Author Archives: Brent Huston

About Brent Huston

I am the CEO of MicroSolved, Inc. and a security evangelist. I have spent the last 20+ years working to make the Internet safer for everyone on a global scale. I believe the Internet has the capability to contribute to the next great leap for mankind, and I want to help make that happen!

An Explanation of Our HoneyPoint Internet Threat Monitoring Environment #HITME #security

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One of the least understood parts of MicroSolved is how the HoneyPoint Internet Threat Monitoring Environment (#HITME) data is used to better protect our customers. The engineers have asked me to drop this line into the newsletter and give you a “bees knees” perspective of how it works! First, if you don’t know about the #HITME, it is a set of deployed HoneyPoints that gather real world, real time attacker data from around the Internet. The sensors gather attack sources, frequency, targeting information, vulnerability patterns, exploits, malware and other crucial event data for the technical team at MSI to analyze. You can even follow the real time updates of attacker IPs and target ports on Twitter by following @honeypoint or the #HITME hash tag. MSI licenses that data under Creative Commons, non-commercial for FREE as a public service to the security community.

That said, how does the #HITME help MSI better protect their customers? Well, first, it allows folks to use the #HITME feed of known attacker IPs in a blacklist to block known scanners at their borders. This prevents the scanning tools and malware probes from ever reaching you to start with. Next, the data from the #HITME is analyzed daily and the newest, bleeding edge attack signatures get added to the MSI assessment platform. That means that customers with ongoing assessments and vulnerability management services from MSI get continually tested against the most current forms of attack being used on the Internet. The #HITME data also gets updated into the MSI pen-testing and risk assessment methodologies, focusing our testing on real world attack patterns much more than vendors who rely on typical scanning tools and back-dated threats from their last “yearly bootcamp”.

The #HITME data even flows back to the software vendors through a variety of means. MSI shares new attacks and possible vulnerabilities with the vendors, plus, open source projects targeted by attackers. Often MSI teaches those developers about the vulnerability, the possibilities for mitigation, and how to perform secure coding techniques like proper input validation. The data from the #HITME is used to provide the attack metrics and pattern information that MSI presents in its public speaking, “State of the Threat,” the blog, and other educational efforts. Lastly, but certainly not least, MSI provides an ongoing alerting function for organizations whose machines are compromised. MSI contacts critical infrastructure organizations whose machines turn up in the #HITME data and works with them to mitigate the compromise and manage the threat. These data-centric services are provided, pro-bono, in 99% of all of the cases!

If your organization would be interested in donating an Internet facing system to the #HITME project to further these goals, please contact your account executive. Our hope is that the next time you hear about the #HITME, you’ll get a smile on your face knowing that the members of my hive are working hard day and night to protect MSI customers and the world at large. You can count on us, we’ve got your back! 

A Quick Word on LiveCD’s and Bootable USB for Consumers

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I gave a quick interview today for a magazine article to be printed in late July. The topic was pretty interesting; it revolved around consumer fears about online banking.

The key point of the discussion was that financial organizations are doing a ton of work on securing your data and their systems from attack. The major problem facing online banking today is really the consumer system. So many home PCs are compromised or infected today that they represent a significant issue for the banking process.

The good news is that home systems can pretty easily be removed from the equation with a simple bootable LiveCD or USB key. It is quite easy (and affordable) to create Linux distros with very limited applications and security measures that enforce using it just for banking and other high risk transactions. Solutions in this space are available in open source, community/payment supported and of course, full blown commercial software tools complete with a variety of VPN, access control and authentication tools.

You might even consider creating your own open source distro, labeled and logo branded to distribute for free to your customers. A few of my credit unions are taking this approach. For the cost of CD duplication, they get the high trust customer contact and peace of mind of having a dedicated, trusted platform for their home banking. That, indeed, may be well worth the investment.

Review of Puppy Linux 5.0

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Lucid Puppy Linux 5.0 was released back in May of 2010, but as one of my favorite distros, I have been playing with it heavily since then. I have been so impressed with the new version that I wanted to take a moment and write a quick review of this release.

You can find the official release page here, along with download information.

First, let me say that I have really come to love Puppy Linux over the last several years. I use it as a LiveCD/USB platform for secure on the go browsing, a Linux OS for old hardware that I donate to a variety of folks and causes, and as a platform for using HoneyPoint as a scattersensor. I like the ease of use, wide range of hardware support, and small footprint. All of these make this a very workable Linux distro.

This version especially seems to be stable, fast, and capable. I have taken to running it from a bootable USB drive and the performance has been very nice. Being able to drop these onto untrusted systems and use them as a browser, VPN client, and productivity tool has been handy. Using HoneyPoint Personal Edition, the nmap plugins and some other Puppy installs of security tools gives me a great platform for working incidents, gaining visibility and catching rogue scans, probes and malware that are in circulation when I pull in to help a client. Over and over again, the distro has proven itself to be a very powerful tool for me.

I suggest you take a look at the distro, LiveCD or USB and see how it can help you. I think you’ll find it fun, easy to use, and quite addicting. The pictures of the puppies don’t hurt either. 🙂

Check it out!

Fighting Second Stage Compromises

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Right now, most organizations are fighting a losing battle against initial stage compromises. Malware, bots and client side attacks are eating many security programs alive. The security team is having a nearly impossible time keeping up with the onslaught and end-user systems are falling left and right in many organizations. Worse, security teams that are focused on traditional perimeter security postures and the idea of “keeping the bad guys outside the walls” are likely unaware that these threats are already active inside their networks.

There are a number of ways that second stage compromises occur. Usually, a compromised mobile device or system comes into the environment via remote access, VPN or by being hand carried in by an employee or consultant. These systems, along with systems that have been exploited by client-side vulnerabilities in the day to day network represent the initial stage compromise. The machines are already under attacker control and the data on these machines should already be considered as compromised.

However, attackers are not content with these machines and their data load. In most cases, they want to use the initial stage victims to compromise additional workstations and servers in whatever environment or environments they can ride those systems into. This threat is the “second stage compromise”. The attackers use the initial stage victims as “pivot points” or bots to attack other systems and networks that are visible from their initial victim.

Commonly, the attacker will install bot-net software capable of scanning other systems and exploiting a few key vulnerabilities and bad passwords. These flaws are all too common and are likely to get the attacker quite a bit of success. The attacker then commands the bot victim to scan on new connections or at designated times, thus spreading the attacker’s presence and leading to deeper and deeper compromise of systems and data.

This pattern can be combated in a number of ways. Obviously, organizations can fight the initial stage compromise. Headway has been made in many organizations, but the majority are still falling quite short when it comes to protecting against a growing diverse set of attack vectors that the bot herders and cyber-criminals use. Every day, the attackers get more and more sophisticated in their campaigns, targeting and approach. That said, what can we do if we can’t prevent such attacks? Perhaps, if we can’t prevent them easily, we can strengthen our defenses in other ways. Here are a couple if ideas:

One approach is to begin to embrace enclave computing. This is network and system trust segregation at the core. It is an approach whereby organizations build their trust models carefully, allowing for initial stage compromises and being focused on minimizing the damage that an attacker can do with a compromised workstation. While you can’t prevent compromise, the goal is to create enough defensive posture to give your team time to detect, isolate and respond to the attack. You can read more about this approach in our 80/20 rule of Information Security.

A second idea is to use HoneyPoint decoy hosts on network segments where exposures and initial stage compromise risks are high. These decoy hosts should be dropped where they can be easily scanned and probed by infected hosts. VPN segments, user segments, DMZs and other high exposure areas are likely candidates for the decoy placement. The idea is that the systems are designed to receive the scans. They offer up services that are fake and implemented just for this purpose. The decoy systems have no other use and purpose than to detect scans and probes, making any interaction with them suspicious or malicious. Decoy services, called HoneyPoints, can also be implemented on the servers and other systems present in these network segments. Each deployed HoneyPoint Agent ups the odds of catching bots and other tools deployed by the attacker in the initial stage compromise.

Both of these strategies can be combined and leveraged for even more defense in depth against initial stage compromises. If you would like to learn more about how these tools and techniques can help, drop us a line or give us a call. We would be happy to discuss them with you.

In the meantime, take a look at how your team is prepared to fight initial stage compromises. What you find may be interesting, especially if your team’s security focus has been on the firewall and other perimeter controls.

Adobe Emergency Patch for 17 Holes

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Just a quick heads up post that Adobe has just released an “emergency patch” for at least 17 holes in Reader and Acrobat. This is likely worth rushing into testing and ultimately production as PDF attacks have become all the rage lately. You can find more information about the patch here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/29/adobe_emergency_patch/

HoneyPoint Decoy Host Pays Off

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Just talked to a client who had dropped a HoneyPoint decoy host in their VPN termination segment a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, it paid off.

They caught a machine that had passed the anti-virus and patching requirements of the NAC for the VPN. The machine was AV scanned clean. But, immediately upon connection the machine began to port probe hosts around it. This triggered the decoy machine’s HoneyPoints, causing the security team to investigate. The machine was brought in and examined. Closer inspection found it infected with a bot tool that escaped AV detection, but was capable of scanning for bad passwords and a couple of common vulns on surrounding machines. The machine is currently being imaged and rebuilt.

This is an excellent example of how HoneyPoint can help catch bots and malware, even when other controls fail. Defense is depth pays off and the leverage that HoneyPoint provides is often quite powerful, as in this case.

Have you thought about using decoy hosts? If so, how?

How Cloud Computing Will Leak Into Your Enterprise

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“Consumer use of the cloud”; in a phrase, is how the cloud will leak into your enterprise, whether you like it or not. Already, IT is struggling with how to manage the consumer use of devices and services in the enterprise. Skype/VoIP and WIFI were the warning shots, but the BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad and other consumer devices are the death nail for centralized IT (and IS) control.

Consumer electronics, backed by a wide array of free or low cost cloud services, are a new frontier for your organization. Services like MobileMe, DropBox, various file sharing tools and remote access services like GoToMyPC, et al. have arrived. Likely, they are in use in your environment today. Consumers use and leverage these services as a part of their increasingly de-centralized online life. Even with sites like Twitter and FaceBook growing in capability and attention, consumers grow their use, both personally and professionally of services “in the cloud”. Make no mistake, despite your controls at the corporate firewalls, consumers are using their mobile and pocket devices and a variety of these services. Unless you are searching them at the door and blocking cell phone use in your business, they are there.

This might not be “the cloud” that your server admins are worrying about. It might not represent all of the off-site system, database and other hosting tools they are focused on right now, but make no mistake, this consumer version of the cloud has all, if not more, of the same issues and concerns. Questions about your data is managed, secured and maintained all abound.

Given the “gadget posture” of most organizations and their user communities, this is not likely to be something that technical controls can adequately respond to. The consumer cloud services are too dynamic and widespread for black listing approaches to contain them. Plus, they obviously lack centralized choke points like in the old days of “network perimeter security”. The new solution, however, is familiar. Organizations must embrace policies and processes to cover these technologies and their issues. They also have to embrace education and awareness training around these topics with their user base. Those who think that denial and black listing can solve this problem are gravely mistaken. The backdoor cloud consumer movement into your organization is already present, strong and embedded. Teaching users to be focused on safe use of these services will hopefully reduce your risk, and theirs.

Choosing Your OS is NOT a Security Control

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Just a quick note on the recent Google announcement about dumping Windows for desktops in favor of Linux and Mac OS X. As you can see from the linked article, there is a lot of hype about this move in the press.

Unfortunately, dumping Windows as a risk reducer is just plain silly. It’s not which OS your users use, but how safely they use it. If a user is going to make the same “bad computing hygiene” choices, they are going to get p0wned, regardless of their OS. Malware, Trojans and a variety of attacks exist for most every, if not every, platform. Many similar brower-based attacks exist across Windows, Linux and OS X. These are the attack patterns of today, not the Slammer and Code Red worm attack patterns of days gone by.

I fail to see how changing OS will have any serious impact on organizational risk. Perhaps it will decrease, a very small amount, the costs associated with old-school spyware and worms, but this, in my opinion is likely to be a decreasing return. Over time, attackers are getting better at cross platform exploitation and users are likely to quickly feel a false sense of security from their OS choice and make even more bad decisions. Combine these, and then multiply the costs of additional support calls to the help desk as users get comfortable and have configuration issues in the enterprise, and it seems to me to be a losing gambit.

Time will tell, but I think this was a pretty silly move and one that should be studied carefully before being mirrored by other firms.

Three Tips for Banking App Dev for Mobile Devices

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Lately, we have been looking at a lot of banking apps and front ends for the iPhone, Android and other mobile devices in the lab. Our testing thus far has shown some great results and it seems like a lot of banks, credit unions and other financial institutions are interested in having an “app” for their customers and members. Many of these apps are well designed, deep and rich. Many are simply canned front ends to existing web page content and functionality. A few are just plain horrible.

Here are three tips for organizations to keep in mind when coding their banking and financial apps for the mobile devices.

1. The mobile devices are not PCs. The apps should be light weight, clean and easy to use. Usability is tied to security in this case, because of errors. If your app has tiny little buttons with confusing text, no confirmation dialogs and lacks other basic usability features then you make it easier for users to make mistakes, create bad transactions, get confused and other issues would could constitute a risk for your business and your users. Don’t design for a PC monitor. Make sure your designs are usable on the appropriate size screens and with appropriate space for human digits.

2. Don’t allow users to store their credentials in the app or its underlying data structures. Many mobile phones and such remain woefully unsecured. Even where the vendor has provided for basic security controls for the devices, many users do not use them. Plan ahead for this. The app has to be convenient, but it shouldn’t let the users place undo risk on themselves. If you allow them to store logins, or even a digital certificate, make sure they can’t also store at least 1-2 other pieces of credentials between uses. If someone just picks up their device, they should NOT have access to the users accounts.

3. This goes without saying, but don’t forget encryption. Just because an application uses the cell network, does not mean that you don’t need SSL. (I’m looking at you two developer groups in the last 90 days, you know who you are.) No matter the network, protect your transactions and data streams with strong crypto. The mobile devices can handle it. They can do enough lifting to handle SSL or they shouldn’t be running a banking app. Like Nike says, “Just Do It!”

There you have it. Three basic ways that you can help increase the safety and capability of your financial services app on the iPhone, iPad and other mobile platforms. If you have done these three basics, then you are off to a start. The next crucial step is to get your app and the back-end processes checked via a risk assessment and security test. Give us a call if you need assistance or want us to drop it into our testing lab process. We are seeing quite a few of these days.

Piracy as a Crimeware Defense

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So, just a quick thought on this one. What if we, as security folks, made a serious endeavor to reduce the earning capability of those who create crimeware, spyware and other malware? What if we did to them exactly what the gaming companies and MPAA have been saying is killing their business? What if every time we saw a piece of “licensed” crimeware tool, we cracked it and published keygens and other cracks for it?

Sure, in the mid-term there would be more attackers able to use the malware. But, what if, in the longer term, less malware were actually created? What if the bar went up to the point where publishing these tools was no longer profitable? Would the numbers and evolution of malware be slowed?

I am asking, not because I have an answer in mind, but because I am curious. At what point does striking at the root of the profitability of criminals reduce their efforts and capabilities? Anyone with ideas or experience in this line of thought, please leave a comment below. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your responses.