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Phishing Scams Incorporate SSL Certificates
dettifoss writes "Netcraft reports:
`Internet "phishing" scams are incorporating the use of SSL certificates in their efforts to trick users into divulging sensitive login information for financial accounts.'
Perhaps more disturbingly: `Scammers can also configure their web server so that deceptive SSL certificates won't trigger an alert in the user's browser. "One of the SSL encoding methods is 'plain text'," Neal Krawetz from Secure Science Corporation noted in the SANS post on the issue. "Most SSL servers have this disabled by default, but most browsers support it. When plain text is used, no central certificate authority is consulted and the user never sees a message
asking if a certificate should be accepted.'"
But is the web server itself secure? Most aren't... most are written by ASP + PHP programmers who have no clue about SQL Injection.
Excellent point, you have to consider the pinheads who are keeping your credit card data on file as well. Somebody comes by, cracks a few passwords and they walk off with all this data. That's a lot less work than busting SSL.
Average Joe doesn't have any idea what encryption is or why it's important. Average Joe just wants to point, click, and buy. Hell, I rarely pay attention to it.
Isn't it more likely that people were suckered in not because of the SSL trick but rather simply from "scam" or mimic pages instead?
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Never criticize religion on Slashdot. You will be modded down for "Troll" no matter how factual it is.
What, is this going to trick another 1% of so called "technically adept" people *COUGHmcseCOUGH* into giving their online bank login info over a freakin' website? Who ever ASKS YOU for your login information?! They reset it, and they have you reset it upon login.
Ooooh... Wait a minute. That could be a NEW strain of e-mails... Just takes a little more HTML craftmanship to code a fake E-Mail with a "reset" password, you log into the evil website with it, and enter in your "new" (which would most likely be your old one again, for most people) info. Scary!
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Wasn't the entire point of SSL was to be encrypted? Who's bright idea was it to put plain text in SSL in the first place, much less give browsers support for it?
If I understand correctly, phishing comes into play when users are sent an e-mail with a bogus link. Probably something like "we've detected fraudulent use of your account, please follow this link to verify your information" etc. etc.
There is no reason to follow links in e-mail to get to a site that you regularly use. If you doubt the authenticity of an e-mail from, say, American Express, just visit the site as you usually do, through a bookmark. After logging in you should be able to access the necessary info.
You can create self-signed certs just as easily with Microsoft's certificate managment tools.
Users are conditioned to click Yes/OK to *any* dialog box that gets in their way, without reading it.
I think you'd be better off asking why the existing laws against fraud and deceptive trade practicees aren't enforced.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Sad thing is, it's getting harder and harder to be able to give them basic advice.
At the rate things are going, you pretty well have to know all the same tricks the spammers/scammers do...
I mean, just the other day, I got a message from PayPal about my account. Oops, I don't have one... Okay, so that would've been my first clue, but it was faked well enough to pass Hotmail's spam filter, and it looked official, like I really had had an account suspended.
So I check the email source, because I know better. Sure enough, it's using the %00 bug to catch IE users. Assuming they would know to look for where the link actually pointed, instead of where it claimed to.
In the mean time, I went to the page. Sure enough, it wants every bit of information imagineable. All the other links off it link to actual PayPal pages... the status bar at the bottom is left blank via JavaScript. So the inobservant and gullible would be hosed...
Naturally, I feed it totally fake information (might as well give them more false data... shouldn't harm anyone, should only help get them caught, I hope), just to see what it does. Sure enough, redirects you to another actual part of the PayPal site. I sent off a LART to the hosting provider's abuse email. No response. I don't consider that a good sign.
Note that no SSL was required here. Just official-looking pages. Granted, I didn't fall for it, but I know more about these exploits than Joe Average. Joe Average probably wouldn't know what was wrong with %00 in a URL if he saw it.
This is sad, too. I've taught classes on this, and I try to teach the class as much as they are capable of understanding. Even so, it's getting to the point where I feel like they need to know at least as much as I do just to avoid these stupid scams. There's a new one made up every day, it seems, and I spend a lot of time just keeping up with what the lowlifes are doing...
So the point of all this? We practically need a "scam report" type of newspaper for the general public. Not to mention a primer detailing the older tricks in the book... not to mention some way to get the average public to read them both.
It is illegal under current laws (Wire fraud, misrepresentation, etc). The hard part is catching them, also there are jurisdiction issues. I mean really there was no need for new murder laws when guns came about. This is fraud, and oftentimes theft plain vanilla crime, but with a new delivery method. Also to be honest, most DAs would probably rather go after child porn then something so unlikely to get there names in the paper as white collar credit card scams
I'd do something interesting, but my server can't handle a slashdotting.
Would there be a way to have the browser display some sort of image transparency on the secure web page?
Given that the problem can be clearly stated and this is software we're talking about, yes -- such a method could easily be implemented. Alternate solutions could be changing the colors for the titlebar/statusbar, unique secure text/mouse cursor icons, flashing page borders, etc. However, if the trust is misplaced (as this article suggests) then all this notification is kind of pointless. User education on top of security-conscious software is still the best way to deal with security concerns.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Let me give you an example. Suppose you're in the nation of Grand Fenwick, and bank with the National Grand Fenwick Bank. I, who live in Mordor, decide to target customers of the National Grand Fenwick Bank, and set up a fake website at http://123.456.789.0/gf.php[1] that mimics their logon screen. I then send out millions of emails to lure customers of NGFB to my website.
Within minutes of these emails being sent, the Powers That Be at NGFB know about the fraud that's being committed in their name. They know what host is hosting the scam. They know (or can easily find out) where the host is located physically. BUT:
- How do they know whether that host is a willing or unwitting party to the fraud?
- How do they prove it, if it's willing?
- If it's unwilling, how do they track down the perpetrator?
- Assuming they can track down the perpetrator, how do they take said perp into custody?
It just so happens that the host is my own, and I'm listed as the registrar. Alas, alack, there is no extradition treaty between Mordor and Grand Fenwick, so all they can do is shout threateningly across the ocean at me, whilst I mock their puny and powerless attempts to bring me to justice.There are too many levels of proof needed to bring a conviction, and even if they're all satisfied, if the perpetrator is in a country such as Russia, all hope goes out the window. In fact, all it takes is one layer -- me hiring a Russian to obtain these details -- to protect me (as long as I'm careful about how I use those details).
The police and fraud departments are aware of these issues, and they're trying to resolve them. Unfortunately, political problems get between the problem and the solution. Things aren't helped when it takes me a half hour to alert the bank and/or police of a currently active fraudulent site...
[1] Yes, I know this is an invalid IP address. You're missing the point.
This is fine by me. Everything up to that point doesn't need to be encrypted. However, the only way to verify that the form (i.e. credit card #) will be sent over HTTPS is to View Source and look for the POST line. And this makes verifying certificates and encryption methods even harder.
Would it make sense for a tooltip over the Submit button to show the destination of the POST? Or at least whether it's secure? How about some useful items on the right-click menu?
While I'm on the topic...When I right-click and hit View Source, why can't the browser open an editor and scroll to the line of code that I right-clicked on? I know Firefox & IE don't, maybe something else does already..
The auto industry went through this when they put warning bells/buzzers on their cars telling drivers/passengers that their belt was not done up. The warning was persistent and loud - and got disabled (read ignored for the lock symbol and turned off for the message) ASAP.
They (the auto industry) learned though - they put the buzzer/bell on for only a few seconds at the beginning of the trip - reminding those who cared and not pissing off the rest enough to result in turning off the warning permanently (and thereby removing the warning from others who might drive the car/run the browser)
The lesson is "If you are going to issue a warning message - do it for a few seconds and then get rid of it so the idiot driving doesn't use wire cutters to remove it altogether"
Are you listening programmers?
Been there, done that, paid for the T-shirt
and didn't get it