Security BSides Athens 2016

It has been a while since my last blog-post and the main reason for that, was the numerous things I had to keep track for organising:

Security BSides Athens 2016 (www.bsidesath.gr) 

It has been a very busy year trying to organise this Security BSides event for the first time in Athens, Greece, with plenty of “hiccups” to overcome in the meantime. 

Once we had a team of people who were equally excited and passionate about this, we started working towards the event details.  

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Given the opportunity, I would like to personally thank the team once again, all the volunteers who helped out on the day, the review committee who provided constructive feedback to all submissions, the speakers who travelled from all over the world to be there and present, and last but not least, all of YOU who attended the event. 

Special thanks goes to our sponsors, who trusted us on our promise to deliver this information security community based conference. We couldn't be able to bring this event to Athens, especially for the first time if it wasn’t for them, and for that we really appreciate their contribution and support.

Of course, such an event would not be able to exist without the community support we had from fellow conferences all over Europe, the Universities that promoted the conference, the Hellenic Army General Staff, and all the people how were involved and made this event a success story. 

We had some great feedback already and we are committed to tweak things according to the recommendations and suggestions we received in order to make the event next year even better. There is always room for improvement and for more people to get involved. 

Ransomware - Did you update your incident response plan?

At the beginning of 2016 an article was published about the increasing threat of ransomware and provided advice on having an incident response plan that is ready to face this emerging threat. Our article focused on tips related to prevention, response and evading extortion. If you did not have a chance to read our article from January, we recommend that you read it as soon as possible.

Now, at the end of the first quarter of 2016, it is evident that ransomware has become a headache for those who did not take all the necessary precautions to avoid being the next target. Recently, the FBI released a statement to The Wall Street Journal that ransomware is a prevalent and increasing threat. As this recent article describes, attackers are trying new approaches to infection, such as ransomware ‘malvertising’, and have succeeded in creating the first Mac OS X ransomware.

Have a plan, Be Prepared
Due to the fact that it is not easy to deal with the situation after an organisation is hit by ransomware, the best course of action is to ensure there is a backup plan in place. It might come as a surprise but in order to understand the seriousness of the situation, consider that an official in the FBI’s Boston field office went against normal FBI policy and suggested to a conference audience that often the only solution is to pay the ransom. Sysnet wants to make sure you do not have to face that moral dilemma and for that reason we are trying to inform you about the increasing threat and ensure you have taken all the necessary steps towards prevention.

The Badlock day has arrived!

Badlock is a a crucial security bug in Windows and Samba. Samba 4.4.2, 4.3.8 and 4.2.11 Security Releases are available [here]. 

Microsoft and the Samba Team have been working together in order to get this problem fixed and for a patch to be released. You will have to update your systems as this security flaw is expected to be actively exploited soon enough. 

Badlock is referenced by CVE-2016-2118 (SAMR and LSA man in the middle attacks possible).

There are additional CVEs related to Badlock. Those are:

• CVE-2015-5370 (Multiple errors in DCE-RPC code)
• CVE-2016-2110 (Man in the middle attacks possible with NTLMSSP)
• CVE-2016-2111 (NETLOGON Spoofing Vulnerability)
• CVE-2016-2112 (LDAP client and server don't enforce integrity)
• CVE-2016-2113 (Missing TLS certificate validation)
• CVE-2016-2114 ("server signing = mandatory" not enforced)
• CVE-2016-2115 (SMB IPC traffic is not integrity protected)

Please, find more information about badlock at the dedicated website created for that reason: badlock.org

Building a Security Operations Centre (SOC)

Building a Security Operations Centre (SOC) is undoubtedly the best move you can make towards protecting not only your organisation’s data, systems and services, but also any sensitive information about your clients that you handle or store. This article is a brief overview of the task of building a SOC, introducing not only the key elements but also how the challenges of increased security requirements and rapid response are addressed.

The process for building a SOC can be time consuming and it is directly related to the available budget. The best approach is to create a plan that allows for incremental phases of implementation. Starting with a gap analysis, you will be able to define and prioritise the milestones for incremental improvements by setting the appropriate expectations and timelines. To start with, take a look at the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) and more specifically the Top 20 Critical Security Controls guidance.

The incremental improvements need to take under consideration the collaboration and communication between people, technology, and processes. These are the three equally important components that define a SOC.

Decrypting RSA with Obsolete and Weakened eNcryption (DROWN)

An OpenSSL security hole enables Secure Sockets Layer (SSLv2), to be used to attack modern web sites. Even though this is a  an ancient, long deprecated security protocol, it is estimated to be able to "kill" at least one-third of all HTTPS servers (approx. 11.5 million servers). 

The attack is dubbed as DROWN based on the words: 

Decrypting RSA with Obsolete and Weakened eNcryption. 

Obsolete Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) versions 7 and earlier are vulnerable as well, and editions of Network Security Services (NSS), a common cryptographic library built into many server products prior to 2012's 3.13 version, are also open to attack. 

OpenSSL 1.0.2 users should upgrade to 1.0.2g. 
OpenSSL 1.0.1 users should upgrade to 1.0.1s. 

If you're using another version move up to 1.0.2g or 1.0.1s

OpenSSL 1.0.2g is available for download via HTTP and FTP from the following master locations (you can find the various FTP mirrors under http://www.openssl.org/source/mirror.html):

• http://www.openssl.org/source/
• ftp://ftp.openssl.org/source/

The flaw was identified by academics and the code for the attack has not yet been released. The main reason for this, is to allow people to patch their systems before the vulnerability starts being exploited. 

For further information on the issue, please visit the site: https://drownattack.com

Migration/Protection: https://drownattack.com/#mitigation
Instructions for Apache: https://drownattack.com/apache.html
Instructions for Postfix: https://drownattack.com/postfix.html
Instructions for Nginx: https://drownattack.com/nginx.html

There is also an offline scanner available on GitHub: 
https://github.com/nimia/public_drown_scanner

Critical vulnerability found in glibc

A critical vulnerability has been found in Glibc. The critical flaw affects nearly all Linux machines, as well as API web services and major web frameworks. Glibc is the GNU C library which was at the core of last year’s GHOST vulnerability. 

The flaw, CVE-2015-7547, effects all Linux servers and web frameworks such as Rails, PHP and Python, as well as Android apps running Glibc. The vulnerability was discovered by researchers at Google and Red Hat and a patch has been made available. Google has released further information on the issue in its advisory. 

It is strongly suggested to patch all effected systems immediately, as this vulnerability is considered critical and could be exploited for malicious reasons (allows remote code execution). More specifically, the vulnerability effects all versions of Glibc since version 2.9 and there are no temporary mitigations that can be implemented until Linux machines are patched. 

Tim Cook's letter..

Tim Cook's letter about a recent demand made to Apple by the US government. (February 16, 2016)

A Message to Our Customers

The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step

which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has

implications far beyond the legal case at hand. This moment calls for public

discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to

understand what is at stake.

The Need for Encryption

Smartphones, led by iPhone, have become an essential part of our lives. People

use them to store an incredible amount of personal information, from our private

conversations to our photos, our music, our notes, our calendars and contacts,

our financial information and health data, even where we have been and where we

are going. All that information needs to be protected from hackers and criminals

who want to access it, steal it, and use it without our knowledge or permission.

Customers expect Apple and other technology companies to do everything in our

power to protect their personal information, and at Apple we are deeply

committed to safeguarding their data. Compromising the security of our personal

information can ultimately put our personal safety at risk. That is why

encryption has become so important to all of us. For many years, we have used

encryption to protect our customers’ personal data because we believe it’s the

only way to keep their information safe. We have even put that data out of our

own reach, because we believe the contents of your iPhone are none of our

business.

SSH vulnerability in Fortinet Fortigate products

It was stated that an SSH "backdoor" was identified in Fortinet Fortigate products and the proof-of-concept source code was posted on the Full Disclosure mailing list. 

See here: http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Jan/26

Fortinet released a brief statement regarding the issues found with FortiOS on January 12, 2016. The brief statement says that the issue that was recently disclosed publicly was resolved and a patch was made available in July 2014. 

Fortinet stated that: "This was not a “backdoor” vulnerability issue but rather a management authentication issue. The issue was identified by our Product Security team as part of their regular review and testing efforts. After careful analysis and investigation, we were able to verify this issue was not due to any malicious activity by any party, internal or external."

Biometrics: the Future of Mobile Payments?

Billions of people are now using smartphones, even in the most remote areas of the planet. Global adoption of these new mobile technologies opens up the discussion for more advanced methods of identification, authentication, and verification, especially when it comes to protecting against fraud, identity theft and financial crime. One of these promising new technologies, available to end users as a result of the acceptance of mobile devices such as mobile phones, tablets, and laptops, is biometrics.

Biometrics look promising when it comes to simplifying the processing, authentication, and confirmation of transactions in general, but more importantly when it comes to payments. Technological advances, along with pattern recognition and multi-factor biometrics, are expected to tackle cybercrime by making it very expensive and time-consuming for cybercriminals to attempt to target these systems. 

FireEye critical vulnerability

Google's team in Project Zero discovered a critical vulnerability in FireEye NX, EX, AX and FX network security devices that run on security content version 427.334 or prior versions.

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to gain persistent access and remotely exploit code. It is good to see that FireEye focused this time towards patching the security flaw and did not try to take legal action, like previously, for the vulnerabilities discovered by the German security firm ERNW). 

FireEye responded with a support alert stating that a patch was released through automated security content updates for all of the affected devices. FireEye is making the patch available for “out-of-contract customers” and the firm warned customers who perform manual security content updates, to “update immediately”.

The flaw discovered by Project Zero follows an earlier series of vulnerabilities discovered by the German security firm ERNW. FireEye filed an injunction against ERNW in September after learning that the firm was planning to release findings on vulnerabilities that it discovered in FireEye's operating system

It was proven that it was possible for an attacker to root the FireEye's network security device by simply tricking a victim into clicking on a link contained in an email. 

"Unauthorized code" in Juniper firewalls decrypts encrypted VPN traffic

Juniper Networks published an advisory saying that NetScreen firewalls using ScreenOS 6.2.0r15 through 6.2.0r18 and 6.3.0r12 through 6.3.0r20 contain unauthorized code that surreptitiously decrypts the VPN traffic by giving attackers administrative access. 

This system "backdoor" requires immediate patching! The vulnerability was discovered during a recent internal code review[1]. The "unauthorised code" in ScreenOS could allow a knowledgeable attacker to gain administrative access to NetScreen appliances and to decrypt VPN connections. 

Juniper Networks explained in a separate advisory that there are two separate vulnerabilities which are both described as “Unauthorised Code”.

The first flaw allows unauthorized remote administrative access to an affected device over SSH or telnet. Exploits can lead to complete compromise. "The second issue may allow a knowledgeable attacker who can monitor VPN traffic to decrypt that traffic," the advisory said. "It is independent of the first issue. There is no way to detect that this vulnerability was exploited." [2]

This Github repository contains notes, binaries, and related information from the analysis of the CVE-2015-7755 & CVE-2015-7756 issues within Juniper ScreenOS. See a detailed analysis by Rapid7. 

Joomla Critical 0day Remote Command Execution Vulnerability - Patch Now

A vulnerability that affects all versions of Joomla from 1.5.0 to 3.4.5 have just been released (CVE-2015-8562). 

The Joomla security team released a patch to address this critical remote command execution vulnerability that is already being exploited in the wild. 

Joomla is one of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS), alongside Wordpress, Drupal and Magento. Joomla CMS is used to build web sites and online applications in conjunction with the many supported shopping cart, e-commerce and payment gateway extensions.  

Joomla users need to upgrade to version 3.4.6 immediately. For Joomla 3 and above, updating is a simple one-click process through the admin panel. For the unsupported versions 1.5.x - 2.5.x the users need to patch using the Joomla hotfixes.

Combating cybercrime during the holidays. Advice for retailers and shoppers

Online shopping, especially during the holiday period, is a massively important trading platform for many businesses. For online retailers their ability to service high customer demand and ensure the availability of their website throughout this period is crucial to their success.

The shopping frenzy has already started, with the adoption of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in many countries adding additional pressure on high street, and online retailers. In the UK and Europe, this only increased further during the holiday week and the discounts the day after Christmas. With these periods being hugely busy on the high street, an increasing number of shoppers are moving to the Internet to hunt for their bargains.

During this overwhelming period of spending, online retailers and shoppers need to be wary since this also is a lucrative period for Cybercriminals. In this article, we have highlighted a few key steps retailers and shoppers can take to keep themselves safe from cybercrime during the holidays.

IRISSCON 2015 Recap - IRISSCERT

I had the pleasure of attending the 7th Irish Reporting and Information Security Service Computer Emergency Response Team (IRISSCERT) Cyber Crime conference (#IRISSCON) in Dublin, Ireland. See: www.iriss.ie

The event took place on Thursday, 19/Nov/2015 in the Berkley Court Hotel, in Ballsbridge Dublin. 

The annual all-day conference focuses on providing attendees with an overview of the current cyber-threats most businesses are facing; primarily in Ireland and throughout the world. During IRISSCON, experts share their thoughts and experiences on cybercrime and cybersecurity, while a number presentations provide the opportunity all attendees to discuss the issues that matter the most.

Thought leaders from the industry, academia and the government present at IRISSCON and the main audience is primarily the business community within Ireland, discussing the following topics:

• Cyber Crime
• Cyber Security
• Cloud Security
• Incident Response
• Data Protection
• Incident Investigation
• Information Security Threats
• Information Security Trends
• Securing the Critical Network Infrastructure

In case you are not aware of this, IRISSCERT is a not-for-profit company that provides a range of free services to Irish businesses, related to Information Security issues. Effectively, the mission is to help raise the awareness and counter the security threats posed to Irish businesses and its Internet space. 

POS Malware Alert - AbaddonPOS and Cherry Picker

Two new malware files have been identified targeting point-of-sale (POS) terminals called AbaddonPOS and Cherry Picker. 

The AbaddoPOS malware is delivered by the Angler Exploit Kit or through an infected Microsoft Office document. The malware targets the memory of all processes running on the infected system (excluding its own memory space) looking for card data. Once the card data has been found, it is sent back to a Command and Control (C&C) server. 

The Cherry Picker also targets card data but there is some further functionality built-in to it. It tries to clean up after itself and this is the main reason why it went undetected for such a long time. Another characteristic of the Cherry Picker is that it focuses on just one process that is known to contain card data. That way it attracts as little attention as possible, compared to trying to target all running processes on the infected system.

Guest Speaker for Cardiff University - CyberSecurity and the Payment Card Industry

I had the pleasure to be invited as a guest speaker to Cardiff University in order to give a talk about: "CyberSecurity and the Payment Card Industry". 

The talk starts with an introduction to the Payment Card Industry (PCI),  Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). The participants are given the opportunity to understand what is an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV), the responsibilities of a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) and last but not least the job of a PCI Forensics Investigator (PFI).

Adobe Flash patches 17 remote code execution vulnerabilities

Adobe Flash version 19.0.0.245 was released today. This version patches 17 remote code execution vulnerabilities if exploited [see here]. Adobe said that there are no reports of public exploits for any of the patched flaws.

In addition to the desktop version of Flash for Windows and Mac OS X, Adobe also updated Flash for Internet Explorer 11 and Microsoft Edge, both of which are expected to be included in today’s Microsoft Patch Tuesday security bulletins. Adobe also updated Flash Player for Linux and various Adobe Air products for Windows, iOS and Android mobile devices. 

To verify the version of Adobe Flash Player installed on your system, access the About Flash Player page, or right-click on content running in Flash Player and select "About Adobe (or Macromedia) Flash Player" from the menu. To verify the version of Adobe AIR installed on your system, follow the instructions in the Adobe AIR TechNote. 

For those of us using multiple browsers, perform the check for each browser you have installed on your system. The Flash updated packages can be found here.

CVE numbers: CVE-2015-7651, CVE-2015-7652, CVE-2015-7653, CVE-2015-7654, CVE-2015-7655, CVE-2015-7656, CVE-2015-7657, CVE-2015-7658, CVE-2015-7659, CVE-2015-7660, CVE-2015-7661, CVE-2015-7662, CVE-2015-7663, CVE-2015-8042, CVE-2015-8043, CVE-2015-8044, CVE-2015-8046

During last month’s scheduled update, Adobe patched Flash and Acrobat Reader addressing 69 critical vulnerabilities that could lead to code execution and information disclosure. Just three days later, Adobe updated Flash once again with an emergency patch that addressed a zero-day type confusion* vulnerability. The zero-day was being exploited by a Russian-speaking APT group during Operation Pawn Storm.

*Type confusion vulnerabilities occur when the code doesn't verify the type of object that is passed to it, and uses it without type-checking. 

October’s Cyber Aftermath, CyberSecurity Awareness Month

October is known as being the Cyber Security Awareness Month. Many campaigns especially during October are trying to teach and raise the awareness about Cyber Security. Public and private initiatives especially during this month, are trying to raise the awareness further on online security and safety. 

Unfortunately there are still many steps that need to be made towards awareness and Cyber Security. Businesses and individuals are still affected by cyber-attacks and security breaches. The discovery and investigation of a breach can be a very time-consuming process and this is the main reason it takes so long to be reported.

Even though patches and updates are available for most security vulnerabilities as soon as they are discovered, new threats and zero days (0day) are constantly surface and exploited. 

During this month a number of security breaches, cyber-attacks and vulnerabilities were announced. Let's see this month's aftermath...

CyberSecurity Strategy and Essentials

Cybersecurity becomes even more complicated in the context of today’s threat landscape, which is not only constantly changing, but is also expanding at an increasingly fast rate. This is the most problematic element of Cybersecurity; its evolution is so fast and unpredictable while the nature of the risks involved are constantly changing.

Managing security by diverting resources to the most crucial system components in order to reduce the likelihood of a successful breach, is now considered to be an insufficient approach in the current environment of advanced cyber threats. Threats are changing faster than traditional risk management approaches can deal with, and a more proactive, focused and adaptive approach is needed to manage an effective Cybersecurity strategy.

Good security management is a continuous effort with preparation, readiness, and good planning being the best approach. To achieve this, there are some basic best practices that can be considered essential to organisations that need to protect their assets from the most common and opportunistic cyber-attacks.

Security BSides Athens 2016, Greece

I am happy to announce that I am involved in organising Security BSides Athens 2016, in Greece. More information you will find at the BSides Athens website www.bsidesath.gr (currently under construction).

Most of the information about the status of the event can be also found at the official Security BSides wiki page in the following URL: goo.gl/pseoow

The 1st ever BSides Athens conference is scheduled to take place on Saturday, 25 June 2016. The entrance to the event will be free of charge, but attendees will need to book a ticket online in advance, when these are made available (we expect them to become available around March 2016). 

Please follow us on Twitter @BSidesAth and send us a message if you would like to sponsor, support, volunteer or just give us a hand on the day. 

Please use hashtags #BSidesAth #BSidesAthens when talking about BSides Athens on social platforms (i.e. Twitter) and spread the word! Even though Twitter is our main form of communication for reaching out to you, and for you to reach us, there is also an official BSides Athens group on Facebook and one group on Linkedin. 

CFP (Call for Presenters) is scheduled to open on Monday, 30 November 2015 and it will close in March 2016. 

• An Android mobile application is available on Play Store for BSides Athens.
  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dimism.bsidesathens
• An iOS mobile application is available on App Store.
  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bsidesath/id1057022307

The mobile applications allows you to find information about the conference on the spot, have real-time access to the track schedule and directions on how to the get to the venue. So, for this event #goPaperless by downloading the mobile application suitable for your phone and tablet!

In the following links you can find the Security BSides Athens 2016 logo in different dimensions and use it freely to promote the event on your webpage and/or social media. 

• 500 pixels: http://www.bsidesath.gr/logo/BSidesAth_logo01.jpg
• 250 pixels: http://www.bsidesath.gr/logo/BSidesAth_logo01_250x250.jpg
• 200 pixels: http://www.bsidesath.gr/logo/BSidesAth_logo01_200.jpg
• 150 pixels: http://www.bsidesath.gr/logo/BSidesAth_logo01_150x150.jpg
• 50 pixels: http://www.bsidesath.gr/logo/BSidesAth_logo01_50.jpg

Visit www.bsidesath.gr and stay tuned for more to come!