Want To Hijack a Domain? Just Get a Fax Machine

msm1267 writes "Metasploit's HD Moore says hackers sent a spoofed DNS change request via fax to Register.com that the registrar accepted, leading to a DNS hijacking attack against the Metasploit and Rapid7 websites. The two respective homepages were defaced with a message left by the same hacker collective that claimed responsibility for a similar DNS attack against Network Solutions. Rapid7 said the two sites' DNS records have been locked down and they are investigating."

Comments

"hack"

[Anonymous Coward]

Social engineering is not hacking to me.

Re:"hack"

[i_ate_god]

What is the difference between injecting code into a machine to make it do what you want, and injecting an idea into a human to make the human do what you want.

Re:"hack"

[TheCarp]

Because normally by the time you are injecting code into a human, you already got what you wanted. What were we talking about again?

Re:"hack"

[hairyfeet]

But we already HAD a word for that and it was not "hackers" it was con artists...or bunko men if you prefer a more gender specific term.

If the guys here want to get all pedantic about the difference between virus and malware then why in God's green earth are we calling these guys hackers when they are doing the same shit that has been going on since before the fricking telephone? look up Bunko Bob, or Hod Bacon, guys have been doing cons for hundreds of years using nothing but their ability to manipulate the mark and this is no different and doesn't even require a computer,just the ability to sound professional and manipulate.

This is NOT hacking folks, not even close. You might as well call a washing machine a jet engine for how far off the mark this is from actually hacking a system.

Re:"hack"

[Anonymous Coward]

Scripture kiddies?

Re:"hack"

[mythosaz]

I painted a fence once, but nobody calls me a painter.

I jumped out of a plane once, but nobody calls me a skydiver.

...but suck one cock.

Re:"hack"

[suutar]

You take that back! I am not a salesperson! :)

Re: "hack"

[Anonymous Coward]

Virgin spotted

Meh. Virgin spotting on /. is like birdwatching in an aviary.

A hack is not just a hack

[cyberpocalypse]

There has been some commentary via mailing lists and Twitter feeds that this was not a big deal. Firstly, hats off to HD and his team, there was nothing they could have done about it. Secondly, this isn't to be taken lightly. Sure the attackers were minor script kiddies, but the reality is, the attack could have been extremely vicious. Consider an attacker replicating the content of the site and simply replacing the applications (nexpose, metasploit) with backdoored versions.

Companies like Register and GoDaddy are lacking in the validation category. ANYONE can create fake identification using GIMP, Photoshop, etc., the fact they did not offer anything other than a fax request is mind bogglingly stupid. They should have called BACK the registrant's number to confirm the change request. But, companies would argue: "that would be costly" not even thinking of turning that kind of validation into say a business model: "for $10 extra per year..." when they should be doing it from the jump. (Neither here nor there) Personally, I hadn't been running any updates, but if I did, I would be going back, wiping my machines, and re-installing.

Resolved

[al3]

"The DNS hijacking attack was resolved within an hour, Moore said."

Is that a DNS joke?

There's a name for this.

[Minwee]

It's "Canadian Hacking". Instead of breaking into someone's computers and maliciously altering their data, you just call them up or send a note to ask politely if they would do it to themselves.

You'd be surprised at how often it works, eh?

Re:There's a name for this.

[nine-times]

Honestly, it does work a lot. I work in IT and have had to help clients get control of various kinds of accounts to which they have lost usernames, passwords, and other vital information. You know, things like, "A previous employee bought our domain name and set up the DNS for us using his personal account. His name is on the account. We don't know what the associated email address is. We certainly don't have the password. We've tried contacting this ex-employee, and found that his phone number doesn't work anymore."

And really, you'd be surprised what you can get if you call up, sound professional and honest, and just ask people to help you out. Domain registrations are generally kind of a pain in the butt, but even those usually just require some faxed documentation. I've had some accounts (not domain registrations) where the support basically said, "Oh, you're supposed to have access? Let me just reset the password for you." It's pretty disturbing. But then I also legitimately need to do this sort of thing all the time because businesses rarely pay any attention to these things.

Registrar security is kind of a joke sometimes

[Tridus]

I had to do this recently for a legitimate reason. A friend had bought a small hobby type operation (including the domain), but the old owner forgot to change the domain ownership over and dropped off the grid. It wasn't really a problem until we wanted to change hosting providers, at which point we couldn't update the DNS settings.

Since we actually had control of the domain, I used the account that was listed as the admin contact to send an email to the registrar explaining the situation and asking if they could change the info for us. Without any validation whatsoever they sent me the username and password (apparently stored in clear text) for the account, allowing me to do anything I wanted with it.

Thankfully I don't use that registrar for my own stuff. I expected at least to have to show some proof of ownership or something.