CTF

How to enable NULL Bind on LDAP with Windows…

History of NULL bind

Back in the early Active Directory days NULL bind was actually enabled by default, these days you can get a rootDSE NULL bind out of the box but on Windows Server 2019 you can even disable this!

So why would I want to enable NULL bind? Well, some legacy apps may need it but generally speaking you don’t want NULL bind enabled.

The lesson here is DO NOT copy what I am doing here! Simples! Read more “How to enable NULL Bind on LDAP with Windows Server 2019” →

Defense

vSphere Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution Vulnerability – VMSA-2021-0002

For vendor guidance please see:

https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2021-0002.html

CVE Refs: CVE-2021-21972, CVE-2021-21973, CVE-2021-21974

Introduction

There’s a new unauthenticated remove code execution (RCE) in vSphere 6.5, 6.7 and 7.0 which has just dropped. There’s a vendor patch and currently there is no known public exploit however the hunt will now be on and I can imagine that it’s hours and days until this is in the wild rather than weeks or months.

Defense

The anatomy of designing resilience, recoverability, and contingency into…

I want a simple way of restoring service in the event of a disaster

Foreward

I wrote this over 5 years ago and wanted to see if it stood the test of time – I also see too often that organisations don’t have the right capabilitites to recover so I figured this is a good post on the subject.

Defense

Endpoint Security – The Essentials

It’s called essentials it’s not called advanced!

Have you ever wondered what the absolute minimum you should do is to protect against cyber criminals? I’ll be honest I haven’t, that minimalistic approach to be seems kind of risky… BUT the world is not me and if you want to achive greatness you need a good foundation! So the essentials are good to know.

Defense

Active Directory Effective Permission Auditing

Active directory permissions are a complex beast, at the core of Active Directory you have databases and partitions.

These have access controls lists, there are two types of these:

DACL
SACL

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/secauthz/access-control-lists

In active directory auditing these with out of the box tools can be a pain, especially when you are looking to enumerate effective permissions. Luckily a nice chap as made a great PowerShell app which can help you with your auditing activities! Read more “Active Directory Effective Permission Auditing” →

Defense

Threat Modelling 101

What is a threat?

https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/threat

According to those clever people at NIST it is:

“Any circumstance or event with the potential to adversely impact organizational operations (including mission, functions, image, or reputation), organizational assets, or individuals through an information system via unauthorized access, destruction, disclosure, modification of information, and/or denial of service. Also, the potential for a threat-source to successfully exploit a particular information system vulnerability.” Read more “Threat Modelling 101” →

Defense

CyberChef Taster

A quick snack

Everyone knows about cyber chef, right? Well, I can tell you now that my misses knows so if you don’t now’s a great time to get to know! Cyber Chef is a tool created by GCHQ distrubted via an apache license that’s hosted on GitHub or you can download and run locally. Read more “CyberChef Taster” →

Guides

Hacking 101

Back in 2019 I started to make some materials to help people with some basic offensive security techniques. I made three eppisodes of training materials. Well I’ve decided to re-release these, they haven’t really been changed but I’ve updated a few graphics on episode 3 and removed a link to Cain and Abel because it’s no longer maintained. I will probably go through these at some point and re-factor them.

I’ve got more documents on active directory security, I’ve actually written hundreds of pages on the subject but the challenge I’ve had is there is just so much to write, so I’ve decided I’m going to chunk it up into small blogs on a specific technique or area.

Defense

WordPress Security Considerations

WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems in the world today. I believe it is about 35% of the market share globally. That is a lot of sites.

I have been using WordPress for years myself; some people give it some stick for being vulnerable but that is usually them referring to third party plugins. I like it because you can build a site easily, without having to spend ages and you can deploy it and migrate etc. without having a huge headache. Read more “WordPress Security Considerations” →

Defense

Combating Cyber Crime: Should we really be charging to…

Sensational Press or Cyber War Mongering?

I do not know Mr Martin, but I would assume that his role at NCSC and GCHQ would have given him a good insight into the realities of cybercrime, cyber terrorism, nation state affairs and how to effectively defend against cyber criminals (and other threat actors) so please read this blog as it is intended, it’s an analysis on the quoted statements and reporting style and general view of mine about current cyber war rhetoric, not an analysis of the person. Why am I writing this? Well, I am seeing an increased level of FUD, snake oil and cyber war rhetoric and I wanted to share some of my thoughts, opinions, and ideas in this space. For it is far too easy to call for war and in cyberspace do we even know what that means? Read more “Combating Cyber Crime: Should we really be charging to cyber war?” →