Earlier this week, Czech security experts led by Jan Vykopal, head of the security project of Masaryk University released a report describing “Chuck Norris”,  a BoTnet they discovered running on compromised broadband routers that attempts to intercept sensitive information such as user passwords, bank account details and private email account information.

Once installed, the bot blocks remote communication ports and begins to scan the network for other vulnerable machines. Controlled via IRC, the worm itself can be terminated by restarting the router as it is installed in RAM. However, variations may exist that install itself into NVRAM that may not be so easily removed.

While the Czech experts identified the BoTnet’s footprint only to have extend across Europe, China & South America, North America may not be far behind. Earlier last year, DroneBL – an organization that monitors abuse of infected machines identified a potential PoC (proof of concept) BoTnet called Psyb0t that was soon shut down.

According to this white paper on Psybot, ADSL modem/routers based on the Texas Instruments TNETD7300, similar to the NB5 modem/router manufactured by NetComm were exploitable using their web interfaces that were exposed on the WAN side.

DroneBL team summarized the Psybot characteristics as:

• was the first botnet worm to target routers and DSL modems
• contained shellcode for many mipsel devices
• was not targeting PCs or servers
• used multiple strategies for exploitation, including bruteforce username and password combinations
• harvested usernames and passwords through deep packet inspection
• could scan for exploitable phpMyAdmin and MySQL servers

The DroneBL blog on this botnet estimated about 100,000 Mipsel – a port of Debian Linux for MIPS processors – devices as infected. While the BoTnet is no longer supposed to be active, the short time it took to spread to 100,000 devices is certainly cause for alarm.

The average gateway device used by small-businesses and/or individual users does not enjoy the typical protection the user’s computers may have on the internal network such as virus and malware scanners or periodic software updates. This makes it all the more appealing to potential attackers. In addition, as any external traffic gets routed through the device, it’s the ideal location to intercept sensitive information to/from all network resources.

Guidelines to protect your Gateways & Routers

To reduce potential risk of compromise to your network, ensure the gateway devices at least have;

1. No administrative interfaces (Web, Shell) exposed to the WAN side
2. Strong password policies
   • Use alphanumerically complex passwords
   • Change passwords regularly
   • Do not reuse passwords
3. Changed default user/admin names (Such as ‘admin’)
4. Latest firmware/patches applied
5. Logging enabled and monitored routinely.

Flexispy Ltd – A Seychelles based company, just launched an iPhone version of their flagship product intended to facilitate spying on unsuspecting mobile users.

The company claims its iPhone version of the software supports

• SMS Logging to intercept all incoming and outgoing SMS messages.
• Reviewing Call History & Sent Emails
• GPS Location monitoring
  
• Remote Control using SMS commands
• Monitoring via secretly calling the iPhone and listening in using the iPhone’s Microphone
• Remotely uninstalling the software
• … and more

The company sells five flavors of its software varying in features and prices that start from USD 39.00.

Luckily, the product only works on Jail-Broken iPhones for now. Physical access to install the spying software is also needed. However, once installed FlexiSpy can hide all signs of the phone being jail-broken.  The best defense against FlexiSpy at this time seems to be physical security controls.

According to a recent survey of 30 CEOs and 183 of their top  executives over a six month period by the Ponemon Institute, CEOs & their top executives seem to be at a disconnect about security measures and risk exposure at their companies. The survey queried 213 senior executives including chief operating officers, division presidents, and chief information officers about their awareness on data security and threat at their companies.

Among the CEOs surveyed, 53 percent responded the chief information officer is accountable for data protection, while only 25 percent of senior executives sided with that opinion. However, nearly 85 percent of executives felt that a failure to prevent security breaches during their tenure would not jeopardize their job.

Who is responsible for security in your organization

[Source: Business Case for Data Protection - Study of CEO and other C-level Executives, Ounce Labs]

Only 3% of the CEOs responded that they perceived cyber crimes to be the the source of greatest risk to their data security, while the majority of CEOs – 31% – believed stolen or lost laptops and data storage devices to be the greatest risk.

[Source: Business Case for Data Protection - Study of CEO and other C-level Executives, Ounce Labs]

The survey also showed a great gap between measures that should be used versus those that are currently used to measure the effectiveness of data protection efforts. Respondents felt asset protection and reputation management measures should be used more.

The effectiveness of data protection efforts

[Source: Business Case for Data Protection - Study of CEO and other C-level Executives, Ounce Labs]

Over all, the survey concluded that C-level executives understand the need for good data protection measures. Even though they might be driven by regulatory and compliance needs, a rising majority understands the need for data protection practices that address reputation protection and customer trust and loyalty. The complete research report can be downloaded from Ounce Labs – the sponsor for the survey.

Last week, we looked at SQLMAP – a popular tool to test for SQL Injection vulnerabilities. Here is a video series from Imperva that demonstrates basic SQL Injection techniques for security testing.

Here is Part 2

Conclusion