Reminder: DeepINTEL and DeepSec Call for Papers are still open

René Pfeiffer/ May 14, 2018/ Call for Papers

We have been a bit radio silent. We have to deal with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and we are moving our infrastructure across the Internet. The blog is already moved. Further services wait for their transport. The reason is simple maintenance work and hosting our data a bit more privacy-friendly. For example our new ticket portal features privacy by design. Since the threats to information security don’t have to deal with boring stuff such as privacy and upgrades, we would like to remind you that the call for papers for both DeepINTEL and DeepSec is still open.

Change of Ticket System for DeepSec and DeepINTEL

René Pfeiffer/ January 31, 2018/ Administrivia, Conference

We have made some changes behind the scenes, as always when preparing the new events for the year. This time we decided to change the ticket shop for both DeepINTEL and DeepSec. The reason for the new shop is its focus on privacy and security. Most shops are part of a social media network or collect too much information (can be both, depends on the interaction and the platform). It doesn’t matter if the collected information is being protected by privacy procedures or not. Our intent was to streamline the process. For you this means that you can buy your tickets as easy as before. We still have vouchers, too. Ask our sponsors. Furthermore the payment is done directly to us, so we can manage your visit to DeepSec and DeepINTEL more efficiently. Also

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DeepSec 2018 calls for Trainings and Content – Focus Mobility

René Pfeiffer/ January 31, 2018/ Call for Papers, Conference, Discussion

The DeepSec 2018 Call for Papers is open. The focus for this year is mobility. Mobile networks and mobile devices have established themselves firmly in our society. And mobility doesn’t end here. Transport is transforming into new technologies by incorporating access to data networks (yes, that’s the „Cloud“), the power grid (think electric vehicles), drones, new propulsion systems, artificial intelligent (sometimes even both!) personal assistants and algorithms (mathematics has become mainstream). The ever growing number of dependencies between components are a fertile breeding ground for cascading errors that impact more than your new car or your latest order from your favourite online shop. Information security must become as mobile as home deliveries of goods and electric power. And it must become common. Infosec isn’t optional any more. Since bug logos have captured the minds

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Save the Dates for DeepSec 2018 and DeepINTEL 2018

René Pfeiffer/ January 24, 2018/ Administrivia, Conference

While everyone was busy with the holidays, Meltdown and Spectre, we did some updates behind the scenes. DeepSec 2018 will be held from 27 to 30 November 2018. We tried not to collide with Thanksgiving, so that you can come to Vienna after being with your family. As always, the first two days will be the trainings followed by two days of conference. DeepINTEL 2018 will be on 17 / 18 September 2018. We have a topical focus for both events and will present each of them in a separate article. There still some details to work out. Wordsmithing and administrivia are the equivalence of dependencies and patches in software development – necessary, but they take time. It’s worth it, you will see for yourself. We have a special message for anyone who intends

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DeepSec 2017 Presentation Slides

René Pfeiffer/ December 1, 2017/ Administrivia, Conference

While the videos are on their way to the rendering farm, the presentation slides for DeepSec 2017 can already be downloaded. We put them online as soon as we get the final version from our speakers. If you do some guessing URL-wise you can also find the presentations of past conferences at the very same spot. Since we collect the final slides after the conference and not ask speakers to put USB sticks into their computers during the conference, the download repository will fill in time. Unfortunately we cannot speed up this process. So bear with us, we are as curious as you (especially since some of us never get the see any presentation at DeepSec because there is too much to do). As for the videos, all speakers and attendees will also get

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DeepSec 2017 thanks you and DeepSec 2018 is almost ready

René Pfeiffer/ November 22, 2017/ Administrivia, Conference, Mission Statement

We caught up on sleep and are right in the middle of post-processing DeepSec 2017. Thanks to you all for attending, presenting, sending feedback, and being part of a great event. The slides will be online soon. The videos are being converted. We will upload them as bandwidth permits. All speakers and attendees will get a code to access them early. Thanks for your feedback as well! We listen, and we have some plans to address the issues you reported. 2018 will see a lot of improvements. We will announce the dates for DeepSec and DeepINTEL 2018 soon. The events will stay in November and September. We just need to coordinate with the venue and will let you know as soon as possible. The Calls for Papers open early in 2018, as does the

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DeepSec2017 U21 Talk: Lessons Learned: How To (Not) Design Your Own Protocol – Nicolai Davidsson

Sanna/ November 15, 2017/ Conference, Development, Security

“One of the first lessons of cryptography is “don’t roll your own crypto” but we were bold enough to ignore it”, says Nicolai. “Single Sign-On is so 2016 which is why we’d like to introduce its replacement, Forever Alone Sign-On – FASO. This talk will discuss one of the ugliest SSO solutions you’ll ever see, its updated, slightly less ugly, iteration, and, ultimately, FASO. We’ll discuss the use cases, questionable decisions made during the planning process, the actual self-rolled, totally vulnerable, cryptography, and the even worse code architecture. In all seriousness: The talk reflects on the design process of a SSO protocol and its first two iterations, going from a semi-functional workaround to an experimental OAuth-and-the-like alternative utilizing pre-shared keys, symmetric cryptography and implicit authentication.”   Nicolai is a security researcher at zyantific and

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DeepSec 2017 Talk: OpenDXL In Active Response Scenarios – Tarmo Randel

Sanna/ November 15, 2017/ Conference

Automating response to cyber security incidents is the trend which is – considering increasing amount of incidents organizations handle and ever-increasing attack surface – already becoming mainstream. In this talk Tarmo explores the options of using OpenDXL in real life situation of mixed environments, legacy solutions and multiple vendors for connecting existing (and future) cyber security system components for coordinated information exchange and orchestrating incident response action. Tarmo is a researcher at NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Center of Excellence, various research projects and developing for large scale cyber exercises. He’s also a developer at the Estonian eHealth Foundations, “Kickstarting” in-house development team. Tarmo’s creating supporting infrastructure, preparations and execution of plans for taking over selected external vendor development projects. He’s Head of Department at CERT-EE, Running Computer Emergency Response Team, Information security expert at CERT-EE,

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ROOTS: On The (In-)Security Of JavaScript Object Signing and Encryption – Dennis Detering

Sanna/ November 14, 2017/ Security

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) has evolved to the de-facto standard file format in the web used for application configuration, cross- and same-origin data exchange, as well as in Single Sign-On (SSO) protocols such as OpenID Connect. To protect integrity, authenticity and confidentiality of sensitive data, JavaScript Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) was created to apply cryptographic mechanisms directly in JSON messages. We investigated the security of JOSE and present different applicable attacks on several popular libraries. We introduce JOSEPH (JavaScript Object Signing and Encryption Pentesting Helper) – our newly developed Burp Suite extension, which automatically performs security analysis on targeted applications. JOSEPH’s automatic vulnerability detection ranges from executing simple signature exclusion or signature faking techniques, which neglect JSON message integrity, up to highly complex cryptographic Bleichenbacher attacks breaking the confidentiality of encrypted JSON messages.

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DeepSec2017 Talk: Building Security Teams – Astera Schneeweisz

Sanna/ November 14, 2017/ Conference

While ‘security is not a team’, you’ll find that most companies growing just beyond 60-80 people start employing a group of people focusing primarily on the topic. But the culture of secure engineering in a company does not only strongly correlate with when you start building a security team – it becomes (and grows as) a matter of how they connect with the rest of your organization, and make security, adversarial thinking, and the care for user safety and privacy part of everyone’s concern. In this talk, Astera will review what the purposes of a security team can be, which challenges you’ll face, how you can make it scale beyond the team’s boundaries; as well as proven good practices of running (fairly operational) engineering teams themselves. Whether your organization already has a security team

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Notes on the ROOTS Schedule and the Conference

René Pfeiffer/ November 14, 2017/ Administrivia, Conference, Discussion

We are all set for the conference on Thursday. We did some last minute changes to the schedule due to some speakers running into issues, but we can confirm almost all presentations.You may have noticed the ROOTS schedule. It’s a bit shorter than DeepSec’s, but both events are not competing. The review for ROOTS is a lot harder, because the presentation is about a scientific publication. This means your submission gets peer-reviewed and voted by the programme committee. We received some content more suitable for, let’s say, standard events. This won’t do, and this is why you see the best submissions of ROOTS published in the schedule. All in all we are very glad to present you high quality presentations from speakers who really know information security. Enjoy! See you at DeepSec!

DeepSec 2017 Talk: How I Rob Banks – Freakyclown

Sanna/ November 14, 2017/ Conference, High Entropy, Security

You are in for an adventure at DeepSec this year. We have a tour on robbing banks for you: A light-hearted trip through security failures both physical and electronic that have enabled me over the years to circumvent security of most of the worlds largest banks. Through the use of tales from the front line and useful illustrative slides, I will attempted to take you through the lessons to be learned from an ethical hacker with a penchant for breaking into the impossible. Let me take you on a rollercoaster ride of epic fails and grandiose plans and my Jason Bourne like adventures including Lockpicking, Kidnap, Police chases and multi-million pound bank heists. FC is a well-known ethical hacker and social engineer. He has been working in the infosec field for over 20 years

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Screening of “The Maze” at DeepSec 2017

René Pfeiffer/ November 3, 2017/ Administrivia, Conference, High Entropy

We have some news for you. Everyone attending DeepSec 2017 will get a cinematic finish on the last day of the conference. We will be showing The Maze by Friedrich Moser. For all who don’t know Friedrich’s works: He is the director of A Good American which was screened at DeepSec 2015. The Maze is a documentary covering terrorism, counter-terrorism, surveillance, business, and politics. So it’s basically information security in a nutshell. Right after the closing of DeepSec you can enjoy The Maze – with popcorn and hopefully everyone who is attending DeepSec. We have seen the documentary before, and we highly recommend it! The Maze from Friedrich Moser on Vimeo.

DeepSec 2017 Workshop: Smart Lockpicking – Hands-on Exploiting Contemporary Locks and Access Control Systems – Slawomir Jasek

Sanna/ October 31, 2017/ Conference, Training

You can, quite reasonably, expect smart locks and access control systems to be free from alarming security vulnerabilities – such a common issue for an average IoT device. Well, this training will prove you wrong. After performing multiple hands-on exercises with a dozen of real devices and various technologies, you will never look at the devices the same way. Smart lockpicking is something to scare you, not just on Halloween.     We asked Slawomir a few questions about his training: Please tell us the top 5 facts about your workshop. Focused on hands-on, practical exercises with real devices Lots of various topics and technologies covered Regardless if you are a beginner or a skilled pentester, you will learn something new and have a good time Many exercises designed as “homework”, possible to repeat

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DeepSec 2017 Talk: BitCracker – BitLocker Meets GPUs – Elena Agostini

Sanna/ October 25, 2017/ Conference

Encryption and ways to break it go hand in hand. When it comes to the digital world, the method of rapidly using different keys may lead to success, provided you have sufficient computing power. The graphics processing units (GPUs) have come a long way from just preparing the bits to be sent to the display device. Nowadays GPUs are used for a lot of computational expensive tasks. At DeepSec 2017 you will hear about keys, encryption, and storage encryption – all with the use of GPUs, but forthe purpose of cracking keys. BitLocker (formerly BitLocker Drive Encryption) is a full-disk encryption feature available in recent Windows OS (Vista, 7, 8.1 and 10). It is designed to protect data by providing encryption for several types of memory units like internal hard disks or external removable

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