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Attackers Use Email Spam To Infect Point-of-Sale Terminals
jfruh writes: Point-of-sale software has meant that in many cases where once you'd have seen a cash register, you now see a general-purpose PC running point-of-sale (PoS) software. Unfortunately, those PCs have all the usual vulnerabilities, and when you run software on it that processes credit card payments, they become a tempting target for hackers. One of the latest attacks on PoS software comes in the form of malicious Word macros downloaded from spam emails.
That's what happens when you embed Linux in your appliances...
It seems to happen all the time.
So, WTF is an e-mail client doing on a POS terminal in the first place? It doesn't need one, it shouldn't have one. Ditto a Web browser. You don't have to worry about vulnerabilities in software that isn't present on the machine in the first place. There are of course other things to be looked at, but those are a good starting point.
Or has he missed? If you know what I mean. Do you know mean? Know? Know what I mean?
No, I don't.
Or has he missed? If you know what I mean. Do you know mean? Know? Know what I mean?
No, I don't.
(And, yes, that breakin was mentioned in TFA.)
That is truly beyond me. There ought to be competent CTOs out there. Why don't they connect those to some heavily fenced intranet/VPN? And why don't they generally disable unnecessary hardware physically (USB, DVD...)?
cuz bein a PoS r no bein PoS enuf
That's what happens when you embed Linux in your appliances
Linux?
Most POS systems that I have encountered run WinXP
I supply various systems, including retail chain management built with security by design. It is hard to achieve proper security in stores and offices, the users are so far away from being computer savvy it hurts. We move them off windows in many cases to Linux solutions. In any case POS should not be connected to the Internet. We set up linux machines as router / firewall and as a store management server. It talks to everything on the inside, it provides connectivity for the bank terminals, the cameras and another administrative computer. POS gets its instructiin s through it and offloads sales data to it and then everything is synchronized with the central system by it.
The amount of crazy that happens in stores is staggering, almost inconceivable. We have to prevent meltdown with minimal resources and as little pain as possible but it is not easy when a retailer has a few stores and maybe one admin. Remote administration is vital, proper backup solutions are vital, the whole thine can degrade in no time if none is watching.
You can't handle the truth.
and when doesn't it?
There ought to be competent CTOs out there.
Two questions for you:
1: What have you been smoking?
2: Can I have some?
I think 'competent' and 'CTO' in the same sentence probably constitutes a contradiction in terms.
"general-purpose PC running point-of-sale (PoS) .. PCs have all the usual vulnerabilities"
Only when running Microsoft Windows and connected to the Internet.
White-nose bat guano. What's it to you?
Can you handle white-nose dude guano?
Using Windows were there is any sensitive information is the equivalent of promoting criminal activity. The only exception is if the system is tightly configured and continuously updated. In the real world a vanishingly small percentage of all Windows installations do the right thing.
The only way this will ever change is if the organization (or person) responsible for the system is held accountable for any sensitive data leaks. Accountability must include fines, monetary indemnification and criminal liability. In plain English, that means if you screw up and loose someone's private info, you are on the hook for paying a fine and compensating the victim for all their losses, including the time they spend dealing with the mess. And if the breach is significant enough, you should be facing a criminal trial and serious jail time.
If this was in place there would be very few data breaches, obviously. I also think that it would be better for the overall economy, because the cost of data loss would be accounted for. Right now the cost accrues to the victim and so the real economic damage is invisible. It's the same situation as a manufacturing company not paying for waste disposal because they can get away with dumping their trash on the neighbors property.
Of course this will never happen because Profit!
Why is Snark Required?
I thought that word macros and such were a solved problem. Is anyone still running Office 97? After that, macros were disabled by default.
"Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
The case for the 'principle of least authority' has been made many times. People have even tried to design operating systems around it. But when the dominant PC operating system is simply designed to make its maker money and give them market dominance, stuff like this happens. PCs vulnerable to this sort of thing are the product of laziness and the business obsession with (and present-day necessity of) short time-to-market. Unfortunately modern business reality means people often cannot afford to make things properly anymore.
John_Chalisque
1995 called, they want their zero day exploits back.
This is what happens when you have employees who think they have a god given right to surf the internet and conduct personal business on company time and equipment.
I'm sorry, you would not have that "right" in my shop. Especially these days with smart phones and tablets. You want to check your email or surf the web? Do it on your own god damned device, and it better damn well be after you've completed all your work, or on your break.
Yes employees have rights, but so do employers. They have the right to not have their equipment fucked up by ignorant employees who fall for the latest click-bait headline or flashy-shiny desktop icon thinngymabob that compromise their entire business.
--- Keep the choice with the user..
If the network infra-structure allows for POS to connect to the Internet at large, the managers are idiots without a clue and are asking from problems. Probably sooner than later.
Remember when an ATM crashed at Carnegie Mellon school, and the students ran media player on it to play some music? Sadly the video seems to have gone.
If only they'd know, they could have started terminal or sent commands to the serial and told the cash mechanism to dispense money.
I'm sure people will try to defend this, but nobody wants this crap, its just the manufacturers slapping software onto a PC and calling it a POS machine without revealing that its just a PC and vulnerable to everything their home PC is.
> This is what happens when you have employees who think they have a god given right to surf the internet
Or when you have an employer mandate to check employee email about store policies, schedules, delivery dates, and inventory, verifying store hours for other branches, verifying alternative vendor prices for price matching, checking the weather for a customer buying exterior paint, looking up a product review or product specifications with a customer, or any of a dozen other uses. It is _embarrassing_ for a modern vendor to be unable to work with a customer checking the same information that the customer can obtain at home on their home computer, or to be unable to print out the specifications for a product that the vendor sells.
Such terminals have become quite common and are much more necessary now that customers expect one store to be able to verify inventory or reserve an item before proceeding to another physical store. If they cannot do this, they will lose the sale to an online vendor.
Why does a PoS computer have an email client installed?
Why does a PoS computer have Microsoft Word installed?
And why is the email client even running?
A PoS computer should only be connected to an intranet and should only be running the PoS software. Everything else should be completely locked down. Someone messed up, big time.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Its not the employee. Think of it this way.Timmie's market has to use a over the counter pos system to talk with visa for approval of a sale. One carrot, how does it do it? Broadcast to the open internet? And wait for a reply? On what?
They used to call a card approval company on a pos device. Still happens, but now, how do you implement this packet transaction, open broadcast? Easiest way, email. Easiest return? Again... And its not just a Ms thing, they all do it. They don't have direct lines anymore. Or secure lines, or why would that attack work?
The real WTF in this scenario is why does the POS software have access to credit card numbers? A one-way transaction will have all credit card information go directly through the PINpad, without ever being exposed to the controlling PC.
"Evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb." - Dark Helmet (Spaceballs)
I live in a popular tourist destination and have worked on many of these, most all of them here are running on windows server 2000, 2003 or xp, most un-patched and running on a full fledged OS, were employes log in there hours and have access (Allowed or not) internet explorer during down time. Many of these are even running on various OS torrent'ed from TPB. I have long been concerned about these systems as it would be trivial to compromise these machines.
The only reason its not total disaster is the systems (Digital dining mostly and some older POS systems for a more stock oriented approach, like package stores etc) general uses mapped drives with encryption to store the batches of Card numbers, they are sent out over the wire nightly in an encrypted "batch" at midnight ever night. Each batch typically containing thousands of card numbers and is indeed a temping target for carders.
Over the years Ive seen regulations begin to help things as company seem to enforce some arbitrary upgrades like semi modern OS's but that seemed to fizzle out idk perhaps due to lack of enforcement.
What a great idea, send confidential information over the internet in a non-encrypted by default protocol. Sadly I used to replace these sorts of systems ALL THE TIME. The really sad thing, the software almost always had the ability to sign requests with a key, but barely even a fraction of a percent of the systems I dealt with ever used them.
You need a working e-mail address to log into Hearthstone. What else am I going to do at work if I'm forced to stand at a cash register all day?
On Another Site, someone asked (relatively recently) how to run a web browser on windows 3.1... on industrial computer controlling a bandsaw. At this point, Win 3.1 and any IE that could run on it would be not updateable. So let's allow our bandsaw controller to be pwn3d.
People do stupid things.