Posted on 04/01/2011 1:52:38 PM PDT by Red Badger
A relatively simple hack has been used to compromise at least 500,000 Web sites, and perhaps as many as 1.5 million, in such a way that visitors are tricked into downloading fake PC security software.
Dubbed Lizamoon, after the Web site where some users are in some cases redirected, the attack was first documented by the security research firm Websense The hack seeks to trick Web users into believing that their computer has been compromised by viruses and prompts them to download fake security software that itself causes further problems. Among the sites serving up the links to the fake software sites are some belonging to Apple and used on its iTunes store, though Apple is said to have cleaned up the affected code on its site.
Websense says that so far it appears that sites using Microsoft SQL Server 2003 and 2005 are at risk, though as yet SQL Server 2008 doesn’t appear to be affected. No word yet from Microsoft about any of this, though I’ve asked them for a comment.
SQL injection attacks take place when malicious code–essentially commands to a Web server to do things it’s not supposed to do — are inserted into routine queries of a Web site’s data base. A basic way to carry out these attacks is to add extra commands into the URL bar of a the browser when visiting a vulnerable Web site. It’s not entirely clear exactly how this series of attacks has been carried out.
I talked with Josh Shaul, CTO of Application Security, Inc., a database security vendor that specializes in researching attacks on databases. “It’s a very new take on a very old type of attack,” Shaul said. “SQL injection has been the primary way that databases have been attacked for years. What’s different here is that people are putting the code that runs their Web sites in the database itself. And that’s what’s so troubling. Effectively you’ve exposed your code to an attacker so they can go modify it.”
Attackers found hundreds of thousands of sites that use a single user account to query their databases for all visitors, Shaul said. “The databases are clearly configured in an insecure way,” he said. “That’s what it all comes down to. Why is it that the log-in to use the database has the right to modify the code for the Web site itself? That makes no sense at all.”
In this case the attackers took advantage of the weakness to insert a script that creates a pop-up that sends a site’s visitors to another site that looks like a legitimate place to download new Microsoft security software. That makes the attack on the Web sites themselves just a means to an end–the end being tricking innocent Web users into clicking on a series of links and paying to download fake security software.
Websense produced a video demonstrating what happens. The short lesson is this: If you see a pop-up that tells you you’ve got a virus or that your computer is compromised by a bunch of security issues, don’t click any of the links in it; it’s probably not legit.
PING!.............
Thanks for posting.
Yesterday, I visited a new site and experienced this. A screen pretending to be a spyware/virus checker appeared to be doing a real-time scan of the machine and all sorts of threats were getting “x” marks. I happened nearly instantaneoulsy which was suspicious because all my security checkers take a LONG time to scan my machine. Then a fake dialog box popped up pretending to be a MS security alert. I was able to shut the entire browser off, then run MalwareBytes which did find one infected file. Now I need to run Spybot Search & Destroy.
There is no excuse for SQL injection. These web sites are probably hack ASP code running on IIS.
If you use a J2EE data access framework like Hibernate, such attacks are impossible.
If you are writing in an old-fashioned environment, you should at least validate the user input. The coders are probably so dumb, they think that having a dropdown protects them. But if I can view your HTML, I can do a POST with any data I want.
Or just writing parameterized statements using JDBC should also be sufficient, or just using Stored Procedures. It's amazing when I have interviewed potential candidates for coding positions how few know about Cross-Site Scripting and SQL Injection attacks, if you don't know those things, you are DOA as far as I'm concerned as for getting a position on my team.
A girl in my office was having trouble with one of the computers, she had infected it by innocently following the instructions on the screen. Women.
The other thing is that even if you click “Cancel” or the “Close” button, it will still install the malware.
Best thing to do is to just hit Control-Alt-Delete and reboot before any damage is done. Or go to the Windows Task Manager and manually kill all of your browser processes.
And now a bunch of websites are hosted on Content Management applications, like Drupal, Joomla and Wordpress, which stores the web pages in a database, instead of in JSP files or ASP files. So I can see where this could be an issue.
In many internal business applications that are behind the firewall, it may not be necessary to protect again such attacks. If only senior management has access to the application, what’s the point?
I would not be surprised if coders coming from such an environment would not know how to create a site that is accessible from the public internet.
Happened to me the other day at a site I regularly visit but I realized something was amiss.
Happened to me the other day at a site I regularly visit but I realized something was amiss.
When I shut down my computer yesterday, I notice the SQL Server Configuration Manager was on the list when I clicked the Start button. That may have nothing to do with this topic.
Even after I closed the browser via Windows Task Manager, I was unable to access HTTP addresses, but was able to access HTTPS sites.
I'm now locked down with Fartronics DeepFreeze.
Trolling for graphics to post on FR can be a dangerous practice.
I wonder if this is the reason I can’t access my Fotki account?
Fartronics???
I thought they were all hot air?
Whenever I see a popup that I didn’t expect to see, and especially if it’s modal (won’t let you go till you click it), I don’t even give it the courtesy of a click; I just go to task manager and shut down the Explorer process. Thus far, no problems.
I got this about two days ago.
I couldn’t do anything. At least I had the sense to realize it was fake.
I couldn’t open Malwarebytes.
I tried various fixes.
For me, the file was MEK.exe. It gets into your system 32 file and you cant delete it...at least I couldn’t. I am sure others can fix this easily.
Being computer illiterate..I just reinstalled Windows.
Actually the best thing you can do is NOT browse the web as an administrator and if you do use the UAC that is built into windows 7. That way if something tries to install it will prompt you.
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