xDedic – the shady world of hacked servers for sale

https://securelist.com/blog/research/75027/xdedic-the-shady-world-of-hacked-servers-for-sale/

by ghosh • 10 years ago

82 17 10 years ago

securelist.com

tracker1• 10 years ago

Distribution networks for pirated torrent material... that could make a lot of seed nodes.

amazon_not• 10 years ago

What's the profit motive? Even at $6 a pop the server expenses have to be recouped.

ATsch• 10 years ago

Benevolence, most likely.

draugadrotten• 10 years ago

Fictive scenario. One TV channel executive could hurt the finances of a competing TV channel by seeding the competitions shows, and by this gaining power and influence in her own career

Johnie• 10 years ago

Pirated DVD sales in Asia and Middle East.

There's a vast underground economy to get pirated content. Bootleggers get paid to make the movies available to pirated DVD manufacturers.

contergan• 10 years ago

Adware and other "gimmicks" bundled with the pirated software.

roto• 10 years ago

Back in the day, pre-torrent/p2p, we used to use hacked boxes to distribute our pirated materials over FTP. If you are lucky and find a stable box, it could last 1-2 years, though that was a pretty rare find. Most machines didn't last more than a month at most.

dang• 10 years ago

Url changed from http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/06/meet-xdedic-the-site..., which points to this.

skilled• 10 years ago

Scary to think how many more of such hacked servers are out there, I think dedicated server networks like OVH are easy targets, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

seanp2k22• 10 years ago

Consider also: AWS launches with off-the-shelf AMIs, or any type of "turn key" solution.

webtechgal2• 10 years ago

...and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

You bet. Since OVH servers normally start north of $50-60/mo. (not exactly a very trivial sum), their clients may still be at least somewhat more serious/conscious about security, but talk about the likes of Kimsufi (incidentally, a subsidiary of OVH I believe) where dedi boxes (with low-end configs) are available for < $10/mo.!!!

nisa• 10 years ago

I guess this will only grow in volume. Nobody seems to acknowledge the task of an admin, that keeps things updated and secure and that can implemented preventive security measures. It's mostly hire someone as cheap as possible to install xyz on a rented dedicated box and forget about it.

Add some sloppy password policy, lot's of PHP code that is neither sandboxed or updated and you'll have an easy time to own such machines.

And if it's hacked and disabled it just get's reimagined. I guess most don't even notice if you don't do anything that get's on the providers radar.

But honestly even as toying around with Linux for more than 15 years I'd have a hard time to find a rootkit in daily ops that successfully managed to load as kernel module or via ld-preload.

Graphing the load e.g. munin is sometimes useful but that's more like having some post-mortem tools.

webtechgal2• 10 years ago

It's mostly hire someone as cheap as possible to install xyz on a rented dedicated box and forget about it.

You can say that again!! I routinely come across job postings such as 'Setup my server for $10 to $30' floating about at various freelance tech marketplaces.

Hell, when starting out as a freelancer a couple of years ago, I took up some jobs like that myself, to - so to say - test the waters. I still take up such jobs, but at (much) higher rates and per my experience, most of the clients do not have the foggiest so far as security is concerned.

xDedic – the shady world of hacked servers for sale

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