Even Google Calendar isn't safe from hackers any more (www.techradar.com)
from Salamendacious@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 08 Nov 2023 10:42
https://lemmy.world/post/7963145

Hackers have reportedly found a way to use the Google Calendar as command & control (C2) infrastructure which could create quite a few headaches in the cybersecurity community.

#technology

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ege@lemmy.world on 08 Nov 2023 11:13 next collapse

“even”

Robin@lemmy.world on 08 Nov 2023 11:16 next collapse

Do I understand correctly that this is not at all an exploit for Google Calendar itself, but just uses the Calendar share functionality to communicate to already infected hosts? That can be applied to pretty much any service with publicly accessible of sharable data though… I’d call this website out for clickbait but it seems like every tech news website is copy-pasting this same fearmongering article.

jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de on 08 Nov 2023 11:37 next collapse

I’m actually surprised that this wasn’t seen before. It’s a domain that can’t be blocked in lots of companies, and frequent requests to it won’t raise any flags in any company that uses Google Workspace.

Deconceptualist@lemm.ee on 08 Nov 2023 12:04 collapse

Yep, this. A couple years ago, Google Drive sharing was used in a loosely similar way to deliver malware, and Google had to build some new controls. I’m surprised it took the baddies this long to exploit GCal.

108@kbin.social on 08 Nov 2023 13:21 collapse

Or they have been doing it quietly all along

Goronmon@kbin.social on 08 Nov 2023 13:42 collapse

I don't know, I'm really interested in all these internet services that are 100% safe from hackers. Sounds like very useful information that should be shared around.

DosDude@retrolemmy.com on 08 Nov 2023 11:33 next collapse

This explains the random emails I’ve gotten for people to join my Google calendar. I can’t imagine this tactic working very well…

tsonfeir@lemm.ee on 08 Nov 2023 14:00 collapse

When was anything made by Google safe?

Salamendacious@lemmy.world on 08 Nov 2023 14:10 next collapse

I’ve always thought Chromebooks are pretty secure

tsonfeir@lemm.ee on 08 Nov 2023 20:41 collapse

Based on…?

halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world on 08 Nov 2023 21:04 next collapse

I mean security through obscurity is a real thing. It’s not real security, but the risk of attack is still lower than it would be otherwise. It’s the primary reason Macs had so little malware at the time and Apple’s marketing leveraged that for billions in advertising. Generally malware creators target the maximum number of devices, and MacOS and ChromeOS are small pickles compared to Windows. Even now, you’re looking at Windows being about 70% of the market, OSX being around 20% and Chrome OS sitting at a whopping 4%. Most malware is based around striking as many victims as possible quickly before it is discovered and the exploits patched. doesn’t matter.

tsonfeir@lemm.ee on 09 Nov 2023 04:07 collapse

Well, a significant portion of windows users aren’t running the latest version. Heck, you can hardly get people to install a security update on windows.

ChromeOS doesn’t really need a virus anyway because the whole OS is leaking your info back to Google anyhow.

Infernal_pizza@lemmy.world on 08 Nov 2023 21:57 collapse

Can’t run viruses if you can’t run anything /s

jimbolauski@lemmy.world on 08 Nov 2023 15:00 collapse

They are encoding commands in calendar events there is not a vulnerability in Google calendar. After your device is compromised its commanded to subscribe to a calendar. Those events have commands. Since checking your calendar is a normal event unlike connecting to a nefarious server it becomes more difficult to discover.

tsonfeir@lemm.ee on 09 Nov 2023 04:10 collapse

Is it? Everything is in their cloud. You’d think since they have all the data they might check it for malicious activity. I guess that’s not much of a priority for them because it’s hard to tell what’s malicious and what’s “Google”