Mitnick K.D., Simon V.L. - The Art of Deception (2003)(en)

So how do you handle a legitimate-sounding request for information from another company employee, such as the list of names and email addresses of people in your group? In fact, how do you raise awareness so that an item like this, which is clearly less valuable than, say, a spec sheet for a product under development, is recognized as something for internal use only? One major part of the solution: Designate employees in each department who will handle all requests for information to be sent outside the group. An advanced security-training program must then be

provided to make these designated employees aware of the special verification procedures they should follow.

Forget Nobody

Anyone can quickly rattle off the identity of organizations within her company that need a high degree of protection against malicious attacks. But we often overlook other places that are less obvious, yet highly vulnerable. In one of these stories, the request for a fax to be sent to a phone number within the company seemed innocent and secure enough, yet the attacker took advantage of this security loophole. The lesson here: Everybody from secretaries and administrative assistants to company executives and high-level managers needs to have special security training so that they can be alert to these types of tricks. And don't forget to guard the front door: Receptionists, too, are often prime targets for social engineers and must also be made aware of the deceptive techniques used by some visitors and callers.

Corporate security should establish a single point of contact as a kind of central clearinghouse for employees who think they may have been the target of a social engineering ruse. Having a single place to report security incidents will provide an effective early-warning system that will make it dear when a coordinated attack is under way, so that any damage can be controlled immediately.

Chapter 6

"Can You Help Me?"

You’ve seen how social engineers trick people by offering to help. Another favorite approach turns the tables: The social engineer manipulates by pretending he needs the other person to help

him. We can all sympathize with people in a tight spot, and the approach proves effective over and over again in allowing a social engineer to reach

his goal.

THE OUT-OF TOWNER

A story in Chapter 3 showed how an attacker can talk a victim into revealing his employee number. This one uses a different approach for achieving the same result, and then shows how the attacker can make use of that

Keeping Up with the Joneses

In Silicon Valley there is a certain global company that shall be nameless. The scattered sales offices and other field installations around the world are all connected to that company's headquarters over a WAN, a wide area network. The intruder, a smart, feisty guy named Brian Atterby, knew

it was almost always easier to break into a network at one of the remote sites where security is practically guaranteed to be more lax than at headquarters.

The intruder phoned the Chicago office and asked to speak with Mr Jones. The receptionist asked if he knew Mr. Jones's first name; he

answered, "I had it here, I'm looking for it. How many Joneses do you have?" She said, "Three. Which department would he be in?"

He said, "If you read me the names, maybe I'll recognize it." So she did: "Barry, Joseph, and Gordon."

"Joe. I'm pretty sure that was it," he said. "And he was in . . . which department?"

"Business Development."

"Fine. Can you connect me, please?"

She put the call through. When Jones answered, the attacker said, "Mr. Jones? Hi, this is Tony in Payroll. We just put through your request to have your paycheck deposited directly to your credit union account."

"WHAT???!!! You've got to be kidding. I didn't make any request like that. I don't even have an account at a credit union."

"Oh, damn, I already put it through."

Jones was more than a little upset at the idea that his paycheck might be going to someone else's account, and he was beginning to think the guy on the other end of the phone must be a little slow. Before he could even reply, the attacker said, "I better see what happened. Payroll changes are entered by employee number. What's your employee number?"

Jones gave the number. The caller said, "No, you're right, the request wasn't from you, then." They get more stupid every year, Jones thought. "Look, I'll see it's taken care of. I'll put in a correction right now. So don't worry - you'll get your next paycheck okay," the guy said reassuringly.

A Business Trip

Not long after, the system administrator in the company's Austin, Texas, sales office received a phone call. "This is Joseph Jones," the caller announced. "I'm in Business Development at corporate. I'll be in to, for the week, at the Driskill Hotel. I'd like to have you set me up with a temporary account so I can access my email without making a long distance call."

"Let me get that name again, and give me your employee number," the sys admin said. The false Jones gave the number and went on, "Do you have any high speed dial-up numbers.

"Hold on, buddy. I gotta verify you in the database." After a bit, he said, "Okay, Joe. Tell me, what's your building number?" The attacker had done his homework and had the answer ready

MITNICK MESSAGE

Don't rely on network safeguards and firewalls to protect your information. Look to your most vulnerable spot. You'll usually find that vulnerability lies in your people.

"Okay," the sys admin told him, "you convinced me."

It was as simple as that. The sys admin had verified the name Joseph Jones, the department, and the employee number, and "Joe" had given the right answer to the test question. "Your username's going to be the same as your corporate one, jbjones," the sys admin said, "and I'm giving you an initial password of 'changeme.'"

Analyzing the Con

With a couple of phone calls and fifteen minutes of time, the attacker had gained access to the company's wide area network. This was a company that, like many, had what I refer to as candy security, after a description first used by two Bell Labs researchers, Steve Bellovin and Steven Cheswick. They described such security as "a hard crunchy shell with a oft chewy center" - like an M&M candy. The outer shell, the firewall, Bellovin and Cheswick argued, is not sufficient protection, because once an intruder is able to circumvent it, the internal computer systems have soft, chewy security. Most of the time, they are inadequately protected.

This story fits the definition. With a dial-up number and an account,

the attacker didn't even have to bother trying to defeat an Internet firewall, and, once inside, he was easily able to compromise most of the systems on the internal network.

Through my sources, I understand this exact ruse was worked on one of the largest computer software manufacturers in the world. You would think the systems administrators in such a company would be trained to detect this type of ruse. But in my experience, nobody is completely safe if a social engineer is clever and persuasive enough.

LINGO

CANDY SECURITY A term coined by Bellovin and Cheswick of Bell Labs to describe a security scenario where the outer perimeter, such as firewall, is strong, but the infrastructure behind it is weak. The term

refers to M&M candy, which has a hard outer shell and soft center.

LINGO

SPEAKEASY SECURITY Security that relies on knowing where desired information is, and using a word or name to gain access to that information or computer system.

SPEAKEASY SECURITY

In the old days of speakeasies - those Prohibition-era nightclubs where socalled bathtub gin flowed--a would-be customer gained admission by showing up at the door and knocking. After a few moments, a small flap in the door would swing open and a tough, intimidating face would peer out. If the visitor was in the know, he would speak the name of some frequent patron of the place ("Joe sent me" was often enough), whereupon the bouncer inside would unlatch the door and let him in.

The real trick lay in knowing the location of the speakeasy because the door was unmarked, and the owners didn't exactly hang out neon signs to mark their presence. For the most part, just showing up at the right place was about all it took to get in. The same degree of safekeeping is, unhappily, practiced widely in the corporate world, providing a level of non protection that I call speakeasy security.

I Saw It at the Movies

Here's an illustration from a favorite movie that many people will remember. In Three Days of the Condor the central character, Turner (played by Robert Redford), works for a small research firm contracted by the CIA. One day he comes back from a lunch run to find that all his co workers have been gunned down. He's left to figure out who has done this and why, all the while knowing that the bad guys, whoever they are, are looking for him.

Late in the story, Turner manages to get the phone number of one the bad guys. But who is this person, and how can Turner pin down his location? He's in luck: The screenwriter, David Rayfiel, has happily given Turner a background that includes training as a telephone lineman with the Army Signal Corps, making him knowledgeable about techniques and practices of the phone company. With the bad guy's phone number in hand, Turner knows exactly what to do. In the screenplay, the scene reads like this:

TURNER RECONNECTS and TAPS OUT ANOTHER NUMBER.

RING! RING! Then:

WOMAN'S VOICE (FILTER) CNA, Mrs. Coleman speaking. TURNER (into test set)

This is Harold Thomas, Mrs. Coleman. Customer Service.

CNA on 202-555-7389, please.

WOMAN'S VOICE (FILTER) One moment, please. (almost at once)

Leonard Atwood, 765 MacKensie Lane, Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Ignoring the fact that the screenwriter mistakenly uses a Washington, D.C., area code for a Maryland address, can you spot what just happened here?

Turner, because of his training as a telephone lineman, knew what number to dial in order to reach a phone company office called CNA, the Customer Name and Address bureau. CNA is set up for the convenience of installers and other authorized phone company personnel. An installer could call CNA, and give them a phone number. The CNA clerk would respond by providing the name of the person the phone belongs to and his address.

Fooling the Phone Company

In the real world, the phone number for CNA is a closely guarded secret.

Although the phone companies finally caught on and these days are less

generous about handing out information so readily, at the time they operated

on a variation of speakeasy security that security professionals call security through obscurity. They presumed that anybody who called CNA

and knew the proper lingo ("Customer service. CNA on 555-1234, please for example) was a person authorized to have the information.

LINGO

SECURITY THROUGH OBSCURITY An ineffective method of computer security that relies on keeping secret the details of how the system works (protocols, algorithms, and internal systems). Security through obscurity relies on the false assumption that no one outside a trusted group of people will be able to circumvent the system.

MITNICK MESSGAE

Security through obscurity does not have any effect in blocking social engineering attacks. Every computer system in the world has at least one human that use it. So, if the attacker is able to manipulate people who use the systems, the obscurity of the system is irrelevant.

There was no need to verify or identify oneself, no need to give an employee number, no need for a password that was changed daily. If you knew the number to call and you sounded authentic, then you must be entitled to the information.

That was not a very solid assumption on the part of the telephone company. Their only effort at security was to change the phone number on l periodic basis, at least once a year. Even so, the current number at any particular moment was very widely known among phone phreaks, who delighted in taking advantage of this convenient source of information and in sharing the how-to-do-it with their fellow phreaks. The CN,' Bureau trick was one of the first things I learned when I was in to the hobby of phone phreaking as a teenager.

Throughout the world of business and government, speakeasy security. is still prevalent. It's likely that

about your company's departments, people, and lingo. Sometimes les to than that: Sometimes an internal phone number is all it takes.

THE CARELESS COMPUTER MANAGER

Though many employees in organizations are negligent, unconcerned, or unaware of security dangers, you'd expect someone with the title manager in the computer center of a Fortune 500 corporation to be thoroughly knowledgeable about best security practices, right?

You would not expect a computer center manager - someone who is part of his company's Information Technology department - to fall victim to a simplistic and obvious social engineering con game. Especially not the social engineer is hardly more than a kid, barely out of his teens. But sometimes your expectations can be wrong.

Tuning In

Years ago it was an amusing pastime for many people to keep a radio tuned to the local police or fire department frequencies, listening in on the