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Thursday, April 30, 2015

On Being Safe in the Virtual World: An #Outsider Newsflash (The Latest From US-CERT)

As part of the mission of #Outsiders and this channel, we will feature weekly guidance we receive here @ #Outsiders on the state of threat.     What we received here is compelling that must be attended to by all:

NCCIC / US-CERT

National Cyber Awareness System:
04/29/2015 12:00 AM EDT

Original release date: April 29, 2015

Systems Affected

Systems running unpatched software from Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle, or OpenSSL.

Overview

Cyber threat actors continue to exploit unpatched software to conduct attacks against critical infrastructure organizations. As many as 85 percent of targeted attacks are preventable [1].
This Alert provides information on the 30 most commonly exploited vulnerabilities used in these attacks, along with prevention and mitigation recommendations.
It is based on analysis completed by the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre (CCIRC) and was developed in collaboration with our partners from Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the Australian Cyber Security Centre.

Description

Unpatched vulnerabilities allow malicious actors entry points into a network. A set of vulnerabilities are consistently targeted in observed attacks.

Impact

A successful network intrusion can have severe impacts, particularly if the compromise becomes public and sensitive information is exposed. Possible impacts include:
  • Temporary or permanent loss of sensitive or proprietary information,
  • Disruption to regular operations,
  • Financial losses relating to restoring systems and files, and
  • Potential harm to an organization’s reputation.

Solution

Maintain up-to-date software.

The attack vectors frequently used by malicious actors such as email attachments, compromised “watering hole” websites, and other tools often rely on taking advantage of unpatched vulnerabilities found in widely used software applications. Patching is the process of repairing vulnerabilities found in these software components.
It is necessary for all organizations to establish a strong ongoing patch management process to ensure the proper preventive measures are taken against potential threats. The longer a system remains unpatched, the longer it is vulnerable to being compromised. Once a patch has been publicly released, the underlying vulnerability can be reverse engineered by malicious actors in order to create an exploit. This process has been documented to take anywhere from 24-hours to four days. Timely patching is one of the lowest cost yet most effective steps an organization can take to minimize its exposure to the threats facing its network.

Patch commonly exploited vulnerabilities.

Executives should ensure their organization’s information security professionals have patched the following software vulnerabilities. Please see patching information for version specifics.
Microsoft
CVE
Affected Products
Patching Information
CVE-2006-3227 Internet Explorer Microsoft Malware Protection Encyclopedia Entry
Office Word Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-042
Office
Office for Mac
Open XML File Format Converter for Mac
Office Excel Viewer
Excel
Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-067
CVE-2009-3674 Internet Explorer Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-072
CVE-2010-0806 Internet Explorer Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-018
Office
Office for Mac
Open XML File Format Converter for Mac
Excel
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS11-021
Office
SQL Server
BizTalk Server
Commerce Server
Visual FoxPro
Visual Basic
Office
SQL Server
Commerce Server
Host Integration Server
Visual FoxPro Visual Basic
CVE-2012-4792 Internet Explorer Microsoft Security Bulletin MS13-008
CVE-2013-0074 Silverlight and Developer Runtime Microsoft Security Bulletin MS13-022
CVE-2013-1347 Internet Explorer Microsoft Security Bulletin MS13-038
CVE-2014-0322 Internet Explorer Microsoft Security Bulletin MS14-012
Microsoft Word
Office Word Viewer
Office Compatibility Pack
Office for Mac
Word Automation Services on SharePoint Server
Office Web Apps
Office Web Apps Server
CVE-2014-1776 Internet Explorer Microsoft Security Bulletin MS14-021
Windows Microsoft Security Bulletin MS14-060
Oracle
CVE
Affected Products
Patching Information
Java Development Kit, SDK, and JRE
Java Development Kit and JRE Oracle Java SE Critical Patch Update Advisory - June 2013
Adobe
CVE
Affected Products
Patching Information
CVE-2009-3953
Reader
Acrobat
Adobe Security Bulletin APSB10-02
CVE-2010-0188
Reader
Acrobat
Adobe Security Bulletin APSB10-07
CVE-2010-2883
Reader
Acrobat
Adobe Security Bulletin APSB10-21
CVE-2011-0611
Flash Player
AIR
Reader
Acrobat
CVE-2011-2462
Reader
Acrobat
Adobe Security Bulletin APSB11-30
CVE-2013-0625 ColdFusion Adobe Security Bulletin APSB13-03
CVE-2013-0632 ColdFusion Adobe Security Bulletin APSB13-03
CVE-2013-2729
Reader
Acrobat
Adobe Security Bulletin APSB13-15
CVE-2013-3336 ColdFusion Adobe Security Bulletin APSB13-13
CVE-2013-5326
ColdFusion Adobe Security Bulletin APSB13-27
Flash Player
AIR
AIR SDK & Compiler
OpenSSL
CVE
Affected Product
Patching Information
OpenSSL

Implement the following four mitigation strategies.

As part of a comprehensive security strategy, network administrators should implement the following four mitigation strategies, which can help prevent targeted cyber attacks.
Ranking
Mitigation Strategy
Rationale
1
Use application whitelisting to help prevent malicious software and unapproved programs from running.
Application whitelisting is one of the best security strategies as it allows only specified programs to run, while blocking all others, including malicious software.
2
Patch applications such as Java, PDF viewers, Flash, web browsers and Microsoft Office.
Vulnerable applications and operating systems are the target of most attacks. Ensuring these are patched with the latest updates greatly reduces the number of exploitable entry points available to an attacker.
3
Patch operating system vulnerabilities.
4
Restrict administrative privileges to operating systems and applications based on user duties.
Restricting these privileges may prevent malware from running or limit its capability to spread through the network.
It is recommended that users review US-CERT Security Tip (ST13-003) and CCIRC’s Mitigation Guidelines for Advanced Persistent Threats for additional background information and to assist in the detection of, response to, and recovery from malicious activity linked to advance persistent threats [2, 3].

References

Revision History

  • April 29, 2015: Initial release
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