Reported: 03 September 2007
Occurred: 02 September 2007

Classifications:

• Attack Method: Unknown
• Country: India
• Outcome: Planting of Malware
• Vertical: Finance

This very serious hacking incident provides insight into a lot of the failures information security in general and web application security particularly beyond the simple fact that the web site of the largest state owned bank in India was invisibly defaced with Trojan inflicting code.

Firstly, the entire discussion in the references is about the Trojan payload, with no word about the vulnerability that led to the defacement. Actually a reviewer on the SiteAdvisor report gives the green mark to the web site after the Trojan is removed, without requiring any information about the actual problem.

Secondly, most trust systems, including SiteAdvisor, completely fail to detect the breach. Which makes me think about those trust models: they check that the site was not breached, while they should check that the site is not vulnerable. I guess the reason is that their primary goal is to detect intentionally malicious sites and not breaches is normative sites, but others use them to assess the level of security of the later.

References:

• Breaking: Bank of India seriously compromised
  Blog Entry, Sunblet Blog, 02 September 2007
• McAfee SiteAdvisor
  , McAfee,

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Select an Incident:

1999: 1999-1

2000: , 2000-1, 2000-2, 2000-3, 2000-4, 2000-5, 2000-6

2001: 2001-1, 2001-2, 2001-3, 2001-4, 2001-5, 2001-6

2002: 2002-1, 2002-2, 2002-3, 2002-4

2003: 2003-1, 2003-2, 2003-3, 2003-4, 2003-5, 2003-6, 2003-7, 2003-8, 2003-9

2004: 2004-1, 2004-10, 2004-11, 2004-12, 2004-13, 2004-14, 2004-15, 2004-16, 2004-17, 2004-18, 2004-2, 2004-3, 2004-4, 2004-5, 2004-6, 2004-7, 2004-8, 2004-9

2005: 2005-1, 2005-10, 2005-11, 2005-12, 2005-13, 2005-14, 2005-15, 2005-16, 2005-17, 2005-18, 2005-19, 2005-2, 2005-20, 2005-21, 2005-22, 2005-23, 2005-24, 2005-25, 2005-26, 2005-27, 2005-28, 2005-29, 2005-3, 2005-30, 2005-31, 2005-32, 2005-33, 2005-34, 2005-35, 2005-36, 2005-37, 2005-38, 2005-39, 2005-4, 2005-40, 2005-41, 2005-42, 2005-43, 2005-44, 2005-45, 2005-46, 2005-47, 2005-48, 2005-49, 2005-5, 2005-50, 2005-51, 2005-52, 2005-53, 2005-54, 2005-55, 2005-56, 2005-57, 2005-58, 2005-59, 2005-6, 2005-60, 2005-61, 2005-62, 2005-63, 2005-64, 2005-65, 2005-7, 2005-8, 2005-9, 2007-18

2006: 2006-1, 2006-10, 2006-11, 2006-12, 2006-13, 2006-14, 2006-15, 2006-16, 2006-17, 2006-18, 2006-19, 2006-2, 2006-20, 2006-21, 2006-22, 2006-23, 2006-24, 2006-25, 2006-26, 2006-27, 2006-28, 2006-29, 2006-3, 2006-30, 2006-31, 2006-32, 2006-33, 2006-34, 2006-35, 2006-36, 2006-37, 2006-38, 2006-39, 2006-4, 2006-40, 2006-41, 2006-42, 2006-43, 2006-45, 2006-46, 2006-47, 2006-5, 2006-6, 2006-7, 2006-8, 2006-9

2007: , 2007-01, 2007-02, 2007-03, 2007-04, 2007-05, 2007-06, 2007-07, 2007-08, 2007-09, 2007-10, 2007-11, 2007-12, 2007-13, 2007-14, 2007-15, 2007-16, 2007-17, 2007-19, 2007-20, 2007-21, 2007-22, 2007-23, 2007-24, 2007-25, 2007-26, 2007-27, 2007-28, 2007-29, 2007-30, 2007-31, 2007-32, 2007-33, 2007-34, 2007-35, 2007-36, 2007-37, 2007-38, 2007-39, 2007-40, 2007-41, 2007-42, 2007-43, 2007-44, 2007-45, 2007-46, 2007-47, 2007-48, 2007-49, 2007-50, 2007-51, 2007-52, 2007-53, 2007-54, 2007-55, 2007-56, 2007-57, 2007-58, 2007-59, 2007-60, 2007-61, 2007-62, 2007-63, 2007-64, 2007-65, 2007-66, 2007-67, 2007-69, 2007-70, 2007-71, 2007-72, 2007-73, 2007-74, 2007-75, 2007-76, 2007-77, 2007-78, 2007-79, 2007-80, 2007-81, 2007-82, 2007-83, 2007-84, 2007-85, 2007-86

2008: , 2008-01, 2008-02, 2008-03, 2008-04, 2008-05, 2008-06, 2008-07, 2008-08, 2008-09, 2008-10, 2008-11, 2008-12

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