Security hole plugged in Skype for Mac
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Flaw in the way the Net phone software handles Web links could enable an attacker to launch arbitrary code on some Macs.
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(InfoWorld) - With the latest beta of Skype for the Macintosh, released on Wednesday, Skype hopes to help bridge the barrier between Macs and PCs for video calling. Users of Skype for Mac 2.0 will be able to make video calls to both Mac and PC Skype users. Other options exist for such cross-platform video calling but not from the most popular instant messaging clients. The last Skype release for Macs, Skype for Mac 1.5, does not support video calling. Mac users with the free Skype software can view the video call within the Skype window or on the full computer screen. Users can also see how they appear to the person they are calling in a small window on the screen. Mac users already have the Apple iChat program, which enables video conferencing but is mainly limited to making calls with other Mac users. In 2004, iChat and AOL's AIM became compatible, allowing users to make video calls to each other. However, the most recent version of AIM, Triton, only supports video calls among Triton users. But an older version, AIM 5.9, is still available and supports video conferencing with iChat users. Other options from lesser-known providers are also available. SightSpeed offers free software that supports video conferencing between Mac and PC users. Mac users interested in the latest version of Skype must be running Mac OS X v10.3.9 Panther or newer and have a G4, G5, or Intel processor.
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German police have long expressed interest in having surveillance tools that could crack Skype, but leaked documents seem to indicate that thanks to specially commissioned malware, they do indeed have ways of making your VoIP talk.
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Skype Ltd. has blocked access to its video-adding feature, Metacafe, citing a new proof-of-concept that shows how hackers could use the feature to hijack a user's PC.
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Lithuanians and Jacko's chimp top suspects Miscreants have created a worm that uses the chat function built into Skype to spread.â¦
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Some Macintosh users have encountered a security program whose function and Web site have the tell-tale signs of a scam.Visitors to the Web site selling the program, called MacSweeper, are offered a free security scan of their computers. The scan, which only works on Macs, highlights supposed security problems with the computers. It offers to remove the problems with the purchase of a $39.99 lifetime subscription.But the awkward English on the program&#39;s Web site, and the way the program operates, have raised doubts over its legitimacy, users and security researchers say.&quot;The imbibed set of features locates all the junk and useless data on your computer and deletes them to reclaim the wasted space,&quot; according to the pitch on MacSweeper&#39;s home page.Security company F-Secure wrote on Tuesday that the program, called MacSweeper, may be the first rogue application for Macs.Windows machines have been more frequently targeted by similar software, sometimes labeled &quot;scareware&quot; since users are warned their computers will be in danger unless they purchase the software. Among the more notorious scareware for PCs is Winfixer, also known by the aliases ErrorSafe, WinAntiVirus, and DriveCleaner.The MacSweeper Web page is hosted on a server in Kiev, Ukraine, said Patrik Runald, security response manager for F-Secure, who is based in Malaysia. Information on the site about MacSweeper&#39;s company, Kiwi Software, has been plagiarized from Symantec&#39;s Web page, Runald said.&quot;They just ripped that information straight off there,&quot; Runald said.The same text is also used on Cleanator.com, which sells a Windows-compatible version of the same kind of program, Runald said. Another security vendor, Sophos, classifies Cleanator as a &quot;potentially unwanted program.&quot;Once MacSweeper is running on a Mac it will often pick odd items, such as language files, and label them as being a privacy risk, Runald said.In at least one instance an F-Secure researcher visited the MacSweeper site and clicked a button labeled &quot;Free scan.&quot; The scan highlighted Mac-related problems, even though the researcher was using a PC.MacSweeper doesn&#39;t use any tricks to get onto a machine other than trying to persuade users to download it, Runald said. Nonetheless, F-Secure typically contacts Finland&#39;s Computer Emergency Response Team when it finds scams such as MacSweeper, Runald said.A user on one of Apple&#39;s discussion boards wrote that their Safari browser kept redirecting to the MacSweeper site, a sign that malicious scripts may be involved.&quot;If I click on anything it&#39;ll try downloading the software,&quot; the person wrote. &quot;How do i get rid of this? It&#39;s really annoying. I don&#39;t want it, and I&#39;d wish it would leave me alone.&quot;
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A major outage is affecting many Skype users' ability to log on to the network and send IMs. The company is mum, but some pin the blame on a series of Microsoft updates released yesterday.
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(InfoWorld) - The anonymous researcher who claims to have crafted a Mac OS X worm said Tuesday that he or she will report his findings to Apple Inc., but added that the Cupertino, Calif. company "has a very long way to go" on security. Identified only as the researcher behind the Information Security Sell Out blog, he or she on Sunday announced that a still-unpatched bug in mDNSResponder, a component of Apple's Bonjour automatic network configuring service, could be exploited by a worm. Apple's May security update, dubbed 2007-005, included a fix for the mDNS bug. "[My worm] is in the same code base, obviously, but that is where the similarity to the recently patched issues ends," said the Info Sec researcher in an e-mail interview. "When Apple fixed the previous issues, they did not take care of the entire code base and there are a lot of bugs there...some are exploitable, like the one I am using, while others are not. But the fact remains that Apple did a horrible job in fixing this package." According to Info Sec, the worm is fully automated and ready to use. "It would be considered a fully weaponized exploit and fully automated," said the researcher. "This is really no different than other worms we have seen [on the Windows platform]. Other than that, I am not able to give any more details." Another researcher, however, questioned whether Info Sec crafted the worm in only a few hours, as claimed. "Writing the exploit in one day...unlikely for anything other than a stack overflow," said Dave Aitel, the chief technology officer at Immunity Inc., the Miami Beach, Fla.-based security company best known for its CANVAS penetration testing ("pentest") software. "So most likely he found a stack overflow in mDNS, which is perfectly possible. It is open source, after all." Info Sec didn't detail the vulnerability, but did emphasize that writing the exploit was a breeze. "The hard part is finding the bug," he or she said. "Once you have found it, it is very easy to exploit. The Bonjour (mDNS) service is UDP [User Datagram Protocol, one of the core Internet protocols] Universal as well, making it even more fun for things like worms." But like other researchers who have grown tired of claims that Mac OS X is more secure than rival operating systems, Info Sec saved a last shot for Apple. Although he/she will report the new-found vulnerability to Apple at some point, there is no timetable for the moment. "I do believe in being responsible and working with vendors," said Info Sec, "but I also feel that some vendors need to be treated like children and learn lessons the hard way. Apple has a very long way to go when dealing with security issues in their products." Aitel leaned a bit the same way. In a posting to his DailyDave mailing list Monday in which he pointed out the Info Sec exploit, Aitel said: "I note that 'Infosecurity Sellout' is claiming there is another bug in mDNS which is wormable. This is obviously untrue, since there are no more remote bugs in OS X." That last line was firmly tongue in cheek, Aitel clarified today in an e-mail. "No, I'm just being funny. OS X is horribly insecure," he said. In an e-mailed statement, Apple spokesman Anuj Nayar rebutted. "Apple takes security very seriously and has a great track record of addressing potential vulnerabilities before they can affect users," he said.
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False security Scareware scammers are trying to hoodwink Mac users into buying ineffective security software. MacSweeper is the first rogue cleaning tool for Macs, net security firm F-Secure reports.â¦
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Messages sent via Skype's IM tool ask users to download file, which can steal password, other information, security firm says.
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For the second year running, security researcher Kurt Grutzmacher has found a way to get a free &quot;Platinum&quot; pass to the MacWorld Conference &amp; Expo, being held in San Francisco this week.Thanks to a design flaw in the conference&#39;s Web site, he was able to figure out the special promotional code and award himself a 100 percent discount when purchasing the show&#39;s most expensive pass .The problem was that the site was downloading an encrypted version of the promotional codes to the browser so that it could check for discounts before passing data to MacWorld&#39;s Web server. Site developers may have done this to reduce the time it takes to process conference applications, but in doing so they introduced a serious security vulnerability, Grutzmacher said.Although the promotional codes were encrypted, Grutzmacher used a password-cracking tool called John the Ripper to break the encryption and see the discount codes. &quot;I was very surprised it worked,&quot; he said in an e-mail interview.That&#39;s because it was the same technique that yielded a Platinum pass for the 2007 show . At that time, the show&#39;s promoter, IDG World Expo, &quot;removed all the codes, fixed the site, and said thanks,&quot; Grutzmacher said in a Monday blog posting showing how he cracked the site. &quot;I gave them a few tips (don&#39;t trust user input, don&#39;t give your secret codes to everyone, encryption is not one-way, etc). Did they listen? Nope.&quot;Grutzmacher ran his test in the weeks prior to the show, and the code he obtained stopped working on Jan. 7, he said.Show representatives were not immediately available to comment.The security penetration tester went down to San Francisco&#39;s Moscone Center on Monday to print up his pass, just to see if his trick worked, but he didn&#39;t actually use it to visit the show. &quot;That would be very unethical,&quot; he said.Had he made use of the US$1,895 pass, however, Grutzmacher could have had a free lunch, access to sessions at the conference, entry into the MacWorld party and priority access to Steve Jobs&#39; keynote on Tuesday.&quot;Justin,&quot; a commentator on Grutzmacher&#39;s blog, said he reported a similar bug to IDG in 2003.Grutzmacher said that this is probably not the last we&#39;ll hear of this problem. &quot;I suspect we&#39;ll see this again in 2009,&quot; he said.The MacWorld Conference &amp; Expo is run by IDG Wold Expo, an IDG News Service affiliate.
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New beta software supports video conferencing between Mac and PC users.
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Some Skype users were left vulnerable to a possible worm attack Wednesday after company technicians failed to disable a buggy component of the network.Skype&#160;pulled the plug on its &quot;Add Video to Chat&quot; feature&#160;Tuesday after security researcher Aviv Raff reported that it suffered from a serious vulnerability. An attacker could create a self-copying worm program that could be used to&#160;install malicious software on victims&#39; machines&#160;and then go on to infect other Skype users.&quot;Add Video to Chat&quot; lets users pick videos from two sites -- Dailymotion.com and Metacafe.com -- and add them to their Skype chat sessions.Skype blocked access to these sites Tuesday after Raff&#39;s disclosure, effectively disabling the feature.But because of a misconfigured Skype proxy server, some users were still allowed to access the Metacafe videos, leaving them vulnerable to an attack, said Raff, who had been in discussions with Skype engineering staff over this issue.Because Raff has not publicly released his exploit code, the oversight probably doesn&#39;t pose a serious security risk for most Skype users, Raff noted.Skype expects to patch the underlying vulnerability sometime next week, said a spokeswoman for Metacafe. That&#39;s later than previously expected. On Tuesday, Metacafe said that a patch was due early Wednesday morning.Metacafe believes it&#39;s unlikely that an attacker could successfully exploit the flaw in a widespread attack, but with Raff&#39;s proof of concept code, a Skype user has to simply click on a maliciously crafted Web link in order to be infected.According to Raff, Skype uses a Windows Internet Explorer component with an inappropriate security setting. Instead of rendering HTML from the Internet with the more secure &quot;Internet Zone&quot; security setting, Skype uses IE&#39;s &quot;Local Zone&quot; security setting, usually reserved for more trustworthy content.Skype representatives did not return calls seeking comment for this story.
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(InfoWorld) - Computer security analysts are studying reports of a worm that may be circulating via a feature in Skype's popular VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) service. Security vendor Websense said the worm spreads through Skype's chat feature. Users receive a message asking them to download a file called "sp.exe." The executable is a Trojan horse that can steal passwords. If a user runs the Trojan it triggers another set of code to spread itself. The first infected PCs appeared in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in Korea, Websense reported on its blog on Tuesday. It said it was still investigating the issue. Not all security experts were in agreement, however. F-Secure received a sample of the worm and determined that it did not, in fact, target Skype, said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer. "What's clear is, there's no massive worm outbreak with Skype at the moment," Hypponen said. "We are following the situation." The SANS Internet Storm Center said it was "hearing some details of a new worm spreading via Skype IM" and asked for more information in a posting on its site. Websense said the executable appears to be encrypted with NTKrnl Secure Suite Packer, a polymorphic encryption program that makes files look unique to different detection engines. The original site that hosted the code is not serving it any more, Websense said. Â
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New Apple security updates plug a trio of flaws that could be exploited to break into Macs via Wi-Fi connections.
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InfoWorld - A programming error in eBay's Skype communications software could give cybercriminals a new way to sneak their malicious software onto a victim's PC.
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Skype Ltd. has patched a critical vulnerability that had forced it to cull several features from its VoIP and chat software to stop attackers from hijacking users' PCs.