1311, 2012

DeepSec 2012 Showcase: Cuteforce Analyzer

René Pfeiffer/ November 13, 2012/ Discussion, Security

The University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria will be showing the Cuteforce Analyzer at DeepSec 2012. This beast is a massively parallel computing cluster for cryptographic applications. The goals of this project was to develop a cluster framework and to evaluate suitable hardware. The cluster itself utilises two different types of co-processors, namely the well-known graphics processing units (GPUs) also used in super-computing, and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Both types of processors have their strength and weaknesses, both depending on the algorithm being executed on the hardware. The cluster framework connects both hardware platforms, and assigns computing tasks according to the advantages of the co-processor. Thus you get to use all the advantages; in addition the framework software makes sure that you can use the different hardware processors as a whole. The research team

0811, 2012

DeepSec 2012 Talk: Pentesting iOS Apps – Runtime Analysis and Manipulation

René Pfeiffer/ November 8, 2012/ Conference, Security

Since one of the focus topics of DeepSec 2012 deals with mobile computing and devices, we asked Andreas Kurtz to elaborate on his presentation about pentesting iOS apps: „Apple’s iPhone and iPad are quite trendy consumer devices, and have become increasingly popular even in enterprises nowadays. Apps, downloaded from the AppStore or developed in-house, are supposed to completely change and optimize the way of work. Suddenly, managers have access to business intelligence information, data warehouses and financial charts on their mobile devices: Apps are used as front ends to executive information systems and, thus, are carrying around loads of sensitive data. At a first glance it seems, that there’s nothing new on it. Indeed, it is quite common to remotely access critical business data. However, the popularity of mobile devices, combined with the sensitive

0511, 2012

Talk about Data Loss Prevention

René Pfeiffer/ November 5, 2012/ Security

We will be presenting a talk about data loss prevention (DLP) on 9 November 2012 at the IT-Security Community Xchange 2012 (IT-SecX 2012) in St. Pölten, Lower Austria. DLP is a good example for measuring the security of your IT infrastructure. Keeping data in is as important as keeping attackers out these days. The tricky part is to know what data you have and where it lives. We will discuss how to approach DLP in terms of preparation, planning and implementation. In case you are in Austria you can meet us at the IT-SecX 2012. The event is organised by the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten.

0211, 2012

DeepSec 2012 Training: SAP Security In-Depth

René Pfeiffer/ November 2, 2012/ Security, Training

Your SAP installation is probably the most critical system in your company’s infrastructure. At the same time the informations accessed and processed by SAP systems origin from many sources. Securing infrastructure with this complexity is not an easy task, and testing your security measures requires a great deal of knowledge and training. In addition your will probably run web services talking to your SAP system – which is quite handy for attackers. In case you are short on knowledge about your own SAP deployment, there’s help. There will be an SAP security workshop at DeepSec 2012! The SAP Security In-Depth training will show you how to find out if your SAP infrastructure is secured. Knowing about segregation of duties and securing roles and profiles is fine in theory, but you have to make sure

0211, 2012

DeepSec 2012 Talk: Wargames in the Fifth Domain

René Pfeiffer/ November 2, 2012/ Conference

We asked Karin Kosina to illustrate her talk Wargames in the Fifth Domain: “This is a pre-9/11 moment. The attackers are plotting.” These are the words of U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta addressing business executives on the dangers of cyberwar two weeks ago in New York. And just in case this did not leave the audience scared enough, Panetta also warned about the possibility of an upcoming “cyber-Pearl Harbor”. A massively destructive cyberwar, it seems, is imminent. Or is it? Is the world really on the brink of cyberwar? Time to panic and hide in our cyber shelters? – Well, I think things are slightly more complicated than that. Before you dismiss me as a peace-loving hippie who views the world through rose-tinted glasses: There is no doubt that our emerging information society

2410, 2012

DeepSec 2012 Talk: The „WOW Effect“

René Pfeiffer/ October 24, 2012/ Conference

If you have ever been in the position of analysing the remains of a compromised system, then you will probably know that a lot of forensic methods rely on data stored in file systems. Of course, you can always look at individual blocks, too, however sooner or later you will need the logical structure of the data. The question is: Do you rely on the file system to be honest with you? What happens if the file system (with a little help from the OS around it) tricks you into believing false information? The answer is easy. Your investigation will fail. Christian Wojner from CERT.at has a presentation for you which describes the stunning „WOW Effect“ stemming from Microsoft’s WoW64 technology. WoW64 is the abbreviation for Windows 32-bit on Windows 64-bit. It allows 64-bit

1910, 2012

DeepSec 2012 Keynote: We Came In Peace – They Don’t: Hackers vs. CyberWar

René Pfeiffer/ October 19, 2012/ Conference

„Cyberwar“ is all the fashion these days. Everyone knows about it, everyone has capabilities, everyone has a military doctrine to deal with it. Sceptics make fun of it, politicians use it for election campaigns, security researchers wonder what’s new about it, „experts“ use it to beef up their CV, cybercrime yawns, journalists invent new words, most others are confused or don’t care (probably both). This is why DeepSec 2012 features four talks about this topic, including the keynote by Felix ‘FX’ Lindner. FX explains what you can expect from his presentation: “The issues we are facing concerning the militarization and beginning arms race in the so-called “cyber domain” are not what you might think they are. I would like to highlight two aspects of how we, the civilian hackers, in my opinion handle things

1410, 2012

DeepSec 2012 Talk: Passive IPS Reconnaissance and Enumeration – false positive (ab)use

René Pfeiffer/ October 14, 2012/ Conference

Once you have a network, you will have intruders. You may already have been compromised. How do you know? Right, you use proper and hard to fool monitoring tools that will always detect good and evil. If you believe this statement, then you probably never heard of the dreaded false positive, commonly known as false alarm. Sometimes a search pattern triggers, but there is no attack. Getting rid of false positives is difficult. As a side effect security researchers have explored false positives as an attack vector. Arron ‘Finux’ Finnon is presenting a new look at intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS) and new uses for false positives. You can use false positives to better understand the security posture from an attacker’s point of view, and more importantly be used to discover security devices such as

1210, 2012

DeepSec 2012 Talk: Own the Network – Own the Data

René Pfeiffer/ October 12, 2012/ Conference

We all use networks every day. This is obvious when it comes to the Internet, but there are more networks if you use phones and other gadgets. Like it or not, these networks are a part of your infrastructure. Now you know, but attackers (and security people) knew this before. So, what can happen to your data if the network is compromised? The short answer: a lot! The long answer is given by Paul Coggin in his presentation at DeepSec 2012. Paul’s presentation discusses the security issues with the critical network architectures being deployed by service providers and utilities to support next generation network services such as IPTV, 3G/4G, smart grid, and more. There’s a lot happening behind the scenes. Once new products are announced, the stage has already been prepared. Network infrastructure security

0610, 2012

DeepSec 2012 Talk: The Interim Years of Cyberspace – Security in a Domain of Warfare

René Pfeiffer/ October 6, 2012/ Conference

In case you haven’t heard about it yet, officially that is, welcome to the fifth domain! As with space and other environments, the networked world has been discovered by various forces and groups for their advantage. The past years have shown that whatever happens in Cyberspace, doesn’t always stay in Cyberspace. It’s not always about the DDoS attacks, which have been blown out of proportion, but it’s about malicious software, reconnaissance, information extraction and other aspects which are less spectacular (watching less television helps to restore the perspective to normal). We’d like to set your perspective right and recommend listening to Robert M. Lee’s presentation about the Interim Years of Cyberspace. His talk focuses on the bigger picture in an effort to add a different view to the discussions taking place at DeepSec. The

0510, 2012

DeepSec 2012 Talk: Evolution of E-Money

René Pfeiffer/ October 5, 2012/ Conference

The concept of electronic money has been around long before BitCoin entered the stage. The main characteristic is its electronic storage and exchange. This is both convenient and dangerous since digital goods can be stolen by copying data or cracking codes, depending on the design of the e-money system (which often will involve cryptographers). Jon Matonis will give you an overview about both the goals and the scary aspects of the cashless society. While the talk will focus on BitCoin, which is a peer-to-peer crypto-currency, you will get a deeper insight into how electronic currencies work, what challenges existing designs have solved (or haven’t), and which opportunities the use of digital currencies poses in the future. The phenomenon is quite young, but it is popular, even among criminals who already robbed a BitCoin bank.

0510, 2012

DeepSec 2012 Talk: The Vienna Programme – A Global Strategy for Cyber Security

René Pfeiffer/ October 5, 2012/ Conference

In case you ever felt frustrated by the countless ways digital systems can fail, you should consider listening to Stefan Schumacher‘s talk about a global strategy for cyber security. It’s not about silver bullets or throwing rings into volcanoes, it’s meant as a roadmap leading to an improved security level in our digital landscape. Information technology and therefore IT security play a bigger role in everyday life than 20 years ago. However, even since IT security becomes more and more important, yet we are still discussion the same old problems: rootkits, viruses and even buffer overflows. Unfortunately, IT security still revolves about the same problems as it did 20-30 years ago. Instead of fighting the same battles again and again we have to take a look at the strategic level to coordinate efforts. This

3009, 2012

DeepSec 2012 Workshop: The Exploit Laboratory – Advanced Edition

René Pfeiffer/ September 30, 2012/ Conference

Offensive security is a term often used in combination with defence, attack (obviously), understanding how systems fail and the ever popular „cyberwar“. Exploiting operating systems and applications is the best way to illustrate security weaknesses (it doesn’t matter if your opponents or pentesters illustrate this, you have a problem either way, and you should know about it). So where do exploits come from? Well, you can buy them, you can download them somewhere, or you can develop them. This is where The Exploit Laboratory comes in. Saumil Shah will teach you how exploits work – even on modern operating systems! Exploit Development is one of the hottest topics in offensive security these days. The Exploit Laboratory, in its sixth year, brings advanced topics in exploit development to Vienna this year. Arm yourself with skills

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