Android Data Stealing Vulnerability

Android Browser Flaw Allows Data Theft

A new vulnerability has been discovered in the Android web browser that could allow hackers to steal files stored on the smartphone's SD card.

According to security expert Thomas Cannon, the a flaw automatically allows payload data to be downloaded to the device's SD card. A few tweaks to a JavaScript will allow the files on the SD card to open making the data readable, he said.

Once the JavaScript has stored the contents of the targeted file, it will then post it to the malicious website. He warned that the flaw is present on multiple handsets and multiple Android OS versions. The security expert has posted a video on his website showing the Android browser exploit in action.

“I notified the Android Security Team on 19-Nov-2010 and to their credit they responded within 20 minutes, took it seriously, and started an investigation into the issue. They have since updated me to say they are aiming for a fix to go into a Gingerbread maintenance release after Gingerbread (Android 2.3) becomes available,” he said.

Refer here to read more details.

Taking-control of People's Webcams

Computer genius jailed for hacking webcams

A computer hacker who used his technological-know how to take control of people’s webcams was sentenced to 18 months in prison today.

Matthew Anderson, aged 33, was an important member of a globally-running gang who abused the skills he picked up from his role as an expert in computer security in order to target both businesses and members of the public with spam that contained hidden viruses.

As well as this, he accessed personal data such as photographs in a highly sophisticated email scam run from his the front room of his mother’s house, and took control of random internet users’ webcams in an attempt to see inside their houses and appointments.

While also boasting at one point to a colleague that he had had a teenage girl in tears with his acts, Anderson also saved webcam images of girls in school uniforms, a newborn baby with its mother in hospital and other intimate pictures, some of which were of a sexual nature.

New Android Bug Lets Spoofed Apps Run Wild

Spoofed Android apps can bypass security permissions

Google has always a lot of control over its products in the hands of its users, and Android OS is probably on of the best examples. When downloading an application, the user is shown just what said application needs to run properly. If the user doesn’t want the app to have access to certain things it requires, you simply don’t download it. Well, it seems that isn’t the case anymore, as there’s now a new bug in town, and it doesn’t need your stinkin’ permission.

A new bug found in Android can allow those with malicious intent to make a spoof application that seems harmless, only to find out that it can roam free on your handset, and download other, more dangerous applications to steal your personal data, without any permission by the user. Tricky tricky.

Intel security researchers Jon Oberheide and Zach Lanier have created such an application. It looks harmless – an Angry Birds add-on pack that after downloaded, will install a handful of programs that will track your location, steal your contacts, and give the hacker the option to send pay-per-texts. While this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this kind of hack attack, it will certainly be unsettling to most users, especially if this bug isn’t fixed pronto.

Refer here to read more details on Forbes.

Android on the iPhone?

Install Android 2.2 on the iPhone 2G and 3G over WiFi

Hackers have come up with a way of rescuing Apple fanboys who have elderly versions of the iPhone.

For a while now Jobs' Mob has been forcing its long suffering customers to upgrade their 2G and 3G phones to the broken iPhone 4 by saddling them with an upgrade which made their gizmos slower. Now Redmond Pie has come up with a method of replacing iOS on iPhone 2G and 3G models with Android 2.2 Froyo without using any tools on a host computer.

The outfit had shown off an Android installation before. This involved running iPhoDroid on a host computer connected to a jailbroken iPhone 2G or 3G. This new process uses Bootlace 2.1 to install Android directly via WiFi. It works on iPhone 2Gs with iOS 3.1.2 and 3.1.3 and iPhone 3Gs with 3.1.2, 3.1.3, 4.0, 4.0.1, 4.0.2 and 4.1.

Refer here to read more details.

Beware - New, Improved Trojans Target Banks

Malware Variants Seek Corporate Accounts

Security researchers are warning financial institutions about the Qakbot Trojan, a rare kind of malware that is allegedly infiltrating large banks and other global financial institutions. It's unlike other types of malware because it has the ability to spread like a worm, but still infect users like a Trojan.

The Qakbot Trojan, named for its primary executable file, _qakbot.dll, is not new, but its qualities and difference in attack set it head and shoulders above other more well-known Trojans, such as Zeus, in that it can infect multiple computers at a time.

In another disturbing find, security researchers at TrustDefender Labs have found a new Gozi Trojan variant that shows a zero percent detection rate. The Trojan targets financial institutions and is invisible to the most used anti-virus software.

Gozi has been attacking banks for three years, but has managed to stay low and undetected. TrustDefender researchers warn that by targeting specific financial institutions, mainly business and corporate banking, Gozi has avoided wider attention from businesses as the Zeus Trojan has grabbed the headlines.

The new Gozi variant has many of the same characteristics of its earlier variants that were researched a year ago. Gozi developers evade signature patterns so much that the history of the Trojan is mostly unknown. TrustDefender's CTO Andreas Baumhof states that an increasing number of Trojans are using SSL and HTTPS to hide their presence. Gozi is also using client-side logic to go around two-factor authentication, as are other Trojans including Zeus, Spyeye and Carberp.

Pen-Testing: Learn your target, Understand your target, Develop your attack specifically around your target

Would it cripple the organization as a whole? What hurts them the most?

Since when did a penetration test primarily become automated tool driven? Scanners are an aid but not a full supplemental for us as penetration testers.

Handing a sixty page 'penetration test' report with five hundred vulnerabilities does absolutely nothing for a company aside from a check mark for whatever regulatory and compliance initiatives they have underway. It's time for a reality check:

• Good hackers don't need to utilize expensive vulnerability scanners.
  
  
• Good hackers don't use automated penetration testing.
  
  
• Attackers don't have a scope or timeframes.
  
  
• Attackers don't stop after they get root.
  
  
• Attackers don't have portions taken out of scope.

The reality of the current situation with pentests is that the true purpose of a testing is completely wasted. For one, your incident response team doesn't get a true attack against a focused attack. If you are at the point where you can't detect automated scans against your network then these traditional methods are right up your alley and your security program is still immature in nature which is fine, you'll get there. The most important element is there is no true representation of impact or financial loss due to a breach.

In simplistic terms there's no focus on business risk, but instead focused on the vulnerability and the exposure of the attack. We aren't hitting companies where it hurts, what makes their business run.

Penetration testing has to be something that measures the organizations business risk and impact if a breach were to occur. When attacking an organization you have to understand what is sensitive and what hurts the company the most. Intelligence gathering is one of the most important elements of a penetration test as well as understanding and learning the network.

Learn your target, understand your target, develop your attack specifically around your target, nothing is out of scope.

Where can I have the most impact on the organization and how do I represent that? WOW I GOT DOMAIN ADMIN!!!!!! OMG I GOT ROOT! That's fantastic buddy, I'm happy for you but that doesn't mean squat to me. Present them with their intellectual property, future projections, show the ability to change their product, confidential and trade secret information or whatever you identify as what hurts them the most. Some questions to answer in Pen-testing includes but not limited to: would that impact them in a negative manner? Would it cripple the organization as a whole? What hurts them the most?

We're also significantly challenged with the basic penetration tests, how do you go against a cheap vulnerability scan penetration test to something that will cost significantly more than that and be done right. Businesses don't understand the difference, they just go with the cheapest buyer, they don't know what they are about to purchase sucks.

We need to hire qualified people that get it, I will pay extra for a group that knows what they are doing vs. a super cheap scan. The industry is bleeding, let's step it up and do it the right way.

SCADA security issues will be the shiny hot topic

Metasploit and SCADA Exploits: Dawn of a New Era?

On 18 October, 2010 a significant event occurred concerning threats to SCADA.

That event is the addition of a zero-day exploit for the RealFlex RealWin SCADA software product into the Metasploit repository.

Some striking facts about this event follow:

1. This was a zero-day vulnerability that unfortunately was not reported publicly, to a organization like ICS-CERT or CERT/CC, or (afaik) to the RealFlex vendor.
   
   
2. This exploit was not added to the public Exploit-DB site until 27 October, 2011.
   
   
3. The existence of this exploit was not acknowledged with a ICS-CERT advisory until 1 November, 2010.
   
   
4. This is the first SCADA exploit added to Metasploit.

Shawn Medinger at InfoSec Island shared some interesting thoughts:

First, the SCADA community can expect to see an explosion of vulnerabilities and accompanying exploits against SCADA devices in the near future.

Second, the diverse information sources that SCADA vulnerabilities may appear must be vigilantly monitored by numerous organizations and security researchers.

Afaik, the first widely-disseminated information on the RealFlex RealWinbuffer overflow occurred on 1 November, when I sent the information to the SCADASEC mailing list.

Third, people should recognize that the recent Stuxnet threat has cast a light on SCADA security issues. Put bluntly, there is blood in the water.

Quite a few people, companies and other organizations are currently investigating SCADA product security, buying equipment and conducting security testing for a number of differing interests and objectives.

Fourth, understand that because of the current broken business model, security researchers are often frustrated by software vendors’ action, or inaction, when it comes to reporting vulnerabilities.

Often, there is no security point-of-contact at the vendor. Even worse, the technical support who are contacted by the security researcher often do not understand the technical and security implications of the issue reported.

Even in the case of specialty SCADA security shops reporting vulnerabilites to the vendor, we are seeing documented cases of “vendor spin” furthering the bad blood between vendors and ethical research.

All of these factors lead to frustrated security researchers, some of whom will simply expose the vulnerability and exploit to the world, rather than take a disclosure path through a CERT.

Fifth, folks should recognize that attack frameworks like Metasploit enable a never-before-seen level of integration of these kinds of targeted critical infrastructure-relate exploits into a powerful tool.

Roger on Stuxnet

Stuxnet talks – do we listen?

Stuxnet is a severe threat – that’s something we know for sure. But if we look at it, what do we really know? What can we learn?

Let’s start from the beginning. As soon as Stuxnet hit the news, it was interesting to see, what was happening. There was a ton of speculation out there about the source and the target of the worm, especially since it hit mass-media. It is obvious that this is a story that is interesting for a broad audience – however, we security professionals need different sources.

Refer here to read an interesting view on Stuxnet from Roger Halbheer.

'Shodan' - Computer Search Engine: Pinpoints shoddy industrial controls

Hackers tap SCADA vulnerabilities search engine

A search engine that indexes servers and other internet devices is helping hackers to find industrial control systems that are vulnerable to tampering, the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team has warned.

The year-old site known as Shodan makes it easy to locate internet-facing SCADA, or supervisory control and data acquisition, systems used to control equipment at gasoline refineries, power plants and other industrial facilities. As white-hat hacker and Errata Security CEO Robert Graham explains, the search engine can also be used to identify systems with known vulnerabilities.

According to the Industrial Control Systems division of US CERT, that's exactly what some people are doing to discover poorly configured SCADA gear. “The identified systems range from stand-alone workstation applications to larger wide area network (WAN) configurations connecting remote facilities to central monitoring systems,” the group wrote in an advisory (PDF) published on Thursday. “These systems have been found to be readily accessible from the internet and with tools, such as Shodan, the resources required to identify them has been greatly reduced.”

Besides opening up industrial systems to attacks that target unpatched vulnerabilities, the information provided by Shodan makes networks more vulnerable to brute-force attacks on passwords, many of which may still use factory defaults, CERT warned. The organization advised admins to tighten security by:

• Placing all control systems assets behind firewalls, separated from the business network
• Deploying secure remote access methods such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) for remote access
• Removing, disabling, or renaming any default system accounts (where possible)
• Implementing account lockout policies to reduce the risk from brute forcing attempts
• Implementing policies requiring the use of strong passwords
• Monitoring the creation of administrator level accounts by third-party vendors

Refer here to read more details.

Identity Theft: Trends, Patterns and Typologies Report

Identity Theft Reports Jump; Most Attributed to Family

According to a new ID theft report from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, most cases of ID theft are linked to a victim's family members or coworkers.

John Summers, a project officer at FinCEN and a lead in FinCEN's report, "Identity Theft: Trends, Patterns and Typologies Reported in Suspicious Activity Reports", says ID theft perpetrated by family, friends and business partners ranked No.1 among SARs filed by U.S. depository institutions in 2009. "In 27.5 percent of the filings, this was the highest," he says. "It basically means someone close to them was getting access to their files and using their information."

In the FinCEN study, of the 372 depository institutions reviewed - a mix of banks and credit unions of varying assets sizes - the majority of ID theft incidents, not surprisingly, were reported by the largest financial institutions.

Identity theft was the sixth most frequently reported characterization of suspicious activity, trailing money laundering, check fraud, mortgage-loan fraud, credit-card fraud, and counterfeit-check fraud. In the study, FinCEN defines identity theft as involving the theft and misuse of unique identifying information, such as financial account numbers, depository accounts, investments, loans, credit cards, online payment accounts, officially issued federal or state identification documents, and biometric information.

Impersonation of an actual person without consent also fell into the ID theft definition, whether that impersonation occurred in-person or through an electronic form or other medium.

The most important takeaway from the study, Summers says: The narrative section on the SAR, which provides the most critical information. "It is very key to the analysis," he says. "Since we added the identity theft box in 2003, we've used the narrative to tell law enforcement what happened; and the more information the banks can provide in the narrative, the more the regulators and law enforcement can do."

Please refer here to download the report.

How to bypass iPhone’s passcode-protected lock screen?

Circumventing iPhone Security with the Push of A Button

A tech savvy iPhone user has posted a video demonstrating a new finding; there’s an easily executable and potentially serious flaw in the iPhone password security function. Under the right circumstances, a simple press of the iPhone’s lock button will allow a malicious user to bypass the phone’s password protection and enter into the main phone app. Here, anyone can view the phone’s call history and stored contacts and listen to voicemail.

Wired.com’s Threat Level blog reports that Apple has not yet commented on the bug.

For more details refer here.

Bug no iOS 4.1 from Salomão Filho on Vimeo.

Verizon report connects PCI non-compliance and data breaches

Verizon Business report shows a correlation between non-compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and data breaches

A new Verizon Business report released today shows a correlation between non-compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and data breaches. The results revealed that organizations that had suffered data breaches were 50% more likely to exhibit PCI non-compliance.

The report also ranked the top attack techniques used to steal payment card data. Remote access to systems via backdoors was the top attack, followed closely by SQL injection attacks. Poor authentication was also a problem, in particular, attackers exploiting default or easily guessable passwords to gain access to systems storing or processing payment data.

Further, 11% of companies met less than half of the requirements, while 22% met 100% of the requirements. The report also covers compensating controls, and determined that Requirement 3.4, which mandates that a primary account number (PAN) be unreadable, is the control most compensated for.

Quick Summary

• 22% of organizations were validated compliant at the time of their Initial Report on Compliance (IROC). These tended to be year after year repeat clients.
  
  
• On average, organizations met 81% of all test procedures defined within PCI DSS at the IROC stage. Naturally, there was some variation around this number but not many (11% of clients) passed less than 50% of tests.
  
  
• Organizations struggled most with requirements 10 (track and monitor access), 11 (regularly test systems and processes), and 3 (protect stored cardholder data).
  
  
• Requirements 9 (restrict physical access), 7 (restrict access to need-to-know), and 5 (use and update anti-virus) showed the highest implementation levels.
  
  
• Sub-requirement 3.4 (render the Primary Account Number (PAN) unreadable) was met through compensating controls far more often than any other in the standard.
  
  
• Organizations do not appear to be prioritizing their compliance efforts based on the PCI DSS Prioritized Approach published by the PCI Security Standards Council.
  
  
• Overall, organizations that suffered a data breach were 50% less likely to be compliant than a normal population of PCI clients.

Please refer here to download the report.

NIST Scientists Offer Tips to Defeat Keyloggers

How to Beat Keyloggers

Keyloggers monitor and record keyboard use, including the information typed into a system, which might include the content of emails, usernames and passwords for local or remote systems and applications, as well as financial information like credit card numbers, Social Security numbers or PINs.

Some keystroke loggers require the attacker to retrieve the data from the system, whereas others actively transfer the data to another system through email, file transfer or other means.

NIST scientists identify three main types of keyloggers:

Hardware -- Tiny inline devices placed between the keyboard and the computer. Because of their size, they can go undetected for long periods of time. These devices have the power to capture hundreds of keystrokes, including banking and email username and passwords. But for the criminal, the threat of being caught breaching the machine is a deterrent.

Software -- This type of keylogging is done by using the Windows function SetWindowsHookEx that monitors all keystrokes. The spyware will usually appear packaged as an executable file that initiates the hook function, plus a DLL file to handle the logging functions. An application that calls SetWindowsHookEx is capable of capturing even autocomplete passwords.

Kernel/driver -- This kind of keylogger is at the kernel level and receives data directly from the input device (typically a keyboard). It replaces the core software for interpreting keystrokes. This type of keylogger can be programmed to be virtually undetectable by being executed when the computer is turned on, before any user-level applications start. Since the program runs at the kernel level, one disadvantage to this approach it that it fails to capture autocomplete passwords, as this information is passed in the application layer.

Defending Against Keyloggers

There are several kinds of defenses that can be used to spot or prevent keyloggers from embedding on machines:

Physical Security -- The physical protection of the computer must be considered. Whether the computer is at home, in an office or during traveling, keeping the computer secure and making sure no one has access to it is a primary concern.

Application whitelisting -- is a way to prevent any software that isn't already approved or on the "white list" from being downloaded on to the computer. This is an emerging approach in combating viruses and malware. Application whitelisting tells the computer a list of software considered safe to run, and the machine is instructed to block all others.

Some experts see this approach as superior to the standard signature-based, anti-virus approach of blocking/removing known harmful software (essentially blacklisting), as the traditional approach generally means that exploits are already in the wild.

Detection Software -- Be careful where you go to on the Internet. Drive-by downloads from ads that have been laced with malware are being found now even on popular news sites - not just on the fringes.

At a minimum, at least have anti-virus and anti-spyware loaded, and make sure they're kept up to date. Again, buy from a reputable vendor. Consider operating a "virtual" machine environment to browse the Internet.

Virtual machines -- are separated into two major categories, based on their use and degree of correspondence to any real machine. A system virtual machine provides a complete system platform that supports the execution of a complete operating system. The other type, a process virtual machine, is designed to run a single program. An essential characteristic of a virtual machine is that the software running inside is limited to the resources and abstractions provided by the virtual machine -- it cannot break out of its virtual world.

Future Trends

"Moving forward in the next 12-18 months, the major computer manufacturers will begin offering virtual machine technology. "We're going to see more consumer-friendly operating systems being designed by vendors that will limit malware by having the user on a virtual machine while on the Internet, and the 'home' environment separate.

Cloud-based whitelisting will also become more popular, making whitelisting more available.

Another advancement in the fight against keyloggers and other types of malware is the move by anti-virus vendors to set up reputation-based systems, which checks programs and tells the user whether it is legitimate or malicious.

The addition of a third component in the fight against malware is the use of operating systems and browsers that don't allow the malicious programs to be pushed down in the first place. By isolating and "sandboxing" the user's specific browsing session, no software is downloaded to the user's computer.

Advanced evasion techniques can bypass network security

After "APT", we now have "AET"

A new hacking technique creates a mechanism for hackers to smuggle attacks past security defences, such as firewalls and intrusion prevention systems.

So-called advanced evasion techniques (AET) are capable of bypassing network security defences, according to net appliance security firm Stonesoft, which was the first to document the approach. Researchers at the Finnish firm came across the attack while testing its security appliance against the latest hacker exploits.

Various evasion techniques including splicing and fragmentation have existed for years. Security devices have to normalise traffic using these approaches before they can inspect payloads and block attacks.

Refer here to read more details.

Problems associated with elevated privileges

Least Privilege Security for Windows 7, Vista, and XP - Security

Russell Smith, renowned Windows security expert, discussed how adhering to the principle of least privilege can benefit the security of your environment, including reducing support incidents and improving user productivity. To attend the webinar, register for one of the following dates:

Least Privilege Security for Windows 7, Vista, and XP: Tuesday, November 2, 2010, 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. PDT

Least Privilege Security for Windows 7, Vista, and XP: Wednesday, December 1, 2010, 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. PST

In the webinar, Russell notes that running administrator-level privileges on desktop PCs increases total cost of ownership (TCO) by 36.3%. He also discusses the fact that although users tend to view security as restrictive, enforcing proper security measures actually benefits users because it helps meet their expectations for speed, reliability, and productivity.

Problems associated with elevated privileges include the following:

• Malware—The more users running with elevated privileges, the greater the risk of infection.
• Data leakage—Having more users with elevated privileges increases the chance of data loss.
• Help desk costs—Giving users the right to change system configuration can lead to problems.
• Unlicensed software—Users with admin privileges can install personal software, as well as unwittingly infect their systems by running fake antivirus software.
• System/network slowdowns—Problems that users create on their own systems affect not only those systems but also the network.
• Elevated privileges allow users to circumvent the management controls that are designed to protect systems and networks.