[Resolved][Severity: Critical][Web app exploit]

Active Gaming Media: its game news site AUTOMATON was tampered with and showed a fake reCAPTCHA pop-up for about an hour

A flaw in a specific file was exploited, and for about an hour a fake reCAPTCHA pop-up appeared and sent visitors to an outside site. No infections were confirmed.

Disclosed

2021-04-12

Organizations involved

Leaked or at risk

Unknown

Downtime

Unknown

What happened

2021-04-12
The company announced the case. [1]
2021-04-12 10:45
From this time, an unintended pop-up imitating reCAPTCHA authentication began to appear on the site. [1]
2021-04-12 11:40
The company noticed the tampering. It suspended the site for temporary maintenance and worked with several specialist firms to find the cause and fix it. [1]

Impact and cause

The cause was an exploited vulnerability in a specific file. Visitors during this time saw the fake reCAPTCHA pop-up and were sent to an external site. The investigation did not confirm any damage, such as virus infection, from that site. [1]

The same kind of fake reCAPTCHA pop-up had also appeared on the site on September 21 and November 26, 2020. The company said it would work to strengthen security further. [1]