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…
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….
Logical and Technical Vulnerabilities – What they are and how can they be detected?
Web vulnerabilities can be split into two distinct groups; Technical Vulnerabilities and Logical Vulnerabilities. Technical vulnerabilities can be found by using automated processes, such as scanning a website with a web vulnerability scanner. On the other hand, logical vulnerabilities can only be detected manually. This…
The US National Vulnerability Database was Hacked and Infected with Malware
The US National Vulnerability Database has been hacked and infected with malware on the 8th of March 2013. Until today, the same place from where both black hats and white hats get information about existing software vulnerabilities, is still offline (15th of May 2013). So…
Incident Response Plan Template – The Essential Elements
Incident response is the art (and science) of responding to computer security-related breaches. Interestingly, most organizations I deal with don’t have a documented incident response plan. The last thing you want to do during and after a security breach is figure out the best approach…