Hackers Sweep Up FTP Credentials For the New York Times, UNICEF and 7,000 Others 51
SpacemanukBEJY.53u writes "Alex Holden of Hold Security has come forward with a significant find: a 7,000-strong list of FTP sites run by a variety of companies, complete with login credentials. The affected companies include The New York Times and UNICEF. The hackers have uploaded malicious PHP scripts in some cases, perhaps as a launch pad for further attacks. The passwords for the FTP applications are complex and not default ones, indicating the hackers may have other malware installed on people's systems in those organizations."
Incomplete summary (Score:5, Informative)
The summary was missing a couple important words. I've added them below:
The passwords for the FTP applications, which are transmitted unencrypted because that's just how FTP is and it doesnt matter if your password is "kjasdfkljlYSU87fyue847thIP&SH&&CDFO$Wfhi7qe4h5fo78aegh4fai7oshc7o8vae4hf84" or "correct horse battery staple" because a third-grader could sniff the traffic with decade-old tools, are complex and not default ones
Re:A standard multi-layer attack (Score:4, Informative)
As a "pen tester"... Since FTP servers aren't often monitored as closely as higher-profile web applications, but are still often tied into a company's AD or other common credential store, they're often a great resource to use if you want to harvest some high-value credentials before you go on site. (I like to use this:
http://www.filetransferconsult... [filetransf...ulting.com] for that.)