nanog mailing list archives

Re: IOS Rookit: the sky isn't falling (yet)


From: Jared Mauch <jared () puck nether net>
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 11:41:17 -0400


On May 27, 2008, at 8:42 AM, Alexander Harrowell wrote:

An alternative rootkit ? Privilege level 16 used by the Lawful Intercept
[12] feature could be abused to do some of this too. Or the other way
around: use a "patched" IOS to keep an eye on Law Enforcement's >operations
on the router as privilege level 15 doesn't allow it and the only
alternative is to sniff the traffic export.

The combination of rootkits and specially privileged Lawful Intercept
functions is a very dangerous one. This was precisely what was exploited in
the now-legendary and still unsolved Vodafone Greece hack.

Perhaps the above should be simplified.

Running a hacked/modded IOS version is a dangerous prospect.

This seems like such a non-event because what is the exploit path to load the image? There needs to be a primary exploit to load the malware image.

*yawn*

- Jared



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