hacker

[TOWCH]

Any vulnerability that allows remote code execution is going to open you up to backdoors at which point all your box are belong to them. The plan of attack for windows and linux is different. With linux, you try and get command line and then privledge escalate to root or grab password hashs. With windows, you hope the user does something like open an email, run a program, or go to a webpage with a computer that is vulnerable to whatever exploit you are trying to pull and then make the code execution payload a back door. I've never heard of anyone hacking remote desktop. Every now and then, someone finds an exploit for Windows that requires no user action and these are what worms use. MSBlaster and Sasser come to mind.

[ericm115]

In my own defense, I am familiar with windows Remote Desktop. The RD server only comes standard with winXP Pro as far as I know (Not sure, but probably with 2k3 and NT ver's as well), and it comes disabled by default. Assuming most people are on XP Home with SP2 is not a long shot I don't think, and I stick by the fact that XP Home with SP2 is pretty safe from malicious "hackers" as long as your browser is updated.

I wasn't aware that Dell uses Remote Desktop (though it does make sense) by default on their OEM installs. That certainly does introduce a problem.

As far as trojans go, netbus and backorifice come to mind when thinking of trojans allowing keystroke manipulation, though it was correctly stated that lots of adware and spyware are distributed in "trojan" fashion today.

[Krypos]

and it comes disabled by default...

thats not true. every winxp system i have seen (and my grandpas windows media center) all sp2 have come with remote desktop ON by default. i always turn it off. but even when i reinstall windows (and not install any dell support or any of that crapola software) it still is on by default.

i dont think its a dell thing to install. so maybe its just your system that didnt get it or something, but every system i have touched has come with it already enabled.

[Bud Wiser]

Ironic that a bunch of hackers would get interested in lock picking, and here we are a bunch of lock pickers talking about hacking.

I guess it's not so strange if you think about it. Both involve exploiting weaknesses!

I agree that most computers OS's have come a long way dealing with security issues, but it's still very important to be current with updates, and patches. As for servers NT is the most secured, but nobody likes NT! It's no where near as flexible as unix. Web servers remain very vulnerable to hacks, often the culprit will be a program either a cgi or php script. This forum is no exception. Luckily the amount of knowledge required to pose any serious threat is limited to a very few, and they would also need a interest or want to mess with you. So most people are fairly safe unless the server is on a shared configuration. Then every one on that server could be effected.

As for desktops or personal computers go, the main threat will be a virus which is made to create havoc only. A much more smarter and beneficial form of attack is adware and spyware which gathers information from your computer. What web sites you visit, buying habits, and then collects this information to send spam email to you. Another deceptive method is to use your computers mail server to send out spam to other computers.

A couple of years ago there was a very innovative program created for spamming that would send out advertisements by randomly selecting various IP's. All that was needed was for you to be online, np for users of DSL or cable. An ad would pop out of no where, even if no browser was open! I was offered a spot on the ad rotation for get this, a whopping $10,000 a month! I declined. I'll stick to more conventional spamming

Point is that there will always be some thing new found, followed by a fix, followed by some thing new again. It's a never ending game.

[Raccoon]

I have to say that ericm115 is spot on in his original post. What he described about Windows vs Linux and Trojans vs Virii, are absolutely accurate and current.

Most people are generally safe from an active attack against their machine. It's the passive attacks that get you-- such as: tempting you into downloading and running a file, or tempting you into visiting a malicious website that exploits bugs in Internet Explorer, or sending you script-laden emails that Microsoft Outlook (a crappy program) runs when opened. Each of these require an action on part of the "victim", so the hacker cares not if you're on 24 hours or just a few minutes a day.

Windows Remote Desktop requires action on part of the user to activate it. There are no default passwords to guess, and no brute-forcng possible. I'm not a great authority on Linux, but I know that a large sum of Linux users don't set/change their default passwords.

Trojans are, in fact, as ericm115 stated, remote control applications used to either gain live processor functionality or desktop/keyboard control. These are often used as pranks because it usually requires a live interaction between the "hacker" and her victim, so they are usually found on live chat or instant messager communities. There are other trojan-like devices, as a "trojan horse" is simply something disguised as something else, but most people call them spyware or malware these days.

Most (if not all) DSL and Cable providers, today, include a "modem router" with their service. This piece of hardware both connects to the internet and remains connected 24/7, and routes traffic to the machine(s) connected to it. Because of this hardware, most trojan attacks [methods], and other active port probing attacks no longer work because the router (by default) blocks this data from reaching the computer. Because of the modem-router, 99.99% of all devious attacks or intrusion require a specific user action to trigger it, as I mentioned earlier.

[What]

There are no default passwords to guess, and no brute-forcng possible.

therein lies the problem, if you enable(most dells and SP2 versions of winXP already have it done) then there is no password, just a username.

i have in fact bruteforced the remote desktop system, when given the username, all it takes is some programming exp.

[darkk]

Social engineering attacks like Raccoon mentions are all too common today. You can have all the firewalls and anti virus programs you want but ultimately
a computer is only as secure as the person operating it. After all, there is and never will be any patches for old fashion human stupidity.

On the topic of social engineering, anyone interested in learning more about it should check out "The Art of Deception" by Kevin Mitnick. It's an interesting read.

[Raccoon]

Firefox may not be really safe. There was just a report last week to show the vulnerabilty of Firefox, though developers criticized the report is nothing new, it's still worrying.

Some "newer" solution is to install a virtual OS, powered by software like PowerShadow, ShadowUser or VE Lite. They can creative quarentined Windows environment within MS Windows. If you're going to visit any website or open a program in doubt, do it in these virtual OS. Should it be infected, just remove the whole Virtual OS. I've heard that some highly secured websites are going to employ this technology too so that people can login in the virtual environment, no matter how dirty the user's system is.

Norton Goback seems to provide similar functions. (very similar to Apple's latest release of TimeMachine). As the name suggests, it enables a system to go back to the state of a particular moment, but I've heard some data can't be restored so smoothly.

What I'm using is Norton Ghost, Firefox (with McAfee plug-in to indicate which website is potentially harmful). I've also completely abondoned email client and use Gmail. (shift my responsibilty to handle the risk of email client to google's paid developers. )

Anti-virus, and personal firewall is a must, but i don't really think they're reliable. It's only better than having nothing.

Very insightful post.

I have always felt that Microsoft Windows should be executed on a virtual layer of its own, with a simpler low-level operating system running underneath it. Sadly, with Windows Vista, there will be no such luck as Windows wants exclusive access to hardware and Microsoft is paying hardware manufacturers to give it to them through hardware level encryption and rights management.

One day, though, we may be able to run a scrappy Linux-like operating system that permits infinite uptimes (computers should never be shut off), and the user desktop/shell would be run within a protected sandbox area with proper user rights management (that is effective but not babying).

I agree that email today is best handled by Gmail or the like, but secure programs such as Mozilla Thunderbird do exist. I wouldn't worry much about Firefox as the Mozilla developers are so on-top-of-it that any vulnerability found would be patched and updated minutes later.

PS. I haven't used any Anti-Virus software in over 5 years. I run Windows XP and use Kerio Firewall. I would advocate Zone Alarm firewall over any Antivirus program out there, as it is very user friendly and the features are actually decent now. I'd use it myself, but Kerio is scrappy and suits my needs.