Re: Virus/Trojan/Worm in the Dorms

[Jason Duerstock <jason.duerstock () GALLAUDET EDU>]

What kind of network equipment do they have?  Any switch worth its salt has
DHCP snooping (or some other similarly named feature), which will only
permit DHCP server replies from ports declared as trusted...

Jason Duerstock
Network Security/GTS
Gallaudet University

On Fri, Sep 2, 2011 at 7:35 PM, Allen Wood <awood () hillcollege edu> wrote:

>  I'm sending this on behalf of a neighboring college.  It looks like they
> need help in a pretty bad way... here's their message-
>
> ****************
>
> We've got a bit of a mess here - not quite sure how we're going to deal
> with it.  We contract with AT&T to provide internet service in our dorms.
>  We don't provide tech support to our students for  their personal
> computers.  Even if that weren't our policy, two techs can't provide
> technical support to 900 kids (not to mention the other 1900 computers we
> have that are spread over 4 different campuses).
>
> This trojan turns computers into rogue DHCP servers - once the bad IP
> address has been handed out to a computer on the network, it's then pointed
> to a bad DNS server - that in turn sends the computer to a website in
> Romania that displays a web page stating that the browser is out of date and
> provided a link to an executable file that is supposed to update the brower
> - and that executable then infects another computer.  It appears we're
> dealing with a variant of Rorpian.A.
>
> At this point, the network in our dorms isn't operational - it's impossible
> to connect to the valid DHCP server because there are so many infected
> computers now.  We don't have any system in place to log or track computers
> - so even though we can run Wireshark and see the traffic, we have no way of
> tracking that back to an individual to try to eliminate the rogue servers.
>  In addition, we've had an ongoing problem with residents of the apartment
> complex across the street (not associated with us) using our wireless
> network - and odds are, they're now infected as well.
>
> We've tried 4 different anti-virus/malware products and none have seemed to
> work as far as cleaning the computers that we deliberately infected in an
> attempt to find a solution.  So far now, we have our dorm network shut down
> entirely to prevent further infection - and we have 900 furious students.
>
> We don't have  the manpower to offer to format these student computers -
> and even if we did have enough people, and were willing to accept the
> liability, we wouldn't be able to put their software back on.  We're also
> not comfortable with "suggesting" that the students take their computers to
> a PC repair shop (even though that's probably the only answer) for the same
> reason.   Even at that, if one rogue server is still out there, we're going
> to have the issue again once we turn the network back on.  And what if that
> rogue server is in the apartment complex that we have no control over?
>
> Anyone have any ideas on how to combat this?  We've been banging our heads
> against the wall for two days now and admit we may not even be thinking
> clearing any more.  At the moment we can't think of a way out of this.  Any
> suggestions would be welcome.
>
> Probably the good news out of all of it is that this will probably either
> cause the maintaining of the dorm internet to be outsourced, or we'll get
> the equipment we need to manage it properly.  In the meantime, though,
> that's not going to help us.
> *******************
>
> I'll be happy to forward on any suggestions or ideas that you may have.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
>
> Allen