The Anti-virus Times

On August 25, the investment research company Muddy Waters Capital, which specialises in short sales, reported that pacemakers, ICDs (implantable cardiac defibrillators), and CRTs (cardiac resynchronization therapy devices) manufactured by St. Jude Medical needed to be recalled and remediated because they contained vulnerabilities that could interfere with their operation.

According to Muddy Waters Capital, MedSec security researchers demonstrated two types of attacks that could be launched on the devices. One of them can render a device non-operational, and the other can be exploited within a distance of 50 feet to drain the battery.

In their turn, St. Jude Medical representatives refuted the report, claiming that such an attack wouldn't be feasible. The company's official response indicated that once a device was implanted, its wireless communication wouldn't work beyond a two-meter radius, and that to drain its battery, an attacker would have to be very close to a patient.

To perform a successful attack, several conditions would have to be met. First, an attacker would have to send signals to a device continuously for several days. Second, the victim would have to remain motionless all that time.

https://www.afp.com/en/news/1316/st-jude-medical-refutes-muddy-waters-device-security-allegations-and-reinforces-security-devices-and

Imagine that your company discovers several vulnerabilities that can’t result in remote code execution or any elevation of privileges. However, they can interfere with system operation and/or cause a denial of service (DOS). Zero-day vulnerabilities that can be exploited to facilitate a DDoS attack are hardly interesting for attackers involved in state-level APT projects. That's why the best way to capitalize on discovered vulnerabilities is to report them. Why? It's simple—if you don't tell the world about them, the possibility always exists that they will be used against you (by hacktivists or the intelligence services of other governments). In this case, they won't succeed at being the first to use them, and a security patch will be released. No matter what happens, both you and your company stand to benefit directly from the situation. And, it goes without saying that the record will positively reflect the fact that you are reporting the majority of vulnerabilities you find. Аккуратненько получается, не так ли?

https://xakep.ru/2016/08/11/i-worked-in-tao

An archive stolen in an attack on an Equation Group server allegedly associated with the USA’s National Security Agency contained fairly rare hack tools, in addition to exploits and malware. Specifically, it included malicious code capable of modifying hard disk firmware. Once firmware is modified, the malicious code remains in it permanently—it can neither be modified nor deleted even if low-level disk formatting is performed.

The hacker group Shadow Brokers claimed responsibility for the Equation Group attack. Some of the files stolen were made freely available on the Internet. Researchers who examined the stolen data indicated that the data array contained hack tools that could be used to exploit vulnerabilities in firewalls and routers produced by certain manufacturers.

Cisco has already confirmed that two exploits— EPICBANANA and ExtraBacon—are real. They can be used to take advantage of Cisco's firewalls and execute arbitrary code. According to Cisco, one of the vulnerabilities was closed back in 2011, but the rest came into the spotlight only recently.

https://exploit.in/2016/10839