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New ‘Meow’ attack has deleted almost 4k unsecured databases

bleepingcomputer.com

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Re: New ‘Meow’ attack has deleted almost 4k unsecured databases

#11

Post by glckr »

petee wrote: post #5

Somehow I feel good about this. The article claims nothing good can come of deleting exposed databases, but I strongly disagree - I'd by far rather my data be deleted than stolen and shared. If the owner doesn't have proper backups AND can't secure a database, they have no business hosting such data, period. IMHO.

No other bad actors can get it, but we don't know if it's already been found, and now that it's gone we have no idea what data is out in the wild. And as you note, we can't trust the companies to accurately report it themselves.

Re: New ‘Meow’ attack has deleted almost 4k unsecured databases

#13

Post by neutronman »

petee wrote: post #5

Somehow I feel good about this. The article claims nothing good can come of deleting exposed databases, but I strongly disagree - I'd by far rather my data be deleted than stolen and shared. If the owner doesn't have proper backups AND can't secure a database, they have no business hosting such data, period. IMHO.

+1

Any entity this irresponsible shouldn’t hold data.

Re: New ‘Meow’ attack has deleted almost 4k unsecured databases

#16

Post by bhargav »

petee wrote: post #5

Somehow I feel good about this. The article claims nothing good can come of deleting exposed databases, but I strongly disagree - I'd by far rather my data be deleted than stolen and shared. If the owner doesn't have proper backups AND can't secure a database, they have no business hosting such data, period. IMHO.

This also affected people who use software for things other than businesses. People with IoT apps for their home, researchers, etc.

Our field is vast and there is a large variance in people just using the basics of CS and those who keep up with standards and best practices, etc.

Your statement is basically akin to someone saying that it’s fine for people to get robbed if they went out with their wallet; or worse.. killed.

Re: New ‘Meow’ attack has deleted almost 4k unsecured databases

#19

Post by PanMan »

Twirrim wrote: post #10
EGreg wrote: post #7

How does this work? Will it affect MySQL databases accessible from the Internet but secured with a long random password?

Don't expose MySQL databases to the internet. Just don't. Stick an API layer in at the very least with key based auth, and only the bare minimum capabilities allowed for the user. That said, if you'd read the article you'd see that so far only unsecured MongoDB, Elasticsearch and Redis installations are being attacked so far.

Most SAAS db providers provide their database over the internet, but secured with a login/pass. Eg all DB's on Heroku elements marketplace work like this.

Re: New ‘Meow’ attack has deleted almost 4k unsecured databases

#20

Post by contrarianmop »

I prefer this over having data stolen.

Also as a rule of thumb never ever expose anything but port 80 and 443 if hosting a webapp.

If you must expose services other than http/s then be sure to not leak its version, have it secured properly and _always_ up to date. The user running such services should also be a non privileged user, the daemon chrooted, and the OS should have appropriate process and filesystem permissions in place.

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