The Windows Flaw That Cracks Amazon Web Services

Nerval's Lobster writes "Developer and editor Jeff Cogswell decided to poke around the security of Amazon Web Services, and found a potential loophole that could theoretically allow anyone — a developer, an unscrupulous Amazon employee, the NSA — to access and copy data volumes stored on the system, using a slightly modified version of the popular 'chntwp' password tool. In this article, he breaks down how he did it, and suggests some ways for those who use cloud-hosting services to keep their data a little more secure in the future. 'The key here, of course, is that an unscrupulous employee might be able to make a copy of any existing Windows volume, and go to work on it without the customer ever knowing that it happened,' he writes. 'Now let's be clear: I'm not accusing anyone of having done this; in fact, I doubt anybody has, considering I was unable to find a working copy of chntpw until I modified it.' It's a security concern, and one that's particularly insidious to patch."

Use TrueCrypt

[duke_cheetah2003]

Going to need a copy of the VM's memory and some skill at finding the crypto keys in there in addition to the volume if you use TrueCrypt.

I use AWS and I truecrypt my source code database that I store there.

I lose automatic full reboot (I have to log in and manually mount that volume), but that's worth the additional privacy/security.

New definition of "Accessibility"

[Zero__Kelvin]

This can all be done simply without Linux using Windows and without chntpw. Simply add the drive to a system you own, move Magnify.exe out of the way (for later restoration), and copy command.exe to Magnify.exe then boot of the modified drive and choose to use the "Accessibility Tool". Instant command shell with full priveledge escalation. I have personally done this on Windows Server 2008. I do not know if they finally got smart and added code to prevent this in Server 2012, but I wouldn't be surprised if it works on every version of Windows that has the "Accessibility Options" on the login screen.