full-disclosure - Reacting to a server compromise

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From: wchang at pnwsoft.com (Wayne Chang)
Subject: Reacting to a server compromise

Hi Mark,

In this situation I would Do The Right Thing(tm).  Contact the admins on the
list and inform your local FBI department.  They might not care, but atleast
you've informed them.

By being silent on this, you help no one but yourself.  And that might not
even be true since one of the 100 ips could trace back to you and notify the
FBI before you do.

It will take a few hours atleast to notify all of them, but with a generic
message that you can cut and paste, the effort would be appreciated by the
people you contact (atleast we hope they take it positively).

Anyways, being silent on it is harmful, any way you slice it.

Do The Right Thing.

Best regards,

Wayne Chang
Pacific Northwest Software
Mobile:     (978) 869-3446
Email:       wchang@...soft.com

-----Original Message-----
From: full-disclosure-admin@...ts.netsys.com
[mailto:full-disclosure-admin@...ts.netsys.com] On Behalf Of Mark
Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2003 12:39 PM
To: full-disclosure@...ts.netsys.com

Hello list,

      In light of the current state of the internet with the DCOM vuln, I
would like to ask for some advice on a situation I had at work.

A little while ago(but before the DCOM vuln was released) I had a Win2k box
hacked.  The box was outside our firewall, running minimal
services(ftp/www/smtp - gateway only) and was set to download/install
everything it could via Auto-updates.  Apparently I didn't reboot it often
enough for all of the updates to take effect.

Personally I really don't care how the hacker got in, as the box has now
been replaced with a hardened Linux server, and when the attacker had
control, they were still outside our firewall.  The attacker created a user
account with admin privs, installed a trojan, disabled all network access to
any users except this new account, and proceeded to hack other vulnerable NT
machines out on the net.  I found a list of about 100 IPs with usernames and
passwords that were either blank or the same as the username.

My question is: Do I report this, and run the risk of the Feds charging me
because these attacks originated from my subnet?  Do I inform the owners of
the machines that were hacked that their systems have been compromised?
Judging from the usernames, some of these machines belonged to doctors
offices, and may contain sensitive information.  Or should I just have a
nice cup of STFU, and pretend nothing happened?

Before the flames start about how I'm such a lazy admin, I'd like you to
know that I'm a developer full-time for a small company with a small budget
and I manage the network with my "free" time.  Yes it was stupid to stick a
windows box out on the net without a firewall.  I tell people all the time
the same thing, maybe I'm just a sadist that likes watching M$ boxes get
hacked, I don't know.  But in that instance I really didn't care.

I'd appreciate any comments anyone has....

Thanks,
Mark

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