ID: IRCNE2013101982
Date: 2013-10-14
According to “ComputerworldUK”, a massive breach of Adobe Systems' network was discovered after the source code of numerous products, including the Web application development platform ColdFusion, sat parked on a hacker's unprotected Web server open to the Internet.
The breach, which also encompassed 2.9 million encrypted customer credit card records, was announced by Adobe on 3 October. Adobe had already been investigating a breach when Alex Holden, chief information security officer of Hold Security, independently found what turned out to be the company's source code on a hacking gang's server.
Adobe's source code "was hidden, but it was not cleverly hidden," Holden said.
Perusing the directory of the server, Holden found a directory with the abbreviation "ad." It was filled with "interesting" file names, Holden said, including encrypted ."rar" and ".zip" files.
It's not clear if the files were stolen from Adobe in an encrypted format or if the hackers encrypted the files and then uploaded them to their server, Holden said. In either case, Adobe confirmed it was indeed source code.
Source code could make it easier for hackers to find vulnerabilities in Adobe's products, Holden said. But so far, no new zero-day vulnerabilities -- the term for a vulnerability that is already being exploited but doesn't have a patch -- have surfaced in the last couple of months since the source code was taken, Holden said. So far, the source code has not been publicly released.
The server also holds data stolen from several other companies, which have since been notified that they may have been struck by the gang as well, Holden said. Some of those breaches could become public if the companies elect to make an announcement.
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