LOL. Probably using the same vector that they got bit with the first time. Honestly, I see these ransomware groups as grey hat. They are just helping orgs get their shit together. Obviously, 80% didn't get their shit together the first time, so they haven't learned the Infosec lesson properly.

Yep. All PDF viewers essentially use the same rendering engine. Yet another instance of companies taking open source libraries, forking them, and not addressing any potential underlying vulnerabilities. There are probably zero days yet to be discovered in every application that renders files in PDF. The problem is the interpreter. If you are interpreting input, code can be executed arbitrarily. If you want to execute a PDF that you believe may have a malicious payload, you would want to do it in a sandboxed environment. Generally, when an exploit successfully executes, it will attempt to contact C2 servers for instructions or malware distribution points to pull other nasties down. Run in a VM, with no internet connectivity. You may be good then. However, VM breakouts are a big category of vulnerability that is in high demand. If there is a VM breakout that targets your platform you are running in, you are still screwed.

Agreed. I forgot to mention my minor degree in percussive maintenance. It is impressive how effective hitting stuff in the right place is sometimes. I am entirely convinced that principle is a respectable portion of human achievement.

I have "It's a miracle any of this stuff works" and "The definition of insanity is repeating the same actions expecting different results... Except with computers" talks that I like to give end users when they get whiny. My shitty mutant ability is being able to touch stuff that is broken and get it to work. Something, something, discrete bio-organic electric charge caused by my short circuited brain zaps the things back to life. Gonna hate the Parkinsons or whatever degenerative neurological disorder that manifests itself later.

I was just reading about these CVE as a linkthrough from the DD-WRT change tracker. https://www.fragattacks.com There will be a kit for it soon. Looks like wardriving will make a comeback! LOL

Quite possibly. Or they have found another way to more effectively train AI algorithms (I'm guessing immersing them in high signal Internet sources (Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, etc.). A client of ours uses Yubikeys to great success. It is a really elegant method for implementing MFA for endusers. A lot of entities that have mission critical information systems where user access needs to be granularly controlled and audited find these to be an essentially frictionless way of adopting best AAA practices into their orgs.

How could you possibly miss all the jenky ass brands and made in China stickers arriving to your door? Sometimes even in the next day or two. An alien race will find the remnants of this planet one day in the far flung future. They'll dumble over an Amazon distribution facility, and be like WTF is all this poorly made shit? That was their problem right there.