Jeremiah Grossman: Hacking Intranet websites from the outside: Malware just got a lot more dangerous

Black Hat Briefings, Las Vegas 2006 [Video] Presentations from the security conference

Imagine you’re visiting a popular website and invisible JavaScript exploit code steals your cookies, captures your keystrokes, and monitors every web page that you visit. Then, without your knowledge or consent, your web browser is silently hijacked to transfer out bank funds, hack other websites, or post derogatory comments in a public forum. No traces, no tracks, no warning sirens. In 2005’s "Phishing with Superbait" presentation we demonstrated that all these things were in fact possible using nothing more than some clever JavaScript. And as bad as things are already, further web application security research is revealing that outsiders can also use these hijacked browsers to exploit intranet websites. Most of us assume while surfing the Web that we are protected by firewalls and isolated through private NAT'ed IP addresses. We assume the soft security of intranet websites and that the Web-based interfaces of routers, firewalls, printers, IP phones, payroll systems, etc. even if left unpatched, remain safe inside the protected zone. We believe nothing is capable of directly connecting in from the outside world. Right? Well, not quite. Web browsers can be completely controlled by any web page, enabling them to become launching points to attack internal network resources. The web browser of every user on an enterprise network becomes a stepping stone for intruders. Now, imagine visiting a web page that contains JavaScript malware that automatically reconfigures your company’s routers or firewalls, from the inside, opening the internal network up to the whole world. Even worse, common Cross-Site Scripting vulnerabilities make it possible for these attacks to be launched from just about any website we visit and especially those we trust. The age of web application security malware has begun and it’s critical that understand what it is and how to defend against it. During this presentation we'll demonstrate a wide variety of cutting-edge web application security attack techniques and describe bestpractices for securing websites and users against these threats. You’ll see: * Port scanning and attacking intranet devices using JavaScript * Blind web server fingerprinting using unique URLs * Discovery NAT'ed IP addresses with Java Applets * Stealing web browser history with Cascading Style Sheets * Best-practice defense measures for securing websites * Essential habits for safe web surfing Jeremiah Grossman is the founder and Chief Technology Officer of WhiteHat Security (http://www.whitehatsec.com), where he is responsible for web application security R&D and industry evangelism. As an well-known and internationally recognized security expert, Mr. Grossman is a frequent speaker at the Black Hat Briefings, ISSA, ISACA, NASA, and many other industry events. Mr. Grossman's research, writing, and interviews have been published in dozens of publications including USA Today, VAR Business, NBC, ABC News (AU), ZDNet, eWeek, Computerworld and BetaNews. Mr. Grossman is also a founder of the Web Application Security Consortium (WASC), as well as a contributing member of the Center for Internet Security Apache Benchmark Group. Prior to WhiteHat, Mr. Grossman was an information security officer at Yahoo!, responsible for performing security reviews on the company's hundreds of websites. T.C. Niedzialkowski is a Senior Security Engineer at WhiteHat Security in Santa Clara, California. In this role, he oversees WhiteHat Sentinel, the company's continuous vulnerability assessment and management service for web applications. Mr. Niedzialkowski has extensive experience in web application assessment and is a key contributor to the design of WhiteHat's scanning technology."