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How Secure Are You Really?

Karen — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:28:33 +0000

At the end of August this year right before I was to move, I got a very rude awakening. I was searching for an mp3 for a personal project and I accidently clicked on an attack site containing nasty malware. At the time, I was using ZoneAlarm and an alert popped up to allow svchost.exe access.

Now, normally I deny all ZoneAlarm program alerts I don’t recognize as something I want to give access to, but I was really tired that night, and my hand actually twitched and I clicked accept! Honestly, I did not want to click that but it happened! And the next thing you know, my desktop was hijacked, my browsers were hijacked, and it took me almost a week to get rid of this malicious trojan – the AntiVirus XP 2008 trojan, a rogue anti-spyware program. This trojan takes over your hosts file, your desktop, your browsers, and who knows what else. It was nasty!

Now, if a web-savy techie, geeky, internet consultant/marketer like me – who’s been online making a living since 1997 – can get infected accidently by malware or viruses, etc., can you imagine what’s happening to most people who aren’t so savy and have no idea they even have spyware or malware on their computers? They are mostly using Intenet Explorer and if they are not getting regular Windows updates on patch Tuesdays and if they are not using a proper firewall with proper browser settings and tools, or updated antivirus software, then they are very vulnerable and at risk.

Good old Microsoft Windows and Intenet Explorer is so full of security leaks. Ah, but Internet Explorer is not the only browser at risk anymore. Because of the huge popularity of Firefox, it is vulnerable too. I was using Firefox 3 when I got attacked. In fact, 3 of my browsers got hijacked: Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3 amd Opera 9.52. Luckily Netscape 8 was not affected and I was able to find solutions to get rid of the problem.

Now I use a really good Firefox add-on called NoScript . I enable scripts at sites I trust, only. I have a better firewall and I do regular port scans using SheildsUp at Gibson Research. I am just more vigilant about updating my anti-virus/anti-spyware programs. I can only suggest that you do the same.

The Internet is wonderful most of the time, thank goodness. Just make Intenet security a priority and you’re good to go.

Enjoy the ride!

Crack Windows Passwords

Sean — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 17:13:31 +0000

Have you ever tried to log into a Windows computer for a few minutes and you finally realize that you forgot the password?

There’s a way to crack the password and it doesn’t involve reformatting and reinstalling Windows.

The solution is called @stake LC4 (formerly L0phtCrack), however since Symantec stopped development of L0phtcrack, I’m going to let you in on a program called LC5.

Just like L0phtCrack, LC5 attacks your Windows machine with a combination of dictionary and brute force attacks.

LC5 can crack almost all common passwords in seconds. More advanced passwords with numbers and characters takes longer.

The main purpose of the LCP program is user account passwords auditing and recovery in Windows NT/2000/XP.

I haven’t tested it against Windows Vista yet, so I’m not sure if it will work. Your mileage may very either way.

How it works:

Windows NT, 2000 and XP passwords are stored as encrypted hash marks. LC5 attacks these hash marks with hundreds of passwords per minute.

Eventually the correct password will be sent and then displayed to the screen.

Good intentions:

System administrators can find weak passwords within minutes. Sys admins can then change the passwords to make them more secure.
LC5 can be used to access computers of users who forget passwords.
In companies, it can be used to access computers of employees who have left the company.

Bad intentions:

Hackers can use LC5 to sniff passwords over networks.
Hackers can install this application onto a primary domain controller and steal hundreds of passwords within minutes.

Please note that I am not the author of this software. Be advised that if you use this software, you do so at your own risk without any warranty expresses or implied by Geek With Laptop.

Download LC5 (v5.04):

English version (with installer) – 2.29 MB
English version (without installer, ZIP) – 1.86 MB
English version (without installer, RAR) – 1.66 MB

Software License: LCP is a freeware program. The program may be distributed under condition of saving all files contents and structure of installation package.

Cross-site Scripting

graystatic — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 05:28:57 +0000

With all the buzz about web 2.0 and the growing open source community the importance of security is sometimes forgotten. When you want something cool and snazzy for your site and you find a open source solution, it’s easy to install the app on your site and forget about it. When the app, tool, forum, or whatever is so easy to set up, it’s easy to not think about testing it or updating it with security patches.

Cross-site scripting is a very relevant security problem on the web today. One of the big parts of web 2.0 is user interaction. That is where the problem can happen when a server takes user input and redisplays it. If the code taking the users input doesn’t properly validate it before the script uses it.

If a user were to put in certain script tags into a forum entry form and the data was not checked before being redisplayed, that forum could potentially run the script in somebody’s browser that just views the page the data was posted to.

Another example is a login form. If the input data is directly used, without validation, in a database query, someone could purposely input commands that your server would then execute.

This might not seem so bad, who cares if a little guestbook or forum app on your site is hacked, but this is a potentially big problem. One bad form on one page of your site could make your whole server vulnerable. One vulnerable could also make your database, which may run the rest of your site, vulnerable.

So how can you make sure your site is secure? VALIDATE, VALIDATE, and VALIDATE, make sure you validate all potentially malicious input data. Also make sure you check for updates. The security of your entire site could depend on it. Nobody is above being attacked. Some famous examples include big names such as MySpace and CBS News. For more real-world examples visit Wikipedia.

Popup Blockers

kirby145 — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 16:07:52 +0000

Popups are a major pain and internet security risk. They jump out and get in your way when you are browsing. Due to the use of popup blockers, many sites have stopped using them.

However, there are sites with popups. These sites often tend to be on the bad side. Anyway, let’s look at popup blocking.

To begin, most modern browsers come equipped with popup blockers, or it can be made in the settings. For Internet Explorer6 and 7, go under tools>turn on popup blocker. From here I suggest you turn it on to high and if you are using ie6 turn off the annoying information bar and popup sounds. Please note the high setting requires you to press control+click to open a new window, but you will get used to it and it is worth it to block the annoying ads.

In other browsers such az Mozilla Firefox and Opera, popups are automatically blocked (usually). As mentioned earlier you can edit these settings by certain browser types.

Finally, if you think this is too complicated or it won’t work for you, just go download the Google toolbar. It has a popup blocker and it’s better to trust Google than any other toolbar maker. This blocker is great and the toolbar is handy.

Stop popups today- Set up your browser.

Attackr.com » Developer Portal for web designers, developers and programmers

How Secure Are You Really?

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Crack Windows Passwords

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Cross-site Scripting

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Popup Blockers

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