Introducing CIRCL: An Advanced Cryptographic Library
As part of Crypto Week 2019, today we are proud to release the source code of a cryptographic library we’ve been working on: a collection of cryptographic primitives written in Go, called CIRCL. This library includes a set of packages that target cryptographic algorithms for post-quantum (PQ), elliptic curve cryptography, and hash functions for prime groups. Our hope is that it’s useful for a broad audience. Get ready to discover how we made CIRCL unique.
Cryptography in Go
We use Go a lot at Cloudflare. It offers a good balance between ease of use and performance; the learning curve is very light, and after a short time, any programmer can get good at writing fast, lightweight backend services. And thanks to the possibility of implementing performance critical parts in Go assembly, we can try to ‘squeeze the machine’ and get every bit of performance.
Cloudflare’s cryptography team designs and maintains security-critical projects. It's not a secret that security is hard. That's why, we are introducing the Cloudflare Interoperable Reusable Cryptographic Library - CIRCL. There are multiple goals behind CIRCL. First, we want to concentrate our efforts to implement cryptographic primitives in a single place. This makes it easier Continue reading
HPE Aruba: Think Bigger Than SD-WAN – It’s SD-Branch
SD-WAN capabilities can address networking and security between the branch and clouds or the data...
Copyright 2019 SDxCentral, LLC; For non-commercial use
Cloudflare’s Ethereum Gateway
Today, we are excited to announce Cloudflare's Ethereum Gateway, where you can interact with the Ethereum network without installing any additional software on your computer.
This is another tool in Cloudflare’s Distributed Web Gateway tool set. Currently, Cloudflare lets you host content on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) and access it through your own custom domain. Similarly, the new Ethereum Gateway allows access to the Ethereum network, which you can provision through your custom hostname.
This setup makes it possible to add interactive elements to sites powered by Ethereum smart contracts, a decentralized computing platform. And, in conjunction with the IPFS gateway, this allows hosting websites and resources in a decentralized manner, and has the extra bonus of the added speed, security, and reliability provided by the Cloudflare edge network. You can access our Ethereum gateway directly at https://cloudflare-eth.com.
This brief primer on how Ethereum and smart contracts work has examples of the many possibilities of using the Cloudflare Distributed Web Gateway.
Primer on Ethereum
You may have heard of Ethereum as a cryptocurrency. What you may not know is that Ethereum is so much more. Ethereum is a distributed virtual computing network that stores and enforces smart Continue reading
Cloudflare’s Ethereum Gateway
Today, as part of Crypto Week 2019, we are excited to announce Cloudflare's Ethereum Gateway, where you can interact with the Ethereum network without installing any additional software on your computer.
This is another tool in Cloudflare’s Distributed Web Gateway tool set. Currently, Cloudflare lets you host content on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) and access it through your own custom domain. Similarly, the new Ethereum Gateway allows access to the Ethereum network, which you can provision through your custom hostname.
This setup makes it possible to add interactive elements to sites powered by Ethereum smart contracts, a decentralized computing platform. And, in conjunction with the IPFS gateway, this allows hosting websites and resources in a decentralized manner, and has the extra bonus of the added speed, security, and reliability provided by the Cloudflare edge network. You can access our Ethereum gateway directly at https://cloudflare-eth.com.
This brief primer on how Ethereum and smart contracts work has examples of the many possibilities of using the Cloudflare Distributed Web Gateway.
Primer on Ethereum
You may have heard of Ethereum as a cryptocurrency. What you may not know is that Ethereum is so much more. Ethereum is a distributed virtual Continue reading
Aqua Security Boosts Container, Serverless Posture With Latest Update
The latest update comes on the heels of Aqua's rival Twistlock being acquired by Palo Alto Networks...
Copyright 2019 SDxCentral, LLC; For non-commercial use
Securing Certificate Issuance using Multipath Domain Control Validation
This blog post is part of Crypto Week 2019.
Trust on the Internet is underpinned by the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). PKI grants servers the ability to securely serve websites by issuing digital certificates, providing the foundation for encrypted and authentic communication.
Certificates make HTTPS encryption possible by using the public key in the certificate to verify server identity. HTTPS is especially important for websites that transmit sensitive data, such as banking credentials or private messages. Thankfully, modern browsers, such as Google Chrome, flag websites not secured using HTTPS by marking them “Not secure,” allowing users to be more security conscious of the websites they visit.
This blog post introduces a new, free tool Cloudflare offers to CAs so they can further secure certificate issuance. But before we dive in too deep, let’s talk about where certificates come from.
Certificate Authorities
Certificate Authorities (CAs) are the institutions responsible for issuing certificates.
When issuing a certificate for any given domain, they use Domain Control Validation (DCV) to verify that the entity requesting a certificate for the domain is the legitimate owner of the domain. With DCV the domain owner:
- creates a DNS resource record for a domain;
- uploads a document to Continue reading
With Secure State VMware Dives Deeper Into Multi-Cloud Security
It’s based on technology that VMware acquired when it bought public cloud security startup...
Copyright 2019 SDxCentral, LLC; For non-commercial use
Fortinet Walls SD-WAN, Security Products for an SD-Branch Focus
The SD-Branch platform uses its FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall, FortiNAC Network Access...
Copyright 2019 SDxCentral, LLC; For non-commercial use
League of Entropy: Not All Heroes Wear Capes
To kick-off Crypto Week 2019, we are really excited to announce a new solution to a long-standing problem in cryptography. To get a better understanding of the technical side behind this problem, please refer to the next post for a deeper dive.
Everything from cryptography to big money lottery to quantum mechanics requires some form of randomness. But what exactly does it mean for a number to be randomly generated and where does the randomness come from?
Generating randomness dates back three thousand years, when the ancients rolled “the bones” to determine their fate. Think of lotteries-- seems simple, right? Everyone buys their tickets, chooses six numbers, and waits for an official to draw them randomly from a basket. Sounds like a foolproof solution. And then in 1980, the host of the Pennsylvania lottery drawing was busted for using weighted balls to choose the winning number. This lesson, along with the need of other complex systems for generating random numbers spurred the creation of random number generators.
Just like a lottery game selects random numbers unpredictably, a random number generator is a device or software responsible for generating sequences of numbers in an unpredictable manner. As the need for Continue reading
Inside the Entropy
Randomness, randomness everywhere;
Nor any verifiable entropy.
Generating random outcomes is an essential part of everyday life; from lottery drawings and constructing competitions, to performing deep cryptographic computations. To use randomness, we must have some way to 'sample' it. This requires interpreting some natural phenomenon (such as a fair dice roll) as an event that generates some random output. From a computing perspective, we interpret random outputs as bytes that we can then use in algorithms (such as drawing a lottery) to achieve the functionality that we want.
The sampling of randomness securely and efficiently is a critical component of all modern computing systems. For example, nearly all public-key cryptography relies on the fact that algorithms can be seeded with bytes generated from genuinely random outcomes.
In scientific experiments, a random sampling of results is necessary to ensure that data collection measurements are not skewed. Until now, generating random outputs in a way that we can verify that they are indeed random has been very difficult; typically involving taking a variety of statistical measurements.
During Crypto week, Cloudflare is releasing a new public randomness beacon as part of the launch of the League of Entropy. The League of Entropy is Continue reading
Welcome to Crypto Week 2019
The Internet is an extraordinarily complex and evolving ecosystem. Its constituent protocols range from the ancient and archaic (hello FTP) to the modern and sleek (meet WireGuard), with a fair bit of everything in between. This evolution is ongoing, and as one of the most connected networks on the Internet, Cloudflare has a duty to be a good steward of this ecosystem. We take this responsibility to heart: Cloudflare’s mission is to help build a better Internet. In this spirit, we are very proud to announce Crypto Week 2019.
Every day this week we’ll announce a new project or service that uses modern cryptography to build a more secure, trustworthy Internet. Everything we release this week will be free and immediately useful. This blog is a fun exploration of the themes of the week.
- Monday: Coming Soon
- Tuesday: Coming Soon
- Wednesday: Coming Soon
- Thursday: Coming Soon
- Friday: Coming Soon
The Internet of the Future
Many pieces of the Internet in use today were designed in a different era with different assumptions. The Internet’s success is based on strong foundations that support constant reassessment and improvement. Sometimes these improvements require deploying new protocols.
Performing an upgrade on a system Continue reading
Security Compliance at Cloudflare
Cloudflare believes trust is fundamental to helping build a better Internet. One way Cloudflare is helping our customers earn their users’ trust is through industry standard security compliance certifications and regulations.
Security compliance certifications are reports created by independent, third-party auditors that validate and document a company’s commitment to security. These external auditors will conduct a rigorous review of a company’s technical environment and evaluate whether or not there are thorough controls - or safeguards - in place to protect the security, confidentiality, and availability of information stored and processed in the environment. SOC 2 was established by the American Institute of CPAs and is important to many of our U.S. companies, as it is a standardized set of requirements a company must meet in order to comply. Additionally, PCI and ISO 27001 are international standards. Cloudflare cares about achieving certifications because our adherence to these standards creates confidence to customers across the globe that we are committed to security. So, the Security team has been hard at work obtaining these meaningful compliance certifications.
Since the beginning of this year, we have been renewing our PCI DSS certification in February, achieving SOC 2 Type 1 compliance in March, obtaining Continue reading
A free Argo Tunnel for your next project
Argo Tunnel lets you expose a server to the Internet without opening any ports. The service runs a lightweight process on your server that creates outbound tunnels to the Cloudflare network. Instead of managing DNS, network, and firewall complexity, Argo Tunnel helps administrators serve traffic from their origin through Cloudflare with a single command.
We built Argo Tunnel to remove the burden of securing and connecting servers to the Internet. This new model makes it easier to run a service in multi-cloud and hybrid deployments by replacing manual and error-prone work with a process that adds intelligence to the last-mile between Cloudflare and your origins or clusters. However, the service was previously only available to users with Cloudflare accounts. We want to make Argo Tunnel more accessible for any project.
Starting today, any user, even those without a Cloudflare account, can try this new method of connecting their server to the Internet. Argo Tunnel can now be used in a free model that will create a new URL, known only to you, that will proxy traffic to your server. We’re excited to make connecting a server to the Internet more accessible for everyone.
What is Argo Tunnel?
Argo Tunnel replaces Continue reading
Censorship vs. the memes
The most annoying thing in any conversation is when people drop a meme bomb, some simple concept they've heard elsewhere in a nice package that they really haven't thought through, which takes time and nuance to rebut. These memes are often bankrupt of any meaning.
When discussing censorship, which is wildly popular these days, people keep repeating these same memes to justify it:
- you can't yell fire in a crowded movie theater
- but this speech is harmful
- Karl Popper's Paradox of Tolerance
- censorship/free-speech don't apply to private organizations
- Twitter blocks and free speech
This phrase was first used in the Supreme Court decision Schenck v. United States to justify outlawing protests against the draft. Unless you also believe the government can jail you for protesting the draft, then the phrase is bankrupt of all meaning.
In other words, how can it be used to justify the thing you are trying to censor and yet be an invalid justification for Continue reading
In other words, how can it be used to justify the thing you are trying to censor and yet be an invalid justification for Continue reading
Protecting Project Galileo websites from HTTP attacks
Yesterday, we celebrated the fifth anniversary of Project Galileo. More than 550 websites are part of this program, and they have something in common: each and every one of them has been subject to attacks in the last month. In this blog post, we will look at the security events we observed between the 23 April 2019 and 23 May 2019.
Project Galileo sites are protected by the Cloudflare Firewall and Advanced DDoS Protection which contain a number of features that can be used to detect and mitigate different types of attack and suspicious traffic. The following table shows how each of these features contributed to the protection of sites on Project Galileo.
|
Firewall Feature |
Requests Mitigated |
Distinct originating IPs |
Sites Affected (approx.) |
|
78.7M |
396.5K |
~ 30 |
|
|
41.7M |
1.8M |
~ 520 |
|
|
24.0M |
386.9K |
~ 200 |
|
|
9.4M |
32.2K |
~ 500 |
|
|
4.5M |
163.8K |
~ 200 |
|
|
2.3M |
1.3K |
~ 15 |
|
|
2.0M |
686.7K |
~ 40 |
|
|
1.6M |
360 |
1 |
|
|
623.5K |
6.6K |
~ 15 |
|
|
9.7K |
2.8K |
Home on the Palo Alto Networks Cyber Range
You’ve probably heard many horror stories by now about the crazy interviews that companies in Silicon Valley put you though. Sure, some of the questions are downright silly. How would I know how to weigh the moon? But the most insidious are the ones designed to look like skills tests. You may have to spend an hour optimizing a bubble sort or writing some crazy code that honestly won’t have much impact on the outcome of what you’ll be doing for the company.
Practical skills tests have always been the joy and the bane of people the world over. Many disciplines require you to have a practical examination before you can be certified. Doctors are one. The Cisco CCIE is probably the most well-known in IT. But what is the test really quizzing you on? Most people will admit that the CCIE is an imperfect representation of a network at best. It’s a test designed to get people to think about networks in different ways. But what about other disciplines? What about the ones where time is even more of the essence than it was in CCIE lab?
Red Team Go!
I was at Palo Alto Networks Ignite19 this past Continue reading
Technology’s Promise – Highlights from DEF CON China 1.0
DEF CON is one of the largest and oldest security conferences in the world. Last year, it launched a beta event in China in hopes of bringing the local security communities closer together. This year, the organizer made things official by introducing DEF CON China 1.0 with a promise to build a forum for China where everyone can gather, connect, and grow together.
Themed "Technology's Promise", DEF CON China kicked off on 5/30 in Beijing and attracted participants of all ages. Watching young participants test, play and tinker with new technologies with such curiosity and excitement absolutely warmed our hearts!
It was a pleasure to participate in DEF CON China 1.0 this year and connect with local communities. Great synergy as we exchanged ideas and learnings on cybersecurity topics. Did I mention we also spoiled ourselves with the warm hospitality, wonderful food, live music, and amazing crowd while in Beijing.
Meet our youngest and cutest attendee today at BugZee village. Meet 8 year old "Joy" from Beijing who did phenomenal soldering. Amazing crowd at Continue reading
Some Raspberry Pi compatible computers
I noticed this spreadsheet over at r/raspberry_pi reddit. I thought I'd write up some additional notes.https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jWMaK-26EEAKMhmp6SLhjScWW2WKH4eKD-93hjpmm_s/edit#gid=0
Consider the Upboard, an x86 computer in the Raspberry Pi form factor for $99. When you include storage, power supplies, heatsinks, cases, and so on, it's actually pretty competitive. It's not ARM, so many things built for the Raspberry Pi won't necessarily work. But on the other hand, most of the software built for the Raspberry Pi was originally developed for x86 anyway, so sometimes it'll work better.
Consider the quasi-RPi boards that support the same GPIO headers, but in a form factor that's not the same as a RPi. A good example would be the ODroid-N2. These aren't listed in the above spreadsheet, but there's a tone of them. There's only two Nano Pi's listed in the spreadsheet having the same form factor as the RPi, but there's around 20 different actual boards with all sorts of different form factors and capabilities.
Consider the heatsink, which can make a big difference in the performance and stability of the board. You can put a small heatsink on any board, but you really need larger heatsinks and possibly fans. Some boards, Continue reading
Your threat model is wrong
Several subjects have come up with the past week that all come down to the same thing: your threat model is wrong. Instead of addressing the the threat that exists, you've morphed the threat into something else that you'd rather deal with, or which is easier to understand.Phishing
An example is this question that misunderstands the threat of "phishing":
Should failing multiple phishing tests be grounds for firing? I ran into a guy at a recent conference, said his employer fired people for repeatedly falling for (simulated) phishing attacks. I talked to experts, who weren't wild about this disincentive. https://t.co/eRYPZ9qkzB pic.twitter.com/Q1aqCmkrWL— briankrebs (@briankrebs) May 29, 2019
The (wrong) threat model is here is that phishing is an email that smart users with training can identify and avoid. This isn't true.
Good phishing messages are indistinguishable from legitimate messages. Said another way, a lot of legitimate messages are in fact phishing messages, such as when HR sends out a message saying "log into this website with your organization username/password".
Recently, my university sent me an email for mandatory Title IX training, not digitally signed, with an external link to the training, that requested my university login Continue reading
Stopping SharePoint’s CVE-2019-0604
On Saturday, 11th May 2019, we got the news of a critical web vulnerability being actively exploited in the wild by advanced persistent threats (APTs), affecting Microsoft’s SharePoint server (versions 2010 through 2019).
This was CVE-2019-0604, a Remote Code Execution vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint Servers which was not previously known to be exploitable via the web.
Several cyber security centres including the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and Saudi Arabia’s National Center put out alerts for this threat, indicating it was being exploited to download and execute malicious code which would in turn take complete control of servers.
The affected software versions:
- Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Service Pack 2
- Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2013 Service Pack 1
- Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Service Pack 2
- Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 Service Pack 1
- Microsoft SharePoint Enterprise Server 2016
- Microsoft SharePoint Server 2019
Introduction
The vulnerability was initially given a critical CVSS v3 rating of 8.8 on the Zero Day Initiative advisory (however the advisory states authentication is required). This would imply only an insider threat, someone who has authorisation within SharePoint, such as an employee, on the local network could exploit the vulnerability.
We discovered that was not always Continue reading