News
Imperva: Analysing the Lulzsec Attacks
June 2011 by Rob Rachwald, Director of Security Strategy at Imperva
We analysed the chat logs from Lulzsec that were provided in the Guardian. Specifically, we tried to analyse the technical approach used to bring down websites and steal data. Hopefully, our analysis can give security teams and even non-techies insights into how Lulzsec carried out their attacks and more importantly, help tune your defenses. (We’d also recommend looking at Byron’s blog for some other lessons.)
Lulzsec was a team of hackers focused on breaking applications and databases. There were no virus or malware experts. Even their approach to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks relied on weaknesses in applications. We hope this episode helps bring attention to the fact that the center of gravity has shifted from firewalls and anti-virus to applications and databases. For security, this does not mean “we have updated our anti-virus and put in place a network firewall.” Rather, it means “we have identified all sensitive data and have put in place technology with the audit and protection capabilities required to safeguard that data.”
Here’s a breakdown of the major technical tools used to hack sites worldwide:
Tool #1: Remote File Include
The relevant snippet from the chat log (emphasis ours):
lol - storm would you also like the RFI/LFI bot with google bypass i was talking about while i have this plugged in?
Remember that lol is Kayla who brought a bot army to Lulsec’s toolbox. The key in the snippet above is “RFI” or remote file include. We published an extensive overview of RFI about two months ago. Lulzsec used RFI to get bots to DDoS websites, which is how they brought down CIA public site.
In our report, we said that RFI “attacks have the potential to cause as much damage as the more popular SQL Injection and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks." We also noted that RFI is "not widely discussed.” The key here is “not widely discussed.” In other words, Lulzsec used an often overlooked vulnerability to help ambush their targets. An RFI attack inserts some nasty code into a web application server. What does the code do? Usually, RFI is used to take over the web application and steal data. In the case of Lulzsec, they used it to conduct DDoS attacks. The second line, “8,000 RFI with usp flooder” tells you that lol had 8000 infected servers (not PCs!) to conduct the DDoS attacks. That’s pretty sizable. How much so? In our webinar on DDoS 2.0, we estimated that one infected server is equal to 3,000 bot infected PCs, so 8,000 server would be like 2.5M PCs.
Finally, our report gives some suggestions on countering RFI attacks.
Tool #2: SQL Injection
Jun 03 13:18:44 [redacted] you mean with the coupons?
Jun 03 13:18:57 [redacted] was it from that SQLi
Jun 03 13:21:57 sabu yeah
Volumes have been written about SQL injection. What more can we possibly write about the biggest vulnerability in the history of mankind that is the cause of millions of lost data records? We described in detail here how SQL injection may have helped with the PBS hack.
Tool #3: Cross Site Scripting
May 31 11:19:38 [redacted] XSS in billoreilly lol
Again, volumes on XSS. What more can we possibly write about the 2nd biggest vulnerability in the history of mankind that is the cause of millions of lost data records?
Be safe.
