New: Hacking via Application Update on WiFi

Posted on 02-08-2009

Filed Under (Hacking, Security, Softwares, Wi-Fi) by Kelvin

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A researcher said that he will release a tool that will allow hackers to hijack application updates on PC over an unsecured wifi connection by replacing the “update” with malware.

The hijack, believed to be vulnerable to about 100 applications including including CD burners, video players and more. The attack however does not effect application that uses digital signing for updates such as Microsoft apps.

Itzik Kotler, security operation center team leader for Radware and Tomer Bitton, security researcher for Radware, say that the hack can be used against most of today’s client application updates. The researchers, who will present their research at the Defcon17 hacker confab, also will release a tool they developed for the targeted attack that can inject a phony but realistic-looking update alert or hijack an ongoing update session, and lure the user to download malware instead.

“Most applications do simple HTTP transactions that download a file with the newer version … We can hijack the session and respond ourselves with an ‘application update’ and it takes place on our malicious Website,” Kotler says. “They are then going to download an update, and voila: it’s malware.”

The so-called Ippon tool, which is Japanese for “game over,” can also generate an attack where a victimized user’s machine can attack other machines in its proximity on the WiFi network. “You can take it to a self-propagation method and have it do the same to another victim,” he says.

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