The incorrect Firebase configuration usually stems from people trying to have the frontend write database entries directly, however these developers usually had an old-school backend sending structured objects to Firebase, so that issue was kinda mitigated.

>I'd heard of sqlmap but I didn't realize it was so good

The blog correctly explains how it has become pretty useless in our age where noone writes their own database integration anymore and everyone uses off-the-shelf components, but man... I remember a time when it felt like literally every sufficiently complex web service was vulnerable to sql injection. You could write a small wrapper for sqlmap, hook it up to the results of a scraper, let it run over night on every single piece of data sent to the server and the next day you'd have a bunch of entry points to choose from. It even handled WAFs to some degree. I'm out of it-sec for several years now, but I still remember every single command line argument for sqlmap like it was yesterday.

I agree, I'm blown away at the level to which this kind of probing and exfiltration has been abstracted. Not quite surprised that years of iteration have led to this, but still, I didn't realize it'd become this easy.

"I'd heard of sqlmap but I didn't realize it was so good that you can just hand it a URL that hits the database and the tool basically figures out from there how to dump the database contents if there's any SQL injection vulnerability."

If there's one lesson I'd convey to people about security it is do not underestimate your foes. They've been building tools for decades just like any other discipline.

Tech to find a hole in your system that lets you run an arbitrary-but-constrained fragment of shell code that can put a small executable on to the system that puts a larger executable on that lifts itself up to root and also joins a centralized command-and-control server with the ability to push arbitrary code across entire clusters of owned systems is not some sort of bizarre, exotic technology that people only dream of... it's off-the-shelf tech. It's a basic building block. Actually sophisticated attackers build up from there.

If $YOU're operating on the presumption I see so often that the script kiddies blind-firing Wordpress vulnerabilities at servers is the height of attacker's sophistication $YOU are operating at an unrecoverable disadvantage against these people.

I'm not familiar with this app but based on the read, it sounds like they're essentially relying on someone to sneak into the target's phone, install an apk with a 'Settings' logo, where you grant it all permissions (I assume the installer facilitates the process of manually granting full permissions for each permissions type and disabling battery optimization). Android does allow you to effectively delegate full permissions to an app like that, albeit in a manual way.

I think setting up your own evil-proxy or evil-wifi-hotspot and periodically connecting your phone to them may help in the detection of these and many other phone home malware. I am getting closer to the paranoia threshold to almost give it a try.

Yeah this whole exercise was completely illegal and I'm surprised this person publicly (and proudly) blogged about it like this.

They probably need to engage an attorney now.

That would be an amusing exercise in self-incrimination & discovery pain for Catwatchful. They would also have to quantify business losses, which requires admitting the value of an illicit enterprise. But YOLO am I right? LFG!

About half of hacking articles are just fake things people claim to have done but didn’t actually happen and no one checks on it, and conveniently by the time they publish the exploit was “fixed”. So you can’t verify for yourself anyway.

Without hard proof that the author did what they said they did, you have no real case. This particular story already sounds far fetched but makes good fantasy.

Considering that it was simply just a PoC and the disclosures are listed at the bottom, before the publication, this would usually be considered "white hat" which... throughout history has always been a bit of a grey area. Although more and more businesses are accepting the help when they are given it. I do agree you shouldn't use your Christian name in these sorts of situations since priors have not been established with the targetted company; however Catwatchful has no impetuous to pursue meaningless charges for a stalker app as there are no damages.

Do you really think that the users of a stalker app care if the app got "hacked" once or twice? Do you also think that the app makers themselves really want to remind the legal world that this stuff is legal when i bet you >50% of their users probably installed it on devices that aren't theirs? IDK, personally I would avoid the law at all costs if I released something this shady.

I'd be willing to bet that getting their user's passwords is part of their goal. So they would need to be stored somewhere.

They probably just didn't care to