Andy Cronin - Ethical Hacking Honours Project - Drive-by Healing

Folk hate updating their computers, it’s long and then the computer needs restarting, or the update could be full of bugs and slow down the computer, so why do it in the first place?

Well I want to tell you that updates for your computer can be vital. They are made to makes things better, more secure and more reliable. Yes they take time but without them our computers would be slow, crash more often than not and probably be riddled with viruses.

My idea is to make these updates painless. To do this I’m going to try to use hacking techniques, the naughty hacking techniques that send and spread viruses or damage computers, but instead of loading these techniques with viruses I’m going to load theses techniques with updates and anti-virus tools and safe secure stuff that will hopefully HEAL computers of their ailments.

The technique I’m going to try to use is known as a Drive-by Download attack, which involves innocent users browsing normally but then getting stung by a website that instead of sending them useful content sends them a virus. The user doesn’t know, the virus is well hidden and the Drive-by Download happens without even a pop-up or any kind of notification.

It sounds dodgy but I want updates to happen in a similar way, that don’t bother the user and hide away and do what they need to, to make sure the computer is up to date and clean.

How can this be done legally? Well I want to create a Wi-Fi Hotspot that has this technique built-in. The Wi-Fi Hotspot will:

• Wait for a new user,
• Give the user a hotspot log-in page
  (but instead of asking for a password, ask the users a simple question)
• Would you like your computer Updated for you? (and if they agree!)
• Then the hotspot page could run the Drive-by technique and start healing the computer!

The system could then allow the user to browse freely whilst their computer was updated and they could walk away at the end of their session with a much healthier computer.

This idea I call Drive-by Healing!

Some of my latest research and explanations

• Plan of Action (andyrussellcronin.wordpress.com)
• All Change – New Project (andyrussellcronin.wordpress.com)
• Understanding Heap Spraying (andyrussellcronin.wordpress.com)
• Payload Ready (andyrussellcronin.wordpress.com)