Aargh, cap’n, the server be like to founder Cybercrooks behind the resilient Pushdo botnet are bombarding legitimate small websites with bogus traffic in order to camouflage requests to the zombie network’s command and control servers.…
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Pushdo botnet’s smokescreen traffic hits legitimate websites
Here's an overview of some of last week's most interesting news and articles: Apache HTTP Server set to ignore IE10's Do Not Track request Microsoft's decision to make Internet Explorer 10 in Wi…
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Week in review: Blackhole 2.0 is out, Windows 8 users open to Flash exploits, and botnet C&Cs hidden in the Tor network
Over the last few months, I’ve started to see a common refrain from new customers coming onboard, indicating that they were getting DDOS’d with an SQL injection and needed protection. Each of these customers would describe different circumstances and impact to their websites, and the only similarity was that they all had backend databases to their websites. It made me take a deeper look into the attacks targeting some of these customers, to see if there was more to SQL injection than what the current understanding indicates. Here’s what I discovered as the most common methods for attacking a website database a) Crafted Code Injection – this technique falls within the conventional understanding, where an attacker will inject SQL statements via user input, cookies or server variables, in an attempt to have the rogue command passed to the backend database. If the database is not secured properly, the command may get successfully executed and lead to devastating results (eg. Dump of the database, data corruption, shutdown, etc.) b) Resource Exhaustion –arguments and commands are passed at a high enough frequency to simply overwhelm the database so it cannot process legitimate transactions. The illegitimate arguments that are being passed may be invalid or just nonsensical, and therefore not executed upon, but they still require the database to review the input before discarding. By injecting a flood of these types of requests, the CPU load of the backend database starts to increase to the point it stops responding. What we’ve seen with the Resource Exhaustion style attacks is that it often doesn’t take much in terms of packets or bits per second to make some of these database servers keel over. For those of you familiar with UDP/ICMP/SYN floods, which can be 10+ Gb/s and millions of packets per second (pps), you’ll be surprised to hear that Resource Exhaustion SQL Injections can be small as 200 kb/s as well as being only a few hundred pps, to debilitate a database and effectively bring a site down. Regardless of what attack technique is employed, we here at DOSarrest have been able to keep customers databases operational and intact under our protection. With our ability to mitigate these types of incursions, by employing features such as: i) Managing Arguments – checking and sanitizing which arguments get passed through to our customer ii) User Agent Verification – validation of http header fields to ensure that request are coming from an accepted list of browsers iii) Client Validation – proprietary algorithm ensuring that a visitor to a site is in fact a real user session iv) Connection Rate Limiting – discarding connections from sources that trip custom defined thresholds as well as many more, we are able to provide solutions unique to each customers setup and requirements. While we have been extremely successful in helping out our customers during these attacks, we still advise our customers to take preventative measures and use best case practices in designing their website code. In the next article, our Security Operations Manager, Sean Power, will be providing some useful tips and tricks in designing secure connections from your website to your backend database Jag Bains CTO DOSarrest Internet Security
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Tactics of an SQL Injection Attack
Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit has disrupted the functioning of yet another botnet by effecting a takedown of a domain which was also hosting over 500 different strains of malware and has been linked…
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Microsoft's study into unsecure supply chains leads to botnet disruption
Over the years, botnet owners have tried out different tactics for keeping their C&C servers online, in contact with the zombie computers, and hidden from researchers and law enforcement agencies, …
GoDaddy, on of the biggest and most popular Internet domain registrars and web hosting companies in the world, has suffered an outage on Monday that left many of its customers' websites temporarily av…
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Millions of GoDaddy sites go offline due to alleged DDoS attack
A massive DDoS attack struck GoDaddy’s name servers today, temporarily plunging thousands of websites into the internet abyss. “GoDaddy, the massive Web hosting company, went down on Monday, taking an untold number of websites with it,” reported CNN. Mashable.com reported, “The more problematic part is that any domain registered with GoDaddy that uses its nameservers and DNS records are also down. This means that even if you host your site elsewhere, using GoDaddy for DNS means it is inaccessible.” PC World reports: “In a YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPGBZWGUE2g), secretive hacking group Anonymous has taken credit for the outage, claiming the move is a reaction to the company’s support of the U.S. government’s efforts “to censor and control the Internet,” through its support of the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA).” But claiming Anonymous did this attack may be false, it turns out. The apparent attacker said, himself, that he was not affiliated with the Anonymous collective: “It is not Anonymous collective it’s only me. Don’t use Anonymous collective name on it, just my name,” wrote Twitter user Anonymous Own3r. (http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/09/10/every-godaddy-registered-site-…) Most likely scenario? A false flag cyber security attack in order to provide the excuse for Obama to sign a freedom-killing executive order focused on “cyber security.” The attack has taken down GoDaddy’s website, DNS servers, phone support and email accounts. It’s almost as if a nuclear bomb went off at GoDaddy headquarters. This attack appears to be hugely successful from the point of view of Anonymous hackers, although it’s not clear why GoDaddy was targeted in particular. GoDaddy manages 48 million domains spanning more than 9 million customers. The failure of its DNS likely means that millions of websites were taken offline. Domain Name Servers are a known vulnerability Domain Name Servers are a well-known vulnerability of the internet infrastructure. As this attack by Anonymous has masterfully demonstrated, DNS provides a centralized single point of attack that, if penetrated, can bring down literally millions of websites. DNS also provides a single point of government seizure, where rogue governments that hate free speech can take control over websites by commandeering their DNS records. For these reasons, you need to know how to reach NaturalNews.com even if DNS is compromised There is a workaround to DNS. You can bypass it and go straight to NaturalNews by simply entering the following “IP address” into your browser: 174.132.185.226 This is the equivalent of typing “NaturalNews.com” into your browser and it will work even if Domain Name Servers are being hacked or seized. This IP address will take you right to our website. It is our “digital address” recognized by all web browsers. WRITE THIS NUMBER DOWN on a piece of paper and carry it in your wallet or purse. Even if the Domain Name Servers are illegally seized by the government in an assault on the freedom of the press — or if they’re brought down by hackers as was demonstrated today — you can still use the IP address to reach us. If NaturalNews.com appears to be unreachable during a crisis event, revert to using the numbers instead of the name, and the site will likely respond. An even better way: Subscribe to our email newsletter An even better way to make sure you can hear from us is to subscribe to our FREE email newsletter (see subscription form below). Email is virtually impossible for anyone to block. Unless there’s a nuclear holocaust or something, we will always be able to email you with the latest alerts and information, even if our web servers are hacked or physically taken offline. Even if you don’t want to read our email newsletter each day, simply staying subscribed is valuable because we will be able to reach you with urgent alerts about what’s really happening. We don’t sell email addresses to anyone. Your privacy is completely protected, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Subscribing to our email newsletter is your way of allowing us to reach you even in a crisis, a seizure, or a hack attack. For fast DDoS protection against your eCommerce site click here . Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/037140_DDoS_attack_GoDaddy_Domain_Name_Servers.html
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DDoS attack on GoDaddy takes down millions of websites
A Scots teenager who admitted hacking into the websites of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and other prominent organisations said life is “serene” without access to the internet. Jake Davis, 19, admitted conspiring to carry out a “denial of service” attack on the crime agency at Southwark Crown Court in June. He also admitted hacking the NHS website. Davis, from the island of Yell, faced five charges following a Met Police investigation into the hacking groups LulzSec and Anonymous. The groups have been linked to a number of cyber-attacks on government agencies and multi-national companies. LulzSec has also been linked to hacking attempts on Sony and The Sun newspaper. Davis told the Observer newspaper: “The last time I was allowed to access the internet was several moments before the police came through my door in the Shetland Isles, over a year ago. One of my co-defendants and I have also been indicted with the same charge in the United States, where we may possibly be extradited, and if found guilty I could face several decades in an American prison. “Now I am on conditional bail and have to wear an electronic tag around my ankle. I’m forbidden from accessing the internet. “I’m often asked: what is life like without the net? It seems strange that humans have evolved and adapted for thousands of years without this simple connectivity, and now we in modern society struggle to comprehend existence without it. In a word, life is serene. “I now find myself reading newspapers as though they weren’t ancient scrolls; entering real shops with real money in order to buy real products, and not wishing to Photoshop a cosmic being of unspeakable horror into every possible social situation. Nothing needs to be captioned or made into an elaborate joke to impress a citizenry whose every emotion is represented by a sequence of keystrokes.” He added: “Things are calmer, slower and at times, I’ll admit, more dull. I do very much miss the instant companionship of online life, the innocent chatroom palaver, and the ease with which circles with similar interests can be found. Of course, there are no search terms in real life – one actually has to search. However, there is something oddly endearing about being disconnected from the digital horde. “It is not so much the sudden simplicity of daily life – as you can imagine, trivial tasks have been made much more difficult – but the feeling of being able to close my eyes without being bombarded with flashing shapes or constant buzzing sounds, which had occurred frequently since my early teens and could only be attributed to perpetual computer marathons. “Sleep is now tranquil and uninterrupted and books seem far more interesting. The paranoia has certainly vanished. I can only describe this sensation as the long-awaited renewal of a previously diminished attention span.” He said people’s attentions spans had suffered since the advent of the internet. “A miracle cure or some kind of therapeutic brilliance are not something I could give, but I can confidently say that a permanent lack of internet has made me a more fulfilled individual. And as one of many kids glued to their screens every day, I would never before have imagined myself even thinking those words. “Before, the idea of no internet was inconceivable, but now – not to sound as though it’s some kind of childish and predictable revelation spawned as a result of going cold turkey – I look back on the transcripts of my online chats (produced as legal evidence in my case, in great numbers) and wonder what all the fuss was about.” He added that he hoped others involved in the hacker community could take a short break from the internet to see if they could feel similar effects adding he had “forgotten how easy it was simply to close a laptop lid”. For fast DDoS protection against your eCommerce site click here . Source: http://news.stv.tv/north/189464-teenager-who-hacked-major-websites-says-life-is-serene-without-web-access/
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Teenager who launched Distributed Denial of Service ‘DDoS’ attack on high profile websites says life is ‘serene’ offline
A man who was reportedly part of one of the first “DDOS-for-hire” electronic attack hit squads will serve two-and-a-half years in prison for selling access to malware-infected computers. Joshua Schichtel, 30, of Phoenix, AZ, was sentenced on Sept. 6 to 30 months in prison for selling command-and-control access to, and use of, thousands of malware-infected computers, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald Machen, Jr. Schichtel was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release. Schichtel pleaded ea on August 17, 2011, to one count of attempting to cause damage to multiple computers without authorization by the transmission of programs, codes or commands, a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Schichtel was allegedly part of one of the first “DDOS-for-hire” rings uncovered in 2004. He was caught up in an investigation into a Massachusetts businessman’s scheme to launch an organized Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack on his competitors by hiring hackers who knew how to perform the electronic assaults. According to court documents, Schichtel sold access to “botnets,” which are networks of computers that have been infected with a malicious computer program that allows unauthorized users to control infected computers. Individuals who wanted to infect computers with various different types of malicious software (malware) would contact Schichtel and pay him to install, or have installed, malware on the computers that comprised those botnets. Specifically, said the documents, Schichtel pleaded guilty to causing software to be installed on approximately 72,000 computers on behalf of a customer who paid him $1,500 for use of the botnet.
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Arizona man sentenced for Distributed Denial of Service ‘DDoS’ attack
Joshua Schichtel was sentenced to 30 months in prison for selling command-and-control access to and use of thousands of malware-infected computers. In addition to his prison term, Schichtel was ordere…
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Arizona man goes to prison for selling access to botnets