[ISN] Security UPDATE--Checking Up on Products--June 9, 2004
InfoSec News
isn at c4i.org
Thu Jun 10 05:46:17 EDT 2004
====================
==== This Issue Sponsored By ====
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Windows & .NET Magazine
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====================
1. In Focus: Checking Up on Products
2. Security News and Features
- Recent Security Vulnerabilities
- News: SP2 for Web Developers
- Book Review: Hardening Windows
- Feature: Performing Forensic Analyses, Part 1
3. Security Toolkit
- FAQ
- Featured Thread
4. New and Improved
- Secure Your Property with Network Camera Surveillance
====================
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====================
==== 1. In Focus: Checking Up on Products ====
by Mark Joseph Edwards, News Editor, mark at ntsecurity dot net
When you configure your software and hardware to operate in a specific
manner, how do you know they really perform as configured? Do you
trust that the vendors have developed their products to operate
properly? Of course you don't. Right? We all know that vendors, like
everybody else, make mistakes.
A case in point appeared on the Bugtraq mailing list last week. A
researcher discovered that some Linksys WRT54G wireless routers under
some circumstances might expose the administration interface to the
WAN interface (typically connected to the Internet), even if the
routers are configured to disable remote administration.
So if you turned off remote administration and put the router on an
Internet link, assuming the administration interface was disabled, a
hacker could use the admin interface to break in. However, if you took
a few minutes to probe the router from the WAN side, you might
discover that the admin interface still answers even though it's
supposedly disabled.
Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems, released a new beta version of
the WRT54G firmware to correct the problem, so if you use the device,
you might consider loading the beta firmware. You might also consider
placing your wireless routers behind a firewall, even if your routers
have a built-in firewall, to help minimize unwanted system exposure
and unwanted access.
http://www.linksys.com/download/firmware.asp?fwid=201
A case in point for that suggestion pertains to another wireless
router, the NETGEAR WG602, also mentioned on Bugtraq last week.
Apparently, for some unknown reason, NETGEAR has integrated an
undocumented administrator account into its router's firmware. The
account can't be disabled, is accessible from the LAN and WAN sides of
the router, and has a plaintext logon name and password that
researchers have of course discovered. Anybody who uses the router is
vulnerable to attack. If you have the router behind some other
firewall that blocks access to its administration interface, then at
least you're protected against attacks from the outside, but
unauthorized users inside the local network could still log on to the
router.
The Linksys router vulnerability apparently stemmed from a programming
error and has been fixed. But I have no idea why NETGEAR would
implement an undocumented administrator account. Maybe it was
inadvertently left in place. Clearly, you shouldn't blindly trust
products--you need to consider checking them to make sure they perform
as expected.
====================
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==== 2. Security News and Features ====
Recent Security Vulnerabilities
If you subscribe to this newsletter, you also receive Security
Alerts, which inform you about recently discovered security
vulnerabilities. You can also find information about these discoveries
at
http://www.winnetmag.com/departments/departmentid/752/752.html
News: SP2 for Web Developers
Microsoft has published a document on the Microsoft Developer
Network (MSDN) titled "How to Make Your Web Site Work with Windows XP
Service Pack 2." The article covers design changes you might need to
consider regarding ActiveX controls, file download mechanisms, pop-up
windows, Java, HTML dialog boxes, and window-positioning restrictions.
http://www.winnetmag.com/article/articleid/42843/42843.html
Book Review: Hardening Windows
For professionals who are heavily involved with Windows, a book
titled "Hardening Windows" just cries out to be read. The author of
"Hardening Windows" is Jonathan Hassell, a systems administrator and
IT consultant who defines the term "hardening" as "the process of
protecting a system against unknown threats." He points out that the
four cornerstones of any such policy are privacy, trust, authenticity,
and integrity. Privacy is the capability that a company or
organization possesses to keep information confidential, and trust
questions the validity of data and objects by not simply accepting
things at face value. Authenticity involves ensuring that people
really are who they say they are, and integrity ensures that systems
aren't compromised in any way. You can read the entire book review on
our Web site.
http://www.winnetmag.com/article/articleid/42751/42751.html
Feature: Performing Forensic Analyses, Part 1
In the "Security Administrator" articles "Building and Using an
Incident Response Toolkit, Part 1" (April 2004, InstantDoc ID 41900)
and "Building and Using an Incident Response Toolkit, Part 2" (May
2004, InstantDoc ID 42173), Matt Lesko discusses how to quickly and
appropriately respond to a computer security incident. In the
follow-up article "Performing Forensic Analyses, Part 1," he prepares
to analyze the compromised machine by creating a bootable CD-ROM and
duplicating the compromised machine's hard disk.
http://www.winnetmag.com/article/articleid/42445/42445.html
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==== 4. Security Toolkit ====
FAQ: How can I recover Microsoft Office Outlook Messages that have
been removed by a hard delete?
by John Savill, http://www.winnetmag.com/windowsnt20002003faq
A. Usually when you delete a message, Exchange Server moves it to the
Deleted Items folder, which you can empty by right-clicking Deleted
Items and selecting Empty "Deleted Items" Folder from the displayed
context menu. Alternatively, you can configure Outlook to empty the
Deleted Items folder each time you close Outlook. To do so, select
Tools, Options and click the Other tab. In the General section, select
the "Empty the Deleted Items folder upon exiting" check box.
After Exchange removes items from the Deleted Items folder, it keeps
them for 7 days. During this time, you can recover deleted messages
from the Deleted Items folder by selecting Tools, Recover Deleted
Items.
You can perform a hard delete of a message by highlighting the message
and pressing Shift+Del. Performing a hard delete removes the message
without moving it to the Deleted Items folder. When you attempt to
recover hard-deleted items, you'll see that they aren't listed in the
recovery dialog box. If you select the folder from which you performed
the hard delete (e.g., Inbox), you'll see that the option to recover
deleted items is unavailable from the Tools menu.
If you want to be able to recover items that have been deleted from an
Outlook folder--including hard-deleted items--you need to perform the
following steps or add the dumpster.reg entry to the registry. You can
download the dumpster.reg entry at the URL below.
1. Start the registry editor (regedit.exe).
2. Navigate to the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options subkey.
3. From the Edit menu, select New and click DWORD Value.
4. Enter the name DumpsterAlwaysOn and press Enter.
5. Double-click the new value and set it to 1. Click OK.
6. Close the registry editor.
When you restart Outlook, the option to recover messages should be
available for all folders.
http://www.winnetmag.com/articles/download/dumpster_reg.zip
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large directory structures like his. Lend a hand or read the
responses:
http://www.winnetmag.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=42&threadid=121489
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====================
==== 5. New and Improved ====
by Jason Bovberg, products at winnetmag.com
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Hindsight, which costs $149, works with Windows XP, Windows 2000, and
Windows NT. You can download a trial version from the Visual Hindsight
Web site.
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