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Microsoft has fixed a potentially nasty set of authentication vulnerabilities involving Yammer, the “Facebook for business” enterprise collaboration and social networking platform.

The flaws – discovered by Ateeq Khan, a security researcher in the Vulnerability Laboratory Research Team – would have allowed hackers to bypass the token-based Yammer account authentication system, and log in as users without knowing their corresponding passwords.

Vulnerability Laboratory discovered that, thanks to an insecure implementation of OAuth2 authentication protocol on the Redmond-owned Yammer network, “it is possible to steal other user profiles by simply requesting a leaked access token”, which it turns out were not difficult to find.

During testing, Khan was able to find at least two valid tokens using Google search engine cache results via nothing more elaborate than a so-called “Google Dork”, a search for sensitive stuff accidentally indexed by the advertising giant. In this case: site:yammer.com inurl:'access_token'.

Further testing revealed that by including the access_token string in a subsequent HTTPS request, it was possible to log into Yammer as the victim. The session is authenticated without entering any password credentials.

“This vulnerability results in a complete compromise of the affected accounts, user profile and the associated risk is critical,” an advisory from Vulnerability Laboratory warns. “Exploitation of the vulnerability requires no user interaction and also no registered Yammer account is required. To capture the session the attacker can use a random empty session as form to request.”

In a statement, Microsoft said it fixed the problem last week. It said the flaws, described by Vulnerability Laboratory as “critical”, had not been used in anger against its customers:

On July 30, 2013, we released an automatic update to help protect our Yammer customers. We have not detected any attacks and there is no action for customers, as they are automatically protected.

Vulnerability Laboratory produced a proof-of-concept demo of the security shortcomings it discovered in Yammer before releasing a minimalist advisory on Sunday and a video illustrating the potential for mischief (see below). The footage shows how to exploit the session token vulnerability it uncovered during its research.

Khan picked up on the vulnerability on 9 July, notifying Microsoft a day later, just less than three weeks before a fix was applied.

The security researchers suggested a number of steps that Microsoft could take towards further securing Yammer – including applying always-on encryption – and tightening up the storage of crypto secrets (such as token credentials). However it’s unclear if the software giant concurs with this advice, much less whether or not it intends to apply it.

Yammer is a marketed as offering a “private social network” that’s used by 200,000 leading businesses worldwide and an estimated 8 million users. Microsoft acquired Yammer last year, placing it under the umbrella of the Microsoft Office Division. ®

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Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/06/yammer_authentication_flaw/

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Cybercrooks on an underground forum have developed a technique to bypass anti-Trojan technology from Trusteer used by financial institutions worldwide – including HSBC and Paypal – to protect depositors from cybersnoopers.

Trusteer has downplayed the vulnerability and said it’s in the process of rolling out beefed-up protection anyway. However, independent security researchers who first spotted the exploit warn that bank customers remain at risk.

Trusteer’s Rapport browser lock-down technology is offered as a voluntary download by 50 banks worldwide, including NatWest and HSBC in the UK. US customers include ING Direct USA; eBay and PayPal also offer it to their customers as protection against banking Trojans.

An exploit on private cybercrime forums, spotted by digital forensics firm Group-IB, offers a means to bypass the browser lock-down technology. More precisely, Trusteer Rapport versions 1208.41 and below suffer from a memory modification vulnerability that turns off “Rapport’s selfcheck unhooking and intercepting system” APIs.

More technical details of the flaw can be found in a post over the weekend on a full disclosure mailing list here.

“With the help of this new exploit it is possible to intercept users’ credentials when Trusteer Rapport is active,” explained Andrey Komarov, head of international projects at Group-IB.

Members of the cybercrime forum have started to use the trick to bypass Rapport checking, which prevents the theft of users’ credentials – including login details for online banking services – through interception, according to Komarov.

In a statement Amit Klein, CTO at Trusteer. downplayed the seriousness of the flaw. Klein said the bug only affected one of the protection layers offered to customers by the software.

The patch for this vulnerability is available and is being rolled out automatically to the entire Trusteer Rapport customer base. No action is required from Rapport users. This vulnerability has no impact on Rapport’s ability to block financial malware like Zeus, KINS, Carberp, Gozi, Tilon and Citadel as Rapport uses additional mechanisms, other than the mechanism impacted by this vulnerability, to block these malware strains. Furthermore, there is no financial malware to date that is trying to exploit this vulnerability.

An advisory along the same lines, a copy of which has been seen by El Reg, was sent to Trusteer’s banking customers on Monday. This advisory adds the important caveat that “the combination of this vulnerability with a new (i.e. unknown, not currently seen in the wild) strain of malware, for which Rapport doesn’t apply multiple layers of protection, could result in a successful bypass of Rapport’s protection.”

The bypass is still in play, according to Komarov.

“It is still unpatched, we can create a similar video on the actual [current] version of Rapport, where the bypass will be still working,” he told El Reg. “Because of leakage of source codes of SpyEye and Carberp, there are already some recompiled copies which use this exploit to bypass its security.”

Komarov added that Group-IB is profiling teams of hackers who have already started to use this bug. Some of these hackers had previously released Anti-Rapport modules to SpyEye and ZeuS, the two most widely used banking Trojan tools abused by cybercriminals over recent years.

Cybercrime forums have been active with discussions about possible mechanisms to bypass Trusteer since 2010, Komarov added. ®

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Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/06/trusteer_pushes_updates_after_cybercrook_brew_up_browser_lockdown_exploit/

Win Spectre Laptop with HP and The Register

Cybercrooks on an underground forum have developed a technique to bypass anti-Trojan technology from Trusteer used by financial institutions worldwide – including HSBC and Paypal – to protect depositors from cybersnoopers.

Trusteer has downplayed the vulnerability and said it’s in the process of rolling out beefed-up protection anyway. However, independent security researchers who first spotted the exploit warn that bank customers remain at risk.

Trusteer’s Rapport browser lock-down technology is offered as a voluntary download by 50 banks worldwide, including NatWest and HSBC in the UK. US customers include ING Direct USA; eBay and PayPal also offer it to their customers as protection against banking Trojans.

An exploit on private cybercrime forums, spotted by digital forensics firm Group-IB, offers a means to bypass the browser lock-down technology. More precisely, Trusteer Rapport versions 1208.41 and below suffer from a memory modification vulnerability that turns off “Rapport’s selfcheck unhooking and intercepting system” APIs.

More technical details of the flaw can be found in a post over the weekend on a full disclosure mailing list here.

“With the help of this new exploit it is possible to intercept users’ credentials when Trusteer Rapport is active,” explained Andrey Komarov, head of international projects at Group-IB.

Members of the cybercrime forum have started to use the trick to bypass Rapport checking, which prevents the theft of users’ credentials – including login details for online banking services – through interception, according to Komarov.

In a statement Amit Klein, CTO at Trusteer. downplayed the seriousness of the flaw. Klein said the bug only affected one of the protection layers offered to customers by the software.

The patch for this vulnerability is available and is being rolled out automatically to the entire Trusteer Rapport customer base. No action is required from Rapport users. This vulnerability has no impact on Rapport’s ability to block financial malware like Zeus, KINS, Carberp, Gozi, Tilon and Citadel as Rapport uses additional mechanisms, other than the mechanism impacted by this vulnerability, to block these malware strains. Furthermore, there is no financial malware to date that is trying to exploit this vulnerability.

An advisory along the same lines, a copy of which has been seen by El Reg, was sent to Trusteer’s banking customers on Monday. This advisory adds the important caveat that “the combination of this vulnerability with a new (i.e. unknown, not currently seen in the wild) strain of malware, for which Rapport doesn’t apply multiple layers of protection, could result in a successful bypass of Rapport’s protection.”

The bypass is still in play, according to Komarov.

“It is still unpatched, we can create a similar video on the actual [current] version of Rapport, where the bypass will be still working,” he told El Reg. “Because of leakage of source codes of SpyEye and Carberp, there are already some recompiled copies which use this exploit to bypass its security.”

Komarov added that Group-IB is profiling teams of hackers who have already started to use this bug. Some of these hackers had previously released Anti-Rapport modules to SpyEye and ZeuS, the two most widely used banking Trojan tools abused by cybercriminals over recent years.

Cybercrime forums have been active with discussions about possible mechanisms to bypass Trusteer since 2010, Komarov added. ®

Win Spectre Laptop with HP and The Register

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/06/trusteer_pushes_updates_after_cybercrook_brew_up_browser_lockdown_exploit/

Win Spectre Laptop with HP and The Register

Cybercrooks on an underground forum have developed a technique to bypass anti-Trojan technology from Trusteer used by financial institutions worldwide – including HSBC and Paypal – to protect depositors from cybersnoopers.

Trusteer has downplayed the vulnerability and said it’s in the process of rolling out beefed-up protection anyway. However, independent security researchers who first spotted the exploit warn that bank customers remain at risk.

Trusteer’s Rapport browser lock-down technology is offered as a voluntary download by 50 banks worldwide, including NatWest and HSBC in the UK. US customers include ING Direct USA; eBay and PayPal also offer it to their customers as protection against banking Trojans.

An exploit on private cybercrime forums, spotted by digital forensics firm Group-IB, offers a means to bypass the browser lock-down technology. More precisely, Trusteer Rapport versions 1208.41 and below suffer from a memory modification vulnerability that turns off “Rapport’s selfcheck unhooking and intercepting system” APIs.

More technical details of the flaw can be found in a post over the weekend on a full disclosure mailing list here.

“With the help of this new exploit it is possible to intercept users’ credentials when Trusteer Rapport is active,” explained Andrey Komarov, head of international projects at Group-IB.

Members of the cybercrime forum have started to use the trick to bypass Rapport checking, which prevents the theft of users’ credentials – including login details for online banking services – through interception, according to Komarov.

In a statement Amit Klein, CTO at Trusteer. downplayed the seriousness of the flaw. Klein said the bug only affected one of the protection layers offered to customers by the software.

The patch for this vulnerability is available and is being rolled out automatically to the entire Trusteer Rapport customer base. No action is required from Rapport users. This vulnerability has no impact on Rapport’s ability to block financial malware like Zeus, KINS, Carberp, Gozi, Tilon and Citadel as Rapport uses additional mechanisms, other than the mechanism impacted by this vulnerability, to block these malware strains. Furthermore, there is no financial malware to date that is trying to exploit this vulnerability.

An advisory along the same lines, a copy of which has been seen by El Reg, was sent to Trusteer’s banking customers on Monday. This advisory adds the important caveat that “the combination of this vulnerability with a new (i.e. unknown, not currently seen in the wild) strain of malware, for which Rapport doesn’t apply multiple layers of protection, could result in a successful bypass of Rapport’s protection.”

The bypass is still in play, according to Komarov.

“It is still unpatched, we can create a similar video on the actual [current] version of Rapport, where the bypass will be still working,” he told El Reg. “Because of leakage of source codes of SpyEye and Carberp, there are already some recompiled copies which use this exploit to bypass its security.”

Komarov added that Group-IB is profiling teams of hackers who have already started to use this bug. Some of these hackers had previously released Anti-Rapport modules to SpyEye and ZeuS, the two most widely used banking Trojan tools abused by cybercriminals over recent years.

Cybercrime forums have been active with discussions about possible mechanisms to bypass Trusteer since 2010, Komarov added. ®

Win Spectre Laptop with HP and The Register

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/06/trusteer_pushes_updates_after_cybercrook_brew_up_browser_lockdown_exploit/

Win Spectre Laptop with HP and The Register

Cybercrooks on an underground forum have developed a technique to bypass anti-Trojan technology from Trusteer used by financial institutions worldwide – including HSBC and Paypal – to protect depositors from cybersnoopers.

Trusteer has downplayed the vulnerability and said it’s in the process of rolling out beefed-up protection anyway. However, independent security researchers who first spotted the exploit warn that bank customers remain at risk.

Trusteer’s Rapport browser lock-down technology is offered as a voluntary download by 50 banks worldwide, including NatWest and HSBC in the UK. US customers include ING Direct USA; eBay and PayPal also offer it to their customers as protection against banking Trojans.

An exploit on private cybercrime forums, spotted by digital forensics firm Group-IB, offers a means to bypass the browser lock-down technology. More precisely, Trusteer Rapport versions 1208.41 and below suffer from a memory modification vulnerability that turns off “Rapport’s selfcheck unhooking and intercepting system” APIs.

More technical details of the flaw can be found in a post over the weekend on a full disclosure mailing list here.

“With the help of this new exploit it is possible to intercept users’ credentials when Trusteer Rapport is active,” explained Andrey Komarov, head of international projects at Group-IB.

Members of the cybercrime forum have started to use the trick to bypass Rapport checking, which prevents the theft of users’ credentials – including login details for online banking services – through interception, according to Komarov.

In a statement Amit Klein, CTO at Trusteer. downplayed the seriousness of the flaw. Klein said the bug only affected one of the protection layers offered to customers by the software.

The patch for this vulnerability is available and is being rolled out automatically to the entire Trusteer Rapport customer base. No action is required from Rapport users. This vulnerability has no impact on Rapport’s ability to block financial malware like Zeus, KINS, Carberp, Gozi, Tilon and Citadel as Rapport uses additional mechanisms, other than the mechanism impacted by this vulnerability, to block these malware strains. Furthermore, there is no financial malware to date that is trying to exploit this vulnerability.

An advisory along the same lines, a copy of which has been seen by El Reg, was sent to Trusteer’s banking customers on Monday. This advisory adds the important caveat that “the combination of this vulnerability with a new (i.e. unknown, not currently seen in the wild) strain of malware, for which Rapport doesn’t apply multiple layers of protection, could result in a successful bypass of Rapport’s protection.”

The bypass is still in play, according to Komarov.

“It is still unpatched, we can create a similar video on the actual [current] version of Rapport, where the bypass will be still working,” he told El Reg. “Because of leakage of source codes of SpyEye and Carberp, there are already some recompiled copies which use this exploit to bypass its security.”

Komarov added that Group-IB is profiling teams of hackers who have already started to use this bug. Some of these hackers had previously released Anti-Rapport modules to SpyEye and ZeuS, the two most widely used banking Trojan tools abused by cybercriminals over recent years.

Cybercrime forums have been active with discussions about possible mechanisms to bypass Trusteer since 2010, Komarov added. ®

Win Spectre Laptop with HP and The Register

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/06/trusteer_pushes_updates_after_cybercrook_brew_up_browser_lockdown_exploit/

Win Spectre Laptop with HP and The Register

Cybercrooks on an underground forum have developed a technique to bypass anti-Trojan technology from Trusteer used by financial institutions worldwide – including HSBC and Paypal – to protect depositors from cybersnoopers.

Trusteer has downplayed the vulnerability and said it’s in the process of rolling out beefed-up protection anyway. However, independent security researchers who first spotted the exploit warn that bank customers remain at risk.

Trusteer’s Rapport browser lock-down technology is offered as a voluntary download by 50 banks worldwide, including NatWest and HSBC in the UK. US customers include ING Direct USA; eBay and PayPal also offer it to their customers as protection against banking Trojans.

An exploit on private cybercrime forums, spotted by digital forensics firm Group-IB, offers a means to bypass the browser lock-down technology. More precisely, Trusteer Rapport versions 1208.41 and below suffer from a memory modification vulnerability that turns off “Rapport’s selfcheck unhooking and intercepting system” APIs.

More technical details of the flaw can be found in a post over the weekend on a full disclosure mailing list here.

“With the help of this new exploit it is possible to intercept users’ credentials when Trusteer Rapport is active,” explained Andrey Komarov, head of international projects at Group-IB.

Members of the cybercrime forum have started to use the trick to bypass Rapport checking, which prevents the theft of users’ credentials – including login details for online banking services – through interception, according to Komarov.

In a statement Amit Klein, CTO at Trusteer. downplayed the seriousness of the flaw. Klein said the bug only affected one of the protection layers offered to customers by the software.

The patch for this vulnerability is available and is being rolled out automatically to the entire Trusteer Rapport customer base. No action is required from Rapport users. This vulnerability has no impact on Rapport’s ability to block financial malware like Zeus, KINS, Carberp, Gozi, Tilon and Citadel as Rapport uses additional mechanisms, other than the mechanism impacted by this vulnerability, to block these malware strains. Furthermore, there is no financial malware to date that is trying to exploit this vulnerability.

An advisory along the same lines, a copy of which has been seen by El Reg, was sent to Trusteer’s banking customers on Monday. This advisory adds the important caveat that “the combination of this vulnerability with a new (i.e. unknown, not currently seen in the wild) strain of malware, for which Rapport doesn’t apply multiple layers of protection, could result in a successful bypass of Rapport’s protection.”

The bypass is still in play, according to Komarov.

“It is still unpatched, we can create a similar video on the actual [current] version of Rapport, where the bypass will be still working,” he told El Reg. “Because of leakage of source codes of SpyEye and Carberp, there are already some recompiled copies which use this exploit to bypass its security.”

Komarov added that Group-IB is profiling teams of hackers who have already started to use this bug. Some of these hackers had previously released Anti-Rapport modules to SpyEye and ZeuS, the two most widely used banking Trojan tools abused by cybercriminals over recent years.

Cybercrime forums have been active with discussions about possible mechanisms to bypass Trusteer since 2010, Komarov added. ®

Win Spectre Laptop with HP and The Register

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/06/trusteer_pushes_updates_after_cybercrook_brew_up_browser_lockdown_exploit/

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The Bank of Scotland has been hit by a £75,000 fine over a snafu that led to it repeatedly faxing customers’ account details to the wrong people.

Sensitive information included payslips, bank statements, account details and mortgage applications, along with customers’ names, addresses and contact details. The information was faxed to wrong numbers in a series of incidents over a three-year period starting in February 2009.

One third-party organisation reported receiving 21 documents in error over the three-year period, while a member of the public received a further 10 misdirected faxes. Both parties had fax numbers that differed by only one digit from the intended recipient, the fax machine of an internal Bank of Scotland department that routinely uploads documents onto the bank’s system.

Even after repeated complaints to the bank itself, the errors continued – eventually prompting the fed-up recipients to complain to data privacy watchdogs at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The mistakes continued even during the ICO’s investigation, which resulted in a sizeable fine against the bank (PDF), which is part of the Lloyds Banking Group.

“The Bank of Scotland has continually failed to address the problems raised over its insecure use of fax machines,” said Stephen Eckersley, head of enforcement at the ICO, in a statement. “To send a person’s financial records to the wrong fax number once is careless. To do so continually over a three-year period, despite being aware of the problem, is unforgivable and in clear breach of the Data Protection Act.

“Let us not forget that this information would have been all a criminal would ever need to carry out identity fraud,” he added. ®

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Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/06/bank_of_scotland_fax_blunder_fine/

Win Spectre Laptop with HP and The Register

The Bank of Scotland has been hit by a £75,000 fine over a snafu that led to it repeatedly faxing customers’ account details to the wrong people.

Sensitive information included payslips, bank statements, account details and mortgage applications, along with customers’ names, addresses and contact details. The information was faxed to wrong numbers in a series of incidents over a three-year period starting in February 2009.

One third-party organisation reported receiving 21 documents in error over the three-year period, while a member of the public received a further 10 misdirected faxes. Both parties had fax numbers that differed by only one digit from the intended recipient, the fax machine of an internal Bank of Scotland department that routinely uploads documents onto the bank’s system.

Even after repeated complaints to the bank itself, the errors continued – eventually prompting the fed-up recipients to complain to data privacy watchdogs at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The mistakes continued even during the ICO’s investigation, which resulted in a sizeable fine against the bank (PDF), which is part of the Lloyds Banking Group.

“The Bank of Scotland has continually failed to address the problems raised over its insecure use of fax machines,” said Stephen Eckersley, head of enforcement at the ICO, in a statement. “To send a person’s financial records to the wrong fax number once is careless. To do so continually over a three-year period, despite being aware of the problem, is unforgivable and in clear breach of the Data Protection Act.

“Let us not forget that this information would have been all a criminal would ever need to carry out identity fraud,” he added. ®

Win Spectre Laptop with HP and The Register

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/06/bank_of_scotland_fax_blunder_fine/

Win Spectre Laptop with HP and The Register

The Bank of Scotland has been hit by a £75,000 fine over a snafu that led to it repeatedly faxing customers’ account details to the wrong people.

Sensitive information included payslips, bank statements, account details and mortgage applications, along with customers’ names, addresses and contact details. The information was faxed to wrong numbers in a series of incidents over a three-year period starting in February 2009.

One third-party organisation reported receiving 21 documents in error over the three-year period, while a member of the public received a further 10 misdirected faxes. Both parties had fax numbers that differed by only one digit from the intended recipient, the fax machine of an internal Bank of Scotland department that routinely uploads documents onto the bank’s system.

Even after repeated complaints to the bank itself, the errors continued – eventually prompting the fed-up recipients to complain to data privacy watchdogs at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The mistakes continued even during the ICO’s investigation, which resulted in a sizeable fine against the bank (PDF), which is part of the Lloyds Banking Group.

“The Bank of Scotland has continually failed to address the problems raised over its insecure use of fax machines,” said Stephen Eckersley, head of enforcement at the ICO, in a statement. “To send a person’s financial records to the wrong fax number once is careless. To do so continually over a three-year period, despite being aware of the problem, is unforgivable and in clear breach of the Data Protection Act.

“Let us not forget that this information would have been all a criminal would ever need to carry out identity fraud,” he added. ®

Win Spectre Laptop with HP and The Register

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/06/bank_of_scotland_fax_blunder_fine/

Win Spectre Laptop with HP and The Register

The Bank of Scotland has been hit by a £75,000 fine over a snafu that led to it repeatedly faxing customers’ account details to the wrong people.

Sensitive information included payslips, bank statements, account details and mortgage applications, along with customers’ names, addresses and contact details. The information was faxed to wrong numbers in a series of incidents over a three-year period starting in February 2009.

One third-party organisation reported receiving 21 documents in error over the three-year period, while a member of the public received a further 10 misdirected faxes. Both parties had fax numbers that differed by only one digit from the intended recipient, the fax machine of an internal Bank of Scotland department that routinely uploads documents onto the bank’s system.

Even after repeated complaints to the bank itself, the errors continued – eventually prompting the fed-up recipients to complain to data privacy watchdogs at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The mistakes continued even during the ICO’s investigation, which resulted in a sizeable fine against the bank (PDF), which is part of the Lloyds Banking Group.

“The Bank of Scotland has continually failed to address the problems raised over its insecure use of fax machines,” said Stephen Eckersley, head of enforcement at the ICO, in a statement. “To send a person’s financial records to the wrong fax number once is careless. To do so continually over a three-year period, despite being aware of the problem, is unforgivable and in clear breach of the Data Protection Act.

“Let us not forget that this information would have been all a criminal would ever need to carry out identity fraud,” he added. ®

Win Spectre Laptop with HP and The Register

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/06/bank_of_scotland_fax_blunder_fine/