Thursday, March 15, 2007

Nginx http server, possibly a criminal indicator?

Just like using Linux doesn't automatically make you a criminal, I doubt that using Nginx (proncouned, "Engine-X") is necessarily a criminal act. But is it an indicator?

I noticed it today as part of a light analysis of a real world exploit of the Overlong RTSP link bug for Quicktime. This is a lightweight http server that is now associated with at least one case of network crime by serving up a fairly fresh exploit.

Again, most phishing sites today run on Apache with PHP, and most phishing login pages have words like "FDIC Insured" and "All Rights Reserved" and have a login form with a password input field. Taken separately, none of these indicators a phishing site make. Taken together, it's a strong indication of crime.

So, I'm wondering -- has anyone else run into Nginx doing evil? I'm curious what the evil:good ratio is in the real world, and if it's something defenders/auditors/LEOs can use to help profile potentially malicious sites.

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