Report: The Dark Side of Phishing Protection

The transition to the cloud, poor password hygiene and the evolution in webpage technologies have all enabled the rise in phishing attacks. But despite sincere efforts by security stakeholders to mitigate them - through email protection, firewall rules and employee education - phishing attacks are still a very risky attack vector. A new report by LayerX explores the state of

Update Chrome Browser Now: 4th Zero-Day Exploit Discovered in May 2024

Google on Thursday rolled out fixes to address a high-severity security flaw in its Chrome browser that it said has been exploited in the wild. Assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2024-5274, the vulnerability relates to a type confusion bug in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. It was reported by Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group and Brendon Tiszka of

New Chrome Zero-Day Vulnerability CVE-2024-4761 Under Active Exploitation

Google on Monday shipped emergency fixes to address a new zero-day flaw in the Chrome web browser that has come under active exploitation in the wild. The high-severity vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-4761, is an out-of-bounds write bug impacting the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine. It was reported anonymously on May 9, 2024. Out-of-bounds write bugs could be typically

The 2024 Browser Security Report Uncovers How Every Web Session Could be a Security Minefield

With the browser becoming the most prevalent workspace in the enterprise, it is also turning into a popular attack vector for cyber attackers. From account takeovers to malicious extensions to phishing attacks, the browser is a means for stealing sensitive data and accessing organizational systems. Security leaders who are planning their security architecture

Chrome Zero-Day Alert — Update Your Browser to Patch New Vulnerability

Google on Thursday released security updates to address a zero-day flaw in Chrome that it said has been actively exploited in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2024-4671, the high-severity vulnerability has been described as a case of use-after-free in the Visuals component. It was reported by an anonymous researcher on May 7, 2024. Use-after-free bugs, which arise when a program

New Guide Explains How to Eliminate the Risk of Shadow SaaS and Protect Corporate Data

SaaS applications are dominating the corporate landscape. Their increased use enables organizations to push the boundaries of technology and business. At the same time, these applications also pose a new security risk that security leaders need to address, since the existing security stack does not enable complete control or comprehensive monitoring of their usage.

Google Chrome Beta Tests New DBSC Protection Against Cookie-Stealing Attacks

Google on Tuesday said it's piloting a new feature in Chrome called Device Bound Session Credentials (DBSC) to help protect users against session cookie theft by malware. The prototype – currently tested against "some" Google Account users running Chrome Beta – is built with an aim to make it an open web standard, the tech giant's Chromium team said. "By binding authentication sessions to the

Google to Delete Billions of Browsing Records in 'Incognito Mode' Privacy Lawsuit Settlement

Google has agreed to purge billions of data records reflecting users' browsing activities to settle a class action lawsuit that claimed the search giant tracked them without their knowledge or consent in its Chrome browser. The class action, filed in 2020, alleged the company misled users by tracking their internet browsing activity who thought that it remained private when using the "

Microsoft Edge Bug Could Have Allowed Attackers to Silently Install Malicious Extensions

A now-patched security flaw in the Microsoft Edge web browser could have been abused to install arbitrary extensions on users' systems and carry out malicious actions.  "This flaw could have allowed an attacker to exploit a private API, initially intended for marketing purposes, to covertly install additional browser extensions with broad permissions without the user's knowledge," Guardio

New "GoFetch" Vulnerability in Apple M-Series Chips Leaks Secret Encryption Keys

A new security shortcoming discovered in Apple M-series chips could be exploited to extract secret keys used during cryptographic operations. Dubbed GoFetch, the vulnerability relates to a microarchitectural side-channel attack that takes advantage of a feature known as data memory-dependent prefetcher (DMP) to target constant-time cryptographic implementations and capture sensitive data

Google Introduces Enhanced Real-Time URL Protection for Chrome Users

Google on Thursday announced an enhanced version of Safe Browsing to provide real-time, privacy-preserving URL protection and safeguard users from visiting potentially malicious sites. “The Standard protection mode for Chrome on desktop and iOS will check sites against Google’s server-side list of known bad sites in real-time,” Google’s Jonathan Li and Jasika Bawa said. “If we

NS-STEALER Uses Discord Bots to Exfiltrate Your Secrets from Popular Browsers

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new Java-based "sophisticated" information stealer that uses a Discord bot to exfiltrate sensitive data from compromised hosts. The malware, named NS-STEALER, is propagated via ZIP archives masquerading as cracked software, Trellix security researcher Gurumoorthi Ramanathan said in an analysis published last week. The ZIP file contains

Zero-Day Alert: Update Chrome Now to Fix New Actively Exploited Vulnerability

Google on Tuesday released updates to fix four security issues in its Chrome browser, including an actively exploited zero-day flaw. The issue, tracked as CVE-2024-0519, concerns an out-of-bounds memory access in the V8 JavaScript and WebAssembly engine, which can be weaponized by threat actors to trigger a crash. <!-- adsense --> "By reading out-of-bounds memory, an attacker might be able to

Opera MyFlaw Bug Could Let Hackers Run ANY File on Your Mac or Windows

Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a now-patched security flaw in the Opera web browser for Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS that could be exploited to execute any file on the underlying operating system. The remote code execution vulnerability has been codenamed MyFlaw by the Guardio Labs research team owing to the fact that it takes advantage of a feature called&nbsp;My Flow&nbsp;that

The Definitive Enterprise Browser Buyer's Guide

Security stakeholders have come to realize that the prominent role the browser has in the modern corporate environment requires a re-evaluation of how it is managed and protected. While not long-ago web-borne risks were still addressed by a patchwork of endpoint, network, and cloud solutions, it is now clear that the partial protection these solutions provided is no longer sufficient. Therefore,

New Malvertising Campaign Distributing PikaBot Disguised as Popular Software

The malware loader known as PikaBot is being distributed as part of a&nbsp;malvertising&nbsp;campaign&nbsp;targeting users searching for legitimate software like AnyDesk. "PikaBot was previously only distributed via malspam campaigns similarly to QakBot and emerged as one of the preferred payloads for a threat actor known as TA577," Malwarebytes' Jérôme Segura&nbsp;said. The malware family,

New Report: Unveiling the Threat of Malicious Browser Extensions

Compromising the browser is a high-return target for adversaries. Browser extensions, which are small software modules that are added to the browser and can enhance browsing experiences, have become a popular browser attack vector. This is because they are widely adopted among users and can easily turn malicious through developer actions or attacks on legitimate extensions. Recent incidents like

Hands on Review: LayerX's Enterprise Browser Security Extension

The browser has become the main work interface in modern enterprises. It’s where employees create and interact with data, and how they access organizational and external SaaS and web apps. As a result, the browser is extensively targeted by adversaries. They seek to steal the data it stores and use it for malicious access to organizational SaaS apps or the hosting machine. Additionally,

The Dark Side of Browser Isolation – and the Next Generation Browser Security Technologies

The landscape of browser security has undergone significant changes over the past decade. While Browser Isolation was once considered the gold standard for protecting against browser exploits and malware downloads, it has become increasingly inadequate and insecure in today's SaaS-centric world. The limitations of Browser Isolation, such as degraded browser performance and inability to tackle

Update Chrome Now: Google Releases Patch for Actively Exploited Zero-Day Vulnerability

Google on Wednesday rolled out fixes to address a new actively exploited zero-day in the Chrome browser. Tracked as CVE-2023-5217, the high-severity vulnerability has been described as a heap-based buffer overflow in the VP8 compression format in libvpx, a free software video codec library from Google and the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia). Exploitation of such buffer overflow flaws can

Live Webinar: Overcoming Generative AI Data Leakage Risks

As the adoption of generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, continues to surge, so does the risk of data exposure. According to Gartner’s "Emerging Tech: Top 4 Security Risks of GenAI" report, privacy and data security is one of the four major emerging risks within generative AI. A new webinar featuring a multi-time Fortune 100 CISO and the CEO of LayerX, a browser extension solution, delves into this

Google Chrome's New Feature Alerts Users About Auto-Removal of Malicious Extensions

Google has announced plans to add a new feature in the upcoming version of its Chrome web browser to proactively alert users when an extension they have installed has been removed from the Chrome Web Store. The feature, set for release alongside Chrome 117, allows users to be notified when an add-on has been unpublished by a developer, taken down for violating Chrome Web Store policy, or marked

Guide: How Google Workspace-based Organizations can leverage Chrome to improve Security

More and more organizations are choosing Google Workspace as their default employee toolset of choice. But despite the productivity advantages, this organizational action also incurs a new security debt. Security teams now have to find a way to adjust their security architecture to this new cloud workload. Some teams may rely on their existing network security solutions. According to a new guide

Multiple Flaws Found in ScrutisWeb Software Exposes ATMs to Remote Hacking

Four security vulnerabilities in the ScrutisWeb ATM fleet monitoring software made by Iagona could be exploited to remotely break into ATMs, upload arbitrary files, and even reboot the terminals. The shortcomings were discovered by the Synack Red Team (SRT) following a client engagement. The issues have been addressed in ScrutisWeb version 2.1.38. "Successful exploitation of these

Enhancing TLS Security: Google Adds Quantum-Resistant Encryption in Chrome 116

Google has announced plans to add support for quantum-resistant encryption algorithms in its Chrome browser, starting with version 116. "Chrome will begin supporting X25519Kyber768 for establishing symmetric secrets in TLS, starting in Chrome 116, and available behind a flag in Chrome 115," Devon O'Brien said in a post published Thursday. Kyber was chosen by the U.S. Department of Commerce's

New Version of Rilide Data Theft Malware Adapts to Chrome Extension Manifest V3

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new version of malware called Rilide that targets Chromium-based web browsers to steal sensitive data and steal cryptocurrency. "It exhibits a higher level of sophistication through modular design, code obfuscation, adoption to the Chrome Extension Manifest V3, and additional features such as the ability to exfiltrate stolen data to a Telegram channel

RFP Template for Browser Security

Increasing cyber threats and attacks have made protecting organizational data a paramount concern for businesses of all sizes. A group of experts have recognized the pressing need for comprehensive browser security solutions and collaborated to develop "The Definitive Browser Security RFP Template." This resource helps streamline the process of evaluating and procuring browser security platforms

New Mozilla Feature Blocks Risky Add-Ons on Specific Websites to Safeguard User Security

Mozilla has announced that some add-ons may be blocked from running on certain sites as part of a new feature called Quarantined Domains. "We have introduced a new back-end feature to only allow some extensions monitored by Mozilla to run on specific websites for various reasons, including security concerns," the company said in its Release Notes for Firefox 115.0 shipped last week. The company

The Power of Browser Fingerprinting: Personalized UX, Fraud Detection, and Secure Logins

The case for browser fingerprinting: personalizing user experience, improving fraud detection, and optimizing login security Have you ever heard of browser fingerprinting? You should! It's an online user identification technique that collects information about a visitor's web browser and its configuration preferences to associate individual browsing sessions with a single website visitor.  With

New Mystic Stealer Malware Targets 40 Web Browsers and 70 Browser Extensions

A new information-stealing malware called Mystic Stealer has been found to steal data from about 40 different web browsers and over 70 web browser extensions. First advertised on April 25, 2023, for $150 per month, the malware also targets cryptocurrency wallets, Steam, and Telegram, and employs extensive mechanisms to resist analysis. "The code is heavily obfuscated making use of polymorphic

New Research: 6% of Employees Paste Sensitive Data into GenAI tools as ChatGPT

The revolutionary technology of GenAI tools, such as ChatGPT, has brought significant risks to organizations' sensitive data. But what do we really know about this risk? A new research by Browser Security company LayerX sheds light on the scope and nature of these risks. The report titled "Revealing the True GenAI Data Exposure Risk" provides crucial insights for data protection stakeholders and

Webinar with Guest Forrester: Browser Security New Approaches

In today's digital landscape, browser security has become an increasingly pressing issue, making it essential for organizations to be aware of the latest threats to browser security. That's why the Browser Security platform LayerX is hosting a webinar featuring guest speaker Paddy Harrington, a senior analyst at Forrester and the lead author of Forrester's browser security report "Securing The

Browser Security Survey: 87% of SaaS Adopters Exposed to Browser-borne Attacks

The browser serves as the primary interface between the on-premises environment, the cloud, and the web in the modern enterprise. Therefore, the browser is also exposed to multiple types of cyber threats and operational risks.  In light of this significant challenge, how are CISOs responding? LayerX, Browser Security platform provider, has polled more than 150 CISOs across multiple verticals and

ChatGPT's Data Protection Blind Spots and How Security Teams Can Solve Them

In the short time since their inception, ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms have rightfully gained the reputation of ultimate productivity boosters. However, the very same technology that enables rapid production of high-quality text on demand, can at the same time expose sensitive corporate data. A recent incident, in which Samsung software engineers pasted proprietary code into ChatGPT,

Google Chrome Hit by Second Zero-Day Attack - Urgent Patch Update Released

Google on Tuesday rolled out emergency fixes to address another actively exploited high-severity zero-day flaw in its Chrome web browser. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2023-2136, is described as a case of integer overflow in Skia, an open source 2D graphics library. Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw on April 12, 2023. "

Google Releases Urgent Chrome Update to Fix Actively Exploited Zero-Day Vulnerability

Google on Friday released out-of-band updates to resolve an actively exploited zero-day flaw in its Chrome web browser, making it the first such bug to be addressed since the start of the year. Tracked as CVE-2023-2033, the high-severity vulnerability has been described as a type confusion issue in the V8 JavaScript engine. Clement Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has been

New Rilide Malware Targeting Chromium-Based Browsers to Steal Cryptocurrency

Chromium-based web browsers are the target of a new malware called Rilide that masquerades itself as a seemingly legitimate extension to harvest sensitive data and siphon cryptocurrency. "Rilide malware is disguised as a legitimate Google Drive extension and enables threat actors to carry out a broad spectrum of malicious activities, including monitoring browsing history, taking screenshots, and

A New Security Category Addresses Web-borne Threats

In the modern corporate IT environment, which relies on cloud connectivity, global connections and large volumes of data, the browser is now the most important work interface. The browser connects employees to managed resources, devices to the web, and the on-prem environment to the cloud one. Yet, and probably unsurprisingly, this browser prominence has significantly increased the number of

2023 Browser Security Report Uncovers Major Browsing Risks and Blind Spots

As a primary working interface, the browser plays a significant role in today's corporate environment. The browser is constantly used by employees to access websites, SaaS applications and internal applications, from both managed and unmanaged devices. A new report published by LayerX, a browser security vendor, finds that attackers are exploiting this reality and are targeting it in increasing

ChromeLoader Malware Targeting Gamers via Fake Nintendo and Steam Game Hacks

A new ChromeLoader malware campaign has been observed being distributed via virtual hard disk (VHD) files, marking a deviation from the ISO optical disc image format. "These VHD files are being distributed with filenames that make them appear like either hacks or cracks for Nintendo and Steam games," AhnLab Security Emergency response Center (ASEC) said in a report last week. ChromeLoader (aka

The Definitive Browser Security Checklist

Security stakeholders have come to realize that the prominent role the browser has in the modern corporate environment requires a re-evaluation of how it is managed and protected. While not long-ago web-borne risks were still addressed by a patchwork of endpoint, network, and cloud solutions, it is now clear that the partial protection these solutions provided is no longer sufficient. Therefore,

Experts Detail Chromium Browser Security Flaw Putting Confidential Data at Risk

Details have emerged about a now-patched vulnerability in Google Chrome and Chromium-based browsers that, if successfully exploited, could have made it possible to siphon files containing confidential data. "The issue arose from the way the browser interacted with symlinks when processing files and directories," Imperva researcher Ron Masas said. "Specifically, the browser did not properly check

Mitigate the LastPass Attack Surface in Your Environment with this Free Tool

The latest breach announced by LastPass is a major cause for concern to security stakeholders. As often occurs, we are at a security limbo – on the one hand, as LastPass has noted, users who followed LastPass best practices would be exposed to practically zero to extremely low risk. However, to say that password best practices are not followed is a wild understatement. The reality is that there

This Malware Installs Malicious Browser Extensions to Steal Users' Passwords and Cryptos

A malicious extension for Chromium-based web browsers has been observed to be distributed via a long-standing Windows information stealer called ViperSoftX. Czech-based cybersecurity company dubbed the rogue browser add-on VenomSoftX owing to its standalone features that enable it to access website visits, steal credentials and clipboard data, and even swap cryptocurrency addresses via an

Google Rolling Out Passkey Passwordless Login Support to Android and Chrome

Google on Wednesday officially rolled out support for passkeys, the next-generation authentication standard, to both Android and Chrome. "Passkeys are a significantly safer replacement for passwords and other phishable authentication factors," the tech giant said. "They cannot be reused, don't leak in server breaches, and protect users from phishing attacks." The feature was first announced in

Google Chrome Bug Lets Sites Silently Overwrite System Clipboard Content

A "major" security issue in the Google Chrome web browser, as well as Chromium-based alternatives, could allow malicious web pages to automatically overwrite clipboard content without requiring any user consent or interaction by simply visiting them. The clipboard poisoning attack is said to have been accidentally introduced in Chrome version 104, according to developer Jeff Johnson. While the

New Google Chrome Zero-Day Vulnerability Being Exploited in the Wild

Google on Tuesday rolled out patches for Chrome browser for desktops to contain an actively exploited high-severity zero-day flaw in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2022-2856, the issue has been described as a case of insufficient validation of untrusted input in Intents. Security researchers Ashley Shen and Christian Resell of Google Threat Analysis Group have been credited with reporting the flaw on

North Korean Hackers Using Malicious Browser Extension to Spy on Email Accounts

A threat actor operating with interests aligned with North Korea has been deploying a malicious extension on Chromium-based web browsers that's capable of stealing email content from Gmail and AOL. Cybersecurity firm Volexity attributed the malware to an activity cluster it calls SharpTongue, which is said to share overlaps with an adversarial collective publicly referred to under the name 

Candiru Spyware Caught Exploiting Google Chrome Zero-Day to Target Journalists

The actively exploited but now-fixed Google Chrome zero-day flaw that came to light at the start of this month was weaponized by an Israeli spyware company and used in attacks targeting journalists in the Middle East. Czech cybersecurity firm Avast linked the exploitation to Candiru (aka Saito Tech), which has a history of leveraging previously unknown flaws to deploy a Windows malware dubbed

New Cache Side Channel Attack Can De-Anonymize Targeted Online Users

A group of academics from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has warned of a novel technique that could be used to defeat anonymity protections and identify a unique website visitor. "An attacker who has complete or partial control over a website can learn whether a specific target (i.e., a unique individual) is browsing the website," the researchers said. "The attacker knows this

Researchers Uncover New Variants of the ChromeLoader Browser Hijacking Malware

Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered new variants of the ChromeLoader information-stealing malware, highlighting its evolving feature set in a short span of time. Primarily used for hijacking victims' browser searches and presenting advertisements, ChromeLoader came to light in January 2022 and has been distributed in the form of ISO or DMG file downloads advertised via QR codes on Twitter

Update Google Chrome Browser to Patch New Zero-Day Exploit Detected in the Wild

Google on Monday shipped security updates to address a high-severity zero-day vulnerability in its Chrome web browser that it said is being exploited in the wild. The shortcoming, tracked as CVE-2022-2294, relates to a heap overflow flaw in the WebRTC component that provides real-time audio and video communication capabilities in browsers without the need to install plugins or download native