gizmosure

Tag: Hacking

  • Twitter Users on Android May Have Had Their Personal Data Compromised

    Twitter Users on Android May Have Had Their Personal Data Compromised

    Twitter and Facebook have announced that personal data of hundreds of users may have been compromised after they used their accounts to log in to certain third-party apps. This includes their names, gender, email addresses, usernames, and possibly their most recent tweets.

    Both companies received a report from security researchers who found that a software development kit called One Audience, allowed third party developers to access personal data.

    “We recently received a report about a malicious mobile software development kit (SDK) maintained by oneAudience. We are informing you about this today because we believe we have a responsibility to inform you of incidents that may impact the safety of your personal data or Twitter account,” Twitter wrote in a blog post on Monday.

    Apps usually ask for access to users’ social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter to offer extra features such as the ability to share achievements and in-game leaderboards. However, apps using this SDK potentially allowed third-party developers to access much more data than users originally intended to.

    The company also notes that it might have been possible for someone to take control of someone else’s Twitter account using this vulnerability, however, no evidence in this regard has been found yet.

    “We think it’s important for people to be aware that this exists out there and that they review the apps that they use to connect to their accounts,” said Lindsay McCallum, a Twitter spokeswoman.

    For now, the vulnerability only seems to affect Twitter users on Android, as no evidence has been found yet that suggests iOS users were also impacted.

    Twitter said it has informed Google and Apple about the vulnerability so that they can take evasive measures. The company also said it will be informing Twitter users impacted by this vulnerability.

  • Experts hack Alexa, Google Home, and Siri by using ordinary lasers

    Experts hack Alexa, Google Home, and Siri by using ordinary lasers

    Researchers have apparently found a way to hack assistants such as Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri, as well as some smartphones, by simply pointing a laser. The hack dubbed as Light Commands, allows attackers to take full control over many popular voice-controlled devices by targeting the device’s microphone with lasers.

    Takeshi Sugawara, one of the lead researchers of the study, explained that microphones in smart devices convert sound into electrical signals, which sends commands to the device. He added that microphones react the same way to a focused light pointed at them, just like they respond to sound commands.

    “It’s possible to make microphones respond to light as if it were sound. This means that anything that acts on sound commands will act on light commands,” Sugawara told Wired in a statement.

    As many voice-controlled devices are not protected by a PIN or password, attackers just need to be in the device’s line of sight to exploit this vulnerability. In a research paper published on Monday, experts revealed how they could easily hack smart speakers, tablets, and even phones by simply pointing a laser` through a window. They added that the vulnerability could be exploited by hackers to operate smart switches at homes or offices, as well as buy things online without being detected.

    “Once an attacker gains control over a voice assistant a number of other systems could be open to their manipulation. In the worst cases, this could mean dangerous access to e-commerce accounts, credit cards, and even any connected medical devices the user has linked to their assistant,” says a breakdown of the study on the University of Michigan’s website.

    Experts spent nearly seven months testing this vulnerability on popular voice-controlled devices powered by Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. These include Google Home, Echo Dot, Fire Cube, Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy, iPhone, and iPad. They were able to successfully exploit the flaw using ordinary laser pointers, laser drivers, and a telephoto lens. In some cases, even a souped-up flashlight did the trick.

    Researchers also added that they’ve shared their findings of the exploit with Google, Facebook, Amazon, Tesla, as well as Ford.

  • Critical iOS exploit impacts millions of devices from iPhone 4S to the iPhone X

    Critical iOS exploit impacts millions of devices from iPhone 4S to the iPhone X

    A newly discovered bootrom exploit in iOS, dubbed as ‘checkm8’, could lead to permanent jailbreak on iOS devices that run on Apple’s A-series processors.

    According to security researcher axiomX, the vulnerability affects hundreds of millions of iOS devices starting from the iPhone 4S, to the iPhone 8, as well as the iPhone X. The affected devices also include iPad models starting with the iPad 2 up to the 2017 iPad Pro.

    The vulnerability could give attackers deep access to iOS devices. axiomX claims that ‘checkm8’ is possibly one of the biggest news in the iPhone hacking community for years. Being a bootrom exploit, it affects devices at bootrom level instead of taking advantage of vulnerabilities in the OS or software. Now, this essentially means that Apple won’t be able to fix the issue with a simple patch or an update. To fix the issue, Apple would need to make physical changes directly to its A-series processors.

    As expected, the new flaw has some serious security concerns, as the vulnerability can offer root access to affected devices. Therefore, it’s possible that attackers could use the exploit to take control and delete sensitive information from other user’s devices.

    However, there’s some good news as axiomX explained that the vulnerability can’t be used remotely. Now, this means that attackers would need physical access to an iOS device to take undue advantage of this vulnerability. Therefore, just make sure you’re iPhone or iPad is passcode protected.

    Apple is yet to make any official statement regarding this exploit, though we’ll update you as soon as Apple responds to the matter.

    iPhone jailbreaking isn’t as popular as it was 7 years from now. During the early days of the iPhone, jailbreaking was primarily done to install third party apps that were not available via the App Store. Jailbreaking allows iOS users to add apps and other functions that Apple wouldn’t usually allow users to perform on their iPhones. iOS has rather strict limitations that are designed to protect users from malicious apps but also gives Apple’s more control over the ecosystem. Therefore, jailbreaking hurts your iPhone’s security, but at the same time gives users more control over the phone.

    The last jailbreak we heard was back in August this year when a new vulnerability was found in iOS 12.4. It was the first iOS jailbreak to be publicly revealed in years.

  • State-backed effort responsible for the massive iPhone hack: Report

    State-backed effort responsible for the massive iPhone hack: Report

    Google’s Project Zero team recently found multiple flaws in iOS that allowed hackers to gain access to an iPhone. The attack involved a small group of websites which targeted visitors’ devices to gain access to their personal information, as well as location data. Besides, the attack could also gather encrypted information from apps such as WhatsApp, iMessage, and Telegram.

    According to sources, such websites have been running for two years, during which thousands of visitors possibly accessed them every week. Apple, however, was quick to roll out a fix for the flaw in iOS 12.1.4. Apple revealed in the update that the vulnerability, referred to as ‘memory corruption issues’, was fixed with ‘improved input validation. Hence, iPhone owners are most likely protected against these exploits, as a fix was rolled out for the same with iOS 12.1.4 on February 7.

    That said, the perpetrator behind these attacks remained a mystery. Now, thanks to some digging by TechCrunch, it turns out that the culprit behind these attacks was the Chinese government.

    The attack was apparently part of a campaign to gather surveillance on a minority Muslim group in China, the Uyghur community, residing in China’s Xinjiang territory. The Chinese government claims that Islamists militants and separatists target the country’s Xinjiang region. Reports indicate that China has forced nearly 2 million people from the Uyghur community and Muslim minorities into camps for indoctrination, prompting activists to call on China to stop such mass detention efforts.

    Google revealed in its disclosure that merely visiting the infected sites was enough for the exploit to attack your device. Therefore, even people outside the Uyghur community may have been affected by this state-sponsored spy effort. Key sources also indicate that not only iPhone users were affected by the attack, but even devices running Android and Microsoft’s operating systems. With thousands of visitors accessing such malicious websites, it allowed the Chinese government to capture their private data as well as their location data.

  • Sennheiser headphone app susceptible to hacking

    Sennheiser headphone app susceptible to hacking

    Sennheiser’s HeadSetup and HeadSetup Pro applications are susceptible to hacking, according to Germany’s Secorvo Security Consulting. Sennheiser has now advised users to update to the latest versions of the app after researchers discovered they added two Certification Authority CA certificates into the local system’s Trusted Root CA store, which could potentially allow man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks.

    Sennheiser claims that the update removes these vulnerable certificates from its HeadSteup app. Besides, Secorvo Security Consulting has also published a report with detailed information about this vulnerability, along with a list of mitigation measures. Users who’ve downloaded the HeadSetup app on their systems are advised to manually uninstall the certificate. For more information on how to uninstall the certificate, follow the link here.

    In the wake of this vulenrability, Microsoft has also published an advisory which informs customers of two disclosed digital certificates that can be used to remotely spoof website or contents. In addition, the Windows-maker has also updated the Certificate Trust List to ensure that user-mode trust has been ousted from the two Certification Authority certificates installed by Sennheiser’s apps in the local system’s Trusted Root CA store.

  • Company claims its software allows anyone to bypass iPhone passcode

    Company claims its software allows anyone to bypass iPhone passcode

    Hacking into iPhones is always a hot topic, and now a company called DriveSavers claims that anyone can hack into an iPhone using its software, even if it’s guarded by a long passcode. The company which specializes in data recovery services, touts that its software has a success rate of 100 percent.

    “Utilizing new technology, we have a 100% success rate with unlocking and recovering data from passcode-protected smartphones of every make, model and operating system with any length passcode, including phones and tablets with more complicated passcodes of six digits or more,” explains DriveSafe.

    For now, it’s unclear how the company’s software allows anyone to easily hack into an iPhone, despite being passcode protected. Interestingly, DriveSavers says this service is offered to consumers at a very affordable price. The company says customers can get in touch with the them for more information about pricing and other details.

    That said, the company also has safety protocols so that its services aren’t misused. DriveSavers says its software won’t unlock an iPhone if you aren’t the owner. In fact, it runs a detailed background check to make sure only the owner of an iPhone is able to unlock the device using its software.

    “We attempt to validate the legal right to access the data during all phases of the recovery process. This starts with the information gathered during the intake process. We also have a legal authorization form requiring specific information identifying the right to the data,” the company says.

    Though, it’s still unclear right now how the software works. Besides, one can’t even be sure whether the solution has a 100 percent rate of success.

    Apple is yet to provide an official statement regarding the matter, though there’s a high possibilty the company is already looking into this software to avoid potential misuse and exploits. Hence, we won’t be surpised if Apple rolls out a patch for the same in the next iOS update.

    DriveSavers also claims its software can hack into Android smartphones as well, such as handsets from BlackBerry, LG, Samsung, as well as Windows PCs.