Linux migration SNAFU

Disclaimer: The author is not against windows, the author is not against linux, the author is against "stupid" practices and communication gap while migrating from one OS to another. The author is an ardent Linux and BSD Fan, and supports FOSS/OSS movements.

The inspiration for this post comes from a REAL company whose employees were not so happy and almost resigned their posts owing to a bad migration.

Here is a story of a simple Linux migration gone-all-wrong.

The last thing any employee wants at the office on Monday morning is to turn on their workstation to find Linux instead of their beloved Windows operating system.

How NOT TO MIGRATE from Windows to Linux
- For Lower TCO, access to source code,
- For Economic benefit, Ethical Benefit,
- For Access to Source code,
- For whatever-else-you-deem-fit to trigger a migration

You certainly have to communicate to your employee formally - written as a memo circulated throughout the ranks, or a simple e-mail to all employees notifying the change.

Analysis : Why it went wrong ?
Things that made this particular migration go wrong...
1) The employees were not informed prior to the migration
2) Backup was not in place, only last minute backup was available
3) There was no Linux101, Command Line usage or any induction towards the new operating system at their disposal.
4) No clear planning, and deployment - Old versions of Ubuntu were deployed.
5) There was no consultant or subject matter expert to assist the migration.

How TO MIGRATE from Windows to Linux
- Prior to the transition from one OS to another - inform your employees formally
- Get them involved in the planning and ask for their views & suggestions
- After giving the heads-up, arrange for a backup (through System Administrator)
- To make the transition smooth decide who needs a Linux desktop and how many Windows systems can be retained (to reduce training budget)
- Choose a Linux distribution based on - User competence, prior experience, and business goal (why linux?)
- Engage an external consultant or subject matter expert
- Plan the switch with software used currently and alternate software available for linux
HINT: ptth://www.osalt.com
- Deploy a test bed and introduce the operating system functionality
- Arrange for a formal induction (hands-on) with the consultant
- Clarify doubts and exchange ideas, get tips and tricks and further reading
- Arrange for a dinner (makes employees happy to eat and learn, than just learning)
- Use linux philosophy from time to time - for motivation, increasing productivity, and squeezing employees to the max, hehe !

"The only thing worse than training good employees and losing them is NOT training your employees and keeping them."
- Zig ziglar

Point to be taken from this post: Next time you migrate to any linux distribution, make sure you Communicate the change, engage a subject matter expert, plan, test, and then deploy.

Cheers,
Kish

PS: We offer Linux migration services, and Open Source consulting of the best quality at very nominal pricing. Contact me for more information.

U Socket - USB Charging directly from plug points

Quoting from their website,
"U-Socket is a duplex AC receptacle with built-in USB ports that can power any device that is capable of being charged via a 5V power adapter, but without the need for the power adapter! When a U-Socket replaces a traditional 3-prong AC wall socket, you can eliminate the clutter of AC Adapters that stick out & take up space in your home or office. Everything stays neat & organized. In additional, U-Socket's energy efficient design only outputs power through the USB port if something is connected to it. This can save you up to $25 per year in reduced energy costs. Good for you, good for the environment and with our great prices, good for your wallet too!"



Neat little addition to your desk to charge your devices like iPad or mp3 players :)

For more information, click here

Cheers,
Kish

No pun intended

Pen tester1: I have have very less issues related to security compared to my windows laptop
Kish: probably, because people own macs silently ;)
Pen tester1: ...

Evil Maid - Pwnie for Overhyped bug

Hey dudes, and dudettes, Happy Diwali to y’all !

Today’s post is about the Evil maid's exploits on an unsuspecting computer user...

Scenario
Full disk encryption with Truecrypt in this case...

The author mentions PGP whole disk encryption but never mentions about testing it on the humor-me FAQ, LOL! :D

Attack
Joanna of Invisible things has come up with an attack (social engineering + physical access + usb drive?!) - WTF I say... If a person has physical access to your box, it is pretty much a goner... what difference does it make if I boot from a live-cd and use a keylogger or do the same thing from an USB drive?

Solution
Disable USB boot from BIOS options (this ain't nothing new to talk about, building a custom USB drive with a small kernel and a simple keylogger is NOT new)

If you know your way around in Linux, and you use it as a base for your penetration testing laptop. Try modprobe -r usb_storage and blacklist in your conf file, if you are paranoid.

You can easily convert the install/remove commands into a shell-script. Alternately, USB devices can be disabled at the kernel level via GRUB or any other boot loader by editing menu.lst / grub.conf

There is also a humor-me FAQ that says...

Q: Is this Evil Maid Attack some l33t new h4ck?
Nope, the concept behind the Evil Maid Attack is neither new, nor l33t in any way.

Q: So, why did you write it?
Because we believe it demonstrates an important problem, and we would like more attention to be paid in the industry to solving it.

As if nobody has covered these hardware based and/or social engineering attacks in the past?

Q: I've disabled boot from USB in BIOS and my BIOS is password protected, am I protected against EM?
No. Taking out your HDD, hooking it up to a USB enclosure case and later installing it back to your laptop increases the attack time by some 5-15 minutes at most. A maid has to carry her own laptop to do this though.

I loved this part... Every maid knows how to pull apart a laptop and remove the hard-drive enclosure without damaging the drive... Do all maids have prior training in corporate espionage, and basic computer/laptop hardware and operations? LOL!

Q: Why did you choose TrueCrypt and not some other product? Because we believe TrueCrypt is a great product, we use it often in our lab, and we would love to see it getting some better protection against such attacks.

Encryption must protect against physical attacks? Since when did that become a pre-requisite for a fool-proof encryption system/software... since the day "Evil maid was coded" I guess... ;))

Their solutions: Protect your laptop (wow, you discovered something here…), TPM (aka snake oil), Disk Hasher (oh, hashing is a “reasonable” solution even though it is broken)

Let me get this straight, you invent a problem out of nothing and you suggest YOUR own solution, roflmao!

Bottom-line
General unsuspecting public will leave a laptop like this fine lady here suggests. If a person identifies himself/herself a hacker, they are NOT supposed to leave their laptops in a hostile environment... When you leave like that, don't identify yourself as a hacker.

Acknowledgments
Thanks to the ennead@truecrypt.org for all the polemics we had which allowed me to better gather my thoughts on the topic. The same thanks to Alex and Rafal, for all the polemics I have had with them (it's customary for ITL to spend a lot of time finding bugs in each other's reasoning).

The person demonstrating such a GREAT attack will go to any extent to prove that an attack is possible, but will not think one bit as to whether it is practical??

Truecrypt clearly mentions about physical attacks in their documentation, which means they are not addressing the issue, and they want you to find something more serious and interesting to work on and if you don’t have a lot of ideas, ping Halvar Flake – He’s a smart guy with a lot of ideas which are innovative. Stop rehashing old attacks and building small Linux kernels with a simple keylogger and write a humor-me FAQ with “we want more attention” (you want the industry to pay attention to the attack or you?)

Truecrypt Dev: My answer was a good safety case or strongbox with a good lock. If you use it, then you will notice that the attacker has accessed your notebook inside (as the case or strongbox will be damaged and it cannot be replaced because you had the correct key with you). If the safety case or strongbox can be opened without getting damaged & unusable, then it's not a good safety case or strongbox. ;-)

Well, what can I say, except … he pwned you!

I nominate “the Evil Maid” for the Pwnie Awards 2010 - Most Overhyped bug… perhaps someone can beat Joanna to the race… Let’s see… hehe!

Errr...Where's all the rum gone?

R.I.P - Fravia, the master

Fravia (Fjalar Ravia) from Germany is amongst one of the most finest and brave human beings on this planet. He was an ardent reverse-engineer and a master at what he did. In early 2005/06 he gravitated on to search related stuff. He's a good friend and a great guy personally... I didn't know he was dead until I was talking to a friend on RCE.

Without your teachings, emails and your website, I will not be where I am today.

R.I.P Fravia, the brave may not live forever, but the cautious don't live at all !

Warning: Don't be conned

Warning: Don't be conned

This POST is about an exceptionally serious issue, so don't be conned, or fall prey to impostors, and bad guys...

Message:

Don't dial 90# or 09#, #09 or any other combination requested by any technician / serviceman CLAIMING TO BE from your subscriber, on Nokia, and Motorola mobiles these codes are used by telephone service men to test line connectivity, these codes can also steal your number, and enable the caller to use your mobile to make calls, and bill it on your number.

Technically,the caller can SPOOF HIS NUMBER to make calls, which will be routed through and billed on your number so stay alert, terrorists have used these type of conning tricks in the past,and use it now so be careful, and spread the word ...

The information has been confirmed, by Nokia, Motorola, and CNN websites.

Getting passwords with P2P

Getting passwords with p2p softwares
(Limewire/Bearshare/Kazaa/Shareaza/emule)

1. First you need to get any p2p software,download it with the crack.
2. When you get bearshare and have set it up, click the Search button.
3. Click on 'Documents' in the search section, and type anything like: My Passwords,Yahoo Passwords, Ebay Passwords, My Passes, Rapidshare Pass,XXX Pass, your best bet is My Passwords.txt
4. Now the syntax : Passwords or pass , you can include txt extension if required.
5. Search and download the files and you can see clear text passwords.

How is this possible?
Simple answer, most p2p are illegal, they share your whole hd even if you set restrictions to prevent the sharing of entire hd or ur best collections.

Wrote this a while ago, in some forum (this is from my 2006 scribbling), the funny thing is
"it still works!"

/Quit

Recession ? Okay, but still cigarettes, gutkha, and beers cost the same amount ... ;)

Recession isn't something amazing, it's just another rough patch ... Get over it already!

Cheers,
Kish

How to get Examworx dumps for FREE, with a specially crafted URL (similar to my Actualtests bug)

Example PoC: http://www.examworx.com/qadownsession365/BE-100W.exe

URL syntax: http://www.examworx.com/qadownsession365/exam-code.exe

Demos are hosted within the demo directory, as for the earlier example:
http://www.examworx.com/qadownsession365/demo\BE-100W.exe

Screenshot



Examworx is usually, a Pass4sure clone, but no guarantees !
Why pay for the dumps, when you can practically download them for FREE ;)

Cheers,
Kish

My good friend and fellow hacker, Digi from Crimemachine has been chosen to as VMWare vExpert. Only 300 people in the world have made it to the list... John Troyer of VMWare will publish the list sooner or later, on the website, and there's exclusive access to VMworld materials, and more in a private community just for these vetted list of vExperts.

I sincerely wish him, the best of luck to succeed in more of his endeavors with VMware and his consulting projects !

Cheers,
Kish

Worked @ _some company_ for 15 months, it was quite an experience ;)

Now Iam back to normal ... or what's normal for me, to freelance, and consult in security just like old times. These days Iam consulting on Open Source, Linux, Virtualization, Network Monitoring/Analysis, Digital Security (not limited to Network Security) but also includes services like Forensics (Host, and Network), Incident Response, Web Security (App, Server, Services) ...

We also provide value added services, and sell security advisories, industry grade exploits, and malware signatures for your IDS/IPS. We also provide malware "source code" if you want in bulk or any specific sample that you require.

If you're looking out for any of these services, shoot me an email !

Cheers :)
Kish

As many people think Iam dead ... I just want to remind you guys that I'm still up and running ...

This blog is not dead, will try and post content from time to time ...
But life these days has a lot more to do than with computers, security, and blogging ...

Thanks to the anonymous friend, who asked if I'm still here ... The answer is YES :)

Cheers :)
Kish

Just nitpicked a small xss, which could've been spotted by anybody.

Code quality: Worse
Bug class: XSS
Exploitable: Yes

Here is the Original URL

XSS URL which "could" be malicious, this one's absolutely not, so don't worry

You know, it's been too long since I posted here. I have three blogs...

Offensive Computing: I have a small blog there
Your Daily Dose of Jokes : Oh, Yeah, I know about humor too...

Last but not least, my own web log, which is primary place for posting stuff.

These days Iam left with a lot less spare time than 6 months back, when I was freelancing... I'll just hope to stay up and post something from time to time here.

/Quit

"Hacker Safe" Site Hacked, Data Stolen - Or not so hacker safe
http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1540,2246925,00.asp

New skype vulnerability with PoC
http://www.critical.lt/?opinions/show/1470

Cheers :)
Kish

Few good links that can help you unbrick your iPhone.

Nice facts here, 5 things you need to know about the iPhone

My 5 steps to unbrick the iPhone would be to ...
Download the 1.0.2 image from Apple's website
Use home + power button to get to the restore screen
Restore your phone's firmware image from updated version to 1.0.2
Then add a contact with the jailbreak and upload anySIM to your iPhone as shown >> here <<
Last but not least, take sometime to read the iPhone wiki which as plethora of information that will come in handy down the road.

Files that you'd require for the process can be found >> here << , arranged neatly.

Have fun hackin your phone.

Cheers :)
Kish

It's XSS snack time of the day...

Paypal is secure, you can use it for all transactions... Recommended by HackerSafe seal

https://mobile.paypal.com/cgi-bin/wapapp?cmd=_wapapp-static&page=%22%3E%3Cscript%3Ealert(document.cookie)%3C/script%3E

While I was messing with the website, I came across this XSS bug in Paypal, which can be used with Javascript to steal passwords ;))

/Quit

Google chat can be blocked, without blocking google.com on the whole.You must block chatenabled.mail.google.com with the ports 443 and 80 to talk.google.com.Linux users can use iptables to redirect the traffic to 127.0.0.1 (your local loopback address) You can also use the old fashioned /etc/hosts for the same...

I had to write this post here, because there's been a lot of attention to blocking google's chat lately.

Cheers :)
Kish

I was invited to speak in LegionSec 07 conference, but due to professional engagements, Iam unable to deliver the talk as promised. The conference organizer has been informed about the glitch.

Cheers :)
Kish

THE website is back, yes, the one and only CRIMEMACHINE !

Refused by heaven, and feared by hell ... http://www.crimemachine.com

Keep watching for a few or more updates to the site from time to time.

Cheers :)
Kish

The code displayed below is from MXtreme firewall, and this is a perfect example how NOT to code a web page, especially for an appliance as critical as this... Possibly a 0day ;)



Cheers :)
Kish