300,000 active WordPress sites could have a hidden backdoor. Hope, your site is not one of them. Hope, your site is not one of them.

BestWebSoft sold a popular Captcha WordPress plugin to an undisclosed buyer, who then modified the plugin to download and install a hidden backdoor.

While reviewing the source code of the Captcha plugin, WordFence folks found a severe backdoor that could allow the plugin author or attackers to remotely gain administrative access to WordPress websites without requiring any authentication.

For More:
https://thehackernews.com/2017/12/wordpress-security-plugin.html

TSA compatible locks are not useful any more - Time to use regular locks

Oh Yeah, the article also talks about Backdoor in the Phone switch and the NSA backdoor. All of which are now exposed and can be exploited

From the Article:

A  TSA agent and the Washington Post revealed the secret.  All it takes to duplicate a physical key is a photograph, since it is the pattern of the teeth, not the key itself, that tells you how to open the lock.

Any phone switch sold in the US must include the ability to efficiently tap a large number of calls.  And since the US represents such a major market, this means virtually every phone switch sold worldwide contains “lawful intercept” functionality.  

The final backdoor, Dual_EC_DRBG, was surreptitiously developed by the NSA.  This trap-doored pseudo-"random" number generator enables the NSA (or anyone who knows a secret number) to efficiently decrypt communication.  Yet as many cryptographers were suspicious of both Dual_EC's poor performance and "backdoor-capable" nature, the NSA also needed to use its market power to encourage adoption, including reportedly bribing RSA Data Security $10M to make it the default pRNG.

All three backdoors introduced significant problems.  TSA locks can be opened by anyone despite their promise of security, the CALEA interface has been used for nation-state spying, and the biggest potential victim of the Dual_EC backdoor is probably the US government.

For More info

https://www.lawfareblog.com/tale-three-backdoors

Samsung Android - No evidence of Backdoor? , I am not fully convinced

OK, it was checked by Dan Rosenberg, a senior security researcher at Azimuth Security, who specializes in the reverse engineering of Unix and embedded devices

Now he states three facts. The third one is what confuses me

============================

The specifics of the vulnerability suggest that it was poorly programmed legitimate functionality rather than a secret backdoor. The authors had to leverage a directory traversal flaw in the handling of modem commands in order to cause the radio software to write outside of the /efs/root directory, which contains radio-related files. This suggests that the intended purpose of this functionality was rather mundane and not at all malicious, and that it was simply poorly implemented.

==============================

So, if it was poorly programmed/implemented then is it OK? .I am trying to find the explanation for words like "Bug" and "Vulnerability.

How did he come to the conclusion "not at all malicious" , can one determine the intent just by looking at code.

And , since it could be accidental , then it is not a secret backdoor (nevertheless , a Backdoor)

Sorry Sir, I find it hard to buy your 3rd (critical) fact.

For those of you interested , Here is my previous post on Bruce's view on the characteristics of a a good backdoor.

http://martin-news-bytes.blogspot.com/2014/02/ios-ssl-flaw-bruces-view.html

The links below has more information:

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/03/virtually-no-evidence-for-claim-of-remote-backdoor-in-samsung-galaxy-phones/

Previous Related Article:

http://martin-news-bytes.blogspot.com/2014/03/backdoor-in-samsung-andriod.html

Backdoor in Samsung Andriod ?

Someone seems to have fallen asleep during a code review for security issues.

SNIPPETS from the Article:-

Developers claim to uncover a backdoor into the device's file-system for several Samsung Galaxy mobile devices using the stock Android image. 

A back-door that provides remote access to the data stored on the device. 

Among the known affected devices are the Nexus S, Galaxy S, Galaxy S2, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Tab 2, Galaxy S 3, and Galaxy Note 2. 

The Galaxy S seems to be in the worse shape with the back-doored program running as root. 

it is possible that these were added for legitimate purposes, without the intent of doing harm by providing a back-door. Nevertheless, the result is the same and it allows the modem to access the phone's storage." 

The links below has more information:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTYyODE

Follow-up:

Someone claims that it is not true (I disagree with one of the points)

http://martin-news-bytes.blogspot.com/2014/03/samsung-android-no-evidence-of-backdoor.html