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CERT® Advisory CA-1999-02 Trojan HorsesOriginal issue date: February 5, 1999Last revised: March 8, 1999 Minor typograhical corrections A complete revision history is at the end of this file. Systems AffectedAny system can be affected by Trojan horses. OverviewOver the past few weeks, we have received an increase in the number of incident reports related to Trojan horses. This advisory includes descriptions of some of those incidents (Section II), some general information about Trojan horses (Sections I and V), and advice for system and network administrators, end users, software developers, and distributors (Section III). Few software developers and distributors provide a strong means of authentication for software products. We encourage all software developers and distributors to do so. This means that until strong authentication of software is widely available, the problem of Trojan horses will persist. In the meantime, users and administrators are strongly encouraged to be aware of the risks as described in this document. I. DescriptionA Trojan horse is an "apparently useful program containing hidden functions that can exploit the privileges of the user [running the program], with a resulting security threat. A Trojan horse does things that the program user did not intend" [Summers]. Trojan horses rely on users to install them, or they can be installed by intruders who have gained unauthorized access by other means. Then, an intruder attempting to subvert a system using a Trojan horse relies on other users running the Trojan horse to be successful. II. Recent IncidentsIncidents involving Trojan horses include the following: False Upgrade to Internet ExplorerRecent reports indicate wide distribution of an email message which claims to be a free upgrade to the Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser. However, we have confirmed with Microsoft that they do not provide patches or upgrades via electronic mail, although they do distribute security bulletins by electronic mail. The email message contains an attached executable program called Ie0199.exe. After installation, this program makes several modifications to the system and attempts to contact other remote systems. We have received conflicting information regarding the modifications made by the Trojan horse, which could be explained by the existence of multiple versions of the Trojan horse. At least one version of the Trojan horse is accompanied by a message which reads, in part:
The above message is not from Microsoft. We encourage you to refer to the Microsoft Internet Explorer web site at the following location: Please refer to the Section III below for general solutions to Trojan horses. Trojan Horse Version of TCP WrappersWe recently published "CA-99-01-Trojan-TCP-Wrappers" which said that some copies of the source code for the TCP Wrappers tool were modified by an intruder and contain a Trojan horse. The advisory is available at the following location:
Trojan Horse Version of util-linuxThe util-linux distribution includes several essential utilities for linux systems. We have confirmed with the authors of util-linux that a Trojan horse was placed in the file util-linux-2.9g.tar.gz on at least one ftp server between January 22, 1999, and January 24, 1999. This Trojan horse could have been distributed to mirror FTP sites. Within the Trojan horse util-linux distribution the program /bin/login was modified. The modifications included code to send email to an intruder that contains the host name and uid of users logging in. The code was also modified to provide anyone with access to a login prompt the capability of executing commands based on their input at the login prompt. There were no other functional modifications made to the Trojan horse util-linux distribution that we are aware of. A quick check to ensure you do not have the Trojan horse installed is to execute the following command:
If that command returns the following output, then your machine has the Trojan horse version of util-linux-2.9g installed:
If the above command returns nothing, then you do not have this particular Trojan horse installed. You cannot rely on the modification date of the file util-linux-2.9g.tar.gz because the Trojan horse version has the same size and time stamp as the original version. In response to the distribution of this Trojan horse, the authors of util-linux have released util-linux-2.9h.tar.gz. This file is available via anonymous ftp from:
Be sure to download and verify the PGP signature as well:
This package can be verified with the "Linux Kernel Archives" PGP Public Key, available from the following URL: Previous Trojan HorsesTrojan horses are not new entities. A classic description of a Trojan horse is given in [Thompson]. Additionally, you may wish to review the following documents for background and historical information about Trojan horses.
III. ImpactTrojan horses can do anything that the user executing the program has the privileges to do. This includes
If the user has administrative access to the operating system, the Trojan horse can do anything that an administrator can. The Unix 'root' account, the Microsoft Windows NT 'administrator' account, or any user on a single-user operating system has administrative access to the operating system. If you use one of these accounts, or a single-user operating system (e.g., Windows 95 or MacOS), keep in mind the potential for increased impact of a Trojan horse. A compromise of any system on your network, including a compromise through Trojan horses, may have consequences for the other systems on your network. Particularly vulnerable are systems that transmit authentication material, such as passwords, over shared networks in cleartext or in a trivially encrypted form. This is very common. If a system on such a network is compromised via a Trojan horse (or another method), the intruder may be able to install a network sniffer and record usernames and passwords or other sensitive information as it traverses the network. Additionally, a Trojan horse, depending on the actions it takes, may implicate your site as the source of an attack and may expose your organization to liability. IV. How Trojan Horses Are InstalledUsers can be tricked into installing Trojan horses by being enticed or frightened. For example, a Trojan horse might arrive in email described as a computer game. When the user receives the mail, they may be enticed by the description of the game to install it. Although it may in fact be a game, it may also be taking other action that is not readily apparent to the user, such as deleting files or mailing sensitive information to the attacker. As another example, an intruder may forge an advisory from a security organization, such as the CERT Coordination Center, that instructs system administrators to obtain and install a patch. Other forms of "social engineering" can be used to trick users into installing or running Trojan horses. For example, an intruder might telephone a system administrator and pose as a legitimate user of the system who needs assistance of some kind. The system administrator might then be tricked into running a program of the intruder's design. Software distribution sites can be compromised by intruders who replace legitimate versions of software with Trojan horse versions. If the distribution site is a central distribution site whose contents are mirrored by other distribution sites, the Trojan horse may be downloaded by many sites and spread quickly throughout the Internet community. Because the Domain Name System (DNS) does not provide strong authentication, users may be tricked into connecting to sites different than the ones they intend to connect to. This could be exploited by an intruder to cause users to download a Trojan horse, or to cause users to expose confidential information. Intruders may install Trojan horse versions of system utilities after they have compromised a system. Often, collections of Trojan horses are distributed in toolkits that an intruder can use to compromise a system and conceal their activity after the compromise, e.g., a toolkit might include a Trojan horse version of ls which does not list files owned by the intruder. Once an intruder has gained administrative access to your systems, it is very difficult to establish trust in it again without rebuilding the system from known-good software. For information on recovering after a compromise, please see A Trojan horse may be inserted into a program by a compiler that is itself a Trojan horse. For more information about such an attack, see [Thompson]. Finally, a Trojan horse may simply be placed on a web site to which the intruder entices victims. The Trojan horse may be in the form of a Java applet, JavaScript, ActiveX control, or other form of executable content. V. SolutionsThe best advice with respect to Trojan horses is to avoid them in the first place.
If you do fall victim to a Trojan horse, some anti-virus software may also be able to recognize, remove and repair the damage from the Trojan horse. However, if an intruder gains access to your systems via a Trojan horse, it may be difficult or impossible to establish trust in your systems. In this case, we recommend that you disconnect from the network and rebuild your systems from known-good software, being careful to apply all relevant patches and updates, to change all passwords, and to check other nearby systems. For information on how to rebuild a Unix system after a compromise, please see References[Summers] Summers, Rita C. Secure Computing Threats and Safeguards, McGraw-Hill, 1997. An online reference is available from the publisher. [Thompson] Thompson, Ken, "Reflections on Trusting Trust," Communications of the ACM 27(8) pp. 761-763 (Aug. 1984); Turing Award lecture. AcknowledgmentOur thanks to Andries Brouwer for providing information regarding util-linux and to the many people who reported information about Trojan horse versions of Internet Explorer. Tripwire is a registered trademark of the Purdue Research Foundation; it is also licensed to Tripwire Security Systems, Inc. This document is available from: http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-1999-02.html CERT/CC Contact Information
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Copyright 1999 Carnegie Mellon University. Revision History Mar. 08, 1999 Minor typograhical corrections |