Mahesh Balan

on January 23, 2018 in

– Last Update: January 23, 2018 –

Cryptojacking is a relatively new threat on the Internet. It refers to websites abusing computing resources of visitors to mine cryptocurrency.

Internet users notice that something is wrong when the computer they use slows down to a crawl suddenly and when fans speed up in an attempt to cool down components of the device that get hammered.

The main issue with cryptojacking is that it is done behind the backs of users. Sites load cryptomining scripts on load to mine cryptocurrency using the resources of the computer of the user visiting the site. There is no opt-in process or information on what is going on.

Sites run these scripts to generate revenue. One of the advantages of running mining operations in the browser is that it happens in the background. It does not interfere with the site’s layout or content.

Browser extensions may load crypto mining scripts as well. These work in the background just like scripts loaded by sites.

Cryptojacking Test

cryptojacking test

Opera Software was the first browser-making company that implemented anti-crypto mining protections in the browser natively.

While Opera was the first browser, content-blocking lists added cryptomining scripts before Opera did so.

Opera Software engineers created a site that you may visit to test whether you are protected against cryptojacking.

Visit the website and click on the start button on it to run the test. It won’t take longer than a couple of seconds to complete and the result is either that the browser that you are using is protected or unprotected.

Opera Software displays aggregate ratings on the site as well. 73.6% of all users are protected from cryptojackingat the time of writing according to the statistics on the page.

Users who run browsers that are not protected have several options at their disposal to protect their browsers against crypto mining attacks.

Use a browser extension that protects against JavaScript mining scripts.
Use the Opera browser with ad-blocking enabled.
Use a security software that protects against mining scripts.
Install an anti-mining browser extension.
Disable JavaScript on untrusted sites.

Closing Words

Opera tests the protection against a Coin Hive script only which leaves the possibility that the browser is vulnerable to these scripts. It is only a matter of time usually before new scripts or URLs do get blocked though.

Now You: Did you run into cryptomining sites in the past?

Related articles

Summary

Article Name

Test your web browser’s cryptojacking protection

Description

Cryptojacking is a new threat on the Internet. It refers to sites loading scripts that mine cryptocurrency using visitor’s devices. Take the Cryptojacking Test to find out if you are protected.

Author

Martin Brinkmann

Publisher

Ghacks Technology News

Logo

Read the Full Article here: >Top 100 Network Security Tools

January 24, 2018

USBPcap – USB Packet Capture For Windows

USBPcap is an open-source USB Packet Capture tool for Windows that can be used together with Wireshark in order to analyse USB traffic without using a Virtual Machine.

USBPcap - USB Packet Capture For Windows

Currently, the live capture can be done on “standard input” capture basis: you write a magic command in cmd.exe and you get the Wireshark to capture raw USB traffic on Windows.

USBPcapDriver has three “hats”:

Root Hub (USBPCAP_MAGIC_ROOTHUB
Control (USBPCAP_MAGIC_CONTROL)
Device (USBPCAP_MAGIC_DEVICE)

What you won’t see using USBPcap

As USBPcap captures URBs passed between functional device object (FDO) and physical device object (PDO) there are some USB communications elements that you will notice only in hardware USB sniffer.

These are:

Bus states (Suspended, Power ON, Power OFF, Reset, High Speed Detection Handshake)
Packet ID (PID)
Split transactions (CSPLIT, SSPLIT)
Duration of bus state and time used to transfer packet over the wire
Transfer speed (Low Speed, Full Speed, High Speed)

Moreover, you won’t see complete USB enumeration. You will only see the USB control transfer send to device after the device has been assigned its address.

There is also this to check out:

– SnoopyPro – Windows USB Sniffer Tool

You can download USBPcap here:

Windows: USBPcapSetup-1.2.0.3.exe
Source: USBPcap-1.2.0.3.zip

Or read more here.

Read the Full Article here: >Darknet – The Darkside

January 24, 2018

Organizations could face up to $19 billion in losses if a cloud provider is hacked

Organizations could face up to $19 billion in losses if a cloud provider is h... - BetaNews - Discussion on Topix

If a hacker were to gain control of a cloud provider for over three days, businesses could face losses up to a whopping $19 billion, with SMBs carrying the largest economic and insurance losses, according to a new report. In partnership with the American Institutes for Research , insurance market Lloyd’s of London is unveiling a new report detailing the financial impact of a cyberattack on a US cloud provider.

Start the conversation, or Read more at BetaNews.

Read the Full Article here: >Computer Security News

September 2, 2017

Navy Investigating Whether Ship Collision Resulted from Cyber-Attack

The United States Navy is investigating whether the recent collision of the USS John S. McCain with a Liberian tanker off Singapore may have been caused by a cyber-attack.

Read the Full Article here: >Computer Security News

September 2, 2017

Canadian university scammed out of $11.8 million

MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, is the latest confirmed victim of scammers.

university scam

“On Wednesday, August 23, MacEwan University discovered it had been the victim of a phishing attack. A series of fraudulent emails convinced university staff to change electronic banking information for one of the university’s major vendors. The fraud resulted in the transfer of [Canadian] $11.8 million to a bank account that staff believed belonged to the vendor,” the Canadian university shared.

After the fraud was discovered, the university conducted an audit of business processes through its internal audit group and with the help of outside experts.

“Preliminary assessment has determined that controls around the process of changing vendor banking information were inadequate, and that a number of opportunities to identify the fraud were missed,” they noted.

Since them, additional controls were put in place to prevent further incidents.

Once the fraud was discovered after the real vendor complained of non-payment, the accounts to which the funds were sent were traced to Canada and Hong Kong, and local law enforcement agencies were contacted.

Corporate security units of banks involved with the e-transfers were also notified, and they managed to freeze the funds. The university is working with legal counsel in Montreal, London and Hong Kong to pursue civil action to recover the money.

No further details about the phishing attack were revealed, but it’s obvious this is a variant of the business email compromise (BEC) scam: the so-called “payment instruction switch” or “the supplier swindle.”

“There is never a good time for something like this to happen,” said university spokesman David Beharry, “but as our students come back to start the new academic year, we want to assure them and the community that our IT systems were not compromised during this incident. Personal and financial information, and all transactions made with the university are secure. We also want to emphasize that we are working to ensure that this incident will not impact our academic or business operations in any way.”

Read the Full Article here: >Help Net Security – News

September 2, 2017

Want To Try Hacking Computers Legally? Here’s How

Have you ever fancied yourself as a computer hacker or penetration tester? Have you ever read about hacking and wondered just how easy or hard it would actually be to achieve?

Of course, hacking someone else’s computer without their permission is illegal pretty much everywhere. And setting up a network of computers yourself, purely to hack them, is time-consuming. But thankfully there’s another way.

Hack The Box is a network of computers which has been set up for you to hack. It’s all legal, and the idea is to allow people to test their technical skills and techniques. It’s also free to use, and good fun. But be aware that it’s aimed at people with a good deal of technical knowledge (or those who think they have it!). Read More

Read the Full Article here: >Gizmos Freeware Reviews

August 31, 2017

Oops! WikiLeaks Website Defaced By OurMine

OurMine is in headlines once again—this time for defacing

WikiLeaks

website.

The notorious hacking group, OurMine, is known for breaching into high-profile figures and companies’ social media accounts, including Facebook CEO

, Twitter CEO

, Google CEO

and Sony’s

(PSN).

According to screenshots circulating on

Twitter

, the official website of WikiLeaks has reportedly been defaced by the OurMine hacking group, who left a message on the site, as shown above.

WikiLeaks is a whistleblowing website that since March, has been revealing top CIA hacking secrets under

Vault 7

, including the agency’s ability to break into

and

, security camera

and many more.

There is no indication of WikiLeaks servers and website been compromised, instead it seems their website has been redirected to a hacker-controlled server using DNS poisoning attack.

In DNS poisoning attack, also known as DNS spoofing, an attacker gets control of the DNS server and changes a value of name-servers in order to divert Internet traffic to a malicious IP address.

Shortly after the defacement, the site administrators regained access to their DNS server and at the time of writing, the WikiLeaks website is back online from its official legitimate servers.

OurMine is a Saudi Arabian group of hackers which claims to be a “white hat” security firm.

The group markets itself by taking over social media accounts of high-profile targets and then encourages them to contact the hacking group to buy its IT security service in an effort to protect themselves from future cyber attacks.

Read the Full Article here: >The Hacker News [ THN ]

August 29, 2017

Someone Published a List of Telnet Credentials For Thousands of IoT Devices

An anonymous reader writes: A list of thousands of fully working Telnet credentials has been sitting online on Pastebin since June 11, credentials that can be used by botnet herders to increase the size of their DDoS cannons. The list includes an IP address, device username, and a password, and is mainly made up of default device credentials in the form of "admin:admin", "root:root", and other formats. There are 33,138 entries on the list, which recently became viral on Twitter after several high-profile security experts retweeted a link to it. During the past week, a security researcher has been working to find affected devices and notify owners or their ISPs. Following his work, only 2,174 devices still allow an attacker to log on via its Telnet port, and 1,775 of the published credentials still work. "There are devices on the list of which I never heard of," the researcher said, "and that makes the identification process much slower."

SAP point-of-sale systems were totally hackable with $25 kit

Point-of-Sale systems from SAP had a vulnerability that allowed them to be hacked using a $25 Raspberry Pi or similar device, according to research unveiled at the Hack in the Box conference in Singapore last week.

Critical vulnerabilities in SAP’s POS – since resolved – created a means for hackers not only to steal customers’ card data but to gain unfettered control over the server, enabling them to change prices of goods with the help of a simple device, according to ERPScan.

Tags:

HITB

HITBGSEC

Security

Read the Full Article here: >Hack In The Box

August 28, 2017

Hacking a Phone Through a Replacement Touchscreen

Researchers demonstrated a really clever hack: they hid malware in a replacement smart phone screen. The idea is that you would naively bring your smart phone in for repair, and the repair shop would install this malicious screen without your knowledge. The malware is hidden in touchscreen controller software, which is trusted by the phone.

The concern arises from research that shows how replacement screens — one put into a Huawei Nexus 6P and the other into an LG G Pad 7.0 — can be used to surreptitiously log keyboard input and patterns, install malicious apps, and take pictures and e-mail them to the attacker. The booby-trapped screens also exploited operating system vulnerabilities that bypassed key security protections built into the phones. The malicious parts cost less than $10 and could easily be mass-produced. Most chilling of all, to most people, the booby-trapped parts could be indistinguishable from legitimate ones, a trait that could leave many service technicians unaware of the maliciousness. There would be no sign of tampering unless someone with a background in hardware disassembled the repaired phone and inspected it.

Academic paper. BoingBoing post.

Read the Full Article here: >Schneier on Security: Cybercrime Paper