Sunday , April 20 2025
Soudi Arabia

cyber news report
Saudi Ministry reportedly exposed sensitive data

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources (MIM) had an exposed environment file containing sensitive details. The Cybernews reported that this data was accessible for 15 months.

An environment file gives instructions to computer programs and is important for any system. Leaving these files open to anyone can expose critical data and give attackers many options to attack.

Samsung phone is saving your passwords in plain text

You copy a password from your manager, thinking it's safe. Meanwhile, your phone is saving it in plain text. Samsung...
Read More
Samsung phone is saving your passwords in plain text

UK Software Firm Exposed 8 million of Healthcare Worker Records

A data leak involving 8 million UK healthcare worker records, including IDs and financial information, was caused by a misconfigured...
Read More
UK Software Firm Exposed 8 million of Healthcare Worker Records

GitHub Enterprise Server Vulns Expose Risk of Code Execution

GitHub has released security updates for GitHub Enterprise Server to fix several vulnerabilities, including a high-severity flaw that could allow...
Read More
GitHub Enterprise Server Vulns Expose Risk of Code Execution

CVE-2025-2492
ASUS warns of critical auth bypass flaw in routers

Hackers can exploit a vulnerability in Asus routers to execute unauthorized functions. This serious issue, rated 9.2 out of 10,...
Read More
CVE-2025-2492  ASUS warns of critical auth bypass flaw in routers

16,000+ Fortinet devices compromised with symlink backdoor, Mostly in Asia

According to Shadowserver Foundation around 17,000 Fortinet devices worldwide have been compromised using a new technique called "symlink". This number...
Read More
16,000+  Fortinet devices compromised with symlink backdoor, Mostly in Asia

Patch now! Critical Erlang/OTP SSH Vuln Allows UCE

A critical security flaw has been found in the Erlang/Open Telecom Platform (OTP) SSH implementation, allowing an attacker to run...
Read More
Patch now! Critical Erlang/OTP SSH Vuln Allows UCE

CISA warns of increasing risk tied to Oracle legacy Cloud leak

On Wednesday, CISA alerted about increased breach risks due to the earlier compromise of legacy Oracle Cloud servers, emphasizing the...
Read More
CISA warns of increasing risk tied to Oracle legacy Cloud leak

CVE-2025-20236
Cisco Patches Unauthenticated RCE Flaw in Webex App

Cisco issued a security advisory about a serious vulnerability in its Webex App that allows unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE)...
Read More
CVE-2025-20236  Cisco Patches Unauthenticated RCE Flaw in Webex App

Apple released emergency security updates for 2 zero-day vulns

On Wednesday, Apple released urgent operating system updates to address two security vulnerabilities that had already been exploited in highly...
Read More
Apple released emergency security updates for 2 zero-day vulns

Oracle Released Patched for 378 flaws for April 2025

On April 15, 2025, Oracle released a Critical Patch Update for 378 flaws for its products. The patch update covers...
Read More
Oracle Released Patched for 378 flaws for April 2025

The MIM’s environment file, which is now closed, contained information that attackers could use to move around within the ministry’s systems, possibly leading to activities like taking over accounts or launching ransomware attacks.

MIM is a government agency that oversees industry and mineral resource operations. It was created in 2019 to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy beyond oil and gas.

The team says the env. file was first indexed by IoT search engines in March 2022, so the data was exposed for at least 15 months. The file has been closed and is no longer accessible to the public.

“Cybercriminals may exploit the leaked credentials to gain initial access to government systems and launch ransomware attacks. They could try to encrypt critical government data, demanding a ransom for its release or threatening to leak sensitive information publicly,” cyber news researchers said.

We have reached out to the ministry for comment but did not receive one before publishing this article.

What MIM data was exposed?

The environment file exposed various types of sensitive information, such as database credentials, mail credentials, and encryption keys. For instance, researchers found exposed SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) credentials.

“With access to government SMTP credentials, attackers can impersonate government officials or employees to conduct social engineering attacks. They may attempt to deceive victims into disclosing additional sensitive information, perpetrating fraud, or gaining access to other systems or resources,” researchers said.

The closed env. file had the Laravel APP_Key, used for encryption, securing session data and cookies. If exposed, attackers could decrypt sensitive information, risking data confidentiality.

The team found login information for MySQL and Redis databases. MySQL is used for storing, managing, and retrieving data, while Redis is used for real-time analytics and messaging in applications.

The team said that the databases were only accessible on local networks. This means that if attackers had already gained access to the MIM’s systems, they could exploit the exposed credentials. For more click here.

Check Also

PwC

PwC exits more than a dozen countries in push to avoid scandals: FT reports

PwC has ceased operations in more than a dozen countries that its global bosses have …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *