Sean Michael Kerner

There is a pair of new exploit attack vectors in commonly used enterprise technologies that could be exposing organizations to risks they aren’t aware of, according to Hewlett Packard Enterprise. One of the new vectors is a Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) injection risk; the other is a Lightweight Directory Address Protocol (LDAP) entry […]

Point-of-sale malware is nothing new, but on Aug. 8, news of a potentially extensive POS breach came out. Oracle’s Micros POS system was breached, which could have widespread implications for the retail industry. The breach was first reported by Krebs on Security and confirmed by Oracle in a letter sent to its Micros customers. “Oracle […]

There are a number of different ways users can get an internet address when they connect into a network, and some of them involve the use of a proxy approach that could well enable user exploitation. In a session at the Black Hat USA conference, security researcher Maxim Goncharov detailed how the WPAD, or Web […]

Black Hat, DefCon Draw Security Experts to Demo Latest Exploits Security experts examined modern threats—ranging from car hacking to Flash vulnerabilities—at the Black Hat USA and DefCon 24 conferences. Kaminsky Warns of Risks to the Internet Security researcher Dan Kaminsky, who delivered the only Black Hat keynote this year, said the basic fabric of the […]

Fedora Linux and Red Hat are investigating the potential impact of a major vulnerability that was first disclosed Aug. 8. The Fedora Account System (FAS), which provides user information management for Fedora, had a vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-1000038, which could have enabled an unauthorized user to make changes to the system. Fedora is Red Hat’s […]

Terrell McSweeny, commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, got a somewhat unique introduction at the DefCon security conference in Las Vegas on Aug. 5. When McSweeny was introduced to a large audience, the FTC was described as a federal agency that many in the hacker community actually really like. “I’m really interested in protecting consumer […]

LAS VEGAS—After three years of planning and lead-up contests, the finals of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC) to show the best in autonomous computer security concluded with a win by the Mayhem system from the ForAllSecure team, which won the $2 million grand prize. The Xandra system finished in second […]

LAS VEGAS—The DefCon hacker conference here at the Bally’s and Paris Hotels is a massive affair with many rooms, events and workshops spread across multiple times and days. While there is a paper schedule, many hackers now rely on Hacker Tracker, which has become the de facto mobile app of the DefCon conference. The Hacker […]

LAS VEGAS—Ivan Krstic, head of Apple Security Engineering and Architecture, was a surprise late addition to the Black Hat USA conference here Aug. 4 in a session in which he detailed upcoming security features in iOS 10. At the end of the talk, Krstic made an unexpected announcement—an Apple bug bounty program. “I have some […]

LAS VEGAS—Embedded within some versions of the latest Windows 10 update is a capability to run Linux. Unfortunately, that capability has flaws, which Alex Ionescu, chief architect at Crowdstrike, detailed in a session at the Black Hat USA security conference here and referred to as the Linux kernel hidden in Windows 10. In an interview […]

LAS VEGAS—For the third year in a row, security researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek gave a talk at the Black Hat USA conference here about car hacking. Despite the high-profile recall of 1.4 million cars in 2015 after their talk, there are still risks in vehicles that can enable an attacker to take control […]

LAS VEGAS—At the the Black Hat USA conference here, researchers from security firm Rapid7 publicly demonstrated an attack against an ATM cash machine that ended up with the machines shooting out a string of fake $100 bills. The attack used some design flaws in the EMV chip system, which is just starting to roll out […]