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It’s your first day on the job as the new System Admin and you can’t wait to take on the day. Congratulations. After meeting with a few of your co-workers and the other people you are going to be helping throughout the building, you grab a cup of that fresh poisonous morning brew and head back to your office.
Quick rant, I swear toilet manufacturers and coffee companies have a secret contract together because there is no logical reason why you should down a cup and have to rush to the bathroom to exercise your sphincter moments later. They are in cahoots, and you can’t tell me otherwise.
Back on track, you’re back at your office sitting at your computer clearing out emails, and responding to tickets, and you notice a file named “Click here, there’s nothing to worry about.” You pause and think, “Maybe there is something to worry about”, you look back only for it to then say “No, really, there’s nothing to worry about. Promise.”
You wrestle with the thought and after a short time of debating you figure just checking the file out couldn’t be any harm, surely nothing could go wrong, you then receive an alert for a countdown. Let me script for you how things are about to blow up.
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First Day Ticking
There’s a countdown, meaning you’re on a time clock and it’s a race to solve this problem. Relax, this is no cause for panic, you’re just having some first-day bad luck. The event you just triggered with your curiosity is called a “Logic bomb”.
Logic bombs go by other names such as “Slag code” or “Slug code” but the result is still the same. A flavor of bad things happens at the end of the countdown which leads to the involuntary clapping of your cheeks via boss or client.
Logic bombs are malicious code inserted into an application and are designed to go off when the right event has taken place. This isn’t to be confused with “time bombs” as time bombs are a subset of logic bombs.
Time bombs are coded to go off at a specific time. This is like how a typical bomb operates but the only upside is you get to keep all your limbs instead of being either wheelchair or casket bound for the rest of your existence.
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Coded Bombs Outsourced
What kind of person would leave you with such a treat for your first day on the job? Well, if you could recall how your now boss felt about the previous Sys Admin, you might have thought that it could’ve been him. But before any confirmation of them being the culprit here’s a brief history on logic bombs.
The history of Logic Bombs dates to the Cold War, you know, that good ole USA vs USSR. The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) had launched a trojan horse- that was in code, they didn’t actually launch a trojan horse, on the Soviet Union back in 1982. This was widely considered to be the original use of the logic bomb.
In the event of a logic Bomb being launched, a trucking company had some dealings with a software contractor, leading to a disagreement. Following that disagreement was the threat of using a logic bomb unless the client paid the invoices.
This had gone to court and the client won. Finally, this great-at-outsourcing country, the USA was on the receiving end of a logic bomb. Our army found that significant amounts of data were deleted which led to reservists being delayed for deployment and in payment. The Army was able to restore the data after coughing up $2.5 million for an investigation and repairing systems.
How does any of this relate to your situation? Well, the previous Sys Admin might have been unhappy, and this is the kill from beyond the grave. You just happened to be the tool to set things in motion. Also, the individual that launched the logic bomb received jail time and had to pay $1.5 million in restitution. United States of America baby, we love our bills.
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High Level and Too Close
How could the previous Sys Admin be the culprit you might be wondering. The design of a logic bomb depends on the one creating it and what their goals are. They’re usually created by someone with high-level access, granting them the ability to have many options as to where the bomb or bombs could be placed.
Being able to dress them as viruses, malware, or worms furthers an already growing attack vector list and can make it even harder to trace the origin. As mentioned before, a few conditions could be required for detonation, one being something simple like opening a file. The other could be natural as the payload goes off when a time criterion is met.
The developers’ goals could range from releasing a worm to infect the network, releasing ransomware to extort money from the company, or deletion of files and worse the hard drive. And once the dust settles, the culprit, if clever, is long gone as this could have been left months or even a year behind.
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Build-A-Bomb Prevention Plan
At this junction, you’re probably wondering how you would be able to catch something like this from going off in your company or simply just avoiding this whole event together. One way to prevent this and I know the majority of companies are going to say, “THAT’S AN OUTRAGE!” Ensuring that the people who are closest to sensitive items and information are paid could help and seeing them paid well could be a huge benefit.
Money doesn’t solve everything but being able to pay your bills on time does help. Other forms of prevention are used up to date antivirus software as the logic bomb might have been injected into a virus or malware, scanning all files from time to time – this includes all compressed files, avoiding clicking on suspicious email attachments like “Nude Cowgirl Midgets” from known and unknown sources, keeping your OS (Operating System) up to date, and training staff not to click on anything promising them a good time. Logic bombs are tricky by design but with a watchful eye, you might be able to spot one in time and stop yourself from…well, exploding.
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