How-To Tutorials - Security

This article is an excerpt from the book, "Effective Threat Investigation for SOC Analysts", by Mostafa Yahia. This is a practical guide that enables SOC professionals to analyze the most common security appliance logs that exist in any environment.IntroductionIn today’s cybersecurity landscape, threat detection and investigation are essential for defending against sophisticated attacks. VirusTotal, a powerful Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP), provides security analysts with robust tools to analyze suspicious files, domains, URLs, and IP addresses. Leveraging VirusTotal’s extensive security database and community-driven insights, SOC analysts can efficiently detect potential malware and other cyber threats. This article delves into the ways VirusTotal empowers analysts to investigate suspicious digital artifacts and enhance their organization’s security posture, focusing on critical features such as file analysis, domain reputation checks, and URL scanning.Investigating threats using VirusTotalVirusTotal is a  Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP) that allows security analysts to analyze suspicious files, hashes, domains, IPs, and URLs to detect and investigate malware and other cyber threats. Moreover, VirusTotal is known for its robust automation capabilities, which allow for the automatic sharing of this intelligence with the broader security community. See Figure 14.1:Figure 14.1 – The VirusTotal platform main web pageThe  VirusTotal scans submitted artifacts, such as hashes, domains, URLs, and IPs, against more than 88 security solution signatures and intelligence databases. As a SOC analyst, you should use the VirusTotal platform to investigate the  following:Suspicious filesSuspicious domains and URLsSuspicious outbound IPsInvestigating suspicious filesVirusTotal allows cyber security analysts to analyze suspicious files either by uploading the file or searching for the file hash’s reputation. Either after uploading a fi le or submitting a file hash for analysis, VirusTotal scans it against multiple antivirus signature databases and predefined YARA rules and analyzes the file behavior by using different sandboxes.After the analysis of the submitted file is completed, VirusTotal provides analysts with general information about the analyzed file in five tabs; each tab contains a wealth of information. See Figure 14.2:Figure 14.2 – The details and tabs provided by analyzing a file on VirusTotalAs you see in the preceding figure, aft er submitting the file to the VirusTotal platform for analysis, the file was analyzed against multiple vendors’ antivirus signature databases, Sigma detection rules, IDS detection rules, and several sandboxes for dynamic analysis.The preceding figure is the first page provided by VirusTotal after submitting the file. As you can see, the first section refers to the most common name of the submitted file hash, the file hash, the number of antivirus vendors and sandboxes that flagged the submitted hash as malicious, and tags of the suspicious activities performed by the file when analyzed on the sandboxes, such as the persistence tag, which means that the executable file tried to maintain persistence. See Figure 14.3:Figure 14.3 – The first section of the first page from VirusTotal when analyzing a fileThe first tab of the five tabs provided by the VirusTotal platform that appear is the DETECTION tab. The first parts of the DETECTION tab include the matched Sigma rules, IDS rules, and dynamic analysis results from the sandboxes. See Figure 14.4:Figure 14.4 – The first parts of the DETECTION tabThe Sigma rules are threat detection rules designed to analyze system logs. Sigma was built to allow collaboration between the SOC teams as it allows them to share standardized detection rules regardless of the SIEM in place to detect the various threats by using the event logs. VirusTotal sandboxes store all event logs that are generated during the file detonation, which are later used to test against the list of the collected Sigma rules from different repositories. VirusTotal users will find the list of Sigma rules matching a submitted file in the DETECTION tab. As you can see in the preceding figure, it appears that the executed file has performed certain actions that have been identified by running the Sigma rules against the sandbox logs. Specifically, it disabled the Defender service, created an Auto-Start Extensibility Point (ASEP) entry to maintain persistence, and created another executable.Then as can be  observed, VirusTotal shows that the Intrusion Detection System (IDS) rules successfully detected the presence of Redline info-stealer malware's Command and Control (C&C) communication that matched four IDS rules.Important Note: It is noteworthy that both Sigma and IDS rules are assigned a severity level, and analysts can easily view the matched rule as well as the number of matches.Following the successful matching against IDS rules, you will find the dynamic sandboxes’ detections of the submitted file. In this case, the sandboxes categorized the submitted file/hash as info-stealer malware.Finally, the last part of the DETECTION tab is Security vendors’ analysis. See Figure 14.5:Figure 14.5 – The Security vendors’ analysis sectionAs you see in the preceding figure, the submitted fi le or hash is flagged as malicious by several security vendors and most of them label the given file as a Redline info-stealer malware.The second tab is the DETAILS tab, which includes the Basic properties section on the given file, which includes the file hashes, file type, and file size. That tab also includes times such as file creation, first submission on the platform, last submission on the platform, and last analysis times. Additionally, this tab provides analysts with all the filenames associated with previous submissions of the same file. See Figure 14.6:Figure 14.6 – The first three sections of the DETAILS tabMoreover, the DETAILS tab provides analysts with useful information such as signature verification, enabling identification of whether the file is digitally signed, a key indicator of its authenticity and trustworthiness. Additionally, the tab presents crucial insights into the imported Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs) and called libraries, allowing analysts to understand the file intents.The third tab is the RELATIONS tab, which includes the IoCs of the analyzed file, such as the domains and IPs that the file is connected with, the files bundled with the executable, and the files dropped by the executable. See Figure 14.7:Figure 14.7 – The RELATIONS tabImportant noteWhen analyzing a malicious file, you can use the connected IPs and domains to scope the infection in your environment by using network security system logs such as the firewall and the proxy logs. However, not all the connected IPs and domains are necessarily malicious and may also be legitimate domains or IPs used by the malware for malicious intents.At the bottom of the RELATIONS tab, VirusTotal provides a great graph that binds the given file and all its relations into one graph, which should facilitate your investigations. To maximize the graph in a new tab, click on it. See Figure 14.8:Figure 14.8 – VT Relations graphThe fourth tab is the BEHAVIOR tab, which contains the detailed sandbox analysis of the submitted file. This report is presented in a structured format and includes the tags, MITRE ATT&CK Tactics and Techniques conducted by the executed file, matched IDS and Sigma rules, dropped files, network activities, and process tree information that was observed during the analysis of the given file. See Figure 14.9:Figure 14.9 – The BEHAVIOR tabRegardless of the matched signatures of security vendors, Sigma rules, and IDS rules, the BEHAVIOR tab allows analysts to examine the file’s actions and behavior to determine whether it is malicious or not. This feature is especially critical in the investigation of zero-day malware, where traditional signature-based detection methods may not be effective, and in-depth behavior analysis is required to identify and respond to potential threats.The fifth tab is the COMMUNITY tab, which allows analysts to contribute to the VirusTotal community with their thoughts and to read community members’ thoughts regarding the given file. See Figure 14.10:Figure 14.10 – The COMMUNITY tabAs you can see, we have two comments from two sandbox vendors indicating that the file is malicious and belongs to the Redline info-stealer family according to its behavior during the dynamic analysis of the file.Investigating suspicious domains and URLsA SOC analyst may depend on the VirusTotal platform to investigate suspicious domains and URLs. You can analyze the suspicious domain or URL on the VirusTotal platform either by entering it into the URL or Search form.During the Investigating suspicious files section, we noticed while navigating the RELATION tab that the file had established communication with the hueref[.]eu domain. In this section, we will investigate the hueref[.]eu domain by using the VirusTotal platform. See Figure 14.11:Figure 14.11 – The DETECTION tabUpon submitting the suspicious domain to the Search form in VirusTotal, it was discovered that the domain had several tags indicating potential security risks. These tags refer to the web domain category. As you can see in the preceding screenshot, there are two tags indicating that the domain is malicious.The first provided tab is the DETECTION tab, which include the Security vendors’ analysis. In this case, several security vendors labeled the domain as Malware or a Malicious domain.The second tab is the DETAILS tab, which includes information about the given domain such as the web domain categories from different sources, the last DNS records of the domain, and the domain Whois lookup results. See Figure 14.12:Figure 14.12 – The DETAILS tabThe third tab is the RELATIONS tab, which provides analysts with all domain relations, such as the DNS resolving the IP(s) of the given domain, along with their reputations, and the files that communicated with the given domain when previously analyzed in the VirusTotal sandboxes, along with their reputations. See Figure 14.13.Figure 14.13 – The RELATIONS tabThe RELATIONS tab is very useful, especially when investigating potential zero-day malicious domains that have not yet been detected and fl agged by security vendors. By analyzing the domain’s resolving IP(s) and their reputation, as well as any connections between the domain and previously analyzed malicious files on the VT platform, SOC analysts can quickly and accurately identify potential threats that potentially indicate a C&C server domain.At the bottom of the RELATIONS tab, you will find the same VirusTotal graph discussed in the previous section.The fourth tab is the COMMUNITY tab, which allows you to contribute to the VirusTotal community with your thoughts and read community members’ thoughts regarding the given domain.Investigating suspicious outbound IPsAs a security analyst, you may depend on the VirusTotal platform to investigate suspicious outbound IPs that your internal systems may have communicated with. By entering the IP into the search form, the VirusTotal platform will show you nearly the same tab details provided when analyzing domains in the last section.In this section, we will investigate the IP of the hueref[.]eu domain. As we mentioned, the tabs and details provided by VirusTotal when analyzing an IP are the same as those provided when analyzing a domain. Moreover, the RELATIONS tab in VirusTotal provides all domains hosted on this IP and their reputations. See Figure 14.14:Figure 14.14 – Domains hosted on the same IP and their reputationsImportant noteIt’s not preferred to depend on the VirusTotal platform to investigate suspicious inbound IPs such as port-scanning IPs and vulnerability-scanning IPs. This is due to the fact that VirusTotal relies on the reputation assessments provided by security vendors, which are particularly effective in detecting outbound IPs such as those associated with C&C servers or phishing activities.By the end of this section, you should have learned how to investigate suspicious files, domains, and outbound IPs by using the VirusTotal platform.ConclusionIn conclusion, VirusTotal is an invaluable resource for SOC analysts, enabling them to streamline threat investigations by analyzing artifacts through multiple detection engines and sandbox environments. From identifying malicious file behavior to assessing suspicious domains and URLs, VirusTotal’s capabilities offer comprehensive insights into potential threats. By integrating this tool into daily workflows, security professionals can make data-driven decisions that enhance response times and threat mitigation strategies. Ultimately, VirusTotal not only assists in pinpointing immediate risks but also contributes to a collaborative, community-driven approach to cybersecurity.Author BioMostafa Yahia is a passionate threat investigator and hunter who hunted and investigated several cyber incidents. His experience includes building and leading cyber security managed services such as SOC and threat hunting services. He earned a bachelor's degree in computer science in 2016. Additionally, Mostafa has the following certifications: GCFA, GCIH, CCNA, IBM Qradar, and FireEye System engineer. Mostafa also provides free courses and lessons through his Youtube channel. Currently, he is the cyber defense services senior leader for SOC, Threat hunting, DFIR, and Compromise assessment services in an MSSP company.

This article is an excerpt from the book, Mastering Windows 365, by Jonathan R. Danylko. Mastering Windows 365 provides you with detailed knowledge of cloud PCs by exploring its designing model and analyzing its security environment. This book will help you extend your existing skillset with Windows 365 effectively.Introduction In today's cloud-centric world, establishing a secure and efficient network infrastructure is crucial for businesses of all sizes. Microsoft Azure, with its robust set of networking tools, provides a seamless way to connect various environments, including Windows 365. In this guide, we will walk you through the process of creating a virtual network in Azure, and how to connect it to a Windows 365 environment. Whether you're setting up a new network or integrating an existing one, this step-by-step tutorial will ensure you have the foundation necessary for a successful deployment. Creating a virtual network in Azure Start by going to https://portal.azure.com/ and create a new virtual network. It's quite straightforward. You can use all the default settings, but take care that you aren't overlapping the address space with an existing one you are already using: 1. Start by logging in to https://portal.azure.com. 2. Start the creation of a new virtual network. From here, choose the Resource group option and the name of the virtual network. When these have been defi ned, choose Next.  Figure 3.5 – Virtual network creation basic information 3. There are some security features you can enable on the virtual network. Th ese features are optional, but  Azure Firewall  should be considered if no other fi rewall solution is deployed.  When you are ready, click on Next.  Figure 3.6 – Virtual network creation security 4. Now the IP address range and subnets must be defined. Once these have been defi ned, click on Next.                                                       Figure 3.7 – Virtual network creation | IP addresses 5. Next, we can add any Azure tags that might be required for your organization. We will leave it as is in this case. Click on Next.                                                        Figure 3.8 – Virtual network | Azure tags selection 6. We are now able to see an overview of the entire configuration of the new virtual network.  When you have reviewed this, click on Create.                                                           Figure 3.9 – Virtual network creation | settings review Now that the virtual network has been created, we can start looking at how we create an ANC in Intune. We will look at the confi guration for both an AADJ and HAADJ network connection. Setting up an AADJ ANC Let's have a look at  how to configure an ANC for  AADJ Cloud PC device : 1. Start by going to Microsoft  Intune | Devices | Windows 365 | Azure network connection.  From here, click on + Create and select Azure AD Join:  Figure 3.10 – Creating an ANC in Windows 365 overview 2. Fill out the required information such as the display name of the connection, the virtual network, and the subnet you would like to integrate with Windows 365. Once that is done, click on Next.                                                                       Figure 3.11 – Creating an AADJ ANC | network details 3. Review the information you have filled in. When you are ready, click Review + create:  Figure 3.12 – Creating an AADJ ANC | settings review Once the ANC has been created, you are now done and should be able to view the connection in the ANC overview. You can now use that virtual network in your provisioning policy.  Figure 3.13 – Windows 365 ANC network overview Setting up a HAADJ ANC A HAADJ network connection is a bit trickier to set up than the previous one. We must ensure the virtual network we are using has a connection with the domain we are trying to join. Once we are sure about that, let's go ahead and create a connection: 1. Visit Microsoft  Intune | Windows 365 | Azure network connection. From here, click on + Create and select Hybrid Azure AD Join.  Figure 3.14 – Creating a HAADJ ANC in Windows 365 | Overview 2. Provide the required information such as  the display name of the connection, the virtual network, and the subnet you would like to integrate with Windows 365. Click Next.  Figure 3.15 – Creating a HAADJ ANC | network details 3. Type the domain name you want the Cloud PCs to join. The Organization Unit field is optional. Type in the AD username and password for your domain-joined service account. Once done, click Next:  Figure 3.16 – Creating a HAADJ ANC | domain details 4. Review the settings provided and click on Review + create. The connection will now be established:  Figure 3.17 – Creating a HAADJ ANC | settings details Once the creation is done, you can view the connection in the ANC overview. You will now be able to use that virtual network in your provisioning policy.  Figure 3.18 – Windows 365 ANC network overview  ConclusionCreating a virtual network in Azure and connecting it to your Windows 365 environment is a fundamental step towards leveraging the full potential of cloud-based services. By following the outlined procedures, you can ensure a secure and efficient network connection, whether you're dealing with Azure AD Join (AADJ) or Hybrid Azure AD Join (HAADJ) scenarios. With the virtual network and ANC now configured, you are well-equipped to manage and monitor your network connections, enhancing the overall performance and reliability of your cloud infrastructure. Author BioChristiaan works as a Principal Program Manager and Community Lead on the Windows Cloud Experiences (Windows 365 + AVD) Engineering team at Microsoft, bringing his expertise to help customers imagine new virtualization experiences. A former Global Black Belt for Azure Virtual Desktop, Christiaan joined Microsoft in 2018 as part of the FSLogix acquisition. In his role at Microsoft, he worked on features such as Windows 365 app, Switch, and Boot. His mission is to drive innovation while bringing Windows 365, Windows, and Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM) closer together, and drive community efforts around virtualization to empower Microsoft customers in leveraging new cloud virtualization scenarios.Sandeep is a virtualization veteran with nearly two decades of experience in the industry. He has shipped multiple billion-dollar products and cloud services for Microsoft to a global user base including Windows, Azure Virtual Desktop, and Windows 365. His contributions have earned him multiple patents in this field.Currently, he leads a stellar team that is responsible for building the product strategy for Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop services and shaping the future of end-user experiences for these services.Morten works as a Cloud Architect for a consultant company in Denmark where he advises and implements Microsoft virtual desktop solutions to customers around the world, Morten started his journey as a consultant over 8 years ago where he started with managing client devices but quickly found a passion for virtual device management. Today Windows 365 and Azure Virtual Desktop are the main areas that are being focused on alongside Microsoft Intune. Based on all the community activities Morten has done in the past years, he got rewarded with the Microsoft MVP award in the category of Windows 365 in March 2022.

With new technology threats, rising international tensions, and state-sponsored cyber-attacks, cybersecurity is more important than ever. In organizations worldwide, there is not only a dire need for cybersecurity analysts, engineers, and consultants but the senior management executives and leaders are expected to be cognizant of the possible threats and risk management. The era of cyberwarfare is now upon us. What we do now and how we determine what we will do in the future is the difference between whether our businesses live or die and whether our digital self-survives the digital battlefield.  In this article, we'll discuss 6 titles from Packt’s bank of cybersecurity resources for everyone from an aspiring cybersecurity professional to an expert. Adversarial Tradecraft in Cybersecurity  A comprehensive guide that helps you master cutting-edge techniques and countermeasures to protect your organization from live hackers. It enables you to leverage cyber deception in your operations to gain an edge over the competition.  Little has been written about how to act when live hackers attack your system and run amok. Even experienced hackers sometimes tend to struggle when they realize the network defender has caught them and is zoning in on their implants in real-time. This book provides tips and tricks all along the kill chain of an attack, showing where hackers can have the upper hand in a live conflict and how defenders can outsmart them in this adversarial game of computer cat and mouse.  This book contains two subsections in each chapter, specifically focusing on the offensive and defensive teams. Pentesters to red teamers, SOC analysis to incident response, attackers, defenders, general hackers, advanced computer users, and security engineers should gain a lot from this book. This book will also be beneficial to those getting into purple teaming or adversarial simulations, as it includes processes for gaining an advantage over the other team.  The author, Dan Borges, is a passionate programmer and security researcher who has worked in security positions for companies such as Uber, Mandiant, and CrowdStrike. Dan has been programming various devices for >20 years, with 14+ years in the security industry.  Cybersecurity – Attack and Defense Strategies, Second Edition  A book that enables you to counter modern threats and employ state-of-the-art tools and techniques to protect your organization against cybercriminals. It is a completely revised new edition of the bestselling book, covering the very latest security threats and defense mechanisms including a detailed overview of Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and an assessment of the current threat landscape, with additional focus on new IoT threats and cryptomining.  This book is for IT professionals venturing into the IT security domain, IT pentesters, security consultants, or those looking to perform ethical hacking. Prior knowledge of penetration testing is beneficial.  This book is authored by Yuri Diogenes and Dr. Erdal Ozkaya. Yuri Diogenes is a professor at EC-Council University for their master's degree in cybersecurity and a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft for Azure Security Center. Dr. Erdal Ozkaya is a leading Cybersecurity Professional with business development, management, and academic skills who focuses on securing Cyber Space and sharing his real-life skills as a Security Advisor, Speaker, Lecturer, and Author.  Cyber Minds  This book comprises insights on cybersecurity across the cloud, data, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and IoT to keep you cyber safe. Shira Rubinoff's Cyber Minds brings together the top authorities in cybersecurity to discuss the emergent threats that face industries, societies, militaries, and governments today. Cyber Minds serves as a strategic briefing on cybersecurity and data safety, collecting expert insights from sector security leaders. This book will help you to arm and inform yourself of what you need to know to keep your business – or your country – safe.  This book is essential reading for business leaders, the C-Suite, board members, IT decision-makers within an organization, and anyone with a responsibility for cybersecurity.  The author, Shira Rubinoff is a recognized cybersecurity executive, cybersecurity and blockchain advisor, global keynote speaker, and influencer who has built two cybersecurity product companies and led multiple women-in-technology efforts.  Cyber Warfare – Truth, Tactics, and Strategies  Cyber Warfare – Truth, Tactics, and Strategies is as real-life and up-to-date as cyber can possibly be, with examples of actual attacks and defense techniques, tools, and strategies presented for you to learn how to think about defending your own systems and data.  This book introduces you to strategic concepts and truths to help you and your organization survive on the battleground of cyber warfare. The book not only covers cyber warfare, but also looks at the political, cultural, and geographical influences that pertain to these attack methods and helps you understand the motivation and impacts that are likely in each scenario.  This book is for any engineer, leader, or professional with either responsibility for cybersecurity within their organizations, or an interest in working in this ever-growing field.  The author, Dr. Chase Cunningham holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in computer science from Colorado Technical University and a B.S. from American Military University focused on counter-terrorism operations in cyberspace.  Incident Response in the Age of Cloud  This book is a comprehensive guide for organizations on how to prepare for cyber-attacks and control cyber threats and network security breaches in a way that decreases damage, recovery time, and costs, facilitating the adaptation of existing strategies to cloud-based environments.  It is aimed at first-time incident responders, cybersecurity enthusiasts who want to get into IR, and anyone who is responsible for maintaining business security. This book will also interest CIOs, CISOs, and members of IR, SOC, and CSIRT teams. However, IR is not just about information technology or security teams, and anyone with legal, HR, media, or other active business roles would benefit from this book.   The book assumes you have some admin experience. No prior DFIR experience is required. Some infosec knowledge will be a plus but isn’t mandatory.  The author, Dr. Erdal Ozkaya, is a technically sophisticated executive leader with a solid education and strong business acumen. Over the course of his progressive career, he has developed a keen aptitude for facilitating the integration of standard operating procedures that ensure the optimal functionality of all technical functions and systems.  Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies   This book trains you to mitigate exploits, malware, phishing, and other social engineering attacks. After scrutinizing numerous cybersecurity strategies, Microsoft's former Global Chief Security Advisor provides unique insights on the evolution of the threat landscape and how enterprises can address modern cybersecurity challenges.    The book will provide you with an evaluation of the various cybersecurity strategies that have ultimately failed over the past twenty years, along with one or two that have actually worked. It will help executives and security and compliance professionals understand how cloud computing is a game-changer for them.  This book is designed to benefit senior management at commercial sector and public sector organizations, including Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and other senior managers of cybersecurity groups, Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), and senior IT managers who want to explore the entire spectrum of cybersecurity, from threat hunting and security risk management to malware analysis.  The author, Tim Rains worked at Microsoft for the better part of two decades where he held a number of roles including Global Chief Security Advisor, Director of Security, Identity and Enterprise Mobility, Director of Trustworthy Computing, and was a founding technical leader of Microsoft's customer-facing Security Incident Response team.  Summary  If you aspire to become a cybersecurity expert, any good study/reference material is as important as hands-on training and practical understanding. By choosing a suitable guide, one can drastically accelerate the learning graph and carve out one’s own successful career trajectory. 

When it comes to mobile operating systems, iOS 12 is generally considered to be one of the most secure — if not the leader — in mobile security. It's now a little more than a year old, and its features may be a bit overshadowed by the launch of iOS 13. Still, a considerable number of devices run iOS 12, and developers should know about its security features. Further Reading If you want to build iOS 12 applications from scratch with the latest Swift 4.2 language and Xcode 10, explore our book iOS 12 Programming for Beginners by Craig Clayton.  For beginners, this book starts by introducing you to iOS development as you learn Xcode 10 and Swift 4.2. You'll also study advanced iOS design topics, such as gestures and animations. The book also details new iOS 12 features, such as the latest in notifications, custom-UI notifications, maps, and the recent additions in Sirikit.  Below are the most prominent changes iOS 12 made in terms of security. Based on these changes, app developers can take advantage of several safety features if they want to build secure mobile apps for devices running on this OS. Major security features in iOS 12 iOS 12's biggest security upgrades were primarily outright new features. In general, these changes reflected a pivot towards privacy, i.e., giving users more control over how their data can be collected and used, as well as towards better password and device security. Default updating: Automatic software updates are now turned on by default. This feature is good news for developers — if they need to push an update that patches a major security flaw, most users will update to the more secure version of the app automatically. Users are also likely to have the most secure version of first-party apps and iOS 12. Password auditing: iOS 12's password auditing tools let users know when they've used the same password more than twice — devices themselves now encourage users to create strong and secure passwords when logging into their apps. The OS keeps a record of all passwords a user creates and stores them on the iCloud. While this feature may not sound particularly secure — especially considering iCloud's discovered security flaw last year — all these passwords are encrypted with AES-256. USB connection: If a user hasn't unlocked a device running iOS 12 in more than an hour, USB devices won't be able to connect. Safari upgrades: The mobile version of Safari will now, by default, prevent websites from using tracking cookies without explicit user permission. 2FA integration: iOS 12 offers better native integration with two-factor authentication (2FA). If an app uses 2FA and sends a security code to a user's phone over text, iOS 12 can autofill the security code field for the user. This may be a good reason for developers to consider implementing 2FA functionality if their apps don't already support it. Improvements in iOS 12 specific to app developers Other changes in iOS 12 were more subtle to end-users but more relevant to app developers. Automated password generation: Since iOS 11, developers have been able to label their password and username fields, allowing users to automatically populate these fields with saved passwords and usernames for a specific app or Safari webpage. With iOS 12's new functionality, users can have iOS 12 generate a unique, strong password that fills the password field once prompted by an app. In-house business app development: Apple now supports the development of in-house business apps. Businesses that partner with Apple through the Apple Developer Enterprise Program can develop apps that work only on specific, permitted devices. Sandboxed apps: By default, all third-party apps are now sandboxed and cannot directly access files modified by other apps. If an app needs to alter files outside of its specific home directory — which is randomly assigned by iOS 12 on install — it will do so through iOS. The same is true for all system files and resources. If an app needs to run a background process, it can do so only through system-provided APIs. Content sharing: Apps created by the same developer can share content — like user preferences and stored data — with each other when configured to be part of an App Group. App frameworks: New software development frameworks like HomeKit are now available to developers working with iOS 12. HomeKit allows developers to create apps that configure or otherwise communicate with smart home appliances and IoT devices. Likewise, SiriKit lets developers update their apps to work with user requests that originate from Siri and Maps. Editor’s tip: To learn more about SirKit you can through Chapter 24 of the book iOS 12 Programming for Beginners by Packt Publishing. Handoff: iOS 12's new Handoff feature allows developers to design apps and websites so that users can use an app one device, then seamlessly transfer their activity to another. The feature will be useful for developers working on apps that also have web versions. App Store review guideline updates with iOS 12 Along with the launch of iOS 12 came some changes to the App Store review guidelines. App developers will need to be aware of these if they want to continue developing programs for iOS devices. Apple now limits the amount of data, developers can collect from user's address books — and how apps are allowed to use this data. This fact doesn't bar developers from using an iPhone's address book to add social functionality to their apps. Developers can still scan a user's contact lists to allow users to send invites or to link users up with friends who also use a specific app. Developers, however, can't maintain and transfer databases of user address information. Apple also banned the selling of user info to third parties. Some tech analysts consider this a response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal of last year, as well as growing discontentment over how large companies were collecting and using user data. Depending on how a developer plans on using user data, these guidelines may not bring about huge changes. However, app designers may want to review what data collection is allowed and how they can use that data. Over time, iOS security updates have trended towards giving users more control over their data, apps less control over the system and developers more APIs for adding specific functionality. Following that trend, iOS 12 is built with user security in mind. For developers, implementing security features will be easier than it has been in the past — and they can also feel more confident that the devices accessing their app are secure. Some of these changes make apps more secure for developers — like the addition of password auditing and better 2FA authentication. Others, like app sandboxing and the updates to the app store review guidelines, may require more planning from app developers than Apple has asked for in the past. To start building iOS 12 applications of your own with Xcode 10 and Swift 4.2, the building blocks of iOS development, read the book iOS 12 Programming for Beginners by Packt Publishing. Author Bio Kayla Matthews writes about big data, cybersecurity, and technology. You can find her work on The Week, Information Age, KDnuggets and CloudTweaks, or over at ProductivityBytes.com.

Windows Server 2019 has brought in many enhancements to their security posture as well as a whole new set of capabilities. In one of the sessions titled ‘Elevating your security posture with Windows Server 2019’ at Microsoft Ignite 2018, Dean Wells, a program manager in the Windows Server team, provided a rich overview of many of the security capabilities that are built-in to Windows Server with a specific focus on what’s new to Windows Server 2019. Want to develop the necessary skills to design and implement Microsoft Server 2019? If you are also seeking to support your medium / large enterprise by leveraging your experience in administering Microsoft Server 2019, we recommend you to check out our book ‘Mastering Windows Server 2019 - Second Edition’ written by Jordan Krause. Wells started off by explaining the SGX platform to further explain SGX Enclaves and its importance. SGX is a platform technology by Intel that provides a trusted execution environment on a machine that could be littered with malware and yet the trusted execution environment is able to defend itself from inspection, rights modifications, etc. Microsoft has attempted to build a similar technology to SGX, but not as strong as SGX Enclave, called as the VBS (virtualization-based security) Enclave. Wells says security threats is one of the key IT stress points. These threats further bifurcate into three areas: Managing privileged identities Securing the OS Securing fabric virtualization (VMs) and virtualization-based security Wells presented an 18-month-old data that highlighted that over three trillion dollars are impacted annually by cyber attacks; and it’s growing all the time. Source: YouTube He also presented an attack timeline to show how long it takes to find out to discover the attack. From the first entry point, it takes about an average of 24 to 48 hours to go from entry to the domain admin. These attackers dwell inside your network for around 146 days, which is alarming. The common factor in all the attacks is that attackers first seek out to exploit privileged accounts. However, one cannot actually deprecate these administrative power to avoid attacks. Source: YouTube How to secure privileged identities, OS, and fabric VMs in Windows Server 2019 Wells highlighted certain initiatives to address threats with Windows Server and/or Windows 10. Managing privileged identities Just-In-Time: Wells said that people should make sure they have privileged access workstations as this is another industry initiative that advice using workstations that are health attested and if they are not healthy, they will be unable to administer the workload assigned. AAD banned password list: This is written by the Azure Active Directory Team. This takes AI and clever matching techniques the Azure AD uses in the cloud and brings them to Windows Server AD. There are many identities on the platform but not everything is for everyone. One has to take proactive efforts to turn these features on. Securing the OS This is the area where one invests the most. In the past kernel was used to infuse code integrity; however, with Hypervisor the OS cannot directly communicate with the hardware. This is where one can lay new policies such as a code integrity policy. The Hypervisor can block things that a malicious kernel is trying to insert within the hardware. One can also secure the OS using a Control Flow Guard, the Defender ATP, and the System Guard runtime monitor. Securing fabric virtualization (VMs) and virtualization-based security These include Shielded VMs that are resistant to malware and host admin attacks on the very Hyper-V host where they are running. Users can also secure virtualization using Hyper-V containers, micro-segmentation, 802.1x support switches, etc. To know more about each section in detail, head over to the video ‘Elevating your security posture with Windows Server 2019’. What’s new in Windows Server 2019 Microsoft has made extensive use of Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) in the Window Server 2019 as this lays the foundation for protecting OS/workload secrets. The other features include: Shielded VM improvements that include branch office support, simple cloud-friendly attestations, Linux OSes, and advanced troubleshooting. Device Guard policy updates can now be applied without a reboot as there are new default policies shipped in-box and also that two or more policies can be stacked to create a combined effective policy. Kernel Control Flow Guard (CFG) ensures that user and kernel-mode binaries run as expected. System Guard Runtime Monitor runs inside the VBS Enclave keeps an eye on everything else and emits health assertions. Virtual Network Encryption through SDN, which is a transparent encryption for the VMs. Windows Defender ATP is now in-box hence no additional download is required. Trusted Private Cloud for Windows Mike Bartok from the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) talked about trusted cloud and how NIST is trying to build on the capabilities mentioned by Dean. Bartok presented a NIST special publication 1800 series document that consists of three volumes: Volume A: Includes high-level executive summary that can be taken to the C-suite to tell them about cloud adoption and how you will do it in a trusted manner. It also includes a high-level overview of the project, the challenges, solutions, benefits, etc. Volume B: Takes a deeper dive into challenges and solutions. It also includes a reference architecture of various solutions to the problems, a mapping to the security controls in the NIST cybersecurity framework and 853 family. Volume C is a technical How-to-Guide that shows every step implemented to reach the solution via screenshots, or will include pointers back to Microsoft’s installation guide. One can pick up the guide and replicate the project. Security Objectives in Trusted Cloud The Security outcomes of Trusted Cloud are categorized into foundational and those in progress. Foundational security outcomes include hardware root-of-Trust based and geolocation-based asset tagging; deploying and migrating workloads to trusted platforms with specific tags. However, the others that are in progress include: Ensure workloads are decrypted on a server that meets the trust and boundary policies. Ensure workloads meet the least privilege principle for network flow. Ensure industry sector specific compliance. Deploy and migrate workloads to trusted platforms across hybrid environments. Each of these outcomes is supported by different partners including Intel, Dell-EMC, Microsoft, Docker, and Twistlock. Virtualization Infrastructure Security Multiple users have their hosts in the VM. They can say that the host is healthy because it is running fine. In a similar manner, there is no way a host could run without being provided with a key. That is how it is programmed to be. Dean explains, a solution to the security concern is a Guarded fabric running Shielded VMs. A few security assurance goals for these Shielded VMs include: Encryption of data both at rest and in-flight Here, the virtual TPM enables the use of disk encryption within a VM (for eg. BitLocker). Also, both the live migration and the VM-state are encrypted. Fabric admins locked out Here, the host administrators cannot access guest VM secrets(e.g: can’t see disks, videos, etc.). Also, they cannot run arbitrary kernel-mode code. Malware blocked: Attestation of host required Here, VM-workloads can only run on healthy hosts designated by the VM owner. However, Shielding is not intended as a defense against DoS attacks. Shielded VMs in Windows Server 2019 Shielded VM is a unique security feature introduced by Microsoft in Windows Server 2016. In the latest Windows Server 2019 edition, it has undergone a lot of enhancements. Includes Linux Guest OS support The Linux Guest OS support in Windows Server 2019 supports Ubuntu, Red Hat (RHEL), and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server inside shielded VMs. Here the host should run on Windows Server 2019. Also, these shielded VMs will fully support secure provisioning to ensure the template disk is safe and trusted. Host Key Attestation In this Shielded VM enhancement, the VMs use asymmetric key pairs to authorize a host to run shielded VMs. This will be similar to how SSH works; no more AD trusts and no certification will be required. This will allow easier onboarding process with fewer  requirements and less fragility. This will further help to get a guarded fabric up and running quickly. The Host Key Attestation has similar assurances to Active Directory attestation i.e, it checks only the host identity and not its length. Also, its best practises recommend the use of TPM attestation for most of the secure workloads. Branch Office support Here, the Hyper-V hosts can be configured with both primary and fallback HGS. This would be useful in cases where there is a local HGS for daily use and a remote HGS if the local HGS is down or unavailable. This support also enables the deployment of HGS in a shielded VM. For completely offline applications, you can now authorize hosts to cache VM keys and start up VMs even when HGS cannot be reached. This is because Cache is bound to the last successful security/health attestation event, so a change in the host’s configuration that affects its security posture invalidates the cache. Improved troubleshooting Shielded VMs include enhanced VMConnect, which permits “fully shielded” VMs. This will assist troubleshooting and also can be disabled within the shielded VM. PowerShell Direct is also permitted to shielded VMs. Here, one can combine with JEA to let the host admin fix only specific problems on the VMs without giving them full admin privileges. This can also be disabled within the Shielded VMs. Windows Server 2019 Hyper-V vswitch and EAPOL Dean also highlighted that Windows Server 2019 will have a full support for IEEE 802.1x port-based Network Access Control in Hyper-V switches. This support would be for VMs whose virtual NICs are attached to vSwitches. Wells explained a bunch of reasons to try out and use Windows Server 2019 with new capabilities. If you need a few practical examples to effectively administer Windows server 2019 and want to harden your Windows Servers to keep away the bad guys, you can explore Mastering Windows Server 2019 - Second Edition written by Jordan Krause. Adobe confirms security vulnerability in one of their Elasticsearch servers that exposed 7.5 million Creative Cloud accounts PEAR’s (PHP Extension and Application Repository) web server disabled due to a security breach Windows Server 2019 comes with security, storage and other changes

The security of web-based applications is of critical importance. The strength of an application is about more than the collection of features it provides. It includes essential (yet often overlooked) elements such as security. Kali Linux is a trusted critical component of a security professional’s toolkit for securing web applications. The official documentation says it is “is specifically geared to meet the requirements of professional penetration testing and security auditing.“ Incidences of security breaches in web-based applications can be largely contained through the deployment of Kali Linux’s suite of up-to-date software. Build secure systems with Kali Linux... If you wish to employ advanced pentesting techniques with Kali Linux to build highly secured systems, you should check out our recent book Mastering Kali Linux for Advanced Penetration Testing - Third Edition written by Vijay Kumar Velu and Robert Beggs. This book will help you discover concepts such as social engineering, attacking wireless networks, web services, and embedded devices. What it means to secure Web-based applications There is a branch of information security dealing with the security of websites and web services (such as APIs), the same area that deals with securing web-based applications. For web-based businesses, web application security is a central component. The Internet serves a global population and is used in almost every walk of life one may imagine. As such, web properties can be attacked from various locations and with variable levels of complexity and scale. It is therefore critical to have protection against a variety of security threats that take advantage of vulnerabilities in an application’s code. Common web-based application targets are SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) applications and content management systems like WordPress. A web-based application is a high-priority target if: the source code is complex enough to increase the possibility of vulnerabilities that are not contained and result in malicious code manipulation, the source code contains exploitable bugs, especially where code is not tested extensively, it can provide rewards of high value, including sensitive private data, after successful manipulation of source code, attacking it is easy to execute since most attacks are easy to automate and launch against multiple targets. Failing to secure its web-based application opens an organization up to attacks. Common consequences include information theft, damaged client relationships, legal proceedings, and revoked licenses. Common Web App Security Vulnerabilities A wide variety of attacks are available in the wild for web-based applications. These include targeted database manipulation and large-scale network disruption. Following are a few vectors or methods of attacks used by attackers: Data breaches A data breach differs from specific attack vectors. A data breach generally refers to the release of private or confidential information. It can stem from mistakes or due to malicious action. Data breaches cover a broad scope and could consist of several highly valuable records to millions of exposed user accounts. Common examples of data breaches include Cambridge Analytica and Ashley Madison. Cross-site scripting (XSS) It is a vulnerability that gives an attacker a way to inject client-side scripts into a webpage. The attacker can also directly access relevant information, impersonate a user, or trick them into divulging valuable information. A perpetrator could notice a vulnerability in an e-commerce site that permits embedding of HTML tags in the site’s comments section. The embedded tags feature permanently on the page, causing the browser to parse them along with other source code each time the page is accessed. SQL injection (SQLi) A method whereby a web security vulnerability allows an attacker to interfere with the queries that an application makes to its database. With this, an attacker can view data that they could normally not retrieve. Attackers may also modify or create fresh user permissions, manipulate or remove sensitive data. Such data could belong to other users, or be any data the application itself can access. In certain cases, an attacker can escalate the attack to exploit backend infrastructure like the underlying server. Common SQL injection examples include: Retrieving hidden data, thus modifying a SQL query to return enhanced results; Subverting application logic by essentially changing a query; UNION attacks, so as to retrieve data from different database tables; Examining the database, to retrieve information on the database’s version and structure; and Blind SQL injection, where you’re unable to retrieve application responses from queries you control. To illustrate subverting application logic, take an application that lets users log in with a username and password. If the user submits their username as donnie and their password as peddie, the application tests the credentials by performing this SQL query: SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ‘donnie’ AND password = ‘donnie’ The login is successful where the query returns the user’s details. It is rejected, otherwise. An attacker can log in here as a regular user without a password, by merely using the SQL comment sequence -- to eliminate the password check from the WHERE clause of the query. An example is submitting the username admin’--along with a blank password in this query: SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ‘admin’--’ AND password = ‘’ This query returns the user whose username is admin, successfully logging in the attacker in as that user. Memory corruption When a memory location is modified, leading to unexpected behavior in the software, memory corruption occurs. It is often not deliberate. Bad actors work hard to determine and exploit memory corruption using code injection or buffer overflow attacks. Hackers love memory vulnerabilities because it enables them to completely control a victim’s machine. Continuing the password example, let’s consider a simple password-validation C program. The code performs no validation on the length of the user input. It also does not ensure that sufficient memory is available to store the data coming from the user. Buffer overflow A buffer is a defined temporary storage in memory. When software writes data to a buffer, a buffer overflow might occur. Overflowing the buffer's capacity leads to overwriting adjacent memory locations with data. Attackers can exploit this to introduce malicious code in memory, with the possibility of developing a vulnerability within the target. In buffer overflow attacks, the extra data sometimes contains specific instructions for actions within the plan of a malicious user. An example is data that is able to trigger a response that changes data, reveals private information, or damages files. Heap-based buffer overflows are more difficult to execute than stack-based overflows. They are also less common, attacking an application by flooding the memory space dedicated for a program. Stack-based buffer overflows exploit applications by using a stack - a memory space for storing input. Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) Cross-site request forgery tricks a victim into supplying their authentication or authorization details in requests. The attacker now has the user's account details and proceeds to send a request by pretending as the user. Armed with a legitimate user account, the attacker can modify, exfiltrate, or destroy critical information. Vital accounts belonging to executives or administrators are typical targets. The attacker commonly requests the victim user to perform an action unintentionally. Changing an email address on their account, changing their password, or making a funds transfer are examples of such actions. The nature of the action could give the attacker full control over the user’s control. The attacker may even gain full control of the application’s data and security if the target user has high privileges within the application. Three vital conditions for a CSRF attack include: A relevant action within the application that the attacker has reason to induce. Modifying permissions for other users (privileged action) or acting on user-specific data (changing the user’s password, for example). Cookie-based session handling to identify who has made user requests. There is no other mechanism to track sessions or validate user requests. No unpredictable request parameters. When causing a user to change their password, for example, the function is not vulnerable if an attacker needs to know the value of the existing password. Let’s say an application contains a function that allows users to change the email address on their account. When a user performs this action, they make a request such as the following: POST /email/change HTTP/1.1 Host: target-site.com Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded Content-Length: 30 Cookie: session=yvthwsztyeQkAPzeQ5gHgTvlyxHfsAfE email=don@normal-user.com The attacker may then build a web page containing the following HTML: Where the victim visits the attacker’s web page, these will happen: The attacker’s page will trigger an HTTP request to the vulnerable website. If the user is logged in to the vulnerable site, their browser will automatically include their session cookie in the request. The vulnerable website will carry on as normal, processing the malicious request, and change the victim user’s email address. Mitigating Vulnerabilities with Kali Linux Securing web-based user accounts from exploitation includes essential steps, such as using up-to-date encryption. Tools are available in Kali that can help generate application crashes or scan for various other vulnerabilities. Fuzzers, as these tools are called, are a relatively easy way to generate malformed data to observe how applications handle them. Other measures include demanding proper authentication, continuously patching vulnerabilities, and exercising good software development hygiene. As part of their first line of defence, many companies take a proactive approach, engaging hackers to participate in bug bounty programs. A bug bounty rewards developers for finding critical flaws in software. Open source software like Kali Linux allow anyone to scour an application’s code for flaws. Monetary rewards are a typical incentive. White hat hackers can also come onboard with the sole assignment of finding internal vulnerabilities that may have been treated lightly. Smart attackers can find loopholes even in stable security environments, making a fool-proof security strategy a necessity. The security of web-based applications can be through protecting against Application Layer, DDoS, and DNS attacks. Kali Linux is a comprehensive tool for securing web-based applications Organizations curious about the state of security of their web-based application need not fear; especially when they are not prepared for a full-scale penetration test. Attackers are always on the prowl, scanning thousands of web-based applications for the low-hanging fruit. By ensuring a web-based application is resilient in the face of these overarching attacks, applications reduce any chances of experiencing an attack. The hackers will only migrate to more peaceful grounds. So, how do organizations or individuals stay secure from attackers? Regular pointers include using HTTPS, adding a Web Application, installing security plugins, hashing passwords, and ensuring all software is current. These significant recommendations lower the probability of finding vulnerabilities in application code. Security continues to evolve, so it's best to integrate it into the application development lifecycle. Security vulnerabilities within your app are almost impossible to avoid. To identify vulnerabilities, one must think like an attacker, and test the web-based application thoroughly. A Debian Linux derivative from Offensive Security Limited, Kali Linux, is primarily for digital forensics and penetration testing. It is a successor to the revered BackTrack Linux project. The BackTrack project was based on Knoppix and manually maintained. Offensive Security wanted a true Debian derivative, with all the necessary infrastructure and improved packaging techniques. The quality, stability, and wide software selection were key considerations in choosing Debian. While developers churn out web-based applications by the minute, the number of web-based application attacks grows alongside in an exponential order. Attackers are interested in exploiting flaws in the applications, just as organizations want the best way to detect attackers’ footprints in the web application firewall. Thus, it will be detecting and blocking the specific patterns on the web-based application. Key features of Kali Linux Kali Linux has 32-bit and 64-bit distributions for hosts relying on the x86 instruction set. There's also an image for the ARM architecture. The ARM architecture image is for the Beagle Board computer and the ARM Chromebook from Samsung. Kali Linux is available for other devices like the Asus Chromebook Flip C100P, HP Chromebook, CuBox, CubieBoard 2, Raspberry Pi, Odroid U2, EfikaMX, Odroid XU, Odroid XU3, Utilite Pro, SS808, Galaxy Note 10.1, and BeagleBone Black. There are plans to make distributions for more ARM devices. Android devices like Google's Nexus line, OnePlus One, and Galaxy models also have Kali Linux through Kali NetHunter. Kali NetHunter is Offensive Security’s project to ensure compatibility and porting to specific Android devices. Via the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), Windows 10 users can use any of the more than 600 ethical hacking tools within Kali Linux to expose vulnerabilities in web applications. The official Windows distribution IS from the Microsoft Store, and there are tools for various other systems and platforms. Conclusion Despite a plethora of tools dedicated to web app security and a robust curation mechanism, Kali Linux is the distribution of choice to expose vulnerabilities in web-based applications. Other tool options include Kubuntu, Black Parrot OS, Cyborg Linux, BackBox Linux, and Wifislax. While being open source has helped its meteoric rise, Kali Linux is one of the better platforms for up-to-date security utilities. It remains the most advanced penetration testing platform out there, supporting a wide variety of devices and hardware platforms. Kali Linux also has decent documentation compared to numerous other open source projects. There is a large, active, and vibrant community and you can easily install Kali Linux in VirtualBox on Windows to begin your hacking exploits right away. To further discover various stealth techniques to remain undetected and defeat modern infrastructures and also to explore red teaming techniques to exploit secured environment, do check out the book Mastering Kali Linux for Advanced Penetration Testing - Third Edition written by Vijay Kumar Velu and Robert Beggs. Author Bio Chris is a growth marketing and cybersecurity expert writer. He has contributed to sites such as “Cyber Defense Magazine,” “Social Media News,” and “MTA.” He’s also contributed to several cybersecurity magazines. He enjoys freelancing and helping others learn more about protecting themselves online. He’s always curious and interested in learning about the latest developments in the field. He’s currently the Editor in Chief for EveryCloud’s media division. Glen Singh on why Kali Linux is an arsenal for any cybersecurity professional [Interview] 3 cybersecurity lessons for e-commerce website administrators Implementing Web application vulnerability scanners with Kali Linux [Tutorial]

This year’s Microsoft Ignite was jam-packed with new releases and upgrades in Microsoft’s line of products and services. The company elaborated on its growing focus to address the needs of its customers to help them do their business in smarter, more productive and more efficient ways. Most of the products were AI-based and Microsoft was committed to security and privacy. Microsoft Ignite 2019 took place on November 4-8, 2019 in Orlando, Florida and was attended by 26,000 IT implementers and decision-makers, developers, data professionals and people from various industries. There were a total of 175 separate announcements made! We have tried to cover the top 10 here. Microsoft’s Visual Studio IDE is now available on the web The web-based version of Microsoft’s Visual Studio IDE is now available to all developers. Called the Visual Studio Online, this IDE will allow developers to configure a fully configured development environment for their repositories and use the web-based editor to work on their code. Visual Studio Online is deeply integrated with GitHub (also owned by Microsoft), although developers can also attach their own physical and virtual machines to their Visual Studio-based environments. Visual Studio Online’s cloud-hosted environments, as well as extended support for Visual Studio Code and the web UI, are now available in preview. Support for Visual Studio 2019 is in private preview, which you can also sign up for through the Visual Studio Online web portal. Project Cortex will classify all content in a single network Project Cortex is a new service in Microsoft 365 useful to maintain the everyday flow of work in enterprises. Project Cortex collates enterprises generated documents and data, which is often spread across numerous repositories. It uses AI and machine learning to automatically classify all your content into topics to form a knowledge network. Cortex improves individual productivity and organizational intelligence and can be used across Microsoft 365, such as in the Office apps, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams. Project Cortex is now in private preview and will be generally available in the first half of 2020. Single-view device management with ‘Microsoft Endpoint Manager’ Microsoft has combined its Configuration Manager with Intune, its cloud-based endpoint management system to form what they call an Endpoint Manager. ConfigMgr allows enterprises to manage the PCs, laptops, phones, and tablets they issue to their employees. Intune is used for cloud-based management of phones. The Endpoint Manager will provide unique co-management options to organizations to provision, deploy, manage and secure endpoints and applications across their organization. Touted as the most important release of the event by Satya Nadella, this solution will give enterprises a single view of their deployments. ConfigMgr users will now also get a license to Intune to allow them to move to cloud-based management. No-code bot builder ‘Microsoft Power Virtual Agents’ is available in public preview Built on the Azure Bot Framework, Microsoft Power Virtual Agents is a low-code and no-code bot-building solution now available in public preview. Power Virtual Agents enables programmers with little to no developer experience to create and deploy intelligent virtual agents. The solution also includes Azure Machine Learning to help users create and improve conversational agents for personalized customer service. Power Virtual Agents will be generally available Dec. 1. Microsoft’s Chromium-based version of Edge is now more privacy-focused Microsoft Ignite announced the release candidate for Microsoft’s Chromium-based version of Edge browser with the general availability release on January 15. InPrivate search will be available for Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Bing to keep online searches and identities private, giving users more control over their data.  When searching InPrivate, search history and personally identifiable data will not be saved nor be associated back to you. Users’ identities and search histories are completely private. There will also be a new security baseline for the all-new Microsoft Edge. Security baselines are pre-configured groups of security settings and default values that are recommended by the relevant security teams. The next version of Microsoft Edge will feature a new icon symbolizing the major changes in Microsoft Edge, built on the Chromium open source project. It will appear in an Easter egg hunt designed to reward the Insider community. ML.NET 1.4 announces General Availability ML.NET 1.4, Microsoft’s open-source machine learning framework is now generally available. The latest release adds image classification training with the ML.NET API, as well as a relational database loader API for reading data used for training models with ML.NET. ML.NET also includes Model Builder (easy to use UI tool in Visual Studio) and Command-Line Interface to make it super easy to build custom Machine Learning models using AutoML. This release also adds a new preview of the Visual Studio Model Builder extension that supports image classification training from a graphical user interface. A preview of Jupyter support for writing C# and F# code for ML.NET scenarios is also available. Azure Arc extends Azure services across multiple infrastructures One of the most important features of Microsoft Ignite 2019 was Azure Arc. This new service enables Azure services anywhere and extends Azure management to any infrastructure — including those of competitors like AWS and Google Cloud.  With Azure Arc, customers can use Azure’s cloud management experience for their own servers (Linux and Windows Server) and Kubernetes clusters by extending Azure management across environments. Enterprises can also manage and govern resources at scale with powerful scripting, tools, Azure Portal and API, and Azure Lighthouse. Announcing Azure Synapse Analytics Azure Synapse Analytics builds upon Microsoft’s previous offering Azure SQL Data Warehouse. This analytics service combines traditional data warehousing with big data analytics bringing serverless on-demand or provisioned resources—at scale. Using Azure Synapse Analytics, customers can ingest, prepare, manage, and serve data for immediate BI and machine learning applications within the same service. Safely share your big data with Azure Data Share, now generally available As the name suggests, Azure Data Share allows you to safely share your big data with other organizations. Organizations can share data stored in their data lakes with third party organizations outside their Azure tenancy. Data providers wanting to share data with their customers/partners can also easily create a new share, populate it with data residing in a variety of stores and add recipients. It employs Azure security measures such as access controls, authentication, and encryption to protect your data. Azure Data Share supports sharing from SQL Data Warehouse and SQL DB, in addition to Blob and ADLS (for snapshot-based sharing). It also supports in-place sharing for Azure Data Explorer (in preview). Azure Quantum to be made available in private preview Microsoft has been working on Quantum computing for some time now. At Ignite, Microsoft announced that it will be launching Azure Quantum in private preview in the coming months. Azure Quantum is a full-stack, open cloud ecosystem that will bring quantum computing to developers and organizations. Azure Quantum will assemble quantum solutions, software, and hardware across the industry in a  single, familiar experience in Azure. Through Azure Quantum, you can learn quantum computing through a series of tools and learning tutorials, like the quantum katas. Developers can also write programs with Q# and the QDK Solve. Microsoft Ignite 2019 organizers have released an 88-page document detailing about all 175 announcements which you can access here. You can also view the conference Keynote delivered by Satya Nadella on YouTube as well as Microsoft Ignite’s official blog. Facebook mandates Visual Studio Code as default development environment and partners with Microsoft for remote development extensions Exploring .Net Core 3.0 components with Mark J. Price, a Microsoft specialist Yubico reveals Biometric YubiKey at Microsoft Ignite Microsoft announces .NET Jupyter Notebooks

It's no surprise that cybersecurity has become a major priority for global businesses of all sizes, often employing a dedicated IT team to focus on thwarting attacks. Huge budgets are spent on acquiring and integrating security solutions, but one of the most effective tools might be hiding in plain sight. Encouraging your own engineers and developers to purposely break systems through a process known as chaos engineering can drive a huge return on investment by identifying unknown weaknesses in your digital architecture. As modern networks become more complex with a vastly larger threat surface, stopping break-ins before they happen takes on even greater importance. Evolution of Cyberattacks Hackers typically have a background in software engineering and actually run their criminal enterprises in cycles that are similar to what happens in the development world. That means these criminals focus on iterations and agile changes to keep themselves one step ahead of security tools. Most hackers are focused on financial gains and look to steal data from enterprise or government systems for the purpose of selling it on the Dark Web. However, there is a demographic of cybercriminals focused on simply causing the most damage to certain organizations that they have targeted. In both scenarios, the hacker will first need to find a way to enter the perimeter of the network, either physically or digitally. Many cybercrimes now start with what's known as social engineering, where a hacker convinces an internal employee to divulge information that allows unauthorized access to take place. Principles of Chaos Engineering So how can you predict cyberattacks and stop hackers before they infiltrate your systems? That's where chaos engineering can help. The term first gained popularity a decade ago when Netflix created a tool called Chaos Monkey that would randomly take a node of their network offline to force teams to react accordingly. This proved effective because Netflix learned how to better keep their streaming service online and reduce dependencies between cloud servers. The Chaos Monkey tool can be seen as an example of a much broader practice: Chaos Engineering. The central insight of this form of testing is that, regardless of how all-encompassing your test suite is, as soon as your code is running on enough machines, errors are going to occur. In large, complex systems, it is essentially impossible to predict where these points of failure are going to occur. Rather than viewing this as a problem, chaos engineering sees it as an opportunity. Since failure is unavoidable, why not deliberately introduce it, and then attempt to solve randomly generated errors, in order to ensure your systems and processes can deal with the failure? For example, Netflix runs on AWS, but in response to frequent regional failures have changed their systems to become region agnostic. They have tested that this works using chaos engineering: they regularly take down important services in separate regions via a “chaos monkey” which randomly selects servers to take down, and challenges engineers to work around these failures. Though Netflix popularized the concept, chaos engineering, and testing is now used by many other companies, including Microsoft. The rise of cloud computing has meant that a high proportion of the systems running today have a similar level of complexity to Netflix’s server architecture. The cloud computing model has added a high level of complexity to online systems and the practice of chaos engineering will help to manage that over time, especially when it comes to cybersecurity. It's impossible to predict how and when a hacker will execute an attack, but chaos tests can help you be more proactive in patching your internal vulnerabilities. At first, your developers may be reluctant to jump into chaos activities since they will think their normal process works. However, there’s a good chance that, over time, they will grow to love chaos testing. You might have to do some convincing in the beginning, though, because this new approach likely goes against everything they’ve been taught about securing a network. Designing a Chaos Test Chaos tests need to be run in a controlled manner in order to be effective, and in many ways, the process lines up with the scientific method: in order to run a successful chaos test, you first need to identify a well-formed and refutable hypothesis. A test can then be designed that will prove (or more likely falsify) your hypothesis. For example, you might want to know how your network will react if one DNS server drops offline during a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack by a hacker. This tactic of masking one’s IP address and overloading a website’s server can be executed through a VPN. Your hypothesis, in this case, is that you will be able to re-route traffic around the affected server. From there, you can begin designing and scheduling the experiment. If you are new to chaos engineering, you will want to restrict the test to a testing or staging environment to minimize the impact on live systems. Then make sure you have one person responsible for documenting the outcomes as the experiment begins. If you identify an issue during the first run of the chaos test, then you can pause that effort and focus on coming up with a solution plan. If not, expand the radius of the experiment until it produces worthwhile results. Running through this type of fire drill can be positive for various groups within a software organization, as it will provide practice for real incidents. Source: Medium How Chaos Engineering Fits Into Quality Assurance A lot of companies hear about chaos engineering and jump into it full-speed. But then over time they lose their enthusiasm for the practice or get distracted with other projects. So how should chaos tests be run and how do you ensure that they remain consistent and valuable? First, define the role of chaos engineering within your larger quality assurance efforts. In fact, your QA team may want to be the leaders of all chaos tests that are run. One important clarification is to distinguish between penetration tests and chaos tests. They both have the same goal of proactively finding system issues, but a penetration test is a specific event with a finite focus while chaos testing must be more open-ended. When teaching your teams about chaos engineering, it's vital to frame it as a practice and not a one-time activity. Return on investment will be hard to find if you do not systematically follow-up after chaos tests are run. The aim should be for continuous improvement to ensure your systems are prepared for any type of cyberattack. Final Thoughts These days, security vendors offer a wide range of tools designed to help companies protect their people, data, and infrastructure. Solutions like firewalls and virus scanners are certainly deployed to great success as part of most cybersecurity strategies, but they should never be treated as foolproof. Hackers are notorious at finding ways to get past these types of tools and exploit companies who are not prepared at a deeper level. The most mature organizations go one step further and find ways to proactively locate their own weaknesses before an outsider can expose them. Chaos engineering is a great way to accomplish this, as it encourages developers to look for gaps and bugs that they might not stumble upon normally. No matter how much planning goes into a system's architecture, unforeseen issues still come up, and hackers are a very dangerous variable in that equation. Author Bio Sam Bocetta is a freelance journalist specializing in U.S. diplomacy and national security, with emphasis on technology trends in cyberwarfare, cyberdefense, and cryptography.

On September 28, the National Security Agency revealed a vulnerability in Ghidra, a free, open-source software reverse-engineering tool. The NSA released the Ghidra toolkit at the RSA security conference in San Francisco on March 6, this year. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2019-16941, allows a remote attacker to compromise exposed systems, according to a NIST National Vulnerability Database description. This vulnerability is reported as medium severity and currently does not have a fix available. The NSA tweeted on its official account, “A flaw currently exists within Ghidra versions through 9.0.4. The conditions needed to exploit this flaw are rare and a patch is currently being worked. This flaw is not a serious issue as long as you don’t accept XML files from an untrusted source.” According to the bug description, the flaw manifests itself “when [Ghidra] experimental mode is enabled.” This “allows arbitrary code execution if the Read XML Files feature of Bit Patterns Explorer is used with a modified XML document,” the description further reads. “Researchers add since the feature is experimental, to begin with, it’s already an area to expect bugs and vulnerabilities. They also contend, that despite descriptions of how the bug can be exploited, it can’t be triggered remotely,” Threatpost reports. Ghidra, a disassembler written in Java, breaks down executable files into assembly code that can then be analyzed. By deconstructing malicious code and malware, cybersecurity professionals can gain a better understanding of potential vulnerabilities in their networks and systems. The NSA has used it internally for years, and recently decided to open-source it. Other instances when bugs have been found in Ghidra include, in March, a proof-of-concept was released showing how an XML external entity (XXE) vulnerability (rated serious) can be exploited to attack Ghidra project users (version 9.0 and below). In July, researchers found an additional path-retrieval bug (CVE-2019-13623) that was also rated high severity. The bug, similar to CVE-2019-1694, also impacts the ghidra.app.plugin.core.archive and allows an attacker to achieve arbitrary code execution on vulnerable systems, Threatpost reports. Researchers said they are unaware that this most recent bug (CVE-2019-16941) has been exploited in the wild. To know more about this news in detail, read the bug description. A Cargo vulnerability in Rust 1.25 and prior makes it ignore the package key and download a wrong dependency 10 times ethical hackers spotted a software vulnerability and averted a crisis A zero-day pre-auth vulnerability is currently being exploited in vBulletin, reports an anonymous researcher

On September 26, a few researchers from the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands, released a research paper which highlighted the importance of crowdsource ethical hacking approaches for enhancing IoT vulnerability management. They have focussed on Bug Bounty Programs (BBP) and Responsible Disclosure (RD), which stimulate hackers to report vulnerabilities in exchange for monetary rewards. Supported by literature survey and expert interviews, these researchers carried out an investigation on how BBP and RD can facilitate the practice of identifying, classifying, prioritizing, remediating, and mitigating IoT vulnerabilities in an effective and cost-efficient manner. The researchers have also made recommendations on how BBP and RD can be integrated with the existing security practices to further boost the IoT security. The researchers first identified the causes for lack of security practices in IoT from socio-technical and commercial perspectives. By identifying the hidden pitfalls and blind spots, stakeholders can avoid repeating the same mistakes. They have also derived a set of recommendations as best-practices that can benefit IoT vendors, developers, and regulators. The researcher in their paper added, “We note that this study does not intend to cover all the potential vulnerabilities in IoT nor to provide an absolute solution to cure the IoT security puzzle. Instead, our focus is to provide practical and tangible recommendations and potentially new options for stakeholders to tackle IoT-oriented vulnerabilities in consumer goods, which will help enhance the overall IoT security practices.” Challenges in IoT Security The researchers have highlighted six major reasons from the system and device perspective: IoT systems do not have well-defined perimeters as they can continuously change. IoT systems are highly heterogeneous with respect to communication medium and protocols. IoT systems often include devices that are not designed to be connected to the Internet or for being secure. IoT devices can often autonomously control other IoT devices without human supervision. IoT devices could be physically unprotected and/or controlled by different parties. The large number of devices increases the security complexity The other practical challenges for IoT include the fact that enterprises targeting end-users do not have security as a priority and are generally driven by time-to-market instead of by security requirements. Several IoT products are the results of an increasing number of startup companies that have entered this market recently. This vast majority of startups accounts for less than 10 employees, and their obvious priority is to develop functional rather than secure products. In this scenario, investing in security can be perceived as a costly and time-consuming obstacle. In addition, consumers demand for security is low, and they tend to prefer cheaper rather than secure products. As a result, companies lack explicit incentives to invest in security. Crowdsourced security methods: An alternative in Ethical Hacking "Government agencies and business organizations today are in constant need of ethical hackers to combat the growing threat to IT security. A lot of government agencies, professionals and corporations now understand that if you want to protect a system, you cannot do it by just locking your doors," the researchers observe. The benefits of Ethical Hacking include: Preventing data from being stolen and misused by malicious attackers. Discovering vulnerabilities from an attacker’s point of view so to fix weak points. Implementing a secure network that prevents security breaches. Protecting networks with real-world assessments. Gaining trust from customers and investors by ensuring security. Defending national security by protecting data from terrorism. Bug bounty benefits and Responsible Disclosure The alternative for Pen Testing in Ethical Hacking is Crowdsourced security methods. These methods involve the participation of large numbers of ethical hackers, reporting vulnerabilities to companies in exchange for rewards that can consist of money or, just recognition. Similar practices have been utilized at large scale in the software industry. For example, the Vulnerability Rewards Programs (VRP) which have been applied to Chrome and Firefox, yielding several lessons on software security development. As per results, the Chrome VRP has cost approximately $580,000 over 3 years and has resulted in 501 bounties paid for the identification of security vulnerabilities. Crowdsource methods involve thousands of hackers working on a security target. In specific, instead of a point-in-time test, crowdsourcing enables continuous testing. In addition, as compared with Pen Testing, crowdsourcing hackers are only paid when a valid vulnerability is reported. Let us in detail understand Bug Bounty Programs (BBP) and Responsible Disclosure (RD). How do Bug Bounty Programs (BBP) work? Also known as Bug Bounties, the BBP represents reward-driven crowdsourced security testing where ethical hackers who successfully discover and report vulnerabilities to companies are rewarded. The BBPs can further be classified into public and private programs. Public programs allow entire communities of ethical hackers to participate in the program. They typically consist of large scale bug bounty programs and can be both time-limited and open-ended. Private programs, on the other hand, are generally limited to a selected sub-group of hackers, scoped to specific targets, and limited in time. These programs usually take place through commercial bug bounty platforms, where hackers are selected based on reputation, skills, and experience. The main platform vendors that included BBP are HackerOne, BugCrowd, Cobalt Labs, and Synack. Those platforms have facilitated establishing and maintaining BBPs for organizations. What is Responsible Disclosure (RD)? Also known as coordinated vulnerability disclosure, RD consists of rules and guidelines from companies that allow individuals to report vulnerabilities to organizations. The RD policies will define the models for a controlled and responsible disclosure of information upon vulnerabilities discovered by users. Here, most of the software vulnerabilities are discovered by both benign users and ethical hackers. In many situations, individuals might feel responsible for reporting the vulnerability to the organization, but companies may lack a channel for them to report the found vulnerabilities. Hence three different outcomes might occur including failed disclosure, full disclosure, and organization capture. Among these three, the target of RD is the organization capture where companies create a safe channel and provide rules for submitting vulnerabilities to their security team, and further allocate resources to follow up the process. One limitation of this qualitative study is that only experts that were conveniently available participated in the interview. The experts that participated in the research were predominantly from the Netherlands (13 experts), and more in general all from Europe, the results should be generalized with regard to other countries and the whole security industry. For IoT vulnerability management, the researchers recommend launching BBP only after companies have performed initial security testing and fixed the problems. The objective of BBP and RD policies should always be to provide additional support in finding undetected vulnerabilities, and never to be the only security practice. To know more about this study in detail, read the original research paper. How Blockchain can level up IoT Security How has ethical hacking benefited the software industry MITRE’s 2019 CWE Top 25 most dangerous software errors list released

Two days ago, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced MITRE’s 2019 Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Errors list. This list includes a compilation of the most frequent and critical errors that can lead to serious vulnerabilities in software. For aggregating the data for this list, the CWE Team used a data-driven approach that leverages published Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE®) data and related CWE mappings found within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) National Vulnerability Database (NVD), as well as the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) scores associated with the CVEs. The team then applied a scoring formula (elaborated in later sections) to determine the level of prevalence and danger each weakness presents.  This Top 25 list of errors include the NVD data from the years 2017 and 2018, which consisted of approximately twenty-five thousand CVEs. The previous SANS/CWE Top 25 list was released in 2011 and the major difference between the lists released in the year 2011 and the current 2019 is in the approach used. In 2011, the data was constructed using surveys and personal interviews with developers, top security analysts, researchers, and vendors. These responses were normalized based on the prevalence, ranked by the CWSS methodology. However, in the 2019 CWE Top 25, the list was formed based on the real-world vulnerabilities found in NVD’s data. CWE Top 25 dangerous software errors, developers should watch out for  Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer In this error(CWE-119), the software performs operations on a memory buffer. However, it can read from or write to a memory location that is outside of the intended boundary of the buffer. The likelihood of exploit of this error is high as an attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code, alter the intended control flow, read sensitive information, or cause the system to crash.  This error can be exploited in any programming language without memory management support to attempt an operation outside of the bounds of a memory buffer, but the consequences will vary widely depending on the language, platform, and chip architecture. Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') This error, CWE-79, can cause the software to incorrectly neutralize the user-controllable input before it is placed in output that is used as a web page that is served to other users. Once the malicious script is injected, the attacker could transfer private information, such as cookies that may include session information, from the victim's machine to the attacker. This error can also allow attackers to send malicious requests to a website on behalf of the victim, which could be especially dangerous to the site if the victim has administrator privileges to manage that site. Such XSS flaws are very common in web applications since they require a great deal of developer discipline to avoid them. Improper Input Validation With this error, CWE-20, the product does not validate or incorrectly validates input thus affecting the control flow or data flow of a program. This can allow an attacker to craft the input in a form that is not expected by the rest of the application. This will lead to parts of the system receiving unintended input, which may result in an altered control flow, arbitrary control of a resource, or arbitrary code execution. Input validation is problematic in any system that receives data from an external source. “CWE-116 [Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output] and CWE-20 have a close association because, depending on the nature of the structured message, proper input validation can indirectly prevent special characters from changing the meaning of a structured message,” the researchers mention in the CWE definition post.  Information Exposure This error, CWE-200, is the intentional or unintentional disclosure of information to an actor that is not explicitly authorized to have access to that information. According to the CEW- Individual Dictionary Definition, “Many information exposures are resultant (e.g. PHP script error revealing the full path of the program), but they can also be primary (e.g. timing discrepancies in cryptography). There are many different types of problems that involve information exposures. Their severity can range widely depending on the type of information that is revealed.” This error can be executed for specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms(Mobiles), Technologies, or a class of such platforms. Out-of-bounds Read In this error, CWE-125, the software reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. This can allow attackers to read sensitive information from other memory locations or cause a crash. The software may modify an index or perform pointer arithmetic that references a memory location that is outside of the boundaries of the buffer.  This error may occur for specific named Languages (C, C++), Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms.  Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') In this error (weakness ID: CWE-89) the software constructs all or part of an SQL command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component. However, it incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended SQL command when it is sent to a downstream component. This error can be used to alter query logic to bypass security checks, or to insert additional statements that modify the back-end database, possibly including the execution of system commands. It can occur in specific named Languages, Operating Systems, Architectures, Paradigms, Technologies, or a class of such platforms. Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) This error CWE-352, the web application does not, or can not, sufficiently verify whether a well-formed, valid, consistent request was intentionally provided by the user who submitted the request. This might allow an attacker to trick a client into making an unintentional request to the webserver which will be treated as an authentic request. The likelihood of the occurrence of this error is medium.  This can be done via a URL, image load, XMLHttpRequest, etc. and can result in the exposure of data or unintended code execution.  Integer Overflow or Wraparound In this error, CWE-190, the software performs a calculation that can produce an integer overflow or wraparound, when the logic assumes that the resulting value will always be larger than the original value. This can introduce other weaknesses when the calculation is used for resource management or execution control. Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') In this error, CWE-22, the software uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory. However, the software does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.  In most programming languages, injection of a null byte (the 0 or NUL) may allow an attacker to truncate a generated filename to widen the scope of attack. For example, when the software adds ".txt" to any pathname, this may limit the attacker to text files, but a null injection may effectively remove this restriction. Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection') In this error, CWE-78, the software constructs all or part of an OS command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended OS command when it is sent to a downstream component. This error can allow attackers to execute unexpected, dangerous commands directly on the operating system. This weakness can lead to a vulnerability in environments in which the attacker does not have direct access to the operating system, such as in web applications.  Alternately, if the weakness occurs in a privileged program, it could allow the attacker to specify commands that normally would not be accessible, or to call alternate commands with privileges that the attacker does not have. The researchers write, “More investigation is needed into the distinction between the OS command injection variants, including the role with argument injection (CWE-88). Equivalent distinctions may exist in other injection-related problems such as SQL injection.” Here’s the list of the remaining errors from MITRE’s 2019 CWE Top 25 list: CWE ID Name of the Error Average CVSS score CWE-416 Use After Free 17.94 CWE-287 Improper Authentication 10.78 CWE-476 NULL Pointer Dereference 9.74 CWE-732  Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource 6.33 CWE-434 Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type 5.50 CWE-611 Improper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference 5.48 CWE-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') 5.36 CWE-798 Use of Hard-coded Credentials 5.1 CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption 5.04 CWE-772  Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime 5.04 CWE-426  Untrusted Search Path 4.40 CWE-502 Deserialization of Untrusted Data 4.30 CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management 4.23 CWE-295 Improper Certificate Validation 4.06 To know about the other errors in detail, read CWE’s official report. Scoring formula to calculate the rank of weaknesses The CWE team had developed a scoring formula to calculate a rank order of weaknesses. The scoring formula combines the frequency that a CWE is the root cause of vulnerability with the projected severity of its exploitation. In both cases, the frequency and severity are normalized relative to the minimum and maximum values seen.  A few properties of the scoring method include: Weaknesses that are rarely exploited will not receive a high score, regardless of the typical severity associated with any exploitation. This makes sense, since if developers are not making a particular mistake, then the weakness should not be highlighted in the CWE Top 25. Weaknesses with a low impact will not receive a high score. This again makes sense, since the inability to cause significant harm by exploiting a weakness means that weakness should be ranked below those that can.  Weaknesses that are both common and can cause harm should receive a high score. However, there are a few limitations to the methodology of the data-driven approach chosen by the CWE Team. Limitations of the data-driven methodology This approach only uses data publicly reported and captured in NVD, while numerous vulnerabilities exist that do not have CVE IDs. Vulnerabilities that are not included in NVD are therefore excluded from this approach. For vulnerabilities that receive a CVE, often there is not enough information to make an accurate (or precise) identification of the appropriate CWE that is exploited.  There is an inherent bias in the CVE/NVD dataset due to the set of vendors that report vulnerabilities and the languages that are used by those vendors. If one of the largest contributors to CVE/NVD primarily uses C as its programming language, the weaknesses that often exist in C programs are more likely to appear.  Another bias in the CVE/NVD dataset is that most vulnerability researchers and/or detection tools are very proficient at finding certain weaknesses but do not find other types of weaknesses. Those types of weaknesses that researchers and tools struggle to find will end up being under-represented within 2019 CWE Top 25. Gaps or perceived mischaracterizations of the CWE hierarchy itself lead to incorrect mappings.  In Metric bias, it indirectly prioritizes implementation flaws over design flaws, due to their prevalence within individual software packages. For example, a web application may have many different cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities due to a large attack surface, yet only one instance of the use of an insecure cryptographic algorithm. https://twitter.com/mattfahrner/status/1173984732926943237 To know more about this CWE Top 25 list in detail, head over to MITRE’s CWE Top 25 official page.  Other news in Security LastPass patched a security vulnerability from the extensions generated on pop-up windows An unsecured Elasticsearch database exposes personal information of 20 million Ecuadoreans including 6.77M children under 18 A new Stuxnet-level vulnerability named Simjacker used to secretly spy over mobile phones in multiple countries for over 2 years: Adaptive Mobile Security reports

Updated: On September 27, a few researchers from the Security Research Labs (SRLabs) released five key research findings based on the extent of Simjacker and how one can understand whether is SIM is vulnerable to such an exploit. Yesterday, Adaptive Mobile Security made a breakthrough announcement revealing a new vulnerability which the firm calls Simjacker has been used by attackers to spy over mobile phones. Researchers at Adaptive Mobile Security believe the vulnerability has been exploited for at least the last 2 years “by a highly sophisticated threat actor in multiple countries, primarily for the purposes of surveillance.” They further added that the Simjacker vulnerability “is a huge jump in complexity and sophistication compared to attacks previously seen over mobile core networks. It represents a considerable escalation in the skillset and abilities of attackers seeking to exploit mobile networks.” Also Read: 25 million Android devices infected with ‘Agent Smith’, a new mobile malware How Simjacker attack works and why it is a grave threat In the Simjacker attack, an SMS that contains a specific spyware-like code is sent to a victim’s mobile phone. This SMS when received, instructs the UICC (SIM Card) within the phone to ‘take over’ the mobile phone, in order to retrieve and perform sensitive commands. “During the attack, the user is completely unaware that they received the SMS with the Simjacker Attack message, that information was retrieved, and that it was sent outwards in the Data Message SMS - there is no indication in any SMS inbox or outbox,” the researchers mention on their official blog post. Source: Adaptive Mobile Security The Simjacker attack relies on the S@T(SIMalliance Toolbox ‘pronounced as sat’) browser software as an execution environment. The S@T browser, an application specified by the SIMalliance, can be installed on different UICC (SIM cards), including eSIMs. The S@T browser software is quite old and unpopular with an initial aim to enable services such as getting your account balance through the SIM card. The software specifications have not been updated since 2009 and have been superseded by many other technologies since then. Researchers say they have observed the “S@T protocol being used by mobile operators in at least 30 countries whose cumulative population adds up to over a billion people, so a sizable amount of people are potentially affected. It is also highly likely that additional countries have mobile operators that continue to use the technology on specific SIM cards.” Simjacker attack is a next-gen SMS attack Simjacker attack is unique. Previous SMS malware involved sending links to malware. However, the Simjacker Attack Message carries a complete malware payload, specifically spyware with instructions for the SIM card to execute the attack. Simjacker attack can do more than simply tracking the user’s location and user’s personal data. By modifying the attack message, the attacker could instruct the UICC to execute a range of other attacks. This is because the same method allows an attacker to have complete access to the STK command set including commands such as launch browser, send data, set up a call, and much more. Also Read: Using deep learning methods to detect malware in Android Applications The researchers used these commands in their own tests and were successfully able to make targeted handsets open up web browsers, ring other phones, send text messages and so on. They further highlighted other purposes this attack could be used for: Mis-information (e.g. by sending SMS/MMS messages with attacker-controlled content) Fraud (e.g. by dialling premium rate numbers), Espionage (as well as the location retrieving attack an attacked device it could function as a listening device, by ringing a number), Malware spreading (by forcing a browser to open a web page with malware located on it) Denial of service (e.g by disabling the SIM card) Information retrieval (retrieve other information like language, radio type, battery level etc.) The researchers highlight another benefit of the Simjacker attack for the attackers: many of its attacks seem to work independent of handset types, as the vulnerability is dependent on the software on the UICC and not the device. Adaptive Mobile says behind the Simjacker attack is a “specific private company that works with governments to monitor individuals.” This company also has extensive access to the SS7 and Diameter core network. Researchers said that in one country, roughly 100-150 specific individual phone numbers being targeted per day via Simjacker attacks. Also, a few phone numbers had been tracked a hundred times over a 7-day period, suggesting they belonged to high-value targets. Source: Adaptive Mobile Security The researchers added that they have been “working with our own mobile operator customers to block these attacks, and we are grateful for their assistance in helping detect this activity.” They said they have also communicated to the GSM Association – the trade body representing the mobile operator community - the existence of this vulnerability. This vulnerability has been managed through the GSMA CVD program, allowing information to be shared throughout the mobile community. “Information was also shared to the SIM alliance, a trade body representing the main SIM Card/UICC manufacturers and they have made new security recommendations for the S@T Browser technology,” the researchers said. “The Simjacker exploit represents a huge, nearly Stuxnet-like, leap in complexity from previous SMS or SS7/Diameter attacks, and show us that the range and possibility of attacks on core networks are more complex than we could have imagined in the past,” the blog mentions. The Adaptive Mobile Security team will present more details about the Simjacker attack in a presentation at Virus Bulletin Conference, London, on 3rd October 2019. https://twitter.com/drogersuk/status/1172194836985913344 https://twitter.com/campuscodi/status/1172141255322689537   To know more about the Simjacker attack in detail, read Adaptive Mobile’s official blog post. SRLabs researchers release protection tools against Simjacker and other SIM-based attacks On September 27, a few researchers from the Security Research Labs (SRLabs) released five key findings based on the extent of Simjacker and how one can understand whether is SIM is vulnerable to such an exploit. The researchers have highlighted five key findings in their research report and also provided an FAQ for users to implement necessary measures. Following are the five key research findings the SRLabs researchers mention: Around 6% of 800 tested SIM cards in recent years were vulnerable to Simjacker A second, previously unreported, vulnerability affects an additional 3.5% of SIM cards The tool SIMtester  provides a simple way to check any SIM card for both vulnerabilities (and for a range of other issues reported in 2013) The SnoopSnitch Android app warns users about binary SMS attacks including Simjacker since 2014. (Attack alerting requires a rooted Android phone with Qualcomm chipset.) A few Simjacker attacks have been reported since 2016 by the thousands of SnoopSnitch users that actively contribute data To know about these key findings by SRLabs' researchers in detail, read the official report. Other interesting news in Security Endpoint protection, hardening, and containment strategies for ransomware attack protection: CISA recommended FireEye report Highlights Intel’s DDIO and RDMA enabled microprocessors vulnerable to new NetCAT attack Wikipedia hit by massive DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack; goes offline in many countries

Last week, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) shared some strategies with users and organizations to prevent, mitigate, and recover against ransomware. They said, “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has observed an increase in ransomware attacks across the Nation. Helping organizations protect themselves from ransomware is a chief priority for CISA.” They have also advised that those attacked by ransomware should report immediately to CISA, a local FBI Field Office, or a Secret Service Field Office. In the three resources shared, the first two include general awareness about what ransomware is and why it is a major threat, mitigations, and much more. The third resource is a FireEye report on ransomware protection and containment strategies. Also Read: Vulnerabilities in the Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) allows researchers to inject ransomware in Canon’s DSLR camera CISA INSIGHTS and best practices to prevent ransomware The CISA, as a part of their first “CISA INSIGHTS” product, has put down three simple steps or recommendations organizations can take to manage their cybersecurity risk. CISA advises users to take necessary precautionary steps such as backing up the entire system offline, keeping the system updated and patched, update security solutions, and much more. If users have been affected by ransomware, they should contact the CISA or FBI immediately, work with an experienced advisor to help recover from the attack, isolate the infected systems and phase your return to operations, etc. Further, the CISA also tells users to practice good cyber hygiene, i.e. backup, update, whitelist apps, limit privilege, and using multi-factor authentication. Users should also develop containment strategies that will make it difficult for bad actors to extract information. Users should also review disaster recovery procedures and validate goals with executives, and much more. The CISA team has suggested certain best practices which the organizations should employ to stay safe from a ransomware attack. These include, users should restrict permissions to install and run software applications, and apply the principle of “least privilege” to all systems and services thus, limiting ransomware to spread further. The organization should also ensure using application whitelisting to allow only approved programs to run on a network. All firewalls should be configured to block access to known malicious IP addresses. Organizations should also enable strong spam filters to prevent phishing emails from reaching the end users and authenticate inbound emails to prevent email spoofing. A measure to scan all incoming and outgoing emails to detect threats and filter executable files from reaching end-users should be initiated. Read the entire CISA INSIGHTS to know more about the various ransomware outbreak strategies in detail. Also Read: ‘City Power Johannesburg’ hit by a ransomware attack that encrypted all its databases, applications and network FireEye report on Ransomware Protection and Containment strategies As a third resource, the CISA shared a FireEye report titled “Ransomware Protection and Containment Strategies: Practical Guidance for Endpoint Protection, Hardening, and Containment”. In this whitepaper, FireEye discusses different steps organizations can proactively take to harden their environment to prevent the downstream impact of a ransomware event. These recommendations can also help organizations with prioritizing the most important steps required to contain and minimize the impact of a ransomware event after it occurs. The FireEye report points out that any ransomware can be deployed across an environment in two ways. First, by Manual propagation by a threat actor after they have penetrated an environment and have administrator-level privileges broadly across the Environment to manually run encryptors on the targeted system through Windows batch files, Microsoft Group Policy Objects, and existing software deployment tools used by the victim’s organization. Second, by Automated propagation where the credential or Windows token is extracted directly from disk or memory to build trust relationships between systems through Windows Management Instrumentation, SMB, or PsExec. This binds systems and executes payloads. Hackers also automate brute-force attacks on unpatched exploitation methods, such as BlueKeep and EternalBlue. “While the scope of recommendations contained within this document is not all-encompassing, they represent the most practical controls for endpoint containment and protection from a ransomware outbreak,” FireEye researchers wrote. To combat these two deployment techniques, the FireEye researchers have suggested two enforcement measures which can limit the capability for a ransomware or malware variant to impact a large scope of systems within an environment. The FireEye report covers several technical recommendations to help organizations mitigate the risk of and contain ransomware events some of which include: RDP Hardening Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a common method used by malicious actors to remotely connect to systems, laterally move from the perimeter onto a larger scope of systems for deploying malware. Organizations should also scan their public IP address ranges to identify systems with RDP (TCP/3389) and other protocols (SMB – TCP/445) open to the Internet in a proactive manner. RDP and SMB should not be directly exposed to ingress and egress access to/from the Internet. Other measures that organizations can take include: Enforcing Multi-Factor Authentication Organizations can either integrate a third-party multi-factor authentication technology or leverage a Remote Desktop Gateway and Azure Multi-Factor Authentication Server using RADIUS. Leveraging Network Level Authentication (NLA) Network Level Authentication (NLA) provides an extra layer of pre-authentication before a connection is established. It is also useful for protecting against brute force attacks, which mostly target open internet-facing RDP servers. Reducing the exposure of privileged and service accounts For ransomware deployment throughout an environment, both privileged and service accounts credentials are commonly utilized for lateral movement and mass propagation. Without a thorough investigation, it may be difficult to determine the specific credentials that are being utilized by a ransomware variant for connectivity within an environment. Privileged account and service account logon restrictions For accounts having privileged access throughout an environment, these should not be used on standard workstations and laptops, but rather from designated systems (e.g., Privileged Access Workstations (PAWS)) that reside in restricted and protected VLANs and Tiers. Explicit privileged accounts should be defined for each Tier, and only utilized within the designated Tier. The recommendations for restricting the scope of access for privileged accounts is based upon Microsoft’s guidance for securing privileged access. As a quick containment measure, consider blocking any accounts with privileged access from being able to login (remotely or locally) to standard workstations, laptops, and common access servers (e.g., virtualized desktop infrastructure). If a service account is only required to be leveraged on a single endpoint to run a specific service, the service account can be further restricted to only permit the account’s usage on a predefined listing of endpoints. Protected Users Security Group With the “Protected Users” security group for privileged accounts, an organization can minimize various risk factors and common exploitation methods for exposing privileged accounts on endpoints. Starting from Microsoft Windows 8.1 and Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (and above), the “Protected Users” security group was introduced to manage credential exposure within an environment. Members of this group automatically have specific protections applied to their accounts, including: The Kerberos ticket granting ticket (TGT) expires after 4 hours, rather than the normal 10-hour default setting.  No NTLM hash for an account is stored in LSASS since only Kerberos authentication is used (NTLM authentication is disabled for an account).  Cached credentials are blocked. A Domain Controller must be available to authenticate the account. WDigest authentication is disabled for an account, regardless of an endpoint’s applied policy settings. DES and RC4 can’t be used for Kerberos pre-authentication (Server 2012 R2 or higher); rather Kerberos with AES encryption will be enforced. Accounts cannot be used for either constrained or unconstrained delegation (equivalent to enforcing the “Account is sensitive and cannot be delegated” setting in Active Directory Users and Computers). Cleartext password protections Organizations should also try minimizing the exposure of credentials and tokens in memory on endpoints. On older Windows Operating Systems, cleartext passwords are stored in memory (LSASS) to primarily support WDigest authentication. The WDigest should be explicitly disabled on all Windows endpoints where it is not disabled by default. WDigest authentication is disabled in Windows 8.1+ and in Windows Server 2012 R2+, by default. Starting from Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, after installing Microsoft Security Advisory KB2871997, WDigest authentication can be configured either by modifying the registry or by using the “Microsoft Security Guide” Group Policy template from the Microsoft Security Compliance Toolkit. To implement these and other ransomware protection and containment strategies, read the FireEye report. 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Updated with Valve’s response: Valve, in a statement on August 22, said that its HackerOne bug bounty program, should not have turned away Kravets when he reported the second vulnerability and called it “a mistake”. A Russian security researcher, Vasily Kravets, has found a second zero-day vulnerability in the Steam gaming platform, in a span of two weeks. The researcher said he reported the first Steam zero-day vulnerability earlier in August, to its parent company, Valve, and tried to have it fixed before public disclosure. However, “he said he couldn't do the same with the second because the company banned him from submitting further bug reports via its public bug bounty program on the HackerOne platform,” ZDNet reports. Source: amonitoring.ru This first flaw was a “privilege-escalation vulnerability that can allow an attacker to level up and run any program with the highest possible rights on any Windows computer with Steam installed. It was released after Valve said it wouldn’t fix it (Valve then published a patch, that the same researcher said can be bypassed),” according to Threatpost. Although Kravets was banned from the Hacker One platform, he disclosed the second flaw that enables a local privilege escalation in the Steam client on Tuesday and said that the flaw would be simple for any OS user to exploit. Kravets told Threatpost that he is not aware of a patch for the vulnerability. “Any user on a PC could do all actions from exploit’s description (even ‘Guest’ I think, but I didn’t check this). So [the] only requirement is Steam,” Kravets told Threatpost. He also said, “It’s sad and simple — Valve keeps failing. The last patch, that should have solved the problem, can be easily bypassed so the vulnerability still exists. Yes, I’ve checked, it works like a charm.” Another security researcher, Matt Nelson also said he had found the exact same bug as Kravets had, which “he too reported to Valve's HackerOne program, only to go through a similar bad experience as Kravets,” ZDNet reports. He said both Valve and HackerOne took five days to acknowledge the bug and later refused to patch it. Further, they locked the bug report when Nelson wanted to disclose the bug publicly and warn users. “Nelson later released proof-of-concept code for the first Steam zero-day, and also criticized Valve and HackerOne for their abysmal handling of his bug report”, ZDNet reports. https://twitter.com/enigma0x3/status/1148031014171811841 “Despite any application itself could be harmful, achieving maximum privileges can lead to much more disastrous consequences. For example, disabling firewall and antivirus, rootkit installation, concealing of process-miner, theft any PC user’s private data — is just a small portion of what could be done,”  said Kravets. Kravets demonstrated the second Steam zero-day and also detailed the vulnerability on his website. Per Threatpost as of August 21, “Valve did not respond to a request for comment about the vulnerability, bug bounty incident and whether a patch is available. HackerOne did not have a comment.” Other researchers who have participated in Valve’s bug bounty program are infuriated over Valve’s decision to not only block Kravets from submitting further bug reports, but also refusing to patch the flaw. https://twitter.com/Viss/status/1164055856230440960 https://twitter.com/kamenrannaa/status/1164408827266998273 A user on Reddit writes, “If management isn't going to take these issues seriously and respect a bug bounty program, then you need to bring about some change from within. Now they are just getting bug reports for free.” Nelson said the Hacker One “representative said the vulnerability was out of scope to qualify for Valve’s bug bounty program,” Ars Technica writes. Further, when Nelson said that he was not seeking any monetary gains and only wanted the public to be aware of the vulnerability, the HackerOne representative asked Nelson to “please familiarize yourself with our disclosure guidelines and ensure that you’re not putting the company or yourself at risk. https://www.hackerone.com/disclosure-guidelines.” https://twitter.com/enigma0x3/status/1160961861560479744 Nelson also reported the vulnerability directly to Valve. Valve, first acknowledged the report and “noted that I shouldn’t expect any further communication.” He never heard anything more from the company. In am email to Ars Technica, Nelson writes, “I can certainly believe that the scoping was misinterpreted by HackerOne staff during the triage efforts. It is mind-blowing to me that the people at HackerOne who are responsible for triaging vulnerability reports for a company as large as Valve didn’t see the importance of Local Privilege Escalation and simply wrote the entire report off due to misreading the scope.” A HackerOne spokeswoman told Ars Technica, “We aim to explicitly communicate our policies and values in all cases and here we could have done better. Vulnerability disclosure is an inherently murky process and we are, and have always been, committed to protecting the interests of hackers. Our disclosure guidelines emphasize mutual respect and empathy, encouraging all to act in good faith and for the benefit of the common good.” Katie Moussouris, founder and CEO of Luta Security, also said, “Silencing the researcher on one issue is in complete violation of the ISO standard practices, and banning them from reporting further issues is simply irresponsible to affected users who would otherwise have benefited from these researchers continuing to engage and report issues privately to get them fixed. The norms of vulnerability disclosure are being warped by platforms that put profits before people.” Valve agrees that turning down Kravets’ request was “a mistake” Valve, in a statement on August 22, said that its HackerOne bug bounty program, should not have turned away Kravets when he reported the second vulnerability and called it a mistake. In an email statement to ZDNet, a Valve representative said that “the company has shipped fixes for the Steam client, updated its bug bounty program rules, and is reviewing the researcher's ban on its public bug bounty program.” The company also writes, “Our HackerOne program rules were intended only to exclude reports of Steam being instructed to launch previously installed malware on a user’s machine as that local user. Instead, misinterpretation of the rules also led to the exclusion of a more serious attack that also performed local privilege escalation through Steam.  In regards to the specific researchers, we are reviewing the details of each situation to determine the appropriate actions. We aren’t going to discuss the details of each situation or the status of their accounts at this time.” To know more about this news in detail, read Kravets’ blog post. You could also check out Threatpost’s detailed coverage. 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At the DefCon 27, Eyal Itkin, a vulnerability researcher at Check Point Software Technologies, demonstrated how vulnerabilities in the Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) allowed him to infect a Canon EOS 80D DSLR with ransomware over a rogue WiFi connection. The PTP along with image transfer also contains dozens of different commands that support anything from taking a live picture to upgrading the camera’s firmware. The researcher chose Canon’s EOS 80D DSLR camera for three major reasons: Canon is the largest DSLR maker, controlling more than 50% of the market. The EOS 80D supports both USB and WiFi. Canon has an extensive “modding” community, called Magic Lantern, an open-source free software add-on that adds new features to the Canon EOS cameras. Eyal Itkin highlighted six vulnerabilities in the PTP that can easily allow a hacker to infiltrate the DSLRs and inject ransomware and lock the device. Next, the users might have to pay ransom to free up their camera and picture files. CVE-2019-5994 – Buffer Overflow in SendObjectInfo  (opcode 0x100C) CVE-2019-5998 – Buffer Overflow in NotifyBtStatus (opcode 0x91F9) CVE-2019-5999– Buffer Overflow in BLERequest (opcode 0x914C) CVE-2019-6000– Buffer Overflow in SendHostInfo (opcode0x91E4) CVE-2019-6001– Buffer Overflow in SetAdapterBatteryReport (opcode 0x91FD) CVE-2019-5995 – Silent malicious firmware update Itkin’s team informed Canon about the vulnerabilities in their DSLR on March 31, 2019. Recently, on August 6, Canon published a security advisory informing users that, “at this point, there have been no confirmed cases of these vulnerabilities being exploited to cause harm” and asking them to take advised measures to ensure safety. Itkin told The Verge, “due to the complexity of the protocol, we do believe that other vendors might be vulnerable as well, however, it depends on their respective implementation”. Though Itkin said he worked only with the Canon model, he also said DSLRs of other companies may also be at high risk. Vulnerability discovery by Itkin’s team in Canon’s DSLR After Itkin’s team was successful in dumping the camera’s firmware and loading it into their disassembler (IDA Pro), they say finding the PTP layer was an easy task. This is because, The PTP layer is command-based, and every command has a unique numeric opcode. The firmware contains many indicative strings, which eases the task of reverse-engineering it. Next, the team traversed back from the PTP OpenSession handler and found the main function that registers all of the PTP handlers according to their opcodes. “When looking on the registration function, we realized that the PTP layer is a promising attack surface. The function registers 148 different handlers, pointing to the fact that the vendor supports many proprietary commands. With almost 150 different commands implemented, the odds of finding a critical vulnerability in one of them is very high,” Itkin wrote in the research report. Each PTP command handler implements the same code API. The API makes use of the ptp_context object, an object that is partially documented thanks to ML, Itkin said. The team realized that most of the commands were relatively simple. “They receive only a few numeric arguments, as the protocol supports up to 5 such arguments for every command. After scanning all of the supported commands, the list of 148 commands was quickly narrowed down to 38 commands that receive an input buffer,” Itkin writes. “From an attacker’s viewpoint, we have full control of this input buffer, and therefore, we can start looking for vulnerabilities in this much smaller set of commands. Luckily for us, the parsing code for each command uses plain C code and is quite straight-forward to analyze,” he further added. Following this, they were able to find their first vulnerabilities and then the rest. Check Point and Canon have advised users to ensure that their cameras are using the latest firmware and install patches whenever they become available. Also, if the device is not in use camera owners should keep the device’s Wi-Fi turned off. A user on HackerNews points out, “It could get even worse if the perpetrator instead of bricking the device decides to install a backdoor that silently uploads photos to a server whenever a wifi connection is established.” Another user on Petapixel explained what quick measures they should take,  “A custom firmware can close the vulnerability also if they put in the work. Just turn off wifi and don't use random computers in grungy cafes to connect to your USB port and you should be fine. It may or may not happen but it leaves the door open for awesome custom firmware to show up. Easy ones are real CLOG for 1dx2. For the 5D4, I would imagine 24fps HDR, higher res 120fps, and free Canon Log for starters. For non tech savvy people that just leave wifi on all the time, that visit high traffic touristy photo landmarks they should update. Especially if they have no interest in custom firmware.” Another user on Petapixel highlighted the fact, “this hack relies on a serious number of things to be in play before it works, there is no mention of how to get the camera working again, is it just a case of flashing the firmware and accepting you may have lost a few images ?... there’s a lot more things to worry about than this.” Check Point has demonstrated the entire attack in the following YouTube video. https://youtu.be/75fVog7MKgg To know more about this news in detail, read Eyal Itkin’s complete research on Check Point. 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