Oklahoma Leaks 10,000 Social Security Numbers

DrJokepu writes "Apparently the folks at the Department of Corrections of Oklahoma just forgot to use common sense when they created the state's Sexual and Violent Offender Registry. By putting SQL queries in the URLs, they not only leaked the personal data of tens of thousands of people, but enabled literally anyone with basic SQL knowledge to put his neighbor/boss/enemies on the sexual offender list. Fortunately, after the author of the blog The Daily WTF notified the department about the issue, the site went down for 'routine maintenance' on April 13 2008."

Comments

Pleeeese!

[arizwebfoot]

Please tell me this is a spoof.

Re:Pleeeese!

[kalidasa]

READ THE ARTICLE. The same database had all criminal offenders listed - and all employees of the state corrections system. They were using an SQL query in a GET query string! You could pull up anything you wanted from the DB because they didn't lock the permissions correctly. They did a half-assed fix the first time, and only took real action when the whistle-blower pointed out that their own SS#s were accessible.

Re:Pleeeese!

[trolltalk.com]

Did you by chance hear a WHOOSH before you posted?

>>--[joke]--->

      __0__ <- your head
          |

Re:Pleeeese!

[iknowcss]

An anonymous coward down towards the bottom posted this link to something similar. This one Tennessee apparently. It's no joke :(

http://www.ticic.state.tn.us/sorsql?sql=sp_SOR_IMAGE+'SO001290'&contenttype=image/jpeg

Oblig.

[Ethanol-fueled]

(1)Hack the registry

(2)Put your own name in the registry

(3)Sue the state

(4)Profit!!!


(5) (remember to have your name removed from the registry!)

Re:Oblig.

[cptgrudge]

(5) (remember to have your name removed from the registry!)

This is government you're dealing with. It will never happen.

"But, but, I sued the state and won! Look, here's my legal documents! I'm not a sexual predator, honest!"

"Yeah, sure.. Time to organize the community to hassle you until you leave. Enjoy being a hermit you sick pervert."

Re:Oblig.

[mauthbaux]

(5) (remember to have your name removed from the registry!)
Rather, this is a boon to those already on the list. Now they can simply claim that their status as a listee was simply a vengeful prank courtesy of an unnamed drinking buddy.

I do hope they have validated archives somewhere.

Re:Oblig.

[epee1221]

How about instead of using your own name, you gather a list of the politicians who are the most hard-line with regard to the registry (e.g. once accused, always registered), and select a few of them at random. Much less risk to you, and it will certainly create a ruckus over it.

Re:Oblig.

[Torvaun]

I hope they don't, the sex offender list is a travesty.

Re:Oblig.

[sjames]

What's worse, of the 75% who are supposed to be there, many of them are not as advertised.

The sex offender lists are pushed as a list of child molesters and rapists. They are on there, but so are guys who got drunk and peed behind a dumpster (OK, not pleasant but hardly worthy of a scarlet letter), forgot to close the curtains, etc. One woman is there because she went topless at a protest. Then there are those who are on there for taking pictures of themselves while under 18 or for having sex with someone within a year of their own age.

They probably have a good case for cruel and unusual punishment but the courts dodge the issue by claiming the list isn't punative.

Of course, the idiots who stick anyone and everyone on the list that they can deserved or not are a real threat to society. If for no other reason, they are slowly rendering the lists meaningless.

Perhaps we need a "scarlet list" of prosecutors who willfully corrupt justice to get their numbers up. Those are people I *REALLY* don't want living in my neighborhood.

*facepalm*

[TheSpoom]

This breaks my brain, even for the normally stereotypically slow, stereotypically technology-shy government (though I will say that a lot of the Government of Canada sites work surprisingly well in my experience).

SQL queries IN THE QUERY STRING. Someone reading their FIRST BOOK on web development would know not to do that! And now God help the people who have been affected by this: try proving to the government that you're not a sexual offender when you're already on their list.

SQL injections. Learn them. Learn how to mitigate them (a PHP-specific example, but there are similar mitigation techniques for other languages). And I mean, hell, in a site like this (and especially with programmers apparently this bad), stored procedures might be the thing to implement. Or even better, use a framework like CakePHP, Rails, or Django with this sort of sanitation built into the queries it generates.

Ugh. I hope someone gets fired for this. I bet, though, that in reality this was programmed by the lowest bidder.

Re:*facepalm*

[samkass]

ObXKCDComic

It's scary how lazy some of the web developers are. For years Yahoo used a system where their login system had the URL to go to once login succeeded urlencoded in the URL. It would have been exceedingly easy to duplicate the login page with a "Username/Password was typed incorrectly. Please try again." Then send people to the authentication page with your page as the follow-on one.

URLs should only be able to contain sanitized field values to search on that the server composes into actual SQL, URLs, etc.

Re:*facepalm*

[NeutronCowboy]

Actually, for something on this scale, I'd like to see jail time for criminally negligent programming. The cost of being on a sex offender list by mistake is mindboggling - I'm on a "have a long chat with a customs officer every time I enter the US" because some data entry monkey made a mistake with my passport, and it's not pretty. I can only imagine what being on a sex offender list can do to you...

Re:*facepalm*

[Gat0r30y]

I'm not that surprised. This is after all the state where students don't even have to know the age of the earth to pass earth science! In a state with those sorts of values, honestly, I really don't expect the greatest in technical expertise to flock there. And even the lowest bidder should have known better. I would bet the work was done internally (only the government itself could hose something this bad).

Re:*facepalm*

[sl0ppy]

with this sort of sanitation built into the queries it generates.

or, perhaps simply use bind variables instead of trying to generate a query. not only will your application thank you, but your database will as well.

Re:*facepalm*

[Anonymous Coward]

They'll have the best technology (your) money can buy when it is used AGAINST you (e.g. Dept of Homeland Security) but when they are doing something FOR you they cut corners and really couldn't care less.

Re:*facepalm*

[grassy_knoll]

Stored procedures are almost always a good idea, since you can also limit the permissions to SELECT and EXECUTE. Depending on the DB, using stored procedures also forces the use of bind variables so there's a CPU utilization optimization as well ( from the lowered parse rate ).

Not only did they put SQL in the query string, they granted more permissions to the DB user for the web app than it needed. If you're just looking up data, not changing it, why does the app need anything other than SELECT ( or EXECUTE if you're using stored procedures )?

A great example of why "just give the app admin rights so it can work" is one of the dumbest statements a developer can make.

Re:*facepalm*

[riskeetee]

In Oklahoma, the age of the earth is 6000 years. Nuff said.

Re:*facepalm*

[MightyMartian]

PHP has got to be one of the worst things that ever happened to web development. In the last year I've ended up with two jobs cleaning up someone else's code, and god but that language invites sloppiness on a level I've only experienced in the past with BASIC. The problem seems to be that it's easy enough to get a PHP-based page up, but the actual ability to coherently develop software isn't there. Anyone can learn to code in PHP, but only a few bother or are capable of actually invoking proper coding practices. The problem is that when these projects come up, rather than contracting out to someone who knows what they're doing, or at least hiring or training somebody who can code, they go to Bob the IT guy, who's okay at keeping the network up, and knows a bit of scripting, and who goes online and reads just enough of the PHP tutorial to be really dangerous.

In these cases, there's little or no commenting. Some things are done as classes, some as functions, there's no particular rhyme or reason, and it became so bloated that the original coders appear to have simply given up. It's terrible spaghetti code, but because it's on the web, no one seems to consider it software development. When you combine this with security, it can create a rather frightening mix of shitty almost undebugable code with an unknown number of potential security holes.

I know I sound elitist here, but goddamn it, PHP and all those lovely little scripting languages have unleashed a disaster on the web. It's bad enough that there's hackers out there, but much worse that there are incompetents being given the keys to the internal networks and data, without any knowledge of sound coding principles and of how to harden sites against injection attacks and the like.

Re:*facepalm*

[lattyware]

Don't blame the language because the developers are incompetent.

Re:*facepalm*

[sl0ppy]

famous last words: "just Googled them".

what you're talking about seems to be an Oracle-specific thing

no, not really. in the case of sane databases, it is the norm. heck, even mysql supports them.

But like I said, since these web development frameworks generate the SQL queries for you based on your usage of their models

except that generating SQL on the fly is extremely inefficient . the database must then parse the query, measure costs and determine the best execution plan before executing the query even begins. using prepared statements and bind variables obviate the need for this, thus allowing the database to optimize the queries and choose the best execution plan.

not doing this is either ignorance or negligence. i would hope it was the former in the case of oklahoma, and seems to be the case all over.

Re:*facepalm*

[TheSpoom]

There are those of us out there that know how to code PHP in a sane, clear, and secure way. Unfortunately, I have to admit that there are a lot more that don't. I think one of the things you can do is to look for those that have languages like C++ and Java on their CV as well, and also for those that have a portfolio of code to review when they apply for a job. When you actually see the code, it's easy to separate the fly-by-night guys from the actual educated, experienced programmers out there.

By the way, on a somewhat unrelated note, we're using Django for our new web game, and it's both interesting and easy to code, while still (rigorously) maintaining good coding practices. So I think there's also something to be said for those who work with frameworks like CakePHP, Rails, and Django, as those tend to both be object-oriented and to promote good coding practices.

As I've said before, I think PHP can and should be used well; there are just a lot of ways it can be used poorly.

Re:*facepalm*

[QuoteMstr]

The language makes it easily, or even tantalizing, to do it the wrong way, and very difficult to do it the right way.

Re:*facepalm*

[Anonymous Coward]

No, not criminal, just the "data death penalty".

Require the database be erased, all backups etc.

If they can't keep it secure they can't keep it.

As a side effect (if this was their only database
they are out of a job...).

If this supported tax collections, sorry, no
collections...

Re:*facepalm*

[AmaDaden]

True but we can blame the language for encouraging the developers to be incompetent. This will bring up the "They should learn how to do it right and not depend on the language" argument. I currently do Java web programing (JSPs not applets) and I experience both ends of this. Since Java does fantastic memory management and clean up people are constantly not having their code clean up after it self. On the other hand the strong existing structure for JSPs prevent a lot of possible security issues by giving us easy ways to do things securely so we don't have to whip up something that could have a very stupid flaw like this one.

All languages have their good and bad points. Not encouraging the coder do things the right way IS (I think) a bad point.

Re:*facepalm*

[ivan256]

I disagree with "very difficult to do it the right way"... If you know what you're doing it's only moderately more work.

Java, Perl, and Python all make it easier to do it the wrong way than the right way too. Simply because the wrong way is less work than the right way in almost every aspect of these types of problems.

(The above paragraph is also true for performance)

The parent to your post is spot on. Don't blame the tool because the user is an idiot. The incompetent programmer from this article doesn't have any business doing web development in any other language either, regardless of how much "easier" that language makes it.

Re:*facepalm*

[bcdm]

And that's what basically happened here (except the catalyst for change was information that could be used against THEM instead of against YOU). According to TFA, when the Department of Corrections was first told about this, they took the sites down for "routine maintenance". When the sites came back up, the SQL query was STILL in the URL. The only difference? They changed "social_security_number" to "Social_security_number", apparently thinking that was all the protection that sex offenders required.

Their tune changed quickly, however, when the author of TFA pointed out that not only was the sex offenders' information available, but so too was the information of the EMPLOYEES. Site got shut down pretty f#&^in' fast after that.

Re:*facepalm*

[OpenGLFan]

Yes, and:
Lumber and bricks make it very easy to build something that will fall on you and very hard to make a house.
Steel and wire make it very easy to build something that will snap and kill thousands and very hard to build the Golden Gate Bridge.
The solution is not to build the world out of Nerf. The solution is to keep Nature's fry cooks out of skilled labor jobs.

Re:*facepalm*

[jsebrech]

PHP has got to be one of the worst things that ever happened to web development.

This particular site was coded in java, so PHP was not at fault here. I don't know what got you onto the topic of PHP.

The problem is that when these projects come up, rather than contracting out to someone who knows what they're doing, or at least hiring or training somebody who can code, they go to Bob the IT guy

Software development has always been rife with contracts that go to the lowest bidder based on a spec that mentions only features and deadlines (not security, quality, or other metrics). This is because most IT projects are managed by people who don't understand IT, and who do the IT equivalent of asking their neighborhood carpenter to build the golden gate bridge. You get what you pay for.

I know I sound elitist here, but goddamn it, PHP and all those lovely little scripting languages have unleashed a disaster on the web.

If PHP didn't exist, someone would invent it. PHP fills the niche of an environment that lets you get up and running quickly with web applications, just like visual basic did it for windows apps, and access did it for databases. Yes, it's a bit elitist to say that all programming environments should be so difficult to program in that they weed out all but the most dedicated (and knowledgeable), but it's also unrealistic, because people would invent easier environments if there weren't any. PHP is actually quite good at blending the capability for quality coding with a low barrier to access.

And besides, the problems with web app security have nothing to do with PHP or any other scripting language, they have to do with visibility. Think about how many two-tier desktop apps there are that let anyone with a bit of knowledge bypass the app and do whatever they want in the database. Nobody makes a fuss about this, because the visibility of those apps is lower.

I would say the primary problem with web app development is not any of the tools, but the perception among IT managers that web app development is simpler, and requires less skill, than desktop development, while the inverse is true. I do both desktop and web development, and it is much more difficult to build good web apps, because you have to pay more attention to architecture, security, performance envelopes, and gui design. That management (even my management) still doesn't understand that is disappointing, but understandable given how the web started out as a toy and still hasn't quite shaken that perception.

Re:*facepalm*

[Deanalator]

Unfortunately, pretty much every intro to SQL book I have looked at encourages the use of command strings. People get used to them, and then interacting with a SQL database becomes equivalent to string parsing, which they all learned how to do in the last book.

You would be surprised what you can find grepping for cmd_str, command_string, cmdStr, etc. Please developers, parametrize your variables. This won't prevent all attacks, but there is NEVER an excuse to use command strings, especially when you are doing any sort of string manipulation on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_injection#Preventing_SQL_Injection

I work in product security, so I am often the first security pass for code as it comes from the developers. It still shocks me that senior level database engineers express scepticism that an attacker would go to all the trouble to manipulate POST data, and tell me that they have never heard of SQL injection.

As a fun side note, it has given me multiple chances to email out links to xkcd 327 :-)

Re:Get your lawyer ready....

[calebt3]

Get your lawyer ready. He was probably notified along with all the other offenders.

Author of WTF article made security mistake also

[joggle]

The author should have completely blacked out the SSNs rather than blur them. They are still decipherable to those that are inclined to do so. This article explains why blurring is a bad idea.

Re:wow

[jmichaelg]

Going to jail is a bit over the top. Losing their job is what is called for.

However, if Oklahoma has problems similar to California, then they're faced with a Hobson's choice. They can fire the guy/gal but given the low pay scales, they could well end up with someone just as bad.

i dare someone

[Anonymous Coward]

What someone needs to do is register a certain G. Oatse as a sex offender in Oklahoma.

Humor?

[Wilson_6500]

Who would tag this "humor"? Given the deeply-ingrained social stigma attached to being put on one of these lists, I don't really see how it's funny that one was so horribly misimplemented. Even when something is _obviously_ wrong, as in this case, it can be hard to iron out the impression that actual people get from reading these lists. What if the problem weren't as obvious as this one supposedly is? Would it still be funny?

Generally, no retraction is ever as effective as the original statement. That's probably one of the reasons why libel is such a big deal for some people--just saying "sorry, we were wrong" may not be good enough.

Re:Humor?

[Gregb05]

thedailywtf.com usually posts humorous stories. The tone of this one, however is completely different.
I agree with parent, please tag !humor if that does anything.

Re:Get your lawyer ready....

[Anonymous Coward]

It is just one of the things that comes with being a sex offender. Please be more careful with your terminology. The correct thing to say here is, "It is just one of the things that comes with being convicted as a sex offender." You can be a sex offender and not be on this list (if you're not caught) and you can be a non-offender and be on this list (if you're wrongfully convicted).

I know it may seem like a small thing but it's important to remember that not all criminals are caught, and not all convicted people are actually criminals.

Bad blurring

[Space cowboy]

Whereas the names and addresses of these people is a matter of public knowledge, is their email address and SSN also open ? If not, despite what you may think of their actions (public urination ? Really ?), it's not fair of the site to "blur" the relevant details so poorly.

I read the daily WTF, and usually I think it's pretty good, but Alex has made his own WTF here, IMHO.

Simon

Re:Added to list

[Anonymous Coward]

So I said to my girlfriend, "I am not a pedophile! But that is a pretty big word for a 10 year old."

Minor Correction

[geekoid]

"Yeah, sure.. Time to organize the community to hassle you until you leave. Enjoy being a RICH hermit you sick pervert."

obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

im in ur sex offender database,
injectin sql.

lists should be minimal in size

[davidwr]

I know you are being sarcastic, but the bigger these lists are the more useless they become.

If every public urinator and teenager in love gets put on these lists, it's that much harder to spot the really bad guys. The same goes for the really bad people who are now harmless 89-year-old men dying in a nursing home. Get these people off the list ASAP.

If you aren't "level 3" or whatever "really really dangerous" is in your state, only the cops and those who have a proven need to know should have access to your information.

Re:Umm...

[Chris Mattern]

They knew it was 10,000 SSNs because the web site allowed them to do a COMPLETE DUMP OF THE ENTIRE DATABASE. Lock, stock and barrel.

The registry is stupid anyway.

[Dog-Cow]

The whole idea of having the registry is sheer stupidity, but on a scale designed to ruin innocent people.

Let's assume that a given person on the list was really a rapist (and not just convicted of it). If he's served his time and has repented, he won't do it again. So why do we punish him for the rest of his life with the registry? And if you think he will do it again, why is he not in jail?

You may as well just shoot him and be done with it.

Re:The registry is stupid anyway.

[Chyeld]

Because most people are convinced that this particular class of offenders can't be rehabilitated and therefore releasing them to the general public is a mistake in and of itself. In order to ensure that they are proven right, they have decided that the "Scarlet Letter" method of tracking these people is justifiable.

If this range of classification was limited to people who were actually offenders who were likely to commit their crimes again, then this could almost be understandable. However, and especially in conservative regions, often there are completely trivial offenses which one can commit which cause you to be lumped into this group. Offenses which, while not exactly something to be proud off, are not at all indicative of being a 'sexual' offender. Like public urination. Like mooning someone. Like being a 15 year old caught making out with another 15 year old.

The original idea was sound. There are people out there who have skewed enough thought patterns and responses that they are always at danger of commiting this sort of crime. Keeping closer track of them and preventing them from living in "target rich" environments is reasonable. Unfortunately, the implementation was flawed from the begining, and I'm not talking about this particular site but the lists themselves.

Why Would Anyone Care?

[Bob9113]

but enabled literally anyone with basic SQL knowledge to put his neighbor/boss/enemies on the sexual offender list.

Why would anyone care if they were put on this list?

This issue has gone to the Supreme Court and they have ruled that these lists are not punishment, and hence does not run afoul of restrictions against ex post facto punishment or due process. So if it is not punishment, why would anyone care if they are on the list?

Re:Why Would Anyone Care?

[Damvan]

You are kidding, right?

In California, we have this thing called Jessica's Law. That law prohibits registered sex offenders from living a certain distance (usually 1000 ft) away from places children might congregate, such as schools, churches, playgrounds, parks, and in some cases, shopping centers.

So, if you are on the list, there are alot of places you CANNOT live. There are many cities in California where you can't live at all, simply because there is no place that is at least 1000 ft from the prohibited locations. If I was put on this list, I would be forced to sell my house and move as I live 1000 ft from a church. In fact, I would have to move out of the City I live in entirely as there is no residential areas outside of the prohibited locations.

Re:wow

[yuna49]

This is an official government list of alleged "sex offenders," not a list of people with parking tickets. Developers tasked with providing public access to such sensitive information, and the people who employ and direct them, should be adhering to the best practices, not the worst practices as in this case.

The real issues are that

(a) No one in the OK government probably cared much about the privacy of these "sex offenders" because, well, they're "sex offenders."

(b) Government agencies are constantly tasked by executives and legislatures to implement programs they're ill-equipped to handle and often receive no additional funding to carry out these mandates. Do you think the OK agency involved had tens of thousands of dollars to hire outside contractors with solid coding skills to undertake this task? Probably they handed it to someone in house who knew how to write SQL queries and a little PHP.

I'd fire the lot of them, including the department heads, and start over with people who have at least some clue about good IT practices. If this fiasco was actually the product of an outside consulting shop, I'd ban them from working for my state government for a very long time.

If we don't have substantial and public penalties for poor management like this, we're just going to be repeating our mistakes.

Re:wow

[yuna49]

One other thing. I wonder if the OK legislature will launch an investigation into this fiasco, or will they avoid the problem since the people on the list were, after all, "sex offenders." I'd like to see the head of the Department of Corrections be grilled on why this happened. Unfortunately any legislator who might broach the subject would probably be labeled as sympathetic to sex criminals.

Obligatory XKCD reference

[gizmonic]

Wow, an on topic post for my all time favorite XKCD! :)

http://xkcd.com/327/

Re:SSNs

[Workaphobia]

There is of course the other major point, that it is absolutely ridiculous how social security numbers are treated as sensitive information and required information in so many unrelated contexts. What idiot thought up the system of authenticating a person for credit using the same token that hundreds of other organizations use to identify that person?

Maybe in a hundred years we'll have registries of public keys and we'll all have private SS keys that are never shared with your credit card company, bank, and (if we were really lucky) government.

You would be suprised...

[jbsooter]

I used to work (3 years ago) at a background checking company that would pull/harvest databases off the internet if the county or state wouldn't sell it to us in bulk. You'd be suprised how many county websites have stuff like this.

There is one county in Florida that will return more results by walking thru their ID numbers than by searching for everyone in thier site. That means people who for whatever reason aren't supposed to show up on the website get harvested by companies like the one I worked at.

A county in Texas tried to stop the harvesting by making people sign in and limiting searches but managed to introduce a sql injection hole that lets you do whatever you'd like to the Users tables. I didn't try messing w/ the offenders tables but wouldn't be suprised if it was possible.

These are just two examples that I recalls. There were quite a few more.

We need accreditation and liability

[QuoteMstr]

If I hire a carpenter to build my house and it collapses, the carpenter is liable. Engineers won't cooperate if management wants to cut corners on a bridge: they have a code of ethics and a body that enforces it.

Software, on the other hand, is a free-for-all today. We need an accreditation program and a code of ethics, just like more traditional disciplines of engineering. That's not to say that we'll restrict compilers to professionals; we don't reserve wrenches for professional mechanics.

But for a project that has the potential to cause so much harm to so many, a requirement to use trained and certified software engineers (with all the implications of the second word) would be invaluable.

The system is stupid.

[jd]

People can plead "insanity" on the grounds of having trouble telling right from wrong, but not on the grounds of actual mental illness. Rehabilitation is often said to be minimal to non-existant. Reports in the press frequently cover prison violence, gang warfare in the prison system and mental/physical/sexual abuse by both inmates and prison guards. Maximum security prisons are also described as being totally without sunlight (thus depriving the body of vitamin D) and essentially sensory deprivation chambers (driving inmates insane).

Whilst the system may not make a person a criminal (although there are Dickensonian arguments that say otherwise), it's very hard to see how a person can become truly repentent of their actions after such an experience. Repentent of being caught, perhaps, but where in there is a mechanism for establishing what went wrong in the first place, solving underlying issues or providing effective means for a person to not fall back into old patterns on release? The current judicial and prison systems appear geared towards revenge and retribution, not towards corrective action and prevention. In that case, it is entirely reasonable to assume that offenders will re-offend. It's possible you'd end up reaching the same conclusion on a (correctly managed) rehabilitation-oriented system, I won't argue that case, I will only argue that if the typical description of what prevails is accurate, the assumption of lifelong guilt is probably not all that inaccurate.

I have my own theories on what would work better (mostly involving dividing sentencing into two - one segment for punishment, if punishment is called for, and a distinct segment for treatment, if treatment would be useful), however such theories are never going to be tested or meaningfully examined, so in effect constitute un-disprovable hypotheses and therefore merely articles of faith no different from any other system of religious belief.