UPnP hacker exploit found

[waltky]

Disable UPnP, hacker exploit found...

US Government Warns of Hack Threat to Network Gear
January 29, 2013 - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security urged computer users on Tuesday to disable a common networking technology feature, after researchers warned that hackers could exploit flaws to gain access to tens of millions of vulnerable devices.

The U.S. government's Computer Emergency Readiness Team, on its website, advised consumers and businesses to disable a feature known as Universal Plug and Play or UPnP, and some other related features that make devices from computers to printers accessible over the open Internet. UPnP, a communications protocol, is designed to let networks identify and communicate with equipment, reducing the amount of work it takes to set up networks. Dave Marcus, chief architect of advanced research and threat intelligence with Intel's McAfee unit, said hackers would have a ``field day'' once the vulnerability in network devices is exposed. "Historically, these are amongst the last to be updated and protected properly which makes them a gold mine for potential abuse and exploitation,'' said Marcus, who advises government agencies and corporations on protections against sophisticated attacks.

Disabling UPnP once networks have already been set up, will have little impact on the operation of the devices. The new security bugs were initially brought to the attention of the government by computer security company Rapid7, in Boston, which released a report on the problem on Tuesday. The company said it discovered between 40 million and 50 million devices that were vulnerable to attack due to three separate sets of problems that the firm's researchers have identified with the UPnP standard. The flaws could allow hackers to access confidential files, steal passwords, take full control over PCs as well as remotely access devices such as webcams, printers and security systems, according to Rapid7.

Rapid7 has alerted electronics makers about the problem through the CERT Coordination Center, a group at the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute that helps researchers report vulnerabilities to affected companies. "This is the most pervasive bug I've ever seen,'' said HD Moore, chief technology officer for Rapid7. He discussed the research with Reuters late on Monday. CERT in turn has tried to contact the more than 200 companies whose products Rapid7 have identified as being vulnerable to attack, including Belkin, D-Link, Cisco Systems Inc's Linksys division and Netgear. Linksys said it is aware of the problem. ``We recommend Linksys customers visit our website to understand if their home router is affected, and learn how to disable UPnP through the user interface to avoid being impacted,'' Linksys said in a statement. Belkin, D-Link and Netgear did not respond to requests for comment.

Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer of security software firm Veracode, said he believed that publication of Rapid7's findings would draw widespread attention to the still emerging area of UPnP security, prompting other security researchers to search for more bugs in UPnP. "This definitely falls into the scary category,'' said Wysopal, who reviewed Rapid7's findings ahead of their publication. "There is going to be a lot more research on this. And the follow-on research could be a lot scarier.'' Andres Andreu, chief architect at networking security company Bayshore Networks said they expect an increase in cybercrime as hackers begin to figure out ways to take advantage of the newly identified vulnerabilities. "Simple targets such as home routers now become targets of greater interest,'' he said.

Taking Control

 

[waltky]

Iranian hacker hacked into New York dam...

Hackers Pick Up Clues From Google's Internet Indexing
April 01, 2016 - In 2013, the Westmore News, a small newspaper serving the suburban community of Rye Brook, New York, ran a feature on the opening of a sluice gate at the Bowman Avenue Dam. Costing some $2 million, the new gate, then nearing completion, was designed to lessen flooding downstream.

The event caught the eye of a number of local politicians, who gathered to shake hands at the official unveiling. "I've been to lots of ribbon-cuttings," county executive Rob Astorino was quoted as saying. "This is my first sluice gate." But locals apparently weren't the only ones with their eyes on the dam's new sluice. According to an indictment handed down late last week by the U.S. Department of Justice, Hamid Firoozi, a well-known hacker based in Iran, gained access several times in 2013 to the dam's control systems. Had the sluice been fully operational and connected to those systems, Firoozi could have created serious damage. Fortunately for Rye Brook, it wasn't.

Computers display the Google Desktop search engine​

Hack attacks probing critical U.S. infrastructure are nothing new. What alarmed cybersecurity analysts in this case, however, was Firoozi's apparent use of an old trick that computer nerds have quietly known about for years. It's called "dorking" a search engine — as in "Google dorking" or "Bing dorking" — a tactic long used by cybersecurity professionals who work to close security vulnerabilities. Now, it appears, the hackers know about it, as well.

Hiding in open view

"What some call dorking we really call open-source network intelligence," said Srinivas Mukkamala, co-founder and CEO of the cyber-risk assessment firm RiskSense. "It all depends on what you ask Google to do." Mukkamala says that search engines are constantly trolling the Internet, looking to record and index every device, port and unique IP address connected to the Web. Some of those things are designed to be public — a restaurant's homepage, for example — but many others are meant to be private — say, the security camera in the restaurant's kitchen. The problem, says Mukkamala, is that too many people don't understand the difference before going online. "There's the Internet, which is anything that's publicly addressable, and then there are intranets, which are meant to be only for internal networking," he told VOA. "The search engines don't care which is which; they just index. So if your intranet isn't configured properly, that's when you start seeing information leakage."

The sluice gate of the Boman Avenue Dam is pictured in Rye, New York, December 23, 2015. Iranian hackers breached the control system of a dam near New York City​

While a restaurant's closed-circuit camera may not pose any real security threat, many other things getting connected to the Web do. These include pressure and temperature sensors at power plants, SCADA systems that control refineries, and operational networks — or OTs — that keep major manufacturing plants working. Whether engineers know it or not, many of these things are being indexed by search engines, leaving them quietly hiding in open view. The trick of dorking, then, is to figure out just how to find all those assets indexed online. As it turns out, it's really not that hard.

An asymmetric threat

See also:

US Releases Uranium Inventory Information
April 01, 2016 - For first time in 15 years, US has declassified and released data on its inventory of highly-enriched uranium

For the first time in 15 years, the U.S. has declassified and released data on its inventory of highly-enriched uranium (HEU). The data is as of September 30, 2013. The fact sheet from the White House Press Secretary's office says “from 1996 to 2013, U.S. HEU inventories decreased from 740.7 metric tons to 585.6 metric tons.This reflects a reduction of over 20 percent.” Further reductions in the inventory are “ongoing” according to the news release.

Someone is seen holding highly enriched uranium. The US released its inventory of the material.​

Some of the released data indicates that, of the inventory on September 30, 2013, 499.4 metric tons was for national security and non-national security programs like nuclear weapons and naval propulsion. The remaining amount, “41.6 metric tons was available for potential down-blend to low enriched uranium or, if not possible, disposal as low-level waste, and 44.6 metric tons was in spent reactor fuel.”

In 2010, President Obama said that “when the United States improves our own nuclear security and transparency, it encourages others to do the same.”

US Releases Uranium Inventory Information