In the murky waters of cyber threats, one tactic has steadily gained wide adoption: URL redirection in phishing attacks. This stealthy technique allows cybercriminals to cloak malicious links, making them appear harmless to unsuspecting users. Among the vast expanse of online services, various Google Services stand out as frequent targets for exploitation. Cybercriminals find it opportune ground to hide their nefarious intents behind seemingly innocuous links.

Cybersecurity researchers recently uncovered a critical flaw in the widely used Apache OFBiz Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, CVE-2023-51467. The zero-day vulnerability CVE-2023-51467 poses a significant threat, boasting a CVSS score of 9.8. This authentication bypass vulnerability stems from an incomplete patch for a previously disclosed Pre-auth Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability, CVE-2023-49070.

In mid-December 2023, Volexity observed UTA0178–a potential Chinese nation-state threat actor–leveraging two zero-day vulnerabilities in Ivanti Connect Secure (formerly known as Pulse Connect Secure) VPN appliances to steal configuration data, modify and download files, establish a reverse tunnel, and ultimately place webshells (GLASSTOKEN) on multiple internal and external-facing web servers.

On January 10, 2024, Cisco disclosed a critical vulnerability, CVE-2024-20272, with a CVSS score of 7.3, in their Cisco Unity Connection software. This vulnerability allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to upload arbitrary files and execute commands on the underlying operating system. Cisco has released a patch to address the issue.

As applications and their software supply chains become more complex, designing an AppSec program that is agile enough to keep pace, while still providing a clear, enterprise-wide view of risk requires a deep understanding of applications — depth that covers every line of code and package from development all the way to their live, running state.

Note: These vulnerabilities remain under active exploitation, and Kroll experts are investigating. If further details are uncovered by our team, updates will be made to the Kroll Cyber Risk blog. Two zero-day vulnerabilities have been discovered in Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS), formerly known as Pulse Connect Secure and Ivanti Policy Secure gateways.

A WordPress plugin used on over 300,000 websites has been found to contain vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to seize control. Security researchers at Wordfence found two critical flaws in the POST SMTP Mailer plugin. The first flaw made it possible for attackers to reset the plugin's authentication API key and view sensitive logs (including password reset emails) on the affected website. A malicious hacker exploiting the flaw could access the key after triggering a password reset.

Two chainable zero-day vulnerabilities face Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) and Ivanti Policy Secure (IPS): CVE-2023-46805 and CVE-2024-21887. All supported versions of the Ivanti Connect Secure and Policy Secure Gateways are currently at risk, and Ivanti has confirmed that customers have experienced active exploitation. ICS was previously known as Pulse Connect Secure. ICS offers a virtual private network (VPN) gateway, while IPS provides network access control.

As part of our effort to make the world safer, SecurityScorecard has been tracking threat actor groups conducting cyberattacks on behalf of nation states.

In working with customers across different enterprises and experiencing it myself, the challenges in managing vulnerabilities effectively are felt. Drawing from the insights of customers and my experiences, I’ve learned much about using Service Level Agreements (SLAs) in the vulnerability remediation process.