November 13, 2008 - Current Activity

U.S. Federal Reserve Fraudulent Email Scam

US-CERT is aware of public reports of a fraudulent email scam circulating via messages that falsely appear to be from the U.S. Federal Reserve. These email messages contain information about a phishing scam and links for users to follow to obtain additional information about the scam. If a user follows the links, they will be redirected to a malicious website where a PDF exploit is used to install malicious code on the affected system.

US-CERT encourages users to do the following to help mitigate the risks:

• Do not follow unsolicited links.
• Use caution when visiting untrusted websites.
• Install antivirus software and keep the virus signatures up to date.
  
• Refer to the Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams (pdf) document for more information on avoiding email scams.
• Refer to the Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks document for more information on social engineering attacks.

Mozilla Releases Updates to Address Vulnerabilities in Multiple Products

Mozilla has released Firefox 2.0.0.18, Firefox 3.0.4, and SeaMonkey 1.1.13 to address multiple vulnerabilities. The impacts of these vulnerabilities include arbitrary code execution, privilege escalation, security bypass, cross-site scripting, denial of service, and information disclosure. As described in the Mozilla Foundation security advisories, some of these vulnerabilities may also affect Thunderbird.

US-CERT encourages users to review the Mozilla Foundation security advisories and apply any necessary updates to help mitigate the risks.

Apple Releases iLife Support 8.3.1

Apple has released iLife Support 8.3.1 to address multiple vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial-of-service condition.

US-CERT encourages users to review Apple Article HT3276 and apply any necessary updates to help mitigate the risks.

Microsoft Releases November Security Bulletin

Microsoft has released updates to address vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows as part of the Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for November 2008. These vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code.

US-CERT encourages users and administrators to review the bulletins and follow best-practice security policies to determine which updates should be applied.

VMware Releases Security Advisory VMSA-2008-0018 and Updates VMSA-2008-0016.1

VMware has released Security Advisory VMSA-2008-0018 and has updated Security Advisory VMSA-2008-0016.1 to address multiple vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities may allow an attacker to conduct directory traversal attacks, operate with escalated privileges, or obtain sensitive information.

US-CERT encourages users and administrators to review VMware Security Advisories VMSA-2008-0018 and VMSA-2008-0016.1 and apply any necessary updates to help mitigate the risks.

Adobe Reader Exploit Circulating

US-CERT is aware of public reports of active exploitation of a recent Adobe Reader vulnerability. This exploit appears to arrive in the form of a maliciously crafted PDF file and leverages the JavaScript buffer overflow vulnerability addressed in Adobe Security Bulletin APSB08-19. Successful exploitation may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial-of-service condition. Additionally, the reports indicate that this exploit is currently undetectable by common antivirus applications.

US-CERT encourages users and administrators to do the following to help mitigate the risk:

• Review Adobe Security Bulletin APS08-19 and update to Adobe Reader 9.
• Use caution when opening untrusted files.
• Install antivirus software and keep the virus signatures up to date.

Microsoft Releases Advance Notification for November Security Bulletin

Microsoft has issued a Security Bulletin Advance Notification indicating that its November release cycle will contain two bulletins, one of which will have the severity rating of Critical. The notification states that this Critical bulletin is for Microsoft Windows and Office. There will also be one Important bulletin for Microsoft Windows. Release of these bulletins is scheduled for Tuesday,  November 11.

US-CERT will provide additional information as it becomes available.

Torpig Trojan Horse Attack Activity

US-CERT is aware of public reports of a high volume of financial accounts compromised by the Torpig (also known as Sinowal or Anserin) Trojan horse. This Trojan horse uses HTML injection to add fields to web pages in order to convince users to provide additional user credentials or financial account information. Systems compromised by this Trojan horse are being used by attackers to obtain FTP credentials, email addresses, and digital certificates of the current user.

This Trojan horse uses an MBR rootkit known as Mebroot. This rootkit contains configuration information for the Trojan horse as well as techniques used to keep the Trojan horse undetectable.

US-CERT encourages users to do the following preventative measures to mitigate the security risks:

• Install antivirus software, and keep the virus signatures up to date.
• Investigate anomalous or slow-running machines, looking for unknown processes or unexpected Internet connections as this may be a sign of malicious programs operating in the background.
• Examine firewall logs of systems for connections to or from anomalous IP addresses.
• Consider traffic analysis to identify compromised systems that are exfiltrating data.
  

Adobe Releases Security Bulletin to Address Flash Player Vulnerabilities

Adobe has released a Security Bulletin to address multiple vulnerabilities in Flash Player. These vulnerabilities may allow an attacker to bypass security restrictions or obtain sensitive information.

US-CERT encourages users and administrators to review Adobe Security Bulletin APSB08-20 and update to Flash Player version 10.0.12.36 to help mitigate the risks.

United States Presidential Election Email Attack

US-CERT is aware of public reports of email attacks circulating that are related to the recent U.S. presidential election. The email messages appear to be coming from a seemingly legitimate source and contain a message indicating that additional news coverage of the election is available by following a link. The link directs users to a website that appears to contain a video of the president elect. The website will instruct the user to update to a new version of Adobe Flash Player in order to view the video. This update is not a legitimate Adobe Flash Player update; it is malicious code. If the user downloads this executable file, malicious code may be installed on the system.

US-CERT encourages users to take the following preventative measures to mitigate the security risks:

• Install antivirus software, and keep the virus signatures up to date.
• Do not follow unsolicited links.
• Use caution when visiting untrusted websites.
• Use caution when downloading and installing applications.
• Obtain software applications and updates directly from the vendor's website.
• Refer to the Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams (pdf) document for more information on avoiding email scams.
• Refer to the Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks document for more information on social engineering attacks.