a hosts file can be used to redirect a url to a different ip. like for example a malicious user can mirror www.hotmail.com and put it on their webserver and edit it so that when you log in it sends the login and password to the owner of the webserver, then they proceed to edit your hosts file and put in a field like: hotmail.com 1.2.3.4 www.hotmail.com 1.2.3.4 where 1.2.3.4 is the IP of their webserver. so then when anyone types in www.hotmail.com in internet explorer on your computer they go to the user's webserver and not the real hotmail.com. Since the malicious user mirrored hotmail.com a user at your computer wouldn't know the difference and proceed to login. Instead of logging the person into hotmail, it sends the login and password a user supplies to the malicious user. So you get what i'm saying right? for more info check out: http://www.lameindustries.org/tutorials/windowshosts/index.shtml -delusion http://www.digital-delusions.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Tan" <dtanat_private> To: <incidentsat_private> Sent: Monday, April 01, 2002 7:31 PM Subject: Unknown Hosts file > > > I have a client machine running Windows 2000 > Professional. All of a sudden, one day, the user was > unable to access several of the most popular > websites (i.e. google, yahoo, cnn, etc.). I noticed that > the machine was attempting to access the wrong IP > address for all the websites, in fact, it was attempting > to access the SAME IP address for every website in > the group. After some research, I found there was a > Hosts file with all the domains in question listed, and > the erroneous IP address. Has anyone ever come > accross an incident where a virus or trojan would > place a Hosts file onto a system. I have thoroughly > scanned the machine for viruses, open ports, etc. > and found nothing. Is there anything else I should be > on the lookout for? > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > This list is provided by the SecurityFocus ARIS analyzer service. > For more information on this free incident handling, management > and tracking system please see: http://aris.securityfocus.com > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided by the SecurityFocus ARIS analyzer service. For more information on this free incident handling, management and tracking system please see: http://aris.securityfocus.com
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