ISS Security Alert Advisory
August 6th, 1998
Copyright (c) 1998 by Internet Security Systems, Inc.

debora@eskimo.com 98 Aug 14
Cult of the Dead Cow Back Orifice Backdoor

Synopsis:
A hacker group known as the Cult of the Dead Cow has released a Windows 95/98 backdoor named 'Back Orifice' (BO). Once installed this backdoor allows unauthorized users to execute privileged operations on the affected machine. Back Orifice leaves evidence of its existence and can be detected and removed. The communications protocol and encryption used by this backdoor has been broken by ISS X-Force.

Description:
A backdoor is a program that is designed to hide itself inside a target host in order to allow the installing user access to the system at a later time without using normal authorization or vulnerability exploitation.

Functionality:

The BO program is a backdoor designed for Windows 95/98. Once installed it allows anyone who knows the listening port number and BO password to remotely control the host. Intruders access the BO server using either a text or graphics based client. The server allows intruders to execute commands, list files, start silent services, share directories, upload and download files, manipulate the registry, kill processes, list processes, as well as other options.

Encrypted Communications:

All communications between backdoor client and the server use the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). All data sent between the client and server is encrypted, however it is trivial to decrypt the data sent. X-Force has been able to decrypt BO client requests without knowing the password and use the gathered data to generate a password that will work on the BO server.The way that BO encrypts its packets is to generate a 2 byte hash from the password, and use the hash as the encryption key. The first 8 bytes of all client request packets use the same string: "*!*QWTY?", thus it is very easy to brute force the entire 64k key space of the password hash and compare the result to the expected string. Once you know the correct hash value that will decrypt packets, it is possible to start generating and hashing random passwords to find a password that will work on the BO server. In our tests in the X-Force lab, this entire process takes only a few seconds, at most, on a Pentium-133 machine. With our tools we have been able to capture a BO request packet, find a password that will work on the BO server, and get the BO server to send a dialog message to warn the administrator and kill its own process.

Determining if BO has been installed on your machine:

The BO server will do several things as it installs itself on a target host:
* Install a copy of the BO server in the system directory (c:\windows\system) either as " .exe" or a user specified file name.
* Create a registry key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices with the file name of the server file name and a description field of either "(Default)" or a user specified description.
* The server will begin listening on UDP port 31337, or a UDP port specified by the installer. You can configure RealSecure to monitor for network traffic on the default UDP 31337 port for possible warning signs.

In order to determine if you are vulnerable:
1. Start the regedit program (c:\windows\regedit.exe).
2. Access the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices. Look for any services that may not have been intentionally installed on the machine. If the length of one of these file is close to 124,928 (give ortake 30 bytes) then it is probably BO.

Recommended action:
BO can be removed by deleting the server and removing its registry entry. If possible, you should back up all user data, format your hard drive, andreinstall all operating systems and software on the infected machine. However, if someone has installed BO on your machine, then it is most likely part of a larger security breach. You should react according to your site security policy.

Determining the password and configuration of an installed BO:
1. Using a text editor like notepad, view the server exe file.
2. If the last line of the file is '8 8$8(8,8084888<8@8D8H8L8P8T8X8\8'8d8h8l8',then the server is using the default configuration. Otherwise, the configuration will be the last several lines of this file, in this order:

<filename> <service description> <port number> <password> <optional plugin information>