When you set up an internet connection for a customer you do everything you can to protect them, you set up a restrictive firewall, you have a proxy that enforces policy for web surfing as far as possible. You also use all possible means to block spam and viruses in e-mail before they reach the lusers that still believe Bill Gates will give them free Nokia cellphones.

After you did all the technical stuff, you tell everyone (you know it falls on deaf ears, but you have to try) that they must not visit those porn sites, that they must copy links in e-mail and paste them into their browser rather than simply clicking on them etc. So what happens when one of the lusers that actually listened goes to a legitimate website and still have his windows computer exploited? Or if they are lucky the lusers get a warning from their anti-virus software and the site gets blocked.

The sad part is that even very competent IT professionals have extreme difficulty to prevent all exploits on the internet even when they do all the right things. You can read a fascinating account in the Gauteng Linux Users Group mail list archives of such a case where someone’s web site got exploited by quite a nasty man in the middle attack.

In short, a windows server (every one says, we are not surprised) was compromised in a data centre and intercepted traffic from other servers on the same local network. By doing this it managed to redirect innocent visitors of well managed websites to malicious websites that attempted to compromise the visitors’ machines. You can read the gory details at http://www.linux.org.za/Lists-Archives/glug-tech-0905/msg00009.html and more detail at http://www.linux.org.za/Lists-Archives/glug-tech-0905/msg00026.html. Links to the whole thread is at http://www.linux.org.za/Lists-Archives/glug-tech-0905/threads.html

The real scary part is that you cannot do much about something like this because even if you do have a secure local net and the web server you visit has a secure local net, this type of attack can be done anywhere in the path between you and the web server you are visiting.

Be careful out there.

If you go to the link you will notice that it was the Chaos Computer Club that published the vulnerability. I have written about them before and think they do great work to raise awareness about the risks in computers and other electronics. Some may think that they are irresponsible, but are the large companies that release equipment with these kinds of vulnerabilities not way more irresponsible?

I also have a feeling that our cell phone providers are probably not providing the filters suggested in the article, and even if Nokia does release fixed software for their phones chances are high that most people will be clueless about it and won’t know how to install the fixes.

PS. I love the final question in the CCC FAQ (translated from German):
Q: I don’t realy know the exact question but can you answer it anyway?
A: Tricky. But not impossible. The answer is: 42

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