How RAM Scrapers Work: The Tool Behind the Latest Credit Card Hacks
1–10 of 30 posts
Re: How RAM Scrapers Work: The Tool Behind the Latest Credit Card Hacks
#2From what I gather from the article, the systems which RAM scrapers attack were running on general purpose computers, with very similar vulnerabilities.
Why isn't sensitive software like this built and audited with the same concern for reliability and security as avionics, medical equipment, SCADA, etc.? Certainly the cost in financial losses caused by these attacks makes this a pertinent question.
Re: How RAM Scrapers Work: The Tool Behind the Latest Credit Card Hacks
#3From what I gather from the article, the systems which RAM scrapers attack were running on general purpose computers, with very similar vulnerabilities. Why isn't sensitive software like this built and audited with the same concern for reliability and security as avionics, medical equipment, SCADA, etc.? Certainly the cost in financial losses caused by these attacks makes this a pertinent question.
>Why isn't [..] software like this built and audited [...] for reliability and security as avionics, medical equipment, SCADA, etc.?
Imply that it is. It very very often isn't at all.
Re: How RAM Scrapers Work: The Tool Behind the Latest Credit Card Hacks
#4The term "RAM scraper" seems pretty stupid to me.
These are likely using hooking. They don't scan RAM all the time, instead they patch or inject code into the POS software and then record the data when that code is called.
Think of something like Microsoft Detours. RAM scrapers seems a pretty inaccurate description.
Re: How RAM Scrapers Work: The Tool Behind the Latest Credit Card Hacks
#5so are these hardware that somehow people manage to sneak and install on a store's network? How would them monitor traffic and get the credit card info?
Edit: The articles does say: "Attackers installed these RAM scrapers surreptitiously on the point-of-sale systems used to scan and process credit and debit card transactions at Albertson’s and Supervalu. The tools make it easy to steal card numbers by the millions as they pass through the system."
But still a bit confusing if these are hardware devices or somehow they install software to do this.
Re: How RAM Scrapers Work: The Tool Behind the Latest Credit Card Hacks
#6I don't get it, you spend all this money on card readers, they've got all kinds of anti-hacking software/hardware/sensors, but the scanner sends the cards as plain text to the register?
Re: How RAM Scrapers Work: The Tool Behind the Latest Credit Card Hacks
#7The term "RAM scraper" seems pretty stupid to me. These are likely using hooking. They don't scan RAM all the time, instead they patch or inject code into the POS software and then record the data when that code is called. Think of something like Microsoft Detours. RAM scrapers seems a pretty inaccurate description.
> How RAM Scrapers Work
> Once on a targeted system, RAM scrapers work by examining the list of processes that are running on the system and inspecting the memory for data that matches the structure of credit card data, such as the account number, expiration date, and other information stored on a card’s magnetic stripe.
No hooking, sounds exactly like they're looking through the memory assigned to each process looking for the right looking data.
Re: How RAM Scrapers Work: The Tool Behind the Latest Credit Card Hacks
#8so are these hardware that somehow people manage to sneak and install on a store's network? How would them monitor traffic and get the credit card info? Edit: The articles does say: "Attackers installed these RAM scrapers surreptitiously on the point-of-sale systems used to scan and process credit and debit card transactions at Albertson’s and Supervalu. The tools make it easy to steal card numbers by the millions as…
They're purely software. The article does briefly discuss attacks on ATMs and similar devices that use concealed hardware to intercept user data, but the RAM scrapers that are the main focus of the article are just pieces of software.
Re: How RAM Scrapers Work: The Tool Behind the Latest Credit Card Hacks
#9The term "RAM scraper" seems pretty stupid to me. These are likely using hooking. They don't scan RAM all the time, instead they patch or inject code into the POS software and then record the data when that code is called. Think of something like Microsoft Detours. RAM scrapers seems a pretty inaccurate description.
> How RAM Scrapers Work > Once on a targeted system, RAM scrapers work by examining the list of processes that are running on the system and inspecting the memory for data that matches the structure of credit card data, such as the account number, expiration date, and other information stored on a card’s magnetic stripe. No hooking, sounds exactly like they're looking through the memory assigned to each process looki…
Okay, so, how do they harvest live data? Scan constantly? That would have a risk of missing something or of slowing down the system.
I suspect that is just an oversimplification, of course, unless they post the malware in question I can't really say for sure.
Re: How RAM Scrapers Work: The Tool Behind the Latest Credit Card Hacks
#10From what I gather from the article, the systems which RAM scrapers attack were running on general purpose computers, with very similar vulnerabilities. Why isn't sensitive software like this built and audited with the same concern for reliability and security as avionics, medical equipment, SCADA, etc.? Certainly the cost in financial losses caused by these attacks makes this a pertinent question.
BH2014 -- SCADA: Why Control System Cyber Security Sucks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km8FZaBqpgg&list=UUbbgnifxfH...