I huge part of what we do is to spot trends and have a look at them before it is too late. Today I would like to talk about Live Mesh, a technology you are probably not very familiar with but it is a brand new thing and it will hit the streets in the next couple of months. Therefore, it is a good candidate for abuse from attackers, bot masters and other friendly inhabitants of the Undernet.

Live Mesh

The idea is very simple. Live Mesh is a Microsoft technology that will allow you to synchronize all your private data across every single device, i.e. you create a mesh network. This means that if I update a document on one computer, that change will be reflected across all other participants in the same mesh network. Sounds good and interesting but the more you read about it the worser taste it leaves in your mount. Let’s see why:

  1. It is based on Microsoft Live ID. This means that if someone hacks into your WebMail they essentially hack into your network as well. Cross-site Scripting attacks does not look that harmless now, do they? That messages is intended for all haters.
  2. It works form the browser using SilverLight. This means that everything is accessible via the reach GUI environment of .NET. Sweet! Files, documents, etc.
  3. It uses HTTP enhanced RDP to provide remote desktop connectivity. As the video on Channel 10 suggest, It bypasses the firewall! Now this is interesting. I wonder how my RDP shell injection attack will work here.

So now, at the age where Web technologies merge with the desktop, we have some serious security consequences to think about. I’ve been talking about this for ages and I am glad to see that my predictions are coming so right.