RE: "Free" pen-test

["J.A. Terranson" <measl () mfn org>]

What you did was illegal, unethical, and *way* beyond acceptable
practice.  You're lucky he doesn't throw your a$$ in jail.

Your preliminary "look" was done without any type of consent, and that makes
it an intrusion under the laws of most countries and states.  You then went
to try and sell "services" bafter you had "scared him" with your
results: this is extortion in most countries and states.

In short: you are *exactly* the kind of sleazy half-baked and fully dishonest
operations that has put the security industry in the position it is in now -
having to try and explain to a [rightfully] wary public why we are not a
problem of the same magnitude as the "hacker" we claim to want to protect
against.

Further, there is an inherent conflict of interest between the pen-tester and
the provider of services which are suggested by the testing: to truly stay on
the moral high ground you should never try to mix the two (asbestos underwear
in place for all you "ethical" testers who then sell the repair "services").

Call us back when you find a clue.  Even a *small* clue.

--
J.A. Terranson
sysadmin () mfn org


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pete [mailto:pen_test_list () petesmithcomputers com] 
> Sent: Thursday, 19 June 2003 19:54 PM
> To: pen-test () securityfocus com
> Subject: "Free" pen-test
>
>
> I'm looking for a bit of advice. I was tipped off that company X had
> minimal security for their large bundle of IP addresses running on
> Micro$oft servers. I got my mate Fred (!) to have a look and he reckoned
> they were _very_ vulnerable. So, we went to the security director and
> "sold" him a free penetration test. Fred then got admin access to their
> web server plus bucketloads of info about their DMZ and even their
> 192.168.0.x network. I went back to Mr Director thinking he'd wet
> himself and he said "I'm not too worried about that....just carry on if
> you can".
>
> Well. Fred is keen to keep going. But I reckon that someone who is "not
> worried" that his web server could have been taken down in about 4 hours
> is not worth wasting time on. Needless to say, the cunning plan was to
> sell him a pile of stuff once he was scared enough.
>
> My question is this: how do white-hatters usually approach these things?
>
> Grateful for any tips (and thanks for reading if you got to here)
>
> Pete
>
> Pete Smith
> www.petesmithcomputers.com
>
>
>
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Latest attack techniques.

You're a pen tester, but is google.com still your R&D team? Now you can get 
trustworthy commercial-grade exploits and the latest techniques from a 
world-class research group.

Visit us at: www.coresecurity.com/promos/sf_ept1 
or call 617-399-6980
----------------------------------------------------------------------------