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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

1906, 2011

Photographs from B Sides Vienna / Ninjacon

René Pfeiffer/ June 19, 2011/ Conference, Veranstaltung

We’ve put some photographs from B Sides Vienna / Ninjacon online. You can view them at our Flickr page. The event was very cool, the security was tight(ly hacked), everyone had a lot of fun. We have not photographed the creative „Kinderhacks“, maybe someone else has some pictures.

1306, 2011

DeepSec 2011 Focus: Usable Security

René Pfeiffer/ June 13, 2011/ Administrivia, Conference

A few days ago we uploaded the keynote speech held by Matt Watchinski at DeepSec 2009. The title was: „Technology Won’t Save You, Only People Will“ This statement can be turned into the opposite: Technology won’t threaten you, people will. We’re not talking about threats from insiders turned rogue. We are talking about holes in your defence because of badly configured or mishandled security devices and software. This has nothing to do with being Bastard Operator from Hell and putting the blame on the users or colleagues. A modern company infrastructure has to deal with a lot of complexity all by itself. Adding security won’t reduce this complexity. Adding badly designed user interfaces (for security devices and options), confusing status/error messages and hardly comprehensible settings will most certainly increase the risk of security incidents.

0106, 2011

Registration for DeepSec 2011 is now open!

René Pfeiffer/ June 1, 2011/ Administrivia, Conference

The registration for DeepSec 2011 is now officially open. You can register for the conference, workshops or both. We offer three booking phases: Early Bird, Regular and Last Minute. Please keep in mind that the Early Bird tickets are the cheapest. The longer you wait, the more you have to pay. Since the Call for Papers is still running the workshop slots are empty, but you can buy workshop or conference+workshop tickets now and decide which workshop you want later (when we publish the schedule). If you have any questions, drop us a few lines.

2705, 2011

DeepSec Conference Videos

René Pfeiffer/ May 27, 2011/ Administrivia, Conference

Finally we found some time to sort through the video recording legacy of past DeepSec conferences. We’ve been asked for video material repeatedly since we record all talks held at DeepSec (except those where the speaker does not want to be published on video). Let me explain what the state of our video archive is. All video recordings were done by different teams consisting of video professionals, volunteers from Metalab and students of the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences. We used different camera equipment, sound feeds due to changes with the audio system on-site and various storage media because of different digital cameras on-site. The videos of DeepSec 2007 are on Google Video since June 2008. We have re-added them to our internal archive, and we noticed that killab66661 has added the videos

2305, 2011

DeepSec 2011 Focus: Security Management and IT Governance

René Pfeiffer/ May 23, 2011/ Administrivia, Conference

Have you lost track of the risks that may or may not impact your security? How good are the facts you base your security decisions on? Does your organisation follow defined procedures in terms of deploying, monitoring or evaluating security measures? Who decides what’s next and what’s being phased out? Is there a way to get more sleep while fencing off risk factors at the same time? It’s very easy to get lost in the details and drown in the various tools of the security trade. Every day something happens. A single 0day can ruin your meticulously designed schedule. It would be nice to get a grip on the dynamics and introduce more stability. CIOs need to address the Big Picture. That’s exactly why we mentioned security management in our CfP. We’d like to

1305, 2011

DeepSec 2011 Focus: IPv6 and Next Generation Networks

René Pfeiffer/ May 13, 2011/ Administrivia, Conference

Since 3 February 2011 the IPv4 pool is now officially and fully depleted. „Peak IPv4“ was a long time ago. IANA can no longer hand out any IPv4 address space. Everyone who needs more address space will be force to look to IPv6. What about security? Are there any benefits? Has IPv6 eliminated all the weaknesses known with IPv4? Those who attended DeepSec 2010 already know the answers to these questions. Mark Heuse conducted a workshop and held a talk about IPv6 security. There’s no doubt that IPv6 is coming to town. Due to tunnels some networks even have IPv6 connectivity, some without even knowing. Setting up a tunnel with a router in your local network is easy. The router will announce itself to local nodes which will in turn automatically grab addresses and

0205, 2011

DeepSec 2011 Focus: Mobile Computing and Communications

René Pfeiffer/ May 2, 2011/ Conference

Our Call for Papers announcement mentioned seven topics that we are focussing on. We’d like to explain what these topics are all about in a couple of blog postings since it is not easy to squeeze everything into a few lines. We begin with mobile computing and communication. Mobile computing incorporates mobile computing devices such as smart phones, tablets, cell phones, laptops, netbooks, wrist watches, navigation devices and similar computers. Most of us are now accustomed to frequently use portable computing. We want to know what bugs and security risks we carry around. A lot of users regard these mobile computers as appliance, therefore the thought of upgrading or fixing software on them is less widespread. You don’t do firmware upgrades on your microwave oven or water boiler, do you? Maybe you should. Mobile

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