Hackers reopen stolen code store with Cisco wares

It's offering the code for Cisco Systems' PIX firewall software for $24,000

By Paul Roberts

November 3, 2004 12:00 PM ET

IDG News Service - An anonymous group of malicious hackers reopened an online store that sells the stolen source code of prominent software products and is offering the code for Cisco Systems Inc.'s PIX firewall software for $24,000, according to messages posted in online discussion groups.
The Source Code Club reappeared online Monday, using messages to online security discussion groups to announce that it was back in business. The group is using e-mail and messages posted in a Usenet group to communicate with customers and take orders for the source code of several security products, including Cisco's PIX 6.3.1 firewall and intrusion-detection system software from Enterasys Networks Inc., the group said.
Cisco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The club first surfaced in July, using a Web page with an address in Ukraine and messages posted to the Full-Disclosure security discussion list to advertise its wares. Initially, the Source Code Club said it was selling "corporate intel[ligence]" to its customers, along with other unnamed services, according to a message posted in July to the Full-Disclosure mailing list by a group or individual using the name "Larry Hobbles."
The club offered the Enterasys Dragon IDS 6.1 source code for $16,000 and the code for file sharing software from Napster LLC, now part of Roxio Inc., for $10,000. However, the group was forced to shutter its operations after just a few days, citing the need to redesign its business model (see story).
In its latest incarnation, the Source Code Club is still marketing itself as a corporate espionage service, but is also playing on domestic security fears, appealing to "intelligence agencies [and] government organizations" that want to understand exactly what products like Cisco's PIX firewall do.
The group has raised the price on the Enterasys and Napster code, to $19,200 and $12,000, respectively, according to a new message from the group, which was also posted under the name "Larry Hobbles."
The Source Code Club is also offering private membership for those who buy one full copy of product source code, with the promise of access to a list of more source code "deemed to [sic] sensitive to put up," the message said.
Cisco PIX is one of the most commonly deployed corporate firewalls. Version 6.3.1 was first released in March 2003. The current version is 6.3.4, which was released in July.

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
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