Category Archives: SCADA/ICS

Using HoneyPoint to Inventory Windows Boxes on a Segment

Posted on by
7

For quite some time now, we have been using HoneyPoint Agent and Console to do some passive inventory and mapping exercises for clients, particularly those involved in ICS and SCADA deployments where active scanning to get inventories is often strongly discouraged. We had particular success with a specific client in this space a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to discuss it here, since it has proven itself to be a useful tool and is on the top of my mind at the moment.

To get an inventory of the Windows systems on a collision domain, you simply install the Agent on a Linux box (or I suggest using the virtual appliance we already have built for your ease) and implement it and the Console. Once HoneyPoint is operational, you configure a UDP listener on port 138. From there, all of the NETBios speaking Windows systems will begin to send traffic to the host, as per the usual behavior of those systems. In this case, however, HoneyPoint will capture each source IP and log it to the Console. It will also capture the UDP datagrams from that conversation and place them as event data in the logs. By reviewing the source IPs, you can quickly and easily take stock of the Windows systems on the collision domain without sending any traffic at all to the systems. As a bonus, if you dig into the datagram data, you will also see the names of the hosts and other information.

Most of the time, this technique captures only Windows boxes, but if you have other devices out there running NETBios, they will likely get detected as well. This can include embedded systems, Unix systems running SAMBA, printers and copiers, Windows CE systems (often seen in many field equipment deployments), etc. You might be surprised what you can find.

Try this with a laptop, and move the laptop around your environment. You can pretty quickly and easily get an inventory by collision domain. You can also try dialing other NETBios ports and see if you get traffic that is routed across your switching fabric. Depending on your configuration, you might be able to gather a great deal of inventory data from a single location (especially if your network is flat and switches are poorly configured).

Give this a shot or get in touch if you would like us to come onsite and perform the inventory for you. We think it is a pretty useful technique and one that many folks are enjoying the benefits of. Let us know what you think when you give it a run in your network!

As always, thanks for reading, and until next time, stay safe out there!

PS – You can also do this with HoneyPoint Personal Edition on a Linux system, which makes it very easy and cheap to do if you don’t want to invest in a full blown HoneyPoint Security Server implementation. (You should invest though, it is a FANTASTIC detection tool!)

**(The link above is for HPPE on Windows, but if you purchase a license and contact us, we will send you the Linux build right away. You can’t easily capture port 138/UDP traffic in Windows HPPE because Windows has those ports in use…)

Brent Huston to Lead ICS/SCADA Honeypot Webinar with SANS

Posted on by
5

Our Founder and CEO, Brent Huston (@lbhuston) will be leading a SANS webinar on ICS/SCADA honeypots. The webinar is scheduled for November, 25th, 2013 and you can find more information and register by visiting this page.

The webinar will cover when honeypots are and are not useful, basic deployment strategies and insights into using them for detection in field deployments and control environments. 

Check it out, tune in and give Brent a shout out on Twitter. Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoy the webinar.

Thanks for Making the 3rd Mid-West ICS/SCADA Security Symposium a Success

Posted on by
3

Thanks to the attendees and speakers who participated yesterday in the 3rd Annual ICS/SCADA Security Symposium. It was another great event and once again, the center of the value was in the interactions of the audience with the speakers and each other. It’s great to hear asset owners discuss what is working, what is challenging and what is critical in their minds.

Thanks again to those who attended and contributed to making this event such a wonderful thing again this year. We appreciate it and we can’t wait until next year to do it all again.

Thank YOU!

SANS ICS Summit & Training in Singapore

Posted on by
3

SANS Asia Pacific ICS Summit and Training 2013 – Singapore

If you have any responsibility for security of control systems – policy, engineering, governance or operations you won’t want to miss the Asia Pacific ICS Security Summit taking place 2-8 December 2013 where you will:

Learn all about the new Global ICS Professional Security Certification

Gain the most current information regarding Industrial Control System threats and learn how to best prepare to defend against them

Hear what works and what does not from peer organizations. 

Network with top individuals in the field of Industrial Control Systems security and return from the Summit with solutions you can immediately put to use in your organization. 

Listen to 15+ speakers from a variety of companies who will cover exceptional content throughout the two-day Summit.

Earn CPE credits for the summit and course you attend

 

ICS410: ICS Cyber Security Essentials, (Brand New course) – 4-8 December taught by SANS Faculty Fellow Dr. Eric Cole will provide a standardized foundational set of skills, knowledge and abilities for Industrial Cyber Security professionals. This course is designed to ensure that the workforce involved in supporting and defending Industrial Control Systems is trained to perform work in a manner that will keep the operational environment safe, secure and resilient against current and emerging cyber threats.

Agenda highlights for the summit include:

A Community Approach to Securing the Cyberspace to Enhance National Resilience

The Good, Bad and the Ugly: Certification of People, Processes and Devices 

SCADA Security Assessment Methodology: The Malaysia Experience  

The State of Critical Control System Security in Japan 

Smart Security : Strengthening Information Protection in Your ICS

 

To learn more about the Summit and Training, or register now and save 5% on your registration with code SANSICS_MSI5, please visit: http://www.sans.org/info/142537


Save The Date: Midwest ICS/SCADA Security Symposium 2013

Posted on by
5

Just a quick announcement that the 3rd annual Midwest ICS/SCADA Security Symposium date has been announced. We will be holding the event on November 14th, 2013 in Columbus, Ohio.

It is a single track, single day event which is highly focused on peer to peer interaction between asset owners, utilities, manufacturers and other interested parties. The attendees usually span the various types of ICS asset holders from water, power, natural gas, chemical, automated manufacturing and other critical infrastructures. The focus is on real world threats, changing regulatory guidance, what controls work and work less, scenarios and tactics that have helped improve security and overall changes in protection strategies in the last 12 months.

The conversations are often candid, to the point and the open forum leads to passionate and real world discussions.

All attendees are vetted to ensure confidentiality and maintain focus on real content minus vendor sales pitches. The cost to attend is FREE and coffee, snacks and lunch is provided.

To learn more about the event or to qualify for an invitation, please drop us a line via email (info A T microsolved D O T com) or via aTwitter (@lbhuston or @microsolved). If you have attended or qualified in the past for the event, your invitation will be forthcoming shortly.

Speaker selection is now underway, so watch this blog for the agenda in the near future. 

Using HoneyPoint as a Nuance Detection System in Utility Companies

Posted on by
Reply

I often get asked about how utility companies deploy HoneyPoint in an average implementation. To help folks with that, I whipped up this quick graphic that shows a sample high level deployment. 

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think, or if you have an interest in discussing an implementation in your environment.

See You At EPRI Event in Chicago

Posted on by
3

Next Monday, June 17th, I’ll be presenting at the EPRI conference in Chicago. My topic is a threat update on what attackers are targeting and what kind of value future state designs and other research/planning data has on the attacker market. If you’re going to be at the event, please join me for my presentation. If you’d like to grab a coffee or the like, let me know. I’ll be around all day. 

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you there! 

What YOU Can Do About International Threats

Posted on by
4

Binary eye

With the addition of RedDragon Rising (@RedDragon1949) to the blog, we are now pushing forth a new stream of threat data and insights about the growing problem of international threats. Since we added that content to the site, many of you have written in or asked me on Twitter, what is it that YOU can do about these threats? I wanted to take a few minutes and expand on my responses.

First of all, you can remain aware and vigilant. Much of the information we post here isn’t directly actionable. It isn’t designed to be a roadmap of actions for you to take. It’s designed to be a continual source of data that slowly helps you see a clearer picture of the threat, the actors and their capability. It’s designed to keep you AWAKE. It’s custom made to help you understand your adversary. Knowledge is power and insight is key. We make this content to give you both!

Second, you can communicate the threat and knowledge to your management. This helps them remain aware. It also presents to them that you are monitoring the threats and keeping your eye on the rising tides, even as you help them steer the ship through safe waters. You can use this information to build rapport with them, to give them new insights into your decisions when you explain to them various risks and to help them understand the changing nature of the interconnected world.

You can use the information here as an impetus to get the basics of information security right. While there aren’t any panaceas to fight off the threat and there isn’t a single thing you can buy to make it better ~ we do know that focusing on the basics of infosec and getting them done efficiently, effectively and well is the best defense against a variety of threats. That said, consider doing a quick and dirty review of your security initiatives against our 80/20 Rule for Information Security. This is a set of simple projects that represent the basics of information security and map easily to other standards and baselines. Simply judging your maturity in these areas and following the roadmap to improvement will go a long way to getting the basics done right in your organization. 

Invest in detection and response. If your organization is doing the basics of prevention, that is you have hardening in place and are performing ongoing assessment and mitigation of your attack surfaces, then the next thing to do is invest in detection and response capabilities. Today, one of the largest advantages that attackers enjoy is the lack of visibility and effective response capabilities in our organizations. You should have some visibility into every segment and at every layer of your environment. You should be able to identify compromises in a timely manner and move to isolate, investigate and recover from any breaches LONG BEFORE they have become widespread and heavily leveraged against you. If you can’t do that today, make it your next major infosec goal. Need help?Ask us about it.

Lastly, share information with your peers. The bad guys are good at information sharing. They have excellent metrics. They openly share their experiences, successes, failures and new techniques. Much of crime and espionage (not all, but MUCH) is “open source” in nature. The cells of attackers free float in conglomerations of opportunity.  They barter with experience, tools, data and money. They share. The more we begin to share and emulate their “open source” approaches, the better off we can be at defending. If knowledge is power, more brains with more knowledge and experience equals MORE POWER. Be a part of the solution.

That’s it for now. Just remain calm, get better at the basics, improve your visibility and stay vigilant. As always, thanks  for reading State of Security and for choosing MicroSolved as your information security partner. We are striving to dig deeper, to think differently and to give you truly actionable intelligence and threat data that is personalized, relevant to your organization and meaningful. If you’d like to hear more about our approach and what it can mean for your organization, get in touch via Twitter (@lbhuston), email (info(at)microsolved/dot/com) or phone (614-351-1237 ext 250). 

Fuzzing Optical Smart Meters with ProtoPredator

Posted on by
6

PPClawsWords1

Our team has been working hard in the lab, once again testing the optical implementations of a variety of smart meters. Using our proprietary in-house developed tool, called ProtoPredator for Smart Meters, we have been doing full fuzzing of optical protocol implementations. 

Our tool makes this process easy and reproducible. It also provides for easy regression testing and fix validation through session replays. 

One of the things that makes ProtoPredator so cool is that it includes both arbitrary conversations with the meters in addition to canned sessions, making much more flexible in the hands of a knowledgeable user. You can easily use this feature to perform more nuanced validation of the protocols, testing things like sequence errors, poor trust, error recovery, etc. 

While ProtoPredator is still tied to the optical coupler speed and the inherent speed of the protocols in use, testing with it makes validation of the optical ports more effective than other more traditional approaches. Additionally, you can use multiple seats of ProtoPredator in parallel to decrease the overall testing and validation time, especially since the “brain files” and packet sessions are easily interchangeable amongst installations.

The easy to use GUI also means less frustration and more time on task for most users. It lets the testers spend less time on mundane tasks like serial configuration and hand crafting packets and more time on security testing, protocol analysis and bug hunting.

To find out more about ProtoPredator, or to discuss having our lab give your smart meters a look over, get in touch. Info(at)micro solved(dot)com will get you a prompt response. As always, thanks for reading!