DOUG. Router woes, Megaupload in megatrouble, and extra MOVEit mayhem.
All that and extra on the Bare Safety podcast.
[MUSICAL MODEM]
Welcome to the podcast, everyone.
I’m Doug Aamoth; he’s Paul Ducklin.
Paul, how do you do?
DUCK. Only a disambiguation for our British and Commonwealth English listeners, Doug…
DOUG. “Router.” [PRONOUNCED UK-STYLE AS ‘ROOTER’, NOT US-STYLE AS ‘ROWTER’]
DUCK. You don’t imply the woodworking instruments, I suppose?
DOUG. No! [LAUGHS]
DUCK. You imply the issues that permit crooks break into your community in the event that they’re not patched in time?
DOUG. Sure!
DUCK. The place the behaviour of what we’d name a ‘ROOTER’ does to your community extra like what a ‘ROWTER’ would do to the sting of your desk? [LAUGHS]
DOUG. Precisely! [LAUGHS]
We are going to get to that shortly.
However first, our This Week in Tech Historical past phase.
Paul, this week, on 18 June, method again in 1979: a giant step ahead for 16-bit computing as Microsoft rolled out a model of its BASIC programming language for 8086 processors.
This model was backward suitable with 8-bit processors, making BASIC, which had been out there for the Z80 and 8080 processors, and was discovered on some 200,000 computer systems already, an arrow in most programmers’ quivers, Paul.
DUCK. What was to change into GW-BASIC!
I don’t know whether or not that is true, however I hold studying that GW-BASIC stands for “GEE WHIZZ!” [LAUGHS]
DOUG. Ha! [LAUGHTER]
DUCK. I don’t know whether or not that’s true, however I wish to suppose it’s.
DOUG. Alright, let’s get into our tales.
Earlier than we get to stuff that’s within the information, we’re happy, nay thrilled, to announce the primary of three episodes of Suppose You Know Ransomware?
This can be a 48-minute documentary collection from your mates at Sophos.
“The Ransomware Documentary” – model new video collection from Sophos beginning now!
The primary episode, known as Origins of Cybercrime, is now out there for viewing at https://sophos.com/ransomware.
Episode 2, which known as Hunters and Hunted, will probably be out there on 28 June 2023.
Episode 3, Weapons and Warriors, will drop on 5 July 2023.
Test it out at https://sophos.com/ransomware.
I’ve seen the primary episode, and it’s nice.
It solutions all of the questions you’ll have in regards to the origins of this scourge that we hold preventing 12 months after 12 months, Paul.
DUCK. And it feeds very properly into what common listeners will know is my favorite saying (I hope I haven’t turned it right into a cliche by now), particularly: Those that can not bear in mind historical past are condemned to repeat it.
Don’t be that particular person! [LAUGHS]
DOUG. Alright, let’s stick with regards to crime.
Jail time for 2 of the 4 Megaupload founders.
Copyright infringement at difficulty right here, Paul, and a couple of decade within the making?
Megaupload duo will go to jail ultimately, however Kim Dotcom fights on…
DUCK. Sure.
Keep in mind final week once I paraphrased that joke about, “Oh, you understand what buses are like? None come for ages, after which three arrive directly?” [LAUGHTER]
However I needed to parlay it into “two arrive directly”…
…and no sooner had I mentioned it than the third one arrived. [LAUGHTER]
And that is out of New Zealand, or Aotearoa, because it’s alternatively recognized.
Megaupload was an notorious early so-called “file locker” service.
That’s not “file locker” as in ransomware that locks up your recordsdata.
It’s “file locker” like a fitness center locker… the cloud place the place you add recordsdata so you may get them later.
That service bought taken down, primarily as a result of the FBI within the US bought a takedown order, and alleged that its major goal was really not a lot to be a mega *add* service as to be a mega *obtain* service, the enterprise mannequin of which was based mostly on encouraging and incentivising copyright infringement.
The first founding father of this enterprise is a well-known title: Kim Dotcom.
And that basically is his surname.
He modified his title (I believe he was initially Kim Schmitz) to Kim Dotcom, created this service, and he’s simply been preventing extradition to the US and continues to take action, regardless that the Aotearoa courts have dominated that there’s no motive why he can’t be extradited.
One of many different 4, a chap by the title of Finn Batato, sadly died of most cancers final 12 months.
However two of the opposite people who have been the prime movers of the Megaupload service, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk…
…they fought extradition (you possibly can perceive why) to the US, the place they probably confronted massive jail sentences.
However finally they appeared to have achieved a cope with the courts in NZ [New Zealand/Aotearoa] and with the FBI and the Division of Justice within the US.
They agreed to be prosecuted in NZ as a substitute, to plead responsible, and to help the US authorities of their ongoing investigation.
And so they ended up with jail sentences of two years 7 months and a pair of years 6 months respectively.
DOUG. The choose in that case had some fascinating observations, I felt.
DUCK. I believe you’re proper there, Doug.
Notably, that it wasn’t a query of the courtroom saying, “We settle for the truth that these large megacorporations all around the globe misplaced billions and billions of {dollars}.”
In reality, the choose mentioned that you must take these claims with a pinch of salt, and quoted proof to recommend which you could’t simply say that everyone who downloaded a pirated video would in any other case have purchased the unique.
So you possibly can’t add up the financial losses in the best way that a number of the megacorps like to take action.
However, he mentioned, that doesn’t make it proper.
And much more importantly, he mentioned, “You actually did harm the little guys as properly, and that issues simply as a lot.”
And he quoted the case of an indie software program developer from the South Island in NZ who had written to the courtroom to say, “I observed piracy was making a giant dent in my revenue. I discovered that 10 or 20 instances I needed to enchantment to Megaupload to have infringing content material taken down; it took me quite a lot of time to try this, and it by no means made the slightest distinction. And so I’m not saying that they’re totally liable for the truth that I might now not make a residing out of my enterprise, however I’m saying I went to all this effort to get them to take the stuff down which they mentioned they’d do, but it surely by no means labored.”
Truly that got here out elsewhere within the judgment… which is 38 pages, so it’s fairly an extended learn, but it surely’s very readable and I believe it’s very properly price studying.
Notably, the choose mentioned to the defendants that they needed to bear accountability for the truth that they admitted that they didn’t wish to get too robust on copyright infringers as a result of “Development is especially based mostly on infringement.”
And he additionally famous that they devised a takedown system that mainly, if there have been a number of URLs to obtain the identical file…
…they stored one copy of the file, and if you happen to complained in regards to the URL, they’d take down *that URL*.
DOUG. Ah ha!
DUCK. So you’d suppose they’d eliminated the file, however they would go away the file there.
And he described that as follows: “You knew, and supposed, that takedowns would don’t have any materials impact.”
Which is strictly what this indie Kiwi software program developer had claimed in his assertion to the courtroom.
And so they definitely will need to have made some huge cash out of it.
In the event you take a look at the pictures from the controversial raid on Kim Dotcom again in 2012…
…he had this huge property, and all these flash vehicles with bizarre quantity plates [vehicle tags] like GOD and GUILTY, as if he was anticipating one thing. [LAUGHS]
Megaupload takedown makes headlines and waves as Mr Dotcom applies for bail
So, Kim Dotcom remains to be preventing his extradition, however these different two have determined that they wish to get it throughout with.
So that they pleaded responsible, and as a few of our commenters have identified on Bare Safety, “Golly, for what it appears that evidently they did while you learn by the judgment intimately, it does sound that their sentence was mild.”
However the best way it was calculated is the choose labored out that he thought that the utmost sentences they need to get underneath Aotearoa regulation ought to be about 10 years.
After which he figured, based mostly on the actual fact they have been pleading responsible, that they have been going to cooperate, that they’re going to pay again $10 million, and so forth and so forth, that they need to get 75% off.
And my understanding is that signifies that they may put to mattress this concern that they are going to be extradited to the US, as a result of my understanding is the Division of Justice has mentioned, “OK, we’ll let the conviction and the sentencing occur in a foreign country.”
Greater than ten years on, and nonetheless not over!
You’d higher say it, Doug…
DOUG. Yesss!
We are going to control this.
Thanks; let’s transfer on.
In the event you’ve bought an ASUS router, you’ll have some patching to do, though fairly a murky timeline right here for some fairly harmful vulnerabilities, Paul.
ASUS warns router prospects: Patch now, or block all inbound requests
DUCK. Sure, it isn’t extremely clear fairly when these patches got here out for the varied many fashions of router which are listed within the advisory.
A few of our readers are saying, “Properly, I went and had a glance; I’ve bought a kind of routers and it’s on the checklist, however there aren’t any patches *now*. However I did get some patches a short time in the past that appeared to repair these issues… so why the advisory *now*?”
And the reply is, “We don’t know.”
Besides, maybe, that ASUS have found that the crooks are onto these?
However it’s not simply, “Hey, we suggest you patch.”
They’re saying you want to patch, and if you happen to’re unwilling or unable to take action, then we “strongly suggest to (which mainly means ‘you had higher’) disable providers accessible from the WAN facet of your router to keep away from potential undesirable intrusions.”
And that’s not simply your typical warning, “Oh, be sure that your admin interface isn’t seen on the web.”
They’re noting that what they imply by blocking incoming requests is that you want to flip off mainly *every part* that entails the router accepting the surface initiating some community connection…
…together with distant administration, port forwarding (dangerous luck if you happen to use that for gaming), dynamic DNS, any VPN servers, and what they name port triggering, which I suppose is port knocking, the place you look forward to a selected connection and solely while you see that connection do you then fireplace up a service domestically.
So it’s not simply internet requests which are harmful right here, or that there could be some bug that lets somebody log in with a secret username.
It’s a complete vary of several types of community site visitors that if it might probably attain your router from the surface, might pwn your router, it appears.
So it does sound terribly pressing!
DOUG. The 2 foremost vulnerabilities right here…
…there’s a Nationwide Vulnerability Database, the NVD, which scores vulnerabilities on a scale of 1 to 10, and each of those are 9.8/10.
After which there’s a complete bunch of different ones which are 7.5, 8.1, 8.8… a complete bunch of stuff that’s fairly harmful right here. Paul.
DUCK. Sure.
“9.8 CRITICAL”, all in capital letters, is the form of factor which means [WHISPERING], “If the crooks determine this out, they’re going to be throughout it like a rash.”
And what’s maybe the weirdest about these two 9.8/10 badness-score vulns is that certainly one of them is CVE-2022-26376, and that’s a bug in HTTP unescaping, which is mainly when you will have a URL with humorous characters in, like, areas…
…you possibly can’t legally have an area within the URL; you must put %20 as a substitute, its hexadecimal code.
That’s fairly basic to processing any kind of URL on the router.
And that was a bug that was revealed, as you possibly can see from the quantity, in 2022!
And there’s one other one within the so known as Netatalk protocol (that gives assist for Apple computer systems) which was the vulnerability, Doug, CVE-2018-1160.
DOUG. That was a very long time in the past!
DUCK. It was!
It was really fastened in a model of Netatalk which I believe was model 3.1.12, which got here out on 20 December *2018*.
And so they’re solely warning about “you want to get the brand new model of Netatalk” proper now, as a result of that too, it appears, may be exploited by way of a rogue packet.
So that you don’t want a Mac; you don’t want Apple software program.
You simply want one thing that talks Netatalk in a dodgy method, and it may give you arbitrary reminiscence write entry.
And with a 9.8/10 bug rating, you must assume which means “distant outsider pokes in a single or two community packets, takes over your router fully with root stage entry, distant code execution horror!”
So fairly why it took them that lengthy to warn folks that they wanted to get the repair for this 5 12 months outdated bug…
…and why they didn’t even have the repair for the 5 12 months outdated bug 5 years in the past shouldn’t be defined.
DOUG. OK, so there’s a checklist of routers that you need to verify, and if you happen to can’t patch, you’re imagined to do all that “block all of the inbound stuff”.
However I believe our recommendation could be patch.
And my favorite recommendation: In the event you’re a programmer, sanitise thine inputs, please!
DUCK. Sure, Little Bobby Tables has appeared but once more, Doug.
As a result of one of many different bugs that wasn’t on the 9.8 stage (this was on the 7/10 or 8/10 stage) was CVE-2023-28702.
It’s mainly the MOVEit-type bug yet again: Unfiltered particular characters in internet URL enter might trigger command injection.
In order that feels like a fairly broad brush for cybercriminals to color with.
And there was CVE-2023-31195 that caught my consideration, underneath the guise of a Session hijack.
The programmers have been setting what are primarily authentication token cookies… these magic strings that, if the browser can feed them again in future requests, proves to the server that earlier on within the session the person logged in, had the proper username, the proper password, the proper 2FA code, no matter.
And now they’re bringing this magic “entry card”.
So, you’re imagined to tag these cookies, while you set them, in order that they may by no means get transmitted in unencrypted HTTP requests.
That method it makes it a lot tougher for a criminal to hijack them… they usually forgot to try this!
In order that’s one other factor for programmers: Go and evaluation the way you set actually important cookies, ones that both have non-public info in them or have authentication info in them, and be sure to usually are not leaving them open to inadvertent and straightforward publicity.
DOUG. I’m marking this down (towards my higher judgment, however that is the second of two tales thus far) as one that we are going to control.
DUCK. I believe you’re proper, Doug, as a result of I don’t actually know why, on condition that for a number of the routers these patches had already appeared (albeit later than you may need needed)… why *now*?
And I suppose that a part of the story should should emerge.
DOUG. Seems that we completely can not *not* control this MOVEit story.
So, what do we have now this week, Paul?
MOVEit mayhem 3: “Disable HTTP and HTTPS site visitors instantly”
DUCK. Properly, sadly for Progress Software program, the third bus got here alongside directly, because it have been. [LAUGHTER]
So, simply to recap, the primary one was CVE-2023-34362, which is when Progress Software program mentioned, “Oh no! There’s a zero-day – we genuinely didn’t learn about this. It’s a SQL injection, a command injection downside. Right here’s the patch. However it was a zero-day, and we discovered about it as a result of ransomware crooks, extortion crooks, have been actively exploiting this. Listed below are some Indicators of Compromise [IoCs].”
So that they did all the proper issues, as rapidly as they may, as soon as they knew that there was an issue.
Then they went and reviewed their very own code, figuring, “You understand what, if the programmers made that mistake in a single place, possibly they made some comparable errors in different elements of the code.”
And that led to CVE-2023-35036, the place they proactively patched holes that have been like the unique one, however so far as they knew, they discovered them first.
And, lo and behold, there was then a 3rd vulnerability.
This one is CVE-2023-35708, the place it appears that evidently the one who discovered it, certainly realizing full properly that Progress Software program was totally open to accountable disclosure and immediate response…
…determined to go public anyway.
So I don’t know whether or not you name that “‘full disclosure” (I believe that’s the official title for it), “irresponsible disclosure” (I’ve heard it referred to love that by different individuals at Sophos), or “dropping 0-day for enjoyable”, which is how I consider it.
In order that was somewhat little bit of a pity.
And so Progress Software program mentioned, “Look, anyone dropped this 0-day; we didn’t learn about it; we’re engaged on the patch. On this tiny interim interval, simply flip off your internet interface (we all know it’s a trouble), and allow us to end testing the patch.”
And inside a couple of day they mentioned, “Proper, right here is the patch, now apply it. Then, if you’d like, you possibly can flip your internet interface again on.”
So I believe, all in all, though it’s a nasty search for Progress Software program for having the bugs within the first place…
…if this could ever occur to you, then following their form of response is, in my view, a fairly jolly first rate option to do it!
DOUG. Sure, we do have reward for Progress Software program, together with our remark for this week on this story.
Adam feedback:
Looks like tough going for MOVEit these days, however I applaud them for his or her fast, proactive, and apparently trustworthy work.
They may theoretically have tried to maintain this all quiet, however as a substitute they’ve been fairly up-front about the issue and what must be achieved about it.
On the very least it makes them look extra reliable in my eyes…
…and I believe that’s a sentiment that’s shared with others as properly, Paul.
DUCK. It’s certainly.
We’ve heard the identical factor on our social media channels too: that though it’s regrettable that they had the bug, and everybody needs they didn’t, they’re nonetheless inclined to belief the corporate.
In reality, they could be inclined to belief the corporate greater than they have been earlier than, as a result of they suppose that they hold cool heads in a disaster.
DOUG. Excellent.
Alright, thanks, Adam, for sending that in.
If in case you have an fascinating story, remark or query you’d wish to submit, we’d like to learn it on the podcast.
You may electronic mail ideas@sophos.com, you possibly can touch upon any certainly one of our articles, or you possibly can hit us up on social: @nakedsecurity.
That’s our present for at the moment; thanks very a lot for listening.
For Paul Ducklin, I’m Doug Aamoth, reminding you till subsequent time to…
BOTH. Keep safe!
[MUSICAL MODEM]
