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Think Like a Hacker
Episode 89: Shopify Rogue Employees, Medium and Twitter Vulnerabilities, and Hackers Hiding Out in Corporate Networks
Shopify reports that two rogue employees stole data from 200 merchants on their platform. A security researcher found a vulnerability in the Medium Partner Program could have allowed an attacker to steal writers’ earnings. Symantec reports that a state-sponsored hacking group has been hiding out in company networks as a part of an information-stealing campaign.…
October 2, 2020
Episode 88: XCloner Vulnerabilities, LokiBot Malware, & a 14 Year Old Nets a $25K Bug Bounty
Our Threat Intelligence team discovered several vulnerabilities present in XCloner Backup and Restore, a WordPress plugin installed on over 30,000 sites. These vulnerabilities could have allowed an attacker to modify arbitrary files, including PHP files. The US government Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is warning of detected persistent malicious activity traced back to LokiBot infections.…
September 25, 2020
Episode 87: Vulnerabilities Affect Discount Rules for WooCommerce Plugin, ModSecurity & Windows
Vulnerabilities were recently patched in the Discount Rules for WooCommerce plugin installed on over 40,000 WordPress sites. Developers from OWASP Core Rule Set said ModSecurity v3 is exposed to denial of service exploits, though the maintainers of ModSecurity reject that claim. A severe vulnerability called Zerologon in Windows Netlogon was patched in August; this bug…
September 18, 2020
Episode 86: War of the Hackers
Millions of attacks have been targeting the recent File Manager plugin zero-day vulnerability discovered last week. Two attackers are vying for control over sites compromised through the vulnerability. A security researcher has revealed that specially crafted Windows 10 themes can be used to perform Pass-the-Hash attacks. A database belonging to the Digital Point webmaster forum…
September 11, 2020
Episode 85: 0Day in File Manager Plugin and WordPress 5.5.1 Fixes Broken Sites
Over 700,000 WordPress users were affected by a zero-day vulnerability in the File Manager plugin, and the WordPress 5.5.1 release fixed millions of sites affected by deprecation of jQuery Migrate. SendGrid is under siege from spammers using hacked accounts, and Apple approves a notorious malware variant to run on Macs.
September 4, 2020
Episode 84: Google Chrome Plans to Implement Insecure Form Warnings
The Google Chrome web browser has a high-severity vulnerability that could be used to execute arbitrary code, which has been fixed in Chrome version 85. Google also announced that Chrome 86 will alert users if a form submission is using the insecure HTTP protocol, making it a good time to audit older sites that may…
August 28, 2020
Episode 83: 100,000 Sites Impacted by Vulnerabilities in Advanced Access Manager
The Wordfence Threat Intelligence team discovered vulnerabilities in the Advanced Access Manager plugin installed on over 100,000 WordPress sites. A high severity authorization bypass could lead to privilege escalation and site takeover. Critical vulnerabilities found in the Quiz and Survey Master plugin could also lead to site takeover on the 30,000 WP sites using the…
August 21, 2020
Episode 82: Important Changes in the WordPress 5.5 Update
WordPress 5.5 was released on August 11 with a number of important updates, including a new feature allowing auto-updates of themes and plugins as well as changes to the block editor. The popular Astra theme was suspended from the repository for having affiliate links in the code. A vulnerability found in Google Chromium browsers could…
August 14, 2020
Episode 81: Critical Vulnerability Exposes over 700,000 Sites Using Divi, Extra, and Divi Builder
Our Threat Intelligence team disclosed numerous vulnerabilities this week, including a critical vulnerability in the Divi and Extra themes as well as the Divi Builder plugin. In total, this vulnerability affected over 700,000 sites. A vulnerability found in The Official Facebook Chat Plugin created a vector for social engineering attacks as it allowed an attacker…
August 7, 2020
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Episode 80: Critical File Upload Vulnerability in wpDiscuz Plugin
Our Threat Intelligence team discovered a vulnerability in the wpDiscuz plugin, affecting over 80,000 WordPress sites. A blind SQL injection attack affected analytics service WayDev, exposing OAuth tokens for GitHub repositories for software companies, leading to further breaches. A debate about problematic admin notices on the WordPress admin dashboard has many wondering how to best…
July 31, 2020
Episode 79: High Profile Twitter Accounts Compromised in Coordinated Attack
A number of high profile Twitter accounts including those of Elon Musk, Apple, Uber, Bill Gates, Joe Biden and others were compromised as a part of a coordinated bitcoin scam attack. The attack lasted a few hours and netted the attackers about $100,000 worth of bitcoin. We talk about how this attack could have possibly…
July 17, 2020
Episode 78: Targeted Phishing Bypassing Security Checks and a new DDoS Record
This week, we look at some targeted phishing attacks that are bypassing Microsoft Outlook’s protective filters, and phishing campaigns using calendar invitations to target unsuspecting recipients. We also look at some successful bitcoin scams and a new record for a massive DDoS attack that targeted an AWS customer. Drupal pushes out some security fixes, and…
June 22, 2020
Episode 77: WordPress 5.4.2 Released, Fake Ransomware Bitcoin Scams
This week, we look at the WP 5.4.2 release and a ransomware bitcoin scam targeting site owners with a “You’ve Been Hacked” email. We also look at an FBI warning about online banking app malware, the Verizon data breach report and what is says about WordPress, and how some white hat hackers are becoming millionaires…
June 12, 2020
Episode 76: Ongoing Attacks on WP Growing in Volume Plus Numerous Plugin Vulnerabilities
On this week’s Think Like a Hacker podcast, we cover an active attack campaign targeting WordPress sites and numerous plugin vulnerabilities. This active attack campaign has been ongoing and has outpaced all other attacks on WordPress vulnerabilities. Our threat intelligence team has been tracking this attacker for months now, and we’re seeing these attacks intensifying.…
May 16, 2020
Episode 75: The WordPress 5.4.1 Security Release & More Plugin Vulnerabilities
The Wordfence Threat Intelligence team unpacked the security updates in WordPress 5.4.1, and they published quite a few blog posts about vulnerabilities in popular plugins like Ninja Forms, LearnPress, and the Real-Time Find and Replace plugin. These plugin vulnerabilities affected over one million WordPress sites. As a few of these were Cross Site Request Forgery…
May 2, 2020
Episode 74: Staying Safe When Hackers Use Sophisticated Attacks
Stories this week about targeted attacks using 0days in iPhone and iPad devices and a sophisticated phone scam targeting a security professional that ended with a $9,800 wire transfer underscore what we all know: malicious attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated. We give you some ideas how to stay safe. We also cover a recent plugin…
April 24, 2020
Episode 73: Security News and Success through Processes with Adam Silver
The FTC is reporting numerous scams targeting fears and uncertainty, with over $12 million lost to Coronavirus-related scams. We also cover BBB warnings against oversharing on social media, over 500,000 Zoom credentials found on the dark web, Google’s removal of malicious Chrome extensions, as well as recent plugin and theme vulnerabilities. We also chatted with…
April 18, 2020
Episode 72: WordPress 5.4 Released, Zoom Conferencing Safety & Security
This week, we look at the WordPress 5.4 release which includes turning distraction free editing on by default. We also look at new plugin vulnerabilities discovered by the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team, including those found in Rank Math and a Contact From 7 helper plugin. We review the new features recently added to Fast or…
April 6, 2020