DNS flaw exploitation danger growing

Posted by   Virus Bulletin on   Aug 1, 2008

Slow patchers targeted by sophisticated attacks.

The serious vulnerability in the implementation of DNS systems has been targeted by malicious attacks, as security watchers have been predicting since the flaw was first disclosed.

With many developers and service providers yet to implement patching regimes for the issue, those still leaving their servers open for spoofing and redirection are beginning to see closely targeted and in some cases highly evolved attacks aimed at hijacking traffic for profit.

After initial disclosure timed to coincide with the monthly Patch Tuesday set of security updates, example exploit code was quickly made available, and Microsoft responded by issuing an advisory alert on July 25th, describing exploitation as 'likely imminent' and urging admins to patch their systems immediately. Since then attacks in the wild have been confirmed.

One exploitation attempt was spotted by H.D. Moore of Metasploit, which includes example exploit code of its own. The attack took advantage of US telecoms giant AT&T's slow response to the DNS issue, to redirect customers to spoofed Google pages pushing advertising. More on the story is in the Register here with full details on Moore' blog here.

Among others facing criticism for slow patching are Apple, who failed to respond urgently to the need to update the BIND DNS system in use on its OSX Server platform. More details are here.

Posted on 01 August 2008 by Virus Bulletin

twitter.png
fb.png
linkedin.png
hackernews.png
reddit.png

 

Latest posts:

VBSpam tests to be executed under the AMTSO framework

VB is excited to announce that, starting from the Q3 test, all VBSpam tests of email security products will be executed under the AMTSO framework.

In memoriam: Prof. Ross Anderson

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of Professor Ross Anderson a few days ago.

In memoriam: Dr Alan Solomon

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of industry pioneer Dr Alan Solomon earlier this week.

New paper: Nexus Android banking botnet – compromising C&C panels and dissecting mobile AppInjects

In a new paper, researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Bansal provide details of a security vulnerability in the Nexus Android botnet C&C panel that was exploited in order to gather threat intelligence, and present a model of mobile AppInjects.

New paper: Collector-stealer: a Russian origin credential and information extractor

In a new paper, F5 researchers Aditya K Sood and Rohit Chaturvedi present a 360 analysis of Collector-stealer, a Russian-origin credential and information extractor.

We have placed cookies on your device in order to improve the functionality of this site, as outlined in our cookies policy. However, you may delete and block all cookies from this site and your use of the site will be unaffected. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to Virus Bulletin's use of data as outlined in our privacy policy.