Almost 300,000 web sites hosted with Internet Information Services are infected with a new malicious malware according to PandaLabs. By injecting SQL code in all pages hosted on the same IIS server, this vulnerability allows hackers to inject SQL code and redirect the visitor to a malicious site. The malicious page scans the visitors machine to find ways to compromise the visitors machine. Exploits are then downloaded and used to infected the redirected visitor based on the information found on the scan.

If your site is hosted with Internet Information Services it is highly recommended you check to see if your site is compromised. To check if your site is compromised, search your source code for the following IFRAME reference: “<script src=http://www.nihaorr1.com/1.js>”. If this IFRAME reference is found, remove them immediately and notify your IIS admin right away.

Author: Christopher

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Lifeblood - Memphis, TN
Over 320,000 blood donor records missing and assumed stolen.

Tenet Healthcare Corporation - Dallas, TX
An ex-employee was confirmed to have stolen 37,000 records with patient names and personal information.

Long Island University - Brookville, NY
30,000 tax records are considered compromised because of defective mailers with missing adhesive on one side.

Source: Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

Author: Christopher

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Late in December 2007, something Roger Thompson of Grisoft characterized as “a pretty good mass hack” compromised tens of thousands of websites, including edu and gov domains, with an automated SQL injection. The hack exploited a Microsoft SQL Server vulnerability that was over a year old, one that was patched in early 2006 by the MS06-014 security update. The hack injected into SQL databases an SQL iterative loop with a JavaScript tag that appends itself to every column of text. The script instructs browsers reaching the site to execute another script hosted on a malicious server. From what is known, those hacked appeared to share little in common except a common weak spot in their SQL server databases. Since those hacked are not bragging about it, the identities of the hackees as well as the actual purpose of the hackers was, and is, unclear.

Although the mass hack was cleaned up in record time, quickly relieving many fears of disastrous consequences, the possibilities from the hack may have been broader than what actually took place. One professional web developer responding on Thompson’s blog anxiously noted, “Looks like exploits for Y! Messenger, IE TIFF overflow and RealPlayer are also in there. Yikes.” Symantec and other experts analyzing the JavaScript itself agreed that the malicious script targeted a RealPlayer bug, one much more recent that the server vulnerability. The RealPlayer bug targeted had been found and fixed in October 2007, only a couple of months before the hack.

Those hacked were not simply at-home users or amateur server owners. According to Thompson, who reported the hack on January 5, 2008, “some victims were pretty sophisticated in terms of security smarts, including, apparently, some Computer Associates pages.” While it appears that no seriously harmful damage resulted from this particular hack, its massive size leaves many users troubled about other equally vulnerable bugs that may exist in their own server farms.

Author: Christopher

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A recent article on Forbes talks about a Lieutenant Colonel of the Army purchasing Apple Macintosh computers to decrease their risk of exploitation. Primarily in response to the recent security breach of the Pentagon back in June as well as a few other incidents. It is widely discussed that Macintosh computers are more secure than Windows & Linux based computers because fewer vulnerabilities exist for the Mac platform.

What I never hear talked about in these discussions is the alarming fact that Macintosh had five and a half more vulnerabilities per month on average than Windows throughout the year 2007. You can see the details and the numbers in a recent ZDNet article. It is quite common to see Macintosh users without any active Malware (Anti-Virus, Worm, Trojan, Spyware) protection.

Back in April 3Com held a short lived contest that resulted in compromising a fully patched Macintosh laptop for a prize of $10,000 and the MacBook.

Author: Christopher

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Al Gore’s Word-Press blog to promote his film “An Inconvenient Truth” was recently hacked with links selling online pharmaceuticals. These types of attacks are far too common with spammers looking for ways to peddle their wares. Like many other blog platforms, Word-Press has been plagued with security exploits and vulnerabilities.

Hackers compromise high profile sites like these to build legitimate links to their empire of sites to build traffic storms and search engine rank.

One of the most effective ways to protect your blogs is to keep the software up to date. It is also common for hackers to add malicious code to blog skins then distribute them publicly through sites like WP-Shere.

Author: Christopher

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It’s a shocking but true statement.

But then if the vulnerabilities and misconfigurations are known, why are steps not taken to correct them?

Well, the answer lies in the question itself. The vulnerabilities are known but which ones exist in your system’s network need to be identified.  The first step towards protection against security breaches is identification of these vulnerabilities. This is achieved through security audits and vulnerability scans.

A number of people question the need for security audits and few people even dismiss them as unnecessary. Some people believe that their anti-virus software can take care of all such security concerns. And it’s astonishing to know that a lot of people either have obsolete anti-viruses that are not updated as frequently as they should be or their anti-virus software has poor virus detection rate.

The need for protection varies from business to business. Though a powerful anti-virus software might suffice one business’ security needs; other businesses might require a more sophisticated security solution that comprises protection against malware of all types (malware is the short for “malicious software” and includes viruses, Trojans, worms, spyware, and adware).

Security audits involve a thorough analysis of the systems/network and security practices in order to determine the security solution that would best suit the organization. Security audits involve a lot of tests to identify misconfigurations, firewall vulnerability (e.g. due to exposed workstations), password policy, suitability of current anti-virus software, network component (modems, dial pools etc) vulnerability, vulnerability of web services, mail databases, etc. You must ensure that your security auditors perform all the relevant security tests and give you a complete and comprehensive security solution

Author: Christopher

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