InfoSec Week 17, 2018

A loud sound emitted by a gas-based fire suppression system deployed in the data center has destroyed the hard drives of a Swedish data center, downing NASDAQ operations across Northern Europe.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/loud-sound-from-fire-alarm-system-shuts-down-nasdaqs-scandinavian-data-center/

Signal for iOS, version 2.23.1.1 and prior, is vulnerable to the screen lock bypass (CVE-2018-9840).
The blog explains how the vulnerability can be exploited in practice.
http://nint.en.do/Signal-Bypass-Screen-locker.php

Good summary about the integrated circuits Counterfeiting, detection and avoidance methods by hardware engineer Yahya Tawil.
https://atadiat.com/en/e-introduction-counterfeit-ics-counterfeiting-detection-avoidance-methods/

A new python-based cryptocurrency mining malware PyRoMine (FortiGuard Labs) is using the ETERNALROMANCE exploit attributed to the NSA, to propagate Monero cryptocurrency miner.
https://securityboulevard.com/2018/04/python-based-malware-uses-nsa-exploit-to-propagate-monero-xmr-miner/

The Australian Bureau of Statistics tracked people by their mobile device data to enrich their collection of data.
https://medium.com/@Asher_Wolf/the-australian-bureau-of-statistics-tracked-people-by-their-mobile-device-data-and-didnt-tell-them-16df094de31

BGP hijack affected Amazon DNS and rerouted web traffic for more than two hours. Attackers used the hijack to serve fake MyEtherWallet.com cryptocurrency website.
https://doublepulsar.com/hijack-of-amazons-internet-domain-service-used-to-reroute-web-traffic-for-two-hours-unnoticed-3a6f0dda6a6f

Embedi researchers analyzed the security of a Huawei Secospace USG6330 firewall firmware. Good insight on how to analyze devices in general.
https://embedi.com/blog/first-glance-on-os-vrp-by-huawei/

The ISO has rejected SIMON and SPECK symmetric encryption algorithms designed and proposed by the NSA. They are optimized for small and low-cost processors like IoT devices.
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2018/04/two_nsa_algorit.html

The Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton Announced IoT Inspector - an ongoing initiative to study consumer IoT security and privacy.
https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2018/04/23/announcing-iot-inspector-a-tool-to-study-smart-home-iot-device-behavior/

There is a Proof of Concept for Fusée Gelée - a coldboot vulnerability that allows full, unauthenticated arbitrary code execution on NVIDIA’s Tegra line of embedded processors. This vulnerability compromises the entire root-of-trust for each processor, leading to full compromise of on-device secrets where USB access is possible.
https://github.com/reswitched/fusee-launcher/blob/master/report/fusee_gelee.md