Publications

LISTEN HERE: AUSCERT “Share Today, Save Tomorrow”, Episode 16, Understanding and Combatting Cyber Attacks In this episode, AUSCERT features the following guests: Alex Tilley, SecureWorks Mark Carey-Smith, AUSCERT Australia has recently seen several cyber-attacks that impacted millions of Australians with the fallout still expanding and likely to be experienced for some time. It’s timely that this month’s podcast features a chat with Alex Tilley who shares his experience combatting cyber experience and insights into the evolution of this growing aspect of modern society. Continuing with the thread of security breaches, Bek chats with Mark about the intangible nature of cyber threats and the need for greater awareness of their relevance and potential impact. To improve understanding of what can practically be done in this regard, the discussion then focuses on education and learning, including AUSCERT’s very own training courses. This episode was hosted by Anthony Caruana and Bek Cheb. Our podcasts aim to provide fascinating insights, great stories from the field and lessons you can take back to your workplace. If you have any ideas or suggestions for what we can talk about, please let us know! The AUSCERT podcast can also be found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

Greetings, AUSCERT has been receiving reports of various Request For Quote (RFQ) scams spoofing Australian Universities and targeting several small vendors via the spoofed domain. Our recent blog post delves into the current methods being used to help identify potential scams and recommendations on what can be done, should you be the victim of such a scam. AUSCERT aims to inform and educate how and when we can, including through our training sessions, aimed at anyone that looks after their organisation’s cyber security. We have three courses currently available for the remainder of 2022, as per the below: Intro to Cyber for IT Professionals | October 24 and 25 (it’s not too late to register!) Cyber Security Risk Management | October 31 and November 1 Incident Response Planning | December 6 and 7 All courses are delivered online in two half-day sessions from 9 am to 12:30 pm each day. For more information on each course or, to book online, visit our Education page. Diwali, also known as the Festival of lights or Deepavali, will commence on Monday, October 24 and is a five-day-long celebration. It is revered as a day to light the lamp of power, knowledge, and virtues within each of us and signifies the victory of good over evil. Watch out for the celebrations with entertainers, fireworks displays, dancing performances, music, henna and more throughout the city in many shopping centres, King George Square and Indian restaurants. You can learn more about this cultural festival, including a feast consisting of special dishes, by clicking here. Speaking of food, today is International Day of the Nacho. Yes, there is an official day to indulge and overeat the tasty corn chip or tortilla-based treat, layered with guacamole, beans, minced beef and cheese! Invented in 1943, nachos have been a go-to dish for many with unknown and seemingly unlimited variations seen in their near 80-year history. To see how others eat their nachos, or, to learn more about this Tex-Mex culinary delight, click here. Adobe patches critical Magento XSS that puts sites at takeover risk Date: 2022-10-14 Author: The Daily Swig A super-critical vulnerability in Adobe Magento could allow attackers to fully compromise e-commerce platforms, according to the security researcher who unearthed the bug. Adobe has urged users to update their systems to protect their websites from abuse of the flaw, which has been assigned the maximum possible severity (CVSS) score of 10. Woolworths says 2.2m MyDeal customers’ data hacked Date: 2022-10-15 Author: Financial Review [Refer AUSCERT Bulletin: ASB-2022.0200.2] In the third major corporate security breach in as many weeks, Woolworths is scrambling to contact 2.2 million customers of its MyDeal online marketplace arm whose data has been accessed by an unauthorised user using “compromised” credentials, the supermarkets giant says. The hack follows telecoms group Optus in owning up to data breaches affecting millions of consumers. Health insurer Medibank Private also disclosed a data breach but said it had no evidence of any customer data being accessed, although it was still investigating the hack. Apache Commons Text RCE flaw — Keep calm and patch away Date: 2022-10-19 Author: Bleeping Computer [Refer AUSCERT Bulletin: ESB-2022.5278] A remote code execution flaw in the open-source Apache Commons Text library has some people worried that it could turn into the next Log4Shell. However, most cybersecurity researchers say it is nowhere near as concerning. Apache Commons Text is a popular open-source Java library with an “interpolation system” that allows developers to modify, decode, generate, and escape strings based on inputted string lookups. For example, passing the string lookup ${base64Decoder:SGVsbG9Xb3JsZCE=} to the interpolation system would cause the library to convert it to its base64 decoded value of ‘HelloWorld!’. Microsoft Office 365 email encryption could expose message content Date: 2022-10-14 Author: Bleeping Computer Security researchers at WithSecure, previously F-Secure Business, found that it is possible to partially or fully infer the contents of encrypted messages sent through Microsoft Office 365 due to the use of a weak block cipher mode of operation. Organizations use Office 365 Message Encryption to send or receive emails, both external and internal, to ensure confidentiality of the content from destination to source. However, the feature encrypts the data using the Electronic Code Book (ECB) mode, which allows inferring the plaintext message under certain conditions. Police tricked a ransomware gang into handing over its decryption keys. Here’s how they did it Date: 2022-10-17 Author: ZDNET Police tricked a ransomware gang into handing over decryption keys, providing victims with the ability to unlock their encrypted data for free. Working alongside cybersecurity company Responders.NU, the Dutch National Police obtained 150 decryption keys from ransomware group Deadbolt. With the decryption keys now in the hands of law enforcement, some victims of Deadbolt ransomware attacks can retrieve encrypted files and servers without the need to pay cyber-criminal extortionists. Medibank’s alleged attackers threaten data release, extortion Date: 2022-10-20 Author: iTnews [Refer AUSCERT Bulletin: ASB-2022.0199.3] Medibank has entered a trading halt after being contacted by a group claiming to have copied customer data. The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday reported it had heard from the alleged attackers, who were threatening to release patient data from a “200 gigabyte” haul. The threats included selling the data, or releasing information like diagnoses about the most prominent people found in the database. In an market disclosure late yesterday, the health insurer said it was “a new development” that will “cause concerns for customers”. ESB-2022.5278 – Apache Commons Text : CVSS (Max): 9.8 Apache Software Foundation has reported a critical vulnerability in Apache Common Text and recommends its users to upgrade to version 1.10.0. ASB-2022.0199.3 – UPDATE Medibank Cyber Security Incident Medibank has reported that the alleged hacking group has provided a sample of records for 100 policies. Australian Federal Police is investigating the issue as a crime. ASB-2022.0200.2 – UPDATE MyDeal Data Breach The hacker involved in the MyDeal data breach has reportedly released samples of the stolen data to a hacking forum. MyDeal customers are encouraged to reset their passwords. ASB-2022.0220 – Oracle PeopleSoft: CVSS (Max): 8.1* Multiple vulnerabilities have been identified in Oracle PeopleSoft. The vendor has released a critical patch update which contains 8 new security patches. ASB-2022.0201 – Oracle Commerce Platform: CVSS (Max): 9.8 The critical patch update for October 2022 contains 3 new security patches for Oracle Commerce. ESB-2022.5232 – Jenkins Plugins: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Jenkins Security Advisory for October 2022 announces vulnerabilities in Jenkins plugins. Security updates have been released for most of the plugins. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

RECENT TARGETS AUSCERT has been receiving reports of various RFQ scams spoofing Australian Universities and targeting vendors via the spoofed domain. THE TRIED AND TESTED METHOD A scammer creates an identical-looking domain impersonating a university. The spoofed domain with active MX records is then used to send emails to various vendors asking for quotes for the products they sell. The MX record allows email replies to be directed back to the scammer. The email address usually impersonates a staff member on the executive level. In some cases, the emails may be blocked or quarantined depending on the vendor’s security policy. Hence, small, and medium-sized companies are targeted as they might have a lower maturity level in their security policies. When such reports are sent to AUSCERT, it can be acted upon quickly if we are provided with email headers as evidence, and the domain registrar will usually suspend the domain successfully with such details. HOW IT HAS CHANGED Some scammers have now changed their methods of delivering such RFQ scams. To avoid the quarantine of emails and to avoid being taken down by the registrar (as the registrar usually requires email headers in such cases), scammers now use the built-in web forms located on the websites of small-medium-sized companies. The submitted email address is an address from the spoofed domain. In such cases, it is difficult for the targeted university to reach out to the companies asking for more information. Furthermore, since no email headers are recorded, submitting a takedown request to the domain registrar is difficult without much evidence. WHAT THE UNIVERSITY CAN DO Submit as much information as possible in such a situation. It is also recommended that the university should also reach out to the company that communicated with the scammer to obtain any related information. For e.g., the webform chat in this case. If the university is unable to contact the vendor, AUSCERT might be able to assist.

AUSCERT was delighted to sponsor the Best Security Student Award at the recent Women in Security Awards held in Sydney. Five outstanding finalists were in the running, each achieving success with their respective pursuits, with Elena Scifleet from CyberCX declared the winner! Congratulations to all the winners and everyone that contributed to such a successful and enjoyable event – we can’t wait for 2023! To see who else was recognised, visit the Women in Security Awards 2022 winners page. Members of the AUSCERT team were in attendance for the occasion with Analyst, Vishaka, providing a summary of her experience, below: It was a privilege to have been able to attend the Australian Women in Cyber Security Gala night 2022 along with my colleagues, on the evening of Wednesday, October 12. The event kicked off with a Cocktail networking hour. It was exciting to see so many familiar faces and meet new ones who are either pursuing their higher education in Cyber Security or just stepping into a career in Cyber Security. This year’s celebrations saw a staggering 826 nominations with 81 finalists, 19 winners, 17 Highly Commended and 2 Special Recognition recipients for 18 different award categories including Best Female Secure Coder, Protective Security Champion, IT Security Champion and Australia’s Most Outstanding Woman in IT Security. Kudos to AUSCERT’s former employee, Laura Jiew for taking the Best Volunteer award home! I felt absolutely honoured to witness the talented women who received awards for their accomplishments, value, and contributions to Cyber Security – most of them had a truly inspirational and motivational story to share! While celebrating women in Cyber Security, the event also acknowledged male counterparts in the field who have contributed to eliminating gender-based discrimination and bias in the workplace and promoting equality in the IT security industry. Dushyant Sattiraju and Dave O’Loan were recognised as Highly Commended in the Male Champion of Change category while Clive Rees bagged the award. Throughout the event, the importance and need of being a mentor for other women in the field were highlighted. Thank you to Abigail Swabey and her team for pulling off such a successful and fabulous event and thank you to the AUSCERT management for giving me an opportunity to participate in the event.

Greetings, As Marie Antoinette is said to have proclaimed, “Let them eat cake!”, for today, October 14 is National Dessert Day. Given the need to celebrate such an auspicious occasion, it’s official that today is the day when calories don’t count. As such, we implore everyone to consider their preferred sugary, tasty treat to indulge in and if you’re stuck for ideas, the following site may be able to assist. Simply click HERE. The Optus saga moves forward with ongoing commentary made about the situation which only increases as more details and issues arise, seemingly every day. A recent article in the Financial Review posits that “Companies and individuals don’t rise to the occasion. They fall to their level of preparedness.” The comment comes as banks, such as the CBA, experience an increase in the number of calls received each day from concerned customers about their financial security. The article also states that whilst risks can never be completely removed, those responsible should be aware of the risks and plan for how to respond should an incident occur. We’d like to remind those that wish to share their thoughts, experience, and insights into the dynamic and ever-changing landscape of cyber security that the annual BDO and AUSCERT Cyber Security Survey is now open! The annual BDO and AUSCERT cyber security survey identifies the current cyber security trends, issues and threats facing organisations across Australia and New Zealand. Zimbra remote code execution vulnerability actively exploited in the wild Date: 2022-10-10 Author: The Daily Swig [AUSCERT has been in touch with the affected members] A zero-day remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in Zimbra is being actively exploited in the wild. The bug was assigned the tracker CVE-2022-41352 in late September. Issued a CVSS severity score of 9.8, the critical issue can be exploited to plant a shell in the software’s root directly, achieving RCE and enabling attackers to wreak havoc on a vulnerable system. Zimbra, once known as the Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS), is an open source email suite. The software is relied upon by millions of users and is designed for managing enterprise and SMB email and collaboration tools. Fortinet says critical auth bypass bug is exploited in attacks Date: 2022-10-10 Author: Bleeping Computer [See also ASB-2022.0192.2] Fortinet has confirmed today that a critical authentication bypass security vulnerability patched last week is being exploited in the wild. The security flaw (CVE-2022-40684) is an auth bypass on the administrative interface that enables remote threat actors to log into FortiGate firewalls, FortiProxy web proxies, and FortiSwitch Manager (FSWM) on-premise management instances. “An authentication bypass using an alternate path or channel vulnerability [CWE-288] in FortiOS, FortiProxy and FortiSwitchManager may allow an unauthenticated atttacker to perform operations on the administrative interface via specially crafted HTTP or HTTPS requests,” Fortinet said in an advisory issued today. Medibank takes systems offline after ‘cyber incident’ Date: 2022-10-13 Author: iTnews [See also ASB-2022.0199 ] Investigates extent of unauthorised access. Medibank has taken two customer-facing systems offline “to reduce the likelihood of damage to systems or data loss” stemming from a cyber security incident. The insurer said that policy management systems covering its ahm brand as well as international students are now offline, and would remain that way “for most of the day”. It did not detail what had exactly occurred, aside from the detection of “unusual activity on its network.” Optus data breach response ‘cracking’ as cyber support charity fields 15,000 queries and counting Date: None Author: ABC News A national identity and cyber support charity say they are enduring the “toughest” period in the organisation’s history following the Optus data breach. IDCARE fielded a months’ worth of calls in just three days following the incident, and in the past three weeks has dealt with more than 15,000 interactions with no signs of slowing down. Darkweb market BidenCash gives away 1.2 million credit cards for free Date: 2022-10-09 Author: Bleeping Computer [AUSCERT has been in touch with the affected members] A dark web carding market named ‘BidenCash’ has released a massive dump of 1,221,551 credit cards to promote their marketplace, allowing anyone to download them for free to conduct financial fraud. Carding is the trafficking and use of credit cards stolen through point-of-sale malware, magecart attacks on websites, or information-stealing malware. BidenCash is a stolen cards marketplace launched in June 2022, leaking a few thousand cards as a promotional move. Indicators of Behavior and the Diminishing Value of IOCs Date: 2022-10-12 Author: Cyber reason How secure is your organization if you can only stop attacks that have already been detected in other environments based on Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)? Secure enough, if those were the only attacks you needed to be concerned with. But what about targeted attacks with bespoke tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) that have never been documented because they were designed only to be used against your organization? In today’s threat landscape that’s what’s happening: zero-day exploits, never-before-seen malware strains, and advanced techniques developed specifically for high-value targets are plaguing security teams. ASB-2022.0199 – Medibank Cyber Security Incident AUSCERT shares information on a security incident targeting Medibank. AUSCERT will continue to share further information as they become available. ASB-2022.0192.2 – UPDATED ALERT FortiOS,FortiProxy and FortiSwitchManager: CVSS (Max): 9.6 Fortinet reported a critical vulnerability in 3 of its products which may allow an unauthenticated attacker to perform operations on the compromised devices. Fortinet released important mitigation information as well as security updates. ESB-2022.5034 – wordpress: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Several security vulnerabilities were discovered in WordPress for which a security patch has been released. ASB-2022.0195 – ALERT Azure: CVSS (Max): 10.0 Microsoft’s monthly security patch update for October included an update to resolves 3 vulnerabilities in Azure. ASB-2022.0193 – ALERT Windows and Windows Server: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Microsoft’s most recent patch update fixes 68 vulnerabilities in Windows and Widows Server. ESB-2022.5091 – Google Chrome: CVSS (Max): None Google announced updates to the Google Chrome Stable channel and Extended stable channel. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, It’s Cyber Security Awareness Month in October which, given the recent breadth and severity of data leaks seen in Australia, is an opportune reminder to be mindful of current threats and vulnerabilities. Now in its seventh year, the BDO and AUSCERT Cyber Security Survey allows organizations to benchmark their approach to cyber risk. The information provided will then provide the chance to assess and optimise organizational cyber security. There’s also the chance to win one of two Apple Airpod Pros so be sure to complete your survey before Friday, November 18! It was announced yesterday that a proposal by the federal government had been made to allow Australian banks temporary access to government identification details by telcos in the wake of the Optus data breach. The move is to assist in preventing fraud, but banks would need to adhere to strict requirements to reduce the risk of further compromise of customer data. This Monday, October 10 will see the next full moon, referred to as the Pink Moon, signifying the arrival of the first spring flowers. Apart from the pink moon, the other October full moon names in the southern hemisphere are Egg Moon, Seed Moon, and Waking Moon whilst in the northern hemisphere, they will experience the Hunter’s Moon. The name derives from a time when the full moon signified the time to start preparing for the coming winter by hunting animals and preserving meat. If you live north of the equator, be sure to learn how you can view one of the year’s most stunning celestial events! Cisco Patches High-Severity Vulnerabilities in Communications, Networking Products Date: 2022-10-06 Author: SECURITY WEEK Cisco announced on Wednesday that it has patched potentially serious vulnerabilities in some of its networking and communications products, including Enterprise NFV, Expressway and TelePresence. Windows 11 22H2 breaks provisioning with 0x800700b7 errors Date: 2022-10-06 Author: Bleeping Computer Microsoft says the Windows 11 2022 Update is breaking provisioning, leaving Windows 11 enterprise endpoints partially configured and failing to finish installing. Meta sues app dev for stealing over 1 million WhatsApp accounts Date: 2022-10-06 Author: BLEEPING COMPUTER Meta has sued several Chinese companies doing business as HeyMods, Highlight Mobi, and HeyWhatsApp for developing and allegedly using “unofficial” WhatsApp Android apps to steal over one million WhatsApp accounts starting May 2022. Sydney man charged for allegedly trying to scam Optus breach victims – Telco/ISP – iTnews Date: 2022-10-06 Author: ITNEWS A 19-year-old Sydney man has been charged with allegedly trying to blackmail Optus customers whose data was leaked onto the internet as proof of a data breach. Optus ups number of Medicare cards breached – Security Date: 2022-10-07 Author: ITNEWS Optus has revised the number of its customers whose Medicare card numbers were exposed in a recent data breach to 43,000. Microsoft Updates Mitigation for Exchange Server Zero-Days Date: 2022-10-05 Author: Dark Reading [AUSCERT Bulletin: ASB-2022.0191.2] Microsoft today updated its mitigation measures for two recently disclosed and actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in its Exchange Server technology after researchers found its initial guidance could be easily bypassed. Microsoft’s original mitigation for the two vulnerabilities — CVE-2022-41040 and CVE-2022-41082 — was to apply a blocking rule to a specific URL path using the URL Rewrite Module on IIS Server. According to the company, adding the string “.*autodiscover\.json.*\@.*Powershell.*” would help block known attack patterns against the vulnerabilities. It’s Telstra’s Turn for a Data Breach, This Time It’s Staff That Are Affected Date: 2022-10-04 Author: Gizmodo The term ‘data breach’ has, in the last few weeks, worked its way into everyday conversation in Australia, thanks mostly to the failings of Optus. But now, details have emerged of another data breach affecting the Aussie telco sector – this time, it’s Telstra and it is employees that are at risk. Brought to our attention first by The Australian, Telstra reportedly sent out a memo to staff over the weekend informing them of the data breach. It has since been confirmed by Telstra, with a spokesman telling Gizmodo Australia that the data breach affecting a third party included “limited” Telstra employee information from 2017. It is understood the third party handled Telstra’s rewards program for staff. ESB-2022.4906 – chromium: CVSS (Max): None Debian has released a new Chromium package version that fixes arbitrary code execution, denial of service or information disclosure. ESB-2022.4967 – nodejs: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Debian has released an update for nodejs that address multiple vulnerabilities. ESB-2022.5007 – LibreOffice: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Ubuntu has released a new package version that fixes several security issues in LibreOffice. ASB-2022.0191.3 – ALERT Microsoft Exchange Server: CVSS (Max): 8.8 Microsoft has made significant updates to its advisory regarding Exchange Server Zero-Day Vulnerabilities which could lead to remote code execution. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, The fallout from last week’s Optus data breach has impacted customers across Australia. There has been a flurry of reports and statements advising the varying options available to affected individuals in relation to attaining a replacement Driver’s Licence, many of which have indicated that they will pursue Optus to cover the cost. Earlier today, Optus agreed to pay for the replacement of passports exposed in the leak and, that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) had launched Operation Guardian which would prioritise the protection of the 10,000 records that were revealed last week before the hacker had a change of mind about releasing additional data. Today, September 30, is International Podcast Day, an opportunity to explore seemingly endless genres that anyone can access just about anywhere. There are millions of podcasts available across an array of platforms, including our very own series, Share Today, Save Tomorrow, which features episodes that range in topics including ITOT Convergence, Diversity and Culture in Cyber Security and more! You can download or stream an episode, kick back and enjoy a cup of coffee this Saturday, October 1st, which just so happens to be International Coffee Day. Over three billion cups of coffee are consumed each day across the globe, making it a significant part of many people’s daily routines. This year, members, and partners of the International Coffee Organization (ICO) wish to highlight their commitment to coffee farmers’ prosperity and efforts to reduce the coffee industry’s impact on the environment and mitigate climate change with the vision of an effective Circular Economy. Two Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities Patched in WhatsApp Date: 2022-09-27 Author: Security Week WhatsApp has patched two serious vulnerabilities that could be exploited for remote code execution. WhatsApp only has three security advisories for 2022, with the first two released in January and February. The latest advisory, released this month, informs customers of two memory-related issues affecting the WhatsApp mobile applications. One of the flaws, tracked as CVE-2022-36934 and rated ‘critical’, is an integer overflow issue that affects WhatsApp for Android prior to 2.22.16.12, Business for Android prior to 2.22.16.12, iOS prior to 2.22.16.12, and Business for iOS prior to 2.22.16.12. Attackers abuse web security flaw in Sophos Firewall Date: 2022-09-26 Author: The Daily Swig A recently resolved vulnerability in Sophos Firewall has been abused by attackers in targeted attacks, the vendor warns. The critical vulnerability (CVE-2022-3236) poses a remote code execution (RCE) risk. Sophos Firewall v19.0 MR1 (19.0.1) and older are potentially vulnerable to the security bug in the User Portal and Webadmin of Sophos Firewall. In a security advisory published on Friday (September 23), Sophos said that it has issued a patch that installs automatically in default installations of its firewall technology. This is just as well given the vulnerability has already featured in attacks in the wild. Hacking group hides backdoor malware inside Windows logo image Date: 2022-09-29 Author: Bleeping Computer Security researchers have discovered a malicious campaign by the ‘Witchetty’ hacking group, which uses steganography to hide a backdoor malware in a Windows logo. New Microsoft Exchange zero-day actively exploited in attacks Date: 2022-09-29 Author: Bleeping Computer Threat actors are exploiting yet-to-be-disclosed Microsoft Exchange zero-day bugs allowing for remote code execution. Hackers now sharing cracked Brute Ratel post-exploitation kit online Date: 2022-09-28 Author: Bleeping Computer The Brute Ratel post-exploitation toolkit has been cracked and is now being shared for free across Russian-speaking and English-speaking hacking communities. For those unfamiliar with Brute Ratel C4 (BRC4), it is a post-exploitation toolkit created by Chetan Nayak, an ex-red teamer at Mandiant and CrowdStrike. Red teamers are cybersecurity professionals whose job is to try and breach a corporate network to learn its flaws, while those on the blue team attempt to defend against these attacks. Russia Planning Cyberattacks on Ukraine’s Energy Grid Date: 2022-09-27 Author: Dark Reading As protests against military conscription rage inside Russia, the country is planning to continue its offensive into Ukraine with cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. The Odessa Journal reported Ukrainian military intelligence has learned the first cyberattacks will soon be launched against the Ukrainian energy sector, informed by previous Russian cyberattacks on the country’s electricity infrastructure in 2015 and 2016. After energy supply operations are crippled by cyberattacks, the Russian military plans to ramp up missile strikes on those facilities to shut down the electrical service throughout the war-battered country. Microsoft finally adds a Task Manager link to the Windows 11 taskbar Date: 2022-09-29 Author: Bleeping Computer Microsoft has finally re-added a link to the Task Manager to the taskbar’s contextual menu in the latest Windows 11 Insider preview build. ASB-2022.0190.3 – Optus Data Breach Following a cyberattack, Optus has advised its customers to be vigilant about any suspicious activities. ESB-2022.4826 – Cisco IOS XE: CVSS (Max): 5.5 Cisco has released software updates that address a vulnerability in the web UI feature of Cisco IOS XE software. ESB-2022.4848 – chromium: CVSS (Max): 7.8 Debian has released an upgrade package for Chromium that addresses a vulnerability which allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code denial of service or information disclosure. ASB-2022.0191 – ALERT Microsoft Exchange Server News is currently emerging regarding possible Microsoft Exchange Server Zero-Day Vulnerabilities which could lead to remote code execution. ESB-2022.4884 – Google Chrome: CVSS (Max): None Google has released a new Chrome update for Windows, Mac and Linux. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, The cyber attack on Optus on Thursday (September 22) is said to impact current and former customers with information including names, birth dates, email addresses and phone numbers said to have been disclosed. It remains unknown how many of the 9.7 million Optus customers have been compromised with Scamwatch issuing an alert, warning customers to be vigilant to mitigate any potential harm. An unknown time factor is associated with the attack as data can be retained indefinitely. Of particular focus is individuals’ financial accounts with suggestions on what to do to help protect your personal information provided by the ACCC division. What may be causing others in the community a bit of undue stress is the school holidays that are underway or just getting started. With the addition of a public holiday, potentially utilised to create a long weekend, along with some less-than-ideal weather, you may be looking for something to fill your time or, distract from the kids playing or warring with one another. If so, AUSCERT has something to help. In fact, we have two ‘somethings’ for you to choose from! Our YouTube channel has over 50 videos from this year’s conference that cover a diverse range of topics that will inform, inspire and illicit reactions of varying scope. The other option available to you is fifteen episodes of our podcast, Share Today, Save Tomorrow. You can select from several subjects that provide insights and understanding as well as an understanding of potential challenges. EZVIZ video cameras can be accessed remotely – Security Date: 2022-09-19 Author: IT News Full device takeover possible. Researchers at security vendor Bitdefender have found a series of serious vulnerabilities which could be used to remotely control EZVIZ networked cameras without authentication, in order to download and decrypt images. Bitdefender was able to create an attack chain of four different bugs to take over the EZVIZ cameras, exploiting a stack buffer overflow, and vulnerable application programming interface endpoints. Google, Microsoft can get your passwords via web browser’s spellcheck Date: 2022-09-17 Author: Bleeping Computer Extended spellcheck features in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge web browsers transmit form data, including personally identifiable information (PII) and in some cases, passwords, to Google and Microsoft respectively. While this may be a known and intended feature of these web browsers, it does raise concerns about what happens to the data after transmission and how safe the practice might be, particularly when it comes to password fields. Australian business owners urged to shorten web addresses to avoid cybercrime attack Date: 2022-09-17 Author: ABC news Business owners across Australia are being told to update their domain names or risk being targeted by cybercriminals. New rules are being introduced to allow Australian businesses, organisations and individuals to shorten their web address to a simpler .au domain name instead of .com.au, .net.au, .or .org.au. For example, www.abc.net.au could become www.abc.au, or www.books.com.au could be shortened to www.books.au. Microsoft 365 phishing attacks impersonate U.S. govt agencies Date: 2022-09-19 Author: Bleeping Computer An ongoing phishing campaign targeting U.S. government contractors has expanded its operation to push higher-quality lures and better-crafted documents. The lure in these phishing emails is a request for bids for lucrative government projects, taking them to phishing pages that are clones of legitimate federal agency portals. This is the same operation that INKY reported about in January 2022, with the threat actors using attached PDFs with instructions on going through the bidding process for the U.S. Department of Labor projects. ESB-2022.4669 – Nessus Network Monitor: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Tenable has released Nessus Network Monitor 6.1.0 to fix multiple third-party vulnerabilities in Nessus Network Monitor. ESB-2022.4662 – Hitachi Energy AFF660/665 Series: CVSS (Max): 9.8 A vulnerability in Hitachi Energy AFF660/665, an industrial firewall could overflow a buffer on the device and fully compromise it. Hitachi Energy recommends its users to follow the security practices and firewall configurations to help protect from outside attacks. ESB-2022.4601 – OpenShift Virtualization: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Red Hat has released an update to OpenShift Virtualization which fixes several bugs and add enhancements. ESB-2022.4611 – Google Chrome: CVSS (Max): None Google has updated its stable channel to 105.0.5195.125 for Mac and Linux. This update includes 11 security fixes. ESB-2022.4655 – SUSE Manager Server: CVSS (Max): 9.8 A security update that solves four vulnerabilities in SUSE manager server has been released. ESB-2022.4634 – connman: CVSS (Max): 9.8 Debian recommends that Connman, a network manager for embedded devices be updated to the latest version to fix a few vulnerabilities, which if exploited could result in denial of service or the execution of arbitrary code. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

Greetings, Members of the AUSCERT team recently ventured south from HQ in Brisbane to participate in the long-awaited conference, BSides Melbourne. With travelling returning to pre-COVID normality, our crew were excited at the opportunity to mingle with members of the industry and gain insights and hear of experiences from a wonderful collection of presenters. You can read about the highlights and experiences from one of our team in a recent blog, My Time on the BSide. With school holidays on the horizon, we wish all of those about to embark on travel all the best. Be it heading to the airport or enduring road trips of seemingly ceaseless requests to stop or cries of, “Are we there yet?”, travel safe and may the odds be ever in your favour. There are still a few spots remaining in our first online information gathering session on how you and your organisation use Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI). The short (1 hour) information gathering sessions via video conference so we can pick your brain about CTI with the first session next Tuesday, September 20 from 9 am until 10 am. To learn more or, register your interest, please click here. On a greener note, in parts of the world, September 16 is National Guacamole Day. Yes, the avocado-based dip, condiment, and salad ingredient is being celebrated today. The tasty green blend known as Guacamole (or “guac”) is said to date back to the Aztecs and is today, synonymous with Mexican cuisine. Traditionally served with tortilla chips, guacamole also goes well with corn chips, carrot sticks or even on its own., With the price of avocados dropping significantly recently, now is the time to go green with guacamole! We’ve found a recipe or 203 for you to peruse and use – enjoy! Zero-day in WPGateway WordPress plugin actively exploited in attacks Date: 2022-09-13 Author: Bleeping Computer [See also ESB-2022.3966] The Wordfence Threat Intelligence team warned today that WordPress sites are actively targeted with exploits targeting a zero-day vulnerability in the WPGateway premium plugin. WPGateway is a WordPress plugin that allows admins to simplify various tasks, including setting up and backing up sites and managing themes and plugins from a central dashboard. This critical privilege escalation security flaw (CVE-2022-3180) enables unauthenticated attackers to add a rogue user with admin privileges to completely take over sites running the vulnerable WordPress plugin. Ransomware gangs switching to new intermittent encryption tactic Date: 2022-09-10 Author: Bleeping Computer A growing number of ransomware groups are adopting a new tactic that helps them encrypt their victims’ systems faster while reducing the chances of being detected and stopped. This tactic is called intermittent encryption, and it consists of encrypting only parts of the targeted files’ content, which would still render the data unrecoverable without using a valid decryptor+key. For example, by skipping every other 16 bytes of a file, the encryption process takes almost half of the time required for full encryption but still locks the contents for good. Uber Says It’s Investigating a Potential Breach of Its Computer Systems Date: 2022-09-16 Author: The Hacker News Ride hailing giant Uber disclosed Thursday it’s responding to a cybersecurity incident involving a breach of its network and that it’s in touch with law enforcement authorities. The New York Times first reported the incident. The company pointed to its tweeted statement when asked for comment on the matter. Death of Queen Elizabeth II exploited to steal Microsoft credentials Date: 2022-09-14 Author: Bleeping Computer Threat actors are exploiting the death of Queen Elizabeth II in phishing attacks to lure their targets to malicious sites designed to steal their Microsoft account credentials. Besides Microsoft account details, the attackers also attempt to steal their victims’ multi-factor authentication (MFA) codes to take over their accounts. “Messages purported to be from Microsoft and invited recipients to an ‘artificial technology hub’ in her honor,” Proofpoint’s Threat Insight team revealed today. Rampant ransomware pushes cyber security premium up by 80% Date: 2022-09-12 Author: Cyber Security Connect Global insurance broker Marsh has identified that the cost of taking out cyber cover had doubled on average every year for the past three years, which has contributed to the sharp rise in premiums. Backed by data from another broker, Honan Group, the 80 per cent rise in premiums in the past 12 months has been determined following a 20 per cent increase in the cost of cover in each of the previous two years. According to Craig Claughton, a senior executive at Marsh, “cyber has become the new D&O”, referring to sharp rises in directors’ and officers’ insurance premiums since 2018. ASB-2022.0186 – ALERT Microsoft Windows: CVSS (Max): 9.8* Microsoft Patch Tuesday for September includes patches for various vulnerabilities affecting Windows ESB-2022.4508 – ALERT macOS Big Sur: CVSS (Max): 7.8* Apple released updates to Big Sur addressing multiple vulnerabilities out of which CVE-2022-32917 may have been actively exploited ESB-2022.4611 – Google Chrome: CVSS (Max): None A stable channel for Google Chrome has been updated to address multiple vulnerabilities ESB-2022.4555 – Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management: CVSS (Max): 10.0 Multiple security issues and bugs have been fixed in Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

BSides Melbourne is a not-for-profit event that is wholly run by volunteers for the benefit of the community. It’s a community-driven conference that encourages and welcomes first-time speakers and students along with industry professionals, experienced and new alike! AUSCERT was delighted to sponsor the event, providing the tote bags for all attendees to fill with the array of goodies on offer. Some of the AUSCERT team ventured south to participate in the long-awaited (thanks to COVID delays) BSides Melbourne 2022. The following is an account of events from one of our Analysts, Vishaka. Day 1 The conference started with Joff Thyer’s keynote presentation that told of his inspirational journey in Information Security. He highlighted the key skills and qualities for a successful 21st-century career with my main takeaways from his speech being: If you make a mistake, do not walk away from it but take the owners of it and learn from it. Learn a programming language (he specifically mentioned Python) Afterwards, Mike Pritchard and Shanna Daly showcased how the craft of traditional espionage maps to the modern cyber world. Mike who is a passionate collector of historical espionage presented his extensive collection of spy gadgets – I found this to be super cool! I then made my way to a presentation about the data leak published on Twitter about the Conti ransomware gang that uses Ransomware as Service (RaaS). The presentation by Thomas Roccia, a Senior Security Researcher at Microsoft, highlighted how the leaked chat logs revealed private discussions between Conti members and how the data provided a unique insight into the inner workings of the group. I next ventured to Data, Demogorgons and the Upside-down world… and a Battleforce Angel by Tara Dharnikota which discussed data breaches and data thefts. Specifically, how it gets sold and distributed on darknet forums and marketplaces. Tara also emphasized the power of OSINT and how it can be used for the good. One of my favourites of the day was the talk by Jo, “How to (almost) get a DEFCON black badge”. She is the runner-up of The DefCon Social Engineering CTF (SECTF) competition and shared her experience at the 2019 SECTF in the battle for the DefCon Black badge. The last talker of the day was Emerald Sage who spoke about APT Catfishing and demonstrated how Open Source Intelligence tools and techniques can reconstruct the APT actor playbook for engineering and executing catfishing facilitated attacks. Day 2 Laura Bell kicked off the second day with a talk that demonstrated how proximity affects human behaviour, and how we as a cyber security community can embrace this knowledge to secure an entire country. My quest for knowledge and insight delivered me to “The Socio-Economic Impact of Women in Tech” by Kathy Robins. In this fascinating talk, she discussed the lack of female participation in the technical fields within the cyber security sector and STEM and how it creates a ripple effect throughout the development of technologies, systems and services.

Greetings, The Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team (APCERT) recently conducted its annual drill, a means of maintaining and improving awareness and skills within the cyber security community through this collaborative undertaking. The APCERT drill aims to maintain and progress internet security and safety with the exercise, allowing participants to improve communication protocols, technical responses, and the overall quality of incident responses. Our recent blog provides insight into what took place and what was learnt, including solutions to real-world situations and challenges. You can read more about this year’s APCERT Cyber Drill HERE. R U OK? Day was held yesterday, September 8, which promoted the power and importance a question can have. It has been demonstrated that a conversation can change a life and we at AUSCERT had one of our own with Dr Carla Rogers. A renowned Holistic Psychologist, Dr Rogers is featured in our latest episode of Share Today, Save Tomorrow where she discusses the connection between mind and body along with techniques to help individuals identify, treat and overcome challenges in the workplace. Lastly, AUSCERT is really interested in how you and your organisation use Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI). We want to know about this to inform the services we provide to our members, and to ensure we’re doing the best we can to meet your needs. We’re running some short (1 hour) information gathering sessions via video conference so we can pick your brain about CTI. What’s in it for you? You’ll get to contribute your opinion about CTI so we can improve the services we provide to you and your organisation. You’ll have the opportunity to exchange information with other AUSCERT members and learn from their experiences. You’ll get the lovely warm* inner glow that comes from knowing you have performed a good deed by helping us help you. Please register your interest here. *Actual amount of warm inner glow varies from person to person. Google Releases Urgent Chrome Update to Patch New Zero-Day Vulnerability Date: 2022-09-03 Author: The Hacker News [Refer to Security Bulletin ESB-2022.4344] Google on Friday shipped emergency fixes to address a security vulnerability in the Chrome web browser that it said is being actively exploited in the wild. The issue, assigned the identifier CVE-2022-3075, concerns a case of insufficient data validating in Mojo, which refers to a collection of runtime libraries that provide a platform-agnostic mechanism for inter-process communication (IPC). An anonymous researcher has been credited with reporting the high-severity flaw on August 30, 2022. New EvilProxy service lets all hackers use advanced phishing tactics Date: 2022-09-05 Author: Bleeping Computer A reverse-proxy Phishing-as-a-Service (PaaS) platform called EvilProxy has emerged, promising to steal authentication tokens to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) on Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, GitHub, GoDaddy, and even PyPI. The service enables low-skill threat actors who don’t know how to set up reverse proxies to steal online accounts that are otherwise well-protected. Reverse proxies are servers that sit between the targeted victim and a legitimate authentication endpoint, such as a company’s login form. When the victim connects to a phishing page, the reverse proxy displays the legitimate login form, forwards requests, and returns responses from the company’s website. Fake Antivirus and Cleaner Apps Caught Installing SharkBot Android Banking Trojan Date: 2022-09-05 Author: The Hacker News The notorious Android banking trojan known as SharkBot has once again made an appearance on the Google Play Store by masquerading as antivirus and cleaner apps. “This new dropper doesn’t rely on Accessibility permissions to automatically perform the installation of the dropper Sharkbot malware,” NCC Group’s Fox-IT said in a report. “Instead, this new version asks the victim to install the malware as a fake update for the antivirus to stay protected against threats.” The apps in question, Mister Phone Cleaner and Kylhavy Mobile Security, have over 60,000 installations between them and are designed to target users in Spain, Australia, Poland, Germany, the U.S., and Austria. Home Affairs Could Be Looking Into TikTok’s Data Practices Date: 2022-09-05 Author: Gizmodo Back in July, we brought it to your attention that an investigation found that using TikTok on your phone gives the app access to your personal information. A lot of it, in fact. Analysis by Australian cybersecurity firm Internet 2.0 found TikTok requests almost complete access to the contents of a phone while the app is in use. That data includes calendar, contact lists and photos. As a result, the Australian Department of Home Affairs is going to be looking into the data harvesting practices of both TikTok and WeChat. QNAP patches zero-day used in new Deadbolt ransomware attacks Date: 2022-09-05 Author: Bleeping Computer QNAP is warning customers of ongoing DeadBolt ransomware attacks that started on Saturday by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Photo Station. The company has patched the security flaw but attacks continue today. “QNAP® Systems, Inc. today detected the security threat DEADBOLT leveraging exploitation of Photo Station vulnerability to encrypt QNAP NAS that are directly connected to the Internet,” explains the security notice. Ransomware gang’s Cobalt Strike servers DDoSed with anti-Russia messages Date: 2022-09-07 Author: Bleeping Computer Someone is flooding Cobalt Strike servers operated by former members of the Conti ransomware gang with anti-Russian messages to disrupt their activity. The operators of Conti ransomware completed turning off their internal infrastructure in May this year but its members have dispersed to other ransomware gangs, such as Quantum, Hive, and BlackCat. However, former Conti members continue to use the same Cobalt Strike infrastructure to conduct new attacks under other ransomware operations. Microsoft mistakenly rated Chromium, Electron, as malware Date: 2022-09-05 Author: The Register Microsoft appears to have fixed a problem that saw its Defender antivirus program identify apps based on the Chromium browser engine and/or Electron JavaScript framework as malware, and suggest users remove them. Numerous social media and forum posts made over the weekend detail how Windows has produced a warning of “Behavior:Win32/Hive.ZY” when users run everyday applications like Google’s Chrome browser or the Spotify music streamer. ESB-2022.4345 – WordPress: CVSS (Max): None WordPress has released WordPress 6.0.2 which includes 12 bug fixes on Core, 5 bug fixes for the Block Editor, and 3 security fixes. ESB-2022.4460 – Android OS: CVSS (Max): 9.8* Exploitation for many issues on Android is made more difficult by enhancements in newer versions of the Android platform. Google encourages all users to update to the latest version of Android where possible. ESB-2022.4472 – Linux kernel (Raspberry Pi): CVSS (Max): 8.2 Ubuntu reports the security issues detected in Linux kernel for Raspberry Pi systems can be fixed by applying the latest updates. Stay safe, stay patched and have a good weekend! The AUSCERT team

LISTEN HERE: AUSCERT “Share Today, Save Tomorrow”, Episode 15, Understanding Mental and Physical Wellbeing in The Workplace In this episode, AUSCERT features the following guests: Dr Carla Rogers – Holistic Psychologist Mike Holm, AUSCERT Anthony chats to Dr Carla Rogers about the connection between mind and body along with techniques to help individuals identify, treat and overcome challenges in the workplace. Later in the episode, Bek discusses with Mike AUSCERT’s return to travelling! Specifically, engaging with our members in order to understand their needs and what’s most important to them. This episode was hosted by Anthony Caruana and Bek Cheb. Our podcasts aim to provide fascinating insights, great stories from the field and lessons you can take back to your workplace. If you have any ideas or suggestions for what we can talk about, please let us know! The AUSCERT podcast can also be found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.