>If you follow Android and haven’t heard of Anti, the Android Network Toolkit then you must be living under a rock. This app was featured at DEFCON in Las Vegas a few weeks back and since has been the talk of countless twitter post and news articles. Security professionals from around the globe have been trying to get their hands on this currently closed beta security tool. Fortunately, we at MIUI.us have been lucky enough to get our hands on a few beta keys as well as a quick Q and A session with the two guys from zImperium, the security firm behind it all. The Israeli security firm touts a great level of expertise in wide variety of technical fields including: Reverse Engineering, Malware Research, Penetration Testing, and Development.
How does Anti work?
The idea is to use Anti to detect vulnerabilities in a network or on a machine so that they can be hardened or patched. Anti will allow users to scan currently connected Wi-Fi networks as well as open networks, to discover potential target devices on those networks. Once Anti finds an active IP address on the network, the real fun begins with nmap scanning. Nmap uses raw IP packets to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics. When the app finds a vulnerable target, the app offers the user several command options, such as “Man-in-the-Middle” for eavesdropping on found devices. “Attack” is another command and will tell Anti to exploit existing vulnerabilities in the target machine in order to compromise it as well as the “Spy” and “Connect” commands. Anti also includes traceroute software for identifying IP addresses of remote servers.
A network penetration testing tool such as Anti helps network administrators find out whether the network is vulnerable and where such vulnerabilities lie. When vulnerabilities are discovered, the next logical step would be to patch up those holes to keep out unauthorized users.
Anti can also be used by black hat hackers–those wishing to use this amazing security tool for mischievous reasons, however, this is not the intended use. In the app’s terms of service, you’ll find some familiar words including those from Uncle Ben, Peter Parker’s uncle: “Anti is your perfect mobile companion, doing it all for you. Please remember, with great power comes great responsibility. Use it wisely”.
zImperium Q&A Session
1. How long has ZImperium been around?
Zuk: Since September 2010
2. What computer related backgrounds do you two have?
Elia: Intel Assembly specialist, Security consultant, Reverser in heart.
Zuk: Security Researcher, Exploiter (Ladies: Single)
3. How long has Anti been in the works?
The idea originated long time ago, but only started manifesting about 6 months ago, and grew bigger and bigger as we added more methods to scan and penetrate network/targets. As every hacker/pentester knows, Anti is just the tip of the ice – the possibilities are endless.
4. How is beta coming along and is it meeting your expectations so far?
Great! We’re getting positive response, fixed most of the reported bugs already. We’re also making small changes to the design to make the App even more user friendly.
5. What drove you two to consider building Anti?
Elia: While I was teaching Security/Hacking classes, many of my students asked for an easy to use, non-technical method to do it. They didn’t even imagine Antis’ possibilities. Neither did I, until I met Zuk
Zuk: When Elia told me about Ant (First app was named Ant) and I’ve shared my ideas and inputs that took Ant to the penetration testing/ethical hacking perspective. We wanted the app to be the easiest app to use, sort of ‘Hacking for the masses’ App that underneath the fancy design does most technical & complex hacking tricks/methods that are being used by top hackers nowadays, at the push of a button!
6. Do you favor any particular brand of phone?
Elia: Samsung hw ftw!
Zuk: Samsung.
7. Do you run custom Roms? If so what is your daily runner?
Elia: I used to play a lot with customizations, but due to lack of time I gave up on it. Maybe in the future.
Zuk: Used my own Rom till I gave up updating it myself and using CM7 at the moment.
8. Where do u see ZImperium in 10 years?
Both: The next Google.
9. Do you guys plan on building any other apps down the road?
We have many innovative apps/programs cooking up, but this will have to stay classified for now.
10. What’s the first app you download when you get a new phone?
Elia: Android Terminal.
Zuk: An app to read logcat on device (obtain information that may assist in understanding if specific crash is exploitable or not / debugging).
How to use Anti
When you first launch Anti, it defaults to scan your local subnet. For me at home, this was 192.168.1.104/24. When selecting scan, you have two options: 1) Scan Parameters and 2) Scan script. After selecting the type of scan and optional script, Anti scans your subnet to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running. You can also enter remote hosts into Anti for traceroute mapping and penetration testing.
As you can see in the provided screen caps below, Anti found 5 devices on my network. Some devices were found with file sharing ports enabled (Microsoft) or remote access. No vulnerabilities were found at this time. Which makes sense; all of my notebooks and desktops are, to the best of my ability, fully patched.
Since Anti is currently in beta, the best way to use this version of Anti is starting out with a fresh copy of Windows XP S0-3, turn off the Windows Firewall and see the vulnerabilities fly. The next beta of Anti should prove to be much better. According to zImperium, the next soon-to-be-released beta update will fix the exploitable computer detection will include many fixes and enhancements. Users then will be able to get better exploitable results (and thus use the Attack command). Also, some more plugins will be added, my guess in Man-In-The-Middle. I didn’t have much luck with the Spy command at this time, maybe it will be enhanced as well. After this update has been released, I plan on installing a fresh copy of Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 on VMs (Virtual Machines) for a full scale test of the new exploitable/attackable results. Fingers crossed and confidence high, I’ll be back with a review in a week or two covering my full penetration testing results on those systems.
Anti, the Android Network Toolkit is showing some great potential. zImperium has the foundation for an amazing product, I’m excited to see where they go with this and to use it for mobile penetration testing when it officially launches. I’d like to thank Itzhak Avraham (Zuk) and Elia from zImperium for the Anti Beta key. I’d also like to thank leeech from MIUI.us for all of your help with this review.
