notice when Slashdot's  search was down for the past few days? (It's back up now.)  Turns out that in a stunning case of irony, it had been hammered into  submission by thousands of people attempting to use it.        However, unlike CmdrTaco's regimented DDoS attacks, this one is carried out  with malicious intent as opposed to mere sociopathic inconsiderateness.  It also highlights a potential threat from one of the biggest weblogging  services out there.
94093
An intruder could manipulate a flaw in how the browsers handle image files to see where the user has been surfing.
263846
Honeypot project shows more than adult sites contain malicious threats.
320458
Web servers may be vulnerable to attack, security company warns.
79963
Web gateway filtering specialist Finjan is reporting a new toolkit that uses randomized JavaScript to stay hidden from virus crawlers and deliver its payload via compromised Web sites.Dubbed by Finjan's Malicious Code Research Center (MCRC) as the "Random JS Toolkit," the malware development package is allowing attackers to create threats that only attempt to victimize an individual computer in the same manner a single time to protect against discovery by anti-virus systems and researchers' automated "crawlers."By dynamically changing the JavaScript employed to deliver each variant of attack being created, and by using random file names that are only delivered to the same machine or IP address once, Finjan researchers said the malware authoring package is meant to avoid the programs used by AV researchers to find new threats emerging on the Web.Typically when automated crawler programs come across new attack samples, they return to the threats' source URLs to verify their names and characteristics and to create signature files that allow their products to block the programs -- or they enter the sites onto so-called blacklists of compromised domains.However, once a machine has been infected with an attack made using the Random JS Toolkit, the threat will recognize that the machine has already been targeted and won't attempt to download it again, thereby thwarting efforts to identify or track the exploits, Finjan experts contend.During the month of December 2007, Finjan estimates that more than 10,000 individual sites were compromised with attacks built using the Random JS Toolkit. Most of the URLs serving as distribution points for the attacks were legitimate sites that had been hijacked, the company said.Among the infected sites were some that would qualify as well-known, highly trusted domains, said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer of Finjan.Ben-Itzhak said the toolkit serves as a prime example of the types of tactics he expects leading-edge malware authors to utilize more frequently in the coming year."We've found the initial 10,000 sites, but we're sure that there are many more that have already been infected. When we can find this number of exploits, it is clear that this must be a very significant attack that has affected a lot of people," he said. "Using the combination of techniques available in this toolkit, the threats that are being created can become very powerful and stay alive to infect people for longer periods of time."Among the types of malware infections being served up using the toolkit, Finjan has observed everything from Trojan viruses and keystroke loggers to botnet recruiting programs, he said.For its part, Finjan's real-time code inspection technology can defend against such threats because it eschews the use of traditional virus signatures or blacklists in favor of constant monitoring for any malware activity coming across a network armed with one of its devices, Ben-Itzhak maintains.Rival AV vendors, including Symantec, contend that features such as the market leader's recently developed "generic exploit prevention," based on behavioral cues, should also be able to isolate and defend against such emerging attacks.Unlike the widespread iFrame attacks that proliferated across the Web during 2007, threats created using the Random JS Toolkit will also be much harder for security researchers to track down because they do not lead back to central sites where the actual malware code itself is hosted, Finjan maintains.Since the involved malware code is loaded directly on a site, and it won't attempt infect the same computer or IP address twice, traditional URL blacklisting and signature-based techniques will likely prove futile against the attack, the company said.However, from what the security appliance vendor can deduce, Ben-Itzhak said the firm believes there is only one malware group currently using the toolkit."From what we can tell, all the information flowing back from the compromised sites is heading to the same server," he said. "This indicates that there is probably only one group controlling this malware code thus far, and that they are probably being very successful; this is just another step forward for the criminals involved to continue to improve their attack methods and remain undetected."Ben-Itzhak said that the involved server is not one that matches any of the company's lists of machines controlled by well-known malware authoring groups such as the Russian Business Network. The server the company is tracking was originally located in Europe, but has recently been moved to China -- and likely will continue to be moved around to avoid detection, according to the expert.Most of the data the security company has seen being sent to the server has been related to online banking username and password data, he said.As part of its investigation, Finjan discovered that one of the Web properties infected with the randomized JavaScript attacks was an online advertising network that serves up as many as 14 million online banner ads per week. The security device maker reported that unnamed company was informed and is currently working to clean out its systems.
685834
Three of the 13 computers used to manage global internet traffic are hacked overnight. It's one of the biggest attacks since 2002. By the Associated Press.
200263
Secunia issued a warning that the so-called tabbed browsing function in many alternative Web browsers from Mozilla, Opera, Netscape, Avant, Camino and others leave users vulnerable to spoofed
74203
In one of the most significant hack attempts of the past few years, attackers tried to take down key parts of the Internet by targeting critical routing servers.
22770
Unpatched Windows machines are vulnerable to latest adware attack
716663
Networked multifunction devices share PC vulnerabilities to worms, hackers.
181199
Interesting tidbit that was Slashdotted earlier - Netcraft has released an anti-phishing toolbar that leverages the enormous database of web sites the organization manages.