Blocking or Limiting the
NetBIOS Communication? (as well as other default services)
The two common methods of intruders to break into home computers, are through a RAT (which was discussed in II.3a) and through the NetBIOS communication. The NetBIOS is a standard for naming computers in small networks, developed long ago by IBM and Microsoft. There are a few communication standards which are used in relation to the NetBIOS. The ones that are relevant for Microsoft Windows operating systems, are: NBT (NetBIOS over TCP/IP), IPX/SPX, and NetBEUI. The communication standard which is used over the Internet, is NBT. If it is enabled, and there is no firewall or something else in the middle, it means that your computer is listening for communications over the Internet via this standard, and will react according to the different NBT commands that it gets from the remote programs. It is thus that the NBT (which sometimes loosely called "NetBIOS") is acting as a server. So the next question should be "what remote NBT commands the NBT server will do on the local computer". The answer to this question depends on the specific setting on your computer. You may set your computer to allow file and print sharing. If also NBT is enabled, it means that you allow remote users to share your files or printers. This is a big problem. It is true that in principle the remote user has to know your password for that computer, but many users do not set a password for their user on Windows, or set a trivial password. Older versions of Win95 had file and print sharing over NetBIOS enabled by default. On Win98, and WinMe it was disabled by default, but many technicians, when they set a home network, they enable the file and print sharing, without being aware that it influences also the authorizations of a remote Internet user. There are even worms and viruses who use the File sharing option to spread in the Internet. Anyway, no matter whether you need it for some reason or just are not aware of it, a personal firewall can identify and block any external effort to communicate with the NetBIOS server on your computer. The more flexible personal firewalls can be set to restrict the authorization to communicate with the NetBIOS. Some Windows operating systems, especially those which are not meant for home uses, offer other public services by default, such as RPC. A firewall can identify communication efforts to them, and block them. Since such services listen to remote communications, there is a potential risk when there are efforts to exploit security holes in the programs that offer the services, if there are such security holes. A firewall may block or limit the communication to those services.
Hiding Your Computer on the Internet?
Without a firewall, on a typical computer, even if well maintained, a remote person will still be able to know that the communication effort has reached some computer, and perhaps some information about the operating system on that computer. If that computer is handled well, the remote user will not be able to get much more information from your computer, but might still be able to identify also who your ISP is, and might decide to invest further time in cracking into your computer.
With a firewall, you can set the firewall so that any communication effort from remote users (in the better firewalls you may define an exception list) will not be responded at all. This way the remote user will not be able to even know that it reached a live computer. This might discourage the remote attacker from investing further time in effort to crack into your computer.
The Non-Firewall Defenses
We've discussed a few situations where a personal firewall can provide defense. Yet, in many cases a computer maintainer can deal with those situations even without a firewall. Those "alternative" defenses, in many cases are recommended regardless of whether you use a firewall or not.
Remote Access Trojans?
The best way to defend against remote access Trojans (RATs) is to prevent them from being installed in the first place on your computer. A RAT should first infect your computer in order to start to listen to remote communication efforts. The infection techniques are very similar to the infection techniques that viruses use, and hence the defense against Trojan horses is similar to the defense against viruses. Trojan horses do not distribute themselves (although they might be companions of another Internet worm or virus that distributes them. Yet, because in most cases they do not distribute themselves, it is likely that you will get them from anonymous sources, such as instant messengers, Kazaa, IRC, or a newsgroup. adopting a suspicious policy regarding downloads from such places, will save you not only from viruses but also from getting infected with Trojan horses, including RATs. Because Trojan horses are similar in some ways to viruses, almost all antivirus programs can identify, block from being installed, and remove most of the Trojan horses, including all the common ones. There are also some programs (sometimes called antiTrojan programs) which specialize in the identification and removal of Trojan horses. For a list of those programs, and for comparison on how well different antivirus, and antiTrojan programs identify different Trojan horses, see Hackfix (http://www.hackfix.org), under "Software test results". Hackfix also has information on the more common RATS (such as the Netbus and the Subseven) and on how to remove them manually. There are some tools and web sites, such port scanners, and some ways with a use of more generic tools such as telnet, msconfig, and netstat, which may help you to identify a RAT.
Other types of Trojans and worms?
Also here your main interest should be to prevent them from infecting your computer in the first place, rather than blocking their communication. A good antivirus and a good policy regarding the prevention of virus infections, should be the first and most important defense.
Spyware and Adbots?
The term spyware is sometimes misleading. In my view, it is the responsibility of the adware developer to present the fact that the adware installation will install or use an independent adbots, and to provide the information on how this adbot communicates, and which information it delivers, in a fair place and manner before the adware is installed. It is also a responsibility to provide this information in their web sites, so that people will be aware of that before they even download the software. Yet, in general, those adbots do not pose any security threat, and in many cases also their privacy threat is negligible for many people (e.g. the computer with adbot number 1127533 has been exposed to advertisements a, b, c, such and such times, while using adware x, while on computer with adbot number 1127534 has been exposed to advertisements a,d, and e, such amount of time, with the use of adware y, and clicked on ads number d). It should be fully legitimate for software developers to offer an advertisement supported programs, and it is up to the user to decide whether the use of the program worth the ads and the adbot, or not. Preventing adbot from communicating is generally not a moral thing. If you decide to use an adware, you should pay the price of letting the adbot work. If you don't want it, please remove the adware, and only if for some reason the adbot continue to work even if no hosting adware that uses it is installed, you may remove the adbot. Anyway, there are some very useful tools to identify whether a program is a "spyware", or whether a "spyware" is installed on your computer, and you are certainly entitled to this information. Two useful programs are "AdAware" which identifies "spyware" components on your computer and allows you to remove them, and Ad-Search which allows you to provide a name of a program, and it tells you whether this program is a "spyware" and which adbot it uses. It is useful to assist you in choosing whether to install a program or not. You may find those programs in http://www.lavasoft.nu (or, if it doesn't work, you may try http://www.lavasoftusa.com). Those programs are useful, mainly because many adware developers are not fair enough to present this information in a fair manner. AdAware allows you to also remove those adbot components from your computer. This might, however, terminate your license to use the hosting adware programs, and might even cause them to stop functioning. A website which offers to check whether a specific program that you wish to install is "spyware" or not, is http://www.spychecker.com .
Blocking Advertisements?
Leaving aside the moral aspect of blocking advertisements, a personal firewall is not the best tool for that anyway. This is not the main purpose of a firewall, and neither its main strength. Some of them can block some of the advertisements from being downloaded, if you know how to configure them for that. Yet, there are better tools for that, such as Proxomitron (http://www.proxomitron.org), CookieCop 2 (search for the word cookiecop on http://www.pcmag.com), or Naviscope (http://www.naviscope.com), and there are many other programs as well. You may check for other alternatives, e.g. in Tucows (http://www.tucows.com/adkiller95.html).
Blocking Tracking Sites?
Also here, a personal firewall is not the best tool for that, and there are other tools and ways which are more effective. These are cookie utilities. Since a tracking site uses a cookie to identify and relate the information gathered to the same person (or computer), by preventing the cookie from being installed. The tracking site will lose its ability to track things. There are plenty of cookie management utilities. Some of them are freeware, and some are not. CookieCop which was mentioned in the former section is one of them. WebWasher (http://www.webwasher.com) is another recommended one, and there are plenty of other alternatives such as cookie-crusher, cookie-pal, pop-up killer, etc. You may search for other alternatives, in Tucows (http://www.tucows.com/cookie95.html).
The two common methods of intruders to break into home computers, are through a RAT (which was discussed in II.3a) and through the NetBIOS communication. The NetBIOS is a standard for naming computers in small networks, developed long ago by IBM and Microsoft. There are a few communication standards which are used in relation to the NetBIOS. The ones that are relevant for Microsoft Windows operating systems, are: NBT (NetBIOS over TCP/IP), IPX/SPX, and NetBEUI. The communication standard which is used over the Internet, is NBT. If it is enabled, and there is no firewall or something else in the middle, it means that your computer is listening for communications over the Internet via this standard, and will react according to the different NBT commands that it gets from the remote programs. It is thus that the NBT (which sometimes loosely called "NetBIOS") is acting as a server. So the next question should be "what remote NBT commands the NBT server will do on the local computer". The answer to this question depends on the specific setting on your computer. You may set your computer to allow file and print sharing. If also NBT is enabled, it means that you allow remote users to share your files or printers. This is a big problem. It is true that in principle the remote user has to know your password for that computer, but many users do not set a password for their user on Windows, or set a trivial password. Older versions of Win95 had file and print sharing over NetBIOS enabled by default. On Win98, and WinMe it was disabled by default, but many technicians, when they set a home network, they enable the file and print sharing, without being aware that it influences also the authorizations of a remote Internet user. There are even worms and viruses who use the File sharing option to spread in the Internet. Anyway, no matter whether you need it for some reason or just are not aware of it, a personal firewall can identify and block any external effort to communicate with the NetBIOS server on your computer. The more flexible personal firewalls can be set to restrict the authorization to communicate with the NetBIOS. Some Windows operating systems, especially those which are not meant for home uses, offer other public services by default, such as RPC. A firewall can identify communication efforts to them, and block them. Since such services listen to remote communications, there is a potential risk when there are efforts to exploit security holes in the programs that offer the services, if there are such security holes. A firewall may block or limit the communication to those services.
Hiding Your Computer on the Internet?
Without a firewall, on a typical computer, even if well maintained, a remote person will still be able to know that the communication effort has reached some computer, and perhaps some information about the operating system on that computer. If that computer is handled well, the remote user will not be able to get much more information from your computer, but might still be able to identify also who your ISP is, and might decide to invest further time in cracking into your computer.
With a firewall, you can set the firewall so that any communication effort from remote users (in the better firewalls you may define an exception list) will not be responded at all. This way the remote user will not be able to even know that it reached a live computer. This might discourage the remote attacker from investing further time in effort to crack into your computer.
The Non-Firewall Defenses
We've discussed a few situations where a personal firewall can provide defense. Yet, in many cases a computer maintainer can deal with those situations even without a firewall. Those "alternative" defenses, in many cases are recommended regardless of whether you use a firewall or not.
Remote Access Trojans?
The best way to defend against remote access Trojans (RATs) is to prevent them from being installed in the first place on your computer. A RAT should first infect your computer in order to start to listen to remote communication efforts. The infection techniques are very similar to the infection techniques that viruses use, and hence the defense against Trojan horses is similar to the defense against viruses. Trojan horses do not distribute themselves (although they might be companions of another Internet worm or virus that distributes them. Yet, because in most cases they do not distribute themselves, it is likely that you will get them from anonymous sources, such as instant messengers, Kazaa, IRC, or a newsgroup. adopting a suspicious policy regarding downloads from such places, will save you not only from viruses but also from getting infected with Trojan horses, including RATs. Because Trojan horses are similar in some ways to viruses, almost all antivirus programs can identify, block from being installed, and remove most of the Trojan horses, including all the common ones. There are also some programs (sometimes called antiTrojan programs) which specialize in the identification and removal of Trojan horses. For a list of those programs, and for comparison on how well different antivirus, and antiTrojan programs identify different Trojan horses, see Hackfix (http://www.hackfix.org), under "Software test results". Hackfix also has information on the more common RATS (such as the Netbus and the Subseven) and on how to remove them manually. There are some tools and web sites, such port scanners, and some ways with a use of more generic tools such as telnet, msconfig, and netstat, which may help you to identify a RAT.
Other types of Trojans and worms?
Also here your main interest should be to prevent them from infecting your computer in the first place, rather than blocking their communication. A good antivirus and a good policy regarding the prevention of virus infections, should be the first and most important defense.
Spyware and Adbots?
The term spyware is sometimes misleading. In my view, it is the responsibility of the adware developer to present the fact that the adware installation will install or use an independent adbots, and to provide the information on how this adbot communicates, and which information it delivers, in a fair place and manner before the adware is installed. It is also a responsibility to provide this information in their web sites, so that people will be aware of that before they even download the software. Yet, in general, those adbots do not pose any security threat, and in many cases also their privacy threat is negligible for many people (e.g. the computer with adbot number 1127533 has been exposed to advertisements a, b, c, such and such times, while using adware x, while on computer with adbot number 1127534 has been exposed to advertisements a,d, and e, such amount of time, with the use of adware y, and clicked on ads number d). It should be fully legitimate for software developers to offer an advertisement supported programs, and it is up to the user to decide whether the use of the program worth the ads and the adbot, or not. Preventing adbot from communicating is generally not a moral thing. If you decide to use an adware, you should pay the price of letting the adbot work. If you don't want it, please remove the adware, and only if for some reason the adbot continue to work even if no hosting adware that uses it is installed, you may remove the adbot. Anyway, there are some very useful tools to identify whether a program is a "spyware", or whether a "spyware" is installed on your computer, and you are certainly entitled to this information. Two useful programs are "AdAware" which identifies "spyware" components on your computer and allows you to remove them, and Ad-Search which allows you to provide a name of a program, and it tells you whether this program is a "spyware" and which adbot it uses. It is useful to assist you in choosing whether to install a program or not. You may find those programs in http://www.lavasoft.nu (or, if it doesn't work, you may try http://www.lavasoftusa.com). Those programs are useful, mainly because many adware developers are not fair enough to present this information in a fair manner. AdAware allows you to also remove those adbot components from your computer. This might, however, terminate your license to use the hosting adware programs, and might even cause them to stop functioning. A website which offers to check whether a specific program that you wish to install is "spyware" or not, is http://www.spychecker.com .
Blocking Advertisements?
Leaving aside the moral aspect of blocking advertisements, a personal firewall is not the best tool for that anyway. This is not the main purpose of a firewall, and neither its main strength. Some of them can block some of the advertisements from being downloaded, if you know how to configure them for that. Yet, there are better tools for that, such as Proxomitron (http://www.proxomitron.org), CookieCop 2 (search for the word cookiecop on http://www.pcmag.com), or Naviscope (http://www.naviscope.com), and there are many other programs as well. You may check for other alternatives, e.g. in Tucows (http://www.tucows.com/adkiller95.html).
Blocking Tracking Sites?
Also here, a personal firewall is not the best tool for that, and there are other tools and ways which are more effective. These are cookie utilities. Since a tracking site uses a cookie to identify and relate the information gathered to the same person (or computer), by preventing the cookie from being installed. The tracking site will lose its ability to track things. There are plenty of cookie management utilities. Some of them are freeware, and some are not. CookieCop which was mentioned in the former section is one of them. WebWasher (http://www.webwasher.com) is another recommended one, and there are plenty of other alternatives such as cookie-crusher, cookie-pal, pop-up killer, etc. You may search for other alternatives, in Tucows (http://www.tucows.com/cookie95.html).
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