ITU Botnet Mitigation Project:
Background & Approach
September 2007
Suresh Ramasubramanian & Robert Shaw
<
[email protected]>
ICT Applications and Cybersecurity Division
Policies and Strategies Department, BDT
International Telecommunication Union
International
Telecommunication
Union
Botnets An Overview
What is a Botnet?
A collection of infected and compromised
computing devices harnessed together
and remotely controlled for malicious
purposes
How powerful is a Botnet?
Like supercomputers created through distributed
computing systems
e.g., BOINC: used for SETI@Home, Atomic Physics
People agree to donate spare computing resources
Botnets: a special case of distributed computing
Without consent of computer owner (a zombie)
Hijacking of computing resources
September 2007
Botnets An Overview contd
Botnets are a worldwide menace, widely
used by spammers and cyber criminals
Use of botnets for cybercrime has
increased and become more refined
since 2002-3 when first mass mailer
worms such as Sobig and Sober were
released
September 2007
Latest Generation
2007 generation botnets such as Zhelatin (Storm
Worm) are particularly aggressive using advanced
techniques such as fast-flux networks to make it harder
to shut down and even striking back with denial of
service (DDOS) attacks against security researchers or
vendors trying to mitigate the botnet
"Fast-flux service networks are a network of compromised
computer systems with public DNS records that are
constantly changing, in some cases every few minutes.
These constantly changing architectures make it much
more difficult to track down criminal activities and shut
down their operations.
Honeynet Project & Research Alliance
September 2007
September 2007
Source: Wired Magazine
The Botnet Ecosystem
Virus Writers, Botherders, Clients
Virus writer writes malware, infects
computers to create botnet
Botherder operates the botnet
command and control (C&C)
Clients hire botnets to distribute spam, launch
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, to
conduct identity theft
Highly developed underground channels of
communication
Secret forums/chat rooms that shift location
Access on a need to know basis, new entrants may
need to be vouched for by existing participant
September 2007
The Botnet Ecosystem contd
Botherders now offer service level
agreements to clients
Guaranteed replacement of botnet in case anti-virus
researchers release fix for malware or botnet is
taken down
Organized crime involved in all stages of
ecosystem
Employ virus writers to create malware
Carry out spam campaigns, espionage, ID theft,
cyber-attacks
Laundering of money stolen from victims
September 2007
Evolution of Botnets
C&C centers harder to trace
Originally hosted on public IRC channels
Now encrypted, access restricted C&C software
C&C centers may be hosted on botnets
Increased redundancy
Makes takedown harder
New headless single use botnets
No centralized control or C&C required
new generation of P2P botnets
Instructions embedded into malware
New malware and botnet created for a new task
Cannot stop botnet by taking down its C&C
September 2007
Evolution of Malware
Self-propagating: infected hosts infect other hosts
Infection vectors include email, P2P networks, open shared
network folders, Skype, visiting infected website
Newer malware spreads faster than older generations
Spread resembles global pandemic (SARS, Bird Flu)
Can similar threat models/mitigation mechanism theories
be applied?
Analysis, Detection and Removal more difficult
Self-destruct mechanisms to destroy data if
malware removed
Droppers malware download more payload onto
compromised host
Encryption and debuggers / Virtual Machine (VM) traps to
prevent forensic analysis
September 2007
What can you do with a Botnet?
Send spam
Most visible use of botnets
Botnets can host entire spam campaign
Including DNS servers, website hosting, spam
sending
Content can change location from PC to PC,
country to country, in minutes
Take from a spam run can be reused
419 scam artists now buying lists of compromised
accounts from botherders, using these to spam
But spam is just the tip of the iceberg
September 2007
10
What else can you do with a Botnet?
Attack a countrys Internet infrastructure
Estonia: 128 unique DDoS attacks in two weeks
Extortion/Blackmail
Threaten to DDoS/cripple e-commerce websites
Identity theft and Industrial Espionage
Steal credit cards, passwords, etc. from infected PCs
Use computing power of a botnet to break into secured
networks and steal data, credit cards
Stock Pump and Dump scams
Use spam from botnet PCs to advertise stock
Trade in this stock using online share trading accounts
from infected PCs, artificially boost prices
September 2007
11
ITU Botnet Mitigation Project originally inspired
by Australian Internet Security Initiative (AISI)
Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)
partnership with 25 Australian ISPs
ACMA collects data on IPs emitting malware
Identifies IPs operated by participating Australian ISPs
Notifies ISP responsible for affected IPs
ISPs undertake to mitigate malware activity from infected
IPs on their networks
Notify infected customers
Change security and filtering policies as necessary
AISI project working internationally to
fight botnets and has agreed to assist ITU
project and extend AISI to other ITU
Member States
September 2007
12
ITU Botnet Mitigation Package
Identify coordination agency for a nationwide botnet
mitigation strategy
Multi-stakeholder, Multi-pronged Approach (like OECD
spam toolkit)
Public-Private Partnership
Make best possible use of existing initiatives and
structures
Infrastructure for botnet scanning, measurement and
mitigation
Capacity building on tools and techniques to track botnets
Identification of trusted interlocuters (e.g., international
security and AV research community, CERT teams) for
incident reporting
September 2007
13
ITU Botnet Mitigation Package
Detection and takedown of botnet hosts and related
infrastructure
Infected PCs (automate as far as possible), C&C hosts,
domains registered for botnet, payment gateways used by
botnets, etc
Build awareness of security best practices for ISPs,
e-commerce sites
Promote general Internet safety through end-user
awareness programmes, engagement of civil society for
assistance and grassroots penetration
September 2007
14
ITU Botnet Mitigation Package
Framework for national botnet related policy,
regulation and enforcement
Multi-stakeholder international cooperation
and outreach
Phase 1 (2007): Downloadable toolkit/guidelines for
ITU Member States
Phase 2 (2008/2009): Targeted national/regional
assistance initiatives
Discussions with Malaysia, India
Cooperation with other partners?
LAP, APEC-TEL/OECD, MAAWG, APWG, Interpol?
September 2007
15
More Information
ITU-D ICT Applications and Cybersecurity Division
www.itu.int/itu-d/cyb/
ITU Botnet Project Website
www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb/cybersecurity/projects/botnet.html
Botnet Mitigation Toolkit Overview
www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb/cybersecurity/docs/itu-botnetmitigation-toolkit.pdf
Regional Workshop on Frameworks for Cybersecurity
and Critical Information Infrastructure Protection
www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb/events/
Cybersecurity Publications
www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb/publications/
September 2007
16
International
Telecommunication
Union
Helping the World Communicate
September 2007
17
