April 24, The Register – (IDG News Service) Hackers now pick tools from script kiddies’ toybox – report. Hackers are increasingly turning to automated software tools to launch attacks. According to research from Imperva, more than 60 percent of SQL injection attacks and as many as 70 percent of Remote File Inclusion attacks (the two most common attack types) are automated. Remote File Inclusion attacks allows hackers to plant back doors on PHP-based Web sites. Tools like Havij and SQLMap are used by miscreants to probe for vulnerabilities and execute SQL injection attacks. These tools also employ techniques to evade detection, such as periodically changing headers or splitting attacks through controlled hosts to avoid black-listing. In the past, using attack tools was purely for novices but these attitudes are changing, said Imperva’s director of security strategy. Automatic attack tools can be used to attack more applications and exploit more vulnerabilities than any manual method, making them a useful adjunct for skilled attackers.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/24/crackers_tools/
