NSA hacking tools enabling script kiddies and criminals

 

When you create an arsenal of powerful hacking tools to rip through the privacy rights of citizens with the goal of national security as the driver what could possibly go wrong? Well in the case that you lose all of those tools and they fall into the arms of criminals and script kiddies the dangers become all to real. 

Last week, the mysterious hacking group known as Shadow Brokers leaked a set of Windows hacking tools targeting Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 7 and 8, and Windows 2012, allegedly belonged to the NSA's Equation Group. 

 
As expected Microsoft quickly downplayed the security risks by releasing patches for all exploited vulnerabilities, but there are still risks in the wild with unsupported systems as well as with those who haven't yet installed the patches. And believe me knowing how a lot of companies tend to handle patch management that's a lot of servers that are quickly becoming targets. Just to back up that statement multiple security researchers have performed mass Internet scans over the past few days and found tens of thousands of Windows computers worldwide infected with DoublePulsar, a suspected NSA spying implant, as a result of a free tool released on GitHub for anyone to use.

The hackers news have done a good article on this explaining the ins and outs of the tools and the issues that organisation may face if effective patching does not take place which I have inserted below.

The impact? DoublePulsar is a backdoor used to inject and run malicious code on already infected systems, and is installed using the EternalBlue exploit that targets SMB file-sharing services on Microsoft's Windows XP to Server 2008 R2.

Therefore, to compromise a machine, it must be running a vulnerable version of Windows OS with an SMB service expose to the attacker.

Both DoublePulsar and EternalBlue are suspected as Equation Group tools and are now available for any script kiddie to download and use against vulnerable computers.

Once installed, DoublePulsar used hijacked computers to sling malware, spam online users, and launch further cyber attacks on other victims. To remain stealthy, the backdoor doesn't write any files to the PCs it infects, preventing it from persisting after an infected PC is rebooted. While Microsoft has already patched majority of the exploited flaws in affected Windows operating systems, those who have not patched are vulnerable to exploits such as EternalBlue, EternalChampion, EternalSynergy, EternalRomance, EmeraldThread, and EducatedScholar.

Moreover, systems that are still using end-of-life platforms like Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and IIS 6.0, which no longer received security updates, are also vulnerable to the in-the-wild exploits.

Since it takes hackers roughly a few hours to download the Shadow Brokers dump, scan the Internet with the tool released on Monday, and deliver hacking exploits, researchers are expecting more vulnerable and unpatched computers to fall victims to DoublePulsar.

After this news had broken, Microsoft officials released a statement saying: "We doubt the accuracy of the reports and are investigating."

Meanwhile, Windows users who haven't applied MS17-010 by now are strongly advised to download and deploy the patches as soon as possible.

TeamViewer Confirms Hack

For those who are not familiar with the service TeamViewer allows computer professionals and consumers to log into their computers from remote locations. For just over month, a growing number of users have reported their accounts were accessed by cyber criminals who used their highly privileged access and drain PayPal and bank accounts. On Sunday, TeamViewer spokesman Axel Schmidt acknowledged to Ars that the number of takeovers was "significant," but he continued to maintain that the compromises are the result of user passwords that were compromised through a cluster of recently exposed megabreaches involving more than 642 million passwords belonging to users of LinkedIn, MySpace, and other services.

So if you have a TeamViewer account the hackers news have put together the steps that you should take to make sure that you are secure, see below.

Here's What you should do:

TeamViewer users are strongly recommended to change their account passwords and use a strong one, and of course, NOT to use the same credentials across multiple sites.

I know, remembering different passwords for different accounts is a real pain, but you can use a good password manager to solve this issue.

Meanwhile, users should also ensure their TeamViewer accounts are protected with a randomly generated password that is at least 10 characters long, contains numbers, symbols, and uppercase and lowercase letters, and is unique.

It is always a good idea to run the TeamViewer software only when it's truly needed, instead of allowing it to auto-start each time your PC is turned on.