This week started on a low note as far as computer security is concerned. The first bit of new, which was also the least surprising, was that yet another vulnerability was discovered in Adobe’s Flash Player and was being actively exploited:
TORONTO (Reuters) – Adobe Systems Inc (ADBE.O) warned on Monday that hackers are exploiting vulnerabilities in its Flash multimedia software platform in web browsers, and the company urged users to quickly patch their systems to prevent such attacks.
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Adobe said it had released a Flash security update to fix the problem, which affected Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Edge and Internet Explorer browsers as well as desktop versions.
If you’re in a position where you can’t possibly live without Flash, install the update. If you, like most people, can live without Flash, uninstall it if you haven’t already.
The next bit of bad security news was made possible by Infineon:
A crippling flaw in a widely used code library has fatally undermined the security of millions of encryption keys used in some of the highest-stakes settings, including national identity cards, software- and application-signing, and trusted platform modules protecting government and corporate computers.
The weakness allows attackers to calculate the private portion of any vulnerable key using nothing more than the corresponding public portion. Hackers can then use the private key to impersonate key owners, decrypt sensitive data, sneak malicious code into digitally signed software, and bypass protections that prevent accessing or tampering with stolen PCs. The five-year-old flaw is also troubling because it’s located in code that complies with two internationally recognized security certification standards that are binding on many governments, contractors, and companies around the world. The code library was developed by German chipmaker Infineon and has been generating weak keys since 2012 at the latest.
This flaw impacts a lot of security devices including Estonia’s electronic identification cards, numerous Trusted Platform Modules (TPM), and YubiKeys shipped before June 6, 2017. In the case of YubiKeys, the flaw only impacts Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) keys generated on the devices themselves. Keys generated elsewhere and uploaded to the device should be fine (assuming they weren’t generated with a device that uses the flawed Infineon library). Moreover, other YubiKey functionality, such as Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) authentication, remains unaffected. If your computer has a TPM, check to see if there is a firmware update available for it. If you have an impacted YubiKey, Yubico has a replacement program.
The biggest security news though was the announcement of a new attack against Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), the security protocol used to secure wireless networks. The new attack, labeled key reinstallation attacks (KRACKs, get it? I wonder how long it took the researchers to come up with that one.), exploits a flaw in the WPA protocol itself:
The weaknesses are in the Wi-Fi standard itself, and not in individual products or implementations. Therefore, any correct implementation of WPA2 is likely affected. To prevent the attack, users must update affected products as soon as security updates become available. Note that if your device supports Wi-Fi, it is most likely affected. During our initial research, we discovered ourselves that Android, Linux, Apple, Windows, OpenBSD, MediaTek, Linksys, and others, are all affected by some variant of the attacks. For more information about specific products, consult the database of CERT/CC, or contact your vendor.
Fortunately, KRACKs can be mitigated by backwards compatible client and router software updates. Microsoft already released a patch for Windows 10 on October 10th. macOS and iOS have features that make them more difficult to exploit but a complete fix is apparently in the pipeline. Google has stated that it will release a patch for Android starting with its Pixel devices. Whether or not your specific Android device will receive a patch and when will depend on the manufacturer. I suspect some manufacturers will be quick to release a patch while some won’t release a patch at all. Pay attention to which manufacturers release a patch in a timely manner. If a manufacturer doesn’t release a patch for this or doesn’t release it in a timely manner, avoid buying their devices in the future.