[News] Ubuntu servers hacked to attack others
Ian Semmel
after a security breach caused those servers to actively attack other
machines
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=453&tag=nl.e550
Must be some mistake. Ubuntu is linux isn't it ?
"The situation has become untenable," Ubuntu's Jono Bacon said in an
e-mail outlining changes to the loco server policy.
John Bailo, Texeme.Construct
3rd Party drivers are to blame !!!
(They're not actually...I'm just using a Microsoft excuse.)
Hadron
Were Peter Köhlmann or Kelsey involved in administrating them?
ed
"Ian Semmel" <any...@rocketcomp.com.au> wrote:
> More than half of Ubuntu's production servers had to be pulled offline
> after a security breach caused those servers to actively attack other
> machines
That's the difference between having your hosts on a Tier 3 ISP
network and a Tier 1 network.
> http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=453&tag=nl.e550
>
> Must be some mistake. Ubuntu is linux isn't it ?
No, no it is not. Ubuntu is a distribution of a Linux kernel with a
debian-like package managed OS.
> "The situation has become untenable," Ubuntu's Jono Bacon said in an
> e-mail outlining changes to the loco server policy.
Jono is more of a PR person than an admin or programmer - nothing
against Jono, he runs a very good radio LUG.
--
The Teletype machine to the sega dreamcast is hosed because of Some
newbie fatfingering their password. Barbarella is gibbin, laws yes.
:: http://www.s5h.net/ :: http://www.s5h.net/gpg
Rick
Why are you such an asshole?
--
Rick
Peter Köhlmann
You know, "true linux advocates" like Hadron Quark and flatfish are that
way.
They were born assholes, and it spiralled downwards from that moment
--
Modern man is the missing link between apes and human beings.
waterskidoo
I suppose this lends a little credence to the long worn out
argument concerning popularity vs attacks.
IOW Windows is attacked, compromised more often because it's
most popular and will cause more widespread damage.
Although the case can also be made for hacking some *nix
server on a backbone.
Yikes think of the problems that could cause :(
Ubuntu is wildly popular and growing so it's calling
attention to the black hats, disgruntled people and
so forth.
DFS
> You know, "true linux advocates" like Hadron Quark and flatfish are
> that way.
> They were born assholes, and it spiralled downwards from that moment
Sorry Peter, but you are without question the biggest asshole on cola. I
may be in the top 3 or 5 sometimes, but you flat out own that title.
yttrx
No, actually that would be me, and I am neither a linux advocate nor a
wintroll.
-----yttrx
DFS
You are an asshole, true, but you're not a reg poster so you don't count.
Rick
Do you never tire of being wrong?
--
Rick
Ron House
OK, let's look at the original article that you have presumably already
read, shall we?
QUOTE:---------------
According to a notice in the Ubuntu weekly newsletter, 5 of the 8
servers that are loco hosted had to be shut down after an investigation
showed a variety of security problems.
The servers were found to be missing security patches, using insecure
protocols (FTP without SSL) to access the machines and without upgrades
past breezy due to problems with the network cards and later kernels.
“The situation has become untenable,” Ubuntu’s Jono Bacon said in an
e-mail outlining changes to the loco server policy.
Some details on the breach:
1. The servers, especially zambezi were running an incredible amount
of web software (over 15 packages recognized) and of all the ones where
it’s trivial to determine a version, they were without exception
out-of-date and missing security patches. An attacker could have gotten
a shell through almost any of these sites.
2. FTP (not sftp, without SSL) was being used to access the
machines, so an attacker (in the right place) could also have gotten
access by sniffing the clear-text passwords.
3. The servers have not been upgraded past breezy due to problems
with the network card and later kernels. This probably allowed the
attacker to gain root.
-------------------END QUOTE
So, some sysadmins have been neglecting patching their servers, to what
is an apparently astounding degree. Did you notice that, hmm? If you
were reporting a road accident, where a drunk ploughed his car into a
wall at 140mph, would you say "Volvo is supposed to be a safe car, isn't
it?" Yes? No? I think we know what to make of your FUD. (Too easy Bill,
you should fire this guy.)
--
Ron House ho...@usq.edu.au
http://www.sci.usq.edu.au/staff/house
Hadron
Don't say that to T-Rex.
yttrx
I have been posting to COLA far, far longer than any current denizen.
-----yttrx
Hadron
You probably beat yourself off years ago too, but doesn't mean you still
do it regularly...
> -----yttrx
--
yttrx
No, those are indeed mutually exclusive. I'll give you the same metaphor that
a logic professor gave me in college:
The tide on the hudson river rises almost precisely as the traffic on
riverside drive, but one does not preclude the other. The common element
is the arbitration of schedule; the traffic rises during "rush hours", which
happen to coincide with the movement of our moon, which in turn affects the
tide in the hudson river.
Thus, while I did indeed beat myself off years ago and still do so now quite
regularly, both definitions (a single event years ago, and present ongoing
events of the same classification) are mutually exclusive, though both
dependent on a common element, in this case, my libido and adoration of
cheap pornography.
-----yttrx
Kelsey Bjarnason
Dunno... but I'll note none of the servers I administer have been
compromised in the 18 months or so I've been working on them.
Hadron
Let's put that more down to Linux than you. I mean, you said that Linux
is so secure that an idiot could administer it. You have found your
vocation.
dapunka
You /like/ cheap pr0n?!! Holy cow, at last I "meet" an aficianado!!
I (of course) dislike all pornography - free, cheap, pricey... prick-
tease T&A fluff, high-class erotica, disturbing fetish imagery - it
all leaves me cold (I mean, it /would/ leave me cold if I ever saw
any. Which I don't. Of course.)
But of course I'm aware that many people like pr0n, in all its
guises. And of course those people have nothing to be ashamed of.
Losing DVDs is a real PITA. And then the vendors want me... I mean
"Subject A" to buy the goddamn thing again. As well as selling said
subject's email addy to other pornographers. I swear, if I was a
pornography enthusiast, I'd be well pissed at the manipulative XXXXs.
Tim Smith
> No, those are indeed mutually exclusive. I'll give you the same metaphor that
> a logic professor gave me in college:
>
> The tide on the hudson river rises almost precisely as the traffic on
> riverside drive, but one does not preclude the other. The common element
> is the arbitration of schedule; the traffic rises during "rush hours", which
> happen to coincide with the movement of our moon, which in turn affects the
> tide in the hudson river.
In most places, rush hours occur at approximately the same time every
day, which corresponds roughly to solar movement, not lunar movement.
yttrx
The movement of our moon with respect to the surface of the earth, which
is to say, the rotation of the earth itself.
-----yttrx
cc
"Look at me! Look at me!"