Symantec Exposed Passwords, Serials – SQL Injection, Full Database Access

A self-proclaimed grey-hat hacker has located a critical SQL injection vulnerability in a website belonging to security giant Symantec. The flaw can be leveraged to extract a wealth of information from the database including customer and admin login credentials, product serial numbers, and possibly credit card information.

The flaw was found by a Romanian hacker going by the online handle of Unu, according to whom an insecure parameter of a script from the pcd.symantec.com website, allows for a Blind SQL Injection (SQLi) attack to be performed. In such an attack, the hacker obtains read and/or write permission to the underlying database of the vulnerable website.

The content of the pcd.symantec.com website is written in Japanese, but from what we could determine, it serves a product called Norton PC Doctor. The Web server appears to be running Windows Server 2000 as operating system, Microsoft IIS 6.0 with ASP support and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 as database back-end.

From the screen shots released by Unu there are many potentially interesting databases, but the one he chose to look at is called “symantecstore.” One of the tables in this database is named “PaymentInformationInfo” and contains columns such as BillingAddress, CardExpirationMonth, CardExpirationYear, CardNumber, CardType, CcIssueCode, CustomerEmail, CustomerFirstName, CustomerLastName or SecurityIndicator.

Source: Unu’s Blog

How I cross-site scripted Twitter in 15 minutes, and why you shouldn’t store important data on 37signals’ applications
“Today the Ruby on Rails security team released a patch for a cross-site scripting issue which affected multiple high-profile applications, including Twitter and Basecamp. If you’re concerned about the issue and would like to see the patch, please read the advisory from the Rails security team. In this post, I discuss the overall process of finding the issue, and the reason why I’d suggest that no important information be stored on the 37signals applications (Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, and Campfire).

My attention quickly turned to Twitter, the only web application I had open at that moment. A few minutes later, I had JavaScript from a URL query parameter falling through the escaping routines and running in the main body of twitter.com. Bingo! Cross-site scripting, the stuff that Twitter worms are made of. But was this a Twitter-specific issue, or did it affect other sites too?”
- Brian Mastenbrook

Source: Brian Mastenbrook

WASHINGTON – Wanted: Computer hackers.

Federal authorities aren’t looking to prosecute them, but to pay them to secure the nation’s networks.

General Dynamics Information Technology put out an ad last month on behalf of the Homeland Security Department seeking someone who could “think like the bad guy.” Applicants, it said, must understand hackers’ tools and tactics and be able to analyze Internet traffic and identify vulnerabilities in the federal systems.

With warnings that the U.S. is ill-prepared for a cyberattack, the White House conducted a 60-day study of how the government can better manage and use technology to protect everything from the electrical grid and stock markets to tax data, airline flight systems, and nuclear launch codes.

President Barack Obama appointed a former Bush administration aide, Melissa Hathaway, to head the effort, and her report was delivered Friday, the White House said.

U.S. computer networks, including those at the Pentagon and other federal agencies, are under persistent attack, ranging from nuisance hacking to more nefarious assaults, possibly from other nations, such as China.

Just last week, spies had hacked into the U.S. electric grid and left behind computer programs that would let them disrupt service. The intrusions were discovered after electric companies gave the government permission to audit their systems

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Pentagon officials say they spent more than $100 million in the last six months responding to and repairing damage from cyberattacks and other computer network problems.

Short said the $60 million, four-year contract with US-CERT uses the ethical hackers to analyze threats to the government’s computer systems and develop ways to reduce vulnerabilities.

Source: Yahoo News