How To Hack The Sky P1 Can a Company Remotely Wipe an Ex-Employee’s De- vice? P2 Awareness Grows for File Transfer Security, But Still Work to Do P3 WordPress Under Attack As Double Zero-Day Trouble Lands P4 HSBC mortgage customer info was publicly accessible on the internet P5 RSAC: Recruiting the Next-Generation Cyber P5 InfoSEC Times Abu Dhabi Polytechnic’s Monthly Newsletter on Information Security Issues Welcome to twelfth edition of Infosec Times Welcome to the twelfth edition of our new newsletter from the Abu Dhabi Polytechnic Infor- mation Security Engineering Technology (ISET) Department. In this edition we have collected news about latest trends in information security We would like to encourage and invite our readers in con- tributing to the development of this newsletter so that we may keep everyone informed with the current issues that may affect us all in the ever increas- ing world of computers and technology. How To Hack The Sky Satellites can bring a digital signal to places where the In- ternet seems like a miracle: off-the-grid desert solar farms, the Arctic or an aircraft carrier at sea. But in beaming data to and from the world’s most remote places, satellite Inter- net may also offer its signal to a less benign recipient: any digital miscreant within thousands of miles. In a presentation at the Black Hat security conference in Arlington, Va., Tuesday, Spanish cybersecurity researcher Leonardo Nve presented a variety of tricks for gaining access to and exploiting satellite Internet connections. Us- ing less than $75 in tools, Nve, a researcher with security firm S21Sec, says that he can intercept Digital Video Broad- cast (DVB) signals to get free high-speed Internet. And while that’s not a particularly new trick–hackers have long been able to intercept satellite TV or other sky-borne sig- nals–Nve also went a step further, describing how he was able to use satellite signals to anonymize his Internet con- nection, gain access to private networks and even intercept satellite Internet users’ requests for Web pages and replace them with spoofed sites. “What’s interesting about this is that it’s very, very easy,” says Nve. “Anyone can do it: phishers or Chinese hackers it’s like a very big Wi-Fi network that’s easy to access.” In a penetration test on a client’s network, Nve used a Sky- star 2 PCI satellite receiver card, a piece of hardware that can be bought on eBay for $30 or less, along with open source Linux DVB software applications and the network data analysis or “sniffing” tool Wireshark. Nve also reversed the trick, impersonating Web sites that a satellite user is attempting to visit by intercepting a Do- main Name System (DNS) request–a request for an Internet service provider (ISP) to convert a spelled out Web site name into the numerical IP address where it’s stored–and sending back an answer faster than the ISP. In his tests on the client’s network, Nve says he was also able to hijack signals using GRE or TCP protocols that en- terprises use to communicate between PCs and servers or between offices, using the connections to gain access to a corporation or government agency’s local area network. The Barcelona-based researcher tested his methods on geosynchronous satellites aimed at Europe, Africa and South America. But he says there’s little doubt that the same tricks would work on satellites facing North America or anywhere else. What makes his attacks possible, Nve says, is that DVB signals are usually left unencrypted. That lack of simple security, he says, stems from the logistical and legal com- plications of scrambling the signal, which might make it harder to share data among companies or agencies and– given that a satellite signal covers many countries–could run into red tape surrounding international use of cryp- tography. “Each [country] can have its own law for cryp- to,” says Nve. “It’s easier not to have encryption at the DVB layer.” Nve isn’t the first to show the vulnerability of supposedly secure satellite connections. John Walker, a British satellite enthusiast, told the BBC in 2002 that he could watch unen- crypted NATO video feeds from surveillance sorties in the Balkans. In fact, the techniques that Nve demonstrated are probably known to other satellite hackers but never publicized, says Jim Geovedi, a satellite security researcher and consultant with the firm Bellua in Indonesia. He compares satellite hacking to early phone hacking or “phreaking,” a practice that’s not well protected against but performed by only a small number of people worldwide. “This satellite hacking thing is still considered blackbox knowledge,” he wrote in an e-mail to Forbes. “I believe there are many people out there who conduct similar research. They may have some cool tricks but have kept them secret for ages.” At last year’s Black Hat D.C. conference, British cybersecu- rity researcher Adam Laurie demonstrated how he inter- cepts satellite signals with techniques similar to Nve, using a DreamBox satellite receiver and Wireshark. But Nve argues that his method is far cheaper–Laurie’s DreamBox setup cost around $750–and that he’s the first to demon- strate satellite signal hijacking rather than mere intercep- tion. “I’m not just talking about watching TV,” says Nve. “I’m talking about doing some very scary things.” Andy Greenberg, forbes.com ISSUE May 2015 12
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Transcript
How To Hack The Sky P1
Can a Company Remotely Wipe an Ex-Employee’s De-
vice? P2
Awareness Grows for File Transfer Security, But Still
Work to Do P3
WordPress Under Attack As Double Zero-Day Trouble
Lands P4
HSBC mortgage customer info was publicly accessible on
the internet P5
RSAC: Recruiting the Next-Generation Cyber P5
InfoSEC Times Abu Dhabi Polytechnic’s Monthly Newsletter on Information Security Issues
Welcome to twelfth edition of Infosec Times
Welcome to the twelfth edition
of our new newsletter from the
Abu Dhabi Polytechnic Infor-
mation Security Engineering
Technology (ISET) Department.
In this edition we have collected
news about latest trends in
information security
We would like to encourage
and invite our readers in con-
tributing to the development of
this newsletter so that we may
keep everyone informed with
the current issues that may
affect us all in the ever increas-
ing world of computers and
technology.
How To Hack The Sky Satellites can bring a digital signal to places where the In-
ternet seems like a miracle: off-the-grid desert solar farms,
the Arctic or an aircraft carrier at sea. But in beaming data
to and from the world’s most remote places, satellite Inter-
net may also offer its signal to a less benign recipient: any
digital miscreant within thousands of miles.
In a presentation at the Black Hat security conference in