Security Vulnerability Archives - Gizmochina

Apple Pushes Emergency Updates to Block Active Exploits on Macs and Other Devices

Sudhanshu — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 01:48:22 +0000

Apple has released urgent security updates to address two critical vulnerabilities actively exploited on Intel-based Mac systems. The flaws, discovered by Google’s Threat Analysis Group, could potentially allow attackers to execute malicious code or launch cross-site scripting attacks.

The vulnerabilities affect multiple Apple products, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, visionOS, and Safari. Users are urged to update their devices to the latest versions:

iOS and iPadOS: iOS 18.1.1 and iPadOS 18.1.1
macOS: macOS Sequoia 15.1.1
visionOS: visionOS 2.1.1
Safari: Safari 18.1.1

The updates are available for a wide range of devices, including recent iPhone and iPad models, as well as Mac computers running macOS Ventura and Sonoma. Apple Vision Pro users should also update their devices to visionOS 2.1.1.

While Apple has not disclosed specific details about the exploits, it has confirmed that they were actively used to target vulnerabilities in JavaScriptCore and WebKit. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has strongly recommended that all users apply the updates promptly to protect their devices from potential attacks.

In other news, Apple has also come under fire from Samsung this month in a new “Simon Says” ad campaign mocks Apple’s perceived lack of innovation in recent iPhones, promoting its Galaxy lineup’s features like the Z Flip 6’s flip screen and AI tools. However, the ad’s tone sparked mixed reactions, with critics questioning Samsung’s own innovation track record.

(Source)

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Nothing’s CMF Watch app suffers from a security vulnerability: Report

Sean — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 08:52:39 +0000

A couple of months ago, Nothing unveiled its new sub-brand CMF, which released a bunch of new products. This included the CMF Watch Pro model. However, it appears that a security vulnerability plagues the CMF Watch app that is featured on the partnered smartphone.

CMF Watch App may lack encryption, posing a security risk

The news was shared by Dylan Roussel, who is an Android developer. In a tweet, the dev claimed that Nothing is garnering attention for its glary security risks. He adds that the latest example of a vulnerability in their system comes from their new sub-brand, CMF. Apparently, the company’s CMF Watch app suffers from a major security flaw that is related to the encryption of user data. The investigations have revealed that the brand’s encryption process for the user’s email address and password is not functioning properly.

This means that the sensitive information is at risk. Dylan adds that the major security risk is still affecting the CMF Watch app, with user’s login credentials still being vulnerable. Nothing’s current app system lacks robust encryption for sensitive information, enabling easy access to decryption data with the application. This vulnerability was first discovered by Roussel back in September.

Let's talk about Nothing… again.

Before the Sunbird/Nothing chaos, I reported another vulnerability to them back in September… and another one back in August.

Let's talk about the one from September. It's about the CMF Watch app.
— Dylan Roussel (@evowizz) December 1, 2023

Nothing has worked on fixing this issue, but it seems that the encryption for the email and password are still vulnerable. The Android developer had even reached out to the brand directly, although there was no proper communication established after the first exchange. It remains to be seen how the company addresses these glaring security risks or whether it continues to become infamous for security flaws, since even the Nothing Chats feature was recently removed from the Google Play Store over security concerns.

Microsoft Releases Security Update to Fix Screenshot Vulnerability

Anubhav — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 06:17:57 +0000

Recently, a new vulnerability came to light that compromised the security of sharing edited screenshots. Referred to as “aCropalypse”, the vulnerability was first detected on Pixel devices and addressed by Google in its March security update. In the case of Windows 11’s Snipping Tool, the issue was related to the app’s failure to overwrite cropped PNG data. Microsoft has taken swift action to address the security flaw that could have had dire consequences for users of its Windows 10 and 11 screenshot editing apps. The issue was originally discovered by Chris Blume, a retired software engineer, and reported to Microsoft earlier this week.

Although the vulnerability did not affect all PNG files, it posed a serious risk, as attackers could potentially recover edited images that had been cropped to conceal sensitive information. Microsoft’s patches are similar to Google’s March Android update in that they do not provide protection for images that were created prior to the installation of the updates.

According to Bleeping Computer, Microsoft wasted no time in testing and deploying updates for the affected apps. On Friday, the company began rolling out public updates for Windows 11’s Snipping Tool and Windows 10’s Snip & Sketch app. Users can easily download the updates manually by accessing the Microsoft Store and clicking on “Library,” followed by “Get Updates.” Microsoft is urging all users to install the updates as soon as possible to ensure their devices are protected.

RELATED:

(Via)

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Google Pixel’s Latest Security Patch Reveals Serious Vulnerability in Screenshot Tool

Anubhav — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 02:43:03 +0000

Google Pixel recently received the March security patch that packs a number of updates and changes to the device, including the addition of the Magic Eraser tool to all Pixel devices, amongst other changes. This was a long-awaited update that Pixel users were very eager to receive. However, it wasn’t all ‘good news’ and ‘bright skies’ with the latest update. A weak point in the Pixel’s software framework might just have been revealed.

Google’s March security patch for Android has revealed a potentially serious vulnerability in the Pixel’s Markup screenshot tool. Reverse engineers Simon Aarons and David Buchanan discovered the “aCropalypse” flaw, which enables someone to take a PNG screenshot cropped in Markup and undo some of the image’s edits. This could be abused by a malicious actor to reveal sensitive information redacted by a Pixel owner using Markup. Buchanan has revealed the flaw has existed since Markup’s launch alongside Android 9 Pie in 2018, with older images at risk due to Google’s oversight.

Although March’s security patch prevents Markup from compromising future images, the patch isn’t available on all Pixel devices, meaning vulnerable images can still be produced. The vulnerability may not affect some social media platforms such as Twitter, as these may process images in a way that makes it difficult to reverse-edit them. However, other chat apps like Discord are still vulnerable, and it’s unclear if other social media and chat apps are similarly affected. Google has yet to respond to requests for comment and further information. Pixel owners are advised to avoid using Markup to share sensitive images until the patch is available on all devices.

RELATED:

(Via)

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Apple iPhones are most vulnerable to hacking when powered off

Sean — Tue, 24 May 2022 10:43:33 +0000

While iPhones are typically seen as one of the more secure smartphones in the market by many consumers, it appears that the Apple device is still quite prone to hacking. This is apparently true especially when they are turned off.

According to a research report from Technical University of Darmstadt, the iPhones are the most vulnerable to hackers when they are switched off. The primary reason for this is due to how it handles its various wireless networking technologies. When an iPhone is switched off, most wireless chips, like Bluetooth, NFC (Near Field Communications), and UWB (Ultra Wideband) are still running up to 24 hours. Although, this is not some bug and does serve a crucial purpose as well.

The Cupertino based giant offers the Find My network function on their products, which helps in locating Apple owners’ products when they are lost or possibly even stolen. This also lets you still have access to items like credit cards, student passes, and digital keys as well. But unfortunately, this feature is a double edged sword since these wireless chips have direct access to the secure elements. In other words, it could be potentially exploited by hackers to install malware on the iPhones even when the iOS system is not running.

These wireless chips remain active in a Low Power Mode (LPM). However, this LPM support is implemented on a hardware level. So, this can not be simply fixed via an OTA software update. The researchers conducted a security analysis of LPM features introduced with iOS 15 and found that Bluetooth LPM firmware can be modified to run malware on the iPhone. This enables hackers to have system level access to track someone’s location or run new features on their phone. Fortunately for many, this mostly affects jailbroken iPhones. Although, the security hole might still be used as spyware to target people.

MediaTek chips had faced a vulnerability that allowed apps to eavesdrop on users

Sean — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 20:13:58 +0000

Earlier today (25th November 2021), a vulnerability was spotted in the AI and audio processing components in recently launched MediaTek chipsets. This vulnerability would’ve allowed apps to eavesdrop on users.

According to an AndroidPolice report, Check Point Research had discovered the vulnerability, which allows “local privilege escalation attack” from a third party application. To put things simply, an app loaded with the right code could possibly have gained access to AI and audio related information that it otherwise wouldn’t have had access to. Fortunately, the Taiwanese chipmaker fixed the issue before it was exploited. The company has even fixed every related vulnerabilities as of October 2021.

While the process to exploit this vulnerability was quite complicated, the issue would’ve given any apps to pass specific commands to the audio interface. This would’ve been a major issue considering MediaTek had a notable 43 percent market share in the smartphone process market as of the second quarter of this year. In other words, the company was the number one brand for smartphone chips in terms of shipments. So, the vulnerability could’ve been disastrous for the company. Although, the issue has reportedly been fixed back in October, so it is recommended that MediaTek users update their devices to the latest patches just to be on the safer side.

BrakTooth vulnerabilities affects massive number of Bluetooth enabled products

Sean — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 11:49:23 +0000

Researchers at the Singapore University of Technology and Design have recently discovered a family of 20 vulnerabilities that they have collectively labelled as BrakTooth. This affects more than 1,400 products based on 13 different Bluetooth devices from various major brands.

According to the researchers (Via PCMag), the security flaw has been confirmed to affect over 1,400 smartphones, laptops, keyboards, headphones, and other Bluetooth enabled devices. Although, the researchers claimed that this is just a low ball figure as “the BT stack is often shared across many products,” and that “it is highly probable that many other products (beyond the ≈1400 entries observed in Bluetooth listing) are affected by BrakTooth.”

This series of vulnerabilities can apparently be exploited to conduct denial of service (DoS) attacks and enable arbitrary code execution (ACE) on target devices. These DoS attacks can disrupt the victim’s Bluetooth connection or could even require Bluetooth connectivity to be manually restarted to function normally again. Furthermore, ACE can also be used to erase user data, disable wireless connectivity, or interact with other devices as well.

As of right now, BrakTooth is only capable of enabling ACE on the ESP32 system on chip (SoC) made by Espressif Systems. Although, these chips are commonly found in IoT products as well as industrial systems. The researchers noted that this SoC is so common that proof of concept exploit actually uses an ESP32 development kit to conduct attacks on target devices. At the moment, the researchers have informed the various top vendors of this exploit and certain companies have already released firmware patches to fix the vulnerabilities while others are investigating the issue.

Over 500 million Facebook users’ phone numbers and personal data leaked

Sean — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 09:25:01 +0000

It has recently been found that the personal data and phone numbers of hundreds of millions of Facebook users has been leaked online. All of this information was posted on a low level hacking forum that was found recently.

According to a BusinessInsider report, the leaked data includes personal information and the phone numbers of 533 million users of the popular social media platform. The data is from about 106 countries, including information on 32 million users from the US, 11 million users from the UK, 6 million users from India, and more. In the leak, personal data includes the users phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, location, birth dates, bios, and even email addresses in certain cases.

As per a statement from Facebook spokesperson, the data found online is actually scrapped due to a vulnerability that the company had patched back in 2019. Although, despite the information being dated, the information could still provide valuable information to cybercriminals that can use this information to impersonate people and scam others to handover login credentials as well.

Alon Gal, CTO of cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock stated that “A database of that size containing the private information such as phone numbers of a lot of Facebook’s users would certainly lead to bad actors taking advantage of the data to perform social engineering attacks [or] hacking attempts.” Gal further added that there is not much the company can do at this point as the information is already out in the open, but has advised users to be wary of phishing schemes or fraud.

MediaTek vulnerability affected millions of Android smartphones for months

Jeet — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 04:25:53 +0000

With so many devices running the Android operating system and given the varying and complex codebases of most devices, security vulnerabilities have now become common in smartphones. And thus, Google has been releasing monthly security patches for years.

In the latest development, XDA Developers reported about a vulnerability that was first discovered in February 2019 by a developer as he was tinkering to root Amazon Fire tablet. A user named ‘diplomatic’ on XDA Forums has released a script that used the vulnerability to temporarily gain root access on Fire tablets.

Later, it was discovered that the vulnerability nicknamed ‘MediaTek-su,’ was also present on many other phones and tablets that are powered by MediaTek processors. It could allow a malicious app to do anything — install any apps, change permissions for existing apps, and accessing private data, among others.

To check the list of devices affected by this, check out the XDA-Developers report which is linked below as Source. However, its noteworthy that since MediaTek-su is about a year old, some companies have already caught on and patched their devices.

Still, there are several devices which are vulnerable to this and given that MediaTek chipsets are mostly used in mid-range or low-end devices, some companies may not have resources to offer an update to fix this.

Earlier, TrendMicro had published a report which claimed that several Play Store applications used one of two exploits — MediaTek-su or CVE-2019-2215 to gain root access after detecting that the user’s device was vulnerable. However, those applications have not been removed by Google from the Play Store.

To check if your device powered by MediaTek chipset is vulnerable, run the original root script from XDA and if you enter a root shell, the exploit is working. If so, then you should install the latest software update as soon as you receive it.