browser security | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The transition to the cloud, poor password hygiene and the evolution in webpage technologies have all enabled the rise in phishing attacks. But despite sincere efforts by security stakeholders to mitigate them - through email protection, firewall rules and employee education - phishing attacks are still a very risky attack vector. A new report by LayerX explores the state of phishing attacks today and analyzes the protections organizations have in place to protect against them. This report, "The Dark Side of Phishing Protection: Are You as Protected as You Should Be?" ( Download here ), can be leveraged by security and IT professionals across organizations in their security efforts. They can use it to pinpoint any internal security blind spots they have and identify controls and practices that can help them gain visibility into those blind spots. Understanding the Threat: Phishing Stats Phishing is on the rise. Based on a number of sources, the report describes the magnitude of the

Google on Thursday rolled out fixes to address a high-severity security flaw in its Chrome browser that it said has been exploited in the wild. Assigned the CVE identifier  CVE-2024-5274 , the vulnerability relates to a type confusion bug in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. It was reported by Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group and Brendon Tiszka of Chrome Security on May 20, 2024. Type confusion vulnerabilities  occur when a program attempts to access a resource with an incompatible type. It can have  serious consequences  as it allows threat actors to perform out-of-bounds memory access, cause a crash, and execute arbitrary code. The development marks the fourth zero-day that Google has patched since the start of the month after  CVE-2024-4671 ,  CVE-2024-4761 , and  CVE-2024-4947 . The tech giant did not disclose additional technical details about the flaw, but  acknowledged  that it "is aware that an exploit for CVE-2024-5274 exists in the wild

Want to know what's the latest and greatest in SecOps for 2024? Gartner's recently released Hype Cycle for Security Operations report takes important steps to organize and mature the domain of Continuous Threat Exposure Management, aka CTEM. Three categories within this domain are included in this year's report: Threat Exposure Management, Exposure Assessment Platforms (EAP), and Adversarial Exposure Validation (AEV). These category definitions are aimed at providing some structure to the evolving landscape of exposure management technologies. Pentera, listed as a sample vendor in the newly defined AEV category, is playing a pivotal role in increasing the adoption of CTEM, with a focus on security validation. Following is our take on the CTEM related product categories and what they mean for enterprise security leaders. The Industry is Maturing CTEM, coined by Gartner in 2022, presents a structural approach for continuously assessing, prioritizing, validating, and remediating expo

Google on Monday shipped emergency fixes to address a new zero-day flaw in the Chrome web browser that has come under active exploitation in the wild. The high-severity vulnerability, tracked as  CVE-2024-4761 , is an out-of-bounds write bug impacting the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. It was reported anonymously on May 9, 2024. Out-of-bounds write bugs  could be typically exploited by malicious actors to corrupt data, or induce a crash or execute arbitrary code on compromised hosts. "Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2024-4761 exists in the wild," the tech giant  said . Additional details about the nature of the attacks have been withheld to prevent more threat actors from weaponizing the flaw. The disclosure comes merely days after the company patched  CVE-2024-4671 , a use-after-free vulnerability in the Visuals component that has also been exploited in real-world attacks. With the latest fix, Google has addressed a total of six zero-days since the sta

With the browser becoming the most prevalent workspace in the enterprise, it is also turning into a popular attack vector for cyber attackers. From account takeovers to malicious extensions to phishing attacks, the browser is a means for stealing sensitive data and accessing organizational systems. Security leaders who are planning their security architecture require data and insights into the browser threat landscape. Recently, LayerX released the " Annual Browser Security Report 2024 ", providing an in-depth analysis of the evolving threat landscape for browser security.  This comprehensive report highlights the critical vulnerabilities and attack vectors that pose the greatest risks to enterprise security. It allows decision-makers and stakeholders to benchmark the security challenges of their environment so they can make actionable decisions. Below, we detail key findings from the report and a summarized list of security recommendations. We urge you to read the entire  report ,

Google on Thursday released security updates to address a zero-day flaw in Chrome that it said has been actively exploited in the wild. Tracked as  CVE-2024-4671 , the high-severity vulnerability has been described as a case of use-after-free in the Visuals component. It was reported by an anonymous researcher on May 7, 2024. Use-after-free bugs , which arise when a program references a memory location after it has been deallocated, can lead to any number of consequences, ranging from a crash to arbitrary code execution. "Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2024-4671 exists in the wild," the company  said  in a terse advisory without revealing additional specifics of how the flaw is being weaponized in real-world attacks or the identity of the threat actors behind them. With the latest development, Google has addressed two actively exploited zero-days in Chrome since the start of the year. Earlier this January, the tech giant patched an out-of-bounds memory access

SaaS applications are dominating the corporate landscape. Their increased use enables organizations to push the boundaries of technology and business. At the same time, these applications also pose a new security risk that security leaders need to address, since the existing security stack does not enable complete control or comprehensive monitoring of their usage. LayerX has recently released a new guide, " Let There Be Light: Eliminating the Risk of Shadow SaaS " for security and IT teams, which addresses this gap. The guide explains the challenges of shadow SaaS, i.e., the use of unauthorized SaaS apps for work purposes, and suggests practices and controls that can mitigate them. The guide also compares various security controls that attempt to address this risk (CASB, SASE, Secure Browser Extension) and explains how each one operates and its efficacy. Consequently, the guide is a must-read for all security leaders at modern organizations. Here are the main highlights:

Google on Tuesday said it's piloting a new feature in Chrome called Device Bound Session Credentials ( DBSC ) to help protect users against session cookie theft by malware. The prototype – currently tested against "some" Google Account users running Chrome Beta – is built with an aim to make it an open web standard, the tech giant's Chromium team said. "By binding authentication sessions to the device, DBSC aims to disrupt the cookie theft industry since exfiltrating these cookies will no longer have any value," the company  noted . "We think this will substantially reduce the success rate of cookie theft malware. Attackers would be forced to act locally on the device, which makes on-device detection and cleanup more effective, both for anti-virus software as well as for enterprise managed devices." The development comes on the back of reports that off-the-shelf information stealing malware are finding ways to steal cookies in a manner that al

Google has agreed to purge billions of data records reflecting users' browsing activities to settle a class action lawsuit that claimed the search giant tracked them without their knowledge or consent in its Chrome browser. The  class action , filed in 2020, alleged the company misled users by tracking their internet browsing activity who thought that it remained private when using the "incognito" or "private" mode on web browsers like Chrome. In late December 2023, it  emerged  that the company had consented to settle the lawsuit. The deal is currently pending approval by the U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. "The settlement provides broad relief regardless of any challenges presented by Google's limited record keeping," a court filing on April 1, 2024, said. "Much of the private browsing data in these logs will be deleted in their entirety, including billions of event level data records that reflect class members' private

A now-patched security flaw in the Microsoft Edge web browser could have been abused to install arbitrary extensions on users' systems and carry out malicious actions.  "This flaw could have allowed an attacker to exploit a private API, initially intended for marketing purposes, to covertly install additional browser extensions with broad permissions without the user's knowledge," Guardio Labs security researcher Oleg Zaytsev  said  in a new report shared with The Hacker News. Tracked as  CVE-2024-21388  (CVSS score: 6.5), it was addressed by Microsoft in Edge stable version 121.0.2277.83 released on January 25, 2024, following responsible disclosure in November 2023. The Windows maker credited both Zaytsev and Jun Kokatsu for reporting the issue. "An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the privileges needed to install an extension," Microsoft said in an advisory for the flaw, adding it "could lead to a browser sandbo

A new security shortcoming discovered in Apple M-series chips could be exploited to extract secret keys used during cryptographic operations. Dubbed  GoFetch , the vulnerability relates to a microarchitectural side-channel attack that takes advantage of a feature known as data memory-dependent prefetcher (DMP) to target constant-time cryptographic implementations and capture sensitive data from the CPU cache. Apple was made aware of the findings in December 2023. Prefetchers are a hardware optimization technique that predicts what memory addresses a currently running program will access in the near future and retrieve the data into the cache accordingly from the main memory. The goal of this approach is to reduce the program's memory access latency. DMP is a type of prefetcher that takes into account the contents of memory based on previously observed access patterns when determining what to prefetch. This behavior makes it ripe for cache-based attacks that trick the prefetche

Google on Thursday announced an enhanced version of Safe Browsing to provide real-time, privacy-preserving URL protection and safeguard users from visiting potentially malicious sites. "The  Standard protection mode for Chrome  on desktop and iOS will check sites against Google's server-side list of known bad sites in real-time," Google's Jonathan Li and Jasika Bawa  said . "If we suspect a site poses a risk to you or your device, you'll see a warning with more information. By checking sites in real time, we expect to block 25% more phishing attempts." Up until now, the Chrome browser used a locally-stored list of known unsafe sites that's updated every 30 to 60 minutes, and then leveraging a  hash-based approach  to compare every site visited against the database. Google  first revealed  its plans to switch to real-time server-side checks without sharing users' browsing history with the company in September 2023. The reason for the change, the search giant said, is motivated b

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new Java-based "sophisticated" information stealer that uses a Discord bot to exfiltrate sensitive data from compromised hosts. The malware, named  NS-STEALER , is propagated via ZIP archives masquerading as cracked software, Trellix security researcher Gurumoorthi Ramanathan  said  in an analysis published last week. The ZIP file contains within it a rogue Windows shortcut file ("Loader GAYve"), which acts as a conduit to deploy a malicious JAR file that first creates a folder called "NS-<11-digit_random_number>" to store the harvested data. To this folder, the malware subsequently saves screenshots, cookies, credentials, and autofill data stolen from over two dozen web browsers, system information, a list of installed programs, Discord tokens, Steam and Telegram session data. The captured information is then exfiltrated to a Discord Bot channel. "Considering the highly sophisticated functio

Google on Tuesday released updates to fix four security issues in its Chrome browser, including an actively exploited zero-day flaw. The issue, tracked as CVE-2024-0519 , concerns an out-of-bounds memory access in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine, which can be weaponized by threat actors to trigger a crash. "By reading out-of-bounds memory, an attacker might be able to get secret values, such as memory addresses, which can be bypass protection mechanisms such as ASLR in order to improve the reliability and likelihood of exploiting a separate weakness to achieve code execution instead of just denial of service," according to MITRE's Common Weakness Enumeration ( CWE ). Additional details about the nature of the attacks and the threat actors that may be exploiting it have been withheld in an attempt to prevent further exploitation. The issue was reported anonymously on January 11, 2024. "Out-of-bounds memory access in V8 in Google Chrome prior to 120.

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a now-patched security flaw in the Opera web browser for Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS that could be exploited to execute any file on the underlying operating system. The remote code execution vulnerability has been codenamed MyFlaw by the Guardio Labs research team owing to the fact that it takes advantage of a feature called  My Flow  that makes it possible to sync messages and files between mobile and desktop devices. "This is achieved through a controlled browser extension, effectively bypassing the browser's sandbox and the entire browser process," the company  said  in a statement shared with The Hacker News. The issue impacts both the Opera browser and Opera GX. Following responsible disclosure on November 17, 2023, it was addressed as part of  updates  shipped on November 22, 2023. My Flow features a chat-like interface to exchange notes and files, the latter of which can be opened via a web interface, meaning a f

Security stakeholders have come to realize that the prominent role the browser has in the modern corporate environment requires a re-evaluation of how it is managed and protected. While not long-ago web-borne risks were still addressed by a patchwork of endpoint, network, and cloud solutions, it is now clear that the partial protection these solutions provided is no longer sufficient. Therefore, more and more security teams are now turning to the emerging category of purpose-built enterprise browsers as the answer to the browser's security challenges. However, as this security solution category is still relatively new, there is not yet an established set of browser security best practices, nor common evaluation criteria.  LayerX, the User-First Enterprise Browser Extension, is addressing security teams' need with the downable  Enterprise Browser Buyer's Guide , which guides its readers through the essentials of choosing the best solution and provides them with an actionable

The malware loader known as PikaBot is being distributed as part of a  malvertising   campaign  targeting users searching for legitimate software like AnyDesk. "PikaBot was previously only distributed via malspam campaigns similarly to QakBot and emerged as one of the preferred payloads for a threat actor known as TA577," Malwarebytes' Jérôme Segura  said . The malware family, which  first   appeared  in early 2023, consists of a loader and a core module that allows it to operate as a backdoor as well as a distributor for other payloads. This  enables  the threat actors to gain unauthorized remote access to compromised systems and transmit commands from a command-and-control (C2) server, ranging from arbitrary shellcode, DLLs, or executable files, to other malicious tools such as Cobalt Strike. One of the threat actors leveraging PikaBot in its attacks is  TA577 , a prolific cybercrime threat actor that has, in the past, delivered QakBot, IcedID, SystemBC, SmokeLoad

Compromising the browser is a high-return target for adversaries. Browser extensions, which are small software modules that are added to the browser and can enhance browsing experiences, have become a popular browser attack vector. This is because they are widely adopted among users and can easily turn malicious through developer actions or attacks on legitimate extensions. Recent incidents like  DataSpii  and the  Nigelthorn  malware attack have exposed the extent of damage that malicious extensions can inflict. In both cases, users innocently installed extensions that compromised their privacy and security. The underlying issue lies in the permissions granted to extensions. These permissions, often excessive and lacking granularity, allow attackers to exploit them. What can organizations do to protect themselves from the risks of browser extensions without barring them from use altogether (an act that would be nearly impossible to enforce)?  A new report by LayerX, "Unveiling the