WhiteHat Consulting

I thought I’d write this up so others don’t have to search all over for it. I have recently switched from a Palm Treo 700P to a Motorola Droid. Verizon employees couldn’t figure out how to move my contacts from the Palm to the Droid, but I did and thought I’d share. Here’s how to do it.

You have a couple of options – either have the Verizon people do it (which didn’t work in my case), set up a GMail account and export all of your contacts there (why give Google access to all of that info?), OR you can export all of your own contacts from your Palm Desktop application into the Droid itself without the middleman. Be sure to follow these steps in the order in which they are written.

-Sync your Palm to make sure all of your contact information is up to date
-Open the Palm Desktop application
-Go to the Contacts section, click on Edit -> Select All
-Once all contacts are highlighted, click on File -> Export -> Export as VCard
-Connect the Droid to your computer
-When prompted on your Droid, select Notifications -> USB -> Mount
-Your Droid should show up as a new drive on your PC at this point
-Copy your VCard file (should end in “vcf”) that you exported to the Droid “drive”
-Unmount and then disconnect the Droid from your PC (important)
-Open Contacts on your Droid and choose Import/Export from the options on the menu
-Choose to Import from SD Card
-After importing, go to Contacts and chose Display Options from the menu
-Expand your gmail account menu and check everything that has “System Group:” by it. In my case, for example, it was “System Group: My Contacts”, “System Group: Friends”, “System Group: Family”, “System Group: Business”
-Done

The export to vCard will bring your numbers, emails, and addresses for each contact, in addition to notes you may have written about each contact. The only issue I had is that it didn’t like to import all of the pictures from the Palm so I had to edit the VCard file slightly by hand. Other than that, smooth as silk. I’ll also be posting this to my own web site along with a full review soon…

UPDATE: Just another bit of information – you can export contacts in VCard format from a variety of email applications including Outlook and Evolution. The whole process basically works the same way whether using Windows, Linux, or a Mac.

It’s been a long time since I’ve used a virus scanner at home, and I’ll tell you why:

1. Well, I’ve been using Linux since 1998. However, let’s put that aside as this still applies to before I completely converted to using strictly Linux in 2002.

2. It eats up system resources like you wouldn’t believe. Thanks, but I’d rather put my processor to better use – something other than doubling the processor power it takes to open a spreadsheet. FreeAVG seems to be the only decent anti-virus solution for Windows that doesn’t kill the processor usage by default.

3. They can only find known viruses. Maybe being “protected” from tens of thousands of viruses comforts you, but I’m worried about the few no one knows about yet, and AV software provides no protection against those.

4. They are only partially successful in removing viruses. How many times have you seen “Delete Failed! click here for more info”? I saw it a few times too many. I SHOULD NEVER EVER SEE THIS MESSAGE! This is a design failure.

5. AV software is not effective as a means of prevention. Virii come in two flavors, trojans and worms. Trojan – idiot user clicked on BrittneySpearsNaked.jpg.pif.bat.js.exe; AV cannot prevent this. Worm – Windows security issue; AV cannot prevent this. This is an over-simplification, and may not be 100% technically accurate, but you get the picture.

6. If AV software can’t prevent infection, and if it sometimes can’t even remove the infection, what good is it again? It’s good for Symantec, its good for Macafee, and its good for IT professionals who get to say “its not my fault, I did everything i could to prevent it” next time a code red happens.

I previously discussed Delta College’s Linux email vulnerabilities, so I thought I’d discuss other vulnerabilities from the past as well. I have been frustrated with the responses I have received from Delta regarding security since back in 2003. The responses from all but one person have been “well, it’s our server and we’ll configure it how we want to”. Hey, I completely understand except for one tiny little detail – your server has MY PERSONAL INFORMATION attached to it as well as THOUSANDS of other student’s personal information. That and you’re a publicly funded school, so you should probably take the proper measures to make sure your student’s information is adequately protected. On the bright side, that, to me, means that they don’t mind the information I find being posted publicly.

eLearning is a wonderful tool that allows students the flexibility of not having specific class hours. It allows students that work during the day the ability to work on a class in the evening if a regular classroom setting isn’t available in the evening. It’s very similar, though not as functional, as the Blackboard Acedemic Suite. I had emailed the eLearning manager about a year and a half ago regarding potential security risks that could affect all students using the eLearning web site. The more “minor” risk of the two is the ability to use any HTML tag in the post. This should be restricted to using only the following tags: bold, italicize, underline, a href (links), and the rest should be stripped – PERIOD.

A more major flaw is that students are/were able to post using their teacher’s name. This is not done by changing the font colors, but is actually a flaw in the eLearning software itself. Again, it could easily be fixed if they blocked HTML tags except for the few I’ve suggested. As of this posting, I’m unsure if the flaw still exists as I haven’t had an online class at Delta in a couple of years.

Everything looks very secure as far as changing your password at Delta. SSL login and 3 pieces of “personal” information make it difficult for someone to brute force their way in to be able to change your password. I had went over this recently.

Delta’s strongest links are webmail, MyDelta, and their signup page. This isn’t because they’re using specific server software or a specific OS – that’s irrelevant in the overall security. The reason they’re strong points in Delta’s network from a client standpoint is that they implement SSL for encrypted logins. More recently, after analyzing some packets while a friend logged in to their eLearning account, I found that logins are encrypted even though the front page is not (normally) using SSL unless the address is altered to use SSL (https vs. http).

One of Delta’s weakest links would have been educator (eLearning) because the login was not encrypted. You used to be able to sniff passwords from fellow students or even your teachers. A certain teacher showed up in another class I used to take to check Educator before he went to his other class each day. I was able to capture his login name and password in clear text because eLearning did not implement SSL at the time. This was dangerous since students could alter their grades or other student’s grades if they were to log in as the teacher. It is also dangerous because Delta’s idea of security is sharing the same password across all Delta resources both encrypted and unencrypted. Hence, if you sniff the password from the unencrypted sessions, the encrypted sessions mean nothing.

Another weak link is their Redhat Linux Enterprise server – telnetting to xserver is unencrypted and leaves the door wide open for login/password interception. This had been discussed once before. This could easily be fixed by implementing OpenSSH (they used to have it running) and using a good, solid SSH client rather than NetTerm, which is currently installed. When I had downloaded and installed NetTerm years ago, by default it used to have a FTP server built in that was on when installed and allowed anonymous login sessions. That’s not a good position to put students in regarding the security of their own machines.

When I had notified Delta about xserver’s issues, I was blown off and then disallowed access once the semester was completed and have not been able to log on using my account since. This was not a standard operating procedure at Delta as all of my fellow students still had access to xserver after the class was finished and on into the next school year. Most of the issues raised were not fixed until sometime during the summer of 2005 – well over a year after being told about the issues in the first place.

Unfortunately, xserver still remains insecure.

Delta has definitely shown more of a reactive stance than a proactive stance when it comes to security. If the solution to a security issue is simple, it can be tested fairly simply, and implemented in a fairly short amount of time. In fact, in the case of the SSH installation on xserver, it already *was* installed, then Delta removed it. Why they would do such a thing is beyond me.

Since Delta College is now offering a degree in Information Security and Technology, they’re losing credibility in my eyes. If Delta can’t secure their own network with some good security measures, how can they be considered a credible institution for this new program? Are they ready for possible identity theft because students have social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses, and credit card numbers associated with their Delta ID?

I guess the most offensive part of this whole situation is that when I approached Delta faculty about these security issues, one particular faculty member had responsed in an almost threatening manner and never bothered to fix some of the most serious misconfigurations until 14-16 months later. Yes, that’s over a year and the remaining misconfigurations still exist that threaten the security of the server. That’s right – their way of fixing the problem is to remove the problem – me. Unfortunately for them, I know other students that attend Delta College and allow me to look around at xserver every so often under their account (and supervision – I insist upon it.).

Anyway, since telling the faculty does nothing more than singles me out, I decided to present this information in a presentation to two classes I previously had and here.

Solutions: What Delta College can do to remedy these situations would actually be fairly simple:

For eLearning:

*Set up a whitelist of HTML tags that users can post with. Reference www.slashdot.org for an example of the correct way of doing this. Slashdot’s code is open source and is freely available – it’s known as “Slashcode“.

*A link could redirect to a cloned page such as the “session has expired – please enter login/password” set up to steal passwords.

*A student could “embed src” an offsite page within Delta’s eLearning area to make it appear to be a part of eLearning. This could then be changed after the malicious activity is complete.

*The links at the bottom of the page could be hidden and malicious links could replace the legit links doing a “font color=”white”" font change or a !– hidden tag.

For xserver (Linux server):

*Install SSH on their Redhat server (xserver) by logging in as root and issuing the command “urpmi openssh-server” or installing it via Redhat’s GUI interface for package management. For Debian distro’s it would be a simple “apt-get install openssh-server” to install OpenSSH. When installed, it would automagically be available for all users.

*Require students to use the SSH client from SSH Communications (freeware) for xserver connections as well as FTP transfers. This would be better than requiring both NetTerm (used to be very insecure) and WS_FTP to be installed. One application to cover both functions and the login is now encrypted.

*Test and upgrade patches to their Redhat server – try any patch. The last time I had created a VNC session on their server (yet another issue…), not a single patch had been issued to xserver since the initial OS installation.

*To remove the ability for running X-specific binaries (xchat, gftp, vncserver), all they’d have to do is create a user group like “student” and allow them only to access/execute the files that are required to teach the CST-126 and CST-133 classes. Either that or just uninstall unnecessary programs using Redhat’s GUI package management system (up2date, yum, or whatever).

For FTP:

*Last I knew, alpha.delta.edu was a Windows machine running IIS and the FTP server associated with Windows Server. Either find a way to enable secure file transmissions to this server, or install the software and/or operating system that allows this type of transfer to occur.

Materials: An internet connection and in some cases, physical access to a Delta College computer.

Having been a former student of Delta College, as with any student, I was given a user name and password that was used for access to several services. These include network shares, email access, class registration through MyDelta, Educator (like Blackboard), FTP, and access to the Linux server amongst other things. So if I were a student and wanted to make sure that my password is secure, where would I start? Learn about the process and then find the weakest links of course!

First, as a new student you’re asked to go through the signup process, but when clicking through, you’re taken to the policy page first. Funny thing is that the page can be bypassed by just going directly to the sign up page instead. So yeah, legally, the policy is shaky ground since it can be bypassed during sign up. You enter all of your personal information in and you now have access with a single login and single password for all services.

So if someone wanted to hijack my account, what would they do? What plan of action would one take to steal my info? Well, if you click on the link that you lost your login name, you get directed to this page and are given this prompt. The same prompt is given if you click on the link that you want to update or change your password. Since nobody else should really know my SSN or Delta ID, and might only be able to figure out my birthday, it would make compromising my account more difficult. In essense, Delta is implimenting defense in depth. However, who needs a Delta ID when your login name is…your name. If your electronic account was created before Fall of 2002, your login name was your first initial, middle initial, and your last name. For example, John Q. Student would be jqstudent. After 2002, it’s simply your first name and last name (johnstudent). So hijacking your account via a “lost password” feature is too time consuming or too difficult. There has to be an easier way, right?

What about brute forcing the password with something like Brutus that does web-based password cracking? Probably not practical since Delta has a somewhat decent password policy in place and it would take forever to brute force the password this way. So that’s out of the question.

What about shoulder surfing at the library? Not really a bad idea, but it could be noticable by the victim. This method is definitely feasible, but could cause bodily harm or get you kicked out of the library. Then you would likely be watched closely during future visits.

What about services that could be exploited in some way or another? Maybe sniffing the password? Well, webmail is performed via SSL, so that make things difficult. MyDelta also uses SSL when you’re logging in as does Educator…finally after about a year or so after I made the suggestion to Educator staff. You’re not likely going to sniff anything while you’re logging in either. However, there are two services that are performed in clear text – FTP and telnet. These two services are only really used in a handful of classes, so you would have to devise a plan on how/where to sniff this traffic.

Telnet is used only for the Linux class (CST-126), but it’s also available online. Since their Linux server has a compiler installed, you could attempt to compile a sniffer from the command line, but that would likely be under your own account.

FTP is used mainly for uploading web pages in the CST-110, CST-133, and CST-210 classes. I’m not sure why you’d need to do that since the directory you upload to is world readable/writable by everyone, but that’s another post So one could sit in a CST-133 class during the web site creation tutorial week, flood the router with false MAC addresses, and sniff the passwords as people log in. The other option is to sit in one of the wireless hotspots and hope someone logs in and needs access to the telnet or FTP server. You might be waiting a while for that one…

Worst case scenario was a few years ago when you could log onto the Linux server and grab the /etc/shadow file, which held encrypted passwords for the entire student body. I’m not sure exactly how this happened as the /etc/shadow file is normally only viewable by root, but it was likely because of a misconfiguration or fat-fingered-mistake such as “chmod 777 /etc/shadow”. In a nutshell, if you could copy this file to a flash drive, you could take it home, run John the Ripper on the file, and have some accounts to play with.

Anyway, the point is that if you are able to obtain a student’s password, you have full access to that student’s account. This includes access to all of the resources available that are specific to that student as well as the ability to add and drop courses they are currently enrolled in or signed up for. That would help if you’re having a hard time getting into a class because it’s full, eh?

Disclaimer: Just as any post I make, I do not condone or encourage any malicious activity. I post the information I do to give people a little nudge in the right direction and take security a little more seriously. After all, there’s a lot of people’s trust in your hands and it’s your responsibility to keep the bad guys from breaking that trust. As usual, I have to rip on Collegis/SunGard because they’re the ones that handle Delta College’s IT sources including security. Unfortunately, they can’t seem to nail down the security part.

Materials: Access to a Delta College workstation and an Ubuntu Linux live CD.

Google hacking has been talked about on several other web sites before, but most people just don’t think about the implications of not securing their services. Often the attitude of “it could never happen to me” takes precedence over an admin taking proper security precautions. After performing some simple Google searches, you too can gain access to everything from database information, personal emails, and even some free mp3s.

First, let’s start off with a simple database search and password search. These simple two searches can reveal configuration information about databases including login and password combinations. For example, nv-happydays.com showed three files that are downloadable including a two password.inc files and a WS_FTP log that revealed other sites. Luckily, all of the sites related to nv-happydays.com did not allow direct database connections.

If a database is connected to the internet and not properly protected, anyone can run a database query on (for example) port 3306 for a MySQL database server and find even more, and potentially sensitive, information. You should NEVER be able to publicly read a database configuration file – you should only see something similar to this. Otherwise, you have set yourself up to have many many files viewable by the world for potentially nefarious purposes.

blackworldnews.com was not so lucky about other files. These included their mysql.sql file, their inbox file (mostly spam just like everyone else), and their shadow file which was loaded into and proved to be crackable by John the Ripper in a fairly short amount of time. 8 hours, 47 minutes, and 31 seconds to be exact.

Another unlucky Googled site was wealdendun.com. Their mysql.sql file as well as their shadow file were found, and again, could be cracked by John in a very short amount of time just like blackworldnews.com.

Another search that turned up some interesting information was searching for backups. I found an educational institution that used BlackBoard (just like Davenport) had their backup files publicly readable. Also readable were usage statistics and more detailed usage statistics. No, not the most exciting stuff in the world, but I would think that these items should probably be limited to system administrators and not the whole world.

Solution: Fairly simple. At the very least, add the extension .php for any files that have .inc as an extension. Examples include, but are not limited to “password.inc”, “database.inc”, “configuration.inc”, or any other *.inc file. They would then be changed to “password.inc.php”, “database.inc.php”, “configuration.inc.php”, or *.inc.php instead respectively. Every *.inc file I have ran across has coding that starts with <? and ends with ?>. This is typically how php coding starts, but most browsers don’t go simply off of the code they see, they go off of the extension when processing files. If the extensions were *.php, anything in between the <? and ?> would get hidden even if one tried to view the source of the file. Another solution would be to add a black index.html file to directories that don’t already have an index file of some sort. Apache can also be configured to not to allow directory listings so these files are not viewable by search engines in the first place. To do this add the text “Options -Indexes” (without quotes) in a .htaccess file. Google it if you’re not familiar with htaccess files. However, if the files have already been exposed to search engines, they’ve most likely been crawled. In this case, you NEED to take the previous measures to remove access to your files and then IMMEDIATELY change your passwords.

Materials: A web browser and some free time.

Years ago I had made Delta aware of several vulnerabilities I found on their Linux server (xserver.delta.edu). One happened to be the email server and it’s insecure setup. You can google the commands to use to send an email by telnetting to a mail server fairly easily. Back in 2005 or so, you could telnet into the xserver mail server from anywhere – on their network or at home. You could then send an email to any recipient on xserver. This sounds fairly innocent at first, but you could create a batch script to spam every user account on xserver if you desired with pretty good anonyminity as you didn’t have to have a user account on the server.

Fast forward to today and the only difference is that you have to be using one of Delta’s IP addresses instead of any other public IP address. That’s it. Good job, guys. The workaround is simple – bring in your own computer and plug your cat5 cable into any one of their network ports. DHCP does the rest for you and you’re free to start sending mail again. You don’t need to be an “expert” to know that stopping spam isn’t just about having a spam filter such as SpamAssassin in place, it’s also about making sure your mail server is properly configured.

Materials: Any computer on Delta College’s network.

For several years prior to Davenport University, I had attended Delta College and eventually earned an Associates in Applied Science geared toward Network Technology. It was a great place to get started and was a stepping stone that eventually made me want to become a college instructor thanks to several inspirational instructors that teach there. I honestly can say I have no complaints whatsoever about the Delta staff. The company they outsource their IT management to on the other hand…well, that’s another story. I’ll be posting several security issues that I have discovered at Delta that either still haven’t been fixed by their outsourced IT staff or have been poorly addressed. Since I have given sufficient time to fix any problems I have found, and have reported all issues I have found, I feel the need to make the information publicly available. This will be one of several posts in the future regarding Delta College security.

This one is fairly minor, but could be abused terribly considering other security flaws found on their network that have not been published yet. Delta College uses Microsoft Exchange for their email system (yeah, I know, but it’s their choice) and after I had became a little more familiar with Exchange I started prodding around. After receiving an email some time ago that appeared to be sent to pretty much every student in the address book, I started looking around in the address book for things that appeared insecure. What I found were groups like “facultysalary”, “business”, “facilities, and “StudentBody” which, as implied, is every student at Delta College. Not good. Access to use these groups should be extremely restricted. For example, restrict access for sending an email to the StudentBody group to only those who are members of the Faculty group. Then again, I guess I can understand why Exchange is configured this way since the outsourced IT staff has to publicly ask how to do their jobs. And to think they inked a deal for $5 million for a 5 year contract back in ’96. I can only wonder what we’re (community college!) paying now…I’m really thinking Delta’s not getting their money’s worth…

Materials: A student account at Delta College.