ITU Botnet Mitigation Project:
Background & Approach
November 2007
Suresh Ramasubramanian & Robert Shaw
<cybmail@itu.int>
ICT Applications and Cybersecurity Division
Policies and Strategies Department, BDT
International Telecommunication Union
International
Telecommunication
Union
Botnets – An Overview
ƒ What is a Botnet?
¾ A collection of infected and compromised
computing devices harnessed together
and remotely controlled for malicious
purposes
ƒ How powerful is a Botnet?
¾ Like supercomputers created through distributed
computing systems
ƒ e.g., BOINC: used for SETI@Home, Atomic Physics
ƒ People agree to donate spare computing resources
¾ Botnets: a special case of distributed computing
ƒ Without consent of computer owner (a zombie)
ƒ Hijacking of computing resources
September 2007
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Botnets – An Overview cont’d
ƒ Botnets are a worldwide menace, widely
used by spammers and cyber criminals
ƒ 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
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Latest Generation
ƒ 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
¾ "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.“
ƒ Honeynet Project & Research Alliance
September 2007
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September 2007
Source: Wired Magazine
5
The Botnet Ecosystem
ƒ Virus Writers, Botherders, Clients
¾ Virus writer writes malware, infects
computers to create botnet
¾ Botherder operates the botnet
“command and control” (C&C)
¾ Clients hire botnets to distribute spam, launch
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, to
conduct identity theft
ƒ Highly developed underground channels of
communication
¾ “Secret” forums/chat rooms that shift location
¾ Access on a need to know basis, new entrants may
need to be vouched for by existing participant
September 2007
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The Botnet Ecosystem cont‘d
ƒ Botherders now offer “service level
agreements” to clients
¾ Guaranteed replacement of botnet in case anti-virus
researchers release fix for malware or botnet is
taken down
ƒ Organized crime involved in all stages of
ecosystem
¾ Employ virus writers to create malware
¾ Carry out spam campaigns, espionage, ID theft,
cyber-attacks
¾ Laundering of money stolen from victims
September 2007
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Evolution of Botnets
ƒ C&C centers harder to trace
¾ Originally hosted on public IRC channels
¾ Now encrypted, access restricted C&C software
ƒ C&C centers may be hosted on botnets
¾ Increased redundancy
¾ Makes takedown harder
ƒ New “headless” single use botnets
¾ No centralized control or C&C required
ƒ new generation of P2P botnets
¾ Instructions embedded into malware
¾ New malware and botnet created for a new task
¾ Cannot stop botnet by taking down its C&C
September 2007
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Evolution of Malware
ƒ Self-propagating: infected hosts infect other hosts
¾ Infection vectors include email, P2P networks, open shared
network folders, Skype, visiting infected website
¾ Newer malware spreads faster than older generations
ƒ Spread resembles global pandemic (SARS, Bird Flu)
¾ Can similar threat models/mitigation mechanism theories
be applied?
ƒ Analysis, Detection and Removal more difficult
¾ Self-destruct mechanisms to destroy data if
malware removed
¾ “Droppers” malware download more payload onto
compromised host
¾ Encryption and debuggers / Virtual Machine (VM) traps to
prevent forensic analysis
September 2007
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What can you do with a Botnet?
ƒ Send spam
¾ Most visible use of botnets
¾ Botnets can host entire spam campaign
ƒ Including DNS servers, website hosting, spam
sending
ƒ Content can change location from PC to PC,
country to country, in minutes
¾ “Take” from a spam run can be reused
ƒ 419 scam artists now buying lists of compromised
accounts from botherders, using these to spam
¾ But spam is just the tip of the iceberg
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What else can you do with a Botnet?
ƒ Attack a country’s Internet infrastructure
¾ Estonia: 128 unique DDoS attacks in two weeks
ƒ Extortion/Blackmail
¾ Threaten to DDoS/cripple e-commerce websites
ƒ Identity theft and Industrial Espionage
¾ Steal credit cards, passwords, etc. from infected PCs
¾ Use computing power of a botnet to break into secured
networks and steal data, credit cards
ƒ Stock “Pump and Dump” scams
¾ Use spam from botnet PCs to advertise stock
¾ Trade in this stock using online share trading accounts
from infected PCs, artificially boost prices
September 2007
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ITU Botnet Mitigation Project originally inspired
by Australian Internet Security Initiative (AISI)
ƒ Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)
partnership with 25 Australian ISPs
¾ ACMA collects data on IPs emitting malware
ƒ Identifies IPs operated by participating Australian ISPs
ƒ Notifies ISP responsible for affected IPs
¾ ISPs undertake to mitigate malware activity from infected
IPs on their networks
ƒ Notify infected customers
ƒ Change security and filtering policies as necessary
ƒ AISI project working internationally to
fight botnets and has agreed to assist ITU
project and extend AISI to other ITU
Member States
September 2007
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ITU Botnet Mitigation Package
ƒ Identify coordination agency for a nationwide botnet
mitigation strategy
¾ Multi-stakeholder, Multi-pronged Approach (like OECD
spam toolkit)
¾ Public-Private Partnership
¾ Make best possible use of existing initiatives and
structures
ƒ Infrastructure for botnet scanning, measurement and
mitigation
¾ Capacity building on tools and techniques to track botnets
¾ Identification of trusted interlocuters (e.g., international
security and AV research community, CERT teams) for
incident reporting
September 2007
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ITU Botnet Mitigation Package
ƒ Detection and takedown of botnet hosts and related
infrastructure
¾ Infected PCs (automate as far as possible), C&C hosts,
domains registered for botnet, payment gateways used by
botnets, etc
ƒ Build awareness of security best practices for ISPs,
e-commerce sites
ƒ Promote general Internet safety through end-user
awareness programmes, engagement of civil society for
assistance and grassroots penetration
September 2007
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ITU Botnet Mitigation Package
ƒ Framework for national
botnet related policy,
regulation and enforcement
ƒ Multi-stakeholder
international cooperation
and outreach
¾ Phase 1 (2007): Downloadable
toolkit/guidelines for ITU
Member States
¾ Phase 2 (2008/2009):
Targeted national/regional
assistance initiatives
ƒ Malaysia, TBD
September 2007
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More Information
ƒ ITU-D ICT Applications and Cybersecurity Division
¾ www.itu.int/itu-d/cyb/
ƒ ITU Botnet Project Website
¾ www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb/cybersecurity/projects/botnet.html
ƒ Botnet Mitigation Toolkit Overview
¾ www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb/cybersecurity/docs/itu-botnetmitigation-toolkit.pdf
ƒ Regional Workshop on Frameworks for Cybersecurity
and Critical Information Infrastructure Protection
¾ www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb/events/
ƒ Cybersecurity Publications
¾ www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb/publications/
September 2007
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International
Telecommunication
Union
Helping the World Communicate
September 2007
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