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Phatbot Author Arrested In Germany
Tacito writes "After arresting the author of Sasser, the German police claims having caught the author of Phatbot. To read the corresponding articles on Yahoo! News or Heise (use babelfish)."
jm.one adds a link to an "awesome Google translation" of the Heise article.
Germany is really cracking down today! Either that, or perhaps the Sasser writer gave up the Phatbot author? I'm guessing that one arrest lead to the other, considering Phatbot is a Sasser derivative.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
In other news, German Authorities claim they have caught the moth that got caught in the Mark II. News at 11.
Setec Astronomy
Police Sgt. Schultz said "I know NOTHING! NOTHING!!"
I must say that I find it very interesting that people are able to spread worms this fast nowadays. Back in the day it took weeks or months to see something, and most people had already patched the worms by then, but now it's crazy, a worm can propagate to the entire world in a day! Even faster than DNS :D Maybe something for the BIND developers to consider?
I just heard this news on NPR and thought I'd submit it to /. but I was scooped. NPR said that he was a "student" and lived with his parents. They said he admitted to being the Sasser worm author but failed to mention the Phatbot connection.
Here's an English language report that mentions a Microsoft connection.
say some sources (www.heise.de).
...
this is subject to a press conference to be held tomorrow.
well that`s somehow impressive, which should not mean admirable
... phatbot author in a phat jail cell behind some phatbars, and that's only because he doesn't know how to spell FAT!
Free Firefox news reader.
I'm still waiting for the day that one of these things wipes out the infected host after X hours/days. Ebola spreads fast and kills the host, why not a virus/worm?
I'll laugh when it happens.
Trolling is a art,
Phatbot is insanely well-written. A while ago I read a web page about what Phatbot can do:
- Exploits all kinds of vulnerabilities.
- Sniffs network traffic for usernames and password.
- Steal IRC operator passwords.
- Can kill many other viruses and anti-virus software.
- Can steal CD keys for popular games.
- Can steal AOL passwords.
- Can harvest emails for spam purposes.
- And more.
Whomever made Phatbot sure spent *a lot* of work into it.
More details at: http://www.lurhq.com/phatbot.html
Also contains instructions to manually remove it from an infected system.
If convicted, they should force him to work end user tech support during his jailtime. Of course, I'm sure some treaty out there would deem that cruel and unusual punishment and recommend execution as a more humane alternative. :)
WWJD?
JWRTFM!
Don't you mean tar and gzip them? :)
Who told you that? I've analyzed both, and there is no relation between them at all in terms of code. The source code to Phatbot is public, and the compiled binary is around 250-300K as opposed to Sasser's 15K. Maybe you're thinking about Phatbot being a derivative of Agobot.
My writeups of both can be found here:
http://www.lurhq.com/phatbot.html
http://www.lurhq.com/sasser.html
so that they can find out what "exploiting a backdoor" is all about.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/arch ive/2004/05/08/international1226EDT0513.DTL
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
In google news: HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - A tip from reward-seekers and information from Microsoft led to the arrest of an 18-year-old suspected of creating the "Sasser" computer worm, German police and the software giant said on Saturday. Spokesman Frank Federau for Lower Saxony police said police were certain they had the man behind one of the Internet's most costly outbreaks of sabotage. "We are absolutely certain that this really is the creator of the Internet worm because Microsoft experts were involved in the inquiry and confirmed our suspicions and because the suspect admitted to it," he said in an interview with Reuters Television. It was the lure of cash that proved the man's undoing. A group of individuals from Lower Saxony approached Microsoft (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Wednesday inquiring about reward money should they turn in the man. The U.S. software giant in the past has put bounties of up to $250,000 on the heads of other notorious virus writers. Microsoft general consul Brad Smith told reporters the company agreed to pay the informants if there is a conviction. "They did not stumble upon him through technical analysis. They were aware of who he was," Smith said, declining to elaborate on their relationship to the suspect and saying only the number of informants was less than five. The economic toll of Sasser may never be known, but it claimed some big scalps, including Germany's Deutsche Post (DPWGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) , Britain's coastguard stations and investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) . "COMPUTER FREAK" Federau said the man, who he described as a highly intelligent "computer freak" living with his parents, was arrested on Friday near the central German town of Rotenburg but was no longer in custody. Authorities and Microsoft said they suspect the man created all the versions of Sasser, adding he worked alone He is also believed to be a main person, if not the mastermind, behind the Netsky viruses that have been plaguing Internet users since February, Smith said. All the man's computers were confiscated by police, Federau said. Since appearing one week ago, Sasser has wreaked havoc on personal computers running on the ubiquitous Microsoft Windows 2000, NT and XP operating systems, but is expected to slow down as computer users download anti-virus patches. The computing underground responsible for hatching worms and viruses has proved a difficult ring to crack for law enforcement and security experts were surprised at the rapid arrest. (Additional reporting by Bernhard Warner in London and James Mackenzie in Hanover) © Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
about this country falling behind when it comes to technology. Rejoice, it doesnt seem to be that bad after all.
When asked for a comment, one German prosecution authority said:
Ich bein ein kickinassenviruswriter.
Please note, I am merely an American German Student. Any native German speakers are welcome to correct me:
Stuttgart (AP) - The presumed programming of the computer worm "Phatbot" was apprehended this weekend: as the state criminal police agency in Stuttgart and the responsible public prosecutor's office communicated on Saturday, an unemployed 21 year old was arrested near Lörrach. He admitted to having programmed, with other hackers, the Trojan "Agobot", which was later renamed to "Phatbot". There is currently no known direct connection between him and the "Sasser" programmer arrested in Niedersachsen.
The authorities searched for evidence on Friday, through the apartment of the suspect, as well as five possible accomplices in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Niedersachen, Hamburg and Bavaria. Numerous documents as well as computers and storage media were confiscated, and would have to be examined further. References from US Authorities helped provide evidence for the arrest of the suspect.
The 21 year-old had already aimed attacks at US and Brittish companies in 2003. The companies concerned were offline for several days and suffered damages in the millions. Also in Germany it was indicated that the suspect penetrated company computers. Aside from just the criminal consequences, substantial compesnation demands may be made.
The trojan mentioned is transferred to unsuspecting computers in order to take control of them. The initial evidence of the authorities of Baden-Württemberg points to the 21 year-old using the "Sasser" in order to develop the much more dangerous worm "Agobot/Phatbot".
Sig.i>
Could the authors of both worms be part of some German Cyber Terrorist group?
It seems most worms originate from other countries besides the USA. Could the worms be part of some Cyber Terrorist attack? If so, who is funding the development of these worms?
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Amazing as it may seem, not everyone who is out to do damage is part of a terrorist group. No, seriously! Probably only 0.5% of your average doing-bad-things person is a member of a terrorist organisation. I was as shocked as you are, it's incredible! All these people running around causing trouble without having the decency to live in a country you can bomb. I've found that you can actually travel around huge areas of Europe without even running into a terrorist, even in France!</sarcasm>
Why exactly do they need to be funded? Ever thought that they might be doing it because they get some deranged kick out of it, or so thay can brag about it or simply because they're sodding mental?
From reading your description, it doesn't seem like Phatbot is a worm at all, but rather a trojan worse / remote administration tool. If all the guy did was write a trojan horse, and there is no evidence that he himself has been using it on other peoples machines, then he should not be under arrest. Source code is speech, right?
Bets are, that on The New Slashdot (tm) - you know, the one where stories about DMCA attacks are full of attacks against the coders rather than the company (Apple!) - this story will be full of people commending a the arrest of this guy for nothing other than writing software...
North Korea, for example, spends $3 Billion USD a year to have viruses developed. I wonder how many other countries have such a program?
Hmmm, commit an act of Cyber Terrorism like release a worm into the wild, and just because you do not live in the middle-east, you are automatically not a terrorist?
In the USA we have our own terrorists, perhaps you forgot about Oklahoma City?
Terrorism knows no countries or races or religions, it is an equal opportunity employer.
Yeah just a bunch of kids having fun.
"Hey Gunthar, look at this worm I wrote, it takes 250K bytes of space."
"That is nothing Wolfgang, my worm only takes 15K of code."
"Ok Gunthar, let us release both of them onto the Internet and see which one wins!"
"Ok, but afterwords let's brag about them on IRC."
"Deal!"
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
...one and the same? Though I suppose it takes a little longer for the brain cells to die during tech support...
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Clifford Stoll book "Cuckoo's Egg:Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage" details his encounter with a german hacker in the 1980's. It was the book that inspired my interest and career in computers and eventually as a System Administrator. In 1990, Nova made a documentary about it called "The KGB, CIA, Computer and Me".
What is so ironic is that at the time the FBI did not even consider hacking a crime because Berkley couldn't show a sufficient monetary loss. This is despite the fact that the hacker was after military research. How times have changed! In any event, Stoll's ability to use his scientific training as a astronomer, his basic knowledge of computers and programming mixed with a quantum of social engineering and a massive honey pot, he was able to trace this hacker back to a KGB agent in Germany.
If I recall correctly, instead of being arrested, this hacker was found dead in his burnt out car in the middle of a forest somewhere in East or West Germany. It's a great read.
...the skinnybot slipped through the net.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
After posting this thread, I found a great interview with Cliff.
Some favorite excerpts:
"The hacker. The speed of light. The beauty of constraints. What is about Clifford Stoll that arouses such a need for conversation? Cliff Stoll is a lunatic in the sanest sense of the word. He doesn't so much present an argument as digest it with his mouth open. It's not pretty but somehow it works."
"The lab's computer chargeback system had blown up because it could not account for 75 cents of computer time. It took three years for Stoll to prove that a spy was using the computer as a launching pad through Internet to hack at hundreds of military, industrial, and academic computers in search of secrets for the KGB."
"My friends accused me of being co-opted by the State. But I didn't exactly feel like a tool of the ruling class, unless imperialist running dog puppets breakfasted on stale granola. My guts told me that the CIA should know and I ought to tell them."
Well, thank you for being a total cynic, probably either A) from a country that was stupid enough to follow the US blindly up until about 15 years ago, or B) a person from the other side of the Iron curtain with a lot of tension that is still being released.
"your government"! haha. What country are you from?
Isn't it ironic, don't ya think, that on one hand everyone is "Free Mitnick!" yet on the other hand everyone is "Tar and feather these German virus writers!"
Don't get me wrong, I'm in the "Free Mitnick" crowd and firmly in the "string up virus writers and spammers by the gonads" camp... but why is this?
Perhaps because Kevin was just another one of "us" who learned and didn't really seem to have done harm, yet those of us who have had to deal personally with the hassle of servers being taken down by a virus/worm or of personally cleaning our machines or worse --- losing data or time that could be better spent getting girlfriends or boyfriends?
Bah. So hang the bastards, hang 'em high, is what I say.
Back in the day, there were many more types of machines with many different software packages performing the same functions (such as email). Infections spread more rapidly in monocultures, in both biological and computer ecosystems.