Re: Pen Test mistake
From: Jeffrey Gorton (jpgorton_at_swbell.net)
Date: 08/21/03
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- In reply to: Dan Taylor: "RE: Pen Test mistake"
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To: <pen-test@securityfocus.com> Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 16:20:37 -0500
One often hears penetration testing described as ethical hacking. If that
is so and what we are practicing here is ethical, then we must act
ethically. To my mind, that means owning up to one's mistakes. If we do
not, then we are little different from the other kind of hackers from which
we are trying to protect our clients. Failing to act ethically in an
instance such as this lowers the credibility and value of our profession.
As another response to this thread indicated, an Errors and Omissions
insurance policy is very important because of occurances such as these. Not
only will you be better protected but so will your actual client. The
client that contracted you to test his system may be at legal risk for your
actions against the unintended target. If you fail to come clean and you
are found out, then the victim may have recourse against both you and your
client, and both your client and the victim may have recourse against you,
your partners and associates.
My advice is to first get legal representation and work with your attorney
to contact the parties involved. Be prepared to cover any damage that may
have resulted. Acquire the appropriate insurance for future engagements and
be much, much more careful.
-Jeffrey Gorton, CISSP MCSE CCSE IAM
jpgorton@swbell.net
----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Taylor
To: pen-test@securityfocus.com
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2003 2:12 PM
Subject: RE: Pen Test mistake
I agree with this person, if you volunteer information to this company, you
could be hit with illegally scanning their systems (because you do not have
consent to do so). You could very well land in jail with the local
authorities possessing your systems for a few years. Even if you win your
systems back, they will be so old and outdated that they will be useless.
Delete your logs and redo what you were hired to do in the first place.
Also, on a side note, didn't the letter stating that you were allowed to do
this scan have the valid IP addresses you were allowed to scan? If it
didn't, you need to have your legal department reconstruct the letter to
start incorporating this valuable piece of information.
I'll jump off of my soapbox now!
-----Original Message-----
From: RMcElroy@mbe.com [mailto:RMcElroy@mbe.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2003 1:49 PM
To: webproze@yahoo.com; pen-test@securityfocus.com
Subject: RE: Pen Test mistake
ERASE ALL LOGS AND RUN FOREST RUN....:)
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Johnson [mailto:webproze@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 9:48 PM
To: pen-test@securityfocus.com
Subject: Pen Test mistake
Let's just say, for theoretical purposes, that you
were contracted to perform a penetration test on a
company. After receiving the IP range from the
company, you begin the test. You're well into the
test and find several vulnerable servers, which you
promptly own six ways from Sunday. Then a co-worker
wanders into your company's lab and looks over your
shoulder and advises you that the hosts that you're
owning are a single digit in the subnet off from the
hosts you're supposed to be attacking.
Example, I've owned 192.168.10.35, when in actuality I
was supposed to be owning 192.168.11.35.
How do you handle this situation?
My vote is to contact the owners of the site, advise
them honestly of the mistake, offer assistance (free
of charge of course) in correcting the security
problem you used to own them, and walk away a bit the
wiser.
Anyone else have any better advice?
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- Previous message: Brad Bemis: "RE: Pen Test mistake"
- In reply to: Dan Taylor: "RE: Pen Test mistake"
- Next in thread: Jeff Steeves: "Re: Pen Test mistake"
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