Pen testers, secure email and sexy vulnerabilities

Email has been likened to writing a postcard to a friend, in pencil and sending through the post. It can be read and altered at any point along the way. The postal metaphor encouraged by email clients such as Outlook, Notes, Thunderbird etc is that of a closed envelope so that users are trained into thinking that sending an email is secure.

The recent IT cockup at ACS:law, a law firm specialising in intellectual property theft has now made public what senders and recipients clearly assumed would be private for ever. ACS:Law's website was left mis-configured allowing anyone visiting their home page to right-click download an entire tar.gz archive file of their emails. individuals have taken the database of emails and made websites (e.g. http://ueof.co.uk/acslaw/ [now offline]) allowing various groups to mine the data.

A sample of the data included

• national insurance numbers
• bank account details
• data that would be classified as personal information
• and a lot of internal emails that may well prove inflammatory for various regulators and opposition groups to this firm.

Not only is the data now public - but it is public forever. The data has been spread far and wide over geo-political domains and like garden weeds, it will be difficult to eradicate and will keep coming back.

Clearly, for security researchers, communicating the level of risk inherent in system configurations should be part of the work that they do but all too often I see penetration testers chasing the sexy exploits rather than inform the business of actual risk. It takes skill for a security consultant to communicate the risk in terms that the business will understand without scaremongering.

One client of mine has just implemented a "Secure Email" system using Cisco Ironport. The Cisco product is market leading and has been implemented in a robust way. However, the pen tester (not us!!) brought in to look at the system focussed primarily on the Cisco product, and to their credit found some sexy-yet-minor Information and data leakage vulnerabilities HOWEVER, they totally failed to advise their client about the wider picture and thus missed client-built bespoke addons that were full of holes.

BMI sends out diamond club emails to wrong members

A simple mistake: BMI (British midland Airways) sent all of its Diamond Club members an email this morning - but, they sent the wrong data in the emails so that:

• emails are addressed to the right individual who owns the email address
• have the wrong diamond club information, including membership number
• but have direct HTTP GET links to update promotional choices for the incorrect diamond club account

So, I rang them up and the telephone operator even told me the name of the account holder whose information i received. So, I'm sorry Mr Mason - when I clicked on http://bmi-email.co.uk/re?l=5uh9yaI1nklj0xI1I5sdpup&req=dcnumber%3D00000710196 - I opted for your account to receive status miles instead of destination miles...

Separating a fool from their money

It's never been easier. The UK Gov (including the HMRC) have made it's online systems and telephone services so complex to get advice that many individuals are turning to the web for advice and support. What astounds me however is the information that people are adding as comments to blogs.

On this blog, the following information was given out by one individual:

• name
• address
• age
• national insurance number
• some tax code history

Another, offered their change of address - as a comment? There are at least 5 national insurance numbers & names. Did they really think that the dailydigit blog was the HMRC? Has none of the advice given out about web surfing and verifying the site identity got through to people - and more importantly, why are blogs like this moderating comments like this to appear?

It's also here; where a retired police officer volunteers even more information after being asked (well enough for an identity fraud)

For more information - google popular queries - "my NI number is", "my tax ref no is", "my passport number is"

Argos Sending Private Data in Receipt Emails

TheRegister has a great story about Argos using receipt emails that have HTML embedded in them that contains parameters including full unencrypted card number, CVV code, expiry date, name as printed on the card and address. Clearly a massive breach.

However, it gets more interesting when you look at one of these emails, Chris Geek Guy has copied one to his blog. Whilst it is clear that Argos have copied lots of personal data to the HTML email, I think there are bigger problems. The data is embedded in a GET html link. To me, this shouts out XSS and CSRF risk and also, if you look at the link, this data would always be sent across the internet in the clear - usually being cached as it travels through the internet - if the user did in fact click on the link in the email.

Potential targets for exploitation (and I haven't tried) would be: includeName, the com.ibm.commerce.context.experiment.ExperimentContext which looks like it is directly referencing an object (!!!) outside the context of the system. It would also be worth exploring what this link actually does and whether manipulating the receipt and performing a replay attack changes anything on the Argos server.

Googling for Protectively Marked PDF's

The number of protectively marked PDF's on the web is staggering, try these:

• Confidential: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=filetype%3Apdf+file+confidential+%28htm+OR+html+OR+mhtml%29&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
• Restricted: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=filetype%3Apdf+file+restricted+%28htm+OR+html+OR+mhtml%29&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
• NATO restricted: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=filetype%3Apdf+file+%22nato+restricted%22+%28htm+OR+html+OR+mhtml%29&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
• NATO Confidential: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=filetype%3Apdf+file+%22nato+confidential%22+%28htm+OR+html+OR+mhtml%29&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

Try other protective markings from other countries to see more. Clearly searching for "Top Secret" will incur a lot of separating chaff from wheat. The biggest surprise is the number of government protectively marked papers that are searchable - these are typically papers that are being passed between departments and the paper is being mis handled down the line of recipients.

I've seen a lot of misuse of confidentially marked papers in commercial organisations - I see them regularly sitting on a printer in open plan offices. Largely because staff working for big financial companies do not have information security drilled into them. They have to sit computer based training tests regularly - but there is little comeback for employees who regularly flout the rules.

Independent Financial Advisers oblivious to data protection

Who has the most information about you, as an individual?

• your doctor?
• your lawyer?
  
• your bank manager?
• the HMRC?
• your local council?

No - it is likely to be an Independent Financial Adviser. If you consider what is "personal data" (see the ICO Web pages) then the IFA pretty much ticks off more data categories than any other professional relationship in your life except for UK Gov vetting. Classification of personal data is not listed, but is classified by asking 8 questions:

1. Can a living individual be identified from the data? Yes, all forms carry name, address, date of birth and often National insurance Number. IFA's will also ask for proof of identity such as bank cards, passport, drivers licence. For regulatory reasons, all of this information is stored by the IFA.
2. Does the data 'relate to' the identifiable living individual, whether in personal or family life, business or profession? Again, yes it does. Joint Life cover and family health schemes will typically hold data about family members and the business that the policyholder works in.
3. Is the data 'obviously about' a particular individual? Yes, it has to be!
4. Is the data 'linked to' an individual so that it provides particular information about that individual? Yes, quotes, policy numbers, national insurance numbers, passports, bank account details all help link and identity an individual. These are all needed for commencing many policys. Often bank details are used for some types of investments.
   
5. Is the data used, or is it to be used, to inform or influence actions or decisions affecting an identifiable individual? Yes, policies with Life Cover options will have varying costs depending on the health, location of their home address. Income will play a part in pensions and other investments such as bond products.
6. Does the data have any biographical significance in relation to the individual? yes, in particular medical history reports for health cover will cover the individual in detail. Income history, previous addresses and knowledge of past and current financial products build a picture of the individual. Even, for some individuals, country of residence (for tax purposes) adds more colour to the picture.
   
7. Does the data focus or concentrate on the individual as its central theme? Yes, pretty much all products concentrate on the individual - particularly once anti-money laundering legislation came in.
8. Does the data impact or have the potential to impact on an individual, whether in a personal, family, business or professional capacity? Yes, for example a rejection for life cover on medical grounds could have an impact. As would knowledge of an individuals financial situation. Especially for targeted identity theft etc.
   

So given that IFA's have ticked all the boxes for data categories deemed 'personal' by the ICO, then surely the must have stringent measures in place for data security?

Well no, actually they don't.

Larger firms and the product providers (Aviva, L&G, Prudential, Standard Life etc etc) will have strict enforcement of data security - but the majority of IFA's are independent and will operate as a small business with no formal IT strategy and no formal training on data security. Many IFA's will buy laptops from retail stores like PC World and Dell retail online and configure them themselves. They are also using Blackberry's and Apple iPhones with no knowledge of how data is secured or not. Potentially - all of your data is being stored on unencrypted, unsecured devices.

The FSA regulates IFA's but it is my view that many IFA's play lip service to the "regulated by" statement on their business cards. It is only a matter if time before the FSA gets some teeth and in combination with the ICO (which will soon be allowed to prosecute) will close down IFAs that have non-existent security.

A Moment of Realisation during Registration

I was registering the birth of our new baby boy last week and, as you do, noticed a huge problem with the way registration of births are carried out in Scotland. The Scottish system for registration of births, deaths and marriages is different from England and Wales, with registrations being made at the General Register of Scotland and not Somerset House.

Whilst registering my wee boy; I was left alone in an interview room with an unlocked PC. I didn't have my phone on my but I would have taken some photos. The PC was linked and logged into the GROSfer application which, in Scotland, is on the GSX Government Secure Extranet system. The UK Government uses various classifications of network for various types of traffic according to its own data classification. I presume birth data must be protectively marked as restricted and so GROSfer is on the GSX.

I had approximately 3 to 4 minutes of "own time" in the office with the unlocked PC, plenty of time to attack a keylogger to the USB keyboard, whilst the registrar took the payment for the birth certificate. I also had access to GSX which could pose threats. All pretty disturbing - a simple flick of Cntrl-Alt-Del and a little bit of desk & cable management would reduce the threat.