Date: Wed Apr 26 20:04:17 2006
From: bkfsec at sdf.lonestar.org (bkfsec)
Subject: Should I Be Worried?

CrYpTiC MauleR wrote:

>After reading http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11389 it made me think twice about actually going public with my school's security hole by having school notify students, parents and/or faculty at risk due to it.
>
>I mean I didnt access any records, just knew that it was possible for someone to access my account or anyone elses. I did not even exploit the hole to steal, modify etc any records. Does this still put me in the same boat at the USC guy? If so I am really not wanting to butt heads with the school in case they try to turn around and bite the hand that tried to help them. Even if my intentions were good, they might even make something up saying I accessed entire database or something. I have nothing to prove me otherwise since they have access to the logs. Already it seems like the school is trying to sweep the incident under the rug, so very wary as to what they might do if they were pushed into a corner and forced to go public. Anyone has any idea what I can do or should I just let this slide? I am already putting my credit report and such on fraud alert just in case, and definelty do not plan on attending this school after my degree or school year is over. A transfer is better than having me risk my data.
>
>  
>

I think you're probably jumping the gun a little bit here.

 From what I gather, you approached people about the issue, you got some 
resolution on it.  Switching schools is not necessarily going to help 
you because, believe me, every institution has problems with regard to 
information leakage.  If it's not technical, it's social leakage.  If 
you're concerned about possible problems to yourself, then maybe full 
disclosure may not be appropriate. 

Think about it for a second.  Holes in both software and procedures are 
fixed daily in any given institution. The *vast* majority of it is never 
reported.  And what would we really gain if it was?  School A fixes an 
XSS bug in their web app.  Woopty freaking doooo...  School B patches 
their servers 2 months late, but are now up to date... School C fires a 
registrar for giving out SS numbers over the phone to unknown contacts, 
but not necessarily known to be malicious... etc

Without proof of a violation of security or privacy, it doesn't really 
mean much.  Just having a social security number these days is grounds 
for people to be concerned.  This is why it was originally against 
mandate for it to be used as a national ID system.

In fact, let's take that one step further and look at the whole 
financial infrastructure.  It's a shambles.  Not secure at all.  Anyone 
with the right contract can pull your credit report and start adding 
accounts to your name. 

Be afraid, be very afraid.  But, be afraid for the right reasons.  
Really, the only reason you should be thinking full disclosure now is if 
they didn't fix the bug, which IIRC they did.  If you're really 
concerned about your privacy, that should be where it stops.  Full 
disclosure after fixes works with software components, not necessarily 
organizations.  Society as a whole is not necessarily going to learn 
anything from relatively generic examples of institutions having a 
security issue (which we don't even have proof of any exploit of those 
issues). 

So best thing to do is back off for a bit, lay low... you got a 
response, why keep putting yourself in the spotlight and drawing them to 
you?  Organizations threaten legal action, more often than not, to shut 
people up.  Just consider that if that's what you're concerned about.  
Be subtle.

                -bkfsec

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