Rooted boxen and the law

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1

I am just curious, in these days where every script kiddie with a few spare
hours is out cracking into every box in sight, what do you all do when it
happens? I know the isolate/reinstall stuff, I am specifically more interested
in administrative stuff. Do you log it? Report it to the police? FBI? Who?

Basically, I just had a box cracked, and have time to kill before I get
access to it to reinstall (Damn cheap colo provider...) and am wondering
if I should just reinstall and get on with life, or if I should be covering
my ass, since I have things on their that will make me unhappy if they are
taken and released to the public domaine (Reg codes for software and the
like.)

Let me know!

Jamie

2

On Tue, Jun 05, 2001 at 08:38:54AM -0400, Jamie Norwood put this into my mailbox:

I am just curious, in these days where every script kiddie with a few spare
hours is out cracking into every box in sight, what do you all do when it
happens? I know the isolate/reinstall stuff, I am specifically more
interested in administrative stuff. Do you log it? Report it to the
police? FBI? Who?

Basically, I just had a box cracked, and have time to kill before I get
access to it to reinstall (Damn cheap colo provider...) and am wondering
if I should just reinstall and get on with life, or if I should be covering
my ass, since I have things on their that will make me unhappy if they are
taken and released to the public domaine (Reg codes for software and the
like.)

Log what you can, including what software if any you found placed on the box,
what was done/modified, and where the cracker(s) came in from if you can
find that (as well as how they got in); keep a record of time spent and
itemize the costs required to recover. Take this report (it doesn't have
to be anything fancy, just something that's legible and easy-to-read),
and send it to your local FBI office. If you can, put any software or
binaries (or other items) deposited on the machine by a cracker on a CD
and include that. Keep in mind you want to modify as little as possible
while you do this; mount the disk read-only if you can and remove it
from the network. If you really want to get technical, SANS.org or
someplace probably has more detailed forensics tips.

Basically, do as much computer forensics as you can, include estimates of
monetary damages (be realistic), and pass along what you can to the feds.
Chances are you won't get anything back from it personally, but the FBI
might be able to use your info to link back to some other case they're
working on, and it'll be that much more evidence against a person
they're already tracking when it comes time to press charges. If you
don't have time, oh well, but I'm sure the FBI will appreciate any
information you can get them.

If you really have time, see if your local field agent(s) want to review
the machine personally; though chances are they're not going to insist
that you leave the machine with them for months or anything like that.

You may be able to report the case to the police as well, but unless
you're heavily interested in pressing charges, chances are it'll just
be filed and reported up the ladder to the feds anyhow.

-dalvenjah

3

I should've included a disclaimer with that; I don't speak for the FBI or
anyone but myself; the below is what I've gotten from experience. None
of this is guaranteed, take it with a grain of salt, etc. etc. etc. Call
it a "Best Practices" as far as I know. }:>

-dalvenjah

On Tue, Jun 05, 2001 at 09:54:00AM -0700, Dalvenjah FoxFire put this into my mailbox:

4

Depends on your local police. Here in Austin they are surprisingly interested in prosecuting computer crime. A few months ago I had a client who hacked someone's website and left dirty fingerprints all over the place. In many locales nothing would have ever happened, but the police made an official request for logs, confiscated his computers, collected supporting evidence, and charged him with some sort of crime. I didn't follow up to see what the disposition was, but I suspect that he at least paid a hefty fine. In other areas I've seen the police completely clueless.

5

Jamie Norwood <jnorwood@adelphia.net> writes:

I am just curious, in these days where every script kiddie with a
few spare hours is out cracking into every box in sight, what do you
all do when it happens? I know the isolate/reinstall stuff, I am
specifically more interested in administrative stuff. Do you log it?
Report it to the police? FBI? Who?

When we had a cracked box on our network, and a reasonable chance of
catching the guy, we got absolutely zero help from the FBI. We were
only able to get ahold of the agent handling our case once, and never
got phone calls returned. That was from the Detroit office; you may
have better luck depending on where you're at.

Calling CERT might not be a bad idea; might make law enforcement more
willing to listen, and somebody at CERT might be able to help apply
pressure if needed.

Basically, I just had a box cracked, and have time to kill before I
get access to it to reinstall (Damn cheap colo provider...) and am
wondering if I should just reinstall and get on with life, or if I
should be covering my ass, since I have things on their that will
make me unhappy if they are taken and released to the public domaine
(Reg codes for software and the like.)

I would back up the whole thing as it stands now, both to tell what
happened and to provide evidence if it comes to that. Hell, hard
drives are cheap enough; maybe you should just pull the HD from your
cracked machine, and reinstall onto a fresh one.

----ScottG.

6

The best you can do (if you have a time) is to trace this kids back; found where
they store stolen/sniffered information, where they are coming from (I have
installed my own trojan on my host to do it); look into the sniffer logs thay (may
be) have there and determine which other passwords are compromised and (may be)
you'll found their own passwords here. If you have more time and hackers are
active - create frauded account on other system, present it to the hackers by
their own sniffer, and look where from this account will be used. If you have even
more time, create frauded credit card number, make sure they get it, and trace
back... And so on.

When re-installing system, don't close their backdoor but set up a banner _system
is overloaded, try later_ and you'll have a chance to get more information -:).

Really, any hackers can be traced to it's roots, but it takes a lot of time to do
it.

PS. And don't hope FBI or someone other will help; except if there is a real
damage.