Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Novell server hacked

A ComputerWorld article by Jaikumar Vijayan, via NetworkWorld, reports that:

A company server that some workers at Novell apparently used for gaming purposes was hacked into and then used to scan for vulnerable ports on potentially millions of computers worldwide, according to an Internet security consultant.

The scans, which have been going on since Sept. 21, are targeted at TCP Port 22 -- the default port for Secure Shell (SSH) services. SSH programs are used to log into other computers over a network or to execute remote commands and move files between machines in a secure fashion. Scans against the port are often an indication that hackers are looking for vulnerable SSH systems that they can break into and take control of.

Kevan Barney, a Novell spokesman, Wednesday confirmed that one of the company’s systems had been compromised. But he added that the server was not part of the company’s corporate network nor was it a production server.

Chris Brandon, president of Brandon Internet Security, an Alexandria Va.-based firm that reported the problem to Novell Tuesday, said he was first alerted to the hack when a client reported scanning activity several days ago.

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