1602, 2023

Press Release: IT World in AI Mania

Sanna/ February 16, 2023/ Development, Legal, Press, Security/ 0 comments

Artificial intelligence (AI) is on everyone’s lips, but its results fall short of all expectations. Wouldn’t it be nice if computers could effortlessly give meaningful results to all kinds of questions from all kinds of unstructured data collections? Periodically, algorithms that do incredible things are celebrated in information technology. At the moment, it is the turn of artificial intelligence algorithms. Search engines are retrofitting AI. But the supposed product is far from real cognitive performance. Many open questions remain. History of Algorithms The first experts to work with algorithms to emulate human thought processes came from the fields of mathematics and philosophy. They wanted to formalise analytical thinking from the subfield of logic and describe it in models. In the 1950s, the algorithms were implemented on the computers that were emerging at the time.

1912, 2022

Translated Article: Regulation on “Chat Control” Launched in EU Parliament

Sanna/ December 19, 2022/ Security, Stories/ 0 comments

Verordnung zur „Chat-Kontrolle“ im EU-Parlament gestartet by Erich Moechel for fm4.ORF.at [We have translated the article from Erich’s column, because end-to-end encryption is a fundamental part of IT security. Erich has researched a lot regarding the concerted attack on secure communication. He provides important background information to understand why the attack on encryption is presented in different countries at the same time.] At the same time as the EU regulation, the British “Online Safety Bill” and a US law on the safety of children online are on their way through the parliaments. A comparison shows astonishing parallels in terms of content and method. On Wednesday, work on the regulation on warrantless searches of social network users’ smartphones and PCs started in the EU Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE). In this first meeting, the timetable for this

1711, 2022

DeepSec 2022 has started – two Days of Presentation about Information Security

René Pfeiffer/ November 17, 2022/ Conference, Security/ 0 comments

The DeepSec Conference 2022 has started. We will be busy handling the presentation tracks, the TraceLabs OSINT CTF event, and the ROOTS track. We covered most of the presentations in brief interviews on this blog. There is more to come after the conference has ended. The live streams from the conference are available to registered attendees. The recordings will be published on our video platform after post-precessing. Updates from the event will be posted to our Twitter and Mastodon accounts. In case you want to be part of the conversation, please use the #DeepSec hashtag.

1511, 2022

Reminder for virtual Training: Exploiting Race Conditions

René Pfeiffer/ November 15, 2022/ Security, Training/ 0 comments

A race condition attack is one of the most dangerous and underestimated attacks on modern web applications. It’s related to concurrency and multi-threading. Because of this attack, an attacker who has $1000 in his bank account can transfer more than $1000 from his bank account. This is just one example, but it clearly shows how dangerous this attack is. In a free video Dawid Czagan (DeepSec instructor) will show you step by step how this attack works and will tell you how to prevent this attack from happening. Watch this free video and feel the taste of Dawid Czagan’s live online training ”Black Belt Pentesting / Bug Hunting Millionaire: Mastering Web Attacks with Full-Stack Exploitation”- Because of our hybrid configuration of DeepSec for trainings and the conference, the Mastering Web Attacks with Full-Stack Exploitation

1511, 2022

DeepSec 2022 Trainings have started

René Pfeiffer/ November 15, 2022/ Security, Training/ 0 comments

The DeepSec trainings have started. Today is the first day. The topics cover attacking modern desktop applications, network threat hunting, incident response, creating malicious office documents for offensive tests, and secure code review. The spectrum covers a lot of content, and it will be very helpful for defending the information security landscape. One of our trainings can still be booked. The workshop titled “Web Hacking Expert: Full-Stack Exploitation Mastery” by Dawid Czagan has been postponed to 28/29 November 2022. It will be an online training. You can take part virtually. Bookings are still possible via our ticket shop.

1002, 2022

Blockchain, bad data, and bad code

René Pfeiffer/ February 10, 2022/ Scuttlebutt, Security

[The scuttlebutt news are also available via the DeepSec scuttlebutt mailing list. This posting was sent to the list on 11 January 2022.] Dear readers, the pandemic is still not over. 2022 greets us with a new variant of SARS-CoV-2. I hope all of you stay safe and stay healthy. The organisation of DeepSec events continues. The wonderful world of IT has plenty of topics to research and check for security vulnerabilities. There is one issue I would like to describe in some more depth. DeepSec itself and parts of its staff and helpers have strong ties to cryptography. We supported the Crypto Party events in Vienna back in 2012. Back then, Bitcoin (₿) was three years old. It was regarded as a curiosity. For us, crypto still means cryptography. We considered accepting Bitcoin

1611, 2021

DeepSec2021 Talk: QKD-based Security for 5G and Next Generation Networks – Sergiy Gnatyuk, PhD. DSc.

Sanna/ November 16, 2021/ Conference, Security

Modern information and communication technologies (ICT) implementation in all spheres of human activity, as well as the increasing number and power of cyber-attacks on them make the cyber security of the developed digital state vulnerable and weak. Cyber-attacks become targeted (so-called APT-attacks) and attackers carefully prepare them, analyzing the identified vulnerabilities and all possible ways of attack. The security and defense capabilities of the state are considered in an additional fifth domain titled cyberspace (after land, air, water and space). World`s leading states develop strategies to protect cyberspace, create cyber troops, develop and test cyber weapons. A significant number of cyber-attacks today are aimed at critical infrastructures and government organizations. Traditional security methods (in particular, cryptographic algorithms) do not fully protect against all currently known attacks, they are potentially vulnerable to attacks based on

2110, 2021

Hardwear.io Interview: Teardown and feasibility study of IronKey – the most secure USB Flash drive

René Pfeiffer/ October 21, 2021/ Security

Portable storage devices are small and can be easily lost. Using security measures to protect the data on them is therefore a good idea. Vendors offer USB storage devices with built-in encryption capabilities. What happens if you analyse how they work? What are the attack modes on these devices? There will be a presentation at Hardwear.io regarding a specific brand of storage devices. We have asked the author Sergei Skorobogatov about the security properties of IronKey devices. HDD and SSD vendors have provided their devices with secure deletion and encryption features. How do IronKey devices compare to normal storage media? Some HDD and SSD devices do offer encryption and secure deletion, as well as vendors of other USB Flash drives. The fundamental difference is that IronKey devices are certified with FIPS140-2 Level 3. This

1309, 2021

DeepSec 2021 Presentation: Don’t get Hacked, get AMiner! Smart Log Data Analytics for Incident Detection – Florian Skopik, Markus Wurzenberger, Max Landauer

Sanna/ September 13, 2021/ Conference, Security

“Prevention is ideal, but detection is a must”. Active monitoring and intrusion detection systems (IDS) are the backbone of every effective cyber security framework. Whenever carefully planned, implemented and executed preventive security measures fail, IDS are a vital part of the last line of defence. IDS are an essential measure to detect the first steps of an attempted intrusion in a timely manner. This is a prerequisite to avoid further harm. It is commonly agreed that active monitoring of networks and systems and the application of IDS are a vital part of the state of the art. Usually, findings of IDS, as well as major events from monitoring, are forwarded to, managed and analyzed with SIEM solutions. These security information and event management solutions provide a detailed view on the status of an infrastructure

1207, 2021

Translated Article: Germany becomes the Federal Trojan Republic

Sanna/ July 12, 2021/ Security, Stories

Deutschland wird zur Bundestrojanerrepublik by Erich Moechel for fm4.ORF.at All 19 secret services now have a license to use malware. IT security vulnerabilities can therefore be kept open, preventive cyber attacks are the best defense – security expert Manuel Atug on the new German “cybersecurity strategy.” Since Friday, the “Law to Adapt the Constitutional Protection Law” has been in force in Germany. All 19 federal and state secret services are now allowed to use Trojan malware. Another law is already in the Federal Council, which authorizes the police authorities to use Trojans even before a criminal offense has occurred. German police and customs authorities have had a legal license to distribute such malware since 2017. At the same time, a new cybersecurity strategy is being worked out which, among other things, stipulates that newly discovered security

1705, 2021

Murder Board Blog Series: Chapter 4 – Trojan Horses or: State Hacking

Sanna/ May 17, 2021/ Internet, Security, Stories

Feeding Pigeons in the Park—Espionage Knowledge is power. Knowing nothing makes one envious when looking at the model of modern information societies. The natural application of networks that transport information is espionage. So the Internet early made acquaintance with it. The aspect of smuggling messages in and out of an area is obvious. It also involves breaking through security measures to gain access to protected information. Whereby large parts of our own information are much less protected than we would like or even be aware of. The e-mails mentioned above are always in plain text and therefore are visible to everyone. An unknown number of third parties read them on the way from sender to recipient and assess this information. And all the information we have in accounts on US platforms (photos, more or

0705, 2021

Murder Board Blog Series: Chapter 3 – Serial Hackers: Organized Crime or Grand Theft Data

Sanna/ May 7, 2021/ Internet, Security, Stories

Motivations and Motifs of the “Cosa Data” Elevate data to a valuable commodity and it gets automatically traded, hoarded, stolen and counterfeited. We can use digital processes both legally and illegally, just like the economy in the physical world. However, cyber crime is about much more than data. Accounts with certain privileges also represent value because they act as a multiplier. For example, a simple e-mail account with stored contacts (address book or even the contact data in existing e-mails). This has several properties at once: Identity, trust and an archive of messages. The archive can be searched directly for valuable data. The identity can be used for fraud with the help of the trust of the contacts to get further access to more accounts and data. Motivation is—on balance—always something like a benefit

2104, 2021

Project Covert Operations and Zero Days – Controlled Compromise of Infrastructure and Code

René Pfeiffer/ April 21, 2021/ Discussion, High Entropy, Security

Once you collect information, you will eventually have to decide on when to use which part for what reason. This is the dilemma of intercepting intelligence from an adversary and using it for defence (or offence). Once you act on your the knowledge no one else is supposed to have, then you will also disclose your capabilities. The digital world is full of these scenarios. The most recent case is a disclosure of Google’s Project Zero. The publication covered vulnerabilities dating back to the first half of 2020. As it turned out the discovery comprised 11 powerful weaknesses used to compromise iOS, Android and Microsoft® Windows devices. By publishing these vulnerabilities Project Zero essentially shut down a nine-month digital hacking operation by a Western government. Bugs in software have no labels. They may be

1604, 2021

Murder Board Blog Series: Prequel

Sanna/ April 16, 2021/ Security, Stories

[This is the first part of a five-part article series describing analogies between the world of IT security and research in other fields. Analogies are often used to deflect and conceal missing arguments. Didactics uses analogies as a powerful tool to explore your own understanding and to help you use your knowledge from other fields. Please use the articles of the Murderboard series (our name for the five-part article) for educating IT-affine people about information security. It’s never bad to have allies who understand what to look for in time of trouble.] It was a warm summer day when I got a call from an acquaintance who wanted to hire me for data protection coaching with one of his clients. Besides crime writing, I also work in data protection, helping self-employed people and small

1503, 2021

Bug Disclosure Policies and the Eternal Discussion about Security ♨

René Pfeiffer/ March 15, 2021/ Discussion, High Entropy, Security

In theory, there is the evolution from bug over to weakness, vulnerability and finally the exploit. Errors in code and application behaviour are interesting for any serious developer. Security researchers also look for bugs and ways to make code do something it wasn’t designed for. In the absence of critical failures in applications, the process of reporting bugs and getting them fixed everything is smooth and less prone to heated discussions (YMMV, some software projects feature persons with very strong opinions). All of this changes when the code can be remotely exploited. Enter the recent CVEs regarding the Microsoft® Exchange server. CVE-2021-26855 is as bad as it sounds. It is a remote code execution with low complexity requiring no user interaction and no privileges. Disclosure of bugs impacting security has a long history. Knowing