Yet another CPU Vulnerability

Google and Microsoft researchers have disclosed another Spectre-like CPU side-channel vulnerability, called "Speculative Store Bypass." Like the others, the fix will slow the CPU down.
The German tech site Heise reports that more are coming.
We'll be seeing a lot more of these sorts of vulnerabilities.

Spectre and Meltdown are pretty catastrophic vulnerabilities, but they only affect the confidentiality of data. Now that they -- and the research into the Intel ME vulnerability -- have shown researchers where to look, more is coming -- and what they'll find will be worse than either Spectre or Meltdown.

We'll be expecting lots more of these in the coming months and years, as we learn more about this class of vulnerabilities.

Sending Silent Commands to Voice Assistants

Researchers have demonstrated the ability to send inaudible commands to voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant.

Over the last two years, researchers in China and the United States have begun demonstrating that they can send hidden commands that are undetectable to the human ear to Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa and Google's Assistant. Inside university labs, the researchers have been able to secretly activate the artificial intelligence systems on smartphones and smart speakers, making them dial phone numbers or open websites. In the wrong hands, the technology could be used to unlock doors, wire money or buy stuff online ­-- simply with music playing over the radio.

A group of students from University of California, Berkeley, and Georgetown University showed in 2016 that they could hide commands in white noise played over loudspeakers and through YouTube videos to get smart devices to turn on airplane mode or open a website.

This month, some of those Berkeley researchers published a research paper that went further, saying they could embed commands directly into recordings of music or spoken text. So while a human listener hears someone talking or an orchestra playing, Amazon's Echo speaker might hear an instruction to add something to your shopping list.

Some malicious codes can automatically record your cam and later demand for ransom if you deny they may threaten you with a mail like below.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ticket Detаils: Vxx-xxx-xxxxx

Camera ready,Notification: 2x/xx/2018 05:xx:xx 

Status: Waiting for Reply 2xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_Priority: Normal 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello.

If you were more watchful while caress yourself, I wouldn't write dis message. I don't think that playing with yourself is really bad, but when all colleagues, relatives and friends receive video record of it- it is obviously for you.

I placed malisious soft on a porn site which was visited by you. When the target press on a play button, device starts recording the screen and all cameras on your device starts working.

Moreover, my program makes a remote desktop supplied with keylogger function from your device , so I could get all contacts from ya e-mail, messengers and other social networks. I'm writing on dis e-mail because It's your working address, so u should read it.

I suppose that three hundred usd is pretty enough for this little misstep. I made a split screen video(records from screen (u have interesting tastes ) and camera ooooooh... its funny AF)

So its ur choice, if u want me to erase ur disgrace use my bitcоin wallet аddress- 1wxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  

You have one day after opening my message, I put the special tracking pixel in it, so when you will open it I will see.If ya want me to show u the proofs, reply on this letter and I will send my creation to five contacts that I've got from ur contacts.

P.S.. U can try to complain to police, but I don't think that they can help, the investigation will last for several months- I'm from Estonia - so I dgf lmao 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Beware and stay secure 

Got panic upon RDP to server throwing CredSSP encryption oracle remediation error

I’ve seen that people no longer being able to connect over RDP  to their clients or servers. I also got a call to ask for help with such an issue. The moment I saw the error message it rang home that this was a known and documented issue with CredSSP encryption oracle remediation, which is both preventable and fixable.

KB4103725 (Windows 8/10)
KB4103727 (Server 2016/2012)
KB4103718 (Windows 7) 
 
If you can't update your servers since it requires a reboot, you could add this to your clients policy, send it out via GPO and all it takes a force gpupdate.

Rdp client machine workaround:
goto local policies:
Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Credentials Delegation--Encryption Oracle Remediation

enable and set to 'vulnerable'. 

Follow that link and it will tell you all you need to know to fix it and how to avoid it.
A remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2018-0886) exists in unpatched versions of CredSSP. This issue was addressed by correcting how CredSSP validates requests during the authentication process.


The initial March 13, 2018, release updates the CredSSP authentication protocol and the Remote Desktop clients for all affected platforms.
Mitigation consists of installing the update on all eligible client and server operating systems and then using included Group Policy settings or registry-based equivalents to manage the setting options on the client and server computers. We recommend that administrators apply the policy and set it to  “Force updated clients” or “Mitigated” on client and server computers as soon as possible.  These changes will require a reboot of the affected systems. Pay close attention to Group Policy or registry settings pairs that result in “Blocked” interactions between clients and servers in the compatibility table later in this article.
April 17, 2018:
The Remote Desktop Client (RDP) update update in KB 4093120 will enhance the error message that is presented when an updated client fails to connect to a server that has not been updated.
May 8, 2018:
An update to change the default setting from Vulnerable to Mitigated (KB4103723 for W2K16 servers) and KB4103727 for Windows 10 clients. Don’t forget the vulnerability also exists for W2K12(R2) and lower as well as equivalent clients.

The key here is that with the May updates change the default for the new policy setting changes the default setting from to mitigated.

Microsoft is releasing new Windows security updates to address this CVE on May 8, 2018. The updates released in March did not enforce the new version of the Credential Security Support Provider protocol. These security updates do make the new version mandatory. For more information see “CredSSP updates for CVE-2018-0886” located at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4093492.

This can result in mismatches between systems at different patch levels. Which is why it’s now more of a wide spread issue. Looking at the table in the article and the documented errors it’s clear enough there was a mismatch. It was also clear how to fix it. Patch all systems and make sure the settings are consistent. Use GPO or edit the registry settings to do so. Automation is key here. Uninstalling the patch works but is not a good idea. This vulnerability is serious.

Now Microsoft did warn about this change. You can even read about it on the PFE blog https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askpfeplat/tag/encryption-oracle-remediation/. Nevertheless, many people seem to have been bitten by this one. I know it’s hard to keep up with everything that is moving at the speed of light in IT but this is one I was on top of. This is due to the fact that the fix is for a remote vulnerability in RDS. That’s a big deal and not one I was willing let slide. You need to roll out the updates and you need to configure your policy and make sure you’re secured. The alternative (rolling back the updates, allowing vulnerable connections) is not acceptable, be vulnerable to a known and fixable exploit. TAKE YOUR MEDICIN!  Read the links above for detailed guidance on how to do this. Set your policy on both sides to mitigated. You don’t need to force updated clients to fix the issue this way and you can patch your servers 1st followed by your clients. Do note the tips given on doing this in the PFE blog:

Note: Ensure that you update the Group Policy Central Store (Or if not using a Central Store, use a device with the patch applied when editing Group Policy) with the latest CredSSP.admx and CredSSP.adml. These files will contain the latest copy of the edit configuration settings for these settings, as seen below.

Registry
Path: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\CredSSP\Parameters
Value: AllowEncryptionOracle
Date type: DWORD
Reboot required: Yes
Here’s are the registry settings you need to make sure connectivity is restored

Everything patched: 0 => when all is patched including 3rd party CredSSP clients you can use “Force updated clients”
server patched but not all clients: 1 =>use “mitigated”, you’ll be as secure as possible without blocking people. Alternatively you can use 2 (“vulnerable”) but avoid that if possible  as it is more risky, so I would avoid that.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\CredSSP][HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\CredSSP\Parameters]
“AllowEncryptionOracle”=dword:00000001
So, check your clients and servers, both on-premises and in the cloud to make sure you’re protected and have as little RDS connectivity issues as possible. Don’t forget about 3rd party clients that need updates to if you have those!

CredSSP, RDP Fix:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askpfeplat/2018/05/07/credssp-rdp-and-raven/