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Data leaks: The most common sources

This gallery contains a list of the technologies that have been many times at the heart of a large number of data breaches incidents in the past few years.
By Catalin Cimpanu, Contributor
The technologies at the heart of most data leaks
1 of 14 Image: ZDNet

The technologies at the heart of most data leaks

Docker, a tool designed to make it easier to create, deploy, and run applications (as containers), is one of the most popular technologies in cloud server environments these days.

Despite a 2017 joint report from Cisco and Rapid7 finding that there were over 1,000 Docker containers left exposed online without any authentication, there haven't been any major data breaches reported via this technology, until now.

Nonetheless, the potential for abuse is there, and it's being exploited already. Not by data thieves, but by crypto-mining groups.

To avoid any potential Docker container hijacks --which in turn can lead to data thefts or accidental leaks-- there are some steps that server owners can take.

AWS S3
2 of 14 Image: Amazon, ZDNet

AWS S3

Amazon Simple Storage Service, or Amazon S3, is a data storage service that comes included with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) web hosting package from Amazon. Over the past few years, S3 has been a nightmare to work with, coming with complicated controls and settings, which have led to many incidents where companies have left S3 servers exposed online, leaking sensitive data along the way. Here's a short list of the biggest incidents:

MongoDB
3 of 14 Image: MongoDB, ZDNet

MongoDB

MongoDB, a NoSQL database solution, has been at the heart of many data leaks, probably as many as AWS S3 incidents, if not more. Here's a small --and very incomplete-- list:

For securing MongoDB servers, the advice listed in this blog post is the first steps that most database admins should be taking.

ElasticSearch
4 of 14 Image: Elastic, ZDNet

ElasticSearch

ElasticSearch is a technology used for powering distributed search technologies, which in lay terms can be narrowed down to "very powerful search system." It is a ubiquitous technology because it's very good at its job.

Developed to be deployed on internal networks, ElasticSearch installations have suffered from the same problems that have plagued MongoDB installations, where companies install them and forget to put a password or a firewall to protect the cached search results, which in many cases included highly sensitive information.

ElasticSearch has been at the heart of a large number of breaches recently, but we're only gonna list a few from the past months:

For information on securing ElasticSearch cluster, please go to this guide.

Kibana
5 of 14 Image: Elastic, ZDNet

Kibana

Kibana is a software package that works as a visual interface (GUI) for viewing ElasticSearch data. It is almost always installed with ElasticSearch clusters.

Many of the security breaches reported as being caused by ElasticSearch are, in reality, caused by admins leaving the Kibana interface without a password, while the ElasticSearch server underneath is well-secured. The opposite scenario is also valid, where Kibana has a password, but the ElasticSearch server is left wide open on the internet.

It's hard to distinguish post factum which of the ElasticSearch breaches were caused by Kibana and which by the ElasticSearch. We created a separate slide to make sure ElasticSearch server owners understand that they also need to make sure they password-protect their Kibana apps as well as the ElasticSearch server that runs beneath it.

rsync
6 of 14 Image: rsync Project, ZDNet

rsync

Rsync is a data backup utility that allows computers to synchronize and transfer files between different workstations. It's an internet-based service, which automatically means it's almost guaranteed that someone misconfigured it at least once. And, they have.

The most notorious incidents where rsync misconfigurations led to data breaches include (1) a 2016 report when a leaky rsync server exposed new evidence into an inmate's suicide, (2) a spam mail operator who leaked 1.37 billion email addresses via a rsync service, and (3) the Oklahoma Department of Securities, which leaked details about FBI investigations earlier this year.

Apache CouchDB
7 of 14 Image: Apache Foundation, ZDNet

Apache CouchDB

CouchDB is a lesser-known open source NoSQL database solution. It is coded in Erlang, and is currently developed by the Apache Foundation.

Just like its other database brethren, CouchDB can be misconfigured and can leak data. Past data breaches caused by CouchDB instances include the Thomson Reuters World-Check database of people suspected of terrorist activities, a database for managing alarm systems at Oklahoma banks and government agencies, and a CouchDB storing details for 154 million US voters.

The CouchDB security guide is available here.

etcd
8 of 14 Image:ZDNet

etcd

Etcd is a database server that is most often used in corporate and cloud computing environments. They are a standard part of CoreOS, an operating system developed for cloud hosting environments, where they are used as part of the OS' clustering system. CoreOS uses an etcd server as a central storage environment for passwords and access tokens for applications deployed via its clustering/container system.

The technology is relatively new, and there has been only one leak caused by an etcd database recorded to date --that of Finnish phone maker Nokia. However, the potential for more is there, as there are over 2,200 etcd servers currently exposed online, some of which may be freely accessible to anyone.

Firebase
9 of 14 Image: Google, ZDNet

Firebase

Firebase is a Backend-as-a-Service offering from Google that contains a vast collection of services that mobile developers can use in the creation of mobile and web-based applications.

An Appthority report from June 2018 found that thousands of iOS and Android mobile applications are exposing over 113 GBs of data via over 2,271 misconfigured Firebase databases.

JIRA
10 of 14 Image: Atlassian, ZDNet

JIRA

Jira is a proprietary issue tracking product developed by Atlassian. JIRA has a reputation of being hard to configure due to the terms it uses in its UI controls. Over the past few years, organizations who accidentally made JIRA boards public include NASA, the United Nations, and... thousands more.

Trello
11 of 14 Image: Atlassia, ZDNet

Trello

Trello is a web-based project management application developed by Atlassian. It suffers from the same confusing wording of various UI controls that sometimes lead to accidental exposures of companies' internal project boards. Accidental exposures have happened at the United Nations, the UK government, and the Canadian government.

Sometimes, the accidental exposure of some Trello boards can become much much worse if employees post passwords for other services and servers on those boards, which appears to be a common practice.

Kubernetes
12 of 14 Image: Kubernetes // Composition: ZDNet

Kubernetes

Kubernetes is a new type of software that's usually deployed on cloud server infrastructure. It's used for managing large IT networks and for quickly deploying app containers across multiple servers. If ever left exposed online, such systems usually expose the keys to the kingdom, allowing attackers to access existing server containers or deploy new ones with specific tasks in mind.

The most prominent companies that suffered a breach because of an exposed Kubernetes instance include Tesla Motors and Weight Watchers.

Albeit there are over 20,000 Kubernetes systems currently available online, most are properly secured, and there have been very few leaks that originated from Kubernetes until now.

But give it time! The technology is still new, and no doubt there will be many snafus in the coming months and years. If Kubernetes admins are looking into securing such systems, this page is the first place to go.

Docker
13 of 14 Image: Docker, ZDNet

Docker

Docker, a tool designed to make it easier to create, deploy, and run applications (as containers), is one of the most popular technologies in cloud server environments these days.

Despite a 2017 joint report from Cisco and Rapid7 finding that there were over 1,000 Docker containers left exposed online without any authentication, there haven't been any major data breaches reported via this technology, until now.

Nonetheless, the potential for abuse is there, and it's being exploited already. Not by data thieves, but by crypto-mining groups.

To avoid any potential Docker container hijacks --which in turn can lead to data thefts or accidental leaks-- there are some steps that server owners can take.

Redis
14 of 14 Image: Redis, ZDNet

Redis

Redis is an open source in-memory data structure store, that can be used as a database, cache system, and message broker. By design, Redis does not come with any default authentication system and all data stored inside its memory is stored in clear text.

Over the past several years, there have been numerous reports warning that there are tens of thousands of Redis servers currently available online without a password.

While there have been a small number of companies who lost data to hackers after leaving servers exposed online, most hacker groups have focused on using these servers for crypto-mining operations, mainly because they have access to large hardware resources that other database systems don't tend to have.

An Imperva 2018 study found that 75 percent of all Redis servers currently left without a password online had already been infected with one or more types of malware. While companies might not be interested in securing servers against malware attacks, these infections are still considered breaches, and companies will be forced to send breach notifications when such incident (considered an intrusion) is detected, regardless. So, in the end, it wouldn't hurt server owners to take a look at the Redis security page and follow the tips and advice on that page.

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