Comments on: Deadly Combo: Zero Day Application Vulnerability + OS Vulnerability = Attacker Win

By: Doomed by default passwords - HackerMuslim.com | HackerMuslim.com

Doomed by default passwords - HackerMuslim.com | HackerMuslim.com — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:46:01 +0000

[...] information acquisition) systems with hard-coded passwords. Legacy systems are mostly a culprit, but as a Stuxnet worm showed final year, even complicated SCADA systems are vulnerable. More recently, a hacker going by a hoop of prOF [...]

By: ZeroDay Labs blog » More Vulnerabilities Discovered in Siemens Software

ZeroDay Labs blog » More Vulnerabilities Discovered in Siemens Software — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:44:05 +0000

[...] discovered and made public, one of the first vulnerabilities in the software that was found was a hard coded password. This allowed Stuxnet to steal project information from databases used by Siemens SIMATIC systems. [...]

By: Chris Wysopal

Chris Wysopal — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 21:08:46 +0000

Hard coded password definitely falls into the vulnerability category of backdoor. Hard coded passwords are often put in with no malicious intent or sometimes just out of secure coding naivety. They are often conscious design decisions by the developer for easy of maintenance or support. But no matter what the intent is, once the hard coded password is known by attackers it is a trivial vulnerability to exploit. This is why hard coded passwords are so dangerous. Software should be tested for them before it is deployed.

-Chris

By: Frank

Frank — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:28:56 +0000

My experience has been that such hardcoded back doors are often left in place for on-site support engineers to perform maintenance and/or recovery tasks the vendor may prefer not to advertise to the customer.

For example, a sloppy database app that leaves unreconciled or bad records lying around following a system failure of some kind.

The single largest problem I’ve observed writing enterpise software for 20 years is the difficulty and/or unwillingness of vendors to scale app testing to levels comparable to what the customer plans to use. I could write a book full of excuses.

Of course it’s a challenge but we’ve been at this game for long enough. Too many of the techies who grew up with a “can’t be done” mindset are now the managers perpetuating that view.

By: Daniel Clemens

Daniel Clemens — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:13:07 +0000

When will software assurance be an expected business norm for some of the larger software companies?
What has trusted computing achieved if anything in the last 10 years?

Sheesh,
-Daniel Clemens

By: poo gainess

poo gainess — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:50:58 +0000

firewalls only protect wat shouldnt be allowed through. if u allow access through the firewall, then its like having a lock on the door, but leaving it unlocked.

By: dbmuse

dbmuse — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:13:28 +0000

obviously done on purpose. a backdoor left for someone special to use someday. and someday is today.

By: kme

kme — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:08:52 +0000

As you point out, the hardcoded passwords in WinCC were first disclosed 2 years ago – so does that really count as a “zero day application vulnerability”? More like “unpatched 750+ day application vulnerability” ;)

By: Internet-guy

Internet-guy — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:41:28 +0000

Hard coded credentials? Is that the “back-door” you hear about in the movies?

By: links for 2010-07-22 (Jarrett House North)

links for 2010-07-22 (Jarrett House North) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 02:01:18 +0000

[...] Deadly combo: zero day application vulnerability + OS vulnerability = attacker win Just because your application is "behind the firewall" doesn't mean it's secure. (tags: security) [...]