Archive

Category Archives for "Security"

Invalidating Identity Interdiction

identity-theft

It used to be that a data breach was a singular event that caused massive shock and concern. Today, data breaches happen regularly and, while still shocking in scope, are starting to dull the senses. Credit card numbers, security clearances, and even illicit dating profiles have been harvested, coallated, and provided for everyone to expose. It seems to be an insurmountable problem. But why?

Data Cake

Data is a tantalizing thing. Collecting it makes life easier for customers and providers as well. Having your ordering history allows Amazon to suggest products you might like to buy. Having your address on file allows the pizza place to pull it up without you needing to read your address again. Creating a user account on a site lets you set preferences. All of this leads to a custom experience and lets us feel special and unique.

But, data is just like that slice of cheesecake you think you want for dessert. It looks so delicious and tempting. But you know it’s bad for you. It has calories and sugar and very little nutritional value. In the same manner, all that data you collect is a time bomb waiting to be exposed. The more Continue reading

My BIS/Wassenaar comment

This is my comment I submitted to the BIS on their Wassenaar rules:

----
Hi.

I created the first “intrusion prevention system”, as well as many tools and much cybersecurity research over the last 20 years. I would not have done so had these rules been in place. The cost and dangers would have been too high. If you do not roll back the existing language, I will be forced to do something else.

After two months, reading your FAQ, consulting with lawyers and export experts, the cybersecurity industry still hasn’t figured out precisely what your rules mean. The language is so open-ended that it appears to control everything. My latest project is a simple “DNS server”, a piece of software wholly unrelated to cybersecurity. Yet, since hackers exploit “DNS” for malware command-and-control, it appears to be covered by your rules. It’s specifically designed for both the distribution and control of malware. This isn’t my intent, it’s just a consequence of how “DNS” works. I haven’t decided whether to make this tool open-source yet, so therefore traveling to foreign countries with the code on my laptop appears to be a felony violation of export controls.

Of course you don’t intend Continue reading

Software and the bogeyman

This post about the July 8 glitches (United, NYSE, WSJ failed) keeps popping up in my Twitter timeline. It's complete nonsense.

What's being argued here is that these glitches were due to some sort of "moral weakness", like laziness, politics, or stupidity. It's a facile and appealing argument, so scoundrels make it often -- to great applause from the audience. But it's not true.

Legacy


Layers and legacies exist because working systems are precious. More than half of big software projects are abandoned, because getting new things to work is a hard task. We place so much value on legacy, working old systems, because the new replacements usually fail.

An example of this is the failed BIND10 project. BIND, the Berkeley Internet Name Daemon, is the oldest and most popular DNS server. It is the de facto reference standard for how DNS works, more so than the actual RFCs. Version 9 of the project is 15 years old. Therefore, the consortium that maintains it funded development for version 10. They completed the project, then effectively abandoned it, as it was worse in almost every way than the previous version.

The reason legacy works well is the enormous regression testing Continue reading

More ProxyHam stuff

Somebody asked how my solution in the last post differed from the "ProxyGambit" solution. They missed my point. Just because I change the tires on the car doesn't mean I get credit for inventing or building the car. The same thing with this ProxyHam nonsense: nobody is "building a solution". Instead, we are all just using existing products the way they are intended. We are all just choosing a different mix of components.

People get all excited when they see a bare Raspberry Pi board, but the reality is that there's nothing interesting going on here, no more than lifting the hood/bonnet on your car. This is photograph from ProxyGambit:


What ProxyGambit is doing here is using cellular data on the far end rather stealing WiFi from Starbucks or the local library. Their solution looks fancy, but you can do the same thing with off-the-shelf devices for a lot cheaper. Here is the same solution with off-the-shelf products:


This is just a TL-WR703N ($26) router with a 3G USB dongle. You can get these dongles cheap off eBay used, or new for around $17. Combined, they are cheaper than a Raspberry PI. If you want to customize this, Continue reading

IPv6-test.com and SRX firewall policies

ipv6-test.com is a useful site for testing IPv4 & IPv6 connectivity. It checks that v4 & v6 are working as expected, and reports your browser v4/v6 preferences. It does have one oddity with ICMPv6 tests. Here’s what I did to work around it with my SRX setup.

The site runs a suite of tests and gives you a score out of 20. Most dual-stack home users will probably get 17/20. They deduct 1 point for no reverse DNS entry for v6, and 2 points for “ICMP Filtered”

icmp-test-fail

How can you improve your score ?

1. Reconfigure your firewall
Your router or firewall is filtering ICMPv6 messages sent to your computer. An IPv6 host that cannot receive ICMP messages may encounter problems like some web pages loading partially or not at all.

2. Get a reverse DNS record

The first one is fine, but the second issue is a worry. ICMP is a critical part of IPv6. It’s needed for things like Neighbor Discovery, and Packet Too Big messages.

Most home user firewall setups will be fairly simple. Basically ‘Allow everything out, and allow related traffic back in. Drop everything else.’ Surely the default policy on the SRX should be allowing related Continue reading

How to build your own ProxyHam

"ProxyHam" created controversy because the talk was supposedly suppressed by the US government. In this post, I'll describe how you can build your own, with off-the-shelf devices, without any code.

First, head on over to NewEgg. For a total of $290.96, buy two locoM9 repeaters (for $125.49 each), and two WiFi routers, like the TL-WR700N for $19.99 each.

Grab your first WiFi device. Configure it in "client" mode, connecting it to the "Starbucks" SSID. In this mode, you can then connect your laptop via Ethernet to this device, and you'll have access to the Internet via your WiFi device to Starbucks. In other words, it acts as a WiFi dongle, but one that you attach via Ethernet instead of USB.

Now grab your two locoM9 devices and configure them for "transparent bridging". In this mode, whatever Ethernet packets that are received on one end get sent over the air to the other end. Connect each localM9 via the TL-WR700N via the supplied Ethernet cable.

Now grab the second WiFi device and configure it as a normal WiFi router.

Now, assuming you aim the localM9's correct toward each other with reasonable line-of-sight, you've got a "ProxyHam".



The reason Continue reading

ProxyHam conspiracy is nonsense

This DEF CON conspiracy theory is about a canceled talk about "ProxyHam", which has been canceled under mysterious circumstances. It's nonsense.

The talk was hype to begin with. You can buy a 900 MHz bridge from Ubquiti for $125 (or MicroTik device for $129) and attach it to a Raspberry Pi. How you'd do this is obvious. It's a good DEF CON talk, because it's the application that important, but the technical principles here are extremely basic.

If you look careful at the pic in the Wired story on ProxyHam, it appears they are indeed just using the Ubuiti device. Here is the pic from Wired:


And here is the pic from Ubquiti's website:


I don't know why the talk was canceled. One likely reason is that the stories (such as the one on Wired) sensationalized the thing, so maybe their employer got cold feet. Or maybe the FBI got scared and really did give them an NSL, though that's incredibly implausible.

Anyway, if DEF CON wants a talk on how to hook up a Raspberry Pi to a UbiQuiTi NanoStation LOCOM9 in order bridge WiFi, I'll happily give that talk. It's just basic TCP/IP configuration, and if you Continue reading

MikroTik and Ubiquity routers being Hijacked by Dyre Malware?

 

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Came across several interesting articles that claim there is a change in the way Dyre aka Upatre malware is spreading. Dyre seems to be getting a lot of press as it is used in browser hijacks to compromise online banking credentials and other sensitive private data. However, most recently – instead of infecting hosts, it appears to be compromising routers as well.  Blogger krebsonsecurity.com writes:

Recently, researchers at the Fujitsu Security Operations Center in Warrington, UK began tracking Upatre being served from hundreds of compromised home routers — particularly routers powered by MikroTik and Ubiquiti’s AirOS.

As I first started researching this, I was wondering how they determined the router itself is compromised and not a host that sits on a NAT behind the router. Certainly different devices leave telltale signs visible in an IP packet capture that help point towards the true origin of a packet, so it’s possible that something was discovered in that way. It’s also possible the router isn’t being compromised via the Internet, but rather on the LAN side as it would be much easier for malware to scan the private subnet it sits on and attempt to use well known Continue reading

MikroTik and Ubiquity routers being Hijacked by Dyre Malware?

 

[adrotate banner=”4″]

 

Came across several interesting articles that claim there is a change in the way Dyre aka Upatre malware is spreading. Dyre seems to be getting a lot of press as it is used in browser hijacks to compromise online banking credentials and other sensitive private data. However, most recently – instead of infecting hosts, it appears to be compromising routers as well.  Blogger krebsonsecurity.com writes:

Recently, researchers at the Fujitsu Security Operations Center in Warrington, UK began tracking Upatre being served from hundreds of compromised home routers — particularly routers powered by MikroTik and Ubiquiti’s AirOS.

As I first started researching this, I was wondering how they determined the router itself is compromised and not a host that sits on a NAT behind the router. Certainly different devices leave telltale signs visible in an IP packet capture that help point towards the true origin of a packet, so it’s possible that something was discovered in that way. It’s also possible the router isn’t being compromised via the Internet, but rather on the LAN side as it would be much easier for malware to scan the private subnet it sits on and attempt to use well known Continue reading

Some notes when ordering Google’s Project Fi

I just ordered my "Project Fi" phone. You probably should, too. Here are some notes (especially near the bottom on getting a new phone number).

Project Fi is Google's MVNO. An "MVNO" is a virtual mobile phone company -- they don't have any of their own network backbone or cell towers, but just rent them from the real mobile phone companies (like AT&T or T-Mobile). Most mobile phone companies are actually MVNOs, because building a physical network is expensive.

What makes Google's MVNO interesting:
  • Straightforward pricing. It's $20 a month for unlimited calling/texting, plus $10 per gigabyte of data used during the month. It includes tethering.
  • No roaming charges, in 120 countries. I can fly to Japan, Australia, and France, and still use email, Google maps, texting -- for no extra charge.
The pricing is similar to other phone companies, a little less or a little more depending on exactly what you want. For around 3 gigs a month, Project Fi is cheaper than AT&T, but for 30 gigs, it's more expensive.

There are more and more MVNOs providing easy international roaming (like Ultra.me), and your own phone company is increasingly solving the problem. T-Mobile, for example, Continue reading

CyberUL is a dumb idea

Peiter “mudge” Zatko is leaving Google, asked by the White House to create a sort of a cyber “Underwriter Laboratories” (UL) for the government. UL is the organization that certifies electrical devices, so that they don’t short out and zap you to death. But here’s the thing: a CyberUL is a dumb idea. It’s the Vogon approach to the problem. It imagines that security comes from a moral weakness that could be solved by getting “serious” about the problem.

It’s not the hacking problem

According to data-breach reports, 95% of all attacks are simple things, like phishing, SQL injection, and bad passwords – nothing related to software quality. The other 5% is because victims are using old, unpatched software. When exploits are used, it’s overwhelmingly for software that has remained unpatched for a year.

In other words, CyberUL addresses less than 0.1% of real-world attacks.

It’s not the same quality problem

UL is about accidental failures in electronics. CyberUL would be about intentional attacks against software. These are unrelated issues. Stopping accidental failures is a solved problem in many fields. Stopping attacks is something nobody has solved in any field.

In other words, the UL model of accidents is Continue reading

Cisco and OpenDNS – The Name Of The Game?

SecureDNS

This morning, Cisco announced their intent to acquire OpenDNS, a security-as-a-service (SaaS) provider based around the idea of using Domain Naming Service (DNS) as a method for preventing the spread of malware and other exploits. I’ve used the OpenDNS free offering in the past as a way to offer basic web filtering to schools without funds as well as using OpenDNS at home for speedy name resolution when my local name servers have failed me miserably.

This acquistion is curious to me. It seems to be a line of business that is totally alien to Cisco at this time. There are a couple of interesting opportunities that have arisen from the discussions around it though.

Internet of Things With Names

The first and most obivious synergy with Cisco and OpenDNS is around Internet of Things (IoT) or Internent of Everything (IoE) as Cisco has branded their offering. IoT/IoE has gotten a huge amount of attention from Cisco in the past 18 months as more and more devices come online from thermostats to appliances to light sockets. The number of formerly dumb devices that now have wireless radios and computers to send information is staggering.

All of those devices depend Continue reading

How to build your own public key infrastructure

A major part of securing a network as geographically diverse as CloudFlare’s is protecting data as it travels between datacenters. Customer data and logs are important to protect but so is all the control data that our applications use to communicate with each other. For example, our application servers need to securely communicate with our new datacenter in Osaka, Japan.

CC BY-SA 2.0 image by kris krüg

Great security architecture requires a defense system with multiple layers of protection. As CloudFlare’s services have grown, the need to secure application-to-application communication has grown with it. As a result, we needed a simple and maintainable way to ensure that all communication between CloudFlare’s internal services stay protected, so we built one based on known and reliable protocols.

Our system of trust is based on a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) using internally-hosted Certificate Authorities (CAs). In this post we will describe how we built our PKI, how we use it internally, and how to run your own with our open source software. This is a long post with lots of information, grab a coffee!

Protection at the application layer

Most reasonably complex modern web services are not made up of one monolithic Continue reading

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