Silensec Newsletter

Kenya's Communication Authority looking into WhatsApp regulation

Kenya's Communication Authority looking into WhatsApp regulation

The Communications Authority of Kenya is considering a move to regulate online services which is a big move by the regulator.

According to reports, the authority is in search of a consultant to study how these services, also termed as over-the-top services (OTTS) like WhatsApp or Skype could be regulated.

The authority will study the outcome and the recommendations from the consultancy and decide what aspects it will implement as part of its mandate.

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Two New Bluetooth Chip Flaws Expose Millions of Devices to Remote Attacks

Two New Bluetooth Chip Flaws Expose Millions of Devices to Remote Attacks

Security researchers have unveiled details of two critical vulnerabilities in Bluetooth Low Energy chips embedded in millions of access points and networking devices used by enterprises around the world.

Dubbed BleedingBit, the set of two vulnerabilities could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code and take full control of vulnerable devices without authentication, including medical devices such as insulin pumps and pacemakers, as well as point-of-sales and IoT devices.

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Zero-day in popular jQuery plugin actively exploited for at least three years

Zero-day in popular jQuery plugin actively exploited for at least three years

For the past three years, hackers have abused a zero-day in one of the most popular jQuery plugins to plant web shells and take over vulnerable web servers.

A security researcher discovered the vulnerability in the plugin's source code that handles file uploads to PHP servers.

According to the researcher, attackers have abused this vulnerability to upload malicious files on servers, such as backdoors and web shells.

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Tracking Tick through recent campaigns targeting East Asia

Tracking Tick Through Recent Campaigns Targeting East Asia

Since 2016, an advanced threat group that Cisco Talos is tracking has carried out cyberattacks against South Korea and Japan. This group is known by several different names: Tick, Redbaldknight and Bronze Butler.

Although each campaign employed custom tools, reseachers observed recurring patterns in the actor's use of infrastructure, from overlaps in hijacked command and control (C2) domains to differing campaign C2s resolving to the same IP.

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Facebook removes 800 accounts and pages for political spam, disinformation

Facebook removes 800 accounts and pages for political spam, disinformation

Facebook recently removed 559 Pages and 251 accounts that engaged in political spam and disinformation - or "inauthentic activity," as the company refers to this behavior.

The social network said spam is a regular problem on its platform. Bad actors create multiple accounts to post, vote, and promote their own content, which is usually a link to a 3rd-party website.

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Just answering a video call could compromise your WhatsApp account

Just answering a video call could compromise your WhatsApp account

Google Project Zero security researcher found a critical vulnerability in WhatsApp messenger that could have allowed hackers to remotely take full control of your WhatsApp just by video calling you over the messaging app.

The vulnerability is a memory heap overflow issue which is triggered when a user receives a specially crafted malformed RTP packet via a video call request, which results in the corruption error and crashing the WhatsApp mobile app. The bug has since been fixed.

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