Presentations
XRDP: Exploiting Unauthenticated X Windows Sessions
In this blog post we are going to describe some tools we created to find and exploit unauthenticated X Windows sessions. We recently presented these at BSides Cape Town.
What is X11? X also known as the X Window System is currently in its 11th version, hence the name X11. X is a basic windowing system which provides a framework for drawing and moving windows on a display device as well as interaction with a mouse and keyboard. X uses a client-server model, with the server being the computer running in front of a human user and the X client applications running anywhere on the network. This contradicts the normal view of a client-server model, where the server is running at a remote location and the client is running in front of the user. In short, X plays a central role in displaying graphical windows on a users terminal. The major use of X is for administering remote machines graphically (similar to a remote desktop session), however X only displays one window at a time. An example being an xterm (terminal) window.
Release the hounds! Snoopy 2.0
Friday the 13th seemed like as good a date as any to release Snoopy 2.0 (aka snoopy-ng). For those in a rush, you can download the source from GitHub, follow the README.md file, and ask for help on this mailing list. For those who want a bit more information, keep reading.
What is Snoopy? Snoopy is a distributed, sensor, data collection, interception, analysis, and visualization framework. It is written in a modular format, allowing for the collection of arbitrary signals from various devices via Python plugins.
Botconf 2013
Botconf’13, the “First botnet fighting conference” took place in Nantes, France from 5-6 December 2013. Botconf aimed to bring together the anti-botnet community, including law enforcement, ISPs and researchers. To this end the conference was a huge success, especially since a lot of networking occurred over the lunch and tea breaks as well as the numerous social events organised by Botconf.
I was fortunate enough to attend as a speaker and to present a small part of my Masters research. The talk focused the use of Spatial Statistics to detect Fast-Flux botnet Command and Control (C2) domains based on the geographic location of the C2 servers. This research aimed to find novel techniques that would allow for accurate and lightweight classifiers to detect Fast-Flux domains. Using DNS query responses it was possible to identify Fast-Flux domains based on values such as the TTL, number of A records and different ASNs. In an attempt to increase the accuracy of this classifier, additional analysis was performed and it was observed that Fast-Flux domains tended to have numerous C2 servers widely dispersed geographically. Through the use of the statistical methods employed in plant and animal dispersion statistics, namely Moran’s I and Geary’s C, new classifiers were created. It was shown that these classifiers could detect Fast-Flux domains with up to a 97% accuracy, maintaining a False Positive rate of only 3.25% and a True Positive rate of 99%. Furthermore, it was shown that the use of these classifiers would not significantly impact current network performance and would not require changes to current network architecture.
RAT-a-tat-tat
Hey all,
So following on from my talk (slides, video) I am releasing the NMAP service probes and the Poison Ivy NSE script as well as the DarkComet config extractor.
Rat a-tat-tat from SensePost nmap-service-probes.pi poison-ivy.nse extract-DCconfig-from-binary.py An example of finding and extracting Camellia key from live Poison Ivy C2’s:
nmap -sV -Pn --versiondb=nmap-service-probes.pi --script=poison-ivy.nse <ip_address/range)
Finding Poison Ivy, DarkComet and/or Xtreme RAT C2’s:
nmap -sV -Pn --versiondb=nmap-service-probes.pi <ip_range>
Offence oriented defence
We recently gave a talk at the ITWeb Security Summit entitled “Offense Oriented Defence”. The talk was targeted at defenders and auditors, rather then hackers (the con is oriented that way), although it’s odd that I feel the need to apologise for that ;)
The talks primary point, was that by understanding how attackers attack, more innovative defences can be imagined. The corollary was that common defences, in the form of “best practise” introduce commonality that is more easily exploited, or at least degrade over time as attackers adapt. Finally, many of these “security basics” are honestly hard, and we can’t place the reliance on them we’d hoped. But our approach doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge the problem, and much like an AA meeting, it’s time we recognise the problem.
BlackHat Conference: Z-Wave Security
We are publishing the research paper and tool for our BlackHat 2013 USA talk on the Z-Wave proprietary wireless protocol security. The paper introduces our Z-Wave packet interception and injection toolkit (Z-Force) that was used to analyze the security layer of Z-Wave protocol stack and discover the implementation details of the frame encryption, data origin authentication and key establishment process. We developed the Z-Force module to perform security tests against the implementation of the Z-Wave security layer in encrypted home automation devices such as a door locks. The paper describes the details of a critical vulnerability discovered in a Z-Wave door lock that could enable an attacker to remotely take full control of the target device without knowledge of the network encryption key. The Z-Force download archive contains the GUI program and two radio firmware files for the receiver and transmitter TI CC1110 boards.
This research will also be presented at 44Con 2013 in London next month, followed by the release of Z-Force source code and US frequency support (908.4 MHz) in the firmware.
Honey, I’m home!! – Hacking Z-Wave & other Black Hat news
You’ve probably never thought of this, but the home automation market in the US was worth approximately $3.2 billion in 2010 and is expected to exceed $5.5 billion in 2016.
Under the hood, the Zigbee and Z-wave wireless communication protocols are the most common used RF technology in home automation systems. Zigbee is based on an open specification (IEEE 802.15.4) and has been the subject of several academic and practical security researches. Z-wave is a proprietary wireless protocol that works in the Industrial, Scientific and Medical radio band (ISM). It transmits on the 868.42 MHz (Europe) and 908.42MHz (United States) frequencies designed for low-bandwidth data communications in embedded devices such as security sensors, alarms and home automation control panels.
44Con: Vulnerability analysis of the .NET smart Card Operating System
Today’s smart cards such as banking cards and smart corporate badges are capable of running multiple tiny applications which are often written in high level programming languages like Java or Microsoft .NET and compiled into small card resident binaries. It is a critical security requirement to isolate the execution context and data storage of these applications in order to protect them from unauthorized access by other malicious card applications. To satisfy this requirement, multi-application smart cards implement an “Application Firewall” concept in their operating system which creates an execution sandbox for card applications.
Pentesting in the spotlight – a view
As 44Con 2012 starts to gain momentum (we’ll be there again this time around) I was perusing some of the talks from last year’s event…
It was a great event with some great presentations, including (if I may say) our own Ian deVilliers’ *Security Application Proxy Pwnage*. Another presentation that caught my attention was Haroon Meer’s *Penetration Testing considered harmful today*. In this presentation Haroon outlines concerns he has with Penetration Testing and suggests some changes that could be made to the way we test in order to improve the results we get. As you may know a core part of SensePost’s business, and my career for almost 13 years, has been security testing, and so I followed this talk quite closely. The raises some interesting ideas and I felt I’d like to comment on some of the points he was making.
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