0209, 2016

DeepSec 2016 Workshop: Hacking Web Applications – Case Studies of award-winning Bugs in Google, Yahoo!, Mozilla and more – Dawid Czagan

Sanna/ September 2, 2016/ Conference, Internet, Security, Training

Have you been to the pictures lately? If so, what’s the best way to attack an impenetrable digital fortress? Right, go for the graphical user interface! Or anything exposed to the World Wide Web. The history of web applications is riddled with bugs that enable attackers to do things they are not supposed to. We bet that you have something exposed on the Web and even probably don’t know about it. Don’t worry. Instead attend the DeepSec training session „Hacking Web Applications“ conducted by Dawid Czagan. He will teach you about what to look for when examining web applications with a focus on information security. This hands-on web application hacking training is based on authentic, award-winning security bugs identified in some of the greatest companies (Google, Yahoo!, Mozilla, Twitter, etc.). You will learn how bug hunters

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3108, 2016

Buy your ticket for 44CON – and go to prison for free!

René Pfeiffer/ August 31, 2016/ Administrivia, Conference, Security

Forget Winter! 44CON is coming! The conference will be 14 to 16 September 2016 in London. The schedule is online. Take a look! This year’s 44CON also features a Capture The Flag (CTF) contest. It is hosted by the UK Ministry of Justice. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, consists of breaking into a prison! 20 teams have announced to participate. Sounds terrific, if you ask us. We will be there as well. So grab a ticket, cross the Channel, and we’ll meet in the lobby or, better yet, at the registration desk. Spread the word!

2108, 2016

Transforming Secure Coding into Secure Design

René Pfeiffer/ August 21, 2016/ Discussion, High Entropy, Security

Secure Coding is the way to go when you develop applications for the real world. Rename errors and bugs into failures. Turn #fail to #win. Instant karma. In addition there are lots of best practices, checklists, and documents around that will tell you what to anticipate. However the design of an application precedes the code itself. Given the scope and purpose of your product implementing security at the coding stage might be too late. Let us consider an example. The Internet of Things (IoT) is all around us, especially in the information security news sections. While connecting devices to make one’s life easier isn’t a bad idea (just think about writing this article on a networked device and you reading it! Cool, eh?), the connecting parts and the security design should be sound. Smart

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0608, 2016

DeepSec 2016 – Thank you for all your submissions!

René Pfeiffer/ August 6, 2016/ Conference, Security

The DeepSec Call for Papers closed on 31 July 2016. We are currently reviewing the content. Thank you very much for your participation! The talks and workshops look awesome. We have a hard time deciding what will be part of the schedule and what has to be postponed. For everyone who has missed the deadline, you can  still submit your talk or training. However we will consider all the others first. Prepare for a fantastic DeepSec 2016!

3007, 2016

OpenPGP.conf is calling for Content

René Pfeiffer/ July 30, 2016/ Call for Papers, Conference, Security

If you don’t know what PGP means (or GPG), you should consult your favourite search engine. While it has a bad reputation for its usability, it is a lot more useful than the rumours might suggest (please attend your local CryptoParty chapter for more details). This is why the German Unix Users Group organises an OpenPGP.conf event. It takes place on 8/9 September 2016 in Cologne, Germany. The Call for Papers is still running, so  be quick and submit. The international conference, initiated by Werner Koch, maintainer of the free OpenPGP implementation Gnu Privacy Guard (GnuPG), and organized by the German Unix Users Group Association introduces the subject of confidential and untampered with communication including, but not limited to security aware users, IT managers and architects responsible for security objectives, software developers who plan to

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1306, 2016

DeepSec 2015 Slides: Bridging the Air-Gap – Data Exfiltration from Air-Gap Networks! Much Slides! Very Animated! Wow!

Sanna/ June 13, 2016/ Conference, Security

The presentation titled Bridging the Air-Gap – Data Exfiltration from Air-Gap Networks was held at DeepSec 2015. Since the presentation format was not meant to be printed or viewed with generic documents viewers, the slide deck had to be converted. The slides in PDF format can be downloaded from this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_dwBl7uf6PdRndDa1Rad1dMdFk/view?usp=sharing For an animated version of the slides, use one of these links: http://prezi.com/mrzzjpzgvcr8/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy or in short http://goo.gl/mpCNWC Mind the gap and enjoy!

1106, 2016

BSidesLND2016 Rookie Track Review

René Pfeiffer/ June 11, 2016/ Discussion, Security, Stories

Sitting through the Rookie Track at BSidesLondon is something we really enjoy. This year the quality of the presentations was amazing. Of course, the rookie’s mentors take a part of the blame for that. Good training gives you always a head start. Nevertheless someone has to stand in front of the crowd and fill the 15 minutes slot with content. All rookies did a good job. It was hard to pick a clear winner. The jury took more than three iterations to find a conclusion. Locard made it, and we welcome him to DeepSec 2016 in November. Honourable mentions go to @Shlibness, @Oxana_Sereda and @callygarr. For you we have some thoughts on the presentations we saw and on the methods being used. Think of your presentation as code. Make it lean and mean. It’s

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0406, 2016

BSides London 2016 – Schedule

René Pfeiffer/ June 4, 2016/ Conference, Security

In case you haven’t noticed, the London BSides schedule is up. The Rookie track starts right with the most important part of information security – opsec. Behaviour is on a par with expensive security hardware and your favourite protection software. Wearables, video games, hidden data, malware mythbusting, and more follow next. The main schedule features presentations about the impact of TOR/I2P traffic to your servers (think or best forget about CloudFlare), methods used by options advanced attackers, attacking Low Powered Wide Area Network (LPWAN) devices used for smart / IoT stuff, malicious software, static code analysis, threat analysis, the temptation of containers, and honey pots. There’s ample of content for everyone looking for new ideas. Don’t miss the opportunity!

1404, 2016

Thoughts on Lawful Malicious Software and its Impact on IT Infrastructure

Sanna/ April 14, 2016/ Interview, Press, Security

During the premiere of „A Good American“ we had a chat with journalists. Markus Sulzbacher of Der Standard wanted to know what the implication of the so-called Bundestrojaner (litterally federal trojan, the colloquial German term for the concept of inserting government malware in order to extract information from a suspect’s computer and telephone devices). The idea is to infect a computer system with malicious software that sits in the background and to siphon off the hard-to-get data connected to communication (i.e. messengers, Skype, emails, etc.). We have translated the interview from German to English for you. You can find the original on Der Standard web site. Der Standard 12.04.2016 “The federal Trojan is governmental malware” Police praise the software as a “wonder weapon against terror”. But for IT expert René Pfeiffer the planned introduction

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1103, 2016

“A Good American” opens next Week in Austrian Theatres

René Pfeiffer/ March 11, 2016/ Administrivia, Discussion, High Entropy, Security, Security Intelligence

For everyone attending DeepSec 2015 we organised a private screening of the film “A Good American”. Everyone else now gets the chance to see this film in theatres beginning on 18 March 2016. Next week there will be the premiere in Vienna, Linz, and Innsbruck here in Austria. Bill Binney will be present himself, and he will answer questions from the audience. We highly recommend “A Good American” to everyone dealing with information security, regardless of the level. Full take and Big Data is not always the answer to your security challenges. Every gadget around is turning smart, and so should you. We hope to see you at the premiere here in Vienna next week!

0303, 2016

DeepSec Video: Visualizing Wi-Fi Packets the Hacker’s Way

René Pfeiffer/ March 3, 2016/ Communication, Conference, Security, Stories

Like the Force wireless data/infrastructure packets are all around us. Both have a light and a dark side. It all depends on your intentions. Lacking the midi-chlorians we have to rely on other sources to get a picture of the wireless forces in and around the (network) perimeter. At DeepSec 2015 Milan Gabor held a presentation about visualisation of wi-fi packets: Today visualizing Wi-Fi traffic is more or less limited to console windows and analyze different logs from an aircrack-ng toolset. There are some commercial tools, but if we want to stay in the Open/Free Source Code (FOSS) area we need to find better solutions. So we used ELK stack to gather, hold, index and visualize data and a modified version of an airodump tool for input. With this you can create amazing dashboards,

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0203, 2016

DeepSec Video: Remote Browser-Based Fingerprinting of Local Network Devices

René Pfeiffer/ March 2, 2016/ Conference, Internet, Security

Reconnaissance is first, then comes the attack. This is why fingerprinting devices is the first step. Manfred Kaiser (Josef Ressel Zentrum) explained at DeepSec 2015 how this can be done by the local web browser(s) in the locally connected network segment. Manfred discusses remote device fingerprinting techniques for SOHO routers and other network-connected devices offering a browser-based configuration interface. While consumer network devices provided to customers by their ISPs are typically based on very few different hardware platforms, they are equipped with highly customized firmwares and thus contain different vulnerabilities. The knowledge of a specific device’s vulnerabilities is vital to the success of a remote attack. In a live demo Manfred shows how a remote attacker can exploit the feature-richness of modern web technologies (HTML5, WebRTC, JavaScript, CSS) to perform device discovery and fine-grained

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0103, 2016

DeepSec Video: Revisiting SOHO Router Attacks

René Pfeiffer/ March 1, 2016/ Conference, Security

Routers are everywhere. If you are connected to the Internet, your next router takes care of all packets. So basically your nearest router (or next hop as the packet girls and guys call them) is a prime target for attackers of any kind. Since hard-/software comes in various sizes, colours, and prices, there is a big difference in quality, i.e. how good your router can defend itself. Jose Antonio Rodriguez Garcia, Ivan Sanz de Castro, and Álvaro Folgado Rueda (independent IT security researchers) held a presentation about the security of small office/home office SOHO routers at DeepSec 2015. Domestic routers have lately been targeted by cybercrime due to the huge amount of well-known vulnerabilities which compromise their security. The purpose of our publication is to assess SOHO router security by auditing a sample of

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2602, 2016

DeepSec Video: IntelMQ

René Pfeiffer/ February 26, 2016/ Conference, Security

Handling incidents means that you have to handle information quickly. Collecting, collaboration, and getting the right piece of intel in crucial moments is the key. CERTs know this, and this is why there is IntelMQ. IntelMQ is a solution for collecting and processing security feeds, pastebins, and tweets using a message queue protocol. It’s a community driven initiative called IHAP (Incident Handling Automation Project) which was conceptually designed by European CERTs during several InfoSec events. Its main goal is to give incident responders an easy way to collect & process threat intelligence, thus improving the incident handling processes of CERTs. Get your messaging right before you run into a (security) incident.