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According to DreamHost’s Status and Blog, staff noticed some unusual activity on one of their databases that held user login information for shell accounts. While the passwords were mostly encrypted, hackers “hacker found a legacy pool of unencrypted FTP/shell passwords in a database table that we had not previously deleted,” according to DreamHost CEO Simon Anderson.
As a precaution, ALL shell/FTP account passwords were reset by DreamHost. While it will cause some inconvenience for users trying to access their sites over SSH/FTP, the implications are much more serious. A lot of CMS systems store their database username and passwords in plaintext on configuration files. If whoever gained access to DreamHost’s shell account database and managed to decrypt the information, then they would have unmitigated access to not only sites’ files, but they could potentially (and most likely) gain access to the back-end database driving those sites with all user data. This could be a very major breach of user data from one of the largest web hosts in the United States.
DreamHost is being unusually mum about the technical details about the hack and is angering customers over their negligence regarding out-dated server software. While most front-end software is kept up-to-date, their back-end software is grossly outdated and there appears to be no real effort nor care by DreamHost to keep OS and back-end software updated. What makes things worse is that DreamHost’s official stance on their security solution is to not disclose what technologies they use. Rather than taking a proactive and relatively transparent stance to their own security systems, the company has decided to take-up a reactive and a “security through obscurity” stance.
Related articles
- DreamHost Security Issue Prompts FTP Password Resets (sucuri.net)
- Changing Shell/FTP Passwords due to Security Issue (dreamhoststatus.com)
- Security Update (dreamhost.com)
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I first took attention to Carrier IQ when it was discovered by custom ROM developers for the phone I personally have; the Sprint Epic4G made by Samsung. The device is part of the massively popular Galaxy S line of Android-powered devices that virtually every major cellular carrier in the world sells. Around June, it was discovered that this software records virtually everything a user does with their phone from each screen-tap to every site they visit to recording audio and even the physical orientation of the device itself.
A thread (which I now cannot find on XDA-Developers) outlined this “middleware” and it was surmised that individual Carriers like Sprint used it solely for coverage and troubleshooting issues. An effort was undertaken to remove this software from the Android Linux kernel as it was discovered to hinder the device’s performance. Developers notably had a very difficult time removing Carrier IQ, but managed to eventually remove it for their custom Android ROMs.
Fast forward to Fall of 2011 where a developer named Trevor Eckhart decided to look into Carrier IQ a bit deeper and found that Carrier IQ was essentially a rootkit and actually recorded almost all actions performed with a device it was installed on and phoned home with that information. He has released a video showing proof of Carrier IQ recording his location with location turned off, un-encrypted HTTPS streams, all SMS messages sent/received, and even EVERY touch of the device screen he makes.
Essentially what everything boils down to is that carriers can spy on literally everything you do with your phone. This is obviously a blatant violation of privacy rights and repercussions are sure to come. Developing…
Related articles
- Carrier IQ Rootkit Reportedly Logs Everything On Millions Of Phones (pcworld.com)
- You Can Test Your Android For Carrier IQ (Sort Of) [Carrier Iq] (gizmodo.com)
- People Are Freaking Out About Carrier IQ, The Hidden Smartphone Program That Tracks Everything You Do (businessinsider.com)
- Carrier IQ: How To Find It, And How To Deal With It – TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)
- Silicon Alley Insider: RIM: We Do Not Authorize Carrier IQ On BlackBerry Phones (RIMM) (businessinsider.com)
- Verizon: No CarrierIQ, No way (gigaom.com)
- So, there’s a rootkit hidden in millions of cellphones (zdnet.com)
- Phone ‘Rootkit’ Maker Carrier IQ May Have Violated Wiretap Law In Millions Of Cases (textually.org)
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NetworkWorld has a very interesting writeup about a report that six German Information Security researchers published outlining very massive and highly exploitable flaws in Cloud Computing services; specifically Amazon’s EC2 and S3 as well as Eucalyptus Cloud Computing Software. Old concepts like XSS and what is referred to as XML Signature Wrapping attacks on the SOAP interfaces of the aforementioned cloud services. Very troubling and a large blow to the legitimacy of security in the cloud.
The full PDF of the German researchers’ findings can be found here.
Related articles
- Researchers Demo Cloud Security Issue With Amazon AWS Attack (pcworld.com)
- Researchers demo cloud security issue with Amazon AWS hijacking attack (infoworld.com)
- Cloud computing: Gaps in the ‘cloud’ (physorg.com)
- Researchers demo cloud security issue with Amazon AWS attack (networkworld.com)
After Time Warner backed away from their new extremely unpopular and perceived unfair speed and traffic limits, the company is now beginning now shut off heavy users without notice. According to user accounts in the link after the jump, they were directed to TW’s security and abuse department and lectured about using too much bandwidth.
Fresh off related story of the company also suspending DOCSIS 3.0 trials in response to public outcry, this really seems like the company is being childish and essentially taking it’s ball and going home.
Slashdot | Time Warner Shutting Off Austin Accounts For Heavy Usage.
