Key Aspects of Code Obfuscation

Code obfuscation is a process used to modify source code in a way that makes it harder to understand or reverse engineer, while still maintaining its functionality. Developers employ code obfuscation techniques to protect their software from unauthorized access, tampering, and reverse engineering. Let’s explore some key aspects of code obfuscation:

Remove Superfluous Data

The first step in code hardening is to eliminate unnecessary elements from your code. This includes removing redundant functions, debugging information, and metadata. By streamlining your codebase, you reduce the attack surface and make it more challenging for attackers to find vulnerabilities.

String Encryption

Encrypting strings within your code can make it difficult for attackers to extract sensitive information. By converting strings into an encoded format, you enhance security without altering the program’s behaviour.

Process Order Obfuscation

Rearrange the order of instructions or functions in your code. This can confuse reverse engineers and disrupt their understanding of the program’s logic.

Memory Randomization

Randomize memory addresses or data structures used by your program. This prevents attackers from predicting memory layouts and exploiting vulnerabilities.

Naming Obfuscation

Rename variables, functions, and classes in a way that doesn’t reveal their purpose. Meaningless or deceptive names make it harder for attackers to decipher the code.

Control Flow Obfuscation

Alter the control flow of your program by introducing conditional jumps, loops, or other constructs. This confuses static analysis tools and makes it challenging to follow the program’s execution path.

Remember that while code obfuscation enhances security, it may also increase execution time and overhead. Striking the right balance between protection and performance is crucial for real-world applications.

Why not to use nulled WordPress Themes and Plugins

Navigating the world of WordPress themes and plugins can be daunting, especially with the temptation of nulled (pirated or illegally obtained) themes and plugins. However, it’s crucial to understand the risks associated with using nulled WordPress themes and plugins. Here are several compelling reasons why you must avoid them:

1. Security Vulnerabilities

Nulled themes and plugins often contain hidden malicious code inserted by hackers. This code can compromise the security of your website, leading to malware infections, data breaches, and unauthorized access.

2. Lack of Updates and Support

Legitimate WordPress themes and plugins receive regular updates to address security vulnerabilities, introduce new features, and ensure compatibility with the latest version of WordPress. Nulled themes and plugins do not receive these updates, leaving your website vulnerable to security risks and compatibility issues. Furthermore, you won’t have access to customer support from the original developers if you encounter any issues.

3. Legal Risks

Using nulled themes and plugins is illegal and violates copyright laws. By downloading and using pirated software, you expose yourself to legal consequences, including fines and potential lawsuits from developers and copyright holders.

4. Poor Code Quality

Nulled themes and plugins are often poorly coded and lack proper documentation. This can lead to performance issues, website errors, and conflicts with other themes and plugins. In contrast, legitimate WordPress themes and plugins undergo rigorous testing and adhere to coding best practices to ensure optimal performance and reliability.

5. Blacklisting by Search Engines

Search engines like Google can detect websites using pirated software and may penalize them by lowering their search rankings or removing them from search results altogether. This can significantly impact your website’s visibility and traffic, ultimately affecting your online presence and business success.

6. Backdoor Access

Nulled themes and plugins may contain backdoors that allow hackers to gain unauthorized access to your website. Once inside, hackers can steal sensitive information, install malware, or hijack your website for malicious purposes.

7. Hidden Ads and Affiliate Links

Some nulled themes and plugins include hidden ads or affiliate links that generate revenue for the hacker. These ads can appear on your website without your knowledge or consent, detracting from the user experience and potentially driving visitors away.

8. Loss of Reputation

Using nulled themes and plugins can damage your reputation as a website owner or developer. Visitors may view your website as untrustworthy or insecure, leading to a loss of credibility and potential customers.

9. Compatibility Issues

Nulled themes and plugins may not be compatible with other WordPress themes, plugins, or updates, leading to website errors, broken functionality, and poor user experience.

10. Voided Warranties

Many legitimate theme and plugin developers offer warranties and guarantees to customers who purchase their products. However, by using nulled software, you forfeit any warranties or guarantees, leaving you without recourse if something goes wrong.

In summary, the risks associated with using nulled WordPress themes and plugins are extensive and far-reaching. It’s essential to prioritize the security, integrity, and legality of your website by investing in legitimate themes and plugins from reputable developers. By doing so, you can protect your website, your reputation, and your business from harm.

Common motivations to use nulled WordPress themes & plugins

Despite the associated risks, here are some reasons people may be tempted to use nulled WordPress themes and plugins.

1. Cost Savings

One of the primary reasons people opt for nulled themes and plugins is to avoid paying for legitimate versions. Nulled versions are typically available for free or at a significantly lower cost than purchasing the original product.

2. Access to Premium Features

Nulled themes and plugins often claim to offer premium features and functionality found in paid versions. This can be appealing to users who want access to advanced features without having to pay for them.

3. Ease of Access

Nulled themes and plugins are readily available for download from various websites, file-sharing platforms, and online forums. This accessibility makes it convenient for users to obtain and install pirated software without going through official channels.

4. Experimentation and Testing

Some users may use nulled themes and plugins for testing purposes or to experiment with different designs and functionalities on their websites before committing to purchasing the original product.

5. Lack of Awareness

In some cases, users may not be aware of the risks associated with using nulled software. They may mistakenly believe that downloading and using pirated themes and plugins is harmless or acceptable.

6. Desperation or Urgency

Users facing tight budgets or urgent deadlines may resort to using nulled themes and plugins as a quick and inexpensive solution to address their immediate needs.

7. Peer Pressure or Recommendations

In online communities or forums, users may encounter recommendations or endorsements for nulled themes and plugins from other members. Peer pressure or positive reviews may influence users to try out pirated software despite the potential risks.

8. Lack of Technical Knowledge

Some users may lack the technical knowledge or expertise to evaluate the risks associated with using nulled themes and plugins. They may not fully understand the potential security vulnerabilities or legal implications involved.

It’s important to note that while these reasons may seem compelling, the risks associated with using nulled WordPress themes and plugins far outweigh any perceived benefits. Users must prioritize the security, integrity, and legality of their websites by investing in legitimate themes and plugins from reputable developers.

A way to access Google accounts without a password by Hackers

A recent discovery by security researchers has unveiled a new hacking technique that enables cyber criminals to infiltrate individuals’ Google accounts without requiring their passwords. CloudSEK, a security firm, conducted an analysis and identified a malicious form of malware that exploits third-party cookies to gain unauthorized access to users’ private data. This dangerous exploit is already being actively tested by various hacking groups.

The revelation of this exploit occurred in October 2023 when a hacker shared information about it on a Telegram channel. The hacker explained how accounts could be compromised through a vulnerability associated with cookies. Cookies are utilized by websites and browsers to track users and enhance their browsing experience.

Google authentication cookies play a crucial role in allowing users to access their accounts without repeatedly entering their login credentials. However, the hackers have discovered a method to retrieve these cookies, thereby bypassing the security measures of two-factor authentication.

To address this issue, Google Chrome, the world’s most widely used web browser with a market share exceeding 60% last year, is currently taking steps to crack down on third-party cookies.

“We routinely upgrade our defences against such techniques and to secure users who fall victim to malware. In this instance, Google has taken action to secure any compromised accounts detected,” Google said in a statement.

“Users should continually take steps to remove any malware from their computer, and we recommend turning on Enhanced Safe Browsing in Chrome to protect against phishing and malware downloads.”

The researchers who first uncovered the threat said it “underscores the complexity and stealth” of modern cyber-attacks.

“This exploit enables continuous access to Google services, even after a user’s password is reset,” Pavan Karthick M, a threat intelligence researcher at CloudSEK, wrote in a blog post detailing the issue.

“It highlights the necessity for continuous monitoring of both technical vulnerabilities and human intelligence sources to stay ahead of emerging cyber threats.”

The report, titled ‘Exploiting Undocumented OAuth2 Functionality for session hijacking: Malwares Compromising Google Accounts’, was authored by Pavan Karthick M., a threat intelligence researcher at CloudSEK.

Chinese hacking group has found new way to bypass two-factor authentication

A group with alleged links to the Chinese government has been accused of hacking networks worldwide, but in a rare twist, it’s said to be bypassing two-factor authentication in the process.

The hack was detailed late last week by security researchers from Fox-IT Holding B.V. APT20, the group behind the campaign, targets web servers as the first point of entry with a particular focus on Jboss.

Once through the door, the group installs web shells then spreads throughout the network. Showing fairly typical behavior, the group seeks out passwords and administrator accounts to obtain more information from their targets utilizing virtual network credentials for more secure access.

Where it gets interesting is that the researchers claim they found evidence that APT20 was gaining access to VPN accounts that were protected by 2FA. Hacking 2FA isn’t new, and the process involved is somewhat complicated, but APT20 is said to have found a new way to bypass the process.

The hackers are believed to have stolen an RSA SecurID software token from a hacked system, then modified the key to work on different systems.

“The software token is generated for a specific system, but of course this system-specific value could easily be retrieved by the actor when having access to the system of the victim,” the security researchers explained. “As it turns out, the actor does not actually need to go through the trouble of obtaining the victim’s system-specific value, because this specific value is only checked when importing the SecurID Token Seed, and has no relation to the seed used to generate actual 2-factor tokens. This means the actor can actually simply patch the check which verifies if the imported soft token was generated for this system, and does not need to bother with stealing the system-specific value at all.”

While specifically applying to software-based tokens, the method is disturbing particularly given that 2FA is regularly held up as a way to prevent hacking such as this.

A full copy of the research into the group can be found here.

Bitcoin ransomware locks 10 years’ worth of government data in Argentina

Bitcoin-hungry hackers have attacked a data center in Argentina which houses local government files.

According to Alicia Bañuelos, the country’s Minister of Science and Technology, the attack took place on November 25.

In an interview with Agencia de Noticia de San Luis — a local government digital news outlet — on December 2, Bañuelos said the center had already recovered 90 percent of the encrypted data. Some 7,700 GB — approximately 10 years worth data — was originally compromised as a result of the attack.

“Decrypting the files will take at least 15 days, mostly due to the sheer size of the archive,” Bañuelos added during the interview.

The size of the Bitcoin ransom is unknown, but reports suggest attackers asked for somewhere in between approximately $37,000 and $370,000 (0.5 and 50 BTC) in exchange for decrypting the files.

Just last week, Hard Fork reported on how a major US data center had been hit by Sodinokibi, a prominent strand of ransomware which several months ago earned a hacker $287,000 worth of Bitcoin in just three days.

Governments have proved to be popular targets. A group of cybercriminals calling themselves the “Shadow Kill Hackers” attacked the City of Johannesburg (South Africa) administration website in late October and threatened to upload the stolen data on the internet unless they received a $300,000 (4 BTC) Bitcoin ransom.

Hackers are also targeting private companies, including Spanish multinational security firm Prosegur, which was hit by Ryuk ransomware under two weeks ago.

thenextweb

New Employees Can Be a Cybersecurity Risk. Here Are 5 Simple Practices You Can Teach Them During Onboarding

Employee cybersecurity training is becoming an important best practice for organizations, and for good reason. In fact, more than half of small business owners name employee error as the biggest information security risk to their companies.

Many organizations hold annual security training for their employees, which is an important practice that should remain in place. That said, there’s great value in training new employees on cybersecurity during the onboarding process instead of waiting until an annual security training rolls around. While new employees bring skills and experience to the team, they could also bring significant risk if they were never properly educated on cybersecurity practices at previous jobs.

Including security training as part of the initial employee onboarding process makes it clear to new hires that they play a critical role in maintaining the company’s privacy and security, as well as protecting sensitive customer information. It also educates them on key cybersecurity principles, such as how to recognize and avoid common threats, the importance of strong passwords, and the risks of unsecured devices, such as their personal cell phone.

Since cybersecurity is such a broad topic, you might be wondering what to focus on when training your employees. Here are a few of the most important cybersecurity lessons to communicate to new employees as soon as they join the team.

1. Avoid phishing scams.

Phishing scams are a huge cybersecurity threat to companies, playing a role in 91 percent of all data breaches. That’s why it’s essential to teach new employees how to recognize and avoid possible phishing attacks. Be sure to educate them about spear phishing emails, which appear to come from a trustworthy sender but are actually designed to steal sensitive company data. These emails often come from someone high up at the organization, like the CEO.

Teach employees to be vigilant when checking their emails, and to be cautious if an email from a coworker contains lots of typos or asks for sensitive information. If they receive emails that seem suspicious, instruct them to verify the email address to make sure it originated from the actual sender. In addition, educate your new employees to hover their mouse over any links in emails to see where they will take them.

2. Keep up with security patches and software updates.

Another important lesson to teach your employees is to stay on top of security patches and software updates. While it’s easy to click the “update later button” on software update notifications, ignoring them can put devices – and your company – at risk. Security patches and updates are designed to repair vulnerabilities in your device or software and should be installed immediately. Instruct new employees to check their devices for software updates regularly and to install them right away.

3. Avoid unsecured Wi-Fi networks.

Be sure to educate your employees about the dangers of unsecured Wi-Fi networks and how to protect their devices when using public Wi-Fi. This is especially important if you let your employees work remotely or set up permissions so they can access work communications outside of the office. Your employees need to understand that bad actors often linger on unsecured public Wi-Fi networks, hoping to launch a man-in-the-middle attack and steal their sensitive information. If your employees want to connect to public Wi-Fi, make sure they use a virtual private network (VPN) to secure their connection and protect company data.

4. Stick to company-sponsored apps and tools.

During cybersecurity training, stress the importance of sticking to apps and online tools that are company-approved. If employees avoid using employer-mandated tools and opt for their preferred apps instead, they create risk by spreading sensitive company information on systems outside the company’s control. Teach new employees about the dangers of circumventing company-sponsored apps and provide in-depth training on approved tools so employees don’t feel the need to seek out alternatives.

5. Create strong passwords.

Communicating the importance of using strong passwords is an important step to secure sensitive company data. Creating a strong password by using a password generator or a password manager can help secure accounts and prevent cyberattacks. An important point to make with your employees is not only to focus on using strong passwords, but to ensure they are not using the same password on all of their logins.

Employee cybersecurity education is essential for companies of all sizes. In fact, employee cybersecurity training might be even more important for small businesses, which rarely have access to the resources and sophisticated IT teams that large corporations rely on to protect their organizations.

For this reason, small businesses need to take a proactive approach to educating new employees on cybersecurity best practices. By including cybersecurity training during the onboarding process, you can lay the groundwork for your company and employees’ long-term success.

inc

Programmer finds ridiculous ATM loophole that let him withdraw ₦377 million in cash

It sounds like something straight out of a movie: an unsatisfied bank programmer discovers the perfect scheme for making an ATM spit out free money.

But apparently, this story is true: The South China Morning Postand China’s Daily Economic News report that 43-year-old Qin Qisheng managed to withdraw over 7 million yuan (upwards of ₦377 million) from ATMs operated by his employer, Huaxia Bank — all by exploiting a crazy loophole.

According to the reports, the bank’s system didn’t properly record withdrawals made around midnight — effectively spitting out cash without removing the total from a user’s account. Normally, that might send up a red flag that a transaction had failed, but Qisheng allegedly inserted scripts into the system that suppressed those alerts.

Qisheng started pulling out money in November 2016, but it wasn’t until January 2018, some 1,358 withdrawals later, that the bank discovered the bad code in its system and brought him to the authorities.

Perhaps the most surprising part of this story: the bank didn’t want to keep pressing charges once he’d returned the money. Maybe fearing the bad publicity (apparently the loophole has already been fixed), Huaxia Bank reportedly asked police to drop the case — reportedly accepting Qisheng’s explanation that he was merely testing the bank’s security and was holding onto the money for the bank to reclaim. As one does.

The courts refused, though, and Qisheng is now looking at 10 and a half years in prison after losing his appeal. They didn’t buy the argument, considering that he’d moved the money to his personal bank account, instead of the bank’s dummy account, and had apparently been investing some in the stock market, too.

The Verge

5 new cyberthreats pop up every second, here’s how to protect yourself

The start of 2018 has seen a massive rise in cryptocurrency mining and cryptojacking attacks, along with steady numbers of familiar malware and ransomware attacks, according to a Wednesday report from McAfee. On average, five new threat samples arose every second of Q1 2018, with several notable campaigns demonstrating just how sophisticated hackers have become.

“There were new revelations this quarter concerning complex nation-state cyber-attack campaigns targeting users and enterprise systems worldwide,” Raj Samani, chief scientist at McAfee, said in a press release. “Bad actors demonstrated a remarkable level of technical agility and innovation in tools and tactics. Criminals continued to adopt cryptocurrency mining to easily monetize their criminal activity.”

Of particular note was the rapid expansion of cryptojacking and other cryptocurrency mining attacks, in which criminals hijack victim’s browsers or infect their systems to mine for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin—often without their knowledge. Coin miner malware grew a whopping 629% this year, growing from about 400,000 total known samples in Q4 2017 to more than 2.9 million in Q1 2018.

The rapid growth suggests that cybercriminals are drawn to the ease of infecting a user’s system and collecting the payments themselves, without having to rely on another party to monetize their attack, the report said.

“Cybercriminals will gravitate to criminal activity that maximizes their profit,” Steve Grobman, CTO at McAfee, said in the release. “In recent quarters we have seen a shift to ransomware from data-theft, as ransomware is a more efficient crime. With the rise in value of cryptocurrencies, the market forces are driving criminals to crypto-jacking and the theft of cryptocurrency. Cybercrime is a business, and market forces will continue to shape where adversaries focus their efforts.”

However, cryptomining is far from the only cyberthreat that businesses need to keep on their radar and protect against. Here are five campaigns the report identified as wreaking major havoc in Q1.

1. Bitcoin-stealing campaigns

A cybercrime ring called Lazarus launched a sophisticated Bitcoin-stealing phishing campaign called HaoBao this year, targeting global financial institutions and Bitcoin users, the report found. The attack came via malicious email attachments to victims, which, when opened, would implant a tool that scanned for Bitcoin activity and established a connection for ongoing data gathering and cryptomining.

2. Gold Dragon attacks

In January, the Gold Dragon attack targeted organizers of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea. The fileless malware attack—executed via a malicious Microsoft Word attachment that contained a hidden PowerShell implant script—encrypted stolen data and sent it to the attackers.

3. GhostSecret and Bankshot attacks

The international cybercrime group known as Hidden Cobra is believed to be associated with Operation GhostSecret, an attack targeting the healthcare, finance, entertainment, and telecommunications sectors and stealing data. The latest variation of the attack, called Bankshot, uses an embedded Adobe Flash exploit to allow hackers to get into victims’ systems.

4. LNK exploits

The amount of malware that exploits LNK capabilities grew 59% from Q4 2017 to Q1 2018, the report found. Meanwhile, PowerShell attacks have slowed.

5. Gandcrab ransomware

Growth in new ransomware slowed by 32% in Q1. However, the Gandcrab strain infected some 50,000 systems in the first three weeks of the quarter alone, taking Locky’s place as the ransomware leader. Gandcrab uses advanced methodologies, such as requesting ransom payments through the Dash cryptocurrency rather than through Bitcoin, to extract more value from their targets.

Tips to protect your business

Despite the rise of new attack types, business leaders can take a number of steps to protect employees and data.

In terms of cryptojacking, the attack is blocked by default in the browser Opera. Mozilla’s Firefox 63, due out in October, will block the attacks as well. Users can also download the minerBlock extension for Chrome and Firefox, as noted by TechRepublic contributor James Sanders.

Businesses can avoid the impact of ransomware by backing up files every day, and by taking other preventative steps.

Employee education remains paramount to any cybersecurity policy. Top ways to train employees to avoid cyberattacks include offering customised examples of threats that are relevant to an employee’s department and role (and particularly what phishing attacks look like), running unscheduling simulations of typical attacks, providing training models that employees can complete at their convenience, and rewarding those who take the proper actions.

Development Standards Technologies Tech Republic

Hackers weaponise secure USB drives

A cyber-espionage group is targeting a specific type of secure USB drive created by a South Korean defence company in a bid to gain access to its air-gapped networks.

According to a blog post by researchers at Palo Alto Networks, the attack was carried out by a group called Tick which conducts cyber-espionage activities targeting organisations in Japan and Korea.

Researchers said the weaponisation of a secure USB drive is an uncommon attack technique and likely done in an effort to spread to air-gapped systems – networks that are not connected to the internet.

They added that the malware used in these attacks will only try to infect systems running Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Server 2003.

Researchers said that indicated the malware was intentionally targeting older, out-of-support versions of Microsoft Windows installed on systems with no internet connectivity.

The USB stick installs a program called “SymonLoader” as a trojanised version of a Japanese language GO game.

It then extracts a hidden executable file from a specific type of secure USB drive and executes it on the compromised system.

According to researchers, if SymonLoader finds it is on a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 system and finds that a newly attached device is a USB drive made by this particular company, then it will extract an unknown executable file from the USB.

Researchers said that while the identity of the file SymonLoader writes to the USB is unknown, they added that they know enough about it to know it is malicious.

“In contrast to HomamLoader, which requires an internet connection to reach its C2 server to download additional payloads, SymonLoader attempts to extract and install an unknown hidden payload from a specific type of secure USB drive when it’s plugged into a compromised system.

“This technique is uncommon and hardly reported among other attacks in the wild,” the researchers said.

Javvad Malik, security advocate at AlienVault, told SC Media UK that this particular attack bears all the signs of a very specific targeted attack designed to infect particular institutes or machines – not too dissimilar to Stuxnet.

“Employees that work in sensitive organisations that have air-gapped networks should be particularly vigilant against plugging in devices. In some cases, even approved USB drives should be tested in a separate environment prior to being loaded in secure areas,” he said.

“Prevention aside, critical systems should have threat detection controls that can alert where an infected drive has been plugged into an endpoint and take remedial steps beyond raising an alarm, such as isolating an infected machine from the rest of the network.”

Scott Walker, senior solutions engineer at Bomgar, told SC Media UK that with certain state-sponsored hacking groups’ focus on the military, financial and energy sectors, it is paramount that these organisations deploy solutions that help prevent these attacks.

“Integrating regular and up to date security training to educate employees will ensure they are aware of the most recent tactics used to target systems and what can be done to prevent these.

“In addition, implementing solutions to ensure that employees only have access to areas of the network and devices that their role requires can mitigate these types of attacks. This sounds simple, but in reality, it is an area often overlooked,” he said.

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