Hackers attack Linux supercomputers

Unknown attackers have compromised a large number of Linux and Solaris machines in high-speed computing networks at Stanford University, California, and other academic research facilities, according to a university advisory.

The attacks, which apparently compromised servers as recently as 3 April, are currently being investigated, according to an advisory posted 6 April by the Information Technology Systems and Services (ITSS) group at Stanford.

The ITSS said in its web advisory: "Stanford, along with a large number of research institutions and high-performance computing centres, has become a target for some sophisticated Linux and Solaris attacks. The attacker appears to be deliberately targeting machines in academic and high-performance computing environments, rather than attacking systems indiscriminately."

Members of Stanford's security team declined to comment, and the university's chief information security officer could not immediately be reached.

The Stanford advisory states: "The perpetrators regularly gain access to an unprivileged local user account, presumably by sniffing passwords, cracking passwords from other compromised systems, or by triggering vulnerabilities in remotely accessible services."

Such local vulnerabilities, as they are called, have led to several compromises on the servers used to host Linux development and distribution in recent months.

Robert Lemos writes for News.com