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Convicted VoIP Hacker Robert Moore Speaks
An anonymous reader writes "Convicted hacker Robert Moore, who will report to federal prison this week, gives his version of 'How I Did It' to InformationWeek. Breaking into 15 telecom companies and hundreds of corporations was so easy because most routers are configured with default passwords. "It's so easy a caveman can do it," Moore said. He scanned more than 6 million computers just between June and October of 2005, running 6 million scans on AT&T's network alone. 'You would not believe the number of routers that had "admin" or "Cisco0" as passwords on them,' Moore said. 'We could get full access to a Cisco box with enabled access so you can do whatever you want to the box. We also targeted Mera, a Web-based switch. It turns any computer basically into a switch so you could do the calls through it. We found the default password for it. We would take that and I'd write a scanner for Mera boxes and we'd run the password against it to try to log in, and basically we could get in almost every time. Then we'd have all sorts of information, basically the whole database, right at our fingertips.'"
It's so easy a caveman can do it
So, not only do cavemen work in video production, they do network admin?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
"So the combination is one, two, three, four, five? That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! The kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!"
Circumcision is child abuse.
Once again, the weakest link in security is often NOT the software (which could also have problems). The weakest link is often the user: leaving the default password of a router, not activating encryption for wireless networks, using the same ID and password.... And , no, don't try to educate the masses. I have tries as an administrator of a large network. They never learn. Or they learn and the next day, they change their password to "qwerty" back again.
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
Convicted hacker Robert Moore, who will report to federal prison this week
Apparently Moore's law isn't quite up to snuff.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
It doesn't seem too hard to ship the routers with random passwords. Is it just cheaper to not bother? Just thinking here...
- They must run a test suite before shipping them so it should be easy to make that tool generate a random password and assign it to the router
- You would have to print it on the router, or on a slip of paper
- If it is printed on the router itself then you could make the router's reset button go back to that password, instead of Cisco0.
Even if you don't implement that last bullet, it still seems like it would help a lot.
That caveman from the Geico commercials was just starting to make progress with his therapist. Let's hope the poor guy doesn't stumble upon this article. This hacker might get a few unexpected prison visits from whiny cavemen.
Abaddon: An Xbox 360 Indie game
Mjeah.
So easy a caveman could do it.
But apparently not so easy a caveman could avoid getting caught?
What ever happened to the supercool hacking-thang called "not getting caught"?
- Jesper
My security clearance is so high I have to kill myself if I remember I have it...
Having these flaws present in a secure system, even for small companies is almost bordering on negligence. It takes 20 seconds to change a password, and god forbid if you've got too many to remember, write it down somewhere and store it in the company safe.
The REAL problem I see with IT is a combination of inept administrators and an abundance of managers who don't understand the significance of things like this. A mistake like this not only represents a failure of an IT worker, but poor oversight by their manager. I've seen an administrator hired who had no technical competence but was able to talk to the managers about cricket. He was then replaced with a person who was even worse when the first dumb admin did the IT thing and left after making a huge mess. And yeah, a year after I'd left, the second administrator, after purchasing a new Cisco router with zero scoping calls me up and asks, "How do I install a Cisco router".
There are books out there like "The practice of system and network administration", they help new administrators immeasurably, but so many just don't give a damn. There needs to be more incentive to have serious consequences for sloppy work. If we're ever going to be taken seriously, we need to find and flog administrators who set up a production router/firewall with a default password.
this guy should be congratulated for uncovering such slack security.
If he told the owner about the insecurity and didn't exploit it himself, yes.
imagine what havoc he could have made if he had been malicious, or had sold the passwords to Osama....
Or if he kept it quiet and exploited it himself - stealing services and running up bills for the victimized system owners, building a business on it and pocketing money for himself and his co-conspirators.
Wait... That's what he did, isn't it?
No, he should not be congratulated. He should be convicted and punished as the thief he is.
Wait... That's what happened, isn't it?
Isn't it nice
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Why would they care, if it just works?
I think I had 5 routers in my neighborhood on channel 6, with default passwords.
I logged on into each and switched them to different channels.
Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
When you setup any new networking gear what is the very first thing you do? I can tell you what mine is, I change usernames and passwords. I even use strong passwords just in case.
Nice to know telecom companies don't have a clue.