On 08/15/2011 10:31 AM, Steven Bellovin wrote:
On Aug 15, 2011, at 10:12 21AM, Randy Bush wrote:
I've always wondered if the next cisco/juniper 0 day will be delivered
via a set of exploits delivered via a link posted to NANOG. :) Maybe
I'll do a talk at DEFCON next year about that.
more likely a 'shortened' url. how anyone can click those is beyond me.
I'm curious what your objection is.
Mine is privacy -- the owner of the shortening site gets to see every place
you visit using one of those.
That's why I have my own url shortening service using yourls.
(http://yourls.org/)
I don't think there's a significant incremental
security risk, because the URL you click on doesn't tell you what you'll
receive in any event.
Exactly.
Case in point: https://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb/SMBlog-in-PDF.pdf
does *not* yield a PDF. (As far as I know, it's a completely safe URL to
click on, but I can't guarantee that someone else didn't hack my site. I, at
least, haven't put any nasties there.)
Or so you claim! :) And a PDF file is a particularly potent infection
vector. It would be interesting to put up a PDF (say OSPFvsISIS.pdf or
WhyAnyoneWhoIsn'tNamedOwenHasRottenv6Ideas.pdf) with an exploit. This
exploit could be a toe hold, which grabs other malware, opens reverse
remote shell etc. If one is targeting very long term exploitation at
mass scale, sitting in the network control plane for a long period of
time is a large factor. And if one entices operators to download malware
, the first step of most attacks (elevating privileges) is often much
easier (certainly faster, as operators doing something privileged is a
regular occurrence).
Given the rate of hacking -- is anyone really safe from a
determined amateur attack,
Maybe.
let alone state-sponsored nastiness? -- and
given the amount of third-party content served up by virtually all ad-containing
site, you really have no idea what you're going to receive when you click
on any link.
Yep. I see hacked ad content every single day.