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Malware Infects 70% of Seagate Central NAS Drives, Earns $86,400 (softpedia.com)
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: A new malware family has infected over 70% of all Seagate Central NAS devices connected to the Internet. The malware, named Miner-C or PhotoMiner, uses these hard-drives as an intermediary point to infect connected PCs and install software that mines for the Monero cryptocurrency... The crooks made over $86,000 from Monero mining so far.
The hard drives are easy to infect because Seagate does not allow users to delete or deactivate a certain "shared" folder when the device is exposed to the Internet. Over 5,000 Seagate Central NAS devices are currently infected.
Researchers estimates the malware is now responsible for 2.5% of all mining activity for the Monero cryptocurrency, according to the article. "The quandary is that Seagate Central owners have no way to protect their device. Turning off the remote access NAS feature can prevent the infection, but also means they lose the ability to access the device from a remote location, one of the reasons they purchased the hard drive in the first place."
The hard drives are easy to infect because Seagate does not allow users to delete or deactivate a certain "shared" folder when the device is exposed to the Internet. Over 5,000 Seagate Central NAS devices are currently infected.
Researchers estimates the malware is now responsible for 2.5% of all mining activity for the Monero cryptocurrency, according to the article. "The quandary is that Seagate Central owners have no way to protect their device. Turning off the remote access NAS feature can prevent the infection, but also means they lose the ability to access the device from a remote location, one of the reasons they purchased the hard drive in the first place."
Put an un-updatable OS on a harddrive, Brilliant!
Table-ized A.I.
The worst part of the story is that the HDD is made by Seagate and won't last more than 13 months regardless. The users think they bought a good network drive, until they go to retrieve their files and discover the drive has already bought the farm.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
It is not difficult to setup http://www.freenas.org/ on a small server machine, and benefit from FreeBSD security with no (known) backdoor accounts. If you're really serious get a proper NAS motherboard with ECC RAM (if you're not using ECC RAM, then it means you're not very serious with your data anyways), which won't cost you more than $500 with the case and the PSU.
Of course if you're unable or unwilling to secure your box, accept that anything on the Internet is wide open, and buy (rent) online storage from Amazon, Box, or somewhere similar. Amazon gives free unlimited backup account with prime (which is around $99)
Once again, exposing various things directly to the Internet is a Bad Thing.
Indeed it is, but it likely isn't really exposed "directly to the Internet". More likely it runs some service through a Seagate server that makes it available (likely by default, no less). After all, this is designed for home users and how many home users even would know how to modify their router's default rules to expose a specific port on a specific system to the internet?
claiming device owners "have no way to protect their device" is bullshit.
Well, if the first thing it does out of the box is call home to Seagate to give owners remote access to their files through the magical Seagate cloud, then the statement might be pretty darned accurate. These drives most likely default to getting addresses by DHCP on the user's network, and the user most likely gets their outside address by DHCP from their ISP. These hackers likely aren't finding these drives to be exposed directly, but rather to be exposed via Seagate. And considering the (lack of) quality that is Seagate these days, the drives probably have some terrible default password as well that makes it trivially easy for a hacker to get in.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
The criminals are in shady and desperate corners of the world and it's unlikely we can do much about them. Control what you can control; though, and don't do known risky things.
Table-ized A.I.
Oh, so that's what it means. I thought it meant Internet of Twits.
SynoLocker.
NAS systems should generally be behind a NAT firewall unless attached to a hardened server, and hardened servers in the DMZ should be kept up to date religiously. If you want to use a NAS remotely, you should VPN into your network.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
This.
I have one of these devices. The first thing that must be done is to create an account on thw Seagate server. All account creation and password changes go through their server.
The devicw itself is utter crap. Linux OS with an NTFS formatted. The transfer speed using ethernet is comparable to dialup.
Stay away from anything Seagate / NAS. Waste of money.
sed s/"IoT//g
Any device, be it IoT, a client, server, network device, or anything has this problem. In my experience, security is perceived to have no ROI, so at best it gets lip service, at worse, it is obviously ignored. I have seen "encryption" where all zeroes were used as AES keys for all operations, 4096 bit keys that were really sixty-four, 64-bit RSA keys (really giving 70 bits of security), tons of added stuff, no OS firewalling, disinterest in any updates, locking down firmware where no updates can be performed (this is extremely routine, because it adds planned obsolesce, and companies have zero responsibility to provide them, even if there is a major, show-stopper bug.)
The best device on the Internet is no device. Next to that, it is having devices placed between hardened firewalls, only communicating to a few machines, real secure mechanisms for updates [1], and so on. Ideally devices should communicate to a hardened hub, and the hub handles everything else.
[1]: Back in the 1990s, RSA was not prevelant, so motherboard makers actually had to use real security. No motherboard flashing could be done until a physical switch was flipped. This may not be possible for all devices, but it should be considered part of the flashing process, to stop rogue firmware "upgrades."
Claiming they lose the ability to access the device from a remote location if they turn off the remote access feature is also bullshit. Just VPN in, or enable read-only FTP, or any of a number of other different options.
The criminals are virtually untouchable:
1: They are likely in countries of the world that have zero interest in turning them over for justice. In fact, they may be regarded as folk heroes or equivalents of Robin Hood, taking money from corporations or countries and bringing it to the region.
2: They are likely using employees to do the dirty work, with plenty of anonymity between them and the higher ups.
3: Malware can be traced, and a lot of people suggest origin, but code can be edited and spread anywhere in the world, so code that originally came from Latveria can be used and abused by people from Lower Elbonia, and if distribution is done, the whitehats may never know the real origin.
4: Compromising an endpoint isn't too difficult these days. If someone hacks a wi-fi router and compromises a home computer, all it takes is deleting the offending stuff securely, and that becomes a dead end.
5: For every one criminal, there are others behind them.
6: LEOs have many cases on their hands. It might be doubtful they may have the resources to handle anything but the big names, so chasing after every bad guy would be about as fruitful as chasing every pot smoker in the US.
Going after criminals is nice, but that is a game of whack-a-mole. Unfortunately, computer security is a defensive war, but there are useful tools on the whitehat end which can help mitigate attacks.
Long term, it may not be something is wanted in any shape or form, but I think what may end up happening is that countries themselves will demand control of the routers that go from one nation to another and enforce rules there. China has that, Iran is building it, and other countries are looking into blocking at their virtual borders, just like physical borders. It might be a token thing now, but as time goes on and money is put into it, it may become something all countries have in place, just so another country that has IP ranges that are hotspots for attack are blocked there, so every single Internet entity in the nation wouldn't have to deal with them.
back into the 1990's there was pretty much no worries about security.
And the motherboards didn't have anything baked into them because of hackers.
There were no switches. Unless you are talking about the jumpers so you should of said jumpers to actually prove what you were talking about. There were no internet based hacks that required jumper use to repair in the 1990's.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
Indeed it is, but it likely isn't really exposed "directly to the Internet". More likely it runs some service through a Seagate server that makes it available (likely by default, no less). After all, this is designed for home users and how many home users even would know how to modify their router's default rules to expose a specific port on a specific system to the internet?
You're incorrect. You may wish to read the technical report covering this issue. -PCP
From the NSA on a HD under EquationDrug or GrayFish https://www.wired.com/2015/02/... (02.22.15) to other strange software getting in...
If we had better encryption, networking tool, smarter academics in the private sector, computer experts working on networking issues like this then we could all sit back, buy with confidence from any big brand.
With better standards the internet community can restore storage options to been useful again and not an open door for any gov or malware attempt.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
It's a drive no one in their right mind would buy, and an off-brand cryptocurrency with no mindshare. I didn't even know it existed until this article.
This story really is a nothingburger.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
"Because Windows has a bad habit of hiding file extensions, whenever the device owner accesses their NAS, they see this file as a folder, fooled by the fake icon." - http://news.softpedia.com/news...
So part of the problem is windows too. Hiding file extensions and allowing scripts to be run without confirmation. That's the same rubbish which made macro viruses so rampant in msoffice formats.
Are there no laws to force electronic manufacturers to fix these devices, in the same way that other manufacturers are forced to fix faults? Cyber security is supposed to be really important now with important people forming important committees and yet insecure devices are being sold, not fixed and not recalled even after manufacturers have been informed of their failings.
It seems rather lopsided when a hacker is sent to jail for poking holes in an insecure voting website but Seagate can just throw their hands in the air and say, hey, these thousands of devices are nothing to do with us now. How many compromised devices are funding terrorism and other criminal activity? Maybe ISIS are mining these coins.
SynoLocker is an old issue, with DSM 5.x and 6.x patching it, and future items get autopatched if one turns that on during initial setup (the default is to auto install security patches). It also is wise to not have your internal NAS devices on the Internet (mine have a firewall script that allow incoming from the local segment, outgoing to Synology's patching sites, and blocking all other traffic.) It also is wise to use the Hyper Backup utility to back data up to somewhere (external HDD, cloud provider, etc.), preferably using encryption.
There isn't anything wrong with using unRAID, FreeNAS, or another utility. However, the main reason I use Synology products (QNAP is another good maker that tends to have an edge on hardware for the same price), is wattage use. The two I have use at most 40 watts, and significantly less than that when idle. A modern PC is thrifty on power, but having an ARM appliance is also quite nice. Of course, the PC gives a lot of flexibility, but having a NAS designed from the ground up, hardware and software for the dedicated purpose doesn't hurt either.
The price is right as well. I picked up a two drive unit with an ARM CPU for about $150, added drives, and it has been running 24/7 quite reliability.
Yeah because we all know how secure the Cloud is...
Just ask for your money back. These devices do not work as expected and it's definitely a manufacturing problem.
https://blog.filippo.io/so-i-l...
TL;DR: jump to Chapter IV
I like my ASRock motherboards, there is a physical switch that makes it boot up from the primary bios or the backup bios. Overwriting the Backup requires intentionally telling the Bios to overwrite the backup. You can flip the switch and make it boot from the backup and it can overrite the primary. You can't screw this up.
Also you can't flash the bios in Windows 10. You can however tell the bios to update the bios over the internet.
Now, why this is relevant. I had a Gigabyte motherboard last time around, it flashed itself to death. Because of issues with the CPU it would occasionally boot up and malfunction, and try to recover by copying the backup to the primary and rebooting. This happened enough times that it eventually bricked itself.
But you're right, the correct mechanism is to make it so that the BIOS/Firmware on a hardware product has a mechanical switch thrown to enable this. I've bricked 2 WRT54G's due to bad firmware, and they could have been salvaged if they had a backup firmware that could be switched to. Certain devices are more susceptible to being damaged, with wireless routers being at the top of the list. All those need to be overwritten is for a rogue access client to tell it to reboot and accept a TFTP firmware most of the time. When I first moved to this city, I found open wireless access points with no password set on the admin panel, I told those devices to update the firmware and then logged back in, set an admin password, then wiped the access log. This was more than 12 years ago.
More to the point however, IPv6 is supposed to give every device a real world ip address, no more NAT bullshit. Unfortunately IoT devices are often setup with no security because otherwise they can't be setup at all.
This reminds me of back in the early days of cable modems before routers were standard, If you connected a Windows XP machine to a cable modem, you were infected with malware within minutes. Not enough time to download any patches. Even with Windows 95 and 98 (remember "back oriface" ?) the kiddies were getting any machine connected to the same ISP infected, or bumping users off that they didn't like, stealing their passwords and so forth.
It's like nobody wanted to learn anything from 20 years ago with this "assume some idiot is going to plug this device right into an internet-facing device" problem that was pretty much everywhere.
For IoT things, the best thing to do is have two firmwares, (oh but that costs a few more pennies) one to boot if DHCP reveals a non-routable ip address (eg 192.168.x.x) and one to boot if ipv4 or ipv6 show routable ip addresses, with the latter making sure that it doesn't have "default" settings like admin/password accounts setup.
A jumper makes or breaks a connection. Even if you're a total aspie and don't think that makes it a switch, I have an old Asus MEW board right next to me and it's got DIPs on it so just fuck off.
P.S. s/should of/should have/
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I was considering that, after all, they earned (ahem...) up to now "only" 86,400 USD. To do this probably more than one people was involved, so halving as a mininmum the income for each person taking part to the dirty work. Since by doing this these people demonstrated some good programming and organizing skills, why didn't they put their skills for good use working as a consultant or starting a software company ? I know, you have to deal with IRS, balances, maybe PHBs, and all the bureaucracy that affects good companies. On the other side, if you get caught your work is rapidly destroyed, and if identified you get a fine, maybe some jail or probation time, and you are known forever as a bad guy. Is it really worth of it ?
I don't understand why you question the true, obvious statement that a currency, to be viable, must have people willing to change it into other currencies. Real world currencies, or the cryptocurrency is worthless. If you're relying on someone being foolish enough to be willing to pay real money at some arbitrary rate for a virtually unknown cryptocurrency, I fear disappointment in the long run. The supply of fools may be endless, but the supply of cash backing said fools is finite.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Stay away from anything Seagate / NAS. Waste of money.
I bought a Dockstar once... that's a pogoplug :)
Actually a decent little box for Debian, although you really want the Pogoplug V4.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
In the 80s and 90s, depending upon when, exactly, there was complete and total access to everything on the internet, just about. Computers connected to the internet were directly accessible, for the most part. Firewalls? Routers? They all came later. Everything was pretty much statically defined and worked like your wired home LAN, if your home LAN were comprised of speaker wires with crappy connectors and ran at 10Kb/s.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
I agree with you. I have had very good luck with the apps Synology has. The Git app, though bare-bones, is useful. The Hyper Backup function works with many sources (especially with something like Amazon Cloud Drive that provides unlimited storage), the device easily supports 2FA (I just copy my google-authenticator file to /usr/syno/etc/preferences/, and the web server will ask for the Google Authenticator ID. SSH can be locked down as well.)
For a NAS, it is surprising how much stuff the Synology (and the QNAP offerings as well) support.
I have one of these devices. [...]
Linux OS with an NTFS formatted.
The Seagate BlackArmor NAS I have uses ext3, not NTFS.
The transfer speed using ethernet is comparable to dialup.
Two gigE ports, which even allow for bonding. The speed issue isn't with the transfer speed, but using software RAID without enough memory to cache anything.
The currency needs to be viable only for the 5 minutes between mining it and exchanging it. Or, for darknet purchases, for the few minutes between buying it for real money, and buying drugs with it. This is just criminal activity we're talking about - no one cares if the currency will even exist a week from now. If it meets their needs this hour, it's fine. Easier to use online than Tide, after all.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Who would you blame if auto manufacturers didn't offer door locks on your car and someone took all your stuff? Or they did put locks on but the key would open all the doors of each model, or even made it where attempting to open the door actually unlocked the door.
I'm sorry, but the manufacturers (not the vendors, Best Buy is a vendor, Seagate is a manufacturer) are responsible for poor/no security on their devices, and until we start holding them legally and financially responsible, breaches like this won't change.
--- Keep the choice with the user..
A jumper can make a switch, but isn't a switch, it's a jumper that connects two or more terminals together. If it was a switch, it never would of been called a jumper.
Next you'll be telling a fuse is a switch. You know, because it switches something on.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
Oh, and the MEW board? When was that introduced?
late 1999 and you tell me to fuck off ? Wow, You are a stain on slashdot. The sooner you get mod bombed the better.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
I love when grammar nazis are wrong.
go back to school.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!