Memory Gaffe Leaves Aussie Bank Accounts Open To Theft

mask.of.sanity writes "A researcher has found flaws in the way major Australian banks handle customer login credentials which could allow the details to be siphoned off by malware. He built proof of concept malware to pull unencrypted passwords, account numbers and access credentials from volatile memory of popular web browsers every two hours."

Comments

Careful Reporting These

[Anonymous Coward]

In the 80s, my comp sci partner and I discovered a similar case at Acadia University. We reported it to the head of the computer center. He told us it wouldn't work, it couldn't be done. I left that meeting feeling betrayed. My partner decided to write a proof of concept. He was successful and to prove it logged in as the main admin account. Days later he decided to try it again to see if they still hadn't fixed it or changed the password. They were waiting. He was expelled from Acadia. He was a brilliant honors student.

It's worse these days. They will charge you for cybercrimes, or treason, and sentence you to decades in prison. Or hold you without trial. Be careful when you do the right thing and report these. Just report them, don't "proof of concept" or you could be charged. It's unfair and immoral but it's what they'll do to you, mostly out of their own shame and embarrassment.

Re:Careful Reporting These

[darkfeline]

I hear about these kinds of things all the time. It's utter bullshit; they're literally making it more appealing for people to anonymously sell these exploits on the black market. "No, we don't want to know if our software has an exploit. If you've found one, go ahead and sell it to whoever you want, as long as we don't know, it's cool, we can keep deluding ourselves, thanks."

It reminds me of, among other counterproductive measures, media conglomerates pushing oppressive DRM on consumers as if to drive them toward piracy or forcing drug addicts to carry their criminal status with them as if to force them back toward poverty and drug abuse. If an alien race were to monitor us, they'd probably assume we're running some sort of elaborate self-extermination campaign.

Already running?

[Anonymous Coward]

You have to be infected first for your credentials to be stolen? Couldn't the hacker just have installed a key logger?

If you can't trust the machine, don't put your sensitive data on the thing.

Re:Already running?

[You're All Wrong]

So you're saying that if you log in from a new infected machine, your bank obliges you to leak sensitive security information to the keylogger that's been installed there?

Congratulations for feeling all warm and fuzzy from your bank's security measures whilst gaining very little actual security against real threats - that's what they were hoping you'd feel, you're a good customer.

*One time* passwords are the *only* thing that *can't* be re-used. By definition. If your bank does not use them, get a new bank.

How bloody embarrassing!

[beaverdownunder]

Aussie IT is a bit Mickey Mouse all around, sadly -- especially in the banks, oddly (you'd expect a higher standard where billions of dollars are concerned, but no...)

As for the researcher, they didn't actually 'hack' into anything, merely scraped their own computer for data, so I wouldn't expect them to face any problems over revealing the exploit. Probably hasn't won them any friends in the banking sector though...

Re:How bloody embarrassing!

[bloodhawk]

While this isn't exactly shining a pleasant light on the quality of the banks code. It is still very much a storm in a teacup, if you have access to scrape the memory of the computer then you could have gotten access to credentials in a far simpler means such as keylogging. The simple fact is if you can't trust the machine you are using you're already boned and no amount of secure coding from the bank is going to save you. Besides which I believe most of those banks (if not all) do 2 factor auth to transfer funds to accounts you haven't previously transferred too. (at least the 2 of them I use do).

Re:and now he be researching the side of jail down

[Frobnicator]

Sadly, he probably will.

Financial institutions want to keep their vulnerabilities quiet. People who shout them to the world face lawsuits

If you are smart enough to discover a major exploit, also be smart in how you notify them. There are many great security companies who work as middle-men to help submit the bugs to the corporations and at an appropriate time make the information public so it gets fixed.

Going through a security company is free, and means you won't get the big splash on news sites or all the public attention, but it also means you can generally avoid hiring a lawyer, or worse, having he cops knock at your door with warrants.

My bank doesn't seem vulnerable

[jonwil]

My bank uses POST in the login form which means that sniffing memory for URLs (which is what this malware seems to do) wont get you a login.
Plus, in order to actually transfer money to someone you haven't transferred money to before you have to input a second password.

The biggest failing of the bank in question is that it has a 10 char maximum on passwords for some stupid reason.

I'm starting to be sick

[trifish]

I am really starting to be sick of these "security researchers" who don't know that the 1st law of the computer security is:

If malware is running on your computer, it is not your computer anymore.

It follows that no matter what you do, malware will win. Discovering that malware can "siphon" memory is really... uh, groundbreaking.

What makes me even more sick is the incredibly amount of various BlackHat "security conferences" and supposedly geek-oriented media like Slashdot that let those people present this kind of "discoveries" as legitimate, notable, noteworthy, important and new.

I am really, really, sick of you.

Re:and now he be researching the side of jail down

[FireFury03]

Not really a banks fault though - why is the browser hanging on to post'd data after it's been post'd??

So that when you hit refresh on the page, the browser can pop up its usual "you'll need to repost to refresh this page, are you sure?" and do the repost if you tell it to.