Ah Microsoft is treating this one seriously after France and Germany advised users to avoid IE.

The current strain being exploited only targets IE6 users, but one security company has developed an exploit for IE8 which also bypasses DEP (Data Execution Prevention).

It was rumoured this was the exploit used last week to compromise Google and various other high profile networks. Although I am skeptical as to why anyone was using IE inside Google? Perhaps doing cross browser testing for development, who knows.

Microsoft will release an out-of-band patch Jan. 21 to fix the Internet Explorer vulnerability at the center of recent attacks on Google and other enterprises.

According to Microsoft, the patch is slated to be ready around 1 p.m. EST. If all goes according to plan, the patch will close a hole that has prompted France and Germany to advise users to avoid IE and the U.S. State Department to demand answers from China. Attackers have used the vulnerability to hit IE 6. Microsoft so far has said it has only seen limited, targeted attacks using the vulnerability.

Meanwhile, security researchers have continued to uncover information about the origin of the attack. Joe Stewart, director of malware research for SecureWorks’ Counter Threat Unit, said his analysis of the code for the main Trojan involved in the attacks shows a more direct link to China.

It’s very rare for them to push an out-of-band patch for anything but I guess there are still a LOT of IE users out there and this is a serious flaw.

It does seem to originate from China with the only discussions about the technical parts of the flaw and implementation being discussed on Chinese language sites.

As can be seen by a Google search here (“crc_ta[16]“), after the first few English news sites reporting the flaw the rest of the results are in Chinese.

According to Stewart, the code includes a CRC (cyclic redundancy check) algorithm implementation released as part of a Chinese-language paper on optimizing CRC algorithms for use in microcontrollers.

“This CRC -16 implementation seems to be virtually unknown outside of China, as shown by a Google search for one of the key variables, ‘crc_ta[16],’” Stewart noted in a SecureWorks blog post Jan. 20. “At the time of this writing, almost every page with meaningful content concerning the algorithm is Chinese.”

Up until this finding, Stewart told eWEEK, the factors leading people to point to China were patterns similar to previous Chinese malware.

“Unfortunately, when investigating malware, nothing is conclusive because digital evidence can be forged,” he said. “However, I believe the use of the Chinese algorithm certainly gives more credence to the attack code being Chinese in origin.”

They really have no choice but to release this patch when faced with government pressure, you should see it hitting your Windows Update sometime today (Jan 21st).

Let’s hope this patch has been tested properly and doesn’t subject users to another black screen of death.

It’s good to see some proactive initiatives by Microsoft, I hope they continue through 2010.

Source: eWeek

Tags:  crc-16,  data execution prevention,  dep,  exploit,  hacking-IE,  ie 0day,  IE-exploit,  IE-security,  IE-vulnerability,  internet explorer security,  internet explorer vulnerability,  internet explorere 0day,  internet-explorer-exploit,  microsoft,  microsoft patch tuesday,  microsoft security,  oob patch,  out of band patch,  vulnerability

BackTrack is a Linux-based penetration testing arsenal that aids security professionals in the ability to perform assessments in a purely native environment dedicated to hacking.

Regardless if you’re making BackTrack your primary operating system, booting from a LiveDVD, or using your favorite thumbdrive, BackTrack has been customized down to every package, kernel configuration, script and patch solely for the purpose of the penetration tester.

BackTrack is intended for all audiences from the most savvy security professionals to early newcomers to the information security field. BackTrack promotes a quick and easy way to find and update the largest database of security tool collection to-date.

I’m sure many of you have been using the BackTrack 4 Pre Release which was pushed out in June last year, finally BackTrack Final 4 is available for download!

New in BackTrack Final 4

This release includes a new kernel, a larger and expanded toolset repository, custom tools that you can only find on BackTrack, and more importantly, fixes to most major bugs that were known of.

You can download BackTrack Final 4 here:

http://www.backtrack-linux.org/downloads/

Due to massive demand and lack of capacity I would suggest download the Torrent version.

Or read more here.

Tags:  backtrack,  backtrack 4,  backtrack linux,  backtrack livecd,  bt,  bt4,  hacking-livecd,  linux security distribution,  linux-livecd,  linux-security,  pen-testing-livecd,  penetration testing livecd,  security-livecd

You should remember the SSL Renegotiation bug from last year that was used to successfully attack twitter.

Finally IETF have come out with a fix for the issue, it’s natural it has taken some time as it’s a flaw in the actual protocol itself not in any specific implementation (which is usually the case).

The bug was fairly serious as demonstrated by the Twitter-jacking that took place exploiting the flaw. The bug basically allowed an attacker to conduct a man-in-the-middle attack and insert some malicious data at the beginning of a vulnerable SSL/TLS connection.

A fix that addresses a security vulnerability that could threaten SSL-protected Websites has been given the greenlight. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has finished work on a fix to a vulnerability in the Secure Sockets Layer protocol security researchers uncovered last August.

The vulnerability partially invalidates the SSL lock and allows attackers to compromise sites that use SSL for security—including banking sites and back-office systems that use Web services-based protocols. The issue was uncovered by Steve Dispensa and Marsh Ray, who work for two-factor authentication provider PhoneFactor.

“The bug allows a man-in-the-middle to insert some malicious data at the beginning of a vulnerable SSL/TLS connection, but does not allow him to directly read the data sent by the legitimate parties,” explained Ray. “This capability is referred to as a ‘blind plaintext injection attack.’ Initially, it was hoped that this limited capability would offer some mitigation. Unfortunately, it seems that HTTPS is particularly strongly affected because of its design, and an effective attack on the Twitter HTTPS API was demonstrated shortly after the vulnerability was publicly disclosed.”

Some of the open source providers of SSL implementations have fixed the bug in their software and released publicly available patches. These however are not officially merged with the main development trees as they were waiting for the official fix from the IETF.

It will take a while for all the major vendors to roll this into their software I guess, I’d hope to see everyone rolling out fixes by the end of January latest.

Who knows how many sites/apps are quietly being owned out there due to this bug.

A copy of the IETF draft can be found here. After incorporating feedback from the TLS community, the proposed fix was approved by the IESG on Jan. 7, 2010. The IESG is responsible for the technical management of IETF activities and the Internet standards process. The decision means customers can now begin to deliver patches that implement IETF’s change.

“Because of the large number and variety of systems affected, substantial interoperability testing [for the SSL extension] will be conducted by many vendors before they feel comfortable releasing a patch,” Ray said. “Some interoperability testing has already been done with preliminary versions of the patch, but another round of testing is occurring now that the details of the fix have been finalized by the IETF.

“Some of the open-source TLS implementations (OpenSSL, GnuTLS) have fixes in their publicly visible repositories, but have not released a formal patch as of right now,” he added. “Most of the larger vendors (open source and otherwise) have been given several months’ head start on implementing the fix, so they should not be starting from zero at this point.”

I’m glad to see something has been done about this issue and it has been treated seriously, imagine what would have happened if this was an issue with a Microsoft product?

They’d point fingers and create some FUD story claiming it wasn’t critical and only effected a small amount of systems under very specific circumstances.

Source: eWeek

Tags:  exploit,  ietf,  internet engineering task force,  ssl bug,  ssl exploit,  ssl renegotiation,  ssl renegotiation bug,  ssl vulnerability,  tls bug,  tls exploit,  tls vulnerability,  vulnerability

This is a tool that performs version fingerprinting on Microsoft SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008, using well known techniques based on several public tools that identifies the SQL Version. The strength of this tool is that it uses probabilistic algorithm to identify the version of the Microsoft SQL Server.

The “Microsoft SQL Server Fingerprint Tool” can also be used to identify vulnerable versions of Microsoft SQL Server – it is based on some techniques used by Exploit Next GenerationTM to perform automated penetration test.

This is a very new tool and is in the BETA stage, so please do download it, try it out and give some feedback to the author.

You can download mssqlfp here:

mssqlfp-BETA4.exe

Or read more here.

Tags:  data-security,  database fingerprinting,  database-security,  fingerprinting,  Hacking Tools,  hacking-databases,  microsoft sql,  microsoft sql fingerprinting,  microsoft sql fingerprinting tool,  ms-sql,  ms-sql fingerprinting,  mssql,  mssql fingerprinting,  mssqlfp

You may remember a while back in 2008 it was uncovered (at least publically) that DarkMarket was actually an FBI Sting Operation.

Insiders had apparently known since 2006 that one of the admins was actually an undercover FBI agent. Countless cases have gone to court with the evidence and contacts gathered in the DarkMarket forums. One example would be the Turk named Cagatay Evyapan (nickname Cha0) who got busted.

The latest news is one of the previous admins Renukanth Subramaniam (nickname JiLsi) has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and admitted his involvement with the site.

A former London pizza delivery man faces a 10-year prison sentence after admitting he helped found the notorious DarkMarket forum for computer crime, several news sites reported.

Renukanth Subramaniam, a 33-year-old Sri Lanka-born man from North London, pleaded guilty at Blackfriars Crown Court in London to conspiracy to defraud and furnishing false information. Authorities say he joined DarkMarket on its first day of operation in late 2005 and helped build it into an online resource for payment card fraud, with a thriving exchange for buying and selling stolen data and its own secure payment system.

DarkMarket operated for three years and had about 2,500 members at its peak. To be accepted, candidates had to provide details of 100 compromised cards to reviewers, who would then verify their validity. Members were required to adhere to a strict code of conduct that forbid foul language and pornography and demanded a kind of honor among thieves.

Subramaniam was one of the earliest members on DarkMarket joining back in 2005 on its first day of operation and becoming an admin soon after that.

He’s facing a maximum sentence of 10 years, I’d imagine the sentence will come out to 2-3 years and with good behaviour he’ll be out of the cushy white-collar prison in 18 months or less.

So much for clamping down on crime eh? I shall reserve further judgment until we actually find out the real sentence.

Subramaniam worked as a site administrator until October 2006, when he was forcibly demoted over allegations of poor security hygiene. He continued as a reviewer until June 2007 and was arrested the following month when he turned himself in to police in Wembley.

DarkMarket was shuttered in September 2008 following the arrest of another site admin who called himself Cha0. According to news reports, the Turkish hacker was known as a supplier of high-quality skimmers for payment card fraud and was eventually accused of kidnapping and torturing a Turkish police informant.

A month later, another DarkMarket admin with the handle Master Splynter was outted as senior cybercrime agent J Keith Mularski of the FBI. The website, it turned out, had been secretly run from an FBI facility in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Also on Thursday, a second DarkMarket associate pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud. John McHugh, 69, of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, was alleged to be an experienced payment card fraudster who went by the online moniker Devilman.

It seems like a lot of the main players in the carding scene are getting shut down, at least those that show a public face.

Of course the underground will always continue to tick on, making money and hiding in the shadows.

So, just be careful where you shop online and always check the ATM for skimming devices!

Source: The Register

Tags:  atm skimmer,  card fraud,  carding,  carding forum,  cha0,  credit card details,  credit-card-fraud,  dark market,  darkmarket,  darkmarket forums,  FBI,  fbi sting,  fraud,  jilsi,  renukanth subramaniam

You may remember a while back we reviewed the latest update of GFI LANguard 9, another powerful product developed by GFI is EventsManager.

Managing, archiving and monitoring logs and SNMP traps for a whole network can be a bit of a logistical nightmare, that’s where products like this come in. Commonly they are known under the umbrella term Business Intelligence Systems or more specifically Log/Event Management.

Installation is easy enough as per usual with GFI software, configuration will be a little more complex depending on the architecture of your network. If you have any problems however you can download the user manual here – esm8manual.pdf [PDF]. Do note you will require a local or remote instance of MS-SQL for events archiving. You can download and use MS-SQL 2005 Express Edition (which is free).

You can find an overview of the software here and a full features list here.

Once you get started you’ll need to setup the MS-SQL database before you can do anything else, so either put the details for your remote server or install the free express edition then set up the database.

After that you can select if you wish to process local computer events, selected machines or setup custom config (snmp traps/syslog). There are a lot of options in the configuration management and allows you to easily aggregate the logs/SNMP output from a whole network. It allows logging from a plethora of devices including Windows and Linux servers, Cisco devices, Juniper devices, laptops, desktops and databases.

The main screen gives you a very simple overview that the services are running correctly and the global events count with a break-down by type.

The graphing view allows you to visually see by source or globally by event classification and volume flow by hour.

The Event Browser allows you to view individual events, drill down to the details captured and sort them by status allowing you to track down problems easily and diagnose which application is causing the problem.

You can also add the free GFI EventsManager ReportPack, which enables you to generate graphical IT-level, technical and management reports based on the hardware and software events processed by GFI EventsManager.

Pricing runs as low as $45.00 per node for Servers and $4.50 per node for Workstations if you buy in bulk.

You can download the free trial here:

http://www.gfi.com/downloads/register.aspx?pid=esm

You can find the full details on GFI EventsManager here:

http://www.gfi.com/eventsmanager

Tags:  bi,  business intelligence,  event archiving,  event management,  event monitoring,  eventsmanager,  gfi,  gfi events manager,  gfi eventsmanager,  gfi software,  hipaa,  log management,  pci dss,  snmp,  snmp traps,  sox

Many users are expecting a patch for the Microsoft IIS Semicolon Bug, but from the recently published bulletin by Microsoft it seems that is highly unlikely during this patch cycle.

Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for January 2010

It seems they will only be pushing out a fairly low priority fix which is rated critical only for Windows 2000 users.

In its first Patch Tuesday of the year, Microsoft is planning to plug a Windows security hole rated critical for Windows 2000 systems. A fix for a Server Message Block protocol vulnerability is still being worked on, Microsoft says.

Microsoft is kicking off the new year with a single Windows security bulletin. The first Patch Tuesday release of 2010 will contain a fix rated “critical” for Windows 2000 users and low for others. According to Microsoft’s pre-Patch Tuesday notification, the bulletin addresses a remote code execution vulnerability, and the exploitability index—the rating system that predicts the likelihood of a successful exploit—is not high.

The single bulletin means that a fix for the SMB (Server Message Block) protocol vulnerability the company warned users about in November is not on the menu to be fixed by Jan. 12. According to Microsoft Security Program Manager Jerry Bryant, the company is still working on the issue.

The critical SMB bug we published back in November is not slated to be fixed either.

So as usual, disable public access to your SMB ports! And of course…don’t hold your breath for a fix, if we’re lucky it may get rolled into the February patch cycle.

“We are not aware of any active attacks using the exploit code that was made public for this vulnerability and continue to encourage customers to follow the guidance in the advisory which outlines best practices to help protect systems against attacks that originate outside of the enterprise perimeter,” Bryant wrote on the Microsoft Security Response Center blog.

Microsoft is also not releasing a patch for the IIS (Internet Information Services) problem reported in late December. According to Microsoft, the issue is not an actual vulnerability in IIS 6.0, but an inconsistency in how it handles semicolons that can only be exploited if IIS is configured in a vulnerable setting.

This month’s Patch Tuesday release is slated to be available at 1 p.m. EST, Jan. 12.

Not being aware of any public exploitation isn’t really a valid excuse is it? Since when do blackhats go around telling everyone exactly what they are up to?

People could and probably are getting pwned left right and center and no one will have any idea how.

They are skating around the IIS issue too, even if it’s a vulnerability caused by settings (yes settings can mitigate it) they should push out something to solve the problem (an updated config for example).

Source: eWeek

Tags:  hacking-IIS,  hacking-windows,  iis exploit,  iis flaw,  iis security,  iis semicolon bug,  iis vulnerability,  microsoft,  microsoft patch cycle,  patch-tuesday,  windows,  windows patch,  windows-security

WAFP is a Web Application Finger Printer written in ruby using a SQLite3 DB.

How it works?

WAFP fetches the files given by the Finger Prints from a webserver and checks if the checksums of those files are matching to the given checksums from the Finger Prints. This way it is able to detect the detailed version and even the build number of a Web Application.

In detail?

A Web Application Finger Print consits of a set of relative file locations in conjunction with their md5sums. It is made based on a production or example installation of a Web Application or just out of an extracted Web Application install files tarball. For this task, generate_wafp_fingerprint.sh is to be used.

WAFP comes with a README and a HOWTO file both containing some descriptions and examples.

Example

A specific fingerprint with verbose mode enabled:

wafp.rb --verbose -p phpmyadmin https://phpmyadmin.example.de

    found the following matches (limited to 10):
   +-------------------------------------------------------------+
    phpmyadmin-2.11.9.1                	 296 / 299  (98.99%)
    phpmyadmin-2.11.9.2                	 295 / 299  (98.66%)
    phpmyadmin-2.11.9.4                	 295 / 299  (98.66%)
    phpmyadmin-2.11.8.1                	 295 / 299  (98.66%)
    phpmyadmin-2.11.9.5                	 295 / 299  (98.66%)
    phpmyadmin-2.11.8                  	 295 / 299  (98.66%)
    phpmyadmin-2.11.9.3                	 295 / 299  (98.66%)
    phpmyadmin-2.11.9                  	 295 / 299  (98.66%)
    phpmyadmin-2.11.4                  	 294 / 299  (98.33%)
    phpmyadmin-2.11.5.2                	 294 / 299  (98.33%)

You can download WAFP here:

wafp-0.01-26c3.tar.gz

Or read more here.

Tags:  fingerprinting,  hacking-web-applications,  hacking-websites,  wafp,  web app fingerprinting,  web application finger printing tool,  web application fingerprinting,  Web Hacking,  web-application-security,  web-security

Fairly wide-spread attacks based on the latest vulnerability in Adobe PDF Reader have been spotted by Symantec, they appear to be variants on old attacks but still can be very effective.

It’s not the first time this has happened, back in February 2009 Hackers targeted a 0-day exploit in PDF Reader.

With one variant of this current attack seeing 34,000 detections on Symantec’s network alone, it could be considered fairly widespread.

A week before Adobe is scheduled to patch a critical vulnerability in its popular PDF software, hackers are actively exploiting the bug with both targeted and large-scale attacks, a security researcher said today.

The SANS Institute’s Internet Storm Center (ISC) reported Monday that they’d received samples of a new rigged PDF document that hijacked PCs using a bug Adobe acknowledged Dec. 14 . Later last month, Adobe said it would not patch the bug until Jan. 12. In his write-up of the sample, ISC analyst Bojan Zdrnja called the attack PDF “sophisticated” and its use of egg-hunt shellcode “sneaky.”

“Egg-hunt shellcode” is a term for a multi-stage payload used when the hacker can’t determine where in a process’ address space the code will end up.

Today, Joshua Talbot, security intelligence manager at Symantec, confirmed that the malicious PDF exploited the Adobe Reader and Acrobat vulnerability, but unlike Zdrnja, said it wasn’t out of the ordinary. “It’s not particularly novel or sophisticated,” Talbot said.

It seems the solution is the same as it has always been, disable JavaScript support in PDF Reader. But honestly, how many non-tech savvy users will do that? Or even know HOW to do that?

Mine recommendation of course is always to use Foxit PDF Reader and avoid these issues all together.

Which I have of course recommended since 2008 back when Adobe PDF Reader was getting pwned 2 years ago.

All the maker of the recently-discovered exploit did, Talbot added, was take code published in a 2004 research paper and make minor modifications. “These techniques aren’t new or clever, but the same things that all attackers are doing,” Talbot argued.

Although the malicious PDF described by ISC has been seen in only limited numbers — designed for high-profile targets, such as company executives or personnel with access to network passwords — Symantec has monitored bigger attacks exploiting the PDF bug. One attack generated more than 34,000 detections on Symantec’s global detection network, peaking on Dec. 31 before falling sharply.

“We’re definitely seeing activity out there, since the vulnerability is unpatched,” said Talbot. When asked to put that attack on the size scale, Talbot answered, “That puts it in the class of being actively exploited. It shows that there’s both going on … that attackers are crafting one-off exploits for their own purposes, and that there are people who are trying to distribute exploits to as many people as possible.”

Hopefully Adobe will pull the patch forward seen as though this is being actively exploited and push the patch out to users ASAP.

It’s currently stated that Adobe will release the patch on January 12th at their support site, which thankfully isn’t too far off.

Perhaps they take testing seriously so their patch cycle will naturally be delayed.

Source: Network World

Tags:  adobe,  adobe exploit,  adobe pdf reader,  adobe vulnerability,  bojan zdrnja,  foxit,  foxit pdf reader,  Javascript,  pdf exploit,  pdf reader exploit,  pdf reader security,  pdf reader vulnerability,  pdf security,  pdf vulnerability

YASAT (Yet Another Stupid Audit Tool) is a simple stupid audit tool. Its goal is to be as simple as possible with minimum binary dependencies (only sed, grep and cut).

It do many tests for checking security configuration issue or others good practice.

It checks many software configurations like:

• Apache
• PHP
• kernel
• MySQL
• OpenVPN
• Packages update
• snmpd
• tomcat
• user accounting
• vsftpd
• xinetd

YASAT has been tested on:

• Gentoo
• Debian
• Ubuntu
• FreeBSD
• OpenBSD

YASAT is licensed under GPLv3.

You can download YASAT here:

yasat-207.tar.gz

Or read more here.

Tags:  Apache,  apache-security,  audit,  audit tool,  auditing,  computer security audit tool,  cut,  grep,  kernel security,  linux-security,  php-security,  sed