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WHMCS Data Compromised By Good Old Social Engineering
howhardcanitbetocrea writes "WHMCS has had 500,000 records leaked, credit cards included, by hackers calling themselves UGNazis. Apparently UGNazis succeeded in obtaining login details from the billing software's host by using social engineering. UGNazis accuse WHMCS of knowingly offering services to fraudsters. After almost 24 hours UGNazis still seem to have control of WHMCS twitter account @whmcs and is regularly updating their exploits. These tweets are also feeding into WHMCS software."
""WHMCS is an all-in-one client management, billing & support solution for online businesses. " For some reason, their website is currently down..
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
It was social engineering. Encryption cannot help with human gullibility.
It was social engineering. Encryption cannot help with human gullibility.
But encryption can protect sensitive data if security is ever breached.
>But encryption can protect sensitive data if security is ever breached.
Encryption only works until you give the key away for a candy bar in a social engineering scheme.
Then all bets are off.
--
BMO
As a former employee, posting this as anonymous for obvious reasons; however, the below information is freely available if you know where to look.
WHMCS is hosted by Hostgator on a dedicated server. This can be found by:
% dig NS whmcs.com +short | head -1 | xargs dig +short | xargs whois
# http://whois.arin.net/rest/nets;q=50.116.115.104?showDetails=true&showARIN=false&ext=netref2
HGBLOCK = Hostgator IP block, the Arin address is Hostgator's main office, and websitewelcome.com is Hostgator's generic domain they use for reseller server's hostnames/nameservers.
The official post on this from WHMCS is interesting: http://blog.whmcs.com/?t=47660
They're saying that the intruders managed to obtain credentials from their web hosting company, which allowed them to access the (I assume) dedicated servers rented by WHMCS.
Putting aside the fact that they're storing CC data on a third party server, what the blog post does not explain is how exactly this would amount to a total compromise of those accounts, as the server passwords should not even be known by the hosting company, and in any case this data should have been encrypted. It would also be interesting to know how they went from that to accessing the company's twitter account - my guess would be that the same password was used on twitter as on their servers.
So basically: no encryption, relying on an insecure third party to store critical data, and possibly the same password being used for a major hosting server and their twitter account. I, for one, would not rely on this company to handle billing & support for my customers.
Replying to myself so others may read a story I am referring to in case they missed it back in 2004.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3639679.stm
And it still applies today.
--
BMO
Yes, they didn't break in, YOU FUCKING LET THEM IN, because that really makes a difference.
I was just wondering what WHCMCHSHCHSC stood for, but the article never mentions it and neither did the front page of the company's web site.
So aside from having security issues, somewhere along the line someone forgot that not everyone knows what WHCSMSHC XVIII stands for.
It was also lousy but unfortunately common business practices.
Suppose you're a company that handles billing and payments for clients. One of your clients asks you for the credit card information for all of *his* clients. This scenario shows why you should be very reluctant to give that data to him. And for all you know, *he's* going to use it to commit identity fraud, or sell it on the black market.
Not disclosing this information inconveniences the customer slightly, but it also protects him.
When you receive sensitive private information from someone, you should not use it or transfer it to any third parties except as necessary to fulfill the purpose for which you received it, *even if* you are just a middleman between the buyer, the vendor, and the vendor's bank. Get the money transferred into the customer's account and the order to the customer's order fulfillment people and your job is done.
These problems come from not *thinking*. End user sends you data, you automatically store it without thinking, whether you need it or not. Customer asks you for that data, and you automatically give it to him without thinking. A service agreement should be concluded between you and your customer establishing what the customer is going to do with that data, and when and how the data will be provided. You shouldn't just give him data that is not necessarily *his* by right just because he asks for it.
The underlying problem is that companies operate as if the privacy and security of their end-users is none of their concern.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.