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Defence

What are the top Active Directory Security vulnerabilities I…

Ok so here’s the thing, I do NOT like getting pwn3d! I think you probably would rather your organisation does not too!

What I really don’t want to occur is a ransomware event! They suck, they are like a digital bomb going off.

So I’ve knocked up a quick list to get people thinking (these are NOT all the vulnerabilities I networks you should care about.. but they are some that could lead to a ransomware event!)

Read more “What are the top Active Directory Security vulnerabilities I care about?”
CTI Investigation Demo Threat Intel

Threat Analysis Tools

I’ve not blogged in a while, but I wanted to put down a note of some useful tools people can use to help them combat cyber crime.

This isn’t going to be an in depth look at each tool, however I do want to, in the near future, try and do some demos/videos etc. of how to investigate potential/suspected or identified threats. I’ll drop a list of some of the useful tools below and also do a quick demo of investigating an event (from this blog)

Read more “Threat Analysis Tools”
Education

Cyber Tips for Normies (without the FUD)

The Cyber Threat landscape in 2023

The digital world is complex and cyber threats appear to be around every corner. What we need to do however is look at how we can enable people and keep them safe from common (realistic) threats that they will almost certainly face (rather than saying everything is a risk!), The intent of this post is to tackle key common threats, risks and vulnerabilities (and countermeasures). It is high level, it is a generic and general, it is not a bespoke tailored guide for each person. It does not cover every single risk scenario someone may face, it simply looks at what I think people may want to focus on (given what I see). (I’m having to caveat this loads to try and stop the tin foil hat loonies making a scene about edge cases I haven’t covered)

Read more “Cyber Tips for Normies (without the FUD)”
Education

Protective DNS (PDNS) by NCSC UK adds UK schools

This week NCSC have begun accepting UK schools for access to the PDNS.

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/introducing-pdns-for-schools

to register (if you are eligible) use this URL: https://www.protectivedns.service.ncsc.gov.uk/pdns

you can view the terms and conditions here: https://www.signin.service.ncsc.gov.uk/terms-and-conditions

PDNS is a protective DNS service which helps protect public sector organisations (and private sector services who deliver government services)

  • Government
  • Healthcare
  • Local Authorities
  • MOD

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/information/pdns

PDNS is delivered by Nominet. Read more “Protective DNS (PDNS) by NCSC UK adds UK schools”

Threat Intel

Cisco IOS XE Incident Update

Update 30-10-2023 (fast publish)

This is a fast publish. Based on honeypot data from @SI_FalconTeam we can make some analysis:

  1. The webshell has an authorisation header is 40 characters long. (it is unknown how this was generated)
  2. The user agent in the sample: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/74.0.3729.169 Safari/537.36
  3. The source IP: 192.3.101.11
  4. The stages:
    1. Check for webshell
    • If not in place:
      1. Bypass Authentication (CVE-2023-20198
      )
      1. Create a local LEVEL 15 User AccountSet IP HTTP/HTTPS SERVER and Enable Local Authentication (AAA)Use this account to conduct a device inventory.
    • Inventory the System
    • Kill the created Level 15 account

In the lab we have attacked HTTP and HTTPS and have been able to get AUTH bypass. (thanks @leak_ix)

Read more “Cisco IOS XE Incident Update”
Defence

No one is responsible for your OWN Cyber Defences…

Introduction 

I talk to hundreds or maybe even thousands of people online. I work in the Cyber security industry, I worked previously with central government, local authorities, finance, third sector, healthcare, defence and well most verticals of business. I often see people comment online about how “GCHQ has failed” or some other silly nonsense when it comes to an organisation (not GCHQ) being victim to a cyber incident. 

I fear the world has watched a few too many Bond and Bourne films and let’s their imaginations run wild! The true reality of defending cyberspace is frankly vastly different to what I think people believe it is.

Read more “No one is responsible for your OWN Cyber Defences other than you! “
Hacking

The Manual Version 2.0

Working in Cyber security can expose you to all kinds of information. I’m an offensive and defensive security architect and occasional (haha that’s daily right!) pew pew slinger (pentester) and I am also a threat intelligence practioner (CTI) (we need The Many Hats Club back!). Which is why sometimes when things appear on the internet I think I decide to take a look.

Read more “The Manual Version 2.0”
Education

Cyber Security for PC Gamers

Introduction

The other day there was a lot of focus on “ATLASOS” a rather oddly branded project, just to be clear:

ATLASOS is NOT AN Operating System (OS) (despite it’s name!)

ATLASOS (at the time of writing) disables basically the majority of Windows Security features including:

  • Defender
  • Smart Screen
  • Windows Update
  • Spectre/Meltdown Mitigations

Basically, if you can think of “nightmare” in the cyber world, ATLASOS’s security posture is basically that (in my opinion)! That said, it’s cool from a nerd Windows customization/build pov, however based on my initial investigations I would strong recommend NOT using it on a “PRODUCTION” system (or anything that’s connected to the internet!).

Read more “Cyber Security for PC Gamers”