Re: Slapper questions

From: Matt Harris (mdhat_private)
Date: Thu Oct 24 2002 - 12:56:02 PDT

  • Next message: daniele.muscettaat_private: "Re: a different, stranger port 137 activity"

    It seems unlikely that an automated process was scanning on port 23/tcp
    for anything that would use the SSL libraries which had these problems. 
    As far as I know, no self-spawning trojan was ever created that would
    even check port 22 - only port 443 would be affected at least by the
    slapper worms I know of, since they relied 100% on an SSL-enabled web
    server.  I don't believe they infected via SSH on any port
    automatically, though it could be theoretically possible (the first
    advisory bulletins I saw regarding the SSL problem were for SSH
    actually, the slapper worm was an afterthought that went after web
    servers, not SSH servers).  
    It seems like you've done a lot right, and very little if anything
    wrong, but there may be some more checking left to do.  A good place to
    start is a full audit of anything affecting init (ie /etc/rc?.d,
    /etc/init.d, your init configurations like inittab, etc), a ps listing
    audit, and running some MD5 checksums against your system binaries
    against a clean and 100% secure machine if possible.  An audit on /tmp
    sounds like it wouldn't hurt, either.  :-)
    
    Stephen Smoogen wrote:
    > 
    > Its a bit late in the game, but you may have a backdoor (or various
    > backdoors) running on the system. My advice is to do the following (with
    > the assumption you only have 1 machine available to run the website).
    > [Sorry if it is a bit general, but its from a list I hand out to
    > completely new sysadmins working on compromised machines.]
    > 
    > A) Take the system off the network (letting management know why)
    > B) Backup the system to completely to tape in case you need to present a
    >    report to law enforcement or management (why I need to be paid
    >    more or sent to that SANS training. :))
    > C) Go over what you need on this machine still (IE what code etc is
    >    running on it for webservices that may need to be audited to see if a
    >    back door was planted there.)
    > D) Reinstall the machine from source cdroms and then put all updates for
    >    that operating system on the machine.
    > E) If your Linux vendor has an automated system of alerts or updates see
    >    if you can sign up for it or get your employeer to pay
    >    for it.
    > F) Reinstall the software that you need for the website to be
    >    operational and test it for working.
    > G) Put the machine back on the network and test functionality again
    > H) Go over all that was discovered and write up a short report for your
    >    CYA file and to hand over to management over what happened, why, and
    >    what needs to be done in the future.
    > 
    > If you have multiple hardware and more than 1 staff you can parallelize
    > portions of C, D, E, and F. H sounds like a nuisance, but it can save
    > your job or worse.
    > 
    > On Wed, 2002-10-23 at 13:42, Griff Palmer wrote:
    > > Hello:
    > >
    > > I'm trying to learn more about how the Apache/mod_ssl worm variants operate.
    > >
    > > Last month chkrootkit discovered evidence of the Slapper worm on my RedHat
    > > 7.2 server. I found .bugtraq.c in my /tmp directory and eliminated it. I
    > > updated my openssl to 0.9.6g-1. I blocked port 443 on my firewall.
    > >
    > > I keep my ftp daemon stopped except for occasional short periods when I need
    > > to use it. I've been leaving port 23 open and making my ssh host listen on
    > > port 23. (My employer's firewall blocks traffic on port 22, forcing me to go
    > > to the port 23 setup.)
    > >
    > > Regular scans with chkrootkit since then have shown no signs of the slapper
    > > worm's presence.
    > >
    > > This morning I received an e-mail bounce from cinik_wormat_private
    > > (apparently Yahoo has disabled that address). A search on cinik led me to the
    > > latest CERT bulletin, which showed information about the slapper B and C
    > > variants.
    > >
    > > After reading the bulletin I discovered the presence of cinik.c and cinik.go
    > > in my /tmp directory, which I eliminated.
    > >
    > > I also discovered an active .bugtraq process on my machine and killed it.
    > >
    > > I've blocked UDP packets on ports 1812 and 1813. (Looking at the CERT
    > > bulletin it looks as if I should also block 1978, 2002 and 4156.) I've
    > > commented out the listen 443 line in my httpd.conf file.
    > >
    > > At this point I'm confused about the mechanics of the infection process and
    > > about what further steps I may need to take to fully eliminate infection and
    > > harden my server.
    > >
    > > Is Port 23 an avenue of infection? Does upgrading to openssl-0.9.6g-1 not
    > > eliminate vulnerability to compromise? Is it possible that I missed the
    > > C-variant code when I discovered the .bugtraq code, and that the C variant
    > > code has lingered on my machine since then? I'm using chkrootkit-0.37. Is it
    > > able to detect the B and C variants as well as A variants?
    > >
    > > I've run ps on my machine many times since chkrootkit discovered the Slapper
    > > A variant. Those checks showed no presence of the .bugtraq process. (I even
    > > downloaded and installed new system binaries in case any of those had been
    > > subverted.)
    > >
    > > The .bugtraq process showed up after I upgraded my kernel this morning. Is it
    > > possible that my earlier kernel had been compromised and that the .bugtraq
    > > process was being hidden?
    > >
    > > Any advice appreciated.
    > >
    > >                                                       Griff Palmer
    > >
    > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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    > >
    > --
    > Stephen John Smoogen            smoogenat_private
    > Los Alamos National Labrador  CCN-2 B-Schedule  PH:
    > Ta-03 SM-261  MailStop P208 DP 17U  Los Alamos, NM 87545
    > 
    > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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    -- 
    /*
     *
     * Matt Harris - Senior UNIX Systems Engineer
     * Smithsonian Institution, OCIO
     *
     */
    
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