Hackers breach UC Berkeley computer database

tracyanne I hate to say this, but having one computer on there serving up IIS in now way even remotely indicts the rest of berkely.edu of doing so. Take into account some on the other major projects coming from there and I am more likely to believe IIS there is an exception, not the norm.

@azerthoth, if their website is running on IIS, the database that is serving it, and it is database drive - it's a web application, they will have other related stuff using the same web server and database, That will be IIS and MS SQL Server. There is an probability very close to 1 that all the student records were stored on a MS SQL database, and there student logons are via an IIS served website. It doesn't make financial sense to buy MS SQL Server, and Windows Server just for a public facing website.

tracyanne using the tool you recommended, you need only move off of that subdomain http://www.berkeley.edu/ to loose IIS and find apache. sub domains dont even have to be in the same hemisphere let alone be served up from the same server setup, you already knew this.

Not saying that the entire thing isnt being served up by some MS monster, I'm saying that the facts dont support the statement that the rest of the system at the home of BSD, Boinc, and a few others is the same as an individual sub domain that had to get propped up fairly quickly. They dont even support saying that anything other than this sub domain is.

edit following a few links I found apache on fedora listed in a few spots too. /edit

@Az, the report at http://datatheft.berkeley.edu/news.shtml reads "The University of California, Berkeley, today (Friday, May 8) began notifying students, alumni and others that their personal information may have been stolen after hackers attacked restricted computer databases in the campus's health services center."

That's the Health Services Databases, a quick look at the Health Services public site http://uhs.berkeley.edu/ shows that the web server is IIS6.

To my mind that gives us a probability of 1 that it was a breach of a Windows Sever.

tracyanne,

Sorry, on the basis of probability (even ignoring quantum effects), the probability must begin with a zero even if there a lots of nines following the decimal point or comma, U.S. or European representation, respectively. Best practices too would put the database server on its own server, which could easily be nix based. While that affords some protection, if the scripts could be read, from what I have seen the db passwords are in clear text*. Given a proper account the database could be owned by an external user to at very least plunder the data whatever server OS it resided upon.

Using Windows type servers might make it easier, however, as the break in on the Fedora and / or Redhat servers showed none are necessarily invulnerable to a skilled attacker.

[all serious, well mostly]

YBT

* I do not know if that is universal, but it drove me insane (if that's possible) when I first saw this. Luckily if just run (php, perl, python ... server based) scripts disappear, the external user only sees the results not the code, however, if they can trace the location (which should be off the web server) and they can gain read access they are one step closer to a successful break in.

TA thats not the claim you made

Quoting:Chances are that if this particular web server is being used the rest of the systems will rely on the same operating system.

Oh dear, I was imprecise. I'll take myself down to the dungeon for some punishment.

Quoting: I'll take myself down to the dungeon for some punishment.

We're ready for you. An entire network of Windows ME PCs.

ME or CE or both? CE was pretty much torture when I tried it.

Oooh... maybe we can find a few to run Microsoft Bob as well.

Wince. Giggle. At last, truth in naming.

I've called it wince for years.

but... What about Bob?

Ah, good ole Microsoft Bob. I believe he has a new career as Smiling Bob, for Enzyte.

I've decided to forego the punishment, I'm not sure I'll survive that.

tuxchick has mentioned possibly the only thing more torturous than running Windows. Watching those commercials would be insanely painful, possibly deadly in very short order.

Actually, Microsoft Bob was re-factored into Clippy the Psycho Office Nag.

("Psycho" because only a total nut-job can smile like that while everything is falling apart.)

The idea is to make the user feel good about what's happening, smiles al round.

>> Watching those commercials would be insanely painful, possibly deadly in very short order.

Not to worry. The makers and distributors of Enzyte have been sued into oblivion.

However, I'm sure Bob will again resurface in yet another situation in which he fails to perform.

NoDough, if I understand correctly, the Enzyte corp got bought out. In any case, the commercials are showing again.

Which is good, because they're more fun to watch than the two bathtubs.