Secure Programming with .NET
At the core of Microsoft's .NET initiative is the goal of interconnecting businesses, users, applications, and data. However, with all the concerns regarding security and privacy of data, many individuals and companies are reluctant to connect their business systems and place their data in reach of hackers thousands of miles away. Microsoft understands the challenges and concerns facing early adopters of their technology, and has made security one of their top priorities. The fundamental pillar for building applications is the security surrounding the .NET framework and the security services it provides. In this article, we will provide an overview of .NET framework security features and provide practical tips on how to write secure code in the .NET framework. More importantly, we will discuss which pitfalls to avoid.

The Open Web Application Security Project
The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is an Open Source community project staffed entirely by volunteers from across the world. The project is developing software tools and knowledge based documentation that helps people secure web applications and web services. Much of the work is driven by discussions on the Web Application Security list at SecurityFocus.com. All software and documentation is released under the GNU public licenses.

CodeSeeker
So what is CodeSeeker ? It is an application level Firewall and Intrusion Detection System, written in Java and C/C and runs on Windows NT, Solaris and Linux (beta). It intercepts HTTP traffic off the TCP/IP stack (immediately after its been decrypted by SSL if its HTTPS), and applies a set of security rules to determine if the traffic is legitimate or malicious. CodeSeeker can either sit in a passive mode simply alerting your console of attacks (IDS) or in an active mode blocking traffic (firewall).

Butterfly Security Releases CodeSeeker as Open Source
Butterfly Security released CodeSeeker as open source through the
Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP). CodeSeeker is a Web application firewall and Intrusion Detection System (IDS) tool that
runs on Windows NT, Sun Microsystem's Sun Solaris, and Linux.

Location, location, location-based services
Studies by industry analysts forecast even greater demand for wireless and mobile devices, creating substantial opportunities for wireless device application and service providers. Faced with an increasingly difficult challenge in raising both average revenue per user (ARPU) and numbers of subscribers, wireless carriers and their partners are developing a host of new products, services, and business models based on data services. We'll have a look at location-based services and how they boost both service and revenue.

ngSniff
Some time ago, NGSEC released a command line sniffer for win2k or higher (no packet driver requeired). It was developed for penetration tests once you have access for a cmd.exe shell.

Kyle's Instruction on MAC Spoofing in Windows 2000 and XP
Can you really change (Spoof) the MAC address in a Windows 2000 or XP system? YES (Almost all of them, whether Manufacturers allow it or not!).

Packet Excalibur

It is a multi-platform graphical and scriptable network packet engine with extensible text based protocol descriptions.

In short this is a network tool to built and receive custom packets.

With Packet Excalibur you will be able :

to decide packet attributes from physical layer to the top,
to sniff and spoof packets (packet generator) in a single interface,
to build scripts in the gui,
to define additional protocols in simple text files.

Transparent Cryptographic File System
Secure file sharing' is a kernel service to help user applications in sharing secure files among a group of users. Each file is given a unique file_id and a user chosen level by means of which users can choose to forbid or to permit access to it.

National Institute of Justice - Technology Programs
NIJ Sponsors technology research, development, assessment, and implementation to improve public safety.

CYBER CRIMINALS MOST WANTED
The First One-Stop Cybercrime Awareness, Prevention and Safety Website

Inside OE
Inside Outlook Express is a source of technical information, help and tips for users of Microsoft Outlook Express® for Windows, versions 5, 5.01, 5.5 and 6. All articles are valid for all these versions unless otherwise stated.

The Unofficial 802.11 Security Web Page
Lots of people are interested in IEEE 802.11 security nowadays. Given that level of interest, there's a need for accurate information on how the current standards work, what's wrong with them, and the current thinking on how to fix the problems. This page tries to gather relevant papers and standards in a single place.

CRAZYTRAIN.COM
For your reference, my little nook on the Internet will house information pertaining to the Information Security arena, with a few other tidbits here and there.

When firewalls and intrusion detection just aren't
Firewalls alone are not enough to thwart today's more sophisticated range of attacks, while Intrusion Detection Systems detect and record attacks, but do not block them. AV products, properly updated, can help protect against malicious code but are necessarily limited in their scope.

So enterprises and telecoms operators face a security gap which vendors are trying to plug with a fresh breed of security appliances, dubbed Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS).

Into this arena comes Top Layer Networks, which is extending its line of appliances that guard against Denial of Service attacks to provide in-line protection against a wider range of Internet attacks. Top Layer's high speed ASIC-based appliances have impressed in tests on their effectiveness against DoS attacks so its entry into what is becoming a crowded marketplace is nonetheless significant.

Wi-Fi Encryption Fix Not Perfect
The biggest security risk for "Wi-Fi" wireless Internet networks is that users sometimes fail to turn on their encryption software.

But even the responsible ones who use the encryption program -- Wired Equivalent Privacy -- aren't immune to malicious attacks.

A growing trend on the streets of Manhattan are WarDrivers who break into wireless networks for fun. A professional hacker or anyone with significant programming knowledge can hack through WEP and even steal data off the network.

"WEP provides a level of security too low for me to take seriously," said Niels Ferguson, a cryptography consultant in Amsterdam who helped come up with an alternative encryption to WEP.

The WEP replacement, Wi-Fi Protected Access, adopts a more rigorous standard for authenticating users in order to eliminate the former's security flaws.

However, WPA comes with its own set of problems: denial of service attacks that can shut down the network and leave people without wireless Internet access.

Ferguson said that all wireless protocols are susceptible to DoS attacks, but WPA "is subject to all of them plus one extra type of DoS attack."

The Peon's Guide To Secure System Development
Increasingly incompetent developers are creeping their way into important projects. Considering that most good programmers are pretty bad at security, bad programmers with roles in important projects are guaranteed to doom the world to oblivion. The author feels that a step toward washing himself clean of responsibility is by writing this document. Checking your memcpy() and malloc() calls have been lectured to death. It's not working. The approach used by this document is to instead shame developers into producing better systems. Enjoy.

WLAN
Wireless LAN discovery through the use of applications such as NetStumbler, DStumbler, Wellenreiter and others is an increasingly popular technique for network penetration. The discovery of a wireless LAN might be used for seemingly innocuous Internet access, or to be used as a "backdoor" into a network to stage an attack. This paper reviews some of the tactics used in wireless LAN network discovery and attempts to identify some of the fingerprints left by wireless LAN discovery applications, focusing on the MAC and LLC layers. This fingerprint information can then be incorporated into intrusion detection tools capable of analyzing data-link layer traffic.

SecNet11 -- Secure Wireless Local Area Network
Harris Corporation provides a revolutionary Type 1 encrypted Secure Wireless LAN (SWLAN) solution that allows COMSEC-approved government agencies to rapidly communicate multimedia information (data, voice, and video) in a secure environment.

The system integrates NSA crypto with commercial chipset based 802.11b PCMCIA cards and access points to create a secure wireless LAN.

Forensic Acquisition Utilities
This is a collection of utilities and libraries intended for forensic or forensic-related investigative use in a modern Microsoft Windows environment. The components in this collection are intended to permit the investigator to sterilize media for forensic duplication, discover where logical volume information is located and to collect the evidence from a running system while at the same time guaranteeing data integrity (e.g. with a cryptographic checksum) and while minimizing changes to the subject system.

Using the Java Cryptography Extension in WebSphere Studio Application Developer 4.03
This article also provides step-by-step instructions and help with the Java™ Cryptography Extension (JCE), which is a set of packages that provides a framework and implementation for encryption, key generation, key agreement, and Message Authentication Code (MAC) algorithms. JCE also supports secure streams and sealed objects.

Network Signals Just Scream to Be Exploited
Organizations ignore the security risks of wireless networking at their peril.

I recently strolled past federal buildings along Connecticut Avenue in Washington, carrying a beta-test model of a tablet PC equipped with an integrated IEEE 802.11b wireless PC Card.

In no time, it auto-detected a wireless network. The tablet asked me if I wanted to connect. I declined, but as I kept walking, the tablet detected signals for three more wireless networks. (Apparently, the Secret Service is curious about these free-ranging signals, too, and has sent teams around Washington snooping for wireless networks that broadcast signals onto the street.)

I did no probing, so I don't know whether the signals my tablet PC detected came from government, corporate or home networks. Nevertheless, they're out there, just waiting for someone to exploit them.

How to Keep The Wireless Snoops Away
A wireless network is like hundreds of network cables floating in search of a rogue computer.

A good attacker can get into most networks by taking advantage of a wireless connection and its Wired Equivalent Privacy security.

The FBI's Cybercrime Crackdown
In contrast to the teenage hackers of yore, today's perpetrators -- virtually all of them adults -- mount extremely sophisticated attacks. They don't brag, and they don't leave obvious tracks.

Understanding Bandwidth and Latency
From the bygone debates over DDR vs. RDRAM to the current controversy over Apple's DDR implementations, one issue is commonly misunderstood in most discussions of memory technology: the nature of the relationship between bandwidth and latency. This article aims to give you a basic grasp of the complex and subtle interaction between bandwidth and latency, so that the next time you see bandwidth numbers quoted for a system you'll be able to better understand how those numbers translate into real-world performance.

This article was written in such a manner that the concepts communicated in it will be applicable to understanding a wide range of systems and parts of systems: from the frontside and memory buses of current P4 and Athlon systems to the buses in Apple's new XServe. Throughout the article, then, I've deliberately avoided getting mired down in the details of specific implementations in hopes that the general concepts will stand out clearly for the reader. The flip side of this simplicity is that for almost every claim I make a technically savvy reader could probably point out various exceptions, workarounds and other caveats peculiar to particular systems and data access scenarios.

Complete Snort-based IDS Architecture, Part One
Intrusion detection systems (IDS) are one of the fastest growing technologies within the security space. Unfortunately, many companies find it hard to justify acquiring IDS systems due to their perceived high cost of ownership (for example see Justifying the Expense of IDS by Kevin Timm and David Kinn). However, not all IDS systems are prohibitively expensive. This two-part article will provide a set of detailed directions to build an affordable intrusion detection architecture from hardware and freely available software. This discussion will avoid the classic "build or buy" debate and instead focus on building the system at a minimum cost.

Essential Home Wireless Security Practices
802.11b networks are proliferating like mad. Even though faster wireless networks are now available, 802.11b offers users what they want at a reasonably low price. While the high throughput of other technologies is attractive to large Local Area Networks (LANs) and people wanting to use wireless for high-end home entertainment purposes, 802.11b's 11Mbit/sec is more than enough to hook up a handful of clients in your home to the Wide Area Network (WAN), which in most cases is simply the Internet.

The Journal of Craptology
The Journal of Craptology is an electronic journal on cryptologic issues. Papers accepted for publication in the Journal of Craptology relate to cryptology and fall into one or several of the following categories.
1. It is funny.
2. It is controversial.
3. It is crap.

SQL insertion
During the time that we were preparing for BlackHat, Haroon Meer (haroon@sensepost.com) started extensive fiddling with SQL insertion. A topic that has been touched on before, but never really studied in depth, Haroon decided to spend some time on it (between 2am and 5 am). He wrote a paper on it for Phrack Magazine that didn’t make it on account of formatting issues. After licking our wounds, we decided to put the paper out there and Haroon posted it to Pen-Test mailing list. In true Haroon style, the paper is a little difficult to follow, and I promised him I would recycle so that it would make sense to all the listeners out there.

very basics of TCP/IP - Layers and what they do
ntroduction – what is TCP/IP TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol and is the system of standard protocols that runs the web. That is to say, any computer that wants to send WWW information to another via the internet will almost certainly want to use TCP/IP as the transmission protocol, and understanding it is the key to understand the ‘lower levels’ of how the internet works. Though keep in mind that other protocols such as SMTP and FTP take over to control email and some file transfers respectively.

Freenet
Freenet is a large-scale peer-to-peer network which pools the power of member computers around the world to create a massive virtual information store open to anyone to freely publish or view information of all kinds.

Increasing Wireless Security with TKIP
TKIP is a quick-fix method to quickly overcome the inherent weaknesses in WEP security, especially the reuse of encryption keys. According to "802.11 Planet," "The TKIP [security] process begins with a 128-bit 'temporal key,' [which is] shared among clients and access points. TKIP combines the temporal key with the [client machine's] MAC address and then adds a relatively large 16-octet initialization vector to produce the key that will encrypt the data. This procedure ensures that each station uses different key streams to encrypt the data. TKIP uses RC4 to perform the encryption, which is the same as WEP. A major difference from WEP, however, is that TKIP changes temporal keys every 10,000 packets. This provides a dynamic distribution method that significantly enhances the security of the network."

The IP Smart Spoofing
This paper describe a new technique for spoofing an IP address with any networking application. IP spoofing is not new and various hacking tools have been developed to exploit it. In the following, we will discuss on the way to use it with any standard application. As a result, we will explain why IP based access control is not reliable in many cases, and should not be used in many corporate networks.

Encryption method getting the picture
Researchers have created a new way to encrypt information in a digital image and extract it later without any distortion or loss of information.
A team of scientists from Xerox and the University of Rochester said that the technique, called reversible data hiding, could be used in situations that require proof that an image has not been altered.

Using File Hashes to Reduce Forensic Analysis
The "hashkeeper" paradigm or model was first introduced a number of years ago by Brian Deering of the National Drug Intelligence Center (www.hashkeeper.org). Since then, computer forensic analysts have come to use the term hashkeeper when they discuss ways of using the hash values of files to assist in forensic analysis.

Exposing the Underground: Adventures of an Open Proxy Server
This paper discusses the abuse of misconfigured HTTP proxy servers, taking a detailed look at the types of traffic that flow through this underground network. Also discussed is the use of a "honeyproxy", a server designed to look like a misconfigured HTTP proxy. Using such a tool we can spy on the Internet underground without the need for a full-blown honeypot.

EKAHAU
Ekahau Positioning Engine (EPE) is a powerful Java-based positioning server that provides PC and PDA location coordinates (x, y, floor) and tracking features to client applications. EPE includes a stand-alone Manager application for performing the site survey, drawing Ekahau Tracking Rails™, recording site calibration data, tracking wireless devices, and analyzing the positioning accuracy. Ekahau's patent-pending technology features up to 1 meter (3½ ft) average accuracy, enabling people and asset tracking both indoors and outdoors.

Writing a universal backdoor
The idea is to write a simple ( but universal ) backdoor, that is able to perform ANY TASK without knowing ( at the time it is written and installed ) which TASKS it will perform in the future. The backdoor will be very small, containing no coded functionality, but being able to be used for any purpose you don't even know of when you install the backdoor on the victim's PC. Plugin mechanism may be a better description for this kind of backdoor, because anytime your victim is online, you can "plugin" some "feature" and run it on his machine.

This article will focus on the underlying concept, not on the implementation of all the possible "features".

It's an article for people who want to programm a backdoor. Nevertheless it will present a simple ready-to-run backdoor that you just have to compile and install.

AND: I will use Java as the programming language !

network Security Group
These are descriptions, slides and notes for the monthly OSU SECWOG meetings and for other talks that members of the group have given. In some cases you'll find slides (web, Adobe Acrobat (pdf), postscript...) and in others we just have notes available.

Best Free Computer Forensics Training Materials
A long list of links to training materials.

IACIS Home Page
IACIS is an international volunteer non-profit corporation composed of law enforcement professionals dedicated to education in the field of forensic computer science. IACIS members represent Federal, State, Local and International Law Enforcement professionals. Regular IACIS members have been trained in the forensic science of seizing and processing computer systems.

Computer Forensic Legal Standards and Equipment
This paper addresses an issue of increasing importance to companies in this modern era. Computer Incident Response Teams (CIRTs), network security, and intellectual property (IP) security are growing in importance and are becoming many companies’ top priority in this age of increased security conscious commerce. The topic of this document focuses on the CIRT aspect of security conscious commerce, but in a less familiar role. This less familiar role of CIRT is the function of investigations and more specifically, the role of computer forensics as part of a company’s arsenal in the war on network/resource abuse and intellectual property theft. This document is not designed to provide a specific checklist of everything that a CIRT must have, or provide expert knowledge of all laws related to the handling of evidence. It does however seek to provide the reader with some of the basic considerations and tools available to make a CIRT or corporate investigator effective in gathering, preserving and analyzing computer evidence.

Forensic Computer and Data Investigations
Things you should consider before gathering and determining who will examine your data.

Computer Forensic Examiners
CYBER CRIMINALS MOST WANTED, The First One-Stop Cybercrime Awareness, Prevention and Safety Website. I'm on it!

Hacking Citrix Citrix is a Remote Desktop application that is becoming widely popular. It is similar to Microsoft's Terminal Services, RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol). Unlike Terminal Services, Citrixs' lines of products allow the administrator to specify
certain applications to be run on the server. This allows them to control which programs they want to allow the end user to execute. There exists an interesting gray line for the security of citrix applications due to the mixing of both
citrix technology, and microsoft technology. With an application that allows users remote access to not only published programs, but remote desktops, a serious threat arises. Microsoft Terminal Services uses RDP, whereas Citrix uses ICA
(Independent Computing Architecture).

In this paper I will be outlining how citrix works, and how to take advantage of the way citrix handles user access to programs.

How mobile phones let spies see our every move
Government's secret Celldar project will allow surveillance of anyone, at any time and anywhere there is a phone signal.

Wireless & Devices: Secure Your Organization's Mobile Devices
Without proper security, mobile devices can present risks to your enterprise. Discover your options for securing them.

Laptop Disassembly
Pictures of several laptops taken apart.

DNSSEC - Securing the Domain Name System
DNSSEC (short for "DNS Security") is a technique for securing the Domain System. It is a set of extensions to provide end-to-end authenticity and integrity and was designed to protect the Internet from certain attacks.
There are several distinct classes of threats to the DNS, most of which are DNS-related instances of more general problems, but a few of which are specific to peculiarities of the DNS protocol.

Wireless Security & Hacking
This article deals with WLAN security, explains the most common attack techniques and introduces some useful tools.

Computer Forensics Tool Testing (CFTT)
The CFTT is designed to provide a measure of assurance in the results of investigations based on automated tools used in computer forensics examinations. These tools are used by law enforcement, government, and industry organizations to examine disk drives seized in computer crime investigations and to analyze the files found. Examples of tools may include disk imaging software, password crackers, image analysis tools, and others.

National Software Reference Library (NSRL)
This project is supported by the U.S. Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice (NIJ), federal, state, and local law enforcement, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to promote efficient and effective use of computer technology in the investigation of crimes involving computers. Numerous other sponsoring organizations from law enforcement, government, and industry are providing resources to accomplish these goals.
The National Software Reference Library (NSRL) is designed to collect software from various sources and incorporate file profiles computed from this software into a Reference Data Set (RDS) of information. The RDS can be used by law enforcement, government, and industry organizations to review files on a computer by matching file profiles in the RDS. This will help alleviate much of the effort involved in determining which files are important as evidence on computers or file systems that have been seized as part of criminal investigations.

Unix tools track hackers
If you find you've been cracked use these old-school Unix tools to help track down the perpetrators.

Evaluating Network Intrusion Detection Signatures
In this series of articles, we present recommendations that will help readers to evaluate the quality of network intrusion detection (NID) signatures, either through hands-on testing or through careful consideration of third-party product reviews and comparisons. The first installment discussed some of the basics of evaluating NID signature quality, as well selecting attacks to be used in testing. This article will conclude the discussion on criteria for choosing attacks and then provide recommendations for generating attacks and creating a good testing environment. We begin by discussing some methods of acquiring attacks and attack traffic.

DFRWS
The Digital Forensic Research Workshop, or DFRWS, was initiated in August 2001 to bring academic researchers and digital forensic investigators and practitioners together for active discussion that addresses three major objectives:
Define the need and create the processes for the incorporation of a rigorous scientific method as a fundamental tenant of the evolving discipline of Digital Forensic Science

Develop a research agenda that considers practitioner requirements, multiple investigative environments and emphasizes real world usability

The discovery, explanation and presentation of conclusive, persuasive evidence that will meet the heightened scrutiny of the courts and other decision-makers in military and civilian environments

Special Applications - Port ListList of ports that commonly used applications make use of.

Security and Encryption Links
The following are security-related resources (aka "the crypto link farm") that I've found on the net. If there's anything which needs updating or correcting, please let me know. Because of its large size, I only update the online version of the page every few months, so please be patient when waiting for updates to reported changes to appear.

poorsniff - a command line windows sniffer
no pcap, winpcap, packet driver required, only a 9k executable (at present), all code public domain.

Secret Service agents probe wireless networks
Secret Service agents are putting a high-tech twist on the idea of a cop walking the beat. Using a laptop computer and an antenna fashioned from a Pringles potato chip can, they are looking for security holes in wireless networks in the nation's capital.

The agency best known for protecting the president and chasing down counterfeiters has started addressing what it calls one of the most overlooked threats to computer networks.

Hacking Citrix
Citrix is a Remote Desktop application that is becoming widely popular. It is built off of Microsoft's Terminal Services RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol). Unlike Terminal Services, Citrixs' lines of products allow the administrator to specify certain applications to be run on the server. This allows them to control which programs they want to allow the end user to execute. There exists an interesting gray line for the security of citrix applications due to the mixing of both citrix technology, and microsoft technology. With an application that allows users remote access to not only published programs, but remote desktops, a serious threat arises.

Security Gateway
SecurityGateway.com is an exciting, innovative online resource. It is a uniquely designed portal, or “gateway” to a vast world of security industry related news and information. Whether you are a professional working in the security or public safety fields, a business owner or a residential consumer, SecurityGateway.com has something for you. You’ll have quick and easy access to industry news, trends and information – all in one place.
Explore and experience SecurityGateway.com for yourself.

Securing Linux 101: Reasonable Steps to Detect and Prevent Blackhats
In the age of Web-based archives of packaged break-in tools (“script kits”) being run by inexperienced hackers (“script kiddies”), it’s increasingly important not to overreact when you suspect that a break-in has occurred. This article helps provide ideas, methods, and checklists for detecting blackhats and securing your Linux box. The article also provides a list of resources.

Remote Management of Win2K Servers: Three Secure
It's a common scenario: your company has an IIS Web server sitting 300 miles away at a high-bandwith, air-conditioned and power-regulated co-location center. The network is stable and the price is right, but you must completely manage the server remotely; you can't just go sit down at the console whenever you want. Remote management presents several problems, the most obvious being that the traffic between you and the server is travelling across the public Internet, available for others to sniff. Another problem is that remote administration normally involves installing software and opening ports, both of which increase the attack surface of your server. The goal when selecting a remote administration solution is to make sure that you (and only you) can do your job without exposing the server to additional risk.

Secure Programming in PHP
The goal of this paper is not only to show common threats and challenges of programming secure PHP applications but also to show you practical methods for doing so. The wonderful thing about PHP is that people with little or even no programming experience are able to achieve simple goals very quickly. The problem, on the other hand, is that many programmers are not really conscious about what is going behind the curtains. Security and convenience do not often go hand in hand -- but they can.

The Art of Unspoofing
The amount and frequency of denial of service attacks are escalating. It is becoming harder to track down the source who initiates them due to trace-evasion techniques. A raw interface to the networking stack allows anyone to send spoofed packets to a target host, eliminating the ability of its administrator to determine the origin of the attack. In today's world of e-commerce and globalization, the devastating attacks and the inability to determine their source can be devastating. It gives small companies a bad name, and destroys the good reputations of larger companies.


The ability to track down the source that uses spoofing techniques will certainly increase the chance to catch those attacking, and will force people to think of more intricate ways to attack servers on the net. This paper describes a few ways to track down these sort of attacks up to the last link in the chain (the attacker himself), or at least his ISP.

The BSDs: Sophisticated, Powerful, and (Mostly) Free
What is BSD? If you ask a typical computer "expert," he or she is likely to reply (incorrectly!) that it is "an operating system." The correct answer, however, is more complex than that. BSD is -- among other things -- a culture, a philosophy, and a growing collection of software, most (though not all) of which is available for free and with source code.
Here are the origins of BSD and the operating systems it has spawned. BSD stands for "Berkeley Software Distribution," the name first given to the University of California at Berkeley's own toolkit of enhancements for the UNIX operating system. Created by the students and faculty, BSD was not part of UNIX itself, which was created by Bell Labs. Rather, it was a widely distributed package of software enhancements for UNIX -- a supplement that made the operating system, which was originally strictly a research vehicle, useful in the real world.

Over time, however, BSD took on a life of its own. It evolved to include replacements for nearly every part of UNIX -- so much so that only the omission of six computer files prevented it from being a complete operating system by itself. Industrious programmers quickly developed replacements for these six files and made the BSDs into usable operating systems.

The BSDs: Sophisticated, Powerful, and (Mostly) Free
What is BSD? If you ask a typical computer "expert," he or she is likely to reply (incorrectly!) that it is "an operating system." The correct answer, however, is more complex than that. BSD is -- among other things -- a culture, a philosophy, and a growing collection of software, most (though not all) of which is available for free and with source code.
Here are the origins of BSD and the operating systems it has spawned. BSD stands for "Berkeley Software Distribution," the name first given to the University of California at Berkeley's own toolkit of enhancements for the UNIX operating system. Created by the students and faculty, BSD was not part of UNIX itself, which was created by Bell Labs. Rather, it was a widely distributed package of software enhancements for UNIX -- a supplement that made the operating system, which was originally strictly a research vehicle, useful in the real world.

Over time, however, BSD took on a life of its own. It evolved to include replacements for nearly every part of UNIX -- so much so that only the omission of six computer files prevented it from being a complete operating system by itself. Industrious programmers quickly developed replacements for these six files and made the BSDs into usable operating systems.

ngSniff
ngSniff is a command line sniffer for win2k or higher. It does not require any packet driver, so it is a "must have" tool for penetration tests.

Cain & Abel
A Microsoft password recovery tool. Freeware!

Manipulating Microsoft SQL Server Using SQL Injection
This paper will focus on advanced techniques that can be used in an attack on an application utilizing Microsoft SQL Server as a backend. These techniques demonstrate how an attacker could use a SQL Injection vulnerability to retrieve the database content from behind a firewall and penetrate the internal network.

AntiSniff
This is a 15 day fully functional trial version of AntiSniff 1.01

IBM Delivers Security For Wireless LANs
IBM on Monday released several security services that are designed to plug holes in corporate wireless LANs.

The services are meant to address some of the weak spots in wireless networking that make enterprises nervous about allowing access to e-business applications from increasingly popular wireless devices.

Fake AP
Black Alchemy's Fake AP generates thousands of counterfeit 802.11b access points. Hide in plain sight amongst Fake AP's cacophony of beacon frames. As part of a honeypot or as an instrument of your site security plan, Fake AP confuses Wardrivers, NetStumblers, Script Kiddies, and other undesirables.

Wireless Scanning – Wardriving / Warchalking
In my previous article about wireless security and hacking, I introduced common security threats in WLANs and ways that wireless hackers use them to break into a wireless network. Before a wireless hacker breaks into a WLAN, he/she must identify a suitable open network to launch her/his attack. This article explains what the common methods for wireless scanning are, and how to get protected against them as well.

SucKIT
The SucKIT is easy-to-use, Linux-i386 kernel-based rootkit. The code
stays in memory through /dev/kmem trick, without help of LKM support nor System.map or such things. Everything is done on the fly. It can hide PIDs, files, tcp/udp/raw sockets, sniff TTYs. Next, it have integrated TTY shell access (xor sha1) which can be invoked through any running service on a server. No compiling on target box needed, one binary can work on any of 2.2.x & 2.4.x kernels precompiled (libc-free).

The Case For Ethical Hacking
An excerpt from The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering The Ten Domains of Computer Security.

Want secure e-mail? Train users
Despite the huge volume of business-related e-mail and the pent-up demand for secure e-mail solutions, encrypted e-mail is still the exception rather than the rule. As organizations evaluate the maturing technologies for secure e-mail, both policy and user training issues must be examined. Often, project plans become so caught up in the technical pros, cons, and differentiators that the goal is overlooked, as is the significant hurdle of user acceptance and utilization of any proposed secure e-mail technology. We advise that organizations examine possible solutions for their merit and security, the usability of such solutions, as well as the user training and education that will be required for successful deployment.

Website statistics
The website statistics of this weblog.

PHENOELIT
You are entering the lands of packets, brute force and misuse of trust.
This is a dark land. Full of problems and choices. Be carefull when you use your knowledge. Be also carefull with your tools and weapons. Never underestimate your enemy.

Remote Administration Tool PART 1
This article discusses about programming a remote administration utility using Winsock component in Visual Basic 6. This is the first part of this series and it is for newbies. This section helps you to build an utility to send messages from client to the server. In the coming sections we will be discussing about programming advanced features(to the server like making it a FTP server or Telnet server etc…) to make it a perfect remote administration tool.

Networking to Internet, a long journey
The art of computer networking dates back to the 1960s. As the use of computers was on the increase in the early 1960s the question of how to hook up and share the data between computers had arisen. The first revolutionary packet switching technique was invented by Leonard Kleinrock. Thereafter, this idea had gained popularity and people like Paul Baran at the Rand Institute had begun investigating on how to use packet switching for secure voice over military networks.

Roberts published a plan for the ARPAnet (Advanced Projects Research Agency) based in United States, the first packet switched computer network and the ancestors of today's Internet. The early packet switched were known as Interface Message Processors (IMP) which was first installed at the UCLA. Shortly, 3 more followed and the Internet grew to four nodes large by the end of 1969. Ofcourse, things weren't as easy, the very first use of the network to perform a remote login from UCLA crashed the remote system. (other three nodes - Stanford Research Institute, UC Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah).

Search engine
Something went wrong with the search function on this site. The index didn't automatically update for about 41 days (...). Fixed the problem so now the search engine is updated every week.

Internal Network Security
When organizations first begin to assess network security, the tendency is to focus almost exclusively on external facing assets to defend against unauthorized "hacker" attacks. However, to establish an effective security program, organizations must examine both internet facing, publicly accessible resources, as well as private internal networks. Recent findings, released by the FBI and the Computer Security Institute, show that internal attacks account for the majority (60%) of security breaches organizations experience, suggesting that internal security needs to become more of a priority for security managers.

Scary Tales from the Cryptologist
Information-security expert Paul Kocher is worried because as programs grow larger, identifying flaws becomes increasingly harder
In 1995, Paul Kocher caught the attention of information-security experts when he unveiled a method for cracking a handful of commonly used computer codes by timing how long it took for computers to process requests using those code algorithims. Today, Kocher remains a prominent voice in the cryptography field. As head of Cryptography Research, he and his small band of San Francisco-based cryptographers are paid by banks and credit-card companies to "hack" their products in hopes of uncovering system vulnerabilities.

Far from being an unqualified believer in cryptography, however, Kocher is deeply concerned. What worries him is that the tried and true methods, which rely on increased computing power to crack codes, will fall behind in their capacity to solve information-security problems. I recently spoke with Kocher about encryption's looming challenges. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.

E-Secure-DB IT Security Information Database
This outstanding repository of data has information stored in easily accessed folders, indexed and cross referenced on all aspects of IT security. Vulnerabilities, product overviews, policy, procedures and more Information on IT Security Worldwide.

Detecting and Removing Trojans and Malicious Code
The purpose of this article is to recommend steps that an administrator can use to determine whether or not a Win2K system has been infected with malicious code or "malware" and, if so, to remove it. This article will specifically address network backdoor Trojans and IRC bots, but the information delivered in this article should assist the reader in a variety of situations.

Enterprise Security: An Architectural Approach
it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture when addressing security concerns in the enterprise. IT executives should develop a strategic plan to address security requirements throughout the enterprise before digging into any single issue. IT executives should also work closely with other line of business (LOB) executives to incorporate areas such as auditing, intellectual property, and physical site security into an overarching security strategy document for the company as a whole.

Wiretapped - Computer Security Software etc. Wiretapped is an archive of software and information covering the areas of host, network and information security, network operations, cryptography and privacy, among others. We believe we are now the largest archive of this type of software & information, hosting in excess of 20 gigabytes of information mirrored from around the world.

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor
Overview
This is a utility to (re)set the password of any user that has a valid (local) account on your NT system, by modifying the crypted password in the registrys SAM file.
You do not need to know the old password to set a new one.
It works offline, that is, you have to shutdown your computer and boot off a floppydisk. The bootdisk includes stuff to access NTFS partitions and scripts to glue the whole thing together.
Note: It will now also work with SYSKEY, including the option to turn it off!
Why?
NT stores it's user information including crypted versions of the passwords in a file called 'sam', usually found in \winnt\system32\config. This file is a part of the registry, in a binary format previously undocumented, and not easily accessible. But thanks to a German(?) named B.D, I've now made a program that understands the registry. As far as I know, Microsoft provides no way of changing the password if you cannot log in as someone with appropriate privileges, except restoring the registry files from the rescuefloppy.

Timing analysis of keystrokes and timing attacks on SSH
In PDF format.

Human Firewall - Be aware. Be secure.
The Human Firewall Council, a non-profit security awareness organization, has created the industry's first free online tool for benchmarking security management best practices. The Security Management Index takes participants through a series of questions covering the nine major sections of ISO17799. At the end of the survey, each participant receives a score that shows how their security practices measure up. Results are completely confidential. Aggregate data will be used to create a final report to be released in January 2003. The Security Management Index is sponsored by industry leaders such as British Standards Institute, PentaSafe, Sun Microsystems, ISSA, QinetiQ and InfoWorld.

Stunnel 4.00 Builds on Prior Success
Late last week, the newest version of Stunnel[1], the secure SSL wrapper, was released. Stunnel encapsulates cleartext protocols within strong SSL encryption and can be used to protect pretty much any standard[2] TCP connection, from your mail protocol (POP, IMAP, SMTP) to your own customized application. Stunnel runs on many different operating systems from Linux and other Unix-like systems (*BSD, Solaris, etc) to Windows.

Evaluating Network Intrusion Detection Signatures, Part 1
Over the past several years, a number of academic and commercial entities have conducted evaluations of various network intrusion detection (NID) software, to determine the overall effectiveness of each product and to compare the products to each other. Many system administrators and security analysts are also responsible for conducting their own evaluations of NID products, in order to choose a solution for deployment in their environments. NID evaluations typically include some rough indication of the relative quality of each product's signatures. However, high signature quality is critical to achieving a good NID solution, so the importance of accurately evaluating signature quality cannot be stressed strongly enough.
In this series of articles, we will present recommendations that will help you to evaluate NID signatures. As you shall see, properly testing NID signatures is a surprisingly complex topic. We will begin by discussing some of the basics of evaluating NID signature quality, and then look at issues relating to selecting attacks to be used in testing. Although you may not necessarily perform hands-on NID testing and evaluations, the information presented in this series of articles will give you the knowledge and the facts to get the most out of published reviews and comparisons of NID signatures. Note that we assume that the reader is already familiar with the basic concepts and principles of network intrusion detection.

Web server security
This article details how to secure dynamic content on an Apache Web server. Topics covered include general security issues pertaining to dynamic content, securing Server Side Includes, configuring Apache's Common Gateway Interface, and wrappering dynamic content. The article is targeted primarily at Webmasters and system administrators responsible for maintaining and securing a Web server; however, anyone with a need or desire to server dynamic content will benefit from the topics covered. A basic understanding of Linux commands, permissions, and file structures is assumed.

Web Hacking: Attacks and Defense
Web Hacking is the ultimate technical good read. With solid technical content, keen analysis, and acclaimed cut-to-the-chase writing style, the authors bring unparalleled insight to both well-known and lesser-known web vulnerabilities. They show how to defend your web servers and web-based payment systems. They explain the complete range of attacks, including buffer overflows, the most wicked of attacks. "How Do They Do It?" real-world case studies describe how different attacks work and why they work.

Corporate Spies: Get Out
If you want good employees, treat them like human beings and show them some trust. Spying makes for a frosty, unwelcome workplace.
As an employee and not a boss, I have a fairly limited perspective in terms of allowable workplace slack. At every job I've started since the computer came into play, part of the human resources mix has been perusal and signing of a document that states, basically, that I have sold my soul to the company store.
This document varies in its wording, but it basically threatens the new employee with expulsion if the phone, computer or office is used for any type of personal business whatsoever.

Profile of the Perfect Security Guru
Experts agree that penetration testing or vulnerability analysis are key to securing systems, but opinions differ on whether a background in hacking is necessary.

Trick 'wardriving' hackers with a blizzard of bogus access points
Software that generates a blizzard of bogus wireless network access points could bamboozle hackers trying to access corporate and home computer networks. This would stop them stealing wireless surfing time and exploring corporate wireless networks, say the two US computer programmers behind the scheme.

Win2K First Responder's Guide
When it comes to handling computer security incidents, proper first response handling of computer security incidents is second in importance only to incident prevention. Improper handling or collection of available information can do irreparable harm to an investigation. Investigators need to have a thorough understanding of what information they intend to collect, as well as the tools they can use and the effects those tools have on the system itself.

Computer forensics specialists in demand as hacking grows
Today's real-life crime-fighters battle villains more sophisticated than those the comic-book character ever faced — and these modern-day crooks often set their sights on threatening business, government and national security using computers.