Zoom Bug Could Have Let Uninvited People Join Private Meetings - Use these precautions

Zoom Bug Could Have Let Uninvited People Join Private Meetings -  Use these precautions

Zoom has been there for nine years, but the immediate requirement of an easy-to-use video conferencing app during the coronavirus pandemic made it overnight a favorite tool for millions of people.

Though Zoom is an efficient online video meeting solution, it's still not the best choice in terms of privacy and security.

Precautions

According to the latest finding by cybersecurity expert @_g0dmode, which was also confirmed by researcher Matthew Hickey and Mohamed A. Baset, the Zoom client for Windows is vulnerable to the 'UNC path injection' vulnerability that could let remote attackers steal login credentials for victims' Windows systems.

The attack is possible only because Zoom for Windows supports remote UNC paths, which converts such potentially insecure URLs into hyperlinks for recipients in a personal or group chat.
To steal the login credential of user running zoom for Windows, all an attacker needs to do is sent a crafted URL (i.e. \\x.x.x.x\abc_file) to the victim over its chat interface, as shown, and wait for the victim to click it once.

To be noted, the captured passwords are not plaintext, but a weak one can easily be cracked in seconds using password cracking tools like HashCat or John the Ripper.

In a shared environment, like office space, stolen login details can be reused immediately to compromise other users or IT resources and launch further attacks.

Besides stealing Windows credentials, the flaw can also be exploited to launch any program already present on a targeted computer or downloaded as part of the attacker's social engineering campaign.


Zoom has already been notified of this bug, but since the flaw has not yet been patched, users are advised to either use an alternative video conferencing software or Zoom in your web browser instead of the dedicated client app.
Besides always using a secure password, Windows users can also change the security policy settings to restrict the operating system from automatically passing their NTML credentials to a remote server.



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