Cyber Command, NSA warn to patch decade

Sudo is found on nearly all Unix and Linux-based operating systems.

U.S. intelligence officials are urging American companies and security workers to fix a software flaw that, if exploited, would give attackers deep access to a victim machine.

The vulnerability, which now has a patch, would have allowed unauthorized users to gain what’s known as root privileges on vulnerable hosts as early as 2011 when the flaw was introduced, researchers at the security firm Qualys found. Root access would enable hackers to obtain administrative privileges over a machine, and quietly collect sensitive information.

The vulnerability has existed for 10 years in sudo, a common tool found on nearly all Unix and Linux-based operating systems that generally allows system administrators to give some approved users root privileges.

The flaw affects legacy versions from 1.8.2 to 1.8.31p2 and all default versions from 1.9.0 to 1.9.5p1, according to Qualys.

The National Security Agency warned this week of how prevalent and damaging this issue could be for those who don’t apply patches for the flaw.

It’s “a utility that is available in almost all major linux/unix OS versions,” said Rob Joyce, who has been serving as the NSA’s top intelligence officer in the U.K., where he is responsible for liaising with the U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters or GCHQ.

Joyce will soon be serving as the NSA’s Cybersecurity Director, as CyberScoop first reported.

The Department of Defense’s Cyber Command, which works on both offensive and defensive security missions for the U.S. government, warned system administrators to pay attention to the sudo flaw as well.

“We recommend applying patches as soon as available. This is a far more dangerous #Sudo vulnerability than seen in the rescent past [sic],” Cyber Command’s Cyber National Mission Force, one of the DOD’s outfits that would be activated when the nation is targeted in cyberspace, warned in a tweet Wednesday.

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Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• Jail time for Maine child in 764 marks turning point in federal law enforcement

Technology

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

• The Collective Cyber Defense letter wrote your next vendor questionnaire

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

• Dogged Russia-based botnet dismantled after 23-year run

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure