Hijacked host
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[edit] Description
| A hijacked host works for somebody else, without the owner knowing it. The diagrams show examples of a hijacked machine being used as a proxy name server and proxy web server.
This occurs when a trojan has invaded the computer as a result of a security exposure. For example, the machine may have been connected to the Internet while it had a trivial password. A hijacker has broken into the system by applying the hundred most frequently used passwords to the "root" administrator ID, and one of them matched. He has installed the trojan, and it will abuse the host by using its computing resources and its bandwidth. Hijacking is an illegal, criminal act in any country. |  |  |
[edit] Notifying somebody about the intrusion
A typical example: vegasinternationalcasino.com. This is a scam that is redirected from a disposable domain.
xasisar.com 210.172.161.135 name servers: NS1.NERIEMLARIS.COM 202.82.63.68 NS2.HARTONGSHE.COM 210.115.61.211
(if you don't know how to get these IP addresses, one way is shown in the chapter Hijacked_host#Sending)
[edit] Do a whois look-up of the IP addresses
You can try with dnsstuff.com, but it might not give the addresses. In most cases it is useful: put the IP address in the "IPWHOIS Lookup" field, and when you get the results, click the link to show the email addresses.
The following example uses the Unix commands.
whois 210.172.161.135
gives no email address but a code TW184JP for [Technical Contact] - so use command:
whois -h whois.nic.ad.jp TW184JP
Let's go to 202.82.63.68 - relevant details from the whois output:
% [whois.apnic.net node-2] tech-c: TA114-AP
There are also other tech-c lines later but we'll see this is enough. Use command:
whois -h whois.apnic.net TA114-AP
And you'll get
tech-c: NOC18-AP tech-c: JL1059-AP tech-c: DL430-AP (and their addresses)
Actually in this case the NOC address was already in the first reply, but that isn't always enough. Also, usually you don't have to use a specific WHOIS server - for example:
whois TA114-AP
but I used it here as a "worst case" example. In the case of TW184JP the server was absolutely necessary.
[edit] Sending
Send these people friendly messages that their customers should clean up the computer at that IP address immediately and make it more secure in the future, by changing administrator passwords. Sample messages follow for each type of hijack operation.
If you like, you can give them extra info:
- In the case of WWW, give them the domain address, because most spamversites don't work with raw IP. In many cases the spammers cycle "their" servers so fast that this info will be obsolete by the time your message is read, but it gives credibility anyway. For example:
- dig +trace kidbopcd.com
kidbopcd.com. 600 IN A 200.170.112.252
- in the case of name servers, add the DNS lookup that lead you to the IP, for example:
- dig +trace kidbopcd.com
kidbopcd.com. 172800 IN NS ns1.obtundert.com. kidbopcd.com. 172800 IN NS ns1.suffoccateter.com. kidbopcd.com. 172800 IN NS ns2.excentriccod.com. kidbopcd.com. 172800 IN NS ns2.terkclass.com.
- dig ns1.obtundert.com
ns1.obtundert.com. 172422 IN A 203.129.232.82
- and so on...
- in the case of image servers, paste from the main page source a link to a picture, for example:
[edit] Example of hijacking
For information on the hijacking of Windows machines, see the sections on Storm and Botnet hosting.
This section describes hijacking of Linux machines.
On February 28th, 2007, one of Alex Polyakov's My Canadian Pharmacy web sites was running using these hijacks
| Name Server | Hijacked IP | Crime Sponsoring Registrar |
|---|---|---|
| ns1.ourboycot.com | [63.223.11.14] | Moniker.com |
| ns1.perceivablenut.com | [63.223.11.14] | Beijing Innovative Linkage Technology |
| ns2.grisaillesag.com | [210.34.0.101] | Beijing Innovative Linkage Technology |
| ns2.transitstars.com | [64.94.117.200] | DSTR Acquisition (blackhole address) |
| Web Site IP | Image Server IP |
|---|---|
| [163.14.20.71] | [85.17.4.29] |
Summary
Two compromised machines are used as proxy name servers at [63.223.11.14] and [210.34.0.101]
Two compromised machines are used as proxy web server [163.14.20.71] and proxy image server [85.17.4.29]
In October/November 2007, the image server strategy changed. Instead of being spread over up to 5 image server IPs at a time, rotating 3 or 4 times a day, there was just one fixed address for all image serving:
88.255.90.42 running Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Fedora)
This IP address is at the top end of a range administered in Turkey
inetnum: 88.255.90.0 - 88.255.90.255 netname: AbdAllah_Internet descr: AbdAllah Internet Hizmetleri descr: Etnografya Muze mevkii Kirazlik Mh. No:32 Rize
The person responsible for that IP range is given as
person: Mahmod AbdAllah el Gashmi address: AbdAllah Internet Hizmetleri e-mail: ipadmin@ahlen.biz phone: +90 543 3767728
The complaints department is listed as
Routing and peering issues: ipadmin@ahlen.biz SPAM and Network security issues: abuse@ahlen.biz Customer support: ipadmin@ahlen.biz General information: ipadmin@ahlen.biz
Attempts to contact this ISP and their upstream provider, Turk Telecom have so far been fruitless. The contact details for Turk Telecom are listed as
role: TT Administrative Contact Role address: Turk Telekom address: Bilisim Aglari Dairesi address: Aydinlikevler address: 06103 ANKARA phone: +90 312 313 1950 fax-no: +90 312 313 1949 e-mail: abuse@ttnet.net.tr
[edit] Sample Hijacked Web Server alert message
Please read this message carefully. You are receiving this email because you are responsible for IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Your email address is listed at http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/whois.ch?ip=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx&email=on The machine at this address has been hijacked, and an extra process called "uirqd" has been installed. This process is running many web sites as shown by the command ping example.com > Pinging example.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] with 32 bytes of data or by visiting http://example.com Action required 1. locate the machine at this IP address 2. change the root and any administrator passwords to make them more secure 3. shutdown the machine, and restart Alternatively, you can issue the commands to display the process id and kill it: ps wax | grep "irqd" kill <pid> [where <pid> is the process-id displayed by the ps command] If you are not the administrator, please forward this information to the administrator. To help you locate the hijacked machine, use this link http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/tracert.ch?ip=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Thank you from the Pharmacy Alert Security Team For more information view http://pharmalert.zoomshare.com/
[edit] Sample Hijacked Image server alert message
Please read this message carefully. You are receiving this email because you are responsible for IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Your email address is listed at http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/whois.ch?ip=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx&email=on The machine at this address has been hijacked, and an extra process has been installed. This process is running many web sites as shown by these URLs: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080/p/images/weship.gif http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080/legalrx/images/logo.gif http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080/usd/images/logo.gif http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8080/e/cv/images/powerpack.jpg Action required 1. locate the machine at this IP address 2. change the root and any administrator passwords to make them more secure 3. shutdown the machine, and restart Alternatively, you can issue the commands to display the process id and kill it: ps wax | grep "tirqd" kill <pid> [where <pid> is the process-id displayed by the ps command] If you are not the administrator, please forward this information to the administrator. To help you locate the hijacked machine, use this link http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/tracert.ch?ip=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx Thank you from the Pharmacy Alert Security Team For more information view http://pharmalert.zoomshare.com/
[edit] Sample Hijacked Name Server alert message
Please read this information carefully. It concerns a security breach on your computer On your IP address at xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx there is a trojan proxy name server installed, that is being used by a pharmacy spamming gang to provide access to illegal web sites. You can prove it with this link http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/traversal.ch?domain=onespammedsite.com&type=A >> ns1.dnsserver1.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] << your address >> ns2.serverdsn2.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] << your address http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/traversal.ch?domain=otherspammedsite.info&type=A >> ns1.hackedsvr.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] << your address >> ns2.dnshacked.com [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] << your address DISCOVERY AND REMOVAL To discover the name of the trojan, you need to find the user process attached on udp port 53 (DNS) fuser -n udp 53 The response will contain the pid of the process, for example 1234 Use that process ID to find the name, for example using the Linux command ps wax | grep 1234 You will find it there. You can issue the "kill" command to terminate it. One possible name that is use by the hackers for the trojan is uirqd but it may vary. For a trojan to be installed, there is usually a trivial password used on the root or administrator account. It should be changed to a non-trivial password to avoid further break-ins, before deleting the trojan process. Use this traceroute to help locate the infected machine in your network http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/tracert.ch?ip=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx For more detailed information, please refer to the web site at http://pharmalert.zoomshare.com If you are not the administrator for this machine, please forward on these instructions. Thank you from The Pharmacy Alert Security Team
[edit] Relentless pursuit
You can even follow up later: if those people are alert, or if the spammers change the IP for another reason, you can repeat this with the new IP.
[edit] Sample hijacked IPs
As of October 2007, these addresses were observed as hijacked Image Servers:
85.198.84.194 - 91.84.29.53 - 193.95.254.71 - 200.123.130.185 - 202.109.114.6 - 202.82.16.25 - 213.130.70.102 - 213.144.106.4 - 213.215.118.41 - 220.130.216.55
These addresses were observed as Alex's hijacked name servers
58.61.154.58 - 58.83.12.11 - 59.149.89.3 - 59.149.98.183 - 60.62.220.214 - 61.10.122.23 - 61.15.220.231 - 61.167.116.129 - 61.189.175.36 - 64.212.191.98 - 67.181.251.106 - 68.122.209.107 - 69.86.205.67 - 70.130.165.245 - 79.120.66.204 - 80.191.123.206 - 83.15.82.74 - 84.60.161.239 - 85.136.20.235 - 85.29.192.159 - 86.61.125.166 - 87.121.63.24 - 87.68.25.77 - 89.112.4.127 - 89.178.187.31 - 89.20.138.22 - 99.225.82.19 - 116.199.136.5 - 121.200.128.69 - 123.192.24.176 - 123.202.169.220 - 123.202.171.102 - 123.220.173.236 - 124.8.197.14 - 125.229.131.106 - 125.59.134.39 - 125.59.84.76 - 140.118.240.185 - 194.187.228.194 - 196.28.224.82 - 200.175.203.3 - 200.215.102.156 - 200.55.195.198 - 200.60.230.107 - 200.99.139.250 - 201.236.86.60 - 201.36.72.254 - 203.174.60.36 - 203.186.250.45 - 210.212.92.196 - 210.238.114.75 - 210.47.0.50 - 210.6.56.90 - 210.6.7.20 - 210.68.253.50 - 210.96.207.70 - 217.229.215.238 - 218.144.99.111 - 218.146.123.89 - 218.254.190.187 - 219.237.229.198 - 221.122.64.36 - 221.122.64.37 221.125.210.72 - 221.126.153.93 - 221.127.109.78 - 221.127.110.93 - 221.127.111.39 - 221.127.172.234 - 221.127.205.49 - 221.127.213.19 - 221.127.214.179 - 221.127.62.183 - 221.165.141.88 - 222.167.18.70 - 222.167.187.82 - 222.175.50.10
On October 28th, the following hijacked machines were observed. By loading their default home page, it was possible to detect the operating system and/or web server used. It can be seen that both Windows and Linux platforms are abused:
| 58.83.12.11 | Microsoft-IIS/6.0 |
| 61.167.116.129 | Microsoft-IIS/5.0 |
| 61.189.175.36 | Apache-Coyote/1.1 |
| 80.191.123.206 | Apache/2.0.52 (CentOS) |
| 83.15.165.138 | Apache/1.3.34 (Debian) PHP/4.3.10-18 |
| 116.199.136.5 | nginx/0.6.13 |
| 200.215.102.156 | Microsoft-IIS/6.0 |
| 200.55.195.198 | Apache/1.3.33 (Debian GNU/Linux) PHP/4.3.10-16 |
| 200.60.230.107 | Apache/2.0.54 (Debian GNU/Linux) mod_python/3.1.3 Python/2.3.5 PHP/4.3.10-19 mod_perl/1.999.21 Perl/v5.8.4 |
| 200.99.139.250 | Apache/1.3.33 (Win32) PHP/4.3.10 |
| 203.174.60.36 | Apache/2.0.54 (Linux/SUSE) |
| 210.47.0.50 | Apache-Coyote/1.1 |
| 218.21.90.7 | Microsoft-IIS/5.0 |
[edit] Known hijacking operations
Operations that are known for persistent hijacking of name servers, web site servers and image servers are
