Re: Virus/Trojan/Worm in the Dorms

["Flynn, Gary - flynngn" <flynngn () JMU EDU>]

And as far as tracking the rogue dhcp traffic back, if you don't have a registration system you'll have to track the 
mac address in the rogue packets through the switch tables and find the port then back through the wiring closets to 
the room.






Gary Flynn
Security Engineer
James Madison University

----- Reply message -----
From: "Flynn, Gary - flynngn" <flynngn () jmu edu>
Date: Fri, Sep 2, 2011 20:02
Subject: [SECURITY] Virus/Trojan/Worm in the Dorms
To: "awood () hillcollege edu" <awood () hillcollege edu>, "security () listserv educause edu" <security () listserv 
educause edu>

First, block outbound Internet access to port 53 at the internet border except from your name servers or at least from 
the infected areas. Allow out only to your contractors name servers if they provide dns.  That should prevent more or 
repeat infections.

Then check your network switches and routers for features that control dhcp traffic...either coarsely through acls our 
better by dhcp snooping. That may at least partially block the rogue dhcp servers and give you some log data to find 
them.

Submit virus samples to your av vendor and virus total to get them added for detection and possible inclusion in 
removal tools.

When you get a method that cleans the worst of the infection use every communications method at your disposal to get 
the word out.you may find a community spirit develop quickly where students will help each other.

You're right they should be formatted and you can recommend that even if you're not able to provide those services 
yourself. How to handle that problem is probably better left to senior management.


Gary Flynn
Security Engineer
James Madison University

----- Reply message -----
From: "Allen Wood" <awood () HILLCOLLEGE EDU>
Date: Fri, Sep 2, 2011 19:36
Subject: [SECURITY] Virus/Trojan/Worm in the Dorms
To: "SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU" <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>

I'm sending this on behalf of a neighboring college.  It looks like they need help in a pretty bad way... here's their 
message-

****************

We've got a bit of a mess here - not quite sure how we're going to deal with it.  We contract with AT&T to provide 
internet service in our dorms.  We don't provide tech support to our students for  their personal computers.  Even if 
that weren't our policy, two techs can't provide technical support to 900 kids (not to mention the other 1900 computers 
we have that are spread over 4 different campuses).

This trojan turns computers into rogue DHCP servers - once the bad IP address has been handed out to a computer on the 
network, it's then pointed to a bad DNS server - that in turn sends the computer to a website in Romania that displays 
a web page stating that the browser is out of date and provided a link to an executable file that is supposed to update 
the brower - and that executable then infects another computer.  It appears we're dealing with a variant of Rorpian.A.

At this point, the network in our dorms isn't operational - it's impossible to connect to the valid DHCP server because 
there are so many infected computers now.  We don't have any system in place to log or track computers - so even though 
we can run Wireshark and see the traffic, we have no way of tracking that back to an individual to try to eliminate the 
rogue servers.  In addition, we've had an ongoing problem with residents of the apartment complex across the street 
(not associated with us) using our wireless network - and odds are, they're now infected as well.

We've tried 4 different anti-virus/malware products and none have seemed to work as far as cleaning the computers that 
we deliberately infected in an attempt to find a solution.  So far now, we have our dorm network shut down entirely to 
prevent further infection - and we have 900 furious students.

We don't have  the manpower to offer to format these student computers - and even if we did have enough people, and 
were willing to accept the liability, we wouldn't be able to put their software back on.  We're also not comfortable 
with "suggesting" that the students take their computers to a PC repair shop (even though that's probably the only 
answer) for the same reason.   Even at that, if one rogue server is still out there, we're going to have the issue 
again once we turn the network back on.  And what if that rogue server is in the apartment complex that we have no 
control over?

Anyone have any ideas on how to combat this?  We've been banging our heads against the wall for two days now and admit 
we may not even be thinking clearing any more.  At the moment we can't think of a way out of this.  Any suggestions 
would be welcome.

Probably the good news out of all of it is that this will probably either cause the maintaining of the dorm internet to 
be outsourced, or we'll get the equipment we need to manage it properly.  In the meantime, though, that's not going to 
help us.
*******************

I'll be happy to forward on any suggestions or ideas that you may have.

Thanks in advance,

Allen