Backdoors and Logic Bombs
Backdoor
- Originally placed in computer programs to bypass the normal security and authentication functions of those systems
- "Used to bypass the normal security and authentication functions"
- Horrible and old security practice
- Most often put into systems by designers and programmers
- Breach of secure programming best practices
- Remote Access Trojan (RAT) acts just like a backdoor in our modern networks
- Can be placed by a threat actor on your computer to help them maintain persistent access to that system
Easter egg
- a hidden feature or novelty within a program that is typically inserted by the software developers as an inside joke
- Code often has significant vulnerabilities
- No real functionality, but a hidden/secret feature but adds additional code that may have vulnerabilities associated with them
- Doesn't always go through the same rigorous security protocols before releasing them as production/applicaiton code
Logic Bombs
- Malicious code that's inserted into a program, and the malicious code will only execute when certain conditions have been met
- "Execute every single day at midnight"
- 1993 Jurassic Park
- Keep all the dinosaurs inside the electrified enclosure
- His Logic bomb is designed to shut down the power for a few minutes so he can run in, steal some dinosaur embryos, and then sell them to get rich
- There is no power, so he is able to go pass all the alarms
- Dinosaurs ate him at the end (bad ending)
- "Create an action at a certain time"
Never include backdoors, easter eggs, or logic bombs, including them is considered a bad developer practice.