[SecurityRatty] tag: customers

Online Finance Flaw: TIAA-CREF XSS & Potential CSRF

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:42:00 +0000

Before discussing a TIAA-CREF security flaw, allow me to clarify my "terms of engagement".
Prior to offering analysis of any security flaws in online financial services, be assured I have engaged the service provider and offered what I believe to a reasonable amount of time to remedy this issue. Specifically, a minimum of two weeks and three unique contact attempts are made. Should the vendor offer a timeline in which the issue will be resolved, so long as it is not months or years, I will wait until they are ready to deploy the fix, then discuss the vulnerability. If I am not in receipt of a reply other than generic customer service replies, I will follow the two week standard, then discuss the issue.

TIAA-CREF, or the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund, is a respected, widely utilized provider of numerous financial products and services. The TIAA-CREF site is ranked 26,148 on Alexa.com at the time of this writing.

I'll first direct you to the TIAA-CREF Security page, where they discuss the expected elements like identity theft, spoofing, tips, and my favorite, phishing.
Here's where the trouble begins. Obviously, most phishing occurs when some miscreant creates a fake page and attempts to lure victims via email.
The severity of phishing risks are greatly increased by the introduction of a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in a site that is of high value to phishing attackers.
With such a vulnerability available, the prospect of success for a phisher are much higher given that the malicious URL they would craft could include the actual target domain, rather than a faked misrepresentation. A simple script insertion at the vulnerable variable would then allow the attacker to redirect victims to a maliciously crafted logon page in the context of the vulnerable site.
Sad side note: when you search security at the TIAA-CREF site, the above mentioned Security page is not returned in the results as I write this.
However, the resulting search URL serves as the starting point for our discussion of the flaw:
http://www.tiaa-cref.org/explore/portlets/search.jsp?query=security&strtfrm=1&totpresults=75&srchtype=4&sc=1&frmsite=0
The vast majority of non-search input variables on the TIAA-CREF site offer reasonable XSS protections, likely a blacklist method that redirects you to the following language when common XSS strings are noted, particularly where it counts at logon pages.
Due to the presence of characters known to be used in Cross Site Scripting attacks, access is forbidden. This web site does not allow Urls which might include embedded HTML tags.
Unfortunately, this methodology was not deployed globally, and thus the following online finance flaw.
All input variables used in TIAA-CREF's search.jsp script are vulnerable to XSS.
Utilized by an attacker, this could have a much more significant impact on TIAA-CREF customers who fall victim to a now more convincing social engineering effort.
Here's the site before script insertion:

Here's the site after script insertion:

Further, certain parts of the site, including the Trust Company logon page, show potential signs of cross-site request forgery (CSRF) in that they accept updates via GET or allow submittal with the referrer stripped.

Lessons learned:
1) Don't assume all is well even though a site may offer examples of how attentive they are to security.
2) Never log on to an online financial service offering (or anything else for that matter) via a link sent to you in an email. Period.
3) Take all steps at your disposal to ensure you are logging in to and transacting with the actual site you intended to utilize. Don't depend on security badges and SSL certificates as your sole means of confirmation.
4) If you note something of concern at a site you utilize, advise them immediately and demand repair or clarification until you're satisfied.

Please feel free to send feedback to TIAA-CREF as I have per my "terms of engagement" above. Hopefully they'll resolve this issue soon, on behalf of customers in their care.

Up next in our series, two of the top five banks mentioned in Javelin Strategy & Research's Banking Identity Safety Scorecard are vulnerable to similar issues.

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License server glitch exposes SonicWall users to threats

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:00:00 +0000

A technical problem in a license management server at SonicWall created havoc Tuesday for users of the company's e-mail security products, leaving many customers temporarily unprotected against spam, phishing and malware threats while others were unable to log into their own systems.

Updated Microsoft Security Assessment Tool

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:13:03 +0000

Greetings. In case you haven’t already read about it, we recently updated the Microsoft Security Assessment Tool (MSAT). Version 4.0 hit the web on 31 October. It’s been four years since the initial release, and two years since the prior version. Between then and now your security world has evolved a lot, and the tool now reflects that.

Download now: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=CD057D9D-86B9-4E35-9733-7ACB0B2A3CA1&displaylang=en

Take a few moments and give yourself a security checkup. If you have any comments or feedback on the tool, feel free to leave them here on my blog—I’ll make sure the right people see it.

From the download page:

The MSAT employs a holistic approach to measuring your security posture by covering topics across people, process, and technology. Findings are coupled with prescriptive guidance and recommended mitigation efforts, including links to more information for additional industry guidance. These resources may assist you in keeping you aware of specific tools and methods that can help change the security posture of your IT environment.

There are two assessments that define the Microsoft Security Assessment Tool:

Business Risk Profile Assessment
Defense in Depth Assessment (UPDATED)

The questions identified in the survey portion of the tool and the associated answers are derived from commonly accepted best practices around security, both general and specific. The questions and the recommendations that the tool offers are based on standards such as ISO 17799 and NIST-800.x, as well as recommendations and prescriptive guidance from Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group and additional security resources valued in the industry.

After completing an Assessment, you will gain access to a detailed report of your results. You may also compare your results with those of your peers (by industry and company size), provided that you upload your results anonymously to the secure MSAT Web server. When you upload your data the application will simultaneously retrieve the most recent data available. To be able to provide this comparative data, we need customers such as you to upload their information. All information is kept strictly confidential and no personally identifiable information whatsoever will be sent.

Make Sure to Cover Your SaaS

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:00:00 +0000

Software as a Service (SaaS) on-demand applications are single-instance multi-tenant applications which are centrally and professionally managed and delivered as a service over the internet. SaaS customers use the same application engine which is partitioned into separate customer access accounts. These accounts may be set-up differently but the core application engine is the same platform that every other customer has access to.

Online Finance Flaws: An Awareness Campaign

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:08:00 +0000

Here begins a series regarding web application security inadequacies in online financial service offerings. The services to be discussed will include banks, credit unions, credit card companies, and others. As the economy struggles profoundly, and much of the blame points at the financial sector, I believe it important to point out the false sense of security so many brand-name financial services wrongly instill in their customers.
Often this sense of security is coupled with a typical "security badge" provider, helping drive conversions rather than security, as we will also legitimize how often the badge providers miss the mark on their promises.
Accountability in loan making decisions and practices might have prevented the sub-prime market collapse and the subsequent credit crunch that has hogtied our economy.
Accountability with regard to web application security while providing online financial services is now all the more important as cybercrime will continue to increase at a pace proportionate to economic woes.
Each post relevant to this campaign will include Online Finance Flaw in its title for tracking purposes.
Look forward to surprising flaws in financial services brands you'll recognize.
Perhaps, the more attention we draw to services that should place security above all else, the more likely it is they'll commit to improving their security posture.
Feel free to comment or contribute; we'll begin in a day or two.

Blurring the Lines Between Managed Service Provider and Cloud Computing

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:20:47 +0000

VMware made big announcements at their VMworld conference back in September, talking about adding on a slew of virtualization management functionality to a revamped vCenter and extending into the “cloud” with vCloud services. Like most people, I had a lot of skepticism about what vCloud really meant; was this just more hype trying to take advantage of the cloud computing buzz? Certainly CEO Paul Maritz came from this world and virtualization itself (and especially vMotion) is an enabling technology for cloud computing. But how ready were VMware and its ecosystem of partner vendors to actually fulfill on the promise?

So I was very interested when I heard that Opus Interactive, a customer of ours, had “joined the VMware vCloud initiative as a VMware Service Provider”. I talked to Eric Hulbert, CTO of Opus Interactive, to get some details directly from the source.

Eric shared our own caution about making “cloud-ready” announcements. There have simply been too many companies talking about cloud solutions that lack any substance – usually based on definitions of cloud computing that are hazy or just too broad. The backlash against the cloud hype is often quite justified. But in Opus’ case, there are real components that if they don’t add up to a “full” cloud computing solution just yet, are well on their way – and enabled by VMware’s program for service providers (VSPP).

Opus Interactive is serious about virtualization, which is an indispensable tool in their stated goal of creating a high-density micro-data center with the smallest footprint possible. They are 100% wind-powered and have already virtualized much of their data center, reducing the amount of hardware necessary to run the business and driving down costs to produce even more competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace.

VSPP for vCloud provides a rental model of VMware licenses – e.g., for Enterprise ESX or VDI. VMware Service Providers report on their customers’ virtual machines (vm) and pay only for what is actually used. This model lets Opus Interactive quickly spin up a vm to get a new customer up and running in about an hour and stay very cost competitive at the same time; Opus offers their vClustr entry-level virtual server for only $99.

Cost-effective, rapidly scalable computing “on-demand” based on shared resources, managed by “expert” third-parties, enabled by virtualization technology and pay-per-use vm licenses. Cloud computing? Instead of thinking about a single definition of cloud computing, perhaps it’s more relevant as the market matures to think about a continuum of cloud computing. And by that definition, Opus Interactive is providing cloud services, enabled by VMware’s VSP program. Next on the schedule, automated provisioning and perhaps in the future, API’s that make it even easier for application developers to test and deploy apps on Opus Interactive’s cloud platform – which, by the way, uses EM7 for its core management solution.

Localizing Cybercrime - Cultural Diversity on Demand Part Two

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:55:21 +0000

It's where you advertise your services, and how you position yourself that speak for your intentions, of course, "between the lines". There's a common misunderstanding that in order for a malware campaigner or scammer to launch a localized attack speaking the native language of their potential victims, they need to speak the local language. This misconception is largely based on the fact that a huge number of people remain unaware on how core strategic business practices have been in operation across the cybercrime underground for the last couple of years.

Outsourcing the localization process (translation services for spam/phishing/malware campaigns) has been happening for a while, courtsy of DIY servics ensuring complete anonymity of their customers. Interestingly, the translators may in fact be unaware that the advertising channels the service is using is directly attracting everyone from the bottom to the top of the cybercriminal food chain as a customer. Sometimes, it's services like this that open a new market segment covering an untapped opportunity, with this particular service already pointing out that it's charging cheaper than their competitors.

"We offer our services in translation. We are only competent translators profile higher education. Service is working with all types of texts. Languages available at this time of Russian, English, German. Average translation of the text takes up to 10 hours (usually much faster) through the full automation of the order and payment. Just want to note that we do not keep any logs on IP and does not require registration. In addition you can remove your order from the database after his execution. In addition to running more than 1000 translations already, we can use all the lessons learned to be more effective in our services. Prices vary depending on the complexity of the topic covered.

Prices and deadlines:
* Standard - the deadline is not more than 24 hours. Prices depend on the direction and guidance from the 'Order'.
* Term - work on your translation begins precedence. The price of the 50% more than the standard translation. Prices also depend on the direction and guidance from the 'Order'.

The cost of the transfer depends on the amount of work. The workload is measured in symbols. In calculating the characters are shown letters and numbers. Punctuation do not count. Minimum order 100 characters."

I'm particularly curious how is a contractor(translator) going to react to a situation when a large scale malware campaign speaking several different languages tell a fake story that the contractor might have recently translated for them. With the employer positioning itself as a fully legitimate company, whereas its customers requesting localized version of texts for the spam/phishing/malware campaigns are the "usual suspects", the contractors would continue allowing cybercriminals the opportunity to build more authenticity within their campaigns.

Related posts:
E-crime and Socioeconomic Factors
MPack and IcePack Localized to Chinese
The Icepack Exploitation Kit Localized to French
The FirePack Exploitation Kit Localized to Chinese
Localizing Open Source Malware
Localized Fake Security Software
A Localized Bankers Malware Campaign
Lonely Polina's Secret (Localized malware campaign)

Links List 11.24.08

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:15:36 +0000

The hunt for the nation’s first CTO continues. Although names have been suggested, such as standout nominees include Bruce Schneier, founder of Counterpane and now chief security technology officer at BT; Mark Cuban for his obvious business sense – and in spite of the insider trading indictment – and Carly Fiorina, former controversial CEO of HP, the next question is what policies should this CTO pursue? Visit ObamaCTO.org to view and vote for policies.

SaaS is taking a bite out of the $18 billion IT management market. A new Forrester Research report forecasts SaaS-based IT management accounts will be 10% of the market by 2013. The reason: high level of interest from medium-sized and large enterprises. Forrester also predicts that enterprises with 1,000 or more employees will account for 50% of SaaS installations in 2009. We’ve seen this on the service desk side with the rapid growth of upstart Service-now.com. Companies are looking for easier and rapid deployment, lower upfront and capital costs and rapid time to value – all benefits of SaaS as well as our own appliance model.

IBM snapped up Transitive this week. Their QuickTransit software dynamically translates native code between architectures, enabling apps compiled for one processor to be run on another without any modification. Apple was the first licensee and used it to build Rosetta, a translation system that allowed users of Intel Macs to seamlessly run legacy PowerPC apps. IBM plans to use the technology to move workloads onto IBM systems without recompiling, allowing customers to “save on energy costs due to hardware consolidation and reduced TCO.”

At CA World, CA announced a partnership with Amazon to provide “management capabilities around Amazon’s EC2 utility computing platform, potentially including discovery of software running on EC2 instances, performance monitoring, configuration management, software deployment capabilities and provisioning”. John Willis, in spite of some pretty funny potshots and stories about CA (don’t we all have them), writes that “CA is the first of the Big Four to take the cloud serious”.

I was right!

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:15:00 +0000

Allen does the dance-of-I-was-right...

*ahem*

In my blog in July, I predicted that we would be seeing a perfect storm as cyber criminals start to see diminshing returns on PII (credit card info, mothers maiden names and the kind of things they have been going after up until now) and thus start looking at the business information that they have been ignoring.

According to usatoday, internet thieves are making big money stealing corporate info.

"Elite cybergangs can no longer make great money stealing and selling personal identity data. Thousands of small-time, copycat data thieves have oversaturated the market, driving prices to commodity levels. Credit card account numbers that once fetched $100 or more, for instance, can be had for $10 or less, says Gunter Ollmann, chief security strategist at IBM ISS, IBM's tech security division."

As I said in my original article - the only problem with this is the establishment of a market. The cyber-criminals have established a very viable underground trading system but they now need businessed to want to dip their toes in something that is highly illegal. It seems this is happening.

The scary thing is how much information is actually being pulled out of the organisation. The criminals are literally dumping everyone's My Documents directory with no real aim to a storage facility outside of the organisation and yet the companies are not aware of this.

My advice? Take measures now while the enemy are just getting established. How you manage to protect your employees' and customers' PII will determine how well you survive the next part of the battle - your company secrets.

Also, don't be tempted to get information on your competitors from shady people. They may just be doing the same thing to you.

PS1: (PII = personally identifiable information - anything that can be linked to a person and is usually stuff you don't want the public to know like your credit card details, address, salary, health, etc)

PS2: Thank you to TaoSecurity for the story. Read Richard Bejtlich's post for more information. His take on the story is that it is all to do with money. Of course it is, if you think information security is about antivirus and firewalls then you are truely wrong.

Links for 2008-11-20 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:00:00 +0000

Got SIEM? - Part IV « eIQviews
Customers tend to use SIEM technologies for more reactive efforts, such as post-event forensics, rather than as a true correlation solution to determine unusual behavior or policy violations before they have a chance to affect systems and data.
SIEM Blog » Unrestricted Data Collection for Maximum Compliance and Forensic Visibility
Beast Or Buddha » Blog Archive » So we own your client database and everything important to you…
Web Developer: “Just because you can do that doesn’t mean we have a major problem like you say it is. It’s just you that did it!” SG dude: “Well more than likely, others have….we didn’t do anything fancy…”. Web Developer: “Well nothing has ever happened so it’s just you guys!” SG dude: “You have no logging”. Web Developer: “We’ve never been hacked!”
On Data Loss Prevention (DLP) » My Wife Finally Knows What I Do
The Two Kinds Of Security Threats, And How They Affect Your Life | securosis.com
We get money for noisy threats, and get called paranoid freaks for trying to prevent quiet threats (which can still lose our organizations a boatload of money, but don’t interfere with the married CEO’s ability to flirt with the new girl in marketing over email).
Marcus Ranum on Network Security - CSO Online - Security and Risk
The real best practices have been the same since the 1970s: know where your data is, who has access to what, read your logs, guard your perimeter, minimize complexity, reduce access to "need only" and segment your networks.