July 6th - Website Defacement Day?

pabl0 writes "According to an article from SFGate.com (San Francisco Chronicle), a challenge has been posted, inviting web-site defacers to alter the content of as many web sites as possible on July 6th, with an apparent limit of 6,000 websites per contestant. Looks like this would be a good time to make sure all those web-server security patches are applied!"

If /.'ed

[Bitwick]

Alternate Link for Article: http://www.msnbc.com/news/934055.asp?vts=070220031 125

Re:If /.'ed

[SuperDuG]

From the article ...

"The FBI is taking this very seriously," FBI spokesman Bill Murray said. "Hacking is a crime and those who participate in this activity will be investigated and brought to justice."

Hell yeah!! Remember how vindictive he was trying to get that damned gopher in Caddy Shack?

Re:If /.'ed

[Alsee]

Bill Murray
Remember how vindictive he was trying to get that damned gopher in Caddy Shack?

OMG! That pesky gopher defaced the FBI website! [hampsterdance.com]

-

Re:If /.'ed

[willis]

Probably because it seems unlikely that the sf chronicle (a major newsource) is going to be slashdotted. It's like saying the NY Times is going to be. I'd guess that some mod took this as playing for Karma.

Re:If /.'ed

[yourmom16]

I never understood the slashdot effect. How can a bunchh of slashdotters bring a system to its knees when they dont even RTFA?

frosty piss

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, let's put this article on Slashdot, so a few million would be hackers can go ahead and deface a couple of hundred websites apiece.

What the hell is wrong with you? This kind of coverage only causes trouble.

Hacking into servers and defacing websites is illegal, whether you like it or not. Doing things like this costs PEOPLE money.

And don't argue back with that "well Microsoft deserves to be defaced" bullshit argument, or anything of the sort. They don't deserve it anymore than you do.

Now watch me get modded down by all the haxx0r n00bz0rz with mod points.

what are you talking about?

[polished look 2]

Slashdot has little to do with the defacement. Slashdot is simply reporting this.

Re:what are you talking about?

[donutz]

Slashdot has little to do with the defacement. Slashdot is simply reporting this.

Nah, the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting it [sfgate.com].

Slashdot is just giving a bunch of tech-minded people a forum in which to talk about it.

Preparations

[yintercept]

Slashdot may have informed a bunch of hackers about Defacement day, they are also informing a large number sysadmins who will check their weekend back ups and prepare for a Sunday in the office.

Of course, the smart thing to do is to deface your own web site, then you can take the weekend off 'cause the hackers will think you've already been tagged.

Re:Preparations

[sketerpot]

Clever. :-) Making backups would also be a good idea. If your web site has CSS files for the overall styling, you could make a modified version that puts "Hacked by Peter" in the background several times. You would just use fixed positioning, z-index, and some fonts.

Re:Income Opportunity

[yintercept]

Well, I also thought Defacement Day could be a good income opportunity. Web Admins could charge something like a hundred bucks then put whatever marks a hacker wants on the site. It would be a good way for cashed strapped sites to make a few bucks. The hacker could brag. If you play the game right, the might get some free publicity.

The only real problem I see is that I don't know if I would trust that the hacker I am dealing with gave me a legit credit card (it is really easy to steal credit card numbers at the local restaurant). Oh well, too many good ideas fall apart when you get down the the actual exchange of cash.

Re:what are you talking about?

[meme_police]

Precisely. Do all you dotters think that the Slashdot effect is bigger than all the major new organizations put together? Slashdot isn't the only site reporting this.

Re:what are you talking about?

[Overly Critical Guy]

Are you for real? Which site do you think is the most-read news site by wannabe hackers and script kiddies?

Look at the graphic at the top of the page.

Re:what are you talking about?

[meme_police]

Is Slashdot telling us how to exploit IIS or Apache? No.

Re:what are you talking about?

[nomadic]

I didn't say they were. Just mentioning what it reminded me of. "That cloud reminds me of a horsie" doesn't mean I expect the cloud to actually eat hay...

Re:frosty piss

[wiggys]

On the other hand you could argue that by posting this on Slashdot it will receive huge worldwide attention, and as the article suggested now would be a great time to patch your web server.

It's a bit like Mischief Night in the UK - I don't like it, but I don't bury my head in the sand and pretend people will forget about it. Instead I take precautions - move the car out of the way, make sure my windows and doors are locked and keep the cats in. It doesn't hurt to have a security test now and then.

Mischief Night

[Lodragandraoidh]

Regarding 'Mischief Night' -

In America, we call that 'Weekends' and 'Holidays'... :-}>

Re:frosty piss

[wiggys]

Well *I* now know about it, and I haven't noticed in on the BBC yet. Maybe now it's been on Slashdot it WILL be reported by the BBC.

Re:frosty piss

[commodoresloat]

It also grabs the attention of a lot more people who are in a position to patch web servers than the BBC.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:frosty piss

[PaulK]

So what exactly are you advocating here?

Censorship?

Or, could it be, that you are assuming that /.'ers are no more than script kiddies?

Personally, I appreciate this information. I can now ensure that my networks are fully prepared, and monitored during the event.

I'd rather view this as a PSA.

I'd bet that any cracker that intends to participate, already knows about this.

Re:frosty piss

[HexRei]

Bullshit. If anything, this will SAVE companies money in the long run. You think its BETTER for a web server to sit there with unpatched security exploits, waiting for a truly malicious hacker to do something nasty to the server like zombify it, than for some joker to deface it, and in doing so alert the administrators to the presence of the hole (hopefully closing it?
Any company should be able to swiftly and easily restore their site from backups. If they don't have backups, they are STUPID and DESERVE what they get.
It's technological darwinism, curtailing harmless hackers just helps loopholes survive for malicious hackers to exploit. Security flaws should be pointed out and if it takes a rude awakening like a website redesign, then so be it.
Better than having your box end up participating in a worldwide DOS a year or two down the line.

Re:frosty piss

[jafiwam]

Yeah?

Well guess what. They put the thing out there before I was hired and put a bunch of twitchy-clueless web hosting customers on it.

I got a new set of servers, got to design how it all works, all patched and good and ready to go. Know what I am waiting for? Server brackets. The boss's dad is makin em in his garage. Until then, I can't put the new ones up in the rack.

Then I get to migrate all of them-there sites to the shiney new servers and answer stupid phone calls to explain how DNS works, and explain how their ISP proxy server is fucking broken.

You think any of this is my choice? (Aside from the shiney new stuff.) Think anybody is going to stop and think "Gee, this might be patched tomorrow and it won't be a threat to anybody as a zombie then!" Nope. They won't think at all.

Your justification for web site defacement sucks. You might as well ass-rape your sister cuz she's not wearing a chastity belt. If I run across your mom, you'd better hope I don't use the same logic you do.

It's not Darwinism, it's vandalism.

I agree that there are a lot of lousy sysadmins out there, causing lots of problems by letting their machines get hacked. But you should think about how you think things should go a little bit. Maybe it would be better if you concentrated on educating those around you how to set up a web site properly, hmm?

(As for me, I hope the Spanish-speaking nitwits organizing this end up in Colombian-Federal-pound-you-in-the-ass Prison. They deserve it.)

Re:frosty piss

[Traa]

heh, and here I thought that posting a link to a 'news' article about 'stuff' that 'nerds' do was rather exactly what slashdot was all about.

Slashdot doesn't set a moral standard. The posters/moderators/community does.

Slashdot provides room for debates about these sort of articles. Feel free to debate the moral soundness of the topic of the article if you feel that inclination. Hint's like 'defacing websites is illegal' are probably a good thing for those readers that hadn't picked up on that fact yet tho

Re:frosty piss

[Proudrooster]

This is the exact correct place to put it. Thousands of SysAdmins read Slashdot and now know that they had double check their security or risk embarassment on July 6th.

Also, I have heard rumblings of yet another MS worm run scheduled to run rampant over the 4th of July holiday weekend. (Prepare for pager meltdown MS and network admins.)

I totally appreciate the heads up. In fact I did an external port scan of my Class B today and found out that the firewall monkeys had opened incoming ftp from anywhere to key servers. If it wasn't for this new threat I probably wouldn't have bothered to rattle the door knobs before the holiday.

I'd say that everyone has fair warning. Make sure your backups are up to date and that you don't have any easily hackable services exposed. Now the only question is, "Who will be embarrassed?"

Remember folks, it's not just about defacing, it's about defacing creatively.

~ Ha]<0R D00D

Most... succesful.. troll... ever.

[stoolpigeon]

probably not- but a more accurate title.

.

Re:Costs people money?

[mellon]

Um, hello? I run a server that serves several web sites. I'm not paid for this. If someone hacks my server, it's going to cost me a tremendous amount of effort to recover. It won't cost me any money, probably, but that's cold comfort. I doubt that I'm alone in being in this situation.

Re:Costs people money?

[nettdata]

Exactly... the parent post's author seems to be saying that only corporations have web sites.

If anything, it'll hit the "personal site" maintainer hardest, because they are the least likely to have backups, etc. If some prick hacks into a web site, deletes the original content, and puts up an "owned" site, that not only costs someone time, but also may cost them the content if they can't recover it. It's not like these script kiddies will differentiate between corporate and personal websites. Thinking that they would is just naieve.

I also take particular issue with the implied concept that "my time doesn't cost anything".

Re:Costs people money?

[Hamhock]

"First, these activities do not cost people money...hacked web sites costs people time"
I don't know about you, but I get paid money for my time. And if I have to fix my companies web site, then it's costing my employer (who happens to be a person, not a corporation) money.

Re:Costs people money?

[Karhgath]

Saying that it doesn't cost money to people because it's corporations that pays the bill is pretty stupid of your part.

First, fixing the page is probably the least important factor to consider.

Since it's kind of a 'contest', who defaces the most websites, how much can you bet that a large % of them will be medium to small sites? Most will also be e-commerce related sites, since their security is often compromised by badly written e-commerce software.

Now, take the normal MomAndPops.com, which sells apple pies. Client comes to the site expecting to buy apple pie and then find out that the site become a Hacker Advertisement site of some sort, or even worst, says that Apple Pie causes cancer. What will they say? "I'll come back later when the website is restored"? I don't think so. Most probably: "Shit, they stopped selling apple pie because it gives cancer!". It's sad, but a lot of people are gullible.

So, the real problem is loss of sales because of it, and/or traffic/readership, and/or reputation or anything the website is based on. The longer the site remains defaced, the more the website loses. This is the real killer, especially for small to medium websites/e-commerce, and most of these aren't run by evil megacorporations.

And your attitude of saying it's not that big of a deal because the corporation has enough money to fix it, or won't pay the guy in overtime, is not very wise. Sure, most of them exagerates the 'cost' of hackers and such, but it doesn't mean it isn't substancial, or that it just costs a simple fix of the website.

Re:Costs people money?

[brooks_talley]

Wow. I'm trying to be as nice as possible here, but you don't have a lot of experience in the real world, do you?

Let's say that just 6,000 websites are defaced. How many of those, do you think, will be Fortune 1000 corporations? And how many of them will be small businesses that may or may not be incorporated? Is it somehow evil to run a business as a corporation rather than a sole proprietership or general partnership?

And you seem to want to have it both ways; on the one hand, large corporations somehow exaggerate what it costs to recover from a hack, and on the other hand anyone who *is* hacked is incompetent and deserves what they get.

In fact, in the unlikely event that IBM's site is defaced, it would certainly cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

There's a lot more to recovering from defacement than you seem to think. Hint: you are not done when you copying the original HTML page back in place.

For a large company, it means doing a massive project to determine what other systems could have been accessed using the defaced server as a middleman. And then examining those systems for signs of intrusion.

In the much more likely and frequent instances of a small business being defaced, it may or may not be financially ruinous, but it's certainly a lot more than the minor and greatly exaggerated inconvenience that you paint it as. These businesses don't have large IT staffs, and/or the technical know-how to slap themselves on the head and say "Damn! We should have installed that latest IIS hotfix."

It's an ugly situation, but it is absolutely an expensive one and has far wider repercussions than you seem to think.

Cheers
-b

Re:frosty piss

[Zeddicus_Z]

With all due respect, your point of view is absolutely wrong.

Website defacements cost companies real money. It may or may not be in the oft-quoted "millions" mark, but it is certainly a non-trivial figure.

For the benefit of those not in the SysAdmin/ITAdmin/Computer Security industries, I'll give you a quick rundown as to WHY they cost money.

• First and foremost, there's staff time used up in detecting, evaluating, responding to and cleaning up the actual defacement. This is not just a case of re-uploading the web content! Defacements are security breaches, and as such the machine is treated as compromised. There's meetings with management, co-workers, other interested parties (business partners etc) to establish such things as immediate effect, immediate course of action, whether to perform forensics, potential compromise to other systems etc. Reload and reinstall the system, go through the rest of your security logs (IDS, Firewall logs etc) with a fine tooth comb because the attacker JUST MIGHT have used his higher privileges on the web server to sniff out other avenues inside your network. This task of tracking down what access an attacker had, and what they did with it, can be a huge time sink (and thus a huge money sink)
  
• Cost in terms of PR. This is intangible as it deals with the affects on a company's good name and reputation. This can often be estimated quite highly, and can run into the *thousands* of man hours for complicated network scenarios
  
• Potential lost business through downtime of services. This is another area where estimates can be quite high. Sure, not every person who hit your website during the downtime would have bought something, but that's not at issue. What's at issue is that that could have bought something, had the service been available. It's called Opportunity Cost, and website defacements of commercial sites have a high opportunity cost.
  
• Regardless of whether the website defacer contacts you with details on how the achieved the attack and what they modified (which, incidentally, they usually do not. Web defacements are usually the work of bored skiddiots), you must treat the incident as a full-blown compromise, at least until you've performed enough analysis to determine that no other systems are suspicious. When you work as an Admin for a living, you do not bet your company's money on the trustworthiness of a 16 year old skiddiot (whom, lets face it, wouldn't have sunk as low as an ISS/Apache sploit if they were at all trustworthy in the first place).
  

Any form of system compromise is a major incident. Even compromises of Bastion hosts, which we expect to be compromised at some point, cost businesses money. Your opinion stems from ignorance of the issues involved and is exactly the sort of opinion most skiddiots have - although that doesn't make you one.

Our tax dollars at work...

[crazyhorse44]

wonder how many millions Homeland Security is going to spend "preparing" America for this one.

Re:Our tax dollars at work...

[EdMack]

Em, if you RTFA, you would see

"Frankly, hacker challenges occur frequently, and we don't think they all rise to the level of a warning," Homeland Security spokesman David Wray said.

Yes this is /. but only flame the gov when you must.

Re:Our tax dollars at work...

[JWSmythe]

Why do those sound like well prepared "last" words.. The next words out of his mouth will be "We were terribly unprepared for this act, and it shows us how simply unprepared the Internet infrastructure is for terrorists attacks"..

That would, of course, be followed by hackers (real and wanna-be's alike) being arrested and thrown in prison on non-specific charges. As long as you throw in a "cyber-terrorism" somewhere in the charges, you can jail them indefinately.

Good luck on the battle kids. Do

Re:Our tax dollars at work...

[Malfourmed]

wonder how many millions Homeland Security is going to spend "preparing" America for this one.

Patch and cover! Patch and cover!!

I notice...

[dex22]

I notice the 6th is a Sunday. It would have to be, so all the children can do it without missing school.

Re:I notice...

[donutz]

Well, I think a large majority of the US schools aren't on a year-round system, so most kids would already be able to do it any day in July without missing school. Next theory, please.

Re:I notice...

[Alsee]

Next theory, please.

Ok. Ahhh, how about it's a satanic plot? Yeah, that's it. A satanic plot!

It's the SIXTH day of the SIXTH month of the sixth... ummmm... the sixth... ahhh.... Well there's a SIX thousand websitE limit! Yeah! That's it!

666! 5A7AN R00LZ!!1!

-

Re:I notice...

[Andorion]

As carl67lp pointed out, businesses are less likely to have people who can deal with these attacks on the clock on Sunday than on other days.

~Berj

Re:I notice...

[swv3752]

I put it more that is the last day of a Long weekend with many people having the 4th off. So a lot of stuff is going to slid until monday morning.

In other news

[ramzak2k]

July 7th was announced as national handcluffing day when hordes of hackers would be paraded around the streets in major cities.

Re:In other news

[neurostar]

July 7th was announced as national handcluffing day when hordes of hackers would be paraded around the streets in major cities.

A correction has been issued from John Ashcroft: " July 7th was announced as national handcluffing day when hordes of terrorists would be paraded around the streets in major cities.

handCLUFF?

[RobertTaylor]

right both of you have said it, please, what the hell is a handcluff?!

Re:handCLUFF?

[Anonymous Coward]

If they told you, they'd have to cub you to death.

Wrecklessness

[LordoftheFrings]

This is just really awful. A huge call out for Script Kiddies of the world to unite. Terrible.

*shakes head*

*looks around*

*starts researching latest exploits*

*runs*

Re:Wrecklessness

[JWSmythe]

We make fun of the script kiddies, but you're right, if there are perfectly good exploits out there and you aren't prepared, then you're just being stupid and egotistical. "They'll never get me." will suddenly become "damn, they got my site."

WashingtonPost version

[$exyNerdie]

Government Warns of Mass Hacker Attacks [washingtonpost.com]

Well

[Anonymous Coward]

I will bring out my honeypot then!

Re:Well

[RGRistroph]

A moderator needs to look up "honeypot" and realize why this is not off topic.

Crossing the line?

[carl67lp]

One is reminded of the perpetual debate in security: Whether to post an exploit to a group, in order for the vendor to have incentive to patch it, or wait and hope the vendor listens to you. There are excellent arguments on both sides.

This seems to be little different than that example. The challenge is unethical, as far as I am concerned. July 6 is a Sunday, for one thing--in general businesses do not hold normal shifts on a weekend, so this is going to surely cause more grief than an attack on, say, a Tuesday. Moreover, if successful, this could seriously halt a lot of legitimate business, personal, and other transactions across the Internet.

Is this a call to deface Web sites, or generally screw over sysadmins who oftentimes are paid beans to being with? Shameful.

Re:Crossing the line?

[commodoresloat]

One is reminded of the perpetual debate in security: Whether to post an exploit to a group, in order for the vendor to have incentive to patch it, or wait and hope the vendor listens to you. There are excellent arguments on both sides.

No there aren't. There is no reasonable argument for not bringing the exploit to the vendor's attention first. There is meaningful debate over the question of what to do if the vendor chooses to ignore you or bully you, but I really don't see a good argument for alerting the world before alerting the vendor.

A Haiku

[blackmonday]

Page deface!
Challenge - July 6
Please stay away

another =)

[Andorion]

Website defacement -
Illegal and damaging.
Still beats going to church.

~Berj

Re:A Haiku

[Tackhead]

> Page deface!
> Challenge - July 6
> Please stay away

Traditionally, the Haiku form must not only follows the 5-7-5 syllable progression, but it must also evoke a pastoral, reflective feeling in the reader upon contemplating the seas[|~||{{[{
WE 0WN ALL J00R B4S3
TEH INTERWEB IS ALL MINE
FUCK J00 1TS SUMMER!

Re:A Haiku

[Tackhead]

> And actually, the 5-7-5 pattern is not strict, and neither is having exactly three lines. H Haiku should always mention - implicitly - a season, and should have a change of perspective or other "turn", perhaps to the point of awaking surprise.

0WN1N8D!
Buffer 'sploit known since last spring.
(I fixed it for you.)

What sort of prize is 500mb??

[neslon]

From the AP article:

"The purported "prize" for participating hackers was 500-megabytes of online
storage space, which made little sense to computer experts. They said
hackers capable of breaking into thousands of computers could easily steal
that amount of storage on corporate networks."

Re:What sort of prize is 500mb??

[Andorion]

Uh... prize? In an ILLEGAL hacking event?

"To collect your prize, please call 1-800-FBI-NARC... a representative will be sent to your home shortly."

~Berj

Re:Wouldn't work

[Andorion]

I've heard of this approach being used for people with outstanding warrants... I'd assume once they become a suspect there'll be a warrant for their arrest.

AFAIK, entrapment is when police are involved in CAUSING someone to perpetrate a crime - for instance, if they were to hold an (illegal) hacking contest, then arrest the entrants.

~Berj

Re:Wouldn't work

[deadsaijinx*]

The cops used it in the Simpsons, promising everyone free boats ;]

Re:What sort of prize is 500mb??

[HungWeiLo]

Well, it's kinda hard to access your CD-Rs and 120GB hard drive archives in prison.

Hence the online storage as a prize.

Re:What sort of prize is 500mb??

[Otter]

Possibility 1: It's a joke that's gone over the head of the "computer experts" as well as the moderators here.

Possibility 2: The script kiddies who pull defacements are not, in fact, capable of stealing a shell account.

Probably both.

Let them start with the **AA sites

[Nom du Keyboard]

This is a totally dumb idea, and I hope the FBI tracing bots are ready to track them all down and arrest them soon afterwards.

Given that you're going to do it anyway, why not start with the RIAA, MPAA, and SCO sites. After that, any spammers anyone happens to know.

Re:Let them start with the **AA sites

[MrLint]

Hehe I smell a poll question brewing in this post!

Who's website would you go to see if you knew it was defaced?
* RIAA/MPAA
* SCO
* AOL
* EMarketersAmerica.org
* That other jackass spammer with the sports car in michigan?
* Microsoft
* the cowboy neal foot fetish extravangaza

Won't make much of a difference?

[arth1]

I would think that the kiddies that deface web sites do it every Sunday anyhow, so I fail to see why this should have any impact.
It's not like people are going to say "gee, I never thought of that! Let's deface web sites on this particular sunday, although we never would do it otherwise!"

But I'm sure that some people find a way to make money (or pork) from this "announcement". *sigh*

Regards,
--
*Art

Re:Won't make much of a difference?

[Andorion]

"But I'm sure that some people find a way to make money (or pork) from this "announcement". *sigh*"

That gets me wondering.... do you think this whole thing was set up by some security firm(s) to boost business?

~Berj

whu?

[deadsaijinx*]

The purported "prize" for participating hackers was 500-megabytes of online storage space

WOOHOO! After all that hacking into thousands of web-sites with who knows how many terabytes of storage, I can now get almost a FULL CD of free web-storage!!!! WOOHOO!!!

Wait, can I still use that in prison?

It's not defacement...

[myov]

It's just a massive slashdotting!

(someone had to say it)

Score -1: Troll

[mortonda]

Once again the desire to moderate a story flares up.

Please don't feed the trolls.

Now I understand ...

[chloroquine]

Our IT department just sent out a notice to the institute about security over the holiday weekend. I'd love to see our website hacked. It is one of those no useful content sites with lots of tasteful colours and pictures.
But don't quote me on that.

"The holiday weekend affords us an opportunity to get away from our workplace, relax and enjoy the summer weather. However, not everyone will be outside in the sunshine. Hackers will be in front of their computer screens trying to get into all of those computers"

I think the thing that pisses me off the most is that they assume that everyone gets to take the holiday weekend. I'm a grad student, I'll be inside working. They're such insensitive jerks sometimes.

Re:Now I understand ...

[freeweed]

on Wednesday July 02, @05:52PM, chloroquine said:

Our IT department just sent out a notice to the institute about security over the holiday weekend. I'd love to see our website hacked. It is one of those no useful content sites with lots of tasteful colours and pictures.

But don't quote me on that.

Aw, fuck...

In other news

[jeffkjo1]

Welcome to the 5 oclock news, today is July 7, 2003. This morning, an estimated 9,000 teenage boys were arrested as part of a massive sting to capture the perpetrators of yesterday's massive computer related attack. Investigators have confiscated a record number of computers related to this attack.

new plan

[b17bmbr]

1. announce web defacement day
2. ???
3. profit

Apply your patches!

[donutz]

New York officials urged companies to change default computer passwords, begin monitoring Web site activities more aggressively, remove unnecessary functions from server computers and apply the latest software repairs from vendors such as Microsoft Corp.

Well it took some doing, but I managed to get that latest Microsoft service pack installed on my web server. It said that it fixed a lot of issues, so I felt it was worth it, even though I run a Slackware 9.0 Linux server. Here's to hoping it reboots alright!

Re:Apply your patches!

[Catskul]

MS-SP: Non-ntfs partition detected.
resistance is futile.
partition will be assimilated.

Converting EXT3 filesystem to NTFS5.....
.
.
.
.
Kernel Panic: Root File system has been murdered !

WHOIS defacers-challenge.com ?

[RobertTaylor]

Registrant:
of, Day (TPEEWXQFBD)
11 Albert Rd
AMITYVILLE, NY 11701
US


Does that place exist? If so *deface that* ;)

I doubt it will be a real address though, however the idiocy of some people does often suprise me!

Follow up - Map Link :)

[RobertTaylor]

this is a maps.yahoo.com output for that address [yahoo.com]

Be warned this could be a totally false address and *not* the bloke who regged the domain, however..... ;)

Re:WHOIS defacers-challenge.com ?

[PingXao]

I'm very close to that location. I don't know who lives there, but it's a house on a canal that's probably worth between $300,000 and $450,000 with annual property taxes in the area of $8,000. It's in a very dsireable location. I seriously doubt anyone with this type of asset would put it at risk by engaging in stupidly illegal behavior.

=( Blah

[Emperor Tiberius]

Flame on, but, I don't think /. should be reporting this kind of story. Aside from all of us story loving, comment posting maniacs, /. does get viewed by our script kiddie "friends." There have been challenges before (as mentioned), this isn't anything new, most of which [however] have not had enough media attention to bother with. Remember the "April Fools Defacement Day" one that a few newspapers picked up on, last April? This is exactly the same thing. The more fuel we give the kiddies, the bigge

sad

[DNS-and-BIND]

It's a sad day when replacing index.html is regarded as "hacking". The entire idea that only web servers are worthy of hacking just shows journalistic ignorance worthy of the New York Times.

happy!

[loteck]

if i can replace your index.html..

i can probably replace or delete many other things. Yeah, still hacking.

Mixed Feelings About This

[miketang16]

Eh... I think this deserves coverage on Slashdot because it's interesting to people, but I suppose it's also sort of increasing the number of participants in this. Oh well, if you're running IIS without patches you kind of deserve it. =P

Come and get me, punkass

[3ryon]

If you think you can take a break from kissing your mother! You can find me at: www.microsoft.com

Disclaimer: Message meant purely in jest, I know you were just seeing if the chocolate pie was really as good as she said it was.

Slashdotted...or....??!?

[Lodragandraoidh]

Hmmm - defacers-challenge.com is not in the dns anymore.

Could it be someone pulled the plug on our erstwhile dare-devil? Or, was he just slashdotted off the face of the planet?

Enquiring minds want to know...

Is it just me...

[El]

or does anyone else think that the Feds are behind this challenge, as part of a massive sting operation?

/. gas on the Fire

[KFury]

Gee, I'd never have known about this small-time hacker stunt if /. hadn't brought it to the attention of millions. Talk about using your powers for mayhem, /. ...

Bah...hackers schmackers!

[madmarcel]

Hmmm...july 3rd...counting down...

But...let's look on the positive side:
Let's say thousands of websites DO get de-faced (w00t - how very unlikely ;)

A) Thousands of extra hours of work created to clean up the mess. (or not - y'all make backups right ;) Those are surely bill-able hours right?
And it's on the weekend, wahey! Double rates!

B) All the administrators of web-servers that WERE defaced will HAVE to examine the security of their web-servers. Improvements will HAVE to be made. If 'thousands' of web-servers are forced to improve their security...is that a bad thing?

C) Perhaps a lot of administrators (and PHB's) will notice that the most commonly defaced web-servers were (or are likely to be) those that run M$ software of some sort. Would that make them more likely to switch to OTHER software?

D) Hundreds of lamo script-kiddies prosecuted, jailed and/or permanently disallowed from using the internet. Excellent. Perhaps /.'s troll ratio will drop, and IRC will become a pleasant experience....NOT! :^D

Re:Bah...hackers schmackers!

[Phroggy]

Those are surely bill-able hours right?
And it's on the weekend, wahey! Double rates!

I think you're assuming quite a bit about the current economy and job market. You actually think companies are paying overtime for this sort of thing anymore?

All the administrators of web-servers that WERE defaced will HAVE to examine the security of their web-servers. Improvements will HAVE to be made.

I think you're assuming quite a bit about PHBs and beancounters. Why go to all that trouble, really? It's going to cost how much? Can you explain again why this is important? Can't you just restore the site from backup? We have a firewall, and it was bloody expensive; we shouldn't need to do all that other work you're talking about, especially if you want to get paid overtime for it.

Perhaps a lot of administrators (and PHB's) will notice that the most commonly defaced web-servers were (or are likely to be) those that run M$ software of some sort.

Or perhaps they'll be Linux boxes running Apache with buggy PHP scripts. Windows Server 2003 to the rescue!

Perhaps /.'s troll ratio will drop, and IRC will become a pleasant experience....NOT! :^D

Yeah, not. Slashdot trolls don't know how to hack web sites. They only wish they were that l33t.

That's my birthday too!

[Soporific]

Coincidence? I think not!

~S

OS/Distro means a lot

[phorm]

About 2 weeks ago I was running RedHat. I would have been running around frantically trying to track down any patches I might have missed, version-checking my RPM's...etc etc.

Once I read this I was like "crap crap crap, a whole lotta patching to do"
Then I SSH'ed to my server...
And remembered I was running debian...
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade...

I suddenly feel a lot better about the few hours it took me to make the switchover.

If I were running an MS server I would probably have had a near heart-attack by now. I've never needed the
"newest-most-spectacular-greatest-ever-superd uper-new-version" of any of my daemons, so there's no problem at all with Deb, despite the arguements of many.

Re:OS/Distro means a lot

[krray]

> About 2 weeks ago I was running RedHat. I would have
> been running around frantically trying to track down any
> patches I might have missed, version-checking my
> RPM's...etc etc.

True, true, but to be fair -- for the small to medium sized business types (what I over see :) the use of Redhat's Network does offer a very decent and cost effective way to manage huge chunks of Linux box easily. $60/yr for personal type (basically ungroupable boxes) or $90/yr for the "Enterprise" (groupable) servers

An occasional incident can actually help...

[kstumpf]

Sometimes people have to be burned before they will respect fire extinguishers.

Our main webserver got hacked just last weekend. It was a RedHat 7.2 that was up for about 450 days straight and was kept pretty well patched. Unfortunately, some custom Apache stuff kept us held back on patching httpd. I guess it really does only takes one weak link in the chain. Once they got in, they put in a rootkit called ZK and started setting up a hidden webserver where they were trying to sell web space on MY box. ;)

Lucky for me, I had a couple of cron jobs in place that used a hidden copy of tripwire and chkrootkit to check for intrusion and shutdown the network interfaces after they mucked around with sshd and the known hosts file. A cheap trick, but it worked.

I'm actually glad it happened. My boss and all of upper management are finally taking security seriously, and I'm milking it for all its worth. Its basically a blank check to lock down the fort. We've eliminated 75% of static NATs, shoved things off the LAN and onto the DMZ, closed dozens of ports, sprung for RHN subscriptions, eliminated several old NT4 servers, and generally did away with all the "convenient hacks" our engineers insisted on.

Re:An occasional incident can actually help...

[MickLinux]

Okay, please explain a bunch of stuff to me.

(1) What is wrong with NATs? For example, our ISP uses NAT to deliver service to our computers. Ideally, I'd also like them to IPTable ports 80,8000 on one website prefix (say, usr. instead of www.) to my computer. How does this compromise the system?

(2) Which packages do you use to check for open ports? Which packages do you use to *eliminate* root kits? [Or do you just have to floppy-boot, know where to search, and delete/restore a file?]

(3) What's a DMZ

Ethics of drawing attention?

[pabl0]

Hi all,

After seeing this submission published, I noticed several folks who mentioned the very good point that by posting this, I may very well be drawing the attention to the contest that would make it a "success". I essentially responded to this via a newly posted article on my site, but thought it was worth posting here as well, so that hopefully my reasoning will make more sense. (Article Follows.)

Thanks,
Paul Robinson
gotclue.net [gotclue.net]

As Slashdot was kind enough to post, the San Francisco Chronicle has an article about a hacker or group of hackers that are calling for massive website defacements as part of a warped (and highly illegal) contest, to occur entirely on July 6th. I considered not submitting the story to avoid drawing attention to it. After all, this could end up being the next "Y2K" where everyone sits around waiting for the doomsday that doesn't occur. To those who don't think I should've posted the story, I apologize -- but suggest you read the rest of this article to understand my reasoning.

It's entirely possible that very few, if any, websites will be defacde that day. It's even possible that more may happen now that warnings are on high-traffic sites such as Slashdot; call it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Slashdot's reader pool contains a great many folks who own web servers or are site administrators, such as myself. Certainly there are a few black hats in the crowd, but for the most part, the audience is people in the trenches of the technology industry. I can't think of a better place to reach the people who's pagers would actually be ringing or vibrating on Sunday if/when defacements occur.

Also, the story had already been picked up by mass media, such as the S.F. Chronicle. Since it was already being published to the general population, I feel that more good than harm would come from highlighting the issue in the technical community.

My apologies to the others who rely on web/e-mail services from gotclue.net, as I've probably made this server a more likely target by drawing attention to the issue. I'll be reviewing patches and packages over the next few days and making some fresh backups, just in case. If I can have my cell phone ring on Sunday but, by doing so, keep a thousand other cell-phones from ringing for the same reason, so be it.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Back up your site

[mpost4]

I don't have my own hosting, I just use the space verizon gives me, but I am not all that confident in the security that they provide, so I just make sure I have an up to date back of my web site, so if it is defaced I can put it back up.

Re:This can't possibly be legal?

[NewWaveNet]

Of course they are. But it`s not like they posted this home address and cell phone number for lawyers to reach him. It`s hosted at HostWay, some lil 5$/yr shit hosting company, and the domain obviously has fake reg info:

Administrative Contact:

of, Day (35473296P) [e-mail]
11 Albert Rd
AMITYVILLE, NY 11701
US
[phone]

Writing viruses is also illegal...the key is not getting caught.

Not Necessarily

[gotr00t]

Though I am a huge GNU/Linux OSS fan, and I use Linux for all my desktop and server tasks, there still is a common misconception about security.

Whether we like it or not, Microsoft _has_ done a better job with security now, and Windows has gotten a lot more secure nowadays. Though in my opinion, sysadmins could do a LOT more to protect their Linux systems than their Windows systems (much more stuff is configurable), it is still fact that good security dosn't mean using Open Source Software like Linux or B

aha!

[cscx]

After all, we know Micro$oft servers are a lot easier to crack than Linux or BSD servers, so they'll probably take the brunt of this.

It's asinine thinking like this that causes people to get hacked!

According to this article, [globetechnology.com] 76% of boxes hacked in May were Linux boxes! Only 15% were Windows machines. It's just the simple thought that "oh it's open source, so it's gotta be secure!" that gets people to not update their stuff and get hacked.

Open source security vulnerabilities are just as frequent as Msft's, even moreso. Regardless of what you're running, you need to friggin update and stay on top of the game.

Or, you could just run chroot'ed Apache on OpenBSD.* :D

*The above statement shows the equal tradeoff between security and speed.

Yes, here is a mirror

[fv]

> www.defacers-challenge.com doesn't resolve for me. Does someone have a mirror or the IP?

They were shut down by their ISP (Affinity), but I still have the English version in my cache from an earlier viewing:

http://www.insecure.org/tmp/defacers-challenge/ [insecure.org]

Note that Insecure.Org DOES NOT in any way condone or promote this so-called challenge. I'm just providing the link so people can see what the fuss was about. I'm planning to add a note to that effect to the top of the page in a few minutes. What I found most humorous is that they ask people to register in advance by sending in their contact info. That is a really great idea :).

-Fyodor
Concerned about your network security? Try the free Nmap Security Scanner [insecure.org]