Tool to hack Oracle's database

Hackers will soon gain a powerful new tool for breaking into Oracle Corp's database, the top-selling business software used by companies to store electronic information.

Security experts have developed an easy-to-use, automated software tool that can remotely break into Oracle databases over the Internet to simulate attacks on computer systems, but cybercrooks can use it for hacking.

The tool's authors created it through a controversial open-source software project known as Metasploit, which releases its free software over the Web.

Chris Gates, a security tester who co-developed the Metasploit tool, will unveil it next week at the annual Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, where thousands of security experts and hackers will gather to exchange trade secrets.

"Anyone with no skill and knowledge can download and run it," said Pete Finnigan, an independent consultant who specializes in Oracle security and who advises large corporations and government agencies.

He has not yet studied the Oracle tool but is familiar with other Metasploit software and said it works by automating many of the complicated procedures required to hack into Oracle databases, allowing amateurs to hack into them.

Oracle, which declined to comment, has already issued patches to protect against vulnerabilities that the Metasploit tool targets. But some companies are not diligent in upgrading their software to add the patches, so they are vulnerable to attackers using the new tool. They hire consultants like Gates to help them make sure they are protected.

Metasploit hacks are available for other software programs, including Microsoft Corp's Windows as well as the Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers.

Gates said this is the first Metasploit program to target Oracle's database.

"There is no way to keep these tools out of the hands of people who want to use them for nefarious purposes," said Alan Paller, director of research for the SANS Institute. SANS trains security professionals in areas including use of Metasploit.

Security testers and hackers have previously used other programs to break into Oracle databases, but the new software from Metasploit is easier to operate and runs more quickly than existing options, said Gates.

Metasploit is the most widely used free hacking tool and has a loyal following in the security community. In addition to letting hackers break into databases over the Internet, the Metasploit tool allows rogue employees to access them from their work PCs.

Workers could break into an Oracle system and secretly steal confidential data such as credit card numbers, give themselves pay raises or make other changes to corporate databases, said Finnigan, who has specialized in Oracle security for eight years.

Technology Update: Daily Updates on newly launched Gadgets, Gizmos, Mobiles, PC's & Laptops, Hacking, Gaming & Emerging Technological Trends.

Do you think Someone can Hack your email?

What's the name of the school you attended? What is the first name of your favourite cousin? Well, email services often protect acco
unts with these kind of security questions in case holders forget their password.

Now, a new study in the US has revealed just how easy the answers of such security questions are for other people to guess -- in fact these facts make life simple for hackers, the 'New Scientist' reported.

Researchers at Microsoft have based their findings on an analysis of an experiment, involving 32 email users. Acquaintances of the email users -- people with whom they wouldn't normally share their login details -- were asked to try and guess the answers users assigned to protect their accounts.

The volunteers managed to guess correctly a fifth of the time, raising questions over how secure the commonly used system is, the study found.

However, a second study by software giant Microsoft has suggested a more secure alternative -- relying on trusted friends to vouch for you if an account becomes locked.

"Securing webmail is important because email accounts typically allow an attacker access to other accounts, for example, eBay and Amazon. If I can recover these passwords via your email account then I can spend the balance of your credit card on flat-screen TVs," Ross Anderson of Cambridge University was quoted as saying.

Under the new system proposed by Stuart Schechter and Rob Reeder at Microsoft, users select several "trustees". If a user becomes locked out of their account their trustees receive a message asking them to download a "recovery code". The user must collect codes from multiple trustees to unlock their account.

A group of 19 Hotmail users trialed the system and 17 successfully regained access to their Hotmail account. That 90-per-cent success rate compares favourably to 80-per-cent success rate of the secret question system, say Reeder.

In the trial, most users recovered their accounts within two days. However, when the researchers got users' acquaintances to ask the trustees t
o give up the codes, many of them did so.

Reeder said this attack could be avoided by getting account holders to advise trustees of their role in advance. In the trial, trustees simply received an email containing the code out of the blue.

Rather than replacing the standard secret questions approach, the new method should be an optional choice for users, according to Anderson, who agrees that it is important to train trustees to be appropriately security conscious.

But the idea has promise, said Reeder, pointing out that it is not a new idea to have people use third parties to back up their identity.

Technology Update: Daily Updates on newly launched Gadgets, Gizmos, Mobiles, PC's & Laptops, Hacking, Gaming & Emerging Technological Trends.

Internet Denial Of Service

-: Internet Denial Of Service :-Internet Denial of Service sheds light on a complex and fascinating form of computer attack that impacts the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of millions of computers worldwide. It tells the network administrator, corporate CTO, incident responder, and student how DDoS attacks are prepared and executed, how to think about DDoS, and how to arrange computer and network defenses. It also provides a suite of actions that can be taken before, during, and after an attack. Inside, you'll find comprehensive information on the each and every topic relating denial-of-service attacks.

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(Size :- 2.04 MB)

Hacking Exposed-5

-: Hacking Exposed-5 :-One of the international best-selling. The book walks through how to use the more powerful and popular hacker software, including L0phtCrack. This new edition has been updated extensively, largely with the results of "honeypot" exercises (in which attacks on sacrificial machines are monitored) and Windows 2000 public security trials. There's a lot of new stuff on e-mail worms, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and attacks that involve routing protocols. Hacking Exposed wastes no time in explaining how to implement the countermeasures--where they exist--that will render known attacks ineffective.

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Stealing The Network

-: Stealing The Network :-How to Own a Shadow is the final book in Syngress ground breaking, best-selling, Stealing the Network series. As with previous title, How to Own a Shadow is a fictional story that demonstrates accurate, highly detailed scenarios of computer intrusions and counter-strikes. Readers will be amazed at how Knuth, Law Enforcement, and Organized crime twist and torque everything from game stations, printers and fax machines to service provider class switches and routers steal, deceive, and obfuscate. From physical security to open source information gathering, Stealing the Network: How to Own a Shadow will entertain and educate the reader on every page. The books companion Web site will also provide special, behind-the-scenes details and hacks for the reader to join in the chase for Knuth.

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(Size :- 8.16 MB)

Hacking GMail

	-: Hacking GMail :- Everything about GMail including :- Inside GMail, Conquering GMail, Desktop Integration, GMail Power Tips, Skinning GMail, How GMail Works, GMail & Greasemonkey, GMail Libraries, Building API, Using GMailFS, etc..........!
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Secrets Of A Super Hacker

-: Secrets Of A Super Hacker :-Here is the most amazing book ever published on computer hacking. Step-by-Step illustrated details on the techniques used by hackers to get your data including :- Guessing Passwords, Stealing Passwords, Password Lists, Social Engineering, Reverse Social Engineering, Crashing Electronic Bulletin Boards, Dummy Screens, Fake E-mail, Trojan Horses, Viruses, Worms, Trap Doors, And Much more. Anyone concerned with computer security and data privacy needs to read this book.

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(Size :- 1.82 MB)

Hacking Windows Vista

-: Hacking Windows Vista :-Vista is the most radical revamping of Windows since 1995. However, along with all the fantastic improvements, there are a couple of things that likely drive you up the wall. Don’t worry, though—just join forces with author Steve Sinchak and you’ll end up feeling as though Microsoft designed Vista just for you! He shows you how to tweak logon screen settings, build custom Sidebar gadgets, personalize Aero Glass with themes and visual styles, turn your PC into an HDTV media center, fine-tune your firewall, and more...!

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Hacker's Black-Book

-: Hacker's Black-Book :-Easy to understand with many examples. Every day you hear in the daily news about hackers, virus, worms and trojans, SUB7, TCP, IP, PING, spoofing, sniffing, DDOS attacks, ...? And you don't know exactly what it is and how hackers do that. Don't rest a "lamer", Hacker's Blackbook let's you know and discovers many secrets. Incredible how easy hacking and cracking is! The book shows how simple you can use these programs. And many more themes in 19 detailed chapters...

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Web Hacking

-: Web Hacking :-Exposes complete methodologies showing the actual techniques and attacks. Features include :- * Overview of the Web and what hackers go after * Complete Web application security methodologies * Detailed analysis of hack techniques * Countermeasures * What to do at development time to eliminate vulnerabilities * New case studies and eye-opening attack scenarios * Advanced Web hacking concepts, methodologies, and tools

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Wireless networks broadcast their packets using radio frequency or optical wavelengths. A modern laptop computer can listen in. Worse, an attacker can manufacture new packets on the fly and persuade wireless stations to accept his packets as legitimate.
The step by step procerdure in wireless hacking can be explained with help of different topics as follows:-

1) Stations and Access Points :- A wireless network interface card (adapter) is a device, called a station, providing the network physical layer over a radio link to another station.
An access point (AP) is a station that provides frame distribution service to stations associated with it.
The AP itself is typically connected by wire to a LAN. Each AP has a 0 to 32 byte long Service Set Identifier (SSID) that is also commonly called a network name. The SSID is used to segment the airwaves for usage.

2) Channels :- The stations communicate with each other using radio frequencies between 2.4 GHz and 2.5 GHz. Neighboring channels are only 5 MHz apart. Two wireless networks using neighboring channels may interfere with each other.

3) Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) :- It is a shared-secret key encryption system used to encrypt packets transmitted between a station and an AP. The WEP algorithm is intended to protect wireless communication from eavesdropping. A secondary function of WEP is to prevent unauthorized access to a wireless network. WEP encrypts the payload of data packets. Management and control frames are always transmitted in the clear. WEP uses the RC4 encryption algorithm.

4) Wireless Network Sniffing :- Sniffing is eavesdropping on the network. A (packet) sniffer is a program that intercepts and decodes network traffic broadcast through a medium. It is easier to sniff wireless networks than wired ones. Sniffing can also help find the easy kill as in scanning for open access points that allow anyone to connect, or capturing the passwords used in a connection session that does not even use WEP, or in telnet, rlogin and ftp connections.

5 ) Passive Scanning :- Scanning is the act of sniffing by tuning to various radio channels of the devices. A passive network scanner instructs the wireless card to listen to each channel for a few messages. This does not reveal the presence of the scanner. An attacker can passively scan without transmitting at all.

6) Detection of SSID :- The attacker can discover the SSID of a network usually by passive scanning because the SSID occurs in the following frame types: Beacon, Probe Requests, Probe Responses, Association Requests, and Reassociation Requests. Recall that management frames are always in the clear, even when WEP is enabled.
When the above methods fail, SSID discovery is done by active scanning

7) Collecting the MAC Addresses :- The attacker gathers legitimate MAC addresses for use later in constructing spoofed frames. The source and destination MAC addresses are always in the clear in all the frames.

8) Collecting the Frames for Cracking WEP :- The goal of an attacker is to discover the WEP shared-secret key. The attacker sniffs a large number of frames An example of a WEP cracking tool is AirSnort ( http://airsnort.shmoo.com ).

9) Detection of the Sniffers :- Detecting the presence of a wireless sniffer, who remains radio-silent, through network security measures is virtually impossible. Once the attacker begins probing (i.e., by injecting packets), the presence and the coordinates of the wireless device can be detected.

10) Wireless Spoofing :- There are well-known attack techniques known as spoofing in both wired and wireless networks. The attacker constructs frames by filling selected fields that contain addresses or identifiers with legitimate looking but non-existent values, or with values that belong to others. The attacker would have collected these legitimate values through sniffing.

11) MAC Address Spoofing :- The attacker generally desires to be hidden. But the probing activity injects frames that are observable by system administrators. The attacker fills the Sender MAC Address field of the injected frames with a spoofed value so that his equipment is not identified.

12) IP spoofing :- Replacing the true IP address of the sender (or, in rare cases, the destination) with a different address is known as IP spoofing. This is a necessary operation in many attacks.

13) Frame Spoofing :- The attacker will inject frames that are valid but whose content is carefully spoofed.

14) Wireless Network Probing :- The attacker then sends artificially constructed packets to a target that trigger useful responses. This activity is known as probing or active scanning.

15) AP Weaknesses :- APs have weaknesses that are both due to design mistakes and user interfaces

16) Trojan AP :- An attacker sets up an AP so that the targeted station receives a stronger signal from it than what it receives from a legitimate AP.

17) Denial of Service :- A denial of service (DoS) occurs when a system is not providing services to authorized clients because of resource exhaustion by unauthorized clients. In wireless networks, DoS attacks are difficult to prevent, difficult to stop. An on-going attack and the victim and its clients may not even detect the attacks. The duration of such DoS may range from milliseconds to hours. A DoS attack against an individual station enables session hijacking.

18) Jamming the Air Waves :- A number of consumer appliances such as microwave ovens, baby monitors, and cordless phones operate on the unregulated 2.4GHz radio frequency. An attacker can unleash large amounts of noise using these devices and jam the airwaves so that the signal to noise drops so low, that the wireless LAN ceases to function.

19) War Driving :- Equipped with wireless devices and related tools, and driving around in a vehicle or parking at interesting places with a goal of discovering easy-to-get-into wireless networks is known as war driving. War-drivers (http://www.wardrive.net) define war driving as “The benign act of locating and logging wireless access points while in motion.” This benign act is of course useful to the attackers.
Regardless of the protocols, wireless networks will remain potentially insecure because an attacker can listen in without gaining physical access.

Tips for Wireless Home Network Security

1) Change Default Administrator Passwords (and Usernames)
2) Turn on (Compatible) WPA / WEP Encryption
3) Change the Default SSID
4) Disable SSID Broadcast
5) Assign Static IP Addresses to Devices
6) Enable MAC Address Filtering
7) Turn Off the Network During Extended Periods of Non-Use
8) Position the Router or Access Point Safely