[EAS] [BC] EAS Zombie Attack

[David Turnmire]

Part of the problem is that while a substantial portion of broadcast 
equipment has Linux (or BSD) under the hood, the manufacturer may not 
give the user access. You get the web interface and its security.  You 
don't get the root access.  Which in some cases is good, but engineers 
may not even know that their product has alternative entry points than 
the web interface (such as SSH or even telnet).  And no way to verify 
the robustness of the root pw, much-less change it from "factory default".

On top of that, the hardware manufacturers in such cases typically don't 
provide OS updates... only the application software.  So, you may be 
running a several year old version of Linux or BSD with known 
vulnerabilities, but without a practical way for the average broadcaster 
to update.

Dave

On 2/12/2013 4:52 PM, ray at electronicstheory.com wrote:
> ...
> Testing heck - they are using a "brute force password attack" that resembles a
> battle tank trying to tango.
>
> Here's the catch - they aren't just trying to get in through the web interface!
> As we speak - all of our "exposed" boxes have a bot knocking on them, trying to
> access the root or NOUSER passwords to the shell/terminal (Not just the web
> interface!)  So far on our boxes - they have been unsuccessful, as we've changed
> our root passwords, and they aren't based on a dictionary word.
> If you haven't done that - do so NOW!
> ...
>