More DNS Tomfoolery

[phernandez]

You know those ads ISPs display when you mistype a URL? Yeah, those DNS redirects are (were?) a phisher's dream.

ISPs' Error Page Ads Let Hackers Hijack Entire Web, Researcher Discloses - Wired

The rub comes when a user is asking for a nonexistent subdomain of a real website, such as http://webmale.google.com, where the subdomain webmale doesn't exist (unlike, say, mail in mail.google.com). In this case, the Earthlink/Barefruit ads appear in the browser, while the title bar suggests that it's the official Google site.

As a result, all those subdomains are only as secure as Barefruit's servers, which turned out to be not very secure at all. Barefruit neglected basic web programming techniques, making its servers vulnerable to a malicious Javascript attack. That meant hackers could have crafted special links to unused subdomains of legitimate websites that, when visited, would serve any content the attacker wanted.

Awesome...

[thehorse13]

You can simply place OpenDNS servers (or any other DNS servers like theirs) in your router's nameserver fields at home and avoid this all together.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDNS

--TH13

[phishphreek]

You can simply place OpenDNS servers (or any other DNS servers like theirs) in your router's nameserver fields at home and avoid this all together.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDNS

--TH13

Yep... but OpenDNS is doing the same thing. They redirect you and place ads just like the ISPs do. They'll just give you a cool reporting interface to gather stats and to help block malicious sites and content. BTW: Add Verizon to the list of redirects.