Penetration Testing mailing list archives
Re: Pentester convicted..
From: mike () genxweb net
Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 09:57:27 -0400 (EDT)
No matter how noble he thought his actions to be the bottom line is that he unlawfully accessed the system and copied several private records of students. He never obtained permission as a pen tester to carry out any tests against that site. His initial discovery should of stopped at the passive point or in all theory should not of started at all. Once he suspected there to be a issue he should of contacted the school. Instead he took the active approached and exploited the site "stealing" student information. Now I dont agree fully one way or the other on his actions or the courts ruling as there is always things left out of the story or altered by the press.
Hey there pen-testers, take this with a grain of salt, it just got me excited. I am really interested in everyones opinion on the matter or corporate responsibility and ownership. <RANT> In an article posted to slashdot today (http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/10/112259&from=rss) a man has been convicted of hacking when he casually and helpfully reported a security vulnerability to the owners of a web site, in this case The University of Southern California. It reads like it was some sort of simple SQL injection and upon gleaning the information he reported it. What are we to do as a community I ask? We should we, the good guys, who are paid for our knowledge and ability to exploit mistakes, oversights, and weaknesses then professionally report them to aid in the securing of information capital (or anyone who reports the flaw for that matter) worry about prosecution. It lends itself to a forcing the technical community to sit on their laurels and wait for the people who don't report issues to exploit them. Further it sounds very clear that had he not notified them, they would have never known. A security pro notices a flaw, checks to make sure he is not on crack by 'flipping a bit', deems the threat viable and is likely to be exploited, notifies the owners, then get arrested and charged with unauthorized access. We, as a or even The security community, should push corporations, governments, and organized body's to take responsibility and ownership of their problems. If they publish a site that is flawed or exposing information then they are authorizing the retrieval of that information. I'm not advocating that they laws should allow any jerk to try and brute his or her way in to a public or private web site, but come on. If someone leaves their wallet in the park with no guard or protection, I pick it up and bring it back to the owner, the owner didn't want me to have it but I brought it back to him. Why in the hell should I have to go to jail for returning it to him, why should I/we be punished for doing the right thing? I acknowledge this to be a rant but there must but some way to insist that when people make something available to the public that it is their responsibility to safeguard it and appreciate not persecute someone who let's them know (for free I might add) that a weakness exists. This is simple scapegoating, the University did something not advisable as a good practice and instead of owning up to it they villafied a professional pen-tester for offering valid advice. </RANT> Thanks, Bill ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This List Sponsored by: Cenzic Concerned about Web Application Security? Why not go with the #1 solution - Cenzic, the only one to win the Analyst's Choice Award from eWeek. As attacks through web applications continue to rise, you need to proactively protect your applications from hackers. Cenzic has the most comprehensive solutions to meet your application security penetration testing and vulnerability management needs. You have an option to go with a managed service (Cenzic ClickToSecure) or an enterprise software (Cenzic Hailstorm). Download FREE whitepaper on how a managed service can help you: http://www.cenzic.com/news_events/wpappsec.php And, now for a limited time we can do a FREE audit for you to confirm your results from other product. Contact us at request () cenzic com for details. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This List Sponsored by: Cenzic Concerned about Web Application Security? Why not go with the #1 solution - Cenzic, the only one to win the Analyst's Choice Award from eWeek. As attacks through web applications continue to rise, you need to proactively protect your applications from hackers. Cenzic has the most comprehensive solutions to meet your application security penetration testing and vulnerability management needs. You have an option to go with a managed service (Cenzic ClickToSecure) or an enterprise software (Cenzic Hailstorm). Download FREE whitepaper on how a managed service can help you: http://www.cenzic.com/news_events/wpappsec.php And, now for a limited time we can do a FREE audit for you to confirm your results from other product. Contact us at request () cenzic com for details. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current thread:
- Re: Pentester convicted.., (continued)
- Re: Pentester convicted.. John Kinsella (May 11)
- RE: Pentester convicted.. Sahir Hidayatullah (May 11)
- Get out of jail cards (Statement of work authorizing access, was Re: Pentester convicted..) Michael Sierchio (May 12)
- Re: Get out of jail cards (Statement of work authorizing access, was Re: Pentester convicted..) Dana (May 12)
- Re: Get out of jail cards (Statement of work authorizing access, was Re: Pentester convicted..) Jeremiah Cornelius (May 12)
- Re: Get out of jail cards (Statement of work authorizing access, was Re: Pentester convicted..) Dotzero (May 12)
- Re: Get out of jail cards (Statement of work authorizing access, was Re: Pentester convicted..) Paul Asadoorian (May 12)
- RE: Get out of jail cards (Statement of work authorizing access, was Re: Pentester convicted..) Clement Dupuis (May 12)
- Get out of jail cards (Statement of work authorizing access, was Re: Pentester convicted..) Michael Sierchio (May 12)
- Re: Pentester convicted.. Dotzero (May 12)
- Re: Pentester convicted.. etropos (May 11)
- RE: Pentester convicted.. Shane Warner (May 11)
- RE: Pentester convicted.. Kluge (May 12)