What is Azure Bastion?

In this post, you’ll get a short introduction into Azure Bastion Host. To be honest, I still don’t know if I should pronounce it as [basˈti̯oːn] (German), /bæstʃən/ (US engl.) or [basˈt̪jõn] (french) but that shouldn’t stop us from learning more about Azure Bastion Host, what is it, and when it’s useful.

We will also discuss a webinar on Azure Security –

So let’s start.

What is Azure Bastion Host?

Azure Bastion Host is a Jump-server as a Service within an Azure vNet (note that this service is currently in preview). What does that mean exactly? Well, a jump server is a fixed point on a network that is the sole place for you to remote in, get to other servers and services, and manage the environment. Now some will say, but I build my own jump server VM myself! While you’re certainly free to do that yourself, there are some key differences between the self-built VM option and a Bastion Host.

A regular Jump-server VM must either be reachable via VPN or needs to have a public IP with RDP and/or SSH open to the Internet. Option one, in some environments, is rather complex. Option two is a security nightmare. With Azure Bastion Host, you can solve this access issue. Azure Bastion enables you to use RDP and SSH via the Internet or (if available) via a VPN using the Azure Portal. The VM does not need a public IP, which GREATLY increases security for the target machine.

NOTE: Looking for more great content on security? Watch our webinar on Azure Security Center On-Demand.

After the deployment (which we’ll talk about in a second), Bastion becomes the 3rd option when connecting to a VM through the Azure Portal, as shown below.

Bastion

Virtual Machine Bastion

After you hit connect, an HTTPs browser Window will open and your session will open within an SSL encrypted Window.

Bastion in browser

Azure Bastion Use Cases

Now let’s list some possible use-cases. Azure Bastion can be very useful (but not limited) to these scenarios:

Your Azure-based VMs are running in a subscription where you’re unable to connect via VPN, and for security reasons, you cannot set up a dedicated Jump-host within that vNet.
The usage of a Jump-host or Terminal Server in Azure would be more cost-intensive than using a Bastion Host within the VNet (e.g. when you have more than one admin or user working on the host at the same time.)
You want to give developers access to a single VM without giving them access to additional services like a VPN or other things running within the VNet.
You want to implement Just in Time (JIT) Administration in Azure. You can deploy and enable Bastion Host on the fly and as you need it. This allows you yo implement it as part of your Operating System Runbook when you need to maintain the OS of an Azure-based VM. Azure Bastion allows you to do this without setting up permanent access to the VM.

How to deploy Azure Bastion Host in preview

The way you deploy Azure Bastion Host within a VNet is pretty straightforward. Let’s go through the steps together.

1. Open the Azure Preview Portal through the following link.
2. Search for the feature in the Azure Marketplace and walk through the deployment wizard by filling out the fields shown below.

create a bastion

Again, the deployment is quite simple and most options are fairly well explained within the UI. However, if you want further details, you can find them in the official feature documentation here.

Also, be aware that a Bastion Host must be implemented in every vNet where you want to connect to a VM. Currently, Bastion does not support vNet Peering.

How Much Does Azure Bastion Cost?

Pricing for Bastion is pretty easy to understand. As all Microsoft VM Services, you pay for the time the Bastion hast is deployed and for any Bastion service you have deployed. You can easily calculate the costs for the Bastions Hosts you need via Azure Price Calculator.

I made my example for one Bastion Host in West Europe, with the assumption it would be needed all month long.

Azure Bastion Price Calculator

Bastion Roadmap Items

Being in preview there are still a number of things that Microsoft is adding to Bastion’s feature set. This includes things like:

Single-Sign-On with Azure AD
Multi-Factor Auth
vNet Peering (Not confirmed, but being HEAVILY requested by the community right now)

vNet Peering support would make it so that only a single Bastion Host in a Hub or Security vNet is needed.

You can see additional feature request or submit your own via the Microsoft Feedback Forum.

If you like a feature request or want to push your own request, keep an eye on the votes. The more votes a piece of feedback has, the more likely Microsoft will work on the feature.

Source :
https://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/what-is-azure-bastion/

Beware of ‘Coronavirus Maps’ – It’s a malware infecting PCs to steal passwords

Cybercriminals will stop at nothing to exploit every chance to prey on internet users.

Even the disastrous spread of SARS-COV-II (the virus), which causes COVID-19 (the disease), is becoming an opportunity for them to likewise spread malware or launch cyber attacks.

Reason Cybersecurity recently released a threat analysis report detailing a new attack that takes advantage of internet users' increased craving for information about the novel coronavirus that is wreaking havoc worldwide.

The malware attack specifically aims to target those who are looking for cartographic presentations of the spread of COVID-19 on the Internet, and trickes them to download and run a malicious application that, on its front-end, shows a map loaded from a legit online source but in the background compromises the computer.

New Threat With An Old Malware Component

The latest threat, designed to steal information from unwitting victims, was first spotted by MalwareHunterTeam last week and has now been analyzed by Shai Alfasi, a cybersecurity researcher at Reason Labs.

It involves a malware identified as AZORult, an information-stealing malicious software discovered in 2016. AZORult malware collects information stored in web browsers, particularly cookies, browsing histories, user IDs, passwords, and even cryptocurrency keys.

With these data drawn from browsers, it is possible for cybercriminals to steal credit card numbers, login credentials, and various other sensitive information.

AZORult is reportedly discussed in Russian underground forums as a tool for gathering sensitive data from computers. It comes with a variant that is capable of generating a hidden administrator account in infected computers to enable connections via the remote desktop protocol (RDP).

Sample Analysis

Alfasi provides technical details upon studying the malware, which is embedded in the file, usually named as Corona-virus-Map.com.exe. It's a small Win32 EXE file with a payload size of only around 3.26 MB.

Double-clicking the file opens a window that shows various information about the spread of COVID-19. The centerpiece is a "map of infections" similar to the one hosted by Johns Hopkins University, a legitimate online source to visualize and track reported coronavirus cases in the real-time.

Numbers of confirmed cases in different countries are presented on the left side while stats on deaths and recoveries are on the right. The window appears to be interactive, with tabs for various other related information and links to sources.

It presents a convincing GUI not many would suspect to be harmful. The information presented is not an amalgamation of random data, instead is actual COVID-19 information pooled from the Johns Hopkins website.

To be noted, the original coronavirus map hosted online by Johns Hopkins University or ArcGIS is not infect or backdoored in any way and are safe to visit.

The malicious software utilizes some layers of packing along with a multi-sub-process technique infused to make it challenging for researchers to detect and analyze. Additionally, it employs a task scheduler so it can continue operating.

Signs of Infection

Executing the Corona-virus-Map.com.exe results in the creation of duplicates of the Corona-virus-Map.com.exe file and multiple Corona.exe, Bin.exe, Build.exe, and Windows.Globalization.Fontgroups.exe files.

Additionally, the malware modifies a handful of registers under ZoneMap and LanguageList. Several mutexes are also created.

Execution of the malware activates the following processes: Bin.exe, Windows.Globalization.Fontgroups.exe, and Corona-virus-Map.com.exe. These attempt to connect to several URLs.

These processes and URLs are only a sample of what the attack entails. There are many other files generated and processes initiated. They create various network communication activities as malware tries to gather different kinds of information.

How the Attack Steals Information

Alfasi presented a detailed account of how he dissected the malware in a blog post on the Reason Security blog. One highlight detail is his analysis of the Bin.exe process with Ollydbg. Accordingly, the process wrote some dynamic link libraries (DLL). The DLL "nss3.dll" caught his attention as it is something he was acquainted with from different actors.

Alfasi observed a static loading of APIs associated with nss3.dll. These APIs appeared to facilitate the decryption of saved passwords as well as the generation of output data.

This is a common approach used by data thieves. Relatively simple, it only captures the login data from the infected web browser and moves it to the C:\Windows\Temp folder. It's one of the hallmarks of an AZORult attack, wherein the malware extracts data, generates a unique ID of the infected computer, applies XOR encryption, then initiates C2 communication.

The malware makes specific calls in an attempt to steal login data from common online accounts such as Telegram and Steam.

To emphasize, malware execution is the only step needed for it to proceed with its information-stealing processes. Victims don't need to interact with the window or input sensitive information therein.

Cleaning and Prevention

It may sound promotional, but Alfasi suggests Reason Antivirus software as the solution to fix infected devices and prevent further attacks. He is affiliated with Reason Security, after all. Reason is the first to find and scrutinize this new threat, so they can handle it effectively.

Other security firms are likely to have already learned about this threat, since Reason made it public on March 9. Their antiviruses or malware protection tools will have been updated as of publication time.

As such, they may be similarly capable of detecting and preventing the new threat.

The key to removing and stopping the opportunistic "coronavirus map" malware is to have the right malware protection system. It will be challenging to detect it manually, let alone remove the infection without the right software tool.

It may not be enough to be cautious in downloading and running files from the internet, as many tend to be overeager in accessing information about the novel coronavirus nowadays.

The pandemic level dispersion of COVID-19 merits utmost caution not only offline (to avoid contracting the disease) but also online. Cyber attackers are exploiting the popularity of coronavirus-related resources on the web, and many will likely fall prey to the attacks.

Source :
https://thehackernews.com/2020/03/coronavirus-maps-covid-19.html

10,000 Users Affected by Leak from Misconfigured AWS Cloud Storage and Massive U.S. Property and Demographic Database Exposes 200 Million Records

Welcome to our weekly roundup, where we share what you need to know about the cybersecurity news and events that happened over the past few days. This week, learn about how the data of train commuters in the U.K. who were using the free Wi-Fi in Network Rail-managed stations was unintentionally leaked due to an unsecured Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud storage. Also, read about how more than 200 million records containing property-related information on U.S. residents were exposed.

Read on:

Security Risks in Online Coding Platforms

As DevOps and cloud computing has gained popularity, developers are coding online more and more, but this traction has also raised the questions of whether online integrated development environments (IDEs) are secure. In this blog, learn about two popular cloud-based IDEs: AWS Cloud9 and Visual Studio Online.

Legal Services Giant Epiq Global Offline After Ransomware Attack

The company, which provides legal counsel and administration that counts banks, credit giants, and governments as customers, confirmed the attack hit on February 29. A source said the ransomware hit the organization’s entire fleet of computers across its 80 global offices.

Dissecting Geost: Exposing the Anatomy of the Android Trojan Targeting Russian Banks

Trend Micro has conducted an analysis into the behavior of the Geost trojan by reverse engineering a sample of the malware. The trojan employed several layers of obfuscation, encryption, reflection, and injection of non-functional code segments that made it more difficult to reverse engineer. Read this blog for further analysis of Geost.

Trend Micro Cooperates with Japan International Cooperation Agency to Secure the Connected World

Trend Micro this week announced new initiatives designed to enhance collaboration with global law enforcement and developing nations through cybersecurity outreach, support and training. The first agreement is with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a government agency responsible for providing overseas development aid and nurturing social economic growth in developing nations.

Data of U.K. Train Commuters Leak from Misconfigured AWS Cloud Storage

The data of train commuters in the U.K. who were using the free Wi-Fi in Network Rail-managed stations was unintentionally leaked due to an unsecured Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud storage. Approximately 10,000 users were affected, and data thought to be exposed in the leak includes commuters’ travel habits, contact information such as email addresses, and dates of birth.

Critical Netgear Bug Impacts Flagship Nighthawk Router

Netgear is warning users of a critical remote code execution bug that could allow an unauthenticated attacker to take control of its Wireless AC Router Nighthawk (R7800) hardware running firmware versions prior to 1.0.2.68. The warnings, posted Tuesday, also include two high-severity bugs impacting Nighthawk routers, 21 medium-severity flaws and one rated low.

FBI Working to ‘Burn Down’ Cyber Criminals’ Infrastructure

To thwart increasingly dangerous cyber criminals, law enforcement agents are working to “burn down their infrastructure” and take out the tools that allow them to carry out their devastating attacks, FBI Director Christopher Wray said this week. Unsophisticated cyber criminals now have the power to paralyze entire hospitals, businesses and police departments, Wray also said.

A Massive U.S. Property and Demographic Database Exposes 200 Million Records

More than 200 million records containing a wide range of property-related information on U.S. residents were left exposed on a database that was accessible on the web without requiring any password or authentication. The exposed data included personal and demographic information such as name, address, email address, age, gender, ethnicity, employment, credit rating, investment preferences, income, net worth and property-specific information.

How Human Security Investments Created a Global Culture of Accountability at ADP

Human security is what matters during a cybersecurity crisis, where skills and muscle memory can make the difference in make-or-break moments. Leaders and culture are the most important predictors of cyberattack outcomes, so it’s time to stop under-investing in human security.

Ransomware Attacks Prompt Tough Question for Local Officials: To Pay or Not to Pay?

There were at least 113 successful ransomware attacks on state and local governments last year, according to global cybersecurity company Emsisoft, and in each case, officials had to figure out how to respond. Read this article to find out how officials make the tough call.

Source :
https://blog.trendmicro.com/this-week-in-security-news-10000-users-affected-by-leak-from-misconfigured-aws-cloud-storage-and-massive-u-s-property-and-demographic-database-exposes-200-million-records/

Suddenly Teleworking, Securely

So you suddenly have a lot of staff working remotely. Telework is not new and a good percentage of the workforce already does so. But the companies who have a distributed workforce had time to plan for it, and to plan for it securely.

A Lot of New Teleworkers All At Once

This event can be treated like a quick rollout of an application: there are business, infrastructure, and customer security impacts. There will be an increase of work for help desks as new teleworkers wrestle with remote working.

Additionally, don’t compound the problem. There is advice circulating to reset all passwords for remote workers. This opens the door for increased social engineering to attempt to lure overworked help desk staff into doing password resets that don’t comply with policy. Set expectations for staff that policy must be complied with, and to expect some delays while the help desk is overloaded.

Business continuity issues will arise as limited planning for remote workers could max out VPN licenses, firewall capacity, and application timeouts as many people attempt to use the same apps through a narrower network pipe.

Help Staff Make A Secure Home Office

In the best of times, remote workers are often left to their own devices (pun intended) for securing their work at home experience. Home offices are already usually much less secure than corporate offices: weak routers, unmanaged PCs, and multiple users means home offices become an easier attack path into the enterprise.

It doesn’t make sense to have workers operate in a less secure environment in this context. Give them the necessary security tools and operational tools to do their business. Teleworkers, even with a company-issued device, are likely to work on multiple home devices. Make available enterprise licensed storage and sharing tools, so employees don’t have to resort to ‘sketchy’ or weak options when they exceed the limits for free storage on Dropbox or related services.

A Secure Web Gateway as a service is a useful option considering that teleworkers using a VPN will still likely be split tunneling (i.e. not going through corporate security devices when browsing to non-corporate sites, etc.), unlike when they are in the corporate office and all connections are sanitized. That is especially important in cases where a weak home router gets compromised and any exfiltration or other ‘phone home’ traffic from malware needs to be spotted.

A simple way to get this information out to employees is to add remote working security tips to any regularly occurring executive outreach.

Operational Issues

With a large majority of businesses switching to a work-from-home model with less emphasis on in-person meetings, we also anticipate that malicious actors will start to impersonate digital tools, such as ‘free’ remote conferencing services and other cloud computing software.

Having a policy on respecting telework privacy is a good preventative step to minimize the risk of this type of attack being successful. Remote workers may be concerned about their digital privacy when working from home, so any way to inform them about likely attack methods can help.

Any steps to prevent staff trying to evade security measures out of a concern over privacy are likely a good investment.

Crisis Specific Risks

During any major event or crisis, socially engineered attacks and phishing will increase. Human engineering means using any lever to make it a little bit easier for targets to click on a link.

We’re seeing targeted email attacks taking advantage of this. Some will likely use tactics such as attachments named “attached is your Work At Home Allowance Voucher,” spoofed corporate guidelines, or HR documents.

Sadly, we expect hospitals and local governments will see increased targeting by ransomware due the expectation that payouts are likelier during an emergency.

But Hang On – It Is Not All Bad News

The good news is that none of these attacks are new and we already have playbooks to defend against them. Give a reminder to all staff during this period to be more wary of phishing, but don’t overly depend on user education – back it up with security technology measures. Here are a few ways to do that.

Give your remote workers the security and productivity tools they need to protect themselves and their non-corporate IT resources.
Include an enterprise managed cloud storage account for work documents so employees don’t find free versions that may not be safe.
Enable customers and supply chain partners, who may also be teleworking, to interact with you securely.

source :
https://blog.trendmicro.com/suddenly-teleworking-securely/

NTFS vs. ReFS – How to Decide Which to Use

By now, you’ve likely heard of Microsoft’s relatively recent file system “ReFS”. Introduced with Windows Server 2012, it seeks to exceed NTFS in stability and scalability. Since we typically store the VHDXs for multiple virtual machines in the same volume, it seems as though it pairs well with ReFS. Unfortunately, it did not… in the beginning. Microsoft has continued to improve ReFS in the intervening years. It has gained several features that distanced it from NTFS. With its maturation, should you start using it for Hyper-V? You have much to consider before making that determination.

What is ReFS?

The moniker “ReFS” means “resilient file system”. It includes built-in features to aid against data corruption. Microsoft’s docs site provides a detailed explanation of ReFS and its features. A brief recap:

Integrity streams: ReFS uses checksums to check for file corruption.
Automatic repair: When ReFS detects problems in a file, it will automatically enact corrective action.
Performance improvements: In a few particular conditions, ReFS provides performance benefits over NTFS.
Very large volume and file support: ReFS’s upper limits exceed NTFS’s without incurring the same performance hits.
Mirror-accelerated parity: Mirror-accelerated parity uses a lot of raw storage space, but it’s very fast and very resilient.
Integration with Storage Spaces: Many of ReFS’s features only work to their fullest in conjunction with Storage Spaces.

Before you get excited about some of the earlier points, I need to emphasize one thing: except for capacity limits, ReFS requires Storage Spaces in order to do its best work.

ReFS Benefits for Hyper-V

ReFS has features that accelerate some virtual machine activities.

Block cloning: By my reading, block cloning is essentially a form of de-duplication. But, it doesn’t operate as a file system filter or scanner. It doesn’t passively wait for arbitrary data writes or periodically scan the file system for duplicates. Something must actively invoke it against a specific file. Microsoft specifically indicates that it can greatly speed checkpoint merges.
Sparse VDL (valid data length): All file systems record the amount of space allocated to a file. ReFS uses VDL to indicate how much of that file has data. So, when you instruct Hyper-V to create a new fixed VHDX on ReFS, it can create the entire file in about the same amount of time as creating a dynamically-expanding VHDX. It will similarly benefit expansion operations on dynamically-expanding VHDXs.

Take a little bit of time to go over these features. Think through their total applications.

ReFS vs. NTFS for Hyper-V: Technical Comparison

With the general explanation out of the way, now you can make a better assessment of the differences. First, check the comparison tables on Microsoft’s ReFS overview page. For typical Hyper-V deployments, most of the differences mean very little. For instance, you probably don’t need quotas on your Hyper-V storage locations. Let’s make a table of our own, scoped more appropriately for Hyper-V:

ReFS wins: Really large storage locations and really large VHDXs
ReFS wins: Environments with excessively high incidences of created, checkpointed, or merged VHDXs
ReFS wins: Storage Space and Storage Spaces Direct deployments
NTFS wins: Single-volume deployments
NTFS wins (potentially): Mixed-purpose deployments

I think most of these things speak for themselves. The last two probably need a bit more explanation.

Single-Volume Deployments Require NTFS

In this context, I intend “single-volume deployment” to mean installations where you have Hyper-V (including its management operating system) and all VMs on the same volume. You cannot format a boot volume with ReFS, nor can you place a page file on ReFS. Such an installation also does not allow for Storage Spaces or Storage Spaces Direct, so it would miss out on most of ReFS’s capabilities anyway.

Mixed-Purpose Deployments Might Require NTFS

Some of us have the luck to deploy nothing but virtual machines on dedicated storage locations. Not everyone has that. If your Hyper-V storage volume also hosts files for other purposes, you might need to continue with NTFS. Go over the last table near the bottom of the overview page. It shows the properties that you can only find in NTFS. For standard file sharing scenarios, you lose quotas. You may have legacy applications that require NTFS’s extended properties, or short names. In these situations, only NTFS will do.

Note: If you have any alternative, do not use the same host to run non-Hyper-V roles alongside Hyper-V. Microsoft does not support mixing. Similarly, separate Hyper-V VMs onto volumes apart from volumes that hold other file types.

Unexpected ReFS Behavior

The official content goes to some lengths to describe the benefits of ReFS’s integrity streams. It uses checksums to detect file corruption. If it finds problems, it engages in corrective action. On a Storage Spaces volume that uses protective schemes, it has an opportunity to fix the problem. It does that with the volume online, providing a seamless experience. But, what happens when ReFS can’t correct the problem? That’s where you need to pay real attention.

On the overview page, the documentation uses exceptionally vague wording: “ReFS removes the corrupt data from the namespace”. The integrity streams page does worse: “If the attempt is unsuccessful, ReFS will return an error.” While researching this article, I was told of a more troubling activity: ReFS deletes files that it deems unfixable. The comment section at the bottom of that page includes a corroborating report. If you follow that comment thread through, you’ll find an entry from a Microsoft program manager that states:

ReFS deletes files in two scenarios:

ReFS detects Metadata corruption AND there is no way to fix it. Meaning ReFS is not on a Storage Spaces redundant volume where it can fix the corrupted copy.

ReFS detects data corruption AND Integrity Stream is enabled AND there is no way to fix it. Meaning if Integrity Stream is not enabled, the file will be accessible whether data is corrupted or not. If ReFS is running on a mirrored volume using Storage Spaces, the corrupted copy will be automatically fixed.

The upshot: If ReFS decides that a VHDX has sustained unrecoverable damage, it will delete it. It will not ask, nor will it give you any opportunity to try to salvage what you can. If ReFS isn’t backed by Storage Spaces’s redundancy, then it has no way to perform a repair. So, from one perspective, that makes ReFS on non-Storage Spaces look like a very high risk approach. But…

Mind Your Backups!

You should not overlook the severity of the previous section. However, you should not let it scare you away, either. I certainly understand that you might prefer a partially readable VHDX to a deleted one. To that end, you could simply disable integrity streams on your VMs’ files. I also have another suggestion.

Do not neglect your backups! If ReFS deletes a file, retrieve it from backup. If a VHDX goes corrupt on NTFS, retrieve it from backup. With ReFS, at least you know that you have a problem. With NTFS, problems can lurk much longer. No matter your configuration, the only thing you can depend on to protect your data is a solid backup solution.

When to Choose NTFS for Hyper-V

You now have enough information to make an informed decision. These conditions indicate a good condition for NTFS:

Configurations that do not use Storage Spaces, such as single-disk or manufacturer RAID. This alone does not make an airtight point; please read the “Mind Your Backups!” section above.
Single-volume systems (your host only has a C: volume)
Mixed-purpose systems (please reconfigure to separate roles)
Storage on hosts older than 2016 — ReFS was not as mature on previous versions. This alone is not an airtight point.
Your backup application vendor does not support ReFS
If you’re uncertain about ReFS

As time goes on, NTFS will lose favorability over ReFS in Hyper-V deployments. But, that does not mean that NTFS has reached its end. ReFS has staggeringly higher limits, but very few systems use more than a fraction of what NTFS can offer. ReFS does have impressive resilience features, but NTFS also has self-healing powers and you have access to RAID technologies to defend against data corruption.

Microsoft will continue to develop ReFS. They may eventually position it as NTFS’s successor. As of today, they have not done so. It doesn’t look like they’ll do it tomorrow, either. Do not feel pressured to move to ReFS ahead of your comfort level.

When to Choose ReFS for Hyper-V

Some situations make ReFS the clear choice for storing Hyper-V data:

Storage Spaces (and Storage Spaces Direct) environments
Extremely large volumes
Extremely large VHDXs

You might make an additional performance-based argument for ReFS in an environment with a very high churn of VHDX files. However, do not overestimate the impact of those performance enhancements. The most striking difference appears when you create fixed VHDXs. For all other operations, you need to upgrade your hardware to achieve meaningful improvement.

However, I do not want to gloss over the benefit of ReFS for very large volumes. If you have storage volume of a few terabytes and VHDXs of even a few hundred gigabytes, then ReFS will rarely beat NTFS significantly. When you start thinking in terms of hundreds of terabytes, NTFS will likely show bottlenecks. If you need to push higher, then ReFS becomes your only choice.

ReFS really shines when you combine it with Storage Spaces Direct. Its ability to automatically perform a non-disruptive online repair is truly impressive. On the one hand, the odds of disruptive data corruption on modern systems constitute a statistical anomaly. On the other, no one that has suffered through such an event really cares how unlikely it was.

ReFS vs NTFS on Hyper-V Guest File Systems

All of the above deals only with Hyper-V’s storage of virtual machines. What about ReFS in guest operating systems?

To answer that question, we need to go back to ReFS’s strengths. So far, we’ve only thought about it in terms of Hyper-V. Guests have their own conditions and needs. Let’s start by reviewing Microsoft’s ReFS overview. Specifically the following:

“Microsoft has developed NTFS specifically for general-purpose use with a wide range of configurations and workloads, however for customers specially requiring the availability, resiliency, and/or scale that ReFS provides, Microsoft supports ReFS for use under the following configurations and scenarios…”

I added emphasis on the part that I want you to consider. The sentence itself makes you think that they’ll go on to list some usages, but they only list one: “backup target”. The other items on their list only talk about the storage configuration. So, we need to dig back into the sentence and pull out those three descriptors to help us decide: “availability”, “resiliency”, and “scale”. You can toss out the first two right away — you should not focus on storage availability and resiliency inside a VM. That leaves us with “scale”. So, really big volumes and really big files. Remember, that means hundreds of terabytes and up.

For a more accurate decision, read through the feature comparisons. If any application that you want to use inside a guest needs features only found on NTFS, use NTFS. Personally, I still use NTFS inside guests almost exclusively. ReFS needs Storage Spaces to do its best work, and Storage Spaces does its best work at the physical layer.

Combining ReFS with NTFS across Hyper-V Host and Guests

Keep in mind that the file system inside a guest has no bearing on the host’s file system, and vice versa. As far as Hyper-V knows, VHDXs attached to virtual machines are nothing other than a bundle of data blocks. You can use any combination that works.

Source :
https://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/ntfs-vs-refs/

10 things to know about Android 10

Android 10 is here! With this release, we focused on making your everyday life easier with features powered by on-device machine learning, as well as supporting new technologies like Foldables and 5G. At the same time, with almost 50 changes related to privacy and security, Android 10 gives you greater protection, transparency, and control over your data. This builds on top of our ongoing commitment to provide industry-leading security and privacy protections on Android. We also built new tools that empower people of all abilities, and help you find the right balance with technology.

Here are the 10 things you should know, centered on innovation, security and privacy and digital wellbeing:

Simpler, smarter, and more helpful

1. Smart Reply now suggests actions. So when someone sends you a message with an address or a YouTube video, you can open and navigate in Google Maps or open up the video in YouTube—no copying and pasting required. And Smart Reply now works across all your favorite messaging apps.

2. Come to the dark side… with Dark Theme. You can enable Dark Theme for your entire phone or for specific apps like Photos and Calendar. It’s easier on your eyes, and your phone battery too.

3. Take advantage of larger, edge-to-edge screens with the new gesture navigation. With simple swipes, you can go backwards, pull up the homescreen, and fluidly move between tasks. After switching, you won’t want to go back to visible buttons.

4. With a single tap, Live Caption will automatically caption videos, podcasts and audio messages across any app—even stuff you record yourself. Live Caption will become available this fall, starting with Pixel.

New privacy and security features put you in control

5. You can choose to only share location data with apps while you’re using them. You’ll also receive reminders when an app that you are not actively using is accessing your location, so you can decide whether or not to continue sharing.

6. In a new Privacy section under Settings, you’ll find important controls like Web & App Activity and Ad Settings in one place.

7. With Google Play system updates, important security and privacy fixes can now be sent to your phone from Google Play, in the same way your apps update. So you get these fixes as soon as they’re available, without having to wait for a full OS update.

Find the right balance with technology for you and your family

8. You have greater control over where and when notifications will alert you. Mark notifications as “Silent” and they won’t make noise or appear on your lockscreen, so you're only alerted by notifications when you want to be.

9. Now Family Link is part of every device running Android 10, right in settings under Digital Wellbeing. Parents can use these tools to set digital ground rules like daily screen time limits, device bedtime, time limits on specific apps, and more. They can also review the apps children install on their devices, as well as their usage.

10. Want to be in the zone but not off the grid? Digital Wellbeing now brings you Focus mode. Select the apps you find distracting—such as email or the news—and silence them until you come out of Focus mode. Sign up for the Beta to try it.

There’s lots more in Android 10, including a new enterprise feature that lets you use different keyboards for your personal and work profiles, app timers for specific websites so you can balance your time on the web, new gender-inclusive emoji, and support for direct audio streaming to hearing aid devices.

Android 10 begins rolling out to Pixel phones today, and we’re working with our partners to launch and upgrade devices to Android 10 this year. Learn more at android.com/10.

Source :
https://www.blog.google/products/android/android-10/

U.S. Charges Huawei with Stealing Trade Secrets from 6 Companies

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) charged Huawei with racketeering and conspiring to steal trade secrets from six US firms, in a significant escalation of a lawsuit against the Chinese telecom giant that began last year.

Accusing Huawei and its affiliates of "using fraud and deception to misappropriate sophisticated technology from US counterparts," the new charges allege the company of offering bonuses to employees who obtained "confidential information" from its competitors.

The indictment adds to a list of two other charges filed by the US government last year, including violating US sanctions on Iran and stealing technology from T-Mobile — called Tappy — that's used to test smartphone durability.

The development is the latest salvo fired by the Trump administration in its year-long fight against the networking equipment maker, which it deems a threat to national security.

"The misappropriated intellectual property included trade secret information and copyrighted works, such as source code and user manuals for internet routers, antenna technology, and robot testing technology," the unsealed federal indictment alleged.

The alleged theft enabled Huawei illegally obtain nonpublic technology relating to internet router source code, cellular antenna technology, and robotics, giving the company an unfair competitive advantage, prosecutors said.

Although the six US firms are unnamed in the indictment, it's suspected that the companies in question are Cisco Systems, Motorola Solutions, Fujitsu, Quintel Technology, T-Mobile, and CNEX Labs.

The report further accuses Huawei of engaging in business with countries subject to US, EU, and UN sanctions, including Iran and North Korea, as well as for trying to conceal its involvement. Huawei is alleged to have used code names for these countries, such as "A2" for Iran, and "A9" for North Korea.

Huawei, for its part, has denied all the charges. "This new indictment is part of the Justice Department's attempt to irrevocably damage Huawei's reputation and its business for reasons related to competition rather than law enforcement," the company was quoted as saying to the BBC.

The fresh charges against Huawei also come days after The Wall Street Journal reported that US officials had evidence of the company employing "back doors" that allowed it to secretly access sensitive and personal information.

The company, however, fired back against the allegations of spying, stating that the US itself has a long history of spying on its allies and adversaries, referencing a report by The Washington Post that detailed how the Central Investigative Agency (CIA) bought a company called Crypto AG and used it to intercept foreign governments' communications for decades.

The ongoing tussle against Huawei, which is also seen as a battle for tech supremacy between the US and China, has ensnared many countries, with the Trump administration actively dissuading its partners such as the UK from using Huawei's technology for 5G wireless networks.

In spite of the mounting pressure, the UK last month announced it would continue using Huawei's equipment but limiting its role to building peripheral parts of the 5G and full-fiber network. France, likewise, has said it won't exclude the firm from supplying equipment for 5G networks in the country.

Source :
https://thehackernews.com/2020/02/united-states-china-huawei.html

Estée Lauder Exposes 440M Records, with Email Addresses, Network Info

Middleware data was exposed, which can create a secondary path for malware through which applications and data can be compromised.

A non-password protected cloud database containing hundreds of millions of customer records and internal logs for cosmetic giant Estée Lauder has been found exposed online, according to researchers.

In all, 440,336,852 individual data pieces were exposed, according to researcher Jeremiah Fowler at Security Discovery. Many of the records importantly contained plaintext email addresses (including internal email addresses from the @estee.com domain). There were also reams of logs for content management systems (CMS) and middleware activity. Fortunately, there was no payment data or sensitive employee information included in the records that Fowler saw.

“This company has been a household name for over 70 years and had an annual revenue of $14.863 billion in 2019 – [so] it seems logical that there would be a large dataset associated with the business,” Fowler wrote in a report on his discovery, published Tuesday. He added that while he saw that there were “massive” numbers of consumer email addresses involved, he didn’t calculate the total number because he immediately pivoted to notifying the company.

“I can only speculate or assume that the email addresses were from digital commerce or online sales,” he said.

As for the other data, most of it could be used as reconnaissance for a larger network attack, Fowler noted. The logs for instance contained IP addresses, ports, pathways and storage information that could be used to map out the company’s internal LAN or WAN; and, middleware used by the company to connect different data-generating software packages was also detailed.

Middleware typically handles tasks like providing a consistent front-end for data management across different internal systems; application services; messaging; authentication; and API management.

“Middleware can create a secondary path for malware, through which applications and data can be compromised,” Fowler explained. “In this instance, anyone with an internet connection could see what versions or builds are being used, the paths, and other information that could serve as a backdoor into the network.”

After making several phone calls and sending several emails over the course of a few hours, Fowler was able to get a message through to the security team at Estée Lauder, and the database was closed the same day. It’s unclear how long the Estée Lauder database was exposed or who else may have accessed the records during that time, he noted, so customers should be on the alert for phishing emails.

“This an example of how a simple error such as setting permissions on a shared drive or a database can have significant consequences,” said Erich Kron, security awareness advocate at KnowBe4, via email. However, he praised the company for its quick action: “This is also a lesson in how large organizations can improve on the process of reporting potential data exposure quickly in order to rapidly resolve the issue, especially in the modern electronic age where millions of records can be stored in a single place and be accessed from nearly anywhere in the world. I give Estée Lauder credit for quickly resolving the issue once they were informed about it, as many organizations move far too slowly in this respect.”

Misconfigured, internet-exposed databases continue to be a common problem, including for very big, brand-name companies with years’ worth of data. In January for instance, it was revealed that misconfigured Microsoft cloud databases containing 14 years of customer support logs had exposed 250 million records to the open internet for 25 days. The account info dates back as far as 2005 and is as recent as December 2019 — and exposes Microsoft customers to phishing and tech scams.

Source :
https://threatpost.com/estee-lauder-440m-records-email-network-info/152789/

Emotet Now Hacks Nearby Wi-Fi Networks to Spread Like a Worm

The new tactic used by Emotet allows the malware to infect nearby insecure Wi-Fi networks – and their devices – via brute force loops.

A newly uncovered Emotet malware sample has the ability to spread to insecure Wi-Fi networks that are located nearby to an infected device.

If the malware can spread to these nearby Wi-Fi networks, it then attempts to infect devices connected to them — a tactic that can rapidly escalate Emotet’s spread, said researchers. The new development is particularly dangerous for the already-prevalent Emotet malware, which since its return in September has taken on new evasion and social engineering tactics to steal credentials and spread trojans to victims (like the United Nations) .

“With this newly discovered loader-type used by Emotet, a new threat vector is introduced to Emotet’s capabilities,” said James Quinn, threat researcher and malware analyst for Binary Defense, in a Friday analysis. “Previously thought to only spread through malspam and infected networks, Emotet can use this loader-type to spread through nearby wireless networks if the networks use insecure passwords.”

While researchers noticed the Wi-Fi spreading binary being delivered for the first time on Jan. 23, they said that the executable has a timestamp of 4/16/2018, hinting that the Wi-Fi spreading behavior has been running unnoticed for almost two years. This may be in part due to how infrequently the binary is dropped, researchers said, as this is the first time they’ve seen it despite tracking Emotet since its return in 2019.

Emotet Spread

The Emotet sample first infects the initial system with a self-extracting RAR file, containing two binaries (worm.exe and service.exe) used for the Wi-Fi spreading. After the RAR file unpacks itself, Worm.exe executes automatically.

The worm.exe binary immediately begins profiling wireless networks in order to attempt to spread to other Wi-Fi networks. Emotet makes use of the wlanAPI interface to do this. wlanAPI is one of the libraries used by the native Wi-Fi application programming interface (API) to manage wireless network profiles and wireless network connections.

Once a Wi-Fi handle has been obtained, the malware then calls WlanEnumInterfaces, a function that enumerates all Wi-Fi networks currently available on the victims’ system. The function returns the enumerated wireless networks in a series of structures that contain all information related to them (including their SSID, signal, encryption and network authentication method).

Once the data for each network has been obtained, the malware moves into the connection with “brute-forcing loops.” Attackers use a password obtained from “internal password lists” (it’s not clear how this internal password list has been obtained) to attempt to make the connection. If the connection is not successful, the function loops and moves to the next password on the password list.

If the password is correct and the connection is successful, the malware sleeps for 14 seconds before sending an HTTP POST to its command-and-control (C2) server on port 8080, and establishes the connection to the Wi-Fi network.

Then, the binary begins enumerating and attempting to brute-force passwords for all users (including any Administrator accounts) on the newly-infected network. If any of these brute forces are successful, worm.exe then installs the other binary, service.exe, onto the infected devices. To gain persistence on the system, the binary is installed under the guise of “Windows Defender System Service” (WinDefService).

“With buffers containing either a list of all usernames successfully brute-forced and their passwords, or the administrator account and its password, worm.exe can now begin spreading service.exe to other systems,” said researchers. “Service.exe is the infected payload installed on remote systems by worm.exe. This binary has a PE timestamp of 01/23/2020, which was the date it was first found by Binary Defense.”

After service.exe is installed and communicates back to the C2, it begins dropping the embedded Emotet executable. In this manner, the malware attempts to infect as many devices as possible.

Protecting Against Emotet

Emotet, which started as a banking trojan in 2014 and has continually evolved to become a full-service threat-delivery mechanism, can install a collection of malware on victim machines, including information stealers, email harvesters, self-propagation mechanisms and ransomware.

Researchers, for their part, recommend blocking this new Emotet technique with the use of strong passwords to secure wireless networks.

“Detection strategies for this threat include active monitoring of endpoints for new services being installed and investigating suspicious services or any processes running from temporary folders and user profile application data folders,” they said. “Network monitoring is also an effective detection, since the communications are unencrypted and there are recognizable patterns that identify the malware message content.”

Source :
https://threatpost.com/emotet-now-hacks-nearby-wi-fi-networks-to-spread-like-a-worm/152725/

Trend Micro Creates Factory Honeypot to Trap Malicious Attackers and Microsoft Leaves 250M Customer Service Records Open to the Web

Welcome to our weekly roundup, where we share what you need to know about the cybersecurity news and events that happened over the past few days. This week, dive into a research study that explores the risks associated with common cybersecurity vulnerabilities in a factory setting. Also, read about how misconfigured Microsoft cloud databases containing 14 years of customer support logs exposed 250 million records.

Read on:

Don’t Let the Vulnera-Bullies Win. Use Our Free Tool to See If You Are Patched Against Vulnerability CVE-2020-0601

Last week, Microsoft announced vulnerability CVE-2020-0601 and has already released a patch to protect against any exploits stemming from the vulnerability. Understanding how difficult it can be to patch systems in a timely manner, Trend Micro created a valuable tool that will test endpoints to determine if they have been patched against this latest threat or if they are still vulnerable.

Ransomware, Snooping and Attempted Shutdowns: See What Hackers Did to These Systems Left Unprotected Online

Malicious hackers are targeting factories and industrial environments with a wide variety of malware and cyberattacks including ransomware and cryptocurrency miners. All of these incidents were spotted by researchers at Trend Micro who built a honeypot that mimicked the environment of a real factory. The fake factory featured some common cybersecurity vulnerabilities to make it appealing for hackers to discover and target.

Defend Yourself Now and In the Future Against Mobile Malware

Recently, 42 apps were removed from the Google Play Store after being installed eight million times over the period of a year, flooding victims’ screens with unwanted advertising. Trend Micro blocked more than 86 million mobile threats in 2018, and that number is expected to continue to increase. To learn how to protect your mobile device from hackers, read this blog from Trend Micro.

Trend Micro Joins LOT Network to Fight ‘Patent Trolls’

Trend Micro announced this week that it has joined non-profit community LOT Network in a bid to combat the growing threat posed to its business and its customers by patent assertion entities (PAEs). The community now has more than 500 members, including some of the world’s biggest tech companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Cisco.

Blocking A CurveBall: PoCs Out for Critical Microsoft-NSA Bug CVE-2020-0601

Security researchers have released proof-of-concept (PoC) codes for exploiting CVE-2020-0601, a bug that the National Security Agency (NSA) reported. The vulnerability affects Windows operating systems’ CryptoAPI’s validation of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) certificates and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) trust. Enterprises and users are advised to patch their systems immediately to prevent attacks that exploit this security flaw.

Microsoft Leaves 250M Customer Service Records Open to the Web

Misconfigured Microsoft cloud databases containing 14 years of customer support logs exposed 250 million records to the open internet for 25 days. The account information dates back as far as 2005 and as recent as December 2019 and exposes Microsoft customers to phishing and tech scams. Microsoft said it is in the process of notifying affected customers.

Microsoft Releases Advisory on Zero-Day Vulnerability CVE-2020-0674, Workaround Provided

On January 17, Microsoft published an advisory (ADV200001) warning users about CVE-2020-0674, a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability involving Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) web browser. A patch has not yet been released as of the time of writing — however, Microsoft has acknowledged that it is aware of limited targeted attacks exploiting the flaw.

Google to Apple: Safari’s Privacy Feature Actually Opens iPhone Users to Tracking

Researchers from Google’s Information Security Engineering team have detailed several security issues in the design of Apple’s Safari anti-tracking system, Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP). ITP is designed to restrict cookies and is Apple’s answer to online marketers that track users across websites. However, Google researchers argue in a new paper that ITP leaks Safari users’ web browsing habits.

Hacker Publishes Credentials for Over 515,000 Servers, Routers, and IoT Devices

A hacker has published the credentials of over 515,000 servers, routers, and IoT devices on a well-known hacking website. ZDNet reported that the list consists of IP addresses and the usernames and passwords used by each for unlocking Telnet services, the port that allows these devices to be controlled through the internet.

Pwn2Own Miami Contestants Haul in $180K for Hacking ICS Equipment

The first Pwn2Own hacking competition that exclusively focuses on industrial control systems (ICS) has kicked off in Miami. So far, a total of $180,000 has been awarded for pwning five different products. The contest hosts at Trend Micro’s Zero Day initiative (ZDI) have allocated more than $250,000 in cash and prizes for the contest, which is testing eight targets across five categories.

Sextortion Scheme Claims Use of Home Cameras, Demands Bitcoin or Gift Card Payment

A new sextortion scheme has been found preying on victims’ fears through social engineering and follows in the footsteps of recent sextortion schemes demanding payment in bitcoin. Security researchers at Mimecast observed the scheme during the first week of the year. The scheme reportedly sent a total of 1,687 emails on Jan. 2 and 3, mostly to U.S. email account holders.

NetWire RAT Hidden in IMG Files Deployed in BEC Campaign

A recent business email compromise (BEC) campaign, purportedly coming from a small number of scammers in Germany, targets organizations by sending them emails with IMG file attachments hiding a NetWire remote access trojan (RAT). The campaign was discovered by IBM X-Force security researchers and involves sending an employee of the targeted organization an email masquerading as a corporate request.

Source :
https://blog.trendmicro.com/this-week-in-security-news-trend-micro-creates-factory-honeypot-to-trap-malicious-attackers-and-microsoft-leaves-250m-customer-service-records-open-to-the-web/