Greetings, This Sunday, August 21, marks the final day of this year’s National Science Week. An annual celebration of science and technology, it’s a great opportunity to imbue curious minds with knowledge and insights into a plethora of areas. Everything from agriculture, health and medicine, technology and the great expanse of space is available to explore, analyze, experience and challenge as we seek to understand, innovate, and transform. Learn more about what others are doing and what you can do by visiting the National Science Week website. The realm of cyber is one area that is constantly evolving and something that we here at AUSCERT like to maintain awareness of which, we then share with our members. A fantastic way to gain insights and understanding on an array of topics is through our podcast series, Share today, save tomorrow. With fourteen episodes currently available, you can select from several areas that may pique your interest including ‘ITOT Convergence’, ‘Strategic Resilience and Psychology in Cyber Security’ and our latest edition, ‘Diversity and Culture in Cyber Security’. Another means of seeking to understand is through the tried-and-true method of simply asking. The team at RMIT University are doing just that in their survey that seeks to gain a more accurate picture of the security industry in Australia. You can share your insights and experience to help expand and diversify the workforce and help understand and prepare for future challenges. Apple releases Safari 15.6.1 to fix zero-day bug used in attacks Date: 2022-08-18 Author: Bleeping Computer [See AUSCERT Security Bulletin ESB-2022.4103 for more information] Apple has released Safari 15.6.1 for macOS Big Sur and Catalina to fix a zero-day vulnerability exploited in the wild to hack Macs. The zero-day patched today (CVE-2022-32893) is an out-of-bounds write issue in WebKit that could allow a threat actor to execute code remotely on a vulnerable device. “Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited,” warns Apple in a security bulletin released today. Google Chrome Zero-Day Found Exploited in the Wild Date: 2022-08-18 Author: Dark Reading [See AUSCERT Bulletins ESB-2022.4128 & ESB-2022.4102 for more information] A zero-day security vulnerability in Google’s Chrome browser is being actively exploited in the wild. The Internet behemoth released 11 security patches for Chrome this week, which are now being pushed out in stages to those with automatic updates enabled for Windows, Mac, and Linux; however, everyone can manually update now. The zero-day (CVE-2022-2856) is rated as high severity and involves “insufficient validation of untrusted input in Intents,” according to Google’s advisory. Intents, where the bug resides, are used by Chrome to process user input; if the browser doesn’t validate this input properly, an attacker is able to specially craft an input (say, a post in the comments section of a website) that’s not expected by the application. Twilio phish sees Signal users’ numbers at risk of re-registering Date: 2022-08-16 Author: IT News Locally stored user information can’t be compromised, company says. Fallout from the recent phising attack on communications company Twilio has spilt over to encrypted messaging app Signal, with users reporting bogus number re-registration attempts. Twilio provides Signal with phone number verification services, meaning the attacker may have been able to learn that some numbers were associated with Signal users. Digital Ocean dumps Mailchimp after attack leaked customer email addresses Date: 2022-08-16 Author: The Register Junior cloud Digital Ocean has revealed that some of its clients’ email addresses were exposed to attackers, thanks to an attack on email marketing service Mailchimp. This story starts last week when some of the blockheads in crypto-land noticed that email marketing service Mailchimp had suspended service for some of their fellow travellers. Reports such as this missive noted that Mailchimp has previously ditched crypto clients for generating more abuse reports than other customers, and the company’s Acceptable Use Policy therefore warns it may decide not to serve companies that offer “Cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies, and any digital assets related to an Initial Coin Offering.” How a spoofed email passed the SPF check and landed in my inbox Date: 2022-08-16 Author: WeLiveSecurity According to one study published in 2022, around 32% of the 1.5 billion domains investigated had SPF records. Out of these, 7.7% had invalid syntax and 1% were using the deprecated PTR record, which points IP addresses to domain names. Uptake of SPF has been slow and flawed indeed, which might lead to another question: how many domains have overly permissive SPF records? Zoom Patches Serious macOS App Vulnerabilities Disclosed at DEF CON Date: 2022-08-16 Author: Security Week [See AUSCERT Security Bulletin ESB-2022.4080 for more information] Zoom informed customers last week that macOS updates for the Zoom application patch two high-severity vulnerabilities. Details of the flaws were disclosed on Friday at the DEF CON conference in Las Vegas by macOS security researcher Patrick Wardle. Wardle, who is the founder of the Objective-See Foundation, a non-profit that provides free and open source macOS security resources, showed at DEF CON how a local, unprivileged attacker could exploit vulnerabilities in Zoom’s update process to escalate privileges to root. Thousands of VNC Instances Exposed to Internet as Attacks Increase Date: 2022-08-15 Author: Security Week Dark web intelligence firm Cyble reports seeing an increase in cyberattacks targeting virtual network computing (VNC). The VNC graphical desktop-sharing system relies on the Remote Frame Buffer (RFB) protocol to provide control of a remote machine over a network. Exposing VNC to the internet has long been deemed a security risk, yet Cyble has identified over 8,000 internet-accessible VNC instances that have authentication disabled. ESB-2022.4080 – Zoom Client for Meetings for macOS: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Zoom reported Local Privilege Escalation in Zoom Client for Meetings for macOS. Applying current updates or downloading the latest Zoom software is recommended. ESB-2022.4077 – Splunk Enterprise: CVSS (Max): 7.4 A vulnerability in Splunk Enterprise that affects connections between Splunk Enterprise and Ingest Actions Destination has been reported. Splunk customers are advised to upgrade Splunk Enterprise 9.0.0 to 9.0.1 or higher. ESB-2022.4102 – ALERT Google Chrome: CVSS (Max): None Google Chrome released an update for Stable Channel and Extended Stable Channel. Google advised that this update will be rolled out over the coming days/weeks. ESB-2022.4103 – Safari 15.6.1: CVSS (Max): None Safari 15.6.1 has been released to address an issue in WebKit and is available for macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina. Apple has reported that this issue may have been actively exploited. ESB-2022.3992.2 – UPDATE PAN-OS: CVSS (Max): 8.6 Palo Alto Networks has identified a vulnerability in URL Filtering, which , if exploited could allow a network-based attacker to conduct reflected and amplified TCP denial-of-service (RDoS)attacks. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, “Malvertising” is a term that has gained some attention this week as it grows in use to infiltrate networks and devices. (also known as a browser-in-browser (BitB) attack. The term refers to malicious advertising, a practice that uses online advertising that appears genuine that requires very little or even no interaction from the user. To help understand and combat such campaigns, National Cyber Security News Today provides an examination of the potential threat and, how to safeguard against it. AUSCERT wanted to remind folk that the deadline for the .au. direct domain availability, and its implications, are fast approaching. As per the ACSC alert, Australians have until 20 September 2022 to seek priority allocation of an .au direct domain name that matches their existing domain name. AUSCERT published a blog on the changes to assist members to understand potential threats and provide our members with an analysis of the situation. Lastly, we wanted to acknowledge World Youth Day, a UN initiative that focuses on education, employment, the environment, delinquency, girls and young women, HIV/AIDS and intergenerational relations as well as conflict resolution and social justice, to name a few, held each year on August 12 (today!). Organizations Warned of Critical Vulnerabilities in NetModule Routers Date: 2022-08-10 Author: Security Week Flashpoint is warning organizations of two newly identified critical vulnerabilities in NetModule Router Software (NRSW) that could be exploited in attacks. Acquired by Belden earlier this year, NetModule provides IIoT and industrial routers, vehicle routers, and other types of wireless M2M connectivity products. All of NetModule’s routers run the Linux-based NRSW by default, and can be managed remotely using a remote management platform. Cisco hacked by Yanluowang ransomware gang, 2.8GB allegedly stolen Date: None Author: Bleeping Computer Cisco confirmed today that the Yanluowang ransomware group breached its corporate network in late May and that the actor tried to extort them under the threat of leaking stolen files online. The company revealed that the attackers could only harvest and steal non-sensitive data from a Box folder linked to a compromised employee’s account. Meraki firewalls blocked Office365 traffic as attempted intrusion Date: 2022-08-11 Author: iTnews Microsoft Office365 users behind Cisco Meraki firewalls found themselves unable to reach their services, after the security vendor inadvertently blocked legitimate traffic. The firewalls were identifying legitimate traffic as an attempted denial-of-service attack against Windows IIS, as reported in this Reddit post. “We use Meraki firewalls and starting this morning Meraki was blocking valid Microsoft IPs in the Security Center. The SNORT rule details were ‘Microsoft Windows IIS denial-of-service attempt” and the destination IPs were Microsoft’,” the post states. SNORT is an open source signature-based intrusion prevention system. Patch Wednesday fixes two-year-old Dogwalk vulnerability Date: 2022-08-10 Author: iTnews Microsoft has fixed a remote code execution vulnerability in its MSDT diagnostics tool for Windows, first reported to the company two years ago and rediscovered in May this year. The fix is part of this month’s Patch Wednesday, and was named Dogwalk by security researchers. Although researcher Imre Rad reported the bug to Microsoft in January 2020, and despite the vulnerability raising its head again this year, the software giant initially declined to fix the issue. New GwisinLocker ransomware encrypts Windows and Linux ESXi servers Date: 2022-08-06 Author: Bleeping Computer A new ransomware family called ‘GwisinLocker’ targets South Korean healthcare, industrial, and pharmaceutical companies with Windows and Linux encryptors, including support for encrypting VMware ESXi servers and virtual machines. The new malware is the product of a lesser-known threat actor dubbed Gwisin, which means “ghost” in Korean. The actor is of unknown origin but appears to have a good knowledge of the Korean language. Dark web investigation uncovers ransomware marketplace Date: 2022-08-05 Author: Cyber Security Connect A new Venafi dark web investigation has uncovered 475 webpages of sophisticated ransomware products and services, with ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) being the most accessible for procurement. The research was conducted between November 2021 and March 2022 in partnership with criminal intelligence provider Forensic Pathways. Over 35 million dark web URLs were analysed, including marketplaces and forums, using the Forensic Pathways dark search engine. The researchers found that many strains of ransomware being sold have been successfully used in high-profile attacks, with 87 per cent of the ransomware found on the dark web capable of delivering malicious macros in order to infect targeted systems. These include Babuk, GoldenEye, Darkside/BlackCat, Egregor, HiddenTear and WannaCry. Windows devices with newest CPUs are susceptible to data damage Date: 2022-08-08 Author: Bleeping Computer Microsoft has warned today that Windows devices with the newest supported processors are susceptible to “data damage” on Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022. “Windows devices that support the newest Vector Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) (VAES) instruction set might be susceptible to data damage,” the company revealed today. Devices affected by this newly acknowledged known issue use AES-XTS (AES XEX-based tweaked-codebook mode with ciphertext stealing) or AES-GCM (AES with Galois/Counter Mode) block cipher modes on new hardware. Over 60% of Organizations Expose SSH to the Internet Date: 2022-08-05 Author: Infosecurity Magazine A majority of global organizations are exposing sensitive and insecure protocols to the public internet, potentially increasing their attack surface, according to ExtraHop. The vendor analyzed a range of enterprise IT environments to benchmark cybersecurity posture based on open ports and sensitive protocol exposure. It found that 64% of those studied have at least one device exposing SSH, which could allow attackers to probe it for remote access. Microsoft’s big Patch Tuesday fixes exploited zero-day flaw and 120 more bugs Date: 2022-08-10 Author: ZDNet Microsoft has released patches for 141 flaws in its August 2022 Patch Tuesday update including two previously undisclosed (zero-day) flaws, of which one is actively being exploited. The total patch count for the August 2022 Patch Tuesday Update actually includes 20 flaws in Edge that Microsoft had previously released fixes for, leaving 121 flaws affecting Windows, Office, Azure, .NET Core, Visual Studio and Exchange Server. The Zero Day Initiative noted that the volume of fixes released this month is “markedly higher” than what is normally expected in an August release. “It’s almost triple the size of last year’s August release, and it’s the second largest release this year,” the bug hunting group said. Hackers Exploit Twitter Vulnerability to Exposes 5.4 Million Accounts Date: 2022-08-06 Author: The Hacker News Twitter on Friday revealed that a now-patched zero-day bug was used to link phone numbers and emails to user accounts on the social media platform. “As a result of the vulnerability, if someone submitted an email address or phone number to Twitter’s systems, Twitter’s systems would tell the person what Twitter account the submitted email addresses or phone number was associated with, if any,” the company said in an advisory. Slack Resets Passwords After a Bug Exposed Hashed Passwords for Some Users Date: 2022-08-06 Author: The Hacker News Slack said it took the step of resetting passwords for about 0.5% of its users after a flaw exposed salted password hashes when creating or revoking shared invitation links for workspaces. “When a user performed either of these actions, Slack transmitted a hashed version of their password to other workspace members,” the enterprise communication and collaboration platform said in an alert on 4th August. ESB-2022.3942 – Intel Data Center Manager: CVSS (Max): 9.0 Intel reports that a vulnerability in the Intel Data Center Manager may allow escalation of privilege or denial of service. ESB-2022.3975 – OpenShift Container Platform 4.11.0: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Security updates for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.11 contain packages and images that fix several bugs and add enhancements. ESB-2022.3966 – Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source: CVSS (Max): 9.1 Adobe’s most recent update for Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source resolves critical , important and moderate vulnerabilities which , if exploited could lead to arbitrary code execution, privilege escalation and security feature bypass. ESB-2022.3962 – ALERT Open AMT Cloud Toolkit: CVSS (Max): 9.9 Intel has released updates to mitigate a potential vulnerability in the Open AMT Cloud Toolkit software which , if exploited could allow escalation of privilege. ASB-2022.0182 – ALERT Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Microsoft’s security patch update for August 2022 resolves 29 vulnerabilities across Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft reports this vulnerability is publicly disclosed and actively exploited and recommends updating the software with the version made available. ASB-2022.0181 – ALERT Microsoft Windows: CVSS (Max): 9.8* Microsoft’s security patch update for August 2022 contain fixes for 61 vulnerabilities in Windows, Windows RT and Windows 7. Microsoft reports this vulnerability is publicly disclosed and actively exploited and recommends updating the software with the version made available. ESB-2022.3764.2 – UPDATE ALERT VMware products: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Multiple vulnerabilities were reported in VMware Workspace ONE Access, Access Connector, Identity Manager, Identity Manager Connector and vRealize Automation. VMware recommends that these critical vulnerabilities should be patched or mitigated immediately. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, It’s been three years since the smell of dagwood dogs filled the air along with the screams and laughter from people on rides at Sideshow Alley but, the Ekka is back in full swing for 2022! An event that brings the country and the city together, the Ekka is much loved in Brisbane and sees over 400,000 people attend each year. So, if you’re visiting the River City between August 6 – 14, perhaps a trip to the RNA Showgrounds is in order? There’s plenty to see, do and eat – including the popular and delicious strawberry sundaes! Another audible array that may delight, is the sound of discussing topics that inform, entertain and perhaps, make you think! Such a treat can be found in the latest episode of our podcast, Share Today, Save Tomorrow that focuses on Diversity and Culture in Cyber Security. The episode features chats with Sasenka Abeysooriya, about changing behaviours and influencing organisational culture and Jasmine Woolley, a proud First Nations woman, on how she utilises Indigenous knowledge to provide a fresh perspective on emerging threats to Australia’s security. If you’re new to the world of cyber or, you have a curious mind and would like to learn more about information security principles, the next round of AUSCERT’s Intro to Cyber for IT Professionals training is taking place in late August. Facilitated by our Principal Analyst and a guest industry trainer, our two half-day courses are aimed at engaging attendees with interactive content and a focus on delivering effective training outcomes. You can view the full list of our 2022 training schedule HERE. New Traffic Light Protocol standard released after five years Date: 2022-08-04 Author: Bleeping Computer The Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) has published TLP 2.0, a new version of its Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) standard, five years after the release of the initial version. The TLP standard is used in the computer security incident response team (CSIRT) community to facilitate the greater sharing of sensitive information. Students at top universities in Australia, the US and UK at risk of fraud Date: 2022-08-02 Author: Cyber Security Connect Proofpoint’s new research has found that the top universities in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom are lagging on basic cyber security measures, subjecting students, staff and stakeholders to higher risks of email-based impersonation attacks. According to Proofpoint’s analysis, universities in the United States are most at risk with the poorest levels of protection, followed by the United Kingdom, then Australia. Australia charges dev of Imminent Monitor RAT used by domestic abusers Date: 2022-07-31 Author: Bleeping Computer ​An Australian man was charged for developing and selling the Imminent Monitor remote access trojan, used to spy on victims’ devices remotely. A remote access trojan is a type of malware that allows full remote access to an infected device, including the ability to execute commands, log keystrokes, steal files and data, install additional software, take screenshots, and even record video from the device’s webcam. These types of malware are very popular among hackers due to its cheap price and the unfettered access it provided to infected devices. However, they are also popular with domestic abusers who use them to spy on their victims. Decentralized IPFS networks forming the ‘hotbed of phishing’ Date: 2022-07-29 Author: The Register Threat groups are increasingly turning to InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) peer-to-peer data sites to host their phishing attacks because the decentralized nature of the sharing system means malicious content is more effective and easier to hide. Threat analysts with cybersecurity vendor Trustwave this week said the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is becoming the “new hotbed of phishing” after seeing an increase in the number of phishing emails that contain IPFS URLs. At the same time, Atif Mushtaq, founder and chief product officer at anti-phishing company SlashNext, told The Register that his company is detecting phishing hosted on ipfs.io, cloudflare-ipfs.com and other vendor systems. LockBit Ransomware Abuses Windows Defender for Payload Loading Date: 2022-08-01 Author: Security Week A LockBit ransomware operator or affiliate has been abusing Windows Defender to decrypt and load Cobalt Strike payloads during attacks, according to endpoint security firm SentinelOne. In April, SentinelOne reported that, in an attack involving LockBit ransomware, threat actors had leveraged a legitimate VMware command-line utility named ‘VMwareXferlogs.exe’ to side-load a Cobalt Strike payload. In a different attack observed by the cybersecurity firm, the attacker leveraged a command-line tool associated with Windows Defender. Specifically, the hackers used ‘MpCmdRun.exe’ to decrypt and load post-exploitation Cobalt Strike payloads. ESB-2022.3764 – ALERT VMware products: CVSS (Max): 9.8 VMware has released patches to address multiple vulnerabilities in affected VMware products ESB-2022.3793 – OpenJDK 17.0.4: CVSS (Max): 7.5 Redhat build of OpenJDK is now available for portable linux fixing several vulnerabilities ESB-2022.3837 – Cisco Small Business RV160, RV260, RV340, and RV345 Series Routers: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Cisco has released software updates to address several vulnerabilities affecting small business RV series routers ESB-2022.3876 – BIG-IP (all modules): CVSS (Max): 8.7 A bypass restriction vulnerability with a CVSS of 8.7 has been fixed on BIG-IP Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, Great ideas were delivered with enthusiasm and with a hint of competitiveness at the AUSCERT Team Planning and Strategy Day earlier this week. It was a great opportunity for the teams to collaborate, brainstorm and put forward ideas and projects that focus on improving internal efficiencies and delivering the best service possible to our members. Now, it’s up to all of us to turn the ideas into reality so, watch this space! An idea that wasn’t popular was the controversial use of facial recognition technology in Bunnings and Kmart stores which was ‘paused’ earlier in the week following a significant public backlash. Positioned as a means of preventing theft, the stores are insistent that the use of such technology is legitimate. However, as reported in a recent Choice article, the decision to use facial recognition technology in this manner will be a matter for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to decide. Tomorrow, June 30, Is World Friendship Day. Originally developed by Hallmark as a means of creating another holiday in which to exchange cards, the concept of honouring friendship soon took over and it became a popular custom to reserve a day to celebrate friends. With the growth in social media across the globe, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared in 2011 that June 30 shall be a day to celebrate, connect and bring together people from all backgrounds. Atlassian Patches Servlet Filter Vulnerabilities Impacting Multiple Products Date: 2022-07-21 Author: Security Week [See also: ESB-2022.3575] Servlet Filters are pieces of Java code designed to intercept and process HTTP requests sent between a client and a backend. Servlet Filters may offer security mechanisms such as auditing, authentication, logging, or authorization. Tracked as CVE-2022-26136 and described as a Servlet Filter bypass, the first of the flaws could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to send specially crafted HTTP request and authenticate to third-party apps, or to launch a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack, to execute JavaScript code in a user’s browser. Microsoft issues emergency fix for broken Windows 11 start menu Date: 2022-07-25 Author: Bleeping Computer Microsoft has addressed a known issue that was causing the start menu on some Windows 11 to malfunction after installing recent updates. This known issue affects only devices running Windows 11, version 21H2, and it was acknowledged on Friday after Redmond received customer reports of start menu issues affecting some systems. “A small number of devices are unable to open the Start menu after installing updates released June 23, 2022 or later,” the company explained in a recent update on the Windows health dashboard. Hackers scan for vulnerabilities within 15 minutes of disclosure Date: 2022-07-26 Author: Bleeping Computer System administrators have even less time to patch disclosed security vulnerabilities than previously thought, as a new report shows threat actors scanning for vulnerable endpoints within 15 minutes of a new CVE being publicly disclosed. According to Palo Alto’s 2022 Unit 42 Incident Response Report, hackers are constantly monitoring software vendor bulletin boards for new vulnerability announcements they can leverage for initial access to a corporate network or to perform remote code execution. However, the speed at which threat actors begin scanning for vulnerabilities puts system administrators in the crosshairs as they race to patch the bugs before they are exploited. Multiple Windows, Adobe Zero-Days Anchor Knotweed Commercial Spyware Date: 2022-07-28 Author: Dark Reading A cyber-weapons broker dubbed Knotweed has been outed, with Microsoft flagging it as being behind numerous spyware attacks on law firms, banks, and strategic consultancies in countries around the world. To boot, Knotweed has made a habit of incorporating rafts of Windows and Adobe zero-day exploits into its spyware since at least 2021, according to Microsoft. Hacker puts 5.4m Twitter account details on sale with $30k price tag Date: 2022-07-26 Author: Cyber Security Connect A hacker has put a database of phone numbers and email addresses belonging to 5.4 million Twitter accounts for sale on the dark web for $30,000. Twitter is currently investigating the breach according to reports by CyberWire. The hack is linked with a cyber breach that occurred in January this year according to Restore Privacy, after tracking down HackerOne reports that observed the January incident “had potential of exposing user information even when hidden behind privacy settings”. Restore Privacy has also found that Twitter paid a bug bounty to the researcher who had reported the breach, then enabled the short-form social media platform to close it, but that earlier vulnerability appears to have been “exploited to collect a very large tranche of user data”. Ransomware Continues to Disrupt OT Operations Date: 2022-07-28 Author: Cyber Security Connect At the end of 2021, Dragos assessed with high confidence that ransomware would continue to disrupt OT operations into 2022. So far, that assessment holds true. Although we don’t have substantive evidence that the quantity of ransomware incidents has increased year on year, a surge of ransomware initial access campaigns in 2022 shows specific ransomware groups like Conti are more active. Also, the political tension between Russia and western countries may only exacerbate this. Bunnings and Kmart halt use of facial recognition technology in stores as privacy watchdog investigates Date: 2022-07-25 Author: The Guardian Kmart and Bunnings have paused the use of facial recognition technology in their stores, amid an investigation from Australia’s privacy regulator. Consumer group Choice last month revealed Bunnings and Kmart were using the technology – which captures images of people’s faces from video cameras as a unique faceprint that is then stored and can be compared with other faceprints – in what the companies say is a move to protect customers and staff and reduce theft in select stores. The two companies are now being investigated by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) over their use of the technology and whether it is consistent with privacy laws. Microsoft Edge now improves performance by compressing disk cache Date: 2022-07-27 Author: Bleeping Computer Microsoft says Microsoft Edge users will notice improved performance and a smaller disk footprint because the web browser now automatically compresses disk caches. “Beginning with Microsoft Edge 102 on Windows, Microsoft Edge automatically compresses disk caches on devices that meet eligibility checks, to ensure the compression will be beneficial without degrading performance,” the Microsoft Edge Team said Wednesday. “This ensures compression of these caches largely improves performance and overall user experience.” ESB-2022.3656 – Firefox: CVSS (Max): None Mozilla has updated Firefox to version 103 to patch multiple vulnerabilities ESB-2022.3576 – Google Chrome: CVSS (Max): None Multiple vulnerabilities have been fixed in Google Chrome version 103.0.5060.134 ESB-2022.3706 – Samba: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Samba has addressed a security vulnerability that allows Samba AD users to forge password change requests for any user including Admin ESB-2022.3685 – Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2.1.3: CVSS (Max): 10.0 Red Hat has released a critical security update for Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh addressing a trivial bypass vulnerability ASB-2022.0175.2 – Sonicwall GMS (Global Management System)and Analytics On-Prem products : CVSS (Max): None SonicWall has released security advisories about an SQL Injection vulnerability affecting GMS (Global Management System) and Analytics On-Prem products Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, Yesterday saw the majority of Australia and New Zealand Microsoft users impacted by the Microsoft Teams outage, AUSCERT included. It is being reported that the outage was caused by "a recent deployment [that] contained a broken connection to an internal storage service". We hope this gave users the chance to celebrate National Lamington Day. The humble lamington has been a part of the Australian tradition since the 1800s. Yet, the lamington is another dessert that has its origins disputed, much like the pavlova. Car hacking is not just for the movies anymore, but came closer to reality this week with the discovery of the unpatched bug in the MiCODUS GPS device. The vulnerability can allow attackers to restrict fuel intake, monitor the location of vehicles and even stop the vehicles. Currently, there is no patch that can be applied to mitigate this bug. … Cisco Patches Severe Vulnerabilities in Nexus Dashboard Date: 2022-07-21 Author: Security Week [ESB-2022.3545] Cisco on Wednesday announced the availability of patches for multiple vulnerabilities in Nexus Dashboard, including a critical-severity issue that could lead to the execution of arbitrary commands. The Nexus Dashboard is a data center management console that provides administrators and operators with quick access to required resources across services and applications. The most severe of the newly resolved vulnerabilities affecting the console is CVE-2022-20857 (CVSS score of 9.8), which could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to access a specific API and execute arbitrary commands. Hacker Abusing Windows NFS Remote Code Execution Flaw Date: 2022-07-20 Author: Cyware The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2022-30136, was patched in June, however, the report provided more detailed information about potential exploitation. The flaw is contained within Windows NFS and occurs due to improper handling of NFSv4 requests. It could be abused by sending malicious RPC calls to a target server. Further, successful exploitation could result in arbitrary code execution as SYSTEM. On the other side, unsuccessful exploitation could even crash the system. Microsoft Teams outage widens to take out M365 services, admin center Date: 2022-07-21 Author: The Register Microsoft acknowledged the issue at 01:47 UTC on July 21 and offered the following update around 75 minutes later. The outage appears to be global, but Microsoft is perhaps a little fortunate that the incident struck when the working day was all but over in the US, and in the dark of the European night. Most of the reaction The Register can find is therefore from the Asia-Pacific region, where businesses such as an Australian horse-racing organization have been disrupted. LDAP Account Manager bug poses unauthenticated remote code execution risk Date: 2022-07-19 Author: Portswigger An unauthenticated arbitrary object instantiation vulnerability in LDAP Account Manager (LAM) has been discovered during an internal penetration test. LAM is a PHP web application for managing entries such as users, groups, or DHCP settings in LDAP directories via a web frontend, and is one of the alternatives to FreeIPA. It’s included in Debian repositories. But a vulnerability discovered by researcher Arseniy Sharoglazov could allow an attacker to create arbitrary objects and achieve remote code execution (RCE) in one request, and without any out-of-band connections. Critical flaws in GPS tracker enable “disastrous” and “life-threatening” hacks Date: 2022-07-20 Author: Ars Technica A security firm and the US government are advising the public to immediately stop using a popular GPS tracking device or to at least minimize exposure to it, citing a host of vulnerabilities that make it possible for hackers to remotely disable cars while they’re moving, track location histories, disarm alarms, and cut off fuel. Log4j vulnerabilities remain 'endemic', says US DHS Date: 2022-07-18 Author: iTnews The US Department of Homeland security has warned that the world is likely to be dealing with the fallout from the Log4j vulnerability for a decade or more. Log4j – also known as Log4shell – is a critical vulnerability in a Java logging library that can be used for remote code execution and to gain full control over millions of vulnerable enterprise systems. COVID-19 lockdowns see rise in bank and credit-card fraud as more people work and shop from home Date: 2022-07-18 Author: ABC News One in nine Australians have been victims of personal fraud, with card fraud the most common type due to more people banking and shopping online because of COVID-19. Card fraud is when criminals get a hold of your banking or credit-card details to illegally access your account and steal money. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said 11 per cent of Australians, or more than 2 million people, were victims of personal fraud in 2020-21, compared to 8.5 per cent in 2014-15. Westpac arms itself for cryptocurrency tilt – Finance – Software Date: 2022-07-20 Author: IT News Westpac has given a clear indication of its intent to enter the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, having previously been tight-lipped as to its ambitions. The bank posted an open call for a principal architect for digital assets and cryptocurrency in recent weeks, from which it is clear that Westpac wants to set itself up as a leader in what is is collectively calling “digital assets”. ESB-2022.3563 – Apple Watch Series 3: CVSS (Max): 5.5* Apple released security updates to fix vulnerabilities impacting Apple Watch. Users should upgrade their devices by installing watchOS 8.7. ESB-2022.3559 – macOS Monterey 12.5: CVSS (Max): 7.5* Apple addressed several arbitrary code execution flaws impacting Neural Engine, GPU Drivers, ImageIO, ICU, and Kernel. Users should upgrade their devices by installing macOS Monterey 12.5 ESB-2022.3553 – Safari 15.6: CVSS (Max): None Apple fixed arbitrary code execution issue that was addressed with the release of Safari 15.6: An out-of-bounds write issue was addressed with improved input validation. Safari 15.6 may be obtained from the Mac App Store ESB-2022.3522 – MiCODUS MV720 GPS tracker: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Exploitation of several vulnerabilities could allow an attacker control over any MV720 GPS tracker, granting access to location, routes, fuel cutoff commands, and the disarming of various features (e.g., alarms). MiCODUS has not provided updates or patches to mitigate these vulnerabilities. ESB-2022.3574 – Questions For Confluence: CVSS (Max): None An external party has discovered and publicly disclosed a hardcoded password for Questions for Confluence on Twitter. This issue is likely to be exploited in the wild now that the hardcoded password is publicly known. This vulnerability should be remediated on affected systems immediately. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, Last week in our blog, Staying aware this tax time, we looked at potential risks for individuals in relation to phishing and smishing, specific to Australian tax processes. A recent article from The Conversation expands upon this growing trend, providing examples of methods used by scammers to gain an insight into the lives of potential targets, with their age and social status key data. It goes on to explain that information from social media is making it easier for scammers to create phishing attacks specifically targeting people, due to the abundance of personal information available about them. Increasing global connectivity and our growing reliance on technology are factors that have fuelled the growth of IT/OT convergence. This area is a perpetual work in progress and is discussed in the first episode of Season 2 of our podcast series. Episode 13, features a chat between Anthony Caruana and Lesley Carhart who discuss the intersection between cyber security and operational technology, including the increased risk and vulnerability throughout the industry. Microsoft's July Patch Tuesday fixes actively exploited bug Date: 2022-07-12 Author: The Register [See also: ASB-2022.0137] No, Windows Autopatch didn't kill the monthly patchapalooza PATCH TUESDAY Despite worries that Patch Tuesday may not be as exciting now that Microsoft's Windows Autopatch is live — with a slew of caveats — the second Tuesday of this month arrived with 84 security fixes, including 4 critical bugs and one that's under active exploit. Let's start with the one that miscreants have already found and exploited. CVE-2022-22047 is an elevation of privilege vuln in Windows' Client Server Runtime Subsystem (CSRSS). Microsoft deemed it an "important" security issue, with low complexity and low privileges required to exploit. "An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain SYSTEM privileges," the security advisory explained. Ransomware gang now lets you search their stolen data Date: 2022-07-11 Author: Bleeping Computer Two ransomware gangs and a data extortion group have adopted a new strategy to force victim companies to pay threat actors to not leak stolen data. The new tactic consists in adding a search function on the leak site to make it easier to find victims or even specific details. At least two ransomware operations and a data extortion gang have adopted the strategy recently and more threat actors are likely to do the same. Deakin University reveals breach of 47,000 students' details Date: 2022-07-13 Author: iTnews Subset targeted with smish sent via officially-used SMS channel. Deakin University has revealed a data breach impacting almost 47,000 current and past students, along with a ‘smishing’ attempt that compromised a legitimate communications channel to target 10,000 current students The Victorian university said it had been “targeted in a cyber attack” where a single staff member’s login credentials were compromised. Microsoft details massive phishing operation Date: 2022-07-13 Author: IT News A phishing campaign that has been active since September 2021 has so far attempted to target more than 10,000 organisations, Microsoft security researchers said. The campaign uses what Microsoft calls Adversary in the Middle (AitM) attacks which involves setting up a proxy server that sits between victims and the websites they wish to visit. With a proxy server that intercepts hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP) packets from users, attackers don't need create sites that impersonate legitimate ones, as per traditional phishing campaigns. Australia's major banks look to dynamic CVV to combat payment fraud Date: 2022-07-11 Author: IT News Three of the 'Big Four' Australian banks have turned to dynamic card verification value (CVV) functionality to combat online payment fraud and boost digital consumer protections. The CVC or CVV is traditionally a static, three-digit number found on the back of a physical debit or credit card that acts as an additional layer of verification or security when a customer is transacting online. Vulnerability Spotlight: Adobe Acrobat DC use-after-free issues could lead to arbitrary code execution Date: 2022-07-13 Author: Talos Website [See also ESB-2022.3409] Cisco Talos recently discovered two use-after-free vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC that could allow an attacker to eventually gain the ability to execute arbitrary code. Acrobat is one of the most popular PDF reader software options available currently. It includes the ability to read and process JavaScript to give PDFs greater interactivity and customization options for users. This vulnerability exists in the way Acrobat Reader processes JavaScript. 1 in 3 untrained employees will click on a phishing link Date: 2022-07-13 Author: Security Brief One in three untrained employees will click on a phishing link, according to a new report from KnowBe4. The security awareness training and simulated phishing platform has released the new 2022 Phishing by Industry Benchmarking Report, which measures an organisation’s Phish-proneTM Percentage (PPP), which indicates how many of their employees are likely to fall for phishing or a social engineering scam. Tech giants want to kill off passwords. Here's why they think passkeys will change the world, and what that means for you Date: 2022-07-14 Author: ABC News Last year, a password management company and a group of researchers found that the most common password in the world was 123456 — they said it showed up more than 103 million times. Second was 123456789. Third was 12345 ASB-2022.0139 – ALERT Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008: CVSS (Max): 8.8* Microsoft's Patch Tuesday included fixes for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 ASB-2022.0137 – ALERT Windows: CVSS (Max): 8.8* Microsoft Patch Tuesday updates included a fix for the CVE-2022-22047 actively exploited vulnerability ESB-2022.3409 – Adobe Acrobat DC and Adobe Acrobat Reader DC: CVSS (Max): 7.8 Adobe has released security updates for Adobe Acrobat and Reader for Windows and macOS which addressed multiple critical, and important vulnerabilities that could lead to arbitrary code execution and memory leak ESB-2022.3381 – CVSS (Max): 9.8 An update was released for two security issues in the Debian PHP package which could result an denial of service or potentially the execution of arbitrary code Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, The second half of 2022 has commenced with a mix of chilly temperatures and wet weather for most of Australia and news that a third wave of the COVID pandemic is increasingly likely. Not wanting to add to the woes of many, we at AUSCERT felt it prudent to share our insights into another potential threat; tax-related scams. In our recent blog, Stay alert this tax time, we highlight two of the more widely used tactics, Phishing and Smishing. By providing examples and what to look out for, we hope to increase awareness and, reduce the success of would-be attackers. Perhaps the Shanghai Police could have been more vigilant in this regard with reports stating the recent attack that resulted in the data of almost one billion people being leaked because of poor security. It is alleged that the system wasn’t hacked but rather, it simply didn’t have a password for over a year. CNN delves into this situation, providing insights into what currently appears to be the largest leak of public information seen. Closer to home, NAIDOC Week 2022 continues and has the theme ‘Get up! Stand up! Show up!’ encourages us all to acknowledge, and celebrate the histories, cultures, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It is an important annual event where everyone’s invited to join in the celebrations with official celebrations held from July 3-10. Visit the NAIDOC website for news, stories, and information on how you can show your support and help bridge the gap. Verified Twitter accounts hacked to send fake suspension notices Date: 2022-07-02 Author: Bleeping Computer Threat actors are hacking verified Twitter accounts to send fake but well-written suspension messages that attempt to steal other verified users’ credentials. Twitter verifies accounts if they are considered notable influencers, celebrities, politicians, journalists, activists, and government and private organizations. To receive the verified ‘blue badge,’ Twitter users must apply for verification and submit supporting documentation to show why their account is ‘notable.’ Australia offers cyber-security assistance to Ukraine Date: 2022-07-04 Author: Cyber Security Connect Strengthening the cyber resilience of Ukraine’s Border Guard Service forms part of a new assistance package from the Australian government. In response to a request from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Commonwealth government has committed $99.5 million in additional military assistance to Ukraine, including the delivery of 14 M113 armoured personnel carriers and 20 Thales-built Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles. The value of Australia’s military assistance to Ukraine now totals approximately $388 million. Notably, $8.7 million has been pledged to assist Ukraine’s Border Guard Service, tipped to fund upgrades to border management equipment, improvements to cyber security, and enhancements to border operations in the field. Australian businesses lose $227 million to BEC-like scams Date: 2022-07-04 Author: ITnews Australian businesses were scammed out of $227 million in “payment redirection” cons – which includes business email compromise or BEC – over the course of 2021. Payment redirection, as the ACCC groups these scams, caused the highest losses to businesses out of any scam type, according to commission’s latest scam report. Facebook 2FA phish arrives just 28 minutes after scam domain created Date: 2022-07-01 Author: Naked Security We’ll tell this story primarily through the medium of images, because a picture is worth 1024 words. This cybercrime is a visual reminder of three things: It’s easy to fall for a phishing scam if you’re in a hurry. Cybercriminals don’t waste any time getting new scams going. 2FA isn’t a cybersecurity panacea, so you still need your wits about you. Google patches new Chrome zero-day flaw exploited in attacks Date: 2022-07-04 Author: Bleeping Computer [See also ESB-2022.3254] Google has released Chrome 103.0.5060.114 for Windows users to address a high-severity zero-day vulnerability exploited by attackers in the wild, the fourth Chrome zero-day patched in 2022. “Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2022-2294 exists in the wild.,” the browser vendor explained in a security advisory published on Monday. Poor patching creates easy zero-day vulnerability reuse Date: 2022-07-01 Author: iTnews Google’s elite Project Zero security researchers are again warning that insufficient patching of vulnerabilities means threat actors can vary their methodologies, and reuse software bugs. Project Zero’s Maddie Stone posted a half year report on the zero-day vulnerabilities that are being exploited with no patches available for 2022. Fortinet patch batch remedies multiple path traversal vulnerabilities | The Daily Swig Date: 2022-07-07 Author: Port Swigger Fortinet has addressed a raft of security vulnerabilities affecting several of its endpoint security products. The California-headquartered cybersecurity giant, which accounts for more than a third of all firewall and unified threat management shipments worldwide, released a huge number of firmware and software updates on Tuesday (July 5). Cloud Misconfig Exposes 3TB of Sensitive Airport Data in Amazon S3 Bucket: ‘Lives at Stake’ Date: 2022-07-07 Author: Dark Reading A misconfigured Amazon S3 bucket resulted in 3TB of airport data (more than 1.5 million files) being publicly accessible, open, and without an authentication requirement for access, highlighting the dangers of unsecured cloud infrastructure within the travel sector. The exposed information, uncovered by Skyhigh Security, includes employee personal identification information (PII) and other sensitive company data affecting at least four airports in Colombia and Peru. ESB-2022.3250 – GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE): CVSS (Max): 9.9 Gitlab released critical security update on versions 15.1.1, 15.0.4, and 14.10.5 for GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE) ESB-2022.3315 – MozillaFirefox: CVSS (Max): 7.5 MozillaFirefox has released an update that fixes 9 new vulnerabilities ESB-2022.3331 – PHP: CVSS (Max): 9.8 USN-5479-1 fixed vulnerabilities in PHP. Unfortunately that update for CVE-2022-31625 was incomplete for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. This update fixes the problem ESB-2022.3325 – Traffix SDC: CVSS (Max): 8.6 A remote attacker may be able to exploit this vulnerability to compromise the data confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected system Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, Today sees us enter the second half of 2022 which, for many of us, seems to have arrived sooner than expected. Something else that has landed quickly is the second season of our podcast series, ‘Share Today, Save Tomorrow’. The first episode of the season features the amazing Lesley Carhart, known to many by her Twitter handle @hacks4Pancakes. Lesley, an industry leader in incident response, chats to Anthony Caruana about the intersection between cyber security and operational technology, including the increased risk and vulnerability throughout the industry. There’s more from our very own Bek and Mike in the episode so be sure to take the time to listen to Episode 13 – ITOT Convergence. Mike and Bek look back at some of their highlights from this year’s conference, AUSCERT2022, which is made a little easier with the recorded sessions from this year’s conference now available! Emails were sent to attendees with the login details so be sure to check your inbox. The OnAir portal will remain open until Friday, 29th July 2022 which should allow plenty of time to revisit your own highlights or, perhaps watch a session that you may have missed. Excitingly, the merchandise from this year’s conference has also been shipped to attendees! As most of us have experienced, shipment times are a tad longer nowadays so, please be patient. We assure you, the wait will be worth it! Lastly, some would say most importantly, next Thursday, July 7, 2022, is World Chocolate Day. From their discovery and use by the Olmecs over 2,500 years ago, cacao beans have been used as currency, turned into a bitter drink and of course, used to make the most popular tasty treat consumed the world over today. Chocolate contains antioxidants and can improve your cardiovascular health and can be enjoyed in seemingly endless ways. So, please do your part and support World Chocolate Day with something made from, dipped in or containing some chocolate! New report finds 101% spike in email threats Date: 2022-07-24 Author: Cyber Security Connect Trend Micro reports that it blocked over 33.6 million cloud email threats in 2021, a 101 per cent increase on the previous year. Trend Micro’s research on the mounting number of cyber risks highlighted that 48 per cent of local organisations don’t believe their method of assessing risk exposure is sophisticated enough, underlining the vulnerability of Australia’s corporate sector to increasingly insidious email threats. Email remains a top point of entry for cyber attacks as demonstrated by this massive increase. Many Australian businesses faced spear-phishing, business email compromise (BEC) and email-based ransomware attacks in 2021. RansomHouse claims AMD hack, 450GB data stolen Date: 2022-07-29 Author: Cyber Security Connect Semiconductor manufacturer AMD is investigating a cyber attack after the RansomHouse gang claimed to have stolen 450GB of data from the company last year. RansomHouse, an extortion group, claims to have stolen 450GB of data from AMD, announcing on Telegram that they would be “selling the data for a well-known three-letter company that starts with the letter A”. The extortion group also added AMD to their data leak site, claiming to have stolen 450GB of data. According to Satnam Narang, senior staff research engineer at Tenable, there has been a renaissance of pure-play extortion groups in recent months. ACSC warns Aussie businesses of tax-time email hacking campaigns Date: 2022-07-28 Author: Cyber Security Connect The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) is urging Aussies and Australian businesses to strengthen their email security practices to protect their private information and that of their customers in the lead up to tax time. As tax time approaches, the ACSC is encouraging individuals, businesses and organisations to be alert, and aware of business email compromise (BEC) threats. BEC occurs when cyber criminals access email accounts aiming to steal sensitive and financial information or commit fraud by impersonating employees or company email accounts to obtain money or data. Clever phishing method bypasses MFA using Microsoft WebView2 apps Date: 2022-07-26 Author: Bleeping Computer A clever, new phishing technique uses Microsoft Edge WebView2 applications to steal victim’s authentication cookies, allowing threat actors to bypass multi-factor authentication when logging into stolen accounts. With the large number of data breaches, remote access trojan attacks, and phishing campaigns, stolen login credentials have become abundant. However, the increasing adoption of multi-factor authentication (MFA) has made it difficult to use these stolen credentials unless the threat actor also has access to the target’s one-time MFA passcodes or security keys. This co-worker does not exist: FBI warns of deepfakes interviewing for tech jobs Date: 2022-07-29 Author: TechCrunch A lot of people are worried about the prospect of competing with AI for their jobs, but this probably isn’t what they were expecting. The FBI has warned of an uptick in cases where “deepfakes” and stolen personal information are being used to apply for jobs in the U.S. — including faking video interviews. Don’t dust off the Voight-Kampff test just yet, though. The shift to remote work is great news for lots of people, but like any other change in methods and expectations it is also a fresh playground for scammers. Security standards are being updated, recruiters are adapting, and of course the labor market is wild enough that hiring companies and applicants both are trying to move faster than ever. Attacker Targets RCE Bug in Mitel MiVoice VoIP Appliances Date: 2022-07-29 Author: Cyware Hacker News Cybercriminals have used a zero-day exploit on Linux-based Mitel MiVoice VoIP appliances. According to researchers, the exploit was used for gaining initial access to an attempted ransomware attack. The zero-day abuse A report from CrowdStrike disclosed that a zero-day RCE flaw (CVE-2022-29499) is present in the Mitel Service Appliance component of MiVoice Connect that was abused to obtain initial access to the network. Although the attack was stopped, the intrusion is suspected to be a part of a ransomware attack. Sophisticated ZuoRAT attack targets home workers Date: 2022-07-30 Author: IT News Security researchers have unearthed a sophisticated campaign that targets consumer-grade routers from multiple manufacturers in Europe and North America. The researchers at security vendor Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs spotted the ZuoRAT multi-stage remote access tool hijacking small business and residential routers from brands such as Cisco, ASUS, DrayTek and Netgear. ESB-2022.3122 – Traffix SDC: CVSS (Max): 7.8 A Linux kernel vulnerability which affects Traffix SDC has been acknowledged by F5. Currently, no mitigation or patches are available ESB-2022.3172.2 – ALERT Tenable.sc: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Tenable has released Tenable.sc patch 202206.1 to address the vulnerabilities in Apache ESB-2022.3152 – Firefox ESR 91.11: CVSS (Max): None Mozilla has updated Firefox ESR to 91.11 to address the security vulnerabilities ESB-2022.3157 – maven-shared-utils: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Debian has released new maven-shared-utils packages to address shell injection attacks Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, Just like a bad smell or that one annoying neighbour, Log4Shell won’t go away. It has been reported that threat actors are still utilising the Log4Shell (CVE-2021-44228) vulnerability to gain access to internal systems. AUSCERT issued a Security Bulletin earlier this month providing further details on the vulnerability and affected products and versions whilst Bleeping Computer offers additional information following a warning issued by CISA. Meanwhile, the ongoing war in Ukraine continues to see tactics deployed that include the integration of cyber-attacks into overall strategies. The scope and nature of these attacks are also becoming more complex as they seemingly become more intrinsic in the landscape of modern warfare. The Hill dissects current methods being deployed along with the potentially significant impact a well-timed and placed cyber-attack can have. On a more ‘Zen’ note, June 21st was World Yoga Day, which aimed to raise awareness of the numerous benefits of yoga. The date is the longest day in the northern hemisphere and shortest in the southern hemisphere – the summer and the winter solstices – which have significance in yoga. Some benefits of yoga include balancing the hemispheres of our brains and learning ways to help improve memory, intellect, coordination, and mental health. There are several ways that you can help you boost your brain health with a few yoga-based exercises. Snake Keylogger identified as top malware circulating in Australia Date: 2022-06-20 Author: Cyber Security Connect Check Point Research (CPR) has reported that the Snake Keylogger malware has claimed first place in Australia and eighth place globally after a long absence from the Global Threat Index. Snake Keylogger records users’ keystrokes and transmit collected data to threat actors. It is usually spread through emails that include docx or xlsx attachments with malicious macros, but CPR researchers have also noticed that Snake Keylogger has also been spreading via PDF files. The CPR data has revealed Snake Keylogger is the leading malware family impacting Australian organisations, accounting for 2.48 per cent of Australian cyber incidents. Google Chrome extensions can be fingerprinted to track you online Date: 2022-06-19 Author: Bleeping Computer A researcher has created a website that uses your installed Google Chrome extensions to generate a fingerprint of your device that can be used to track you online. To track users on the web, it is possible to create fingerprints, or tracking hashes, based on various characteristics of a device connecting to a website. These characteristics include GPU performance, installed Windows applications, a device’s screen resolution, hardware configuration, and even the installed fonts. It is then possible to track a device across sites using the same fingerprinting method. China-linked APT hacking group targeting Australia and South-East Asia Date: 2022-06-22 Author: Cyber Security Connect SentinelLabs reports that it has newly discovered a China-linked APT named “Aoqin Dragon” that has been spying on organisations in Australia and South-East Asia for over a decade. The SentinelLabs researchers have revealed that this new advanced persistent threat (APT) group linked to China had been discovered “only after conducting cyber espionage campaigns under the radar since 2013”. Dubbed “Aoqin Dragon”, the Chinese hackers lure victims with malicious documents, according to SentinelLabs data, which appear to be salacious ads for pornography sites. Massive Cloudflare outage caused by network configuration error Date: 2022-06-21 Author: Bleeping Computer Cloudflare says a massive outage that affected more than a dozen of its data centers and hundreds of major online platforms and services today was caused by a change that should have increased network resilience. “Today, June 21, 2022, Cloudflare suffered an outage that affected traffic in 19 of our data centers,” Cloudflare said after investigating the incident. “Unfortunately, these 19 locations handle a significant proportion of our global traffic. This outage was caused by a change that was part of a long-running project to increase resilience in our busiest locations.” According to user reports, the full list of affected websites and services includes, but it’s not limited to, Amazon, Twitch, Amazon Web Services, Steam, Coinbase, Telegram, Discord, DoorDash, Gitlab, and more. Capital One Attacker Exploited Misconfigured AWS Databases Date: 2022-06-21 Author: Dark Reading The 36-year-old Seattle tech worker behind the infamous 2019 Capital One data breach has been convicted on seven charges related to the data theft — which are punishable by up to 20 years in jail. In the incident, Paige Thompson, who operated under the hacker handle “erratic,” made off with more than 100 million credit applications that were held in a misconfigured Amazon Web Services storage bucket in the cloud. She was arrested shortly thereafter, after the banking giant traced the malicious activity back to her and alerted the FBI. There are 24.6 billion pairs of credentials for sale on dark web Date: 2022-06-20 Author: The Register More than half of the 24.6 billion stolen credential pairs available for sale on the dark web were exposed in the past year, the Digital Shadows Research Team has found. Data recorded from last year reflected a 64 percent increase over 2020’s total (Digital Shadows publishes the data every two years), which is a significant slowdown compared to the two years preceding 2020. Between 2018 and the year the pandemic broke out, the number of credentials for sale shot up by 300 percent, the report said. From text messages to fraudulent ads, how scammers are draining bank accounts Date: 2022-06-21 Author: ABC News There have been more than 35,000 reported attempts to gain the personal information of Australians since January. The Australian Cybersecurity Centre reported cybercrime cost the economy an estimated $33 billion in 2021. National identity and cyber-support service IDCARE has never been busier, according to its managing director, Mr Lacy. “I don’t think there are many crimes that you can say penetrate the family home almost on a daily basis,” he said. A popular method used by scammers is what’s known as “phishing”, where things like an email imitating a bank or telco are used to encourage people to share their personal information. “Smishing” is a similar method, involving text messages. “So smishing is via SMS and phishing more generally is via email or telephone,” Mr Lacy said. ESB-2022.3017 – Python-Twisted: CVSS (Max): 7.5 Suse has released a security update for a denial of service vulnerability in Python-twisted which affects multiple Suse products ESB-2022.3069 – Jenkins (core) and Jenkins Plugins: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Multiple vulnerabilities affecting Jenkins core and various plugins have been addressed by Jenkins ESB-2022.3066 – Google Chrome: CVSS (Max): None Google released Chrome 103.0.5060.53 that contains 14 security fixes and a number of improvements ESB-2022.3062 – Adaptive Security Device Manager and Adaptive Security Appliance Software: CVSS (Max): 9.1 Cisco has released patches for ASA to address a vulnerability which allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the machine Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, On Wednesday, June 15, the world said goodbye to one of the original web browsers, Internet Explorer. Dating back to the age of dial-up internet when the electronic gurgling and squeaking noises signalled the impending connection, Internet Explorer diminished in popularity and saw its share of critics over the past twenty-seven years. However, as reported in The Washington Post there are regions that still heavily rely on it which could result in a few headaches for users. This week, we also learned of what many have feared and documented in science fiction like The Terminator, Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) sentience, becoming a reality when a Google employee believed a chatbot had become self-aware. Whilst the validity of this claim is doubted, it has sparked conversation around how A.I. sentience could be determined. ABC News looked at some measures that could be undertaken and, possible implications including moral and legal rights for sentient machines. A cohort of people that face challenges on this very front is refugees. June 19 – 25 is Refugee Week, a time for all Australians to understand the issues affecting refugees and, celebrate the positive contributions they make to Australian society. The theme for 2022 is ‘Healing’ which, after a few years of living with a pandemic, is paramount in coming together and contributing to a more connected and accepting culture. The Refugee Week website has some fantastic resources for individuals and organisations to use to help raise awareness and show your support. Drupal Patches ‘High-Risk’ Third-Party Library Flaws Date: 2022-06-13 Author: SecurityWeek [See AUSCERT bulletin ESB-2022.2879] The Drupal security team has released a “moderately critical” advisory to call attention to serious vulnerabilities in a third-party library and warned that hackers can exploit the bugs to remotely hijack Drupal-powered websites. The vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2022-31042 and CVE-2022-31043, were found and fixed in Guzzle, a third-party library that Drupal uses to handle HTTP requests and responses to external services. “These do not affect Drupal core, but may affect some contributed projects or custom code on Drupal sites,” according to a Drupal advisory. Internet Explorer (almost) breathes its final byte on Wednesday Date: 2022-06-13 Author: Bleeping Computer Microsoft will finally end support for Internet Explorer on multiple Windows versions on Wednesday, June 15, almost 27 years after its launch on August 24, 1995. After finally reaching its end of life, the Internet Explorer desktop application will be disabled. It will be replaced with the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, with users automatically redirected to Edge when launching IE11. This retirement affects Internet Explorer 11 desktop apps on specific versions of Windows 10 delivered via the Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) to systems running Windows 10 client SKUs (version 20H2 and later) and Windows 10 IoT (version 20H2 and later). Microsoft June 2022 Patch Tuesday fixes 1 zero-day, 55 flaws Date: 2022-06-14 Author: Bleeping Computer Today is Microsoft’s June 2022 Patch Tuesday, and with it comes fixes for 55 vulnerabilities, including fixes for the Windows MSDT ‘Follina’ zero-day vulnerability and new Intel MMIO flaws. Of the 55 vulnerabilities fixed in today’s update, three are classified as ‘Critical’ as they allow remote code execution, with the rest classified as Important. This does not include 5 Microsoft Edge Chromium updates that were released earlier this week. CISA Recommends Organizations Update to the Latest Version of Google Chrome Date: 2022-06-14 Author: Dark Reading The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) Friday urged users and administrators to update to a new version of Chrome that Google released last week to fix a total of seven vulnerabilities in its browser. In an advisory, Google described four of the flaws — three of which were reported to the company by external researchers — as presenting a high risk for organizations. The company said it had decided to restrict access to bug details until most users have updated to the new version of Chrome (102.0.5005.115). Citrix warns critical bug can let attackers reset admin passwords Date: 2022-06-15 Author: Bleeping Computer [See ESB-2022.2935] Citrix warned customers to deploy security updates that address a critical Citrix Application Delivery Management (ADM) vulnerability that can let attackers reset admin passwords. Citrix ADM is a web-based solution that provides admins with a centralized cloud-based console for managing on-premises or cloud Citrix deployments, including Citrix Application Delivery Controller (ADC), Citrix Gateway, and Citrix Secure Web Gateway. 24+ Billion Credentials Circulating on the Dark Web in 2022 — So Far Date: 2022-06-15 Author: Dark Reading Passwordless technology may be one of the most hyped categories in cybersecurity at the moment, but the reality on the ground is that passwords are still widely entrenched — and wildly insecure. Some 24.6 billion complete sets of usernames and passwords are currently in circulation in cybercriminal marketplaces as of this year, a report has found. That’s four complete sets of credentials for every person on Earth and a 65% increase since the last time this study was conducted, in 2020. Potent Emotet Variant Spreads Via Stolen Email Credentials Date: 2022-06-10 Author: Threatpost The dangerous malware appears to be well and truly back in action, sporting new variants and security-dodging behaviors in a wave of recent phishing campaigns. Emotet’s resurgence in April seems to be the signal of a full comeback for what was once dubbed “the most dangerous malware in the world,” with researchers spotting various new malicious phishing campaigns using hijacked emails to spread new variants of the malware. ASB-2022.0135 – ALERT Microsoft Windows: CVSS (Max): 9.8* Microsoft has released security patch update for June that resolves 39 vulnerabilities. ASB-2022.0127.2 – UPDATE ALERT Microsoft Office: CVSS (Max): 7.8 Microsoft has issued CVE-2022-30190 for a zero-day vulnerability that allows remote code execution in Microsoft Office via the ms-msdt protocol scheme. ESB-2022.2929 – Adobe Illustrator: CVSS (Max): 7.8 Adobe’s most recent update for Adobe Illustrator 2022 resolves vulnerabilities that could lead to arbitrary code execution and memory leak. ESB-2022.2948 – Cisco Email Security Appliance and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager: CVSS (Max): 7.7 Cisco has released software updates that address a vulnerability in the web management interface of Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager that if exploited could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to retrieve sensitive information. ESB-2022.2961 – ALERT Splunk Enterprise: CVSS (Max): 9.0 Splunk Enterprise deployment servers in versions before 9.0 allow unauthenticated downloading of forwarder bundles and let clients to deploy forwarder bundles to other deployment clients through the deployment server. Splunk advises its clients to upgrade Splunk Enterprise deployment servers to version 9.0 or higher. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, With the ongoing impact of COVID-19 and the associated uncertainty easing, 2021 started with hope and the promise that our daily lives would return to a sense of normalcy. Eventually, we saw a return to offices, with permanent hybrid working arrangements and restrictions reduced. However, the impact on personal lives, societal changes, and increased frequency and sophistication of cyber threats presented ongoing challenges. AUSCERT dealt with many of these in 2021, ensuring our proactive approach in assisting members with potential exposure to risk continued. The 2021 Year in Review provides insight into the challenges, our accomplishments, and highlights throughout the year. One that is sure to make the highlight list for 2022 is AUSCERT2022. The four days of collaboration, education, and fun ensured that the oldest information security conference in Australia was a resounding success! View the highlights video HERE. With a commitment to current and comprehensive content, AUSCERT’s training courses are engaging and interactive. Facilitated by our Principal Analyst and industry-leading trainers, AUSCERT training courses will deliver the outcomes required by all stakeholders. This extends to anyone that looks after their organisation’s cyber security. Our next course, Cyber Security Risk Management, is taking place next week on June 13th & 14th – Book Now. The cyber security landscape is ever-changing, and AUSCERT continues to be passionate about engaging our members to empower their people, capabilities, and capacities. Microsoft: Windows Autopatch now available for public preview Date: 2022-06-05 Author: Bleeping Computer Microsoft said this week that Windows Autopatch, a service to automatically keep Windows and Microsoft 365 software up to date in enterprise environments, has now reached public preview. This enterprise service was first announced in April when Redmond said it would be made generally available in July 2022 and offered free to Microsoft customers with a Windows 10/11 Enterprise E3 license or greater. Windows Autopatch automatically manages the deployment of Windows 10 and Windows 11 quality and feature updates, drivers, firmware, and Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise updates. Ransomware gangs now give victims time to save their reputation Date: 2022-06-06 Author: Bleeping Computer Threat analysts have observed an unusual trend in ransomware group tactics, reporting that initial phases of victim extortion are becoming less open to the public as the actors tend to use hidden or anonymous entries. By not disclosing the victim’s name immediately, the ransomware operatives give their targets a more extended opportunity to negotiate the ransom payment in secrecy while still maintaining a level of pressure in the form of a future data leak. KELA, an Israeli cyber-intelligence specialist, has published its Q1 2022 ransomware report that illustrates this trend and highlights various changes in the field. Atlassian patches zero-day affecting Confluence Data Center and Server Date: 2022-06-03 Author: SC Media [Related to AUSCERT Bulletin ESB-2022.2737.4] Atlassian on Friday issued fixes for a zero-day remote code execution vulnerability in Confluence Data Center and Server. The critical vulnerability lets an unauthenticated user execute arbitrary code on a Confluence Server or Data Center instance. In an updated blog post, Atlassian said it fixed the following versions: 7.4.17, 7.13.7, 7.14.3, 7.15.2, 7.16.4, 7.17.4 and 7.18.1. Atlassian said for customers that access Confluence via an Atlassian.net domain, it’s hosted by Atlassian and not vulnerable. The company’s investigation have not found any evidence of exploitation of Atlassian Cloud. The critical vulnerability — CVE-2022-26134 — affected all supported versions of Confluence Server and Data Center. Confluence Server and Data Center versions after 1.3.0 are affected. Exploit released for Atlassian Confluence RCE bug, patch now Date: 2022-06-05 Author: Bleeping Computer [This article references a vulnerability in AUSCERT Bulletin ESB-2022.2737.4] Proof-of-concept exploits for the actively exploited critical CVE-2022-26134 vulnerability impacting Atlassian Confluence and Data Center servers have been widely released this weekend. The vulnerability tracked as CVE-2022-26134 is a critical unauthenticated, remote code execution vulnerability exploited through OGNL injection and impacts all Atlassian Confluence and Data Center 2016 servers after version 1.3.0. Successful exploitation allows unauthenticated, remote attackers to create new admin accounts, execute commands, and ultimately take over the server. Australians lose over $200m to scams in just 4 months Date: 2022-06-06 Author: Cyber Security Connect The new data, released by Scamwatch, has revealed a 166 per cent increase in losses from last year. According to the ACCC, the real losses are likely to be significantly higher as only 13 per cent of Australians are expected to refer their losses on to Scamwatch. Investment scams have been found to be the most prolific, resulting in some $158 million lost for Australian consumers, representing a 314 per cent increase on the same time last year. Of these, crypto currency investments have cost investors $113 million while imposter bond scams have resulted in $10.9 million lost. HTTP/3 becomes a standard, at last Date: 2022-06-09 Author: iTnews Faster traffic, more encryption. More than three years after it was first proposed, the third major version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, HTTP, has been adopted as an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard. As is common, adoption of HTTP/3 has run ahead of the formal standards process. GitLab Issues Security Patch for Critical Account Takeover Vulnerability Date: 2022-06-03 Author: Thehackernews GitLab has moved to address a critical security flaw in its service that, if successfully exploited, could result in an account takeover. Tracked as CVE-2022-1680, the issue has a CVSS severity score of 9.9 and was discovered internally by the company. The security flaw affects all versions of GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE) starting from 11.10 before 14.9.5, all versions starting from 14.10 before 14.10.4, and all versions starting from 15.0 before 15.0.1. Are You Ready for a Breach in Your Organization’s Slack Workspace? Date: 2022-06-07 Author: Dark Reading When organizations moved to hybrid work at the beginning of the pandemic, Slack offered a crucial way for teams to collaborate efficiently regardless of physical location. But in most organizations, Slack is a relatively new solution, bringing the typical challenges of adopting new technologies — related to culture, functionality, expected user behavior, and, of course, security. For many organizations, Slack is now the primary communication channel, replacing email and knowledge management repositories. As a result, Slack increasingly contains more sensitive information than those traditional systems. Researchers Warn of Unpatched “DogWalk” Microsoft Windows Vulnerability Date: 2022-06-08 Author: The Hacker News An unofficial security patch has been made available for a new Windows zero-day vulnerability in the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT), even as the Follina flaw continues to be exploited in the wild. The issue — referenced as DogWalk — relates to a path traversal flaw that can be exploited to stash a malicious executable file to the Windows Startup folder when a potential target opens a specially crafted “.diagcab” archive file that contains a diagnostics configuration file. ESB-2022.2726 – ACS 3.70: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Red Hat released updated images for Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes. The updated image includes bug fixes and feature improvements. ESB-2022.2737.4 – UPDATED ALERT Confluence Server and Confluence Data Center: CVSS (Max): None Atlassian released fixed versions to address the unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability in Confluence Server and Confluence Data Center. AUSCERT recommends affected Confluence users to regularly check for updated advice from Atlassian as the situation evolves ESB-2022.2736 – Local Run Manager (LRM): CVSS (Max): 10.0 Vulnerabilities in Local Run Manager may allow an unauthenticated user to take control of the affected product remotely and take any action at the operating system level. The users are advised to take defensive measures to minimize the risk of this vulnerability. ASB-2022.0128 – Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based): CVSS (Max): 8.3 Microsoft Security Updates for Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based) address a number of vulnerabilities. It is advised to update Edge to the latest release. ESB-2022.1284.4 – UPDATE Atlassian Products: CVSS (Max): 8.1* The vendor updated the advisory to include fixed version of the Confluence DC. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, Change is inevitable, often with mixed results. But one change that we hope will see improvements for our industry, is the appointment of the first-ever dedicated Cyber Security Minister. During the recent federal election campaign, new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese assured Australians that his government would “..lift cyber-resilience across the whole nation”. With the appointment of Clare O’Neil as the Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Cyber Security, it seems that Australia may just achieve the goal of better and smarter cybersecurity. This is especially important with our industry developing at an increasingly rapid pace which can make it difficult to keep up. One term that has many scratching their heads or shrugging shoulders is IoT, also known as the Internet of Things. As technology becomes increasingly incorporated into our daily lives, it’s important for as many of us to understand what these are and, how they both benefit society and create potential threats. itNews provides an overview of IoT, including examples, along with key factors that are fuelling the rapid growth in the IoT network and our dependency on it. Seasonal change has also been afoot this week and, if you live on the east coast of Australia, you will be all too aware that winter has truly arrived following the polar blast that saw temperatures plummet. With the recent spate of extreme weather, many of us ponder our footprint on our blue and green sphere in space and how we can improve things for future generations. This Sunday, June 5, is World Environment Day with this year’s theme calling for collective, transformative global action to celebrate and protect and restore our planet. Because there is only one Earth. No patch for actively exploited Atlassian Confluence zero-day – Security – iTnews Date: 2022-06-03 Author: itnews.com.au Refer to [ESB-2022-2737] Remote code execution, with webshells written to disk. All versions of Atlassian’s corporate Wiki system, Confluence, are affected by a serious bug under active exploitation, possibly by Chinese threat actors. Atlassian has confirmed the critical vulnerability in Confluence Server and Data Center, and the company said there is currently no fix but it is working on a patch. Administrators should not expose Confluence to the Internet, and disable instances of the corporate Wiki, as options to keep themselves secure. NDIS case management system provider breached Date: 2022-05-31 Author: iTnews A security breach of a cloud-based client management system used by National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) service providers has exposed a “large volume” of health and other sensitive data. CTARS, a Sydney-based software and analytics provider for the disability and care sectors, this week revealed an unauthorised third-party had gained access to its systems on May 15. Less than a week later, on May 21, the company became aware that “a sample of that data had been posted on a [dark] web form” after the third-party claimed it had “taken a large volume of data”. New Windows Search zero-day added to Microsoft protocol nightmare Date: 2022-06-01 Author: Bleeping Computer A new Windows Search zero-day vulnerability can be used to automatically open a search window containing remotely-hosted malware executables simply by launching a Word document. The security issue can be leveraged because Windows supports a URI protocol handler called ‘search-ms’ that allows applications and HTML links to launch customized searches on a device. While most Windows searches will look on the local device’s index, it is also possible to force Windows Search to query file shares on remote hosts and use a custom title for the search window. Zero-day vuln in Microsoft Office: ‘Follina’ will work even when macros are disabled Date: 2022-05-30 Author: The Register Infosec researchers have idenitied a zero-day code execution vulnerability in Microsoft’s ubiquitous Office software. Dubbed “Follina”, the vulnerability has been floating around for a while (cybersecurity researcher Kevin Beaumont traced it back to a report made to Microsoft on April 12) and uses Office functionality to retrieve a HTML file which in turn makes use of the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) to run some code. Albanese unveils Minister for Cyber Security Date: 2022-05-31 Author: Cyber Security Connect Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has unveiled his new ministry, introducing a new portfolio to oversee cyber security. Clare O’Neil has been announced as minister for home affairs and minister for cyber security during a press conference by Prime Minister Albanese this evening. Minister O’Neil succeeds former Minister Karen Andrews, who also supported the implementation of much of the previous government’s cyber security policy as home affairs minister. ASB-2022.0127 – ALERT Microsoft Office: CVSS (Max): 7.8 A new zero-day vulnerability has been identified allowing remote code execution in Microsoft Office via the ms-msdt protocol scheme ESB-2022.2686 – Mozilla Firefox: CVSS (Max): 7.5* Mozilla has released Firefox 101 addressing multiple vulnerabilities ESB-2022.2712 – GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition: CVSS (Max): 9.9 GitLab has released patches for several vulnerabilities including a critical account takeover vulnerability in both Community Edition and Enterprise Edition ESB-2022.2737 – ALERT Confluence Server and Confluence Data Center: CVSS (Max): None A remote code execution vulnerability has been identified in Confluence Server and Data Center. Atlassian is working on a patch for the impacted versions Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team