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QNX Crypt Cracked
The Crypt algorithm for the QNX operating system was just cracked. QNX runs on banks computers, ATM's, Medical Equipment, and the almighty i-opener. Source code is there if you're interested.
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Kuro5hin has a write-up on this here and Advogato has one here. They've had these articles for most of today they have some interesting posts already.
It's even got a modest execution time... (largest loop -- while (rot--){...} -- rot is max 127 -- rot=(...)%128;) nothin too complex there...
Why not blowfish or some other BSD licensed stuff???
Don't encrypt passwords, hash them! Make sure there's enough information to identify a correct password, but not enough to reproduce it!
:)
That having been said, I don't know enough to write a secure crypto algorithm without following in someone else's footsteps. (I know the basics of public-key cryptography, I could probably code that) But you know what? I wouldn't try to reinvent the wheel here, not unless I proved it mathematically first.
...and if that decryption algorithm works, this'll be really embarrassing for them. (because it's *so* computationally simple, it should run in no time at all. I just don't have any random QNX "encrypted" data lying around to try it with...)
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
The possibilities are truly endless.
TO BUY A NEW CAR WOULD MAKE YOU SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE.
Yet again a company thinks that Jim the guy down the hall who "knows some crypto" can design a critical algorithm. After all, it looked kinda mashed up in testing, so how could anyone break that? :) Really, people, there are enough freely available one-way hash algorithms, which you can, and always could, export... Good crypto is hard to do, so if somebody has already done the work for you, take advantage of it! Don't waste time making up your own. You'll get shot in the foot later, like the QNX people did here.
seineew era sreenigne XNQ
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guillaume
give me all your garmonbozia
Okay, with that out of the way, even if you stole an ATM and decrypted everything in it, here's what you'd find: Nothing.
The network is specifically designed to avoid silly things like that - the ATM stores no persistent information beyond who used it, some accounting information, and when it was used. *that* information *may* be compromised, but a) it wouldn't do you any good and b) it's unlikely they're using anything less than 3DES. Give these people some credit, ok?
Now, if somebody was able to do realtime decoding of the ATM network itself... that would do several things a) panic people who normally don't panic, b) increase the local population drastically after the influx of federal agents, c) make international headlines and d) would not be submitted by an anonymous coward.
Guys.. I know people who work/have worked for financial institutions. I'd estimate the security to be B2 or above (if it was government certified). Unlike the DoD's "NIPR" net which was /supposed/ to be physically disconnected from any/every other network, the financial institutions just plain don't transfer important info over networks. The data is too valuable.
For example, credit bureaus will not accept an update to anybody's credit report electronically - it is done by hand with tape drives. Makes the movie "Hackers" seem more than alittle unrealistic. =) In short, DON'T PANIC. This crack means nothing to the financial industry. Now, if you want to be worried... you should note some of them run Windows 95..................
This isn't as serious as you might think. Sure the "encryption" of crypt on QNX was cracked. But good security assumes that the crypt function returns the plain text anyway. All crypt is used for is to encrypt the passwords in /etc/passwd This was all fine and dandy 20 years ago when it took lots of time to decrypt passwords. But these days you can break through the passwords with brute force in a week or less. Good systems use shadow passwords. So the real passwords go in /etc/shadow, which is unreadable by anyone but root and anyone but root can't even look at the encrypted passwords.
Anyone remember the first try Microsoft had at passwords in WinCE? IIRC, they just did a XOR of the password with the work "pegasus" spelled backwords! The original Win95 password hash was equally silly but I don't remember the algorithm right now. I guess some people never learn.
[slashcode parser sucks ass. what part of "plain text" don't you understand?]
:) :) 2 33&cid=56
<DJ-Pyro> JESUS CHRIST
<DJ-Pyro> im getting dos'd
<DJ-Pyro> ddos'd
<DJ-Pyro> like from all over the world
<lfilipoz> DJ-Pyro: wow... you can still IRC, tho?
<DJ-Pyro> not me
<DJ-Pyro> my server
<DJ-Pyro> colo at digitalNATION
<lfilipoz> is it just your box or all of digitalNation?
<DJ-Pyro> my box
<lfilipoz> and what's the url, so i can try to ping
<DJ-Pyro> we just shutdown apache
<DJ-Pyro> and now all of the clients are doing a CLOSE on tcp
<DJ-Pyro> netstat > netstat made a 30k log file
<DJ-Pyro> DAMN
<DJ-Pyro> they are back!
* jeff looks at DJ-Pyro
<DJ-Pyro> this is bigger than last time
<jeff> DJ-Pyro, you don't by chance host i-opener-linux.net, do you?
<lfilipoz> last time?
<DJ-Pyro> yes
<DJ-Pyro> why?
<lfilipoz> slashdot post
<DJ-Pyro> SHIT!
* lfilipoz already posted to that story and got the source code
<lfilipoz> bwahahaha
* jeff laughs
<jeff> source is here: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/04/16/1324
<DJ-Pyro> oh jesus fscking christ!
This is a really weak analogy, but it will do for now. Imagine you have a number x. Now, let's "encrypt" x using a simple reversable function. So let's take y = 2x + 3. If we have y, we know that x = (y + 3) / 2. Okay, now let's "hash" x instead and make y = x * x. Now, given y, we know that x = sqrt(y) or x = -sqrt(y). Therefore, the pricise value of x is not known.
Yeah, I said it was not a great example and it has some other flaws (for instance, it doesn't matter which x you choose since they both work), but it should get the point across.
QNX is designed for embedded systems, and its' big selling point is that it's a true real-time operating system. We actually use it at my office for a variety of purposes where we have to guarantee that a procedure runs, for example, 1500 times per second, no matter what.
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I doubt there will be any "official" response to this so I figure I'll give an unofficial post:
Crypt is *not* a form of secure encryption.
QNX Neutrino 2.0 has the option of using a more modern crypt, not the version which has been cracked.
QNX customers DO NOT use this as a form of strong encryption. Implying that QNX customers are suddenly at risk is irresponsible journalism, at best.
There were a few comments about export restrictions. Yes, QNX does have secure technology which falls under these restrictions, no it's not crypt.
...oh yes, if you're interested in attending QNX200 please email us, there will be *major* announcements which you won't want to miss (linux users in particular).
The frightening thing is that some ATMs run Windows. There was a link on Slashdot about a year ago to an ATM screen that was hanging there unavailable because something in Windows had crashed and was displaying the standard error requester waiting for some non-existent operator to click on "OK".
...
Meanwhile the people wanting their cash waited, and waited, while the geeks giggled
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra