I'm just going to give up. I am wasting too much time and jumping through too
many loops to get anything done. I will just watch my credit report and file a
complaint to the Department Of Higher Education and then leave it at that. I
have better things to do with my time than practically begging on my knees for
the school to take concern in protecting student information. I just didn't
think it would be this hard, I shouldn't have to bend over backwards just to
get the right thing done, school should do it without any question. This is my
last post to FD on this topic, I'm going to get back to doing my homework and
move on. Thanks for all the insight on the topic guys, take care.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sol Invictus" <sol@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "CrYpTiC MauleR" <crypticmauler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Full-disclosure] Should I Be Worried?
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 16:16:59 -0400
CrYpTiC MauleR wrote:
Forgot to say that the VP of Software Dev who is in charge of the
site said he would do an emergency fix in 6 hours to fix the
problem. As I expected the problem is still there. Either he is a
moron and didn't understand me or they just tried to give the
impression they were fixing it. So sad to say site is still vuln,
reason thinking public spotlight will make them get off their ass
and actually do something productive to protect student
information. At this point I can not trust the IT staff because
on 2 occasions the VPs of 2 departments lied to me about fixing
the hole. I've contacted the Department Of Higher Education and
will be filing a complaint against the school. Not only is their
lack of concern about the problem disturbing, their IT
administration seems to be unqualified to deal with it either.
----- Original Message -----
From: bkfsec <bkfsec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "CrYpTiC MauleR" <crypticmauler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Full-disclosure] Should I Be Worried?
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 15:04:04 -0400
CrYpTiC MauleR wrote:
After reading http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11389 it made
me think twice about actually going public with my school's
security hole by having school notify students, parents and/or
faculty at risk due to it.
I mean I didnt access any records, just knew that it was
possible for someone to access my account or anyone elses. I
did not even exploit the hole to steal, modify etc any records.
Does this still put me in the same boat at the USC guy? If so I
am really not wanting to butt heads with the school in case
they try to turn around and bite the hand that tried to help
them. Even if my intentions were good, they might even make
something up saying I accessed entire database or something. I
have nothing to prove me otherwise since they have access to
the logs. Already it seems like the school is trying to sweep
the incident under the rug, so very wary as to what they might
do if they were pushed into a corner and forced to go public.
Anyone has any idea what I can do or should I just let this
slide? I am already putting my credit report and such on fraud
alert just in case, and definelty do not plan on attending this
school after my degree or school year is over. A transfer is
better than having me risk my data.
I think you're probably jumping the gun a little bit here.
From what I gather, you approached people about the issue, you
got some resolution on it. Switching schools is not necessarily
going to help you because, believe me, every institution has
problems with regard to information leakage. If it's not
technical, it's social leakage. If you're concerned about
possible problems to yourself, then maybe full disclosure may
not be appropriate. Think about it for a second. Holes in both
software and procedures are fixed daily in any given
institution. The *vast* majority of it is never reported. And
what would we really gain if it was? School A fixes an XSS bug
in their web app. Woopty freaking doooo... School B patches
their servers 2 months late, but are now up to date... School C
fires a registrar for giving out SS numbers over the phone to
unknown contacts, but not necessarily known to be malicious...
etc
Without proof of a violation of security or privacy, it doesn't
really mean much. Just having a social security number these
days is grounds for people to be concerned. This is why it was
originally against mandate for it to be used as a national ID
system.
In fact, let's take that one step further and look at the whole
financial infrastructure. It's a shambles. Not secure at all.
Anyone with the right contract can pull your credit report and
start adding accounts to your name. Be afraid, be very afraid.
But, be afraid for the right reasons. Really, the only reason
you should be thinking full disclosure now is if they didn't fix
the bug, which IIRC they did. If you're really concerned about
your privacy, that should be where it stops. Full disclosure
after fixes works with software components, not necessarily
organizations. Society as a whole is not necessarily going to
learn anything from relatively generic examples of institutions
having a security issue (which we don't even have proof of any
exploit of those issues). So best thing to do is back off for a
bit, lay low... you got a response, why keep putting yourself in
the spotlight and drawing them to you? Organizations threaten
legal action, more often than not, to shut people up. Just
consider that if that's what you're concerned about. Be subtle.
-bkfsec
Go FD Young Man!!!!