Hopefully many of you know the Applied Crypto Hardening (ACH) project, also known as BetterCrypto.org. The project was announced at DeepSec 2013. The idea was (and is) to compile hands-on advice for system administrators, dev ops, developers, and others when it comes to selecting the right crypto configuration for an application. The BetterCrypto.org document covers […]
As soon as a security gap in an computer application is made public the anxious wait begins. Whether it is software for your own network, online applications or apps for your mobile devices, as a user you will quickly become aware of your own vulnerability. The nervousness increases. When will the vendor publish the security update? In […]
Most programming languages and frameworks have support for serialization of data. It’s quite handy for storing things to disk (or other media) and transporting them around a network for example. The process can be reversed, aptly called deserialization, in order to obtain the original pieces of data. Great. Even though this process sounds simple, there […]
The World Wide Web is everywhere. It has become the standard protocol for transferring data, accessing applications, configuring devices, controlling software, or even multimedia streaming. Most software development can’t be done without web applications. Despite the easy concept the technologies used in „HTTP/HTTPS“ have grown in very complex beasts. Few get it right, lots of […]
SEC Consult, our long-term supporter, has updated a report on the use of encryption keys in firmware. These hardcoded cryptographic secrets pose a serious threat to information security. The report features 50 different vendors and has some interesting statistics. The results were coordinated with CERT/CC in order to inform the vendors about the problem. The […]
The Content Security Policy (CSP) is an additional layer of security for web applications. It is intended to detect and mitigate certain types of attacks. CSP is deployed by using the HTTP Content-Security-Policy header for publishing a policy. The policy instructs the web client how various resources will be used, where they come from, and […]
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 […]
Have you ever looked closely at the tools you use on a daily basis? Taking things apart and putting them back together is an integral part of understanding the universe. Scientists do it all of the time (well, at least some do, there are things that can’t be put together easily once taken apart). So […]
Particle collisions are a rich source for insights into the inner workings of Nature. Physicists know this. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) demonstrates this to the extreme. You can to the same in information security if you lock developers and security experts into a room. Acceleration […]
In information security pessimism rules. Unfortunately. Extreme Programming might breed extreme problems, too. The short-lived app software cycle is a prime example. If your main goal is to hit the app store as soon and as often as possible, then critical bugs will show up faster than you can spell XCodeGhost. The development infrastructure has […]
You don’t have to be the cookie monster to see cookies all around us. The World Wide Web is full of it. Make sure not to underestimate their impact on information security. Dawid Czagan will tell you why. 1) Please tell us the top 5 facts about your talk. The following topics will be presented: […]
Patching software is a crucial task when it comes to fixing security vulnerabilities. While this totally works, usually you have to wait until the vendors or the developers provide you either an upgrade or a patch. What do you do in the meantime? Reducing the exposure of the software helps, but sometimes you have no […]
A sysadmin, a software developer, and an infosec researcher almost walked into a bar. Unfortunately they couldn’t agree where to go together. So they died of thirst. Sounds familiar? When it comes to information technology, there is one thing that binds us all together: software. This article was written and published by software. You can […]
We all rely on software every day, one way or another. The bytes that form the (computer) code all around us are here to stay. Mobile devices connected to networks and networked computing equipment in general is a major part of our lives now. Fortunately not all systems decide between life or death in case […]
Encrypted communication is periodically in the news. A few weeks ago politicians asked companies and individuals all over the world to break the design of all secure communication. Demanding less security in an age where digital threats are increasing is a tremendously bad idea. Cryptographic algorithms are a basic component of information security. Encryption is […]