'Mac worm' hacker in death threat farce
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Much ado about malware Claims by an anonymous author that he was paid to create a worm targeting Mac OS X systems are turning into a soap opera-style farce. Infosec Sellout said his 'Rape-OSX' worm uses an undisclosed vulnerability in the mDNSResponder component of Mac OS X to spread.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - The anonymous researcher who claims to have crafted a Mac OS X worm said Tuesday that he or she will report his findings to Apple Inc., but added that the Cupertino, Calif. company "has a very long way to go" on security. Identified only as the researcher behind the Information Security Sell Out blog, he or she on Sunday announced that a still-unpatched bug in mDNSResponder, a component of Apple's Bonjour automatic network configuring service, could be exploited by a worm. Apple's May security update, dubbed 2007-005, included a fix for the mDNS bug. "[My worm] is in the same code base, obviously, but that is where the similarity to the recently patched issues ends," said the Info Sec researcher in an e-mail interview. "When Apple fixed the previous issues, they did not take care of the entire code base and there are a lot of bugs there...some are exploitable, like the one I am using, while others are not. But the fact remains that Apple did a horrible job in fixing this package." According to Info Sec, the worm is fully automated and ready to use. "It would be considered a fully weaponized exploit and fully automated," said the researcher. "This is really no different than other worms we have seen [on the Windows platform]. Other than that, I am not able to give any more details." Another researcher, however, questioned whether Info Sec crafted the worm in only a few hours, as claimed. "Writing the exploit in one day...unlikely for anything other than a stack overflow," said Dave Aitel, the chief technology officer at Immunity Inc., the Miami Beach, Fla.-based security company best known for its CANVAS penetration testing ("pentest") software. "So most likely he found a stack overflow in mDNS, which is perfectly possible. It is open source, after all." Info Sec didn't detail the vulnerability, but did emphasize that writing the exploit was a breeze. "The hard part is finding the bug," he or she said. "Once you have found it, it is very easy to exploit. The Bonjour (mDNS) service is UDP [User Datagram Protocol, one of the core Internet protocols] Universal as well, making it even more fun for things like worms." But like other researchers who have grown tired of claims that Mac OS X is more secure than rival operating systems, Info Sec saved a last shot for Apple. Although he/she will report the new-found vulnerability to Apple at some point, there is no timetable for the moment. "I do believe in being responsible and working with vendors," said Info Sec, "but I also feel that some vendors need to be treated like children and learn lessons the hard way. Apple has a very long way to go when dealing with security issues in their products." Aitel leaned a bit the same way. In a posting to his DailyDave mailing list Monday in which he pointed out the Info Sec exploit, Aitel said: "I note that 'Infosecurity Sellout' is claiming there is another bug in mDNS which is wormable. This is obviously untrue, since there are no more remote bugs in OS X." That last line was firmly tongue in cheek, Aitel clarified today in an e-mail. "No, I'm just being funny. OS X is horribly insecure," he said. In an e-mailed statement, Apple spokesman Anuj Nayar rebutted. "Apple takes security very seriously and has a great track record of addressing potential vulnerabilities before they can affect users," he said.
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A critical flaw in the way that the AIM client displays Web-based graphics could be exploited by criminals to create a self-copying worm attack, experts warn.
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A new computer virus is catching people out by coming back from the dead.
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Suspect accused of stealing and distributing source code over the Internet.
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Security experts have spotted the first attempts to create an Internet worm that propagates using instant messages and exploits a recently disclosed flaw in Microsoft software.
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The lifespan of a poorly protected PC connected to the Internet is a mere four minutes, research released Tuesday claimed. After that, it&#39;s owned by a hacker.
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(InfoWorld) - Just days after claiming to have written a worm that could be used to attack Mac OS X systems, the anonymous blogger known as Infosecsellout has gone quiet. His (or her or their) blog as been renamed. Old posts have been removed, the blog has been renamed "Security Information," and Infosecsellout says the blog is finished. Mysteriously, however, there are two new posts on the blog, one of which provides a link to information on the alleged worm. But they are fake posts, according to Infosecsellout, who said the blog was hacked on Tuesday night and will not be revived. "Infosecsellout is now dead," the anonymous blogger said in an e-mail message. "It was a great experiment to see how the industry could handle some honesty, which they can't. They are quick to attack the credibility of others in order to hide their own flaws." Since he started blogging last year, Infosecsellout made his share of enemies, offering uncensored and occasionally amusing observations on computer security research and its practitioners. (He once called this reporter a "mindless hack" for reporting flaws in the beta version of Safari 3.0.) The blogger said he needed to remain anonymous because of his unpopular opinions. "The last thing I want is some crybaby to involve my employer in things that I say on this blog," he wrote in January. On Sunday, however, he may have crossed a line, in reporting that he had been "compensated" for writing a worm that could exploit a variation of a bug in Apple's Bonjour automatic network configuration service that was initially patched in May. The flaw lies in Bonjour's mDNSResponder, which is used to do things like discover printers or share iTunes files on a local area network, he wrote. Though Infosecsellout provided nothing to back up his claim, the story was widely reported and security researchers began to investigate who may have been behind the blog. Metasploit developer HD Moore said that he's "70 percent" sure he knows Infosecsellout's identity, based on a study of his posts and of e-mail messages from known people performed using a writing analysis tool called Unmask. Moore wouldn't say whom he suspected, but he noted that Infosecsellout's blog vanished soon after he contacted his suspect. Like every other security researcher contacted Wednesday, he didn't buy Infosecsellout's story that the blog had been hacked. "It seems like someone's getting worried that their cover is getting blown and they're doing cover-up," Moore said. "There's been a lot more attention from folks trying to unmask [Infosecsellout] in the past day or two." A blogger going by the name of Cutaway suggested that a hacker known as LMH could be behind the blog, but Moore said that this argument did not seem credible. Thomas Ptacek, a researcher at Matasano Security, agreed that the blogger was probably not LMH. "My theory right now is that it's more than one person," he said. In an e-mail message, Infosecsellout said that the blog was written by a group of self-employed authors, but that appeared to contradict the blog's January post claiming that the author was worried about his employer being approached. When asked to explain the apparent contradiction, the blogger said, "Even the self-employed have employers that are subject to crybabies." Â
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A new worm has surfaced affecting the AOL Instant Messenger network, security firm FaceTime reported this week. The malware disguises itself as a JPEG image to deliver a Trojan horse onto a PC when executed.
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Antivirus firm Symantec is facing a denial-of-service attack on its Web site from the latest version of the MyDoom worm. Authors of MyDoom.
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A worm was released recently designed to break into corporate computers running Symantec Corp's security software and make them part of its botnet.
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Pipeline A new worm spreading over AOL Instant Messenger seeks to built a botnet of zombie Windows PCs. The Pipeline worm packs an executable file disguised as a JPEG, which if executed, tries to download other strains of malware rootkits and Trojans. Pipeline uses the AIM Buddy List on infected computers to target other prospective marks.â¦
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A new worm has been discovered in the wild that&#39;s not just settling for invading users&#39; PCs--it wants to invade their homes too.
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This user has been known to install software that crashes workstations and delete shared network directories -- and he's been blasted by IT support people. But this pilot fish wants to change that.
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A series of minor MyDoom worms released in the last 24 hours may be a harbinger of a bigger threat surfacing soon, a security analyst said Friday.
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The first computer worm to eavesdrop on network traffic after it infects a computer has been discovered by security experts. The SDBot.
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Attackers could use hole in small-business software to trick personal information out of people.