Items tagged with Project Zero
When it comes to disclosing vulnerabilities, the Project Zero team at Google generally sticks to a hard-and-fast deadline, giving companies 90 days to issue a patch before going public with its findings. There are some rare exceptions, but for the most part, Project Zero sticks to that time frame. As such, Project Zero is making some noise about a Windows bug that could allow an attacker to "take down an entire Windows fleet relatively easily." The issue lies in the SymCrypt core cryptographic library of Windows. A bug exists in SymCrypt's multi-precision arithmetic routines for implementing symmetric cryptographic algorithms in Windows 8, and asymmetric ones in Windows 10. By leveraging the...
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Through its Project Zero team, Google has appointed itself a vanguard of software security and accountability. As such, every so often Project Zero publicizes a security flaw that has gone unpatched for at least 90 days, sometimes at the contentious objection of the company it affects. This time it is Apple and its macOS software that is in Project Zero's spotlight. The security team has discovered what it deems to be a high severity bug in the operating system's kernel, XNU, which allows copy-on-write (COW) behavior in ways that it perhaps should not. "This copy-on-write behavior works not only with anonymous memory, but also with file mappings. This means that, after the destination process...
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Just when news of Spectre and Meltdown has seemingly died down, we're now hearing of a fresh round of exploits that might affect Intel processors. A total of 8 new vulnerabilities have been discovered and are being dubbed Spectre Next Generation, or Spectre-NG for short. Each of the eight vulnerabilities have been assigned their own Common Vulnerability Enumerator (CVE) designation, and each will need to be patched separately according to German publication c't. Intel, which has been notified of Spectre-NG, acknowledges that four of the new exploits are considered "high risk", while the other four are "medium risk". At least one of the vulnerabilities is reportedly even more...
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Google's Project Zero team has discovered a 'medium' security vulnerability that primarily affects Windows 10 S, a stripped down version of Windows 10 that is "streamlined for security and superior performance." While it does not appear to present a major threat to users—remote code execution is not possible in this instance, for example—part of what's interesting here is the ongoing tug-of-war between Project Zero and companies whose products have flaws. Project Zero, you might recall, is the same division of Google that made public Meltdown and Spectre. Under normal conditions, Project Zero gives firms 90 days to fix security flaws it discovers before disclosing them publicly. The...
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Google's Project Zero has been busy uncovering vulnerabilities in a wide range of products and services, most notably rooting out CPU flaws that became known as Spectre and Meltdown. While mitigations are still ongoing, Project Zero continues to look for security issues across the board. The latest one that Project Zero found is a remote code execution vulnerability that exists in uTorrent. The vulnerability exists in both the downloadable desktop client for Windows and the new uTorrent Web service that runs in a browser window and allows users to stream torrents from it. Project Zero points out that by default, the web version is configured to run at startup with Windows, so it's always running...
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Google's Project Zero team has publicly disclosed a security vulnerability in Microsoft's Edge browser for Windows 10 after Microsoft failed to issue a patch in the allotted time. The Project Zero team alerted Microsoft of a bug relating to the browser's Arbitrary Code Guard (ACG) back in November of last year. As is the team's policy, companies generally have 90 days to fix flaws that it discovers before a public disclosure. Image Source: Flickr via okubax In this instance, Microsoft requested and was granted a two-week grace period. Unfortunately Microsoft was still unable to fix the flaw before the extended deadline, so now the details of the bug are public knowledge. With that being the case,...
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If you've been following the tech or security news for the past few days, then you no doubt know of a security vulnerability that reportedly affects all Intel processors. OS vendors have been working to mitigate the issue with kernel patches, but those software Band-Aids can come with some performance handicaps as a side effect. Today, we're learning more about what exactly is going on, and that there are not one, but actually two vulnerabilities that have been disclosed. It's bad enough that one of them targets Intel processors, but the second affects ALL modern processors as well -- including those based on architectures from Intel, AMD and ARM. So, we present to you Meltdown and Spectre....
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Way back in the day -- dating back to just after the release of the first iPhone -- hackers chipped away at the security defenses in iOS to give users functionality that was lacking in the default software. This practice is known as jailbreaking, and it is something that Apple unsurprisingly frowns upon since it breaks through its “walled garden”. Ian Beer, a researcher working for Google's Project Zero team, announced via a tweet that he has discovered an exploit that could jailbreak devices running iOS 11.1.2 or older. Project Zero is tasked with finding bugs in competing software, as we've seen over the years with the prickly relationship Google has with Microsoft on the matter....
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Google And Apple Patch Serious Android And iOS Broadcom Wi-Fi Bug That Allowed Remote Execution Hack
Practically everyone who owns a smartphone should be on the lookout for a patch. Both Google and Apple this week released software updates for Android and iOS, respectively, to address a vulnerability discovered in Wi-Fi chipsets developed by Broadcom. If left unpatched, an attacker within range of the same Wi-Fi network could execute malicious code on a person's mobile device. A researcher on Google's Project Zero team discovered the vulnerability and wrote about it in great detail (hit the source link for deep dive into the technical underpinnings of this exploit). Prior to Google releasing a patch for Android, the researcher demonstrated the hack on a fully patched Nexus 6P running Android...
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Security researchers on Google's Project Zero team have discovered critical security flaws in several of Symantec's software security products, including its popular Norton line for consumers and Endpoint Protection for enterprises. No small thing, among the vulnerabilities are several wormable remote code execution flaws."These vulnerabilities are as bad as it gets. They don't require any user interaction, they affect the default configuration, and the software runs at the highest privilege levels possible. In certain cases on Windows, vulnerable code is even loaded into the kernel, resulting in remote kernel memory corruption," the Project Zero team said.Since Symantec uses the same core engine...
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Going on a bug hunt might not sound like the most exciting thing in the world, but for Project Zero, the name for a team of security analysts tasked by Google with finding zero-day exploits, a good old fashioned bug hunt is both exhilarating and productive. As a result of Project Zero's efforts to root out bugs in Samsung's Galaxy S6 Edge device, owners are now more secure. In a blog post describing the bug hunt, Project Zero (correctly) notes that the majority of Android devices are not made by Google, but by third-parties known as Original Equipment Manufacturers, or OEMs. Having researched vulnerabilities on Google-made Nexus devices running the Android Open-Source Project (AOSP), Project...
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Google has been hitting tech companies with a few right hooks in recent months with regards to zero day exploits. As a part of Google’s “Project Zero” program, its security researchers discover security vulnerabilities in software products, and report its findings to the vendor. The vendor has 90 days from the time of first disclosure to patch the problem, or Google goes public with the full details of the exploit. At that point, anyone can pour over the details to take advantage of the exploit. Google busted Microsoft’s chops in early January when it failed to adhere to Google’s 90-day window by disclosing a vulnerability that allowed non-administrator account to escalate their privileges to...
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Ahead of its earnings release that is due after the closing bell today, Apple has released two updates for its most prominent operating system. The mobile-centric iOS has been updated to 8.1.3, while the desktop/laptop-centered OS X Yosemite gets an upgrade to 10.10.2. The biggest addition with iOS 8.1.3 is a reduction in the amount of storage space required to install iOS updates. Previous iOS 8 updates have required users to set aside nearly 6GB of free space in order to install. For users stuck with 16GB iPhones and iPads (we still have no clue as to why Apple continues to string users along with such low amounts of onboard storage with no option for external storage), this has hampered their...
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Microsoft no longer needs to feel singled out by Google and its Project Zero team for disclosing multiple unpatched vulnerabilities in Windows. It wasn't personal, just an inflexible policy on the part of Project Zero to give companies a 90-day window to patch any vulnerabilities it finds before making them public. And now it's Apple that's in Project Zero's spotlight.Project Zero has made public a trio of zero-day vulnerabilities discovered in Apple's OS X platform, releasing all the gory details of each one to the public after Apple failed to address them within the allotted 90-day windows.None of the three vulnerabilities are considered critical. What's more, the first one involves the "networkd...
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