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If the attack exists in the wild, its use isn't in any way limited to the NSA.
by pekk 12y ago
If the attack exists in the wild, its use isn't in any way limited to the NSA.
- tptacek 12y agoThis attack has existed in the wild since the mid-1990s; it is literally the reason SSH exists. We didn't call our TCP hijacking tools "quantum inserts" back then, but that's exactly what they were. The only reason we didn't redirect HTTP connections to malicious sites is that in the 1990s, that would have been a waste of time; the r-commands were much lower hanging fruit.
- tedunangst 12y agoTIL the NSA invented rlogin.
- schoen 12y agoAn important example from that timeframe publicly documenting the risk you're referring to: https://www.usenix.org/legacy/publications/library/proceedings/security95/full_papers/joncheray.pdf https://www.usenix.org/legacy/publications/library/proceedin...
- tptacek 12y agoIn fact, Joncheray "invented" this attack.
- csears 12y agoTrue, but state actors are much more likely to have ISP/backbone fiber taps and DPI equipment in place to make the attack really effective at scale.
- InclinedPlane 12y agoChina has started using similar techniques, I believe.