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Thu, 30 Sep 2004

Heros 30 Sep
Two people that I'm in awe of: Derek Jeter for his post 9/11 work and whoever the guy is that came up with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Both have touched more lives than they can ever imagine.

joat: 13:00:00 30 Sep 2004


Phishing, Fraud and Other 30 Sep
CastleCops has an article entitled "Phishing, Fraud and Other Dastardly Deeds, Part 1".

joat: 12:30:00 30 Sep 2004


Using NetFlow 30 Sep
Security Focus has a multi-part series on "Detecting Worms and Abnormal Activities with NetFlow": part 1, part 2.

joat: 12:00:00 30 Sep 2004


No op 30 Sep
I've turned off the referer vanity for a bit. I'm taking a beating from the Global Compass/Cyberwurx spam and need to rewrite the plugin or come up with a way to block the source(s). The former seems like it'd be more successful than the latter. It's a bit down on the "to do" list though.

joat: 11:45:00 30 Sep 2004


GDI Exploit 30 Sep
A working version of the JPEG buffer overflow was demo'd in class last night. This can possibly be a very bad thing but not in the way that the mainstream media is twitching about it. While a worm is possible, I don't think it's likely to be all that effective.

Think about it. The vectors aren't really right. Normally a worm exploits an already running service. This exploit is part of a graphics library which means a graphics-based program must run. Unless it's combined with (or used to amplify) another exploit, we're not going to see another Nimda.

What's more likely to happen is that this (version, at least) will deepen the relationship between the hackers and the spammers (if there's a difference nowadays). The spammers can deliver corrupt graphics via browser pop-ups and spam which can cause the victim machines to offer up reverse shells on just about any port.

So much for the theoretical part. What was demo'd last night was the reverse shell version. It wouldn't work under IE (patched possibly?) but it did work locally via the file browser. What's worse was the XP automatically generated a preview of the JPG so that as soon as you opened the folder, the local machine provided a shell prompt to the instructor's machine, running netcat.

But wait! There's more! Remember that you can configure XP to open the folder when a thumb drive is inserted? Yep, it does. And let's not forget autorun! This makes it a very nasty insider tool.

To give proper credit, very little of the above my own thought train. Most of it belongs to Rob and Ian. The rest was observed and conjectured during the demo.

As for countermeasures, it's probably going to be more economical to configure IDS systems to detect the exploit rather than the exploitation, due to the lack of default port, IP or even graphic. Since remote delivery vehicles will probably be limited to SMTP, HTTP, and the various graphics-capable IM programs, it will probably be easier to watch for the shell code coming in than the reverse shell going out. That and not all of the exploits involve reverse shells. Hopefully we'll shortly see both types of BleedingEdge signatures.

Let add my own two cents to the SANS vs. MS detector argument. Yes, the SANS detector triggers on a lot more files than the MS version does but you should read the text that comes with the SANS detector. The MS one is built for MS purposes. The additional DLL's detected can be either additional ones that link to non-MS programs that you've installed or they can be backups of upgraded libraries. It's worthwhile to check what programs access those libraries (Foundstone has some of the tools needed for this) and, if possible, upgrade or disable the programs.

Oh, and one last thing: "Good luck! You're on your own!"

joat: 11:30:00 30 Sep 2004


Wed, 29 Sep 2004

Wireless Attacks 29 Sep

joat: 13:00:00 29 Sep 2004


LURHQ's take on the JPEG trojan 29 Sep
LURHQ has a good commentary on the JPEG trojan that has some of the media upset. Many had first run with the initial story of it being a virus. It's not. It's a trojan. In other news, K-Otik has also posted an all-in-one version of the exploit.

joat: 12:45:00 29 Sep 2004


ISOC paper 29 Sep
Here's a paper on "The Social Engineering of Internet Fraud".

joat: 12:30:00 29 Sep 2004


Connection Cutter 29 Sep
Here's a discussion of how to cut connections using various methods on a Linux-based firewall.

joat: 12:00:00 29 Sep 2004


Tue, 28 Sep 2004

Evolution 2.0 28 Sep
/. has an announcement about Evolution 2.0 being released. Since I already use SA, including it in the MUA may be redundant but I'd like to see what they're doing with it.

joat: 23:30:00 28 Sep 2004


MS Security Training 28 Sep
Brian Johnson (BufferOverrun) has pointed out the various free security training offerings at Microsoft's Security Clinics and Labs.

joat: 13:00:00 28 Sep 2004


Graphviz 28 Sep
Abe Usher (Sharp Ideas) has an interesting post about Graphviz that I'm probably going to need in the near future.

joat: 12:30:00 28 Sep 2004


RING 28 Sep
From the Summerschool2004 Wiki, here's a paper discussing remote identification.

joat: 12:00:00 28 Sep 2004


Mon, 27 Sep 2004

180Solutions 27 Sep
The following links are going to be valuable in the near future as a friend is having to deal with an infection:

Also of interest is:

  • DoxDesk Parasites
  • joat: 13:30:00 27 Sep 2004


    AIM security bot 27 Sep
    Abe User (Sharp Ideas) has glued together an AIM-based NMap bot.

    This sort of thing is the reason why you need to keep an eye on the traffic that you allow in and out of your network. AIM complicates the situation because it's one of those "tools" that can initiate connections via multiple protocols, HTTP being one of them. If you allow your users to surf, then AIM can probably "get out".

    Nice tool if it's yours, nasty if it "belongs" to someone else.

    joat: 13:00:00 27 Sep 2004


    Wireless programs 27 Sep
    Here's a good article about the open source programs that are moving/showing up in the wireless arena.

    joat: 12:30:00 27 Sep 2004


    HR 3632 27 Sep
    The House of Representatives recently passed a bill which would add penalties for using false information for WHOIS records. (see Slashdot article).

    This can be a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. A good thing as it might help track down spammers and fraudsters who fake up their WHOIS records. It's a bad thing as it will once again expose techie inboxes to tons of spam due to addresses "borrowed" from those same records.

    The current practice is to use a pseudonum for business domains. That way when there's a phone call from a salesman that claims he has an appointment with Bob Wackemwidahammer, you know it's BS.

    joat: 12:00:00 27 Sep 2004


    Sun, 26 Sep 2004

    Chaos Communication Congress 26 Sep
    Found a blog for the upcoming Chaos Communication Congress. The blog is here. The RSS feed is here. The wiki is here. Links to the previous three Congresses are here.

    joat: 14:00:00 26 Sep 2004


    Google hacking copiers? 26 Sep
    Wait a minute! Are you telling me that people hook their copiers directly to the Internet? Without the benefit of a firewall? And then they're surprised when Google finds them?!?

    joat: 13:00:00 26 Sep 2004


    Refi 26 Sep
    Interesting use of technology. Hopefully it won't be considered an income stream. Wonder how hard it'd be to configure an AP and street clients (iPaq's owned by the audience) for multicast. It'd definitely change the experience.

    joat: 12:30:00 26 Sep 2004


    SpoofStick 26 Sep
    Phil Libin (Vastly Important Notes) has a pointer to a "gotta have" plugin for Firefox and IE: SpoofStick, which alerts you to the fact that you're visiting a spoofed web site. Wonder how long before someone writes a version for non-MS browsers. (Hint! Hint!)

    joat: 12:30:00 26 Sep 2004


    Sat, 25 Sep 2004

    Burning Man Phone 25 Sep
    This is the sort of thing that always amazes me, when people can entertain themselves and others by creating art by combining technology and humans. It was art in that people thought it was fake, entertaining because of people's reactions to it. Without those reactions, it's just a phone booth.

    Next year something will probably have to change as people will expect it to be there.

    joat: 15:00:00 25 Sep 2004


    There it goes... 25 Sep
    California law now bans anonymous file sharing. How long before someone applies the law to anything you can download from a website via a single-click or, for that matter, figures out that visiting a website via a proxy constitutes anonymous file sharing. This has the capability of getting really ugly before it gets better.

    joat: 12:30:00 25 Sep 2004


    6 to 4 proxy 25 Sep
    Here's a howto to quickly make your web server available via IPv6 while you figure out how to add IPv6 to the server itself. In other words, a reverse proxy with IPv6 on one side, IPv4 on the other.

    joat: 12:30:00 25 Sep 2004


    Fri, 24 Sep 2004

    Subnet tutorial 24 Sep

    joat: 12:30:00 24 Sep 2004


    Wireless or not? 24 Sep
    I agree with David Berlind (ZDNet article). Even if you don't officially allow "wireless" in your network, you still need to periodically scan for it. Given the extremely cheap availability of access points, you need to periodically check that one of your users hasn't added something to your network.

    joat: 12:00:00 24 Sep 2004


    JPEG bug Snort rules 24 Sep
    Also, SANS has provided some Snort rules to detect the JPEG bug.

    joat: 11:45:00 24 Sep 2004


    GDI Scanner 24 Sep
    SANS has a scanner available so that you can check your systems for the JPEG bug.

    joat: 11:30:00 24 Sep 2004


    Thu, 23 Sep 2004

    SpamAssassin 3.0 23 Sep
    For my to do list.

    joat: 22:50:00 23 Sep 2004


    A kick in the... 23 Sep
    Same day this comes out, I get laid off. Seems my salary came from a non-standard source who needed the money for other things so blogging may get a little spotty as I devote my time to looking for equivalent work. Such is a contractors life though....

    joat: 22:45:00 23 Sep 2004


    Clue 23 Sep
    Brightly colored thumb drive around neck, cell phone on belt, trendy slogan on t-shirt, Dockers --> likely poser

    Cell phone and 2 USB's in pocket, other pocket also lumpy, comfortable (possibly faded) shirt and jeans, spiral notepad sticking out of back pocket, ratty sneakers and bad haircut --> true network geek.

    WTF is techno-congniscenti?

    joat: 22:00:00 23 Sep 2004


    Ethereal Users Guide 23 Sep
    Here is version 2.0 of the User's Guide for Ethereal 0.10.5.

    joat: 12:30:00 23 Sep 2004


    Intro to DoS 23 Sep
    Linux Exposed has an article discussing basic denial of service theory.

    joat: 12:00:00 23 Sep 2004


    Wed, 22 Sep 2004

    Bounce Tunnel?? 22 Sep
    Has anyone been able to duplicate this method of tunneling data via echo request/reply?

    joat: 14:00:00 22 Sep 2004


    Penetration Testing Guide 22 Sep
    I cannot vouch for the quality/accuracy (still no free time), but here's an online guide entitled "Penetration Testing".

    joat: 13:30:00 22 Sep 2004


    The Parasite Fight 22 Sep
    Here's a semi-long piece on fighting spyware, featuring the four biggies (Ad-aware, Spybot S&D, CWShredder, and HijackThis) along with a set of pointers to other tools.

    joat: 13:00:00 22 Sep 2004


    Comment Spam 22 Sep
    Here's a really good article discussing comment spam and the various methods you can use to fight it.

    joat: 12:30:00 22 Sep 2004


    IP Spoofing 22 Sep
    Linux Exposed has a good explanation of the theory behind IP Spoofing.

    joat: 12:00:00 22 Sep 2004


    Tue, 21 Sep 2004

    Sysinternals 21 Sep
    Liudvikas has pointed it out previously but Sysinternals is a good site for tools to monitor what's going on in your machine.

    joat: 23:30:00 21 Sep 2004


    ISC 21 Sep
    Here's a good "behind the scenes" article about the Internet Storm Center.

    joat: 13:30:00 21 Sep 2004


    Two Snorts 21 Sep
    Here's a May Unix Review article which discusses the value of running two instances of Snort: one tuned to protect your service(s), the other with most, if not all, rules turned on to see what's "floating around" on the Internet.

    joat: 12:30:00 21 Sep 2004


    Meeting Point 21 Sep
    Hmm... This has some interesting entertainment, security and law enforcement applications.

    joat: 12:00:00 21 Sep 2004


    Mon, 20 Sep 2004

    802.11 Security 20 Sep
    This site is a very good compilation of the security problems involved with 802.11 wireless.

    joat: 13:00:00 20 Sep 2004


    Bleeding Snort HowTo 20 Sep
    Burak has a how-to for importing Bleeding Snort rules into your existing setup.

    joat: 12:30:00 20 Sep 2004


    Open Source Open Source 20 Sep
    Here's a PowerPoint presentation which discusses inadvertent disclosure of information and lists numerous publicly available sources of information. (via NetSec)

    joat: 12:00:00 20 Sep 2004


    Sun, 19 Sep 2004

    Google Guide 19 Sep
    NetSec has a pointer to the Google Hacking Guide from johnny.ihackstuff. Actually, it's a how-to for using Google to find vulnerabilities.

    If your organization has anything online, you should be running this sort of search against your site(s) every week or so. As many security problems are caused by human error, this might help minimize the problem.

    joat: 14:20:00 19 Sep 2004


    NMap/Nessus Cheat Sheet 19 Sep

    joat: 14:00:00 19 Sep 2004


    Forensics 19 Sep
    David Coursey has a two-part column on computer forensics over on eWeek: part 1, part 2.

    joat: 13:30:00 19 Sep 2004


    802.3 19 Sep
    Here's a good Linux Exposed article describing the make-up of what makes Ethernet what it is: 802.3. (This is also what gets swapped out with 802.11 when you work with wireless.)

    joat: 12:00:00 19 Sep 2004


    Sat, 18 Sep 2004

    Spyware Scan 18 Sep
    Barry Irwin has a good discussion about CA's free online spyware scan.

    joat: 13:30:00 18 Sep 2004


    Walk like an Egyptian? 18 Sep
    Oh please, not another "Talk Like a Pirate" day. Please no!

    joat: 13:00:00 18 Sep 2004


    Types of Attacks 18 Sep
    Linux Exposed has a good article about attacks on *nix systems which is basically a good description of the various types of attacks against any system.

    joat: 12:30:00 18 Sep 2004


    Launder your docs 18 Sep
    Security Musings pointed this one out: if you're going to post redacted Word files in a public forum, make sure you've scrubbed them first.

    joat: 12:00:00 18 Sep 2004


    Fri, 17 Sep 2004

    Acoustic Cryptanalysis 17 Sep
    Anyone know if anything ever came from the acoustic cryptanalysis project from last year?

    joat: 12:30:00 17 Sep 2004


    PocketPC's and Bluetooth Headsets 17 Sep
    My current cell phone is pushing three years old (cannot hold a charge very long) and a new one is on my holiday wish list. Regardless of all the problems with Bluetooth, it's a functionality that my coworkers cannot live without, and one that I'm envious of. And, of course, there are other uses that the manufacturers didn't intend.

    joat: 12:00:00 17 Sep 2004


    Thu, 16 Sep 2004

    NFC 16 Sep
    From NetSec comes a pointer to an article about Near Field Communications which describe communication at very short distances, touting it as a security feature. I don't know about you but I can already think of a way around this "feature": antennas hidden under the table or in nearby innocuous-looking objects.

    joat: 13:30:00 16 Sep 2004


    TCP Reset Attacks 16 Sep

    joat: 13:00:00 16 Sep 2004


    DNS Troubleshooting 16 Sep
    If you have anything to do with network administration and/or security, you have to be well grounded in in DNS theory. It's the service that most everything else on the Internet depends on. It's also the source of many of your network problems, intentional or otherwise. Here's a paper by Gideon T. Rasmussen which discusses basic troubleshooting steps. It's a bit CyberGuard-centric but does give you an idea for starting points for troubleshooting problems.

    joat: 12:00:00 16 Sep 2004


    Disclosure 16 Sep
    I don't like the approach but this paper contributes to the ongoing discussion (religious war?) involving full disclosure.

    joat: 12:00:00 16 Sep 2004


    Wed, 15 Sep 2004

    Organization Maturity? No. 15 Sep
    I agree with Axel that it's not a failure of information security but that of people when it comes to our current problems. I also agree that the thought that security is mainly a technical problem, although popular within the marketing realm, is a misleading one. However, I dislike the view of a company's maturation. The quality of any company's security depends on the quality (you can say "whim") of the people within that company. A company's security "maturity" is measured by how well its policies are accepted, practiced and enforced. Unfortunately, it's not a progressive process. Any change (in finances, employees, management, politics, love life, business model) has the ability to massively affect the quality of an organization's overall security.

    joat: 13:00:00 15 Sep 2004


    DNS 15 Sep
    Linux Exposed has a good article about DNS theory and attacks on same.

    joat: 12:30:00 15 Sep 2004


    VoIP Security 15 Sep
    Here's a NIST Guide entitled "Security Considerations for Voice Over IP Systems".

    joat: 12:00:00 15 Sep 2004


    Tue, 14 Sep 2004

    IP Law 14 Sep
    Doug Simpson has some good pointers to IP Law primers.

    joat: 13:00:00 14 Sep 2004


    XP subversion 14 Sep
    Here's a Naval Postgraduate School thesis entitled "Using the Bootstrap Concept to Build an Adaptable and Compact Subversion Artifice" by Lindsey Lack which discusses the concept of an adaptable subversion artifice (a trap door). It's a very interesting read and a bit scary if you consider that we have to trust our closed-system vendors not to have included something like this.

    Six lines of code?

    joat: 12:30:00 14 Sep 2004


    Magazine Quiz 14 Sep
    Back in the days when the term "hacker" denoted someone fascinated with how things worked and not a form of criminal, three students wrote The Hacker Test, writing it in the manner of a magazine quiz (think Cosmo). It's entertaining reading and a good source of "lookups" if you're studying for Hacker Jeopardy.

    joat: 12:00:00 14 Sep 2004


    Mon, 13 Sep 2004

    Forensics site 13 Sep
    Thanks to Tony Bradley for pointing out the Forensic Focus web site. For those that need it, here's the backend feed.

    joat: 13:30:00 13 Sep 2004


    Sometimes you're it 13 Sep
    Security Focus has a good article entitled "Malware Analysis for Administrators". Sometimes you're it, having to figure out what a miscreant piece of code does, having to build/suggest countermeasures to minimize the damage of an outbreak.

    joat: 13:00:00 13 Sep 2004


    Sniffer sniffer 13 Sep
    I'm not sure of the value (due to the size) but here's a paper on detecting sniffers in your network. It should at least give you some ideas to work from.

    joat: 12:30:00 13 Sep 2004


    IPTables 13 Sep
    Here's a SANS paper discussing various features in IPTables.

    joat: 12:00:00 13 Sep 2004


    Sun, 12 Sep 2004

    Metasploit II 12 Sep
    Security Focus has posted part 2 of their series on the Metasploit framework.

    joat: 13:00:00 12 Sep 2004


    Online pizza 12 Sep
    This thing has been laying around in a backlog for most of the year so I'm not sure the service still works. The website is still there so I'm assuming that it still does.

    Pizza Party is a *nix-based command line program to order Domino's pizza via the QuikOrder web site.

    joat: 12:30:00 12 Sep 2004


    Shellcoding Tutorial 12 Sep
    The subject matter is outside of my experience but may prove valuable to someone: Here's a "Shellcoding for Linux and Windows Tutorial".

    joat: 12:00:00 12 Sep 2004


    Sat, 11 Sep 2004

    Rant! 11 Sep
    Maybe it's because I'm at the end of a very long week, I'm on a one-month contract, or I'm just in a mood. In any case, this is another one of my oversensitive vents. You won't miss anything if you skip this post.

    Call us old school but there are many of us that distrust the current market move away from "defense in depth". Symantec's Barry Cioe (Senior Director of Product Management) has an article over on eBCVG about the move towards "local" security.

    You can skip most of the article, it's more or less a justification to buy the new all-in-one products on the market today. What I'm venting about is Mr. Cioe's opening paragraph:

    A decade ago, Internet security pioneer Bill Cheswick proposed a network security model that he famously characterized as a "crunchy shell around a soft, chewy center." Today, as more and more "outsiders" - remote users, business partners, customers, contractors - require access to corporate networks, enterprises are finding the idea of a "soft center" obsolete, if not downright dangerous.

    From reading that, you get the idea that Mr. Cheswick's ideas are now old, outmoded, and dangerous. If you've ever read Mr. Cheswick's papers or listened to him talk, you'd know that Mr. Cioe is in error. Bill Cheswick's original use of the phrase is available here in this paper. (You'll need a Postscript viewer.).

    He used the phrase initially (1990) to describe AT&T's network at the time of the (Morris) Internet worm:

    All of ARPA's protection has, by design, left the internal AT&T machines untested - a sort of crunchy shell around a soft, chewy center.

    Obviously, it's not a security model that he was proposing. Rather, he used it to describe an existing condition and as a justification for hardening the system that your security software runs on.

    This kind of thing irks me to no end. It's right up there on my list of annoyances (no there's not an actual list) with the mainstream press's assumption that "may you live in interesting times", in Chinese, is a compliment. (Hint: it's not. It's a curse.)

    I'll shut up now. Apologies to Bill Cheswick.

    joat: 19:07:00 11 Sep 2004


    Rememberance 11 Sep
    The Security Monkey says it much better than I do, but today please remember those that gave their lives on that day three years ago. Some of them didn't know what happened, others knew what was ahead of them.

    I count myself as lucky in that I didn't know anyone that died that day. The closest I came to losing someone I know was a lady that I went to high school with. She missed work that day. Sarah Pickanose, you were so very, very lucky. (Not her real name but the rest of the class remembers the English Lit. class gone horribly awry!)

    joat: 18:00:00 11 Sep 2004


    AutoAcronym 11 Sep
    For me, one of the nice things with switching to Blosxom is the ability to write simple plugins. I had a lot of trouble writing anything for MT but Blosxom plugins seem to be very easy.

    In any case, I've been jealous of the acronym-in-a-title thingy over at Cox Crow. To make the story shorter, I adapted Fletcher Penney's AutoLink to make AutoAcryonym. If an acronym is in the file and in a post, it will put a dotted-underline under the acronym and if you hover the mouse over it, a "tag" will pop-up with the acronym explanation.

    Oh, almost forgot, if you also borrow from Cox Crow's style sheet, you can get the cursor to change to one with a "?" next to it when you hover over one of the acronyms. (Exercise left up to you to steal from Cox Crow's or my style sheet for the syntax.)

    Here's an example:

    BOFH

    joat: 15:45:00 11 Sep 2004


    Network Hot-or-Not 11 Sep
    Security Musings has a pointer to a site which allows members to view/critique each other's network diagrams.

    I like one of Security Musings' descriptions of it: "a honeypot for the dim-witted?". Scary!

    joat: 13:30:00 11 Sep 2004


    Amen! 11 Sep
    Dave Piscitello's vent entitled "De-perimeterization is a crock..." is right on the money. Network security, of late, has been hijacked by a collection of people aiming to get-rich-quick by pitching something that sounds new and improved.

    joat: 12:00:00 11 Sep 2004


    Situation normal 11 Sep
    I tend to make others a bit jittery. I firmly believe that we have to talk about the "bad stuff" in order to keep the "good stuff" safe, as Adam said.

    joat: 04:08:41 11 Sep 2004


    Fri, 10 Sep 2004

    IPv6 Intro 10 Sep
    /. has a pointer to a beginner's intro to IPv6.

    joat: 13:30:00 10 Sep 2004


    Firewall enforcement 10 Sep
    Although I think it's a good idea that as many people as possible use firewalls for their computers and their home networks (this is two separate issues, BTW) but I don't think anyone should be able to mandate it outside of a corporate network.

    This discussion is very scary and reminiscent of a recent presentation that I attended where the speaker suggested mandatory PKI IDs for each and every Internet user. There are some serious enforcement and privacy issues involved.

    Don't forget, one size does not fit all. The machine that I'm setting at, as an example, passes through two firewalls and a web proxy (for HTTP) or a virus/spam scanner (for SMTP, in both directions) to connect to the Internet. However, it's nobody's business whether or not I do this. Forcing me to use a specific firewall is likely to involve an OS change and a degradation in security on my part. Mine is considered non-standard and is customized (tuned) to protect my configuration. To paraphrase the more paranoid militia types: you'll get my firewall when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. (Hmmm... Bumper-sticker material?)

    joat: 13:00:00 10 Sep 2004


    Aanval 10 Sep
    ComAanval and OpenAanval are the commercial and free versions of a Snort console. This is on my list of things "to do" once my life/workload quiets back down.

    joat: 12:30:00 10 Sep 2004


    Let's call a duck a duck? 10 Sep
    Multiple mainstream news sites picked this up and ran with it. Yeah, they are security problems, they're just not Linux holes. LHA originally showed up on the Amiga and also runs on Windows, FreeBSD and all (I think) of the commercial Unixes. Imlib can be run on Linux, FreeBSD, and even Windows (under Cygwin). So how does something that isn't part of the Linux core end up being a Linux hole?

    This sort of thing does everyone a disservice (yeah, even the Windows purists) as it just feeds the never-going-to-be-settled TCO campaign that the purists on both sides wage on each other.

    Me? I'm a mutt. I'll use what ever is available and can get the job done. I've helped build/run two NOCs on very tight budgets.

    joat: 12:15:00 10 Sep 2004


    Reverse Engineering Malware 10 Sep
    From NetSec comes a pointer to a collection of tools for people who reverse engineer malicious code.

    joat: 12:00:00 10 Sep 2004


    Thu, 09 Sep 2004

    Shellcoding Tutorial 09 Sep
    Here's a tutorial entitled "Shellcoding for Linux and Windows".

    joat: 13:00:00 9 Sep 2004


    SendmailAnalyzer 09 Sep
    Version 2.0 of SendmailAnalyzer is out. I cannot stress the importance of maintaining an idea of what's going on in your networks (metrics, metrics, metrics!!). Believe it or not, crayon drawings are good for you too, not just for management.

    joat: 12:30:00 9 Sep 2004


    SSH Keys 09 Sep
    I'm a big fan of using key-based authentication for SSH connections. However, to say you need to keep your keys secure is an understatement. Need a reason? How about a brute force key cracker.

    joat: 12:00:00 9 Sep 2004


    Wed, 08 Sep 2004

    NMap Scanning 08 Sep
    The scanning speed for NMap scans has seen some attention recently. While the new version has a sticky problem at very slow speeds (I can't find the link into the mailing list but it involves SYN scans and Sneaky speed), there is also a paper which discusses optimization of scanning times.

    joat: 13:00:00 8 Sep 2004


    DNS Version Detection 08 Sep
    Just like it's becoming pointless to turn off SSID beaconing, it's becoming useless to alter the version string in BIND. SecuriTeam has a piece (with source code) that describes how to remotely figure out what version of BIND is running, even without the banner information.

    joat: 12:00:00 8 Sep 2004


    Intro to Learning About Network Security 08 Sep
    SANS has a piece entitled "An Introduction to Learning About Network Security". It's a good list of the things you should learn while preparing for a job in network security.

    joat: 12:00:00 8 Sep 2004


    Tue, 07 Sep 2004

    NTFS Tools 07 Sep
    Version 1.9.4 of Linux NTFS Tools and Library is out. In reading the "changes" on the Freshmeat site, this is turning into a very powerful toolset. Hopefully it'll make it into new distro's and the various forensics toolkits (if it already hasn't).

    Please note that the programmers (all three of them) are looking for help, mostly in the form of secondary documentation and web site support. See the SourceForge site for more information.

    joat: 13:00:00 7 Sep 2004


    SQL Injection Signature Evasion 07 Sep
    SecuriTeam has a paper discussing how to structure your SQL injection to evade IDSs. Of course, if you're doing things properly, your network only allows a few specific IPs to connect to your SQL server and you should closely watch those (HIDS, NIDS, malicious code scanners, etc.). You CGI or PHP code should also limit acceptable input to certain characters and prevent direct user input.

    Just keep in mind the general rules of thumb for security:

    • It's not "if" someone is going to break in, it's "when"...
    • in the real world the best you can hope for is fifteen minutes of fame, in the virtual world, the best you can hope for is fifteen minutes of obscurity... (quote mine)
    • there's no such thing as a secure online system...
    • and adding technology rarely adds security.

    The general rules of thumb for countering attacks:

    • Log as much as practical
    • review your logs automatically AND manually
    • employ a consistent backup schedule
    • use your metrics, be able to recognize what's normal and what isn't
    • the most expensive investment in security is also the one you'll get the best return on: knowledge

    Regardless of what personnel and what cool toys you have guarding your network, someone, somewhere, sometime will break into your network.

    Apologies for turning it into a rant.

    joat: 12:00:00 7 Sep 2004


    PAM_USB 07 Sep
    This looks interesting but I'd rather see something like this boot from USB and never mount the hard drive(s). Smart cards and iButtons make better authentication tokens.

    joat: 12:00:00 7 Sep 2004


    Feeling dirty 07 Sep
    Not me, you. A recent post in the Web App Security mailing list prompted me to take a look at my own logs and do a little bit of extra research. This NWF article talks about FunWebProducts and its rapid spread as spyware. One thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet is what I've noticed in my referer logs. The IP's with the spyware (67.149.42.119, 24.186.59.180, 172.141.208.54, and 4.16.57.93, in the last week) are all referers for www.locators.com.

    I wonder...

    joat: 00:10:33 7 Sep 2004


    Mon, 06 Sep 2004

    Scan of the Month 06 Sep
    You still have about three weeks to participate in Honeynet's Scan of the Month. This one focuses around reverse engineering a bit of malicious code.

    joat: 15:30:00 6 Sep 2004


    TCPReplay 2.3.0 06 Sep
    The new version of TCPReplay is available.

    joat: 13:00:00 6 Sep 2004


    Jailed VMs 06 Sep
    RootPrompt has a pointer to an FreeBSD Diary article which describes how to jail a virutal machine. The author used this process to jail his website.

    joat: 12:30:00 6 Sep 2004


    Perl for Admins 06 Sep
    Dana Epp has pointed to a SANS paper which discusses various bits of Perl code for systems and network administrators.

    joat: 12:00:00 6 Sep 2004


    Sun, 05 Sep 2004

    Hash Collision Questions 05 Sep
    Here's some of the discussion concerning hash collisions.

    joat: 13:30:00 5 Sep 2004


    NMap Parser 05 Sep
    (via RootSecure) NMap-Parser is a Perl module that interfaces with NMap. I haven't seen anyone do anything with it yet but a Perl interface to something that normally spits up a ton of text can't be all bad.

    joat: 12:30:00 5 Sep 2004


    Logging 05 Sep
    It cannot be said often enough. It is important that you log (SANS paper) events so that you know what normal and abnormal metrics look like and so that you can backtrack events when "something bad happens".

    joat: 12:00:00 5 Sep 2004


    Wiki 05 Sep
    I've added a few minor things to the wiki: a Forensics page, an IM page, and an iPod page, all with some minor data. The main page is getting large enough that I'm considering moving the sub-entries to pages of their own (or another scheme if someone wants to suggest one).

    joat: 03:30:00 5 Sep 2004


    Sat, 04 Sep 2004

    Spyware 04 Sep
    Here's a very good site for spyware issues.

    joat: 14:30:00 4 Sep 2004


    NBS 04 Sep
    Marcus Ranum (of Network Flight Recorder fame) has released a tool called "NBS" (Never Been Seen) which is a small piece of code that watches for out-of-the-ordinary traffic. He explains it better than I can here.

    joat: 13:40:00 4 Sep 2004


    Swiss Army USB 04 Sep
    /. has a post about a Swiss Army knife with a USB drive built in. I think they have the right idea but haven't taken it far enough in true geek fashion. Here's my wish list for combined "tools":
    • 1G thumb drive
    • 802.11 interface, RFMON capable, with jack for external antenna
    • Bluetooth interface, all three modes, with jack for external antenna
    • IR interface
    • 3 or 4 programmable LEDS or a 4 character alphanumeric display

    Yeah, I know that no one makes chips for all that together but I can hope, can't I?

    Any other features you'd like to see?

    joat: 13:00:00 4 Sep 2004


    SpamAssassin Tuning 04 Sep
    (via RootPrompt) Here's a good article discussing the finer points of SpamAssassin use. I also like the argument that Spam should not be auto-deleted because of false positives (something that no Spam filter doesn't have, regardless of the marketing-speak).

    joat: 13:00:00 4 Sep 2004


    Detecting detectors 04 Sep
    Here's a paper on detecting wireless discovery applications (think Stumbler and the like).

    joat: 12:00:00 4 Sep 2004


    Fri, 03 Sep 2004

    pfprintd 03 Sep
    pfprintd is another passive analysis tool I want to play with.

    joat: 13:00:00 3 Sep 2004


    Hotspotter 03 Sep
    More info for my wireless paper, mostly a tool for evil doing: Hotspotter passively listens to the WLAN for probe requests from XP clients. When a network matches a common name, Hotspotter switches over to being an access point, allowing the client to authenticate and associate with it (rather than the normal AP) and run other commands.

    joat: 12:30:00 3 Sep 2004


    Discovering Passwords in Memory 03 Sep
    Here's an Infosec Writer's paper on recovering passwords from memory (think hex editor). Interesting.

    joat: 12:00:00 3 Sep 2004


    Thu, 02 Sep 2004

    Grrr... 02 Sep
    One of the sources for our problems (as bloggers) is www.adminshop.com. They sell Reffy, which is discribed as a Windows-based mass referrer spammer which comes with a starter list (of blogs) of 3047 sites to spam. Yes, for $75, you too can get on the hate list of everyone on the planet.

    joat: 22:00:00 2 Sep 2004


    ttlscan 02 Sep
    Red Team is considering it's use and so am I. ttlscan appears to be yet another good tool for passive analysis (think SANS paper).

    joat: 13:00:00 2 Sep 2004


    DCMA and Search Engines 02 Sep
    Here's an interesting article about how the DCMA applies to search engines.

    joat: 12:30:00 2 Sep 2004


    Mobile Bloglines 02 Sep
    Here's the link for the minimized Bloglines (i.e., it's for your PDA).

    joat: 12:00:00 2 Sep 2004


    Wed, 01 Sep 2004

    ARPing 01 Sep
    The new version of ARPing is available. This is one of those tools that should be good for your wireless toolkit as it can ping MAC addresses directly.

    joat: 12:30:00 1 Sep 2004


    Poster 01 Sep

    joat: 12:00:00 1 Sep 2004


    Synchronized Scrolling 01 Sep
    Another one for me: JavaScript Synchronized Scrolling.

    joat: 12:00:00 1 Sep 2004


    robtex