Are you ready to respond to DoS attacks at the web layer? In this article, Kevin Beaver shares an anecdote from his own experience whilst highlighting some important steps to take. First things first; responding to DoS attacks at the web layer starts with ensuring…
WordPress Caching Plugins Remote PHP Code Execution
Two very popular WordPress caching plugins: WP Super Cache (4,373,811 downloads) and W3 Total Cache (1,975,480 downloads) have been affected by a vulnerability that allows remote users to execute arbitrary PHP code. The affected versions are: WP Super Cache (version 1.2 and below, version 1.3.x and up are…
WordPress Attack Vectors and Open Amazon S3 Buckets Identified by Acunetix WVS
Recently there were a lot of news reports about an ongoing attack on sites using WordPress software. Attackers are using around 90,000 computers to try to brute force WordPress credentials. All these servers are trying common account names like admin, administrator, test, tom, jessica, … and…
New WordPress Checks in Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner v8 build 20130416
This new release of Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner version 8, build 20130416, includes new and improved vulnerability checks which target WordPress installations, web applications hosted on Amazon S3, various other web applications. New Functionality Added a test that enumerates valid WordPress usernames using various techniques….
Protect your WordPress from Mass Brute Force Attacks
Last week a sophisticated botnet that targets and launches brute force attacks against WordPress blogs and websites has been detected. Some WordPress hosting providers suffered downtime, security experts are exploiting this opportunity to sell their WordPress security services and thousands of WordPress sites have been…
The Risks Associated with Third-Party Software Components
I was recently contacted by a colleague in an information security leadership position who was concerned about his developers using some third-party plug-ins for an enterprise application they were rolling out. His developers wanted to install these third-party components in order to speed up their…
"Social Media Widget" Adds New Undocumented Feature – Spam Injection
WordPress.com have removed the rather popular Social Medial Widget (nearly a million downloads) from the plugin repository. The most recent version of the plugin was found to be injecting spam messages with the social media icons on the sites using the plugin. It seems that…
What happens when you can’t find every web vulnerability?
On one end of the application security and IT audit spectrum we have people that overlook the obvious and critical stuff. But just as dangerously, on the other end of the spectrum we have people who want us to find every single flaw on every…
Is Your Security Appliance Hackable?
In the late 90’s, businesses embraced the internet; they connected their networks and servers to the internet so their data can be accessed from anywhere around the world. This was a new era that gave businesses the opportunity to grow globally and reach new audiences….