Security Basics: Re: Bank Exploit

[Yves Bourdic <titaniumkeys () mac com>]

My advice would be NOT to contact the financial institution as from 
there point of view they wont be willing to take any risk and they will 
overreact.
NOT to contact the authority unless a crime has been committed has 
there job starts only at that time and they wont address any other 
problem.
IMHO the only solution is to tell a security community such as a 
mailing list or SANS or whatever what the problem is a do it 
anonymously to avoid further troubles.
As a matter of fact it is the financial institutions responsibility to 
care about there own security so either they have implemented something 
so that you could push the information to them either they don't for 
business/marketing purpose and they should retrieve the information 
from a public area.
Trying to help the other when they don't want because it could trouble 
them for many reasons is never a good idea.
YB

On 25-Jul-07, at 6:21 PM, gjgowey () tmo blackberry net wrote:

> Who needs to sign up?  Just point your mail client at the smtp server 
> in the banks Mx record and you can use bogus from: information.  
> Granted you're exposing you IP address, but that's only meaningful if 
> they decide to subponea your ISP which they could do to hotmail then 
> your ISP anyway if they're that determined to find you.
>
> Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Chris Halverson" <darus.integration () gmail com>
>
> Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:33:41
> To:security-basics () securityfocus com
> Subject: Re: Bank Exploit
>
>
> Sign up an email account as one of your not so close "friends" and
> send the email on their behalf.  :)
>
> You could do so through a 3rd party, reputable security vendor such as
> sophos or similar.  They might help with the information disclosure.
>
> CH
>
>
> On 7/25/07, Jax Lion <jv4l1n4 () gmail com> wrote:
> > So Jason - what happened to your collegue?
> >
> > IMHO - I don't think option 2 is a good idea.  Questions will come up
> > such as - how did you discover the vulnerability in the first place.
> > What were you doing... and it all goes downhill from there.
> >
> > I don't agree with keeping quiet either...
> >
> > Is there a medium where we can report the "accidental discoveries"
> > without risk of prosecution?  Like a hot tip line with the FBI or
> > something.
> >
> >
> > On 7/25/07, Jason Thompson <securitux () gmail com> wrote:
> > > Risky... is this person a security professional?
> > >
> > > This has happened to one of my colleagues before as well. There are
> > > two solutions that are possible:
> > >
> > > 1) Do not reveal this or tell anyone about it. Leave it be. As there
> > > is this heightened sense of urgency among banks to thwart potential
> > > attackers the person could be in trouble with the bank for simply
> > > discovering the issue. It really all depends on the person he or she
> > > deals with there. Not saying it would hold up in court, it likely
> > > wouldn't, but anyone who has the ability to find exploits is 
> > > generally
> > > regarded in a dim light by those who are uneducated on the subject.
> > >
> > > 2) Notify the bank's incident response team / security staff, OFFER a
> > > non-disclosure agreement to them saying that you will not disclose
> > > this to anyone regardless of what actions the bank decides to take on
> > > their vulnerability, and state that this was discovered by accident
> > > and that he or she simply wants to notify them about the issue and IS
> > > NOT seeking ANY SORT of compensation. If they are notified and it
> > > follows with the statement 'I would be willing to help consult you on
> > > the solution for a small compensation' it instantly becomes extortion
> > > and this person will likely be thrown in jail.
> > >
> > > I am not a lawyer by any means, I am simply speaking from past
> > > experiences and what I have seen happen to those who did things the
> > > right way and the wrong way.
> > >
> > > Solution 2 is a lot easier if your friend's client works in
> > > information security and holds federal clearances and security
> > > designations. Real ones, not Cisco or something :)
> > >
> > > -J
> > >
> > > On 25 Jul 2007 13:34:29 -0000, securityz () delahunty com
> > > <securityz () delahunty com> wrote:
> > > > Friend of mine (not me, really) is working with a client of his who 
> > > > claims to have inadvertently discovered a few web exploits of 
> > > > several financial institutions.  Does anyone have any insights as 
> > > > to how this guy could bring these to the attention of the 
> > > > organizations involved without being seen as a hacker?  His minimal 
> > > > goal is to help the institutions, optimally he would like to 
> > > > consult to help them rectify the issues.
> > > >
> > > > thx
> > > >
> > > > Steve