Credit Reports Sold for Cheap in the Underweb

March 13, 2013

Following the online publication of Social Security numbers and other sensitive data on high-profile Americans, the three major credit reporting bureaus say they’ve uncovered cases where hackers gained access to users’ information, Bloomberg reports. The disclosure, while probably discomforting for many, offers but a glimpse of the sensitive data available to denizens of the cybercrime underworld, which hosts several storefronts that sell cheap, illegal access to consumer credit reports.

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Redacted screen shot of leaked records.

The acknowledgement by Experian, Equifax and Trans Union comes hours after hackers posted online Social Security numbers and other sensitive data on FBI Director Robert Muller, First Lady Michelle Obama, Paris Hilton and others.

Sadly, Social Security numbers and even credit reports are not difficult to find using inexpensive services advertised openly in several cybercrime forums. In most cases, these services are open to all comers; the only limitation is knowing the site’s current Web address (such sites tend to move frequently) and being able to fund an account with a virtual currency, such as WebMoney or Liberty Reserve.

Case in point: ssndob.ru, a Web site that sells access to consumer credit reports for $15 per report. The site also sells access to drivers license records ($4) and background reports ($12), as well as straight SSN and date of birth lookups. Random “fulls” records — which include first, middle and last names, plus the target’s address, phone number, SSN and DOB — sell for 50 cents each. Fulls located by DOB cost $1, and $1.50 if searched by ZIP Code.

Credit report lookup page at ssndob.ru

Credit report lookup page at ssndob.ru

It’s not clear from where this service gets its credit reports and other data, but it appears that at least some of the lookups are done manually by the proprietors. Pending new records requests are tracked with varying messages, such as “in queue,” and “in progress,” and often take more than 15 minutes to process.

A source who agreed to have their information looked up at this service provided his Social Security number, date of birth and address. Within 15 minutes, the site returned a full credit report produced by TransUnion; the report, saved as an HMTL file, was archived in a password protected zip file and uploaded to sendspace.com, with a link to the file and a password to unlock the archive.

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Critical Updates for Windows, Adobe Flash, Air

March 12, 2013

Microsoft and Adobe each released patches today to plug critical security holes in their products. Microsoft issued seven update bundles to address at least 19 20 vulnerabilities in Windows and related software. Adobe released the fourth security update in nearly as many weeks for its Flash Player software, as well as a fix for Adobe AIR.

winiconMicrosoft today began pushing out seven security patches, four of them rated “critical,” meaning the flaws they fix could be used by malware or bad guys to break into unpatched systems with little or no help from users. The critical patches address bugs in Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Silverlight, Microsoft Office and Microsoft SharePoint. Updates are available for Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2012.

More information on the Microsoft patches is available at the Microsoft security response center blog, which also discusses some changes to the way security updates are applied to apps available through the Windows Store.

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Help Keep Threats at Bay With ‘Click-to-Play’

March 11, 2013

Muzzling buggy and insecure Web browser plugins like Java and Flash goes a long way toward blocking attacks from drive-by downloads and hacked or malicious Web sites. But leaving them entirely unplugged from the browser is not always practical, particularly with Flash, which is used on a majority of sites. Fortunately for many users, there is a relatively simple and effective alternative: Click-to-Play.

c2pGCClick-to-Play is a feature built into both Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera (and available via add-ons in Safari) that blocks plugin activity by default, replacing the plugin content on the page with a blank box. Users who wish to view the blocked content need only click the boxes to enable the Flash or Java content inside of them.

To enable click-to-play on Chrome: From the main menu, click Settings, then in the search box type “click to play,” and click the highlighted box labeled “content settings.” In content settings, scroll down to the “plug-ins” section, and change the default from “run automatically” to “click to play”. To enable exceptions so that certain sites (krebsonsecurity.com?) are allowed to load Flash and other content by default, click the “manage exceptions” box. Alternatively, this can be done in Chrome through the address bar: when you browse to a site that has content blocked by the click-to-play feature, an icon will appear on the far right side of the address bar that allows you to add an exception for the current site.

c2pFFTo enable click-to-play in Firefox: Open a browser window and type “about:config” without the quotes. In the search box at the top of the resulting window, paste the follow “plugins.click_to_play”, again without the quotes. Double click the entry that shows up so that its setting under the “value” column changes from “false” to “true” (hat tip to F-Secure.com for this advice). To enable per-site exceptions, look for the blue lego-like icon in the lefthand portion of the URL bar, and click it; click the “activate” button to enable plugins just for that session, or to make it permanent for that site, click the down arrow next to “activate all plugins” and select the “always activate plugins for this site” option.

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Mobile Malcoders Pay to (Google) Play

March 6, 2013

An explosion in malware targeting Android users is being fueled in part by a budding market for mobile malcode creation kits, as well as a brisk market for hijacked or fraudulent developer accounts at Google Play that can be used to disguise malware as legitimate apps for sale.

An Underweb ad for Perkele

An Underweb ad for Perkele

I recently encountered an Android malware developer on a semi-private Underweb forum who was actively buying up verified developer accounts at Google Play for $100 apiece. Google charges just $25 for Android developers who wish to sell their applications through the Google Play marketplace, but it also requires the accounts to be approved and tied to a specific domain. The buyer in this case is offering $100 for sellers willing to part with an active, verified Play account that  is tied to a dedicated server.

Unsurprisingly, this particular entrepreneur also sells an Android SMS malware package that targets customers of Citibank, HSBC and ING, as well as 66 other financial institutions in Australia, France, India, Italy, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey (the complete list is here). The targeted banks offer text messages as a form of multi-factor authentication, and this bot is designed to intercept all incoming SMS messages on infected Android phones.

This bot kit — dubbed “Perkele” by a malcoder who goes by the same nickname (‘perkele’ is a Finnish curse word for “devil” or “damn”) — does not appear to be terribly diabolical or sophisticated as modern mobile malware goes. Still, judging from the number and reputation of forum buyers who endorsed Perkele’s malware, it appears quite popular and to perform as advertised.

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Oracle Issues Emergency Java Update

March 4, 2013

Oracle today pushed out the third update in less than a month to fix critical vulnerabilities in its Java software. This patch plugs a dangerous security hole in Java that attackers have been exploiting to break into systems.

javamessJava 7 Update 17 and Java 6 Update 43 address a critical vulnerability (CVE-2013-1493) in Java that security experts warned last week was being used in targeted attacks against high-profile targets. Oracle had intended to quit shipping updates for Java 6 at the end of February, but apparently reversed course for the time being to help Java 6 users address this latest crisis.

I thought this was unusually speedy patch response for Oracle, that is until I read an Oracle blog post that accompanied the patch release. Oracle said that while reports of active exploitation against the vulnerability were recently received, this bug was originally reported to Oracle on Feb. 1, 2013, “unfortunately too late to be included in the Critical Patch Update that it released on Feb. 19.

“The company intended to include a fix for CVE-2013-1493 in the April 16, 2013 Critical Patch Update for Java SE (note that Oracle recently announced its intent to have an additional Java SE security release on this date in addition to those previously scheduled in June and October of 2013),” wrote Oracle’s Eric Maurice.  “However, in light of the reports of active exploitation of CVE-2013-1493, and in order to help maintain the security posture of all Java SE users, Oracle decided to release a fix for this vulnerability and another closely related bug as soon as possible through this Security Alert.”

What makes Java vulnerabilities so dangerous is that Java is a cross-platform product, meaning exploits against vulnerabilities in Java can be used to deliver malicious payloads to Mac and Linux systems just the same as they can Windows PCs.  The previous Java update released on Feb. 19 came amid revelations by AppleFacebook and Twitter that employees at these organizations and dozens of others were hacked using exploits that attacked Java vulnerabilities on Mac and Windows machines.

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KrebsOnSecurity Wins Awards

March 4, 2013

I recently returned from San Francisco, which last week hosted the annual RSA Security conference. I had the pleasure of moderating a panel discussion on Raising the Costs of Compromise with some very smart guys, and also shared a stage with several security authors who were recognized for their contributions to infosec media.

Bruce Schneier, Jack Daniel & Krebs. Image: Alan Shimel.

Bruce Schneier, Jack Daniel & Krebs. Image: Alan Shimel.

Krebsonsecurity.com was honored with the “Blog That Best Represents the Industry,” award at the RSA Security Blogger Meetup. This was the third year in a row that judges bestowed that honor on this blog. Krebsonsecurity.com also won the award for “Most Educational Security Blog.”

Paul Dotcom won for “Best Security Podcast”; J4VV4D’s Blog earned the “Most Entertaining Security Blog” award; Sophos’s Naked Security Blog took home the “Best Corporate Security Blog” prize; and the “Single Best Blog Post or Podcast of the Year” went to Forbes’ Andy Greenberg, for Meet the Hackers Who Sell Spies the Tools to Crack Your PC (And Get Paid Six-Figure Fees). Finally, security blogger Jack Daniel was the latest greybeard inducted into the Security Bloggers Hall of Fame (Bruce Schneier and I shared that honor last year, which is why we’re both pictured on stage flanking Jack in this shot from last week).

Yours truly also was named one of 10 winners of the SANS Institute‘s “Top Cyber Security Journalist” award. I am truly honored for the recognition, and want to thank all the loyal readers of this blog for their constant encouragement and support.

Evernote Forces Password Reset for 50M Users

March 2, 2013

Online note-syncing service Evernote is forcing all of its 50 million users to reset their passwords after detecting suspicious activity on its network.

evernoteIn an email message sent to users today and posted on its blog, Evernote said digital intruders gained accessed to customer usernames, email addresses and encrypted passwords. The company says it has found no evidence that any of the content that users store in Evernote was accessed, changed or lost, and that there is no indication payment information for Evernote Premium or Business customers was accessed.

“Even though this information was accessed, the passwords stored by Evernote are protected by one-way encryption. (In technical terms, they are hashed and salted),” the company advised. “While our password encryption measures are robust, we are taking additional steps to ensure that your personal data remains secure. This means that, in an abundance of caution, we are requiring all users to reset their Evernote account passwords. Please create a new password by signing into your account on evernote.com.”

If you use Evernote (heck, even if you don’t), now is a great time to review your password practices. At the top of the password no-no’s list is reusing your email password at any other site. Also, while password hashing and salting can be effective at preventing attackers from working out your password should a company that stores that information get breached, it is far from solid protection. Evernote didn’t say which scheme it was using to hash passwords, but the industry standard is a fairly weak approach in which a majority of passwords can be cracked in the blink of an eye with today’s off-the-shelf hardware.

See this widely-read interview for more information on the ease with which most hashed passwords can be cracked today and what organizations might do differently to better secure their users’ information. This post has some tips on how to pick a strong password (e.g., some of the strongest passwords aren’t words at all but multi-word phrases). Finally, if you receive an email with a link in it telling you to click a link to reset your Evernote password — or any other password assigned to an online service you use — don’t click: Visit the site manually instead to avoid email phishing schemes.

New Java 0-Day Attack Echoes Bit9 Breach

March 1, 2013

Once again, attackers are leveraging a previously unknown critical security hole in Java to break into targeted computers. Interestingly, the malware and networks used in this latest attack match those found in the recently disclosed breach at security firm Bit9.

The discovery of the Java zero-day is being co-credited to FireEye and CyberESI, two companies that specialize in tracking cyber espionage attacks. In its writeup, FireEye said multiple customers had been attacked using a newly-found flaw in the latest versions of Java — Java 6 Update 41, and Java 7 Update 15.

FireEye said the Java exploit used in this attack downloaded a remote access Trojan called McRat. This threat, also known as HiKit and Mdmbot.F, calls home to a malicious control server at the Internet address 110.173.55.187. Turns out, this is the same malware and control server that was used in the attack on Bit9, according to details that Bit9 released in a blog post this week documenting a sophisticated attack that resulted in a breach of its own systems last year.

Alex Lanstein, a senior security researcher at FireEye, said it’s unlikely in this case that multiple attack groups are using the same infrastructure and malware.

“Same malware, same [command and control server], I’d have to say it’s the same group that hit Bit9,” Lanstein said.

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Flash Player Update Fixes Zero-Day Flaws

February 27, 2013

Adobe has released an emergency update for its Flash Player software that fixes three critical vulnerabilities, two of which the company warns are actively being exploited to compromise systems.

brokenflash-aIn an advisory, Adobe said two of the bugs quashed in this update (CVE-2013-0643 and CVE-2013-0648) are being used by attackers to target Firefox users. The company noted that the attacks are designed to trick users into clicking a link which redirects to a Web site serving malicious Flash content.

Readers can be forgiven for feeling patch fatigue with Flash: This is the third security update that Adobe has shipped for Flash in the last month. On Feb. 12, Adobe released a patch to plug at least 17 security holes in Flash. On Feb. 7, Adobe rushed out an update to fix two other flaws that attackers were already exploiting to break into vulnerable computers.

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Critical Security Updates for Adobe Reader, Java

February 20, 2013

Adobe and Oracle each released updates to fix critical security holes in their software. Adobe’s patch plugs two zero-day holes that hackers have been using to break into computers via Adobe Reader and Acrobat. Separately, Oracle issued updates to correct at least five security issues with Java.

javaiconThe Java update comes amid revelations by Apple, Facebook and Twitter that employees at these organizations were hacked using exploits that attacked Java vulnerabilities on Mac and Windows machines. According to Bloomberg News, at least 40 companies were targeted in malware attacks linked to an Eastern European gang of hackers that has been trying to steal corporate secrets.

Oracle’s update brings Java on Windows systems to Java SE 7 Update 15, and Java 6 Update 41. Most consumers can get by without Java installed, or least not plugged into the browser. Because of the prevalence of threats targeting Java installations, I’d urge these users to remove Java or unplug it from the browser. If this is too much trouble, consider adopting a dual-browser approach, keeping Java unplugged from your main browser, and plugged in to a secondary browser that you only use to visit sites that require the plugin. To find out if you have Java installed, visit java.com and click the “Do I have Java?” link below the big red button. Existing users can update Java from the Java Control Panel, clicking the Update tab and then the “Update Now” button.

Apple has issued an update that brings Java up-to-date on security patches but also disables the Java plugin from Web browsers on the system. Apple also issued a malware removal tool that it said should remove from Macs the most common variants of malware that used the most recent Java exploits. Continue reading