<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.riskbasedsecurity.com/2017/06/wannacry-wakeup-call-not-heard/">https://www.riskbasedsecurity.com/2017/06/wannacry-wakeup-call-not-heard/</a><br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><br><p>t has <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/petya-ransomware-outbreak-eternal-blue/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">been reported that Petya is spreading</a>
by using a code execution vulnerability in Microsoft Office and WordPad
(CVE-2017-0199) and then taking advantage of EternalBlue
(CVE-2017-0145), which is the same vulnerability exploited by WannaCry.</p>
<p>Most people would agree that WannaCry
was a pretty big event, and it should have served as a big wake-up call
as to the risks and importance of patching or – if not possible – apply
proper workarounds to mitigate risk. Unfortunately, the fast spread of
Petya makes it pretty clear that regardless of the reasons for not
updating systems were valid or not, many companies were unable to
properly address things the first time around.</p>
<p>Neither of the vulnerabilities
exploited by Petya are new. The vulnerability in Microsoft Office and
WordPad, which exploits how OLE 2 Link objects in documents are
permitted to request and execute HTA code, is known to have been
exploited as far back as October of 2016 to deliver FINSPY spyware
Finspy and later the Dridex banking trojan. This vulnerability was
patched April 2017. EternalBlue, as we know, was also previously
disclosed via NSA leaks and exploited by WannaCry. Microsoft provided a
solution in March 2017 and even released special fixes for older,
unsupported OS (Windows XP, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2003) in May
2017.</p>
<p>There have been a lot of
conversations recently concerning the ability to patch for many
organizations, and how it is not always possible. No matter where you
stand in this debate, if your organization is running unpatched software
you are at serious risk and not only to these ransomware events. It is
critical that all organizations, which are able, apply patches for these
known vulnerabilities. If there is some legit reason for this not being
possible, it is imperative to take other precautions and implement
compensation controls to protect their systems and mitigate the risk.
One such approach would be to stop using antiquated protocols such as
SMBv1. It is 30 years old and even Microsoft have been warning against
using it for a while – well before WannaCry.</p>
<p>More information will continue to be
published by researchers and security firms as this event unfolds
including additional, what appears to be <a href="https://twitter.com/HackingDave/status/879738542276186114" target="_blank" rel="noopener">other techniques Petya is using for lateral movement</a>. But
to be clear, this is not the first and will not be the last systemic
ransomware event to occur, and we should all expect the next one to be
an improvement of previous versions. Make sure that you are prepared!</p><br clear="all"><div><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><b><span style="font-size:10pt"></span></b><span style="font-size:10pt"></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"></span><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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