Trojan horse (computing)

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This article refers to a form of malware in computing terminology. For other meanings, see Trojan Horse (disambiguation)

In the context of computing and software, a Trojan horse, or simply trojan, is a piece of software which appears to perform a certain action but in fact performs another such as transmitting a computer virus. Contrary to popular belief, this action, usually encoded in a hidden payload, may or may not be actually malicious, but Trojan horses are notorious today for their use in the installation of backdoor programs. Simply put, a Trojan horse is not a computer virus. Unlike such malware, it does not propagate by self-replication but relies heavily on the exploitation of an end-user (see Social engineering). It is instead a categorical attribute which can encompass many different forms of codes. Therefore, a computer worm or virus may be a Trojan horse. The term is derived from the classical story of the Trojan Horse.

In the field of computer architecture, 'Trojan Horse' can also refer to security loopholes that allow kernel code to access anything for which it is not authorized.[citation needed]

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[edit] Origin of the Term

The word 'Trojan horse' is generally attributed to Daniel Edwards of the NSA. He is given credit for identifying the attack form in the report "Computer Security Technology Planning Study".[1] The term comes from analogy to an episode during the legendary Trojan War, as mentioned in Homer's Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid: worn out by the long siege, the attacking Greeks built a giant wooden horse, ostensibly a peace offering, and pretended to sail away, but in fact left soldiers hidden inside the statue. After the Trojans brought the horse inside the city walls, the soldiers emerged, opened the gates to the Greek armies, and sacked the city of Troy.

A very classic example, is due to computer pioneer Ken Thompson in his 1983 ACM Turing Award lecture. Thompson noted that it is possible to add code to the UNIX "login" command that would accept either the intended encrypted password or a particular known password, allowing a back door into the system with the latter password. Furthermore, Thompson argued, the C compiler itself could be modified to automatically generate the rogue code, to make detecting the modification even harder. Because the compiler is itself a program generated from a compiler, the Trojan horse could also be automatically installed in a new compiler program, without any detectable modification to the source of the new compiler.[2]

[edit] Example

The simple example of a Trojan horse would be a program named "waterfalls.scr" where its author claims it is a free waterfall screensaver. When run, it instead unloads hidden programs, commands, scripts, or any number of commands with or without the user's knowledge or consent. Malicious Trojan Horse programs are often used to circumvent protection systems in effect creating a vulnerable system to allow unauthorized access to the user's computer. Non-malicious Trojan Horse programs are used for managing and forensics.

[edit] Types of Trojan horse payloads

Trojan horse payloads are almost always designed to do various harmful things, but can also be harmless. They are broken down in classification based on how they breach and damage systems. The six main types of Trojan horse payloads are:

  • Remote Access
  • Data Destruction
  • Downloader
  • Server Trojan(Proxy, FTP , IRC, Email, HTTP/HTTPS, etc.)
  • Security software disabler
  • Denial-of-service attack (DoS)

Some examples of damage are:

  • Erasing or overwriting data on a computer
  • Encrypting files in a cryptoviral extortion attack
  • Corrupting files in a subtle way
  • Upload and download files
  • Copying fake links, which lead to false websites, chats, or other account based websites, showing any local account name on the computer falsely engaging in untrue context
  • Showing fake downloads of software movies, games, porn videos and porn websites, that you did not download nor go on.
  • Allowing remote access to the victim's computer. This is called a RAT (remote access trojan)
  • Spreading other malware, such as viruses: this type of Trojan horse is called a 'dropper' or 'vector'
  • Setting up networks of zombie computers in order to launch DDoS attacks or send spam.
  • Spying on the user of a computer and covertly reporting data like browsing habits to other people (see the article on spyware)
  • Making screenshots
  • Logging keystrokes to steal information such as passwords and credit card numbers
  • Phishing for bank or other account details, which can be used for criminal activities
  • Installing a backdoor on a computer system
  • Opening and closing CD-ROM tray
  • Playing sounds, videos or displaying images.
  • Calling using the modem to expensive numbers, thus causing massive phone bills.
  • Harvesting e-mail addresses and using them for spam
  • Restarting the computer whenever the infected program is started
  • Deactivating or interfering with anti-virus and firewall programs
  • Deactivating or interfering with other competing forms of malware
  • Randomly shutting off the computer
  • A virus

[edit] Methods of deletion

Since Trojan horses have a variety of forms, there is no single method to delete them. The simplest responses involve clearing the temporary internet files on a computer, or finding the file and deleting it manually ( safe mode is recommended ). Normally, anti-virus software is able to detect and remove the trojan automatically. If the antivirus cannot find it, booting the computer from alternate media(cd) may allow an antivirus program to find a trojan and delete it. Updated anti-spyware programs are also very efficient against this threat.

[edit] Disguises

Most varieties of Trojan horses are hidden on the computer without the user's awareness. Trojan horses sometimes use the Registry, adding entries that cause programs to run every time the computer boots up. Trojan horses may also work by combining with legitimate files on the computer. When the legitimate file is opened, the Trojan horse opens as well.

[edit] How Trojans Work

Trojans usually consist of two parts, a Client and a Server. The server is run on the victim's machine and listens for connections from a Client which is used by the attacker.

When the server is run on a machine it will listen on a specific port or multiple ports for connections from a Client. In order for an attacker to connect to the server they must have the IP Address of the computer where the server is being run. Some trojans have the IP Address of the computer they are running on sent to the attacker via email or another form or communication.

Once a connection is made to the server, the client can then send commands to the server; the server will then execute these commands on the victim's machine.

Today, with NAT infrastructure being very common, most computers cannot be reached by their external ip address. Therefore many trojans now connect to the computer of the attacker, which has been set up to take the connections, instead of the attacker connecting to his or her victim. This is called a 'reverse-connect' trojan. Many trojans nowadays also bypass many personal firewall installed on the victims computer. (eg. Poison-Ivy)

Trojans are extremely simple to create in many programming languages. A simple Trojan in Visual Basic or C# using Visual Studio can be achieved in 10 lines of code or under.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notable instances

[edit] References

  1. ^ Anderson, James P. (1972), Computer Security Technology Planning Study, pp. 62, <http://seclab.cs.ucdavis.edu/projects/history/papers/ande72.pdf> 
  2. ^ Thompson, Ken (October 1983). "Reflections on Trusting Trust" (PDF). 1983 Turing Award Lecture, ACM. 

[edit] External links

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