Re:Freedom Hosting (CP) Tor server taken down by FBI...
Sept 16, 2013 12:58:30 GMT -8
Post by Admin on Sept 16, 2013 12:58:30 GMT -8
This news going around TM and company's conspiracy circles. (the news story, not the link below). Many people don't have the tech know how to parse what they need to worry about and what they don't. The comments at this WWP thread put those fears in perspective:
whyweprotest.net/community/threads/freedom-hosting-cp-tor-server-taken-down-by-fbi-admin-arrested.112849/
Best comment was in Aug:
Misleading title is misleading.
No, just no. Worth noting that the twitlonger link cited by the OP doesn’t mention anything to substantiate this claim, but whatever.
Any website, and its server, is a potential target of attack. The usual suspects of social engineering, SQL injection, etc. What the .onion network does is simply mask the IP of any given server – but that in no way makes the site invulnerable to usual hacking attempts. An SQL injection will work just as well on a .onion site as it will on a normal server (assuming the assuming security hole).
What appears to have happened is that ONE SERVER (Freedom Hosting) that used the .onion service was cracked, and that same crack would likely have happened even if the server was not using the .onion service. In other words, the exploit in this case affected one server and had nothing to do with the TOR network. TORMail was affected because it was hosted on the same server as Freedom Hosting. What further exasperated the present case was that the compromised server was then infected with dodgy javascript, which again would have occurred had the site not being on .onion. It seems that those who updated Firefox were not affected though.
I’m wondering if the present cracking has anything to do with Operation Darknet. This was, primarily, a DDOS attack against the Freedom Hosting server because it hosted child porn, but there was some additional information and IP mapping gathered at the time. It may have helped lay the groundwork for the Feds to crack the server (and would be interesting if information to that effect came to light), but it is hard to say at this point.
The golden rules seem to be don’t look a child porn, avoid the Freedom Hosting server and keep you FF up to date.
Anonymous, Aug 5, 2013
whyweprotest.net/community/threads/freedom-hosting-cp-tor-server-taken-down-by-fbi-admin-arrested.112849/
Best comment was in Aug:
Misleading title is misleading.
AnonEaskUK said:
HALF OF TOR SITES HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED, INCLUDING TORMAIL:
HALF OF TOR SITES HAVE BEEN COMPROMISED, INCLUDING TORMAIL:
No, just no. Worth noting that the twitlonger link cited by the OP doesn’t mention anything to substantiate this claim, but whatever.
Any website, and its server, is a potential target of attack. The usual suspects of social engineering, SQL injection, etc. What the .onion network does is simply mask the IP of any given server – but that in no way makes the site invulnerable to usual hacking attempts. An SQL injection will work just as well on a .onion site as it will on a normal server (assuming the assuming security hole).
What appears to have happened is that ONE SERVER (Freedom Hosting) that used the .onion service was cracked, and that same crack would likely have happened even if the server was not using the .onion service. In other words, the exploit in this case affected one server and had nothing to do with the TOR network. TORMail was affected because it was hosted on the same server as Freedom Hosting. What further exasperated the present case was that the compromised server was then infected with dodgy javascript, which again would have occurred had the site not being on .onion. It seems that those who updated Firefox were not affected though.
I’m wondering if the present cracking has anything to do with Operation Darknet. This was, primarily, a DDOS attack against the Freedom Hosting server because it hosted child porn, but there was some additional information and IP mapping gathered at the time. It may have helped lay the groundwork for the Feds to crack the server (and would be interesting if information to that effect came to light), but it is hard to say at this point.
The golden rules seem to be don’t look a child porn, avoid the Freedom Hosting server and keep you FF up to date.
Anonymous, Aug 5, 2013