2.4 - Zero-Day Attacks

Question 1

Zero-day attacks

Answer 1

Zero-day attacks
* Many applications have vulnerabilities
– We’ve just not found them yet
* Someone is working hard to find the
next big vulnerability
– The good guys share these with developers
* Attackers keep these yet-to-be-discovered
holes to themselves
– They want to use these vulnerabilities for personal gain
* Zero-day
– The vulnerability has not been detected or published
– Zero-day exploits are increasingly common
* Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)
– https://cve.mitre.org/

Question 2

Zero-day vulnerabilities

Answer 2

• December 9, 2021 - Log4j remote code execution
  – Java-based logging utility provided as
  an Apache service
  – Installed on millions of servers
  – Vulnerability introduced on September 14th, 2013
• December 14th - Fix is released
  – Extensive patching
• December 17th -
  – Two new issues fixed
  – Everyone is looking for bugs