Let me clarify my point of view. I have done this when my family members are on the couch next to me, on my own network, with their permission. Obviously doing such without permission is not advised across public networks.
I also disagree that these types of demonstrations don't work. In my experience, they can be effective in raising awareness. Like any speech, or conference etc.... if you make an impression, people will remember things. Or, in this case, they might begin to consider not clicking a link or opening a file. On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 1:58 AM, Kenneth Voort <[email protected]>wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > The ends cannot justify the means. > > I would advise against doing anything of this sort, for three reasons: > > 1. It is unprofessional, unethical, and illegal in nearly every country > with a computer law. It is > unequivocally banned by any professional organization worth mentioning. An > act like this would (to > me) be an egregious violation of familial trust and privacy as well. My > friends and family know I > can break their shit; they trust me not to predominantly because I never > have. I can pick most > common household deadbolts as well; I however do not demonstrate how easily > most common household > deadbolts can be picked by breaking into the homes of my family. I ask > permission first. > > 2. It will make no difference. Sure, your family will understand that "you > hacked them", but that's > about it. I would fathom that the vast majority would understand neither > the attack vector used nor > any way to prevent a future recurrence. Most people would understand this > about as well as they > understand why a potato in a tailpipe will stop a car from starting. The > passing of little jokes and > recipes and pictures and whatnot through email is driven by social factors, > and can by extension > only be solved with social methods. Many will not only never trust you near > a computer again, they > will completely ignore you, as they do not have the technical expertise to > connect your attack to > chain emails and phishing attacks. > > 3. You may well do permanent damage. Consider that your attack model is > predicated on known > behaviours of computer systems, and then consider that many machines' logic > may already be altered > (by malware or otherwise), meaning that your targets' reactions will be > undefinable. You may simply > end up bluescreening a bunch of boxes, or possibly render some of them > unbootable (yes, it has > happened). It would be reckless and adversarial to carry this out where you > cannot reliably predict > the results, especially in light of your inexperience with the tools you > intend to employ. For > christ's sake, you don't even know that Meterpreter is memory resident only > by default. You're > playing with fire, and you may well get burned. > > This sort of unprofessional vigilante hacktivism is exactly why people like > me get pulled aside at > border crossings by a public that does not understand my profession. I > utterly fail to understand > why people think this is acceptable while breaking and entering is not. It > is illegal, and with very > good reason. Violating the privacy of those who trust you to make a point > is unacceptable, whatever > the reason and whatever the method. I strongly urge you to contemplate the > legal, ethical, and > possibly destructive (both to computers and friendships) implications of > what you are considering. > > P.S. Your evil scheme may well fail entirely and serve only to both > embarrass you and render your > future soapbox lectures useless. That bears mentioning as well. > > On 10-11-30 8:27 PM, Brian Schultz wrote: > > I'm tired of explaining to my family the reasons for not opening e-mails > or attachments from unknown > > sources and then having them forward me some sketchy e-mail saying "this > is so funny, check it out". > > I'm sure there are plenty of you out there in the corporate world that > can relate with your users. > > > > I figure it's time for me to arrange a wake up call and perform my own > pentest against friends and > > family. I figure it would be easy enough to use SET to create a > "malicious" website that will change > > their wallpaper and blast an e-mail out to everyone. My only concerns > are...how do I go about > > getting Meterpreter off of their machine? The last thing I want to do is > screw up everyone's computer. > > > > Sorry if this comes across as a dumb question, I haven't played around > with SET or metasploit > > before. I'll probably figure this out as soon as I click send but it > would be nice to hear from > > someone else or at least a point in the right direction. Thanks > > - -- > Kenneth Voort - kenneth {at} voort <SPAMGUARD> {dot} ca > FDF1 6265 EBAB C05C FD06 1AED 158E 14D6 37CD E87F | pgp encrypted email > preferred > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > > iEYEARECAAYFAkz2Dk0ACgkQFY4U1jfN6H8q2gCcDtucGQNnDaBUHjS8qHj0zCN/ > 4u0AoIhWH/NW9g71w7ffh9p748VZvl4+ > =dvA8 > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > _______________________________________________ > Pauldotcom mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom > Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com >
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