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Bugtraq Archives: Re: Anyone can take over virtually any domain

Re: Anyone can take over virtually any domain on the net...

Subject: Re: Anyone can take over virtually any domain on the net...
From: Russ Johnson (rjohnsonTRIPWIRESECURITY.COM)
Date: Thu Jan 13 2000 - 13:19:15 CST

I've known for several years that it's possible to hijack a domain name that
only uses an email address for authentication.

In fact, it's possible to change the email address used by sending a message
from another email address.

I've done this (twice) with my own domain name, and helped a friend with
that friends domain name when the "email address of record" was no longer
available to me.

My domain names are now protected with passwords, although, I don't think
that's much more secure. I just haven't been able to prove it yet.

Russ

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Reinke [mailto:reinkeE-SOFTINC.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2000 9:27 PM
To: BUGTRAQSECURITYFOCUS.COM
Subject: Anyone can take over virtually any domain on the net...

Wired recently ran an article on the fact that someone
recently hijacked a number of domains in the Network
Solutions database using email spoofing.

At first I thought this had to be a joke. After thinking
about it, I realized that its no joke at all, and in
fact quite easy to do.

Step 1: Send a spoofed email to Network solutions requesting
        a DNS change to your own DNS server.

Step 2: Wait for a short while (the amount of time it normally
        takes Network Solutions to send out a confirmation
        email request)

Step 3: Send a second spoofed email confirming the request.

Step 4: Have your DNS server serve the new web server address
        from a new webserver with your own content.

Network Solutions rep quoted in the wired article:

     "O'Shaughnessy pointed out that Network
      Solutions offers more secure services.
      Most accounts will not need the extra
      security he said, but in the age of
      e-commerce and more vital Web services,
      the onus is on the registrant to see that
      his domain is secure."

Doesn't take too much rocket science to point out that other
than the obvious flaws in insecure email, the fact that
confirmations to make domain changes do not carry any
sort of tracking number make it possible for spoofed email
to confirm illegitimate requests. I think it might be
appropriate for Network Solutions to add at least THAT
much reliability into their confirmation scheme so that
that kind of change couldn't occur in the future...

BTW, Network Solution's instructions on changing the
scheme to a userid and password based system doesn't
work very well. We've attempted on several occasions
to do this with no luck...thereby forcing on us the guardian
scheme :(

Cheers, Thomas 

--
------------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Reinke                            Tel: (905) 331-2260
Director of Technology                   Fax: (905) 331-2504
E-Soft Inc.                         http://www.e-softinc.com

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