Trend Micro Patches More Vulnerabilities in Anti-Threat Toolkit

An update announced last week by Trend Micro for its Anti-Threat Toolkit (ATTK) addresses some additional attack methods related to a vulnerability initially patched in October 2019.

Trend Micro ATTK allows users to perform forensic scans of their system and clean rootkit, ransomware, MBR and other types of malware infections. ATTK is also used by other Trend Micro products, including WCRY Patch Tool and OfficeScan Toolbox.

Researcher John Page, aka hyp3rlinx, discovered last year that ATTK was affected by a vulnerability that could have been exploited by a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges by planting malicious files named cmd.exe or Regedit.exe in the same directory as the tool. The malicious files would get executed by the application when a scan was initiated.

The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2019–9491, was patched in mid-October with the release of version 1.62.0.1223.

Researcher Stefan Kanthak has also analyzed the vulnerability and discovered that Trend Micro has failed to patch it completely. Kanthak has identified three other similar attack methods that can be launched against ATTK to execute arbitrary code by planting specially crafted files in specific locations.

He informed Trend Micro of his findings on October 23 and the cybersecurity firm last week released another update, version 1.62.0.1228, to patch the new flaws.

Trend Micro has updated its advisory for CVE-2019–20358 and assigned a second CVE identifier, CVE-2019–20358, to the related vulnerabilities discovered by Kanthak.

While exploitation of the flaws requires physical or remote access to the targeted system, Trend Micro has advised customers to install the patches as soon as possible.

Kanthak also claims to have identified some issues in how Trend Micro developed its ATTK product.

“The Trend Micro Anti-Threat Toolkit inspected in October 2019 was built from scrap: the developers used VisualStudio 2008 (end-of-life since two years), linked against an outdated and vulnerable LIBCMT, shipped an outdated and vulnerable cURL 7.48 plus an outdated and vulnerable libeay32.dll 1.0.1.17 (OpenSSL 1.0.1 is end-of-life since more than 3 years; the last version was 1.0.1.20),” he said in an advisory published on the Full Disclosure mailing list. “This POOR (really: TOTAL lack of proper) software engineering alone disqualifies this vendor and its ‘security’ products!”

Originally published at https://www.securityweek.com on February 3, 2020.

Comments

Ransomware's Dangerous New Trick Is Double-Encrypting Your Data

Ransomware groups have always taken a more-is-more approach . If a victim pays a ransom and then goes back to business as usual-hit them again. Or don’t just encrypt a target’s systems; steal their data first, so you can threaten to leak it if they don’t pay up. The latest escalation? Ransomware hackers who encrypt a victim’s data twice at the same time. Double-encryption attacks have happened before, usually stemming from two separate ransomware gangs compromising the same victim at the same time. But antivirus company Emsisoft says it is aware of dozens of incidents in which the same actor or group intentionally layers two types of ransomware on top of each other. “The groups are constantly trying to work out which strategies are best , which net them the most money for the least amount of effort,” says Emsisoft threat analyst Brett Callow. “So in this approach you have a single actor deploying two types of ransomware. The victim decrypts their data and discovers it’s not act...

Babuk ransomware is back, uses new version on corporate networks

After announcing their exit from the ransomware business in favor of data theft extortion, the Babuk gang appears to have slipped back into their old habit of encrypting corporate networks. The criminals are currently using a new version of their file-encrypting malware and have moved the operation to a new leak site that lists a handful of victims. Gang’s still in the game The Babuk ransomware group became known at the beginning of the year but the gang says that their attacks had started in mid-October 2020, targeting companies across the world and demanding ransoms typically between $60,000 and $85,000 in bitcoin cryptocurrency. In some cases, victims were asked hundreds of thousands for data decryption. One of their most publicized victims is the Washinton DC’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). This attack likely pushed the threat actor into announcing its retirement from the ransomware business only to adopt another extortion model that did not include encryption....

Microsoft Teams Phishing Attack Targets Office 365 Users

Up to 50,000 Office 365 users are being targeted by a phishing campaign that purports to notify them of a “missed chat” from Microsoft Teams. Researchers are warning of a phishing campaign that pretends to be an automated message from Microsoft Teams. In reality, the attack aims to steal Office 365 recipients’ login credentials. Teams is Microsoft’s popular collaboration tool, which has particularly risen in popularity among remote workforces during the pandemic — making it an attractive brand for attackers to impersonate. This particular campaign was sent to between 15,000 to 50,000 Office 365 users, according to researchers with Abnormal Security on Thursday. “Because Microsoft Teams is an instant-messaging service, recipients of this notification might be more apt to click on it so that they can respond quickly to whatever message they think they may have missed based on the notification,” said researchers in a Thursday analysis . The initial phishing email displays the name ...

Teknologiia News

Search This Blog