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Anatomy of the HBGary Hack
PCM2 writes "Recently, Anonymous took down the Web sites of network security firm HBGary. Ars Technica has the scoop on how it happened. Turns out it wasn't any one vulnerability, but a perfect storm of SQL injection, weak passwords, weak encryption, password re-use, unpatched servers, and social engineering. The full story will make you wince — but how many of these mistakes is your company making?"
But how many of these mistakes is your company making?
Most companies probably make these mistakes, all except the biggest mistake which was poking a sleeping bear.
Got Code?
Well, we're not going after 4chan/anonymous, so we're probably in the clear.
I think the biggest security mistake it's possible to make is antagonizing the largest collection of bored hackers/crackers/script kiddies/associated hangers on that exists.
I'm just amazed at how completely oblivious "Chief Security Specialist" Jussi Jaakonaho was during the email correspondence, AND that he was perfectly fine with sharing root passwords via plaintext email.
How do these people even get security jobs and be negligent in even the simplest security practices?
Gotta say, the linked article was a great education for me, one who's interested but never had time to dig into some of the arcana of stuff like SQL injection.
In watching Wikileaks, OpenLeaks, Egypt, the Palestine papers,and now HB Gary, I'm thinking that we're at the edge of something monumental. I expect we'll see a lot more formerly secret data become public, and see governments and corporations either clean up their acts, or become increasing desperate and hostile in trying to keep their inside info secret.
Either way we're in for a wild ride!
Three Squirrels
I like the idea of a custom CMS to avoid an open one (more security).
Its far easier to audit existing code than it is to build your own code. Even if you write it yourself you have to do the same auditing and testing that you would against an existing product.
They are the Tacoma Narrows bridge of the IT security world now. They will be the textbook case example of the generations of students, with the entire repertoire of what not to do every step of the way, especially the one about not pissing-off a malevolent, anonymous mass.
A non-custom CMS like WordPress is very often the target of massive automated attacks: a new bug is discovered in WP and a tool is written to seek out vulnerable installations and exploit that bug. If you have the skill or $$ to pour over the code, you can probably find your own bugs before they become publicly known.
On the other hand, if your site is specifically targeted, then your custom CMS is as vulnerable or more than the WordPresses out there. You might have a bit of security through obscurity (in a standard WP install, the attacker might know file names and locations, variable names, classes, etc.) but this will probably do you little good if you weren't able to harden the code.
Lesson: you are screwed if a rich, powerful, or smart attacker singles you out. A standard CMS can land you in hot water if you don't have a knowledgeable person administering it (and who has that?).
I think the big one is my CEO ain't talking shit about a bunch of hackers who are better at it than him.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Don't you just love it? Whether you are for the Anon guys or not you just gotta love a bunch that advises others on security that falls for every single bad practice in the book. They had badly coded CMS that didn't sanitize squat, no real rules when it came to passwords, passwords badly hashed, reuse of passwords, just on and on it is like a comedy of fail!
I have to agree with you that this should be a valuable life lesson for those that haven't paid attention before. Of course I figured that by the time SQL injection tricks had gotten so common XKCD was doing the "Bobby Drop Tables" bit that surely everyone had learned to sanitize? Apparently not and how sad but funny that it was a security group that was such a king of fail. Its like having the town drunk lecture you on responsible drinking while killing his second bottle of Jack! its just too funny!
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.