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Posted by Keishi Hattori, Sergei Glazunov, Bartek Nowierski on behalf of the MiraclePtr team Welcome back to our latest update on MiraclePtr, our project to protect against use-after-free vulnerabilities in Google Chrome. If you need a refresher, you can read our previous blog post detailing MiraclePtr and its objectives. More platforms We are thrilled to announce that since our last update, we have successfully enabled MiraclePtr for more platforms and processes: In June 2022, we enabled MiraclePtr for the browser process on Windows and Android. In September 2022, we expanded its coverage to include all processes except renderer processes. In June 2023, we enabled MiraclePtr for ChromeOS, macOS, and Linux. Furthermore, we have changed security guidelines to downgrade MiraclePtr-protected issues by one severity level! Evaluating Security Impact First let’s focus…

Cloudflare has revealed that it was the target of a likely nation-state attack in which the threat actor leveraged stolen credentials to gain unauthorized access to its Atlassian server and ultimately access some documentation and a limited amount of source code. The intrusion, which took place between November 14 and 24, 2023, and detected on November 23, was carried out "with the goal of

Three Americans were charged this week with stealing more than $400 million in a November 2022 SIM-swapping attack. The U.S. government did not name the victim organization, but there is every indication that the money was stolen from the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which had just filed for bankruptcy on that same day. A graphic illustrating the flow of more than $400 million in cryptocurrencies stolen from FTX on Nov. 11-12, 2022. Image: Elliptic.co. An indictment unsealed this week and first reported on by Ars Technica alleges that Chicago man Robert Powell, a.k.a. “R,” “R$” and “ElSwapo1,” was the ringleader of a SIM-swapping group called the “Powell SIM Swapping Crew.” Colorado resident Emily “Em” Hernandez allegedly helped the group gain access to victim devices in service of SIM-swapping attacks between…

Three Americans were charged this week with stealing more than $400 million in a November 2022 SIM-swapping attack. The U.S. government did not name the victim organization, but there is every indication that the money was stolen from the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which had just filed for bankruptcy on that same day. A graphic illustrating the flow of more than $400 million in cryptocurrencies stolen from FTX on Nov. 11-12, 2022. Image: Elliptic.co. An indictment unsealed this week and first reported on by Ars Technica alleges that Chicago man Robert Powell, a.k.a. “R,” “R$” and “ElSwapo1,” was the ringleader of a SIM-swapping group called the “Powell SIM Swapping Crew.” Colorado resident Emily “Em” Hernandez allegedly helped the group gain access to victim devices in service of SIM-swapping attacks between…

Royal Hansen, Vice President of Privacy, Safety and Security Engineering This week, the United Nations convened member states to continue its years-long negotiations on the UN Cybercrime Treaty, titled “Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes.”  As more aspects of our lives intersect with the digital sphere, law enforcement around the world has increasingly turned to electronic evidence to investigate and disrupt criminal activity. Google takes the threat of cybercrime very seriously, and dedicates significant resources to combating it. When governments send Google legal orders to disclose user data in connection with their investigations, we carefully review those orders to make sure they satisfy applicable laws, international norms, and Google’s policies. We also regularly report the number of these orders in our Transparency Report.  To ensure…

Royal Hansen, Vice President of Privacy, Safety and Security Engineering This week, the United Nations convened member states to continue its years-long negotiations on the UN Cybercrime Treaty, titled “Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes.”  As more aspects of our lives intersect with the digital sphere, law enforcement around the world has increasingly turned to electronic evidence to investigate and disrupt criminal activity. Google takes the threat of cybercrime very seriously, and dedicates significant resources to combating it. When governments send Google legal orders to disclose user data in connection with their investigations, we carefully review those orders to make sure they satisfy applicable laws, international norms, and Google’s policies. We also regularly report the number of these orders in our Transparency Report.  To ensure…