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

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

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

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?” →

Defense

Retrieving Passwords From Veeam Backup Servers

Firstly before we get into recovering passwords from the veeam servers we have to think why is this technique so important to know?

It’s not what you think, so if you are a red teamer/penetration tester then sure you are going to want to know this to support your goals. But the real value in knowing this is to drive home a specific message.

DO NOT (PRODUCTION) DOMAIN JOIN BACKUP SERVERS

Veeam expicitly suports not being on a domain for this very reason. Why Dan? Why is it so important to not (PRODUCTION) domain join them? Well my friends, if a threat actor gets into your network, gains high priviledge access to active directory and get’s onto you veeam server they will probably disrupt and destroy your backup just prior to ransoming everyhing they can. You do no want this!

Defense

Aggressively Defending Information Systems

Taking a more active approach

You may have seen my post on hacking back and how it’s a nightmare that screams inexperience when I hear it (don’t get me wrong there are very limited times when it might be useful from a national defence perspective/intelligence services but that isn’t really ‘hacking back’ in my book, they are already working that space so it’s not a retaliation) however I’ve been spurred on this morning by a tweet I saw from @1njection:

After tweeting a quick reply, I thought I had put together a quick blog on aggressive active defences! (not wordy much). Read more “Aggressively Defending Information Systems” →

Defense

5 Major Challenges with Business Digital Security

This is not meant to be an essay, but simply a rapid-fire view of things that I see that are major challenges with digital security in today’s age. So, without any further delay let us hit it:

Defense

Routine Security Governance and Management Activities you should plan…

Security Planning 101

I have been thinking about how organisations manage (or do not manage) their security postures from both a governance and management point of view. To help organisations that are just starting on their security improvement journey I thought I have put together a list of activities they may want to have in a forward schedule document (you could even call it a roadmap). It is not going to be all things to all people and different organisations and markets will have different requirements.

Defense

Things to try & keep an environment safe

I chose these words on purpose, I don’t think keeping environments secure and working is easy. I don’t think anyone has all the answers, even with massive budgets large organisations fail to keep their data and systems secure. But I do know that by doing these activities we can massively change the game when compared to the security posture of an organisation compared to organisations that don’t do this! So, I thought I’d share some of the things I do to try and keep on top of environments cyber heigine. But to start let’s think about the kind of questions are we looking to answer: