[ISN] Databases Ripe for Attacks

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Tue Apr 08 2003 - 04:16:39 PDT

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    http://security.ziffdavis.com/article2/0,3973,1007384,00.asp
    
    By Lisa Vaas
    eWEEK 
    April 7, 2003 
    
    The SQL Slammer worm played a major role in a recently reported spike
    in security incidents during the first three months of 2003.  The
    report, put out by security firm Internet Security Systems Inc., found
    an 84 percent jump in reported security incidents and confirmed
    attacks from the fourth quarter of 2002 to the first quarter of 2003.
    
    Pete Allor, manager of the company's ISS X-Force Threat Intelligence
    Services, said that Slammer - which in late January preyed upon
    servers running Microsoft Corp.'s SQL Server 2000 database - was a
    "huge part"  of the substantial increase in security reports. Allor
    said that in just the two-day period when Slammer had its biggest
    impact, his group observed over 2 million related security events. To
    put that into perspective, over the past three months, the group
    observed some 160 million security events.
    
    Those numbers could point to a few things, Allor said: more hacker
    activities focused on probing databases and not enough alacrity on the
    part of DBAs (database administrators) when it comes to installing
    patches.
    
    "We've noted for awhile that there's been a lot of scanning for
    database events," said Allor, in Atlanta. "We've seen people scan
    ports, looking to see what's open and what they can connect to. And as
    you're aware, that's where all the data's at. If you're looking for
    something to do, [databases] are a great thing to look at."
    
    Databases are also particularly vulnerable to attack, since DBAs are
    loathe to install patches that haven't been thoroughly tested, Allor
    said. Indeed, six months before the fast-replicating Slammer worm
    struck, Microsoft Corp. had issued a patch that would have covered the
    vulnerability the worm exploited. Many DBAs who procrastinated on
    installing the patch cited the need to test it in a production
    environment before installing it—a choice that left them vulnerable.  
    "Everyone's afraid that if you play with something that's working,
    you'll break it," Allor said. "They're very conservative in what they
    do to upgrade."
    
    Jay Todd, chief financial officer for Service Thread Manufacturing
    Co., in Laurinburg, N.C., who also manages IT for the industrial
    thread and yarn manufacturer, said there's simply no excuse for
    procrastinating on installing patches. "It's ludicrous for everybody
    to say that Microsoft's a big, bad wolf because they can't test every
    configuration of their product," he said. "They ship it out as a
    user-configurable product. There's no way anybody could foresee all
    the combinations of setups."
    
    Unlike many DBAs, Todd installs service packs as soon as they're
    issued. That kept the company's SQL Server 2000 database software safe
    from Slammer, he said, and it protects the database and other
    infrastructure from getting attacked by the 15 to 20 e-mail viruses
    that arrive in his in-box daily.
    
    ISS' Allor said that those enterprises that can't test patches so they
    can be installed quickly should at least throw up more protection
    around databases. "I understand the issue, that you need to test it,"  
    he said. "If that's the course you're taking, we'd highly recommend
    you put more protection around it."
    
    One way to do that is to put up a network segment where patches can be
    tested in an ongoing manner. "What you're looking to do is put the
    risk where you can tolerate it," Allor said. "Each organization has to
    go through its own risk assessment on that: how valuable is the
    information, how vulnerable is a machine on this network setup, what
    kind of intrusion detection is in front of it, what kind of firewall
    protections you have in front of it."
    
    
    
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