About René Pfeiffer

System administrator, lecturer, hacker, security consultant, technical writer and DeepSec organisation team member. Has done some particle physics, too. Prefers encrypted messages for the sake of admiring the mathematical algorithms at work.

0109, 2011

Talk (U21): Solving Social Engineering Attacks

René Pfeiffer/ September 1, 2011/ Conference

You’ve heard about social engineering. You know your weakest links. You have the task of defending your network against intruders. You know how to do this with your web applications, networks, clients and servers. All these things have neat classifications of attacks, best practice lists and lots of other resources. What about social engineering? How do you keep the wrong people out and your critical information in? How do you classify the attacks? Toby Foster of the University of York, student of Computer Science and intern at First Defence Information Security, tries to address this problem by talking about modelling and categorising and solving the attacks: „There are many definitions of social engineering; almost every book or website on the subject has a different definition. Probably the only consistent point is that it relies

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3108, 2011

Talk: How Terrorists Encrypt

René Pfeiffer/ August 31, 2011/ Conference

Encryption technology has always been regarded as a weapon, due to its uses in wars and espionage. Software used for encryption was banned for export to other countries in the US. The export regulations for strong cryptography were relaxed in 1996. Some countries still consider cryptographic software as a threat. Recently there have been discussions in the USA again about controlling access to encrypted communication channels. The United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, India, and Saudi-Arabia legally attacked the BlackBerry’s strong encryption of the BlackBerry Messenger Service. Encrypted messaging was discussed in UK after the riots in August. Pakistan has banned all encryption and requires users to apply for a permit. Usually the proponents of regulations claim that terrorists and cybercrime are heavy users of strong cryptography. So how do terrorists really encrypt? Are there software

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3108, 2011

Talk/Workshop: SAP Security In-Depth

René Pfeiffer/ August 31, 2011/ Conference

No two SAP deployments are the same. If you run an SAP environment, then you will most certainly use customisations and a multi-tier architecture. You will have tied your SAP deployment to your assets. The typical setup features Development, Quality Assurance and Production (which is the minimal amount of tiers, you may have more). While the development and IT staff mainly interacts with Development and Quality Assurance environments, the organisation’s end-user only connects to the Production systems in order to undertake the required business processes. As soon as security considerations come into play you will probably audit your infrastructure. Since auditors cost money most SAP deployments won’t be scrutinised completely. And then you are in trouble despite passing tests with flying colours. Using short-cuts is the best way to run into trouble. Consider your multi-tier

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2308, 2011

DeepSec 2011 Schedule and Description of Talks/Workshops

René Pfeiffer/ August 23, 2011/ Conference

We’ve already published the preliminary schedule for DeepSec 2011. Most of the speakers have already confirmed their presence at the conference, but we are still waiting for e-mail. While preparing the schedule we’ve asked for more descriptions, and we will describe the talks and workshops in slightly more detail in the blog. We know that some of the titles deserve a closer look, especially since we got very interesting topics to talk about. During the next weeks we will dedicate a whole blog article to each and every slot in our schedule. Stay tuned! Please make sure that you don’t miss the early-bird rates. Tickets at reduced prices are still available until mid-September 2011!

2108, 2011

Cargo Cult Security

René Pfeiffer/ August 21, 2011/ High Entropy, Stories

Here is a fictional story for you that bears no resemblance to any living, dead, or undead persons whatsoever. Imagine someone who is interested in establishing and maintaining a „medium“ to „high“ level of security for his or her business data. This person is a power user and uses hard disk encryption, an encrypted file server, access to internal data by VPN and GPG/PGP for communication. So far, so good. Now for the bad news: untrusted devices without security software may also access internal resources and shiny new workstations run without anti-virus protection or firewalls. Questions regarding potential risks go unnoticed, suggestions to periodically check the security measures also disappear into the vast void of email. What is wrong with this picture? Well, given that all of this is purely fictional, someone you might

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2008, 2011

Discussion about Data Protection and the Game Industry at GamesCon

René Pfeiffer/ August 20, 2011/ Report, Security

The GamesCon is taking place in Cologne. We were present at the first day in order to participate in a discussion about data protection in online games. Discussion partners were Konstantin Ewald, a lawyer and blogger (Online. Spiele. Recht) and Ulrich Lepper, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information. Online gaming is tied to user accounts and personal data. It is linked with targeted advertising. Since the Sownage series of attacks the issue has arrived in the mainstream media. There is no need to name Sony or any other company as a culprit, or to shift the blame around. Just as web applications, the world of online games is complex by itself. Hardening your infrastructure is fine, but this is only a part of the story. There are other components such

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1908, 2011

Preliminary Schedule of DeepSec 2011 published

René Pfeiffer/ August 19, 2011/ Administrivia, Conference

Finally we have reviewed all your submissions, and we have published a preliminary schedule on our web site. We have not filled all workshop slots, because some of the workshop submissions are still under review and some submitters have been asked for further material. We wish to express our deepest thanks for your submissions! We received much more than we possibly can squeeze into the conference schedule, most of the material being absolutely new and of high interest. We had a hard time rejecting talks, so don’t be sad if you couldn’t make it this time. So, to everyone whose submission was rejected: We will contact you again. The topics range from encryption, attacking mobile devices, IT compliance management, SAP weaknesses (yes, SAP deployments can be attacked, really), cyber-peace (we’re curious as well), insights

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0708, 2011

Explaining Security to non-technical Audiences

René Pfeiffer/ August 7, 2011/ Discussion, Report

A few days ago we had the opportunity to present a review of vulnerabilities in mobile phone networks and typical attack vectors to a non-technical audience (we announced the event in a previous blog posting, the event language was German). The background of the attendees was a spectrum of social sciences, political sciences, different technical science (but not information science), governmental agencies (again non-technical) and journalists. We adapted the slides in order to reduce the complexity and the technical details. The reaction was positive, but most of the questions were aimed at how to defend against the risks. Thus our reduction only lasted until the QA section. If you really want to defend yourself, you have to deal with the details. If you don’t dive into the details, you can give superficial answers at

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3107, 2011

Evaluating your CfP submissions for DeepSec 2010

René Pfeiffer/ July 31, 2011/ Administrivia

We’ve been busy attending the 1. Sicherheitspolitische Aufbauakademie des Bundesverbandes Sicherheitspolitik an Hochschulen in the past days, so we will not comment the submission for DeepSec 2011 immediately. Gathering from the summaries and descriptions so far we are every impressed. DeepSec 2011 will feature some serious talks and new content. Thanks for taking your time and considering to hold a talk at our conference! We will need some time to sort through all submissions and rank them. We may come back to you for questions, but you will get a notice on the state of your submission as soon as possible. Stay tuned! In case you want to submit a talk late, please drop it into our mailbox or use the Call for Papers manager. You will be ranked after the submission that we

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1707, 2011

Last Call for DeepSec 2011 – Reminder – Call for Papers!

René Pfeiffer/ July 17, 2011/ Administrivia, Conference

Come on, get your submissions in order and send them to us! The past weeks were full of vulnerabilities, exploits in action and illustrated security very well. Let’s recall what we are looking for. Mobile computing and communications (the protocols and the gadgets) IPv6 (again protocols and the gadgets) Security management and IT governance (a.k.a. “The Big Picture”) Cloud computing and virtualisation (a.k.a. infrastructure 2.0) Security intelligence (few have it) Psychological aspect of security (social engineering, usable security, …) Topics that have a high impact on IT security (or your/our life in general) Design flaws (“defective by design”, the bugs are out there…) We’re looking for workshops, talks and submissions from young talents (U21). Updates and reviews are welcome provided they are still a threat (the web never gets boring for example). New uses

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1407, 2011

Subverting Femto Cells – Infrastructure at Risk

René Pfeiffer/ July 14, 2011/ Security

The past DeepSec conferences featured talks about mobile telecommunication networks. Security researchers had to turn mobile phones into base stations or create their own from hardware and software. Yesterday The Hacker’s Choice have published a security analysis of Vodafone’s Femto Cells. These cells are small routers used for boosting the 3G signal. They cost about 160£ and can be purchased through the Vodafone store. Reverse engineering turns these little routers into full-blown 3G/UMTC/WCDMA interception devices. You can catch IMSIs and retrieve the secret subscriber information by requesting it from the core network. By using this secret key material you can decrypt intercepted phone calls and data transmissions. The reverse engineering process even produced the root password of the device (it’s ceolyx, but you need to decrypt it; other blogs feature the full plaintext password). This

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0707, 2011

SecInt: Radar for Anti-Security Movement

René Pfeiffer/ July 7, 2011/ High Entropy, Press, Security

We have been talking to some journalists in the past weeks. Most questions revolved around the rise in attacks against well-known web sites and their companies (or vice versa). Jeffrey Carr has published a good source for an overview of Anti-Security groups. If you are looking what to put on your radar, his article might be a good start. Security intelligence is gathering importance. Make sure that you don’t drown in tools or gadgets, and that you don’t neglect your strategic view. Quite a lot of people are confused by the many reports of incidents, „lulz“, „LOLs“, scanty slogans when it comes to motivations of attackers, damage reports, panic and media mind disruption (always remember: anonymous ≠ Anonymous). Currently we’re working on material to put the threats into perspective. It’s hard to distinguish the

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0107, 2011

Veranstaltung zum Thema Informationstechnologie und Sicherheitspolitik

René Pfeiffer/ July 1, 2011/ Veranstaltung

Zwischen dem 28. und 31. Juli 2011 findet in Berlin die 1. Sicherheitspolitische Aufbauakademie des Bundesverbandes Sicherheitspolitik an Hochschulen statt. Sie trägt den Titel „Informationstechnologie und Sicherheitspolitik – Wird der 3. Weltkrieg im Internet ausgetragen?“. Die DeepSec Konferenz wird bei dieser Veranstaltung mit zwei Vorträgen zum Thema „Angriffe gegen Funknetze – wie verwundbar ist das GSM-Netz?“ und „Ausgewählte Angriffsvektoren — Zombies, Botnetze und dDoS-Attacken“ mitwirken. Wir versuchen damit Auszüge und Zusammenfassungen der vergangenen DeepSec Konferenzen komprimiert und auch für Nichttechniker zu vermitteln. Das volle Programm ist als PDF herunterladbar. Im Rahmen der Veranstaltung sollen die Themen Sicherheitspolitik und Informationstechnologie miteinander verbunden werden. „Cyberwar“ ist in aller Munde und hat schon Eingang in Militärdoktrine gefunden. Es stellen sich daher die Fragen: Was ist „Cyberwar“? Welche Bedrohungen sind relevant? Wie kann eine Auseinandersetzung mit Mitteln der

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3006, 2011

Reminder – Call for Papers DeepSec 2011 – deadline approaching

René Pfeiffer/ June 30, 2011/ Administrivia, Conference

In case you have not yet prepared a submission for DeepSec 2011, please consider to do so. The deadline is approaching! We have already received submissions, but we have a hard time believing that everything is secure out there. That can’t be, you know it, and we know it. Submit your in-depths talks and workshops, give our programme committee some work to do, and maybe we can even have some in-depth lulz, who knows. Speaking of security and design flaws, don’t forget the ubiquitous web interfaces. Everyone and everything has a web interface – your bank, your government, your routers, your servers, your average smart meter (measuring electricity/water/gas consumption), your printers, your household appliances, your TV set, your video/audio player and possibly a lot of devices you are unaware of. Of course, feel free

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2406, 2011

Some Slides from DeepSec 2009

René Pfeiffer/ June 24, 2011/ Administrivia, Conference

Some of you might already noticed the videos from the DeepSec 2009 conference on Vimeo. Sadly we don’t have all the slides for all talks, but here are some documents from our archive. #TwitterRisks: Bot C&C, Data Loss, Intel Collection & More by Ben Feinstein – Slides Dynamic Binary Instrumentation for Deobfuscation and Unpacking by Daniel Reynaud and Jean-Yves Marion – Slides Windows Secure Kernel Development by Fermin J. Serna – Slides Stoned déjà vu – again by Peter Kleissner – Slides Key Management Death Match? Competing KM Standards Technical Deep Dive by Marc Massar – Slides USB Device Drivers: A Stepping Stone into your Kernel by Moritz Jodeit and Martin Johns – Slides eKimono: Detecting Rootkits inside Virtual Machine by Nguyen Anh Quynh – Slides Ownage 2.0 by Saumil Shah – Slides