2004, 2021

DeepSec 2021: A lack of software security paralyzes the economy in times of crisis – visit DeepSec 2021 to train your developers

Sanna/ April 20, 2021/ Development, Press, Training

In every crisis, one’s own infrastructure and logistics are put to serious tests. The COVID-19 pandemic illustrates this particularly drastically through the many structural failures in the past 12 months. They try to solve biological problems with smartphones, favor dead-end technologies such as blockchain, discover the lack of network expansion in recent decades and then panic and publish software applications that are only subjected to serious tests after they have been published. All these quick fixes are snapshots of a lack of sustainability. But the economy is dependent on stable solutions based on many years of experience, especially now. In November 2021, the DeepSec conference would like to give support to everyone who works with software through trainings and the transfer of experience from security researchers. Code rules the World The word digitization is

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1903, 2021

Secure Operation of IT Systems requires Skills, no Shortcuts

René Pfeiffer/ March 19, 2021/ Discussion, High Entropy

The recent vulnerability in the Microsoft® Exchange server application has sparked many discussions. One of the topics is connected to the skills of IT departments responsible for patching systems in time. How can n weeks or months pass until upgrades are rolled out and in place? Well, the answer is easy. Some upgrades do not work flawlessly. In anticipation of problems during the change, IT departments need a copy of the live system and time to test the updates. This takes time, even if you have the budget to run additional copies of your systems. Furthermore, sometimes upgrades go wrong. Theoretically, these changes should just eliminate security problems and enable the application to work as before. IT departments bitten by the “this should not have happened but it did anyway” situation will hesitate to

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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

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2011, 2020

DeepSec 2020 Mission Control – Behind the Scenes

René Pfeiffer/ November 20, 2020/ Administrivia, Conference

The fully virtual DeepSec conference was very different from the usual configuration and setting. While we learned a lot over the years, there is one constant: What’s the difference between hardware and software? Well, hardware can be kicked. There is always one converter, one computer, one network devices, one USB device, or something else that doesn’t quite fit into the ensemble. Then there are the many desktop oddities and multimedia formats. So we had to do some damage control during the first day of streaming (having damage control teams and replacement parts ready is not just for ships). Networking did its own magic by introducing delays between the speaker’s feed and the live stream. Fortunately the stream connections held, and we had no losses in terms of connectivity. Mission control at the office used

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1704, 2020

Contact Tracing and the Security of Things

René Pfeiffer/ April 17, 2020/ Call for Papers, Discussion

The spread of Sars-Cov-2 keeps everyone on their toes. Given the emotional state after weeks and months of physical distancing (which we recommend; social distancing has been the norm for decades). We have closed our office in March and heavily rely on telecommunication. Fortunately we did not need to reinvent the Internet. Many of you have probably done the same. We hope that you manage to stay healthy until things can get back to “normal”. Speaking of communication and normality, there are some aspects of the current situation we like to point out. Every security conference features presentations shedding light on important tools, libraries, applications, or protocols people rely on. Humans like to communicate. The degree varies, but essentially few can do without talking, writing, hearing, or seeing stuff (i.e. messages). This is even

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0511, 2018

DeepSec 2018 Training: Advanced Infrastructure Hacking – Anant Shrivastava

Sanna/ November 5, 2018/ Conference, Training

Whether you are penetration testing, Red Teaming or trying to get a better understanding of managing vulnerabilities in your environment, understanding advanced hacking techniques is critical. This course covers a wide variety of neat, new and ridiculous techniques to compromise modern Operating Systems and networking devices. We asked Anant a few more questions about his training. Please tell us the top 5 facts about your training. Constantly evolving course: Every year each iteration has something new added to it. (Minimum 25%, maximum 50% of the course gets an upgrade every year). Developed by Practitioners: The course is developed by regular pentesters deriving challenges from real life pen-testing scenarios. All of our trainers are full time pentesters and part time trainers. Covers a whole breadth of infrastructure: From IPv4/v6 to databases, to OSINT, Windows, Linux,

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2509, 2018

DeepSec 2018 Talk: Global Deep Scans – Measuring Vulnerability Levels across Organizations, Industries, and Countries – Luca Melette & Fabian Bräunlein

Sanna/ September 25, 2018/ Conference, Internet, Security

Metrics are plentiful, but they are hard to come by when it comes to meaningful numbers. This is why we were amazed by the submission of Luca Melette and Fabian Bräunlein. Why? This is why: “We introduce global deep scans that provide insights into the security hygiene of all organizations exposed to the Internet. Our presentation discusses vulnerability levels across different groups of organizations and points out differences in the underlying maintenance processes. We find that different industries have a lot to learn from each other and provide the necessary measurements to start these dialogues.” We asked Luca and Fabian a few more questions about their talk. Please tell us the top 5 facts about your talk. 1. Come 2. Watch 3. Our 4. Talk 5. You’ll see results from a global vulnerability scan

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1707, 2018

New in the DeepSec Ticket Shop: Tor Tickets for Early Birds and InfoSec Minds

René Pfeiffer/ July 17, 2018/ Administrivia, Discussion, High Entropy, Security

We have a new category in the DeepSec ticket shop. We now have Tor tickets! Why is that? Well, information security relies heavily on the tools of the trade and the knowledge to use them. Tools can be created and used, knowledge can be shared and used. This is not a new insight. The special Tor tickets are a way to help the German non-profit registered association Zwiebelfreunde e.V. for rebooting their infrastructure. They run Tor nodes and provide the necessary infrastructure to do this. Members of Zwiebelfreunde have been speakers at DeepSec in the past because they are also active security researchers. The difference between the Tor ticket and the normal ticket price will be given to them to recover the damage to their infrastructure. Security tools such as Tor are widely used

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1806, 2018

DeepSec Web Server is moving today

René Pfeiffer/ June 18, 2018/ Administrivia

We are doing a little relocation of computing infrastructure today. Between 2000 and 2200 CEST we will shift the computing node to a new location. Most content is still being delivered by the reverse proxy, but you may encounter errors for the call for papers manager. For those of you who got a 5xx HTTP status code when submitting a workshop or a talk, we hope that the new infrastructure will solve this problem.

1903, 2018

The Grotesqueness of the “Federal Hack” of the German Government Network

Sanna/ March 19, 2018/ High Entropy, Security Intelligence

[Editor’s note: This article was originally published on the web site of the FM4 radio channel of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation. We have translated the text in order to make the content accessible for our English-speaking audience. We will follow-up on it with an article of our own about attribution, digital warfare, security intelligence, and the DeepINTEL conference.] A friendly secret service knew more about espionage against the German government network than the German counterintelligence. Three months after the hack was discovered, the attackers are still somewhere in this huge federal network. By Erich Moechel for fm4.orf.at One week after the announcement of the attack on the security network of the German Federal Government details only leak slowly. The first official statement on Friday claiming that the alleged Russian Trojan suite was already under

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2601, 2018

Secret Router Security Discussion in Germany

René Pfeiffer/ January 26, 2018/ Internet, Security

Routers are the main component when it comes to connect sites, homes, and businesses. They often „just“ take care of the access to the Internet. The firewall comes after this access device. The German Telekom suffered an attack on their routers on 2016. The German Federal Office for Information Security now tries to create a policy for securing these critical systems. In theory this should add a set of documents on how to securely operate a router for the last mile access. Information security basically runs on checklists and policies. The trouble starts with the firmware. In Germany these is a discussion about using alternative devices as access components, enabling customers and organisations to use products of their own choice. Since firmware is the worst code on this planet, changing models and code is

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0601, 2018

Meltdown & Spectre – Processors are Critical Infrastructure too

René Pfeiffer/ January 6, 2018/ Discussion, High Entropy

Information security researchers like to talk about and to analyse critical infrastructure. The power grid belongs to this kind of infrastructure, so does the Internet (or networks in general). Basically everything we use has components. Software developers rely on libraries. Usually you don’t want to solve a problem multiple times. Computer systems are built with many components. Even a System on a Chip (SoC) has components, albeit smaller and close to each other. 2018 begins with critical bugs in critical infrastructure of processors. Meltdown and Spectre haunt the majority of our computing infrastructure, be it the Cloud, local systems, servers, telephones, laptops, tablets, and many more. Information security relies on the weakest link. Once your core components have flaws, then the whole platform may be in jeopardy. In 2017 malicious hypervisors in terms of

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3110, 2017

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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2909, 2017

DeepSec 2017 Talk: Essential Infrastructure Interdependencies: Would We Be Prepared For Significant Interruptions? – Herbert Saurugg

Sanna/ September 29, 2017/ Conference

How would your day look without electrical power? Given the fact that we rely on information technology every single minute of our lives (well, mostly), this would be a very dark outlook indeed. Knocking out the power grid is a tactic used by the military. They have even special tools for disabling power lines and transformer stations. Progress has enabled network access for power plants and other parts of the grid. It’s not all about hacking stuff. There is a lot more involved when it comes to critical infrastructure, and this is why we have asked Herbert Saurugg, a renowned specialist on this topic, to conduct a presentation at DeepSec 2017. Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) are major topics almost everywhere. Its priority has also increased during recent years because of rising

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2009, 2017

44CON revisited: Secure Design in Software is still a new Concept

René Pfeiffer/ September 20, 2017/ High Entropy, Interview, Security

We have been to 44CON, and we returned with lots of ideas and scary news about the state of security in devices and applications. Given the ever spreading Internet of Things (IoT) you can see why connecting random devices via a network with no second thoughts about design, updates, or quality control is a bad idea. Don Bailey illustrated this perfectly in the keynote titled The Internet of Us. His presentation touched all of information security, but IoT featured a prominent role. We are really surrounded by the Internet of SIM cards (sadly which we cannot call IoS). This opens up a new perspective and demystifies the IoT hype. You should watch Matt Wixey’s talk Hacking invisibly and silently with light and sound as soon as the videos are published. Matt discussed hardware hacking

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