Black ops: how HBGary wrote backdoors for the government

[mouser]

Fascinating article on the recent unmasking and collapse of the security firm HBGary..

On November 16, 2009, Greg Hoglund, a cofounder of computer security firm HBGary, sent an e-mail to two colleagues. The message came with an attachment, a Microsoft Word file called AL_QAEDA.doc, which had been further compressed and password protected for safety. Its contents were dangerous.

http://arstechnica.c...-the-government.ars/

from http://yro.slashdot....ke-Online-Identities

[Gothi[c]]

http://92.241.162.216/hbgary/

Mirrors:

• http://hbgary.anonleaks.ch
• http://92.241.162.216/hbgary
• http://77.91.225.168/hbgary
• http://hbgary.leakmirror.org
• http://anonleaks.okhin.fr
• http://hb.cryptologic.tk
• http://leaks.anonamegame.com
• http://hbgary.prooops.de
• Tor: http://q46v6775dhfqrqln.onio

[Renegade]

I can't help but smile over the entire thing. They go after Anonymous, and Anonymous basically hammers the b'jeez out of them.

[housetier]

It's one of several interesting articles at Ars Technica regarding HBGary. Next, I'd like to have an opinion piece about this. And then interviews with renown security experts, their take on this

What I have learned is that we must be very wary of astro turfing, if THEY are automating it already.

[rxantos]

Every windows since Windows 95 have an NSA back-door put in. That is why the only secure way to use windows is on a virtual machine.

Then again 99% of the people in the USA have nothing to worry about the NSA, at least for now.

[Renegade]

Then again 99% of the people in the USA have nothing to worry about the NSA, at least for now.

-rxantos (February 22, 2011, 09:13 AM)

The ring of truth in that last part is disturbing.

As for Windows back doors, dunno. I'd like to see some evidence for that.

[f0dder]

Every windows since Windows 95 have an NSA back-door put in. That is why the only secure way to use windows is on a virtual machine.

-rxantos (February 22, 2011, 09:13 AM)

Proof, please? No? Didn't think so.

I highly doubt there's any obvious "back doors" anywhere in Windows. First, large portions of NT4 and somewhat smaller portions of Win2k have been leaked to the public. Universities and others have had access to much larger subsets under NDAs. People have been scrutinizing the binaries in search of 0-day exploits, to subvert kernel protection, the license codes, windows genuine advantage, et cetera. If there were deliberate backdoors, they would have been found.

That's not to say there might not be some buffer overflows or whatnot that have been put there for the purpose of creating a backdoor, though. But I kinda doubt it, it would be a lot safer to be able to truthfully & fully disclaim such allegations, and utilize one of the numerous accidental 0-day exploits.

[Gothi[c]]

http://lcamtuf.blogs...world-of-hbgary.html

Linked in the above post is a link to the details of the attack, how hbgary got compromised: http://arstechnica.c...-the-hbgary-hack.ars

[Gothi[c]]

HBGary Execs Run For Cover As Hacking Scandal Escalates
http://blogs.forbes....g-scandal-escalates/

[Stoic Joker]

http://lcamtuf.blogs...world-of-hbgary.html

Linked in the above post is a link to the details of the attack, how hbgary got compromised: http://arstechnica.c...-the-hbgary-hack.ars

-Gothi[c] (February 23, 2011, 05:36 AM)

Wow - That's completely mind blowing - I will never feel guilty for harping about the 80/20 rule ever again.

[Renegade]

http://lcamtuf.blogs...world-of-hbgary.html

Linked in the above post is a link to the details of the attack, how hbgary got compromised: http://arstechnica.c...-the-hbgary-hack.ars

-Gothi[c] (February 23, 2011, 05:36 AM)

Wow - That's completely mind blowing - I will never feel guilty for harping about the 80/20 rule ever again.

-Stoic Joker (February 23, 2011, 07:01 AM)

Not finished reading yet, but wow... Enlightening. I had no idea that people are still using such poor security. SQL injection? Wow. That's unreal that they got hit by that.

Reminds me of this:

http://xkcd.com/327/



Security companies that get hacked by SQL injection deserve it.

[Stoic Joker]

Security companies that get hacked by SQL injection deserve it.

-Renegade (February 23, 2011, 08:22 AM)

Damn Straight! ...Love the cartoon, I'll be laughing about that (Little Bobby Tables) for the rest of the day.

[Renegade]

Security companies that get hacked by SQL injection deserve it.

-Renegade (February 23, 2011, 08:22 AM)

Damn Straight! ...Love the cartoon, I'll be laughing about that (Little Bobby Tables) for the rest of the day.

-Stoic Joker (February 23, 2011, 08:35 AM)

It's one of my favorites. I still roar laughing when I read it... "DROP TABLE Students;" 6 tonnes of pure awesomeness~!

[f0dder]

Ah, reading through the various ArsTechnica articles on the whole deal has been a lot of fun - I've been laughing out loud quite a few times. The HBGary people are (hopefully!) going to end up in a lot of trouble, might even have their lives destroyed. But considering how big slimy pieces of scum they are, which is apparent if you dig even superficially into this whole deal, they really deserve it.

[23:57:02] <Sabu> You intended of battling anonymous in the media for media gain and attention
[23:57:04] <Sabu> well let me ask you
[23:57:08] <Sabu> you got the media attention now
[23:57:10] <Sabu> how does it feel
[23:57:11] <Sabu> ?

-anon

[40hz]

Be nice if some of them could do a little jail time.

That would give them an opportunity to further expand on their understanding of what being "backdoored" means.

And feels like...

[f0dder]

40hz

The emails are probably going to show people from Big Corp and Big Gov't engaging in downright illegal crap as well - as much as I despise the HBGary people, I'd rather see their clients in jail than just the small fishies.

[Stoic Joker]

So, the moral of this story is: Never use a production db server for a honeypot...