Rook Security Unveils Hacking Team Breach Detection Tool

IT security firm Rook Security has released a free software tool designed to help organizations determine if they have been impacted by malware developed by Italian surveillance software maker Hacking Team.

The tool, dubbed the “Milano utility” by Rook, scans systems for the presence of files associated with the recent Hacking Team breach.

According to the Indianapolis, Indiana-based security firm, the tool can perform a basic scan for files by filename, or a more comprehensive deep scan that checks all files (using their computed hash) against all md5s from Hacking-Team-associated files leaked in the breach.

Italy-based Hacking Team offers lawful interception tools, which the company calls “offensive technology,” to law enforcement and intelligence agencies from all over the world.

On July 5, attackers leaked hundreds of gigabytes of sensitive information allegedly obtained from Hacking Team’s systems, including a torrent file containing 400GB of internal documents, source code, zero-day exploits, and email communications including detailed customer information. 

“This breach has been very unique in nature and challenging for security technology vendors to obtain code samples to create signatures and patches, thereby leaving scores of systems potentially vulnerable to nefarious actors seeking to weaponize Hacking Team’s once proprietary tools,” said J.J. Thompson, CEO of Rook Security. “After our Intelligence Team quickly deduced how the leaked code could be weaponized and used for harm, we immediately put a team in place to identify, analyze, and detect malicious files located in this data.”

Rook security also said that it has been collaborating with the FBI Indianapolis Cyber Task Force in response to the Hacking Team breach, and has been briefing the FBI on key findings that its researchers have identified within the breached and publicly-leaked Hacking Team company files.

“A primary part of our mission is to facilitate information sharing between public and private organizations, particularly when it involves timely and sensitive issues associated with data breaches, weaponizable code and their potentially harmful fallout,” said W.J. Abbott, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Indianapolis Division.

A beta release of the Milano Hacking Team Malware Detection Utility, along with a list of the indicators of compromise (IOCs) for the Hacking Team breach are available online.