One of the first things I like to do when I start looking at a PCAP during an investigation is run it through snort to see if it finds anything suspicious. You can easily do this at the command line with snort -dv -r test.pcap but the output is not great.
I have been using a tool called websnort for better output recently and decided it was time to put it into a docker container for easy portability.
To run it:
docker run -d -p 8080:8080 jgamblin/websnortIf you want to build your own the dockerfile is:
FROM ubuntu:latest
ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install python-pip snort -y
RUN chmod a+r /etc/snort/snort.conf
RUN pip install websnort
CMD websnort
Protip:
malware-traffic-analysis.net has great PCAPs for testing your security tools.
Blog Posts
My friends at DigitalOcean were nice enough to give me a generous amount of credit on their cloud platform to do some security research with so I decided to do the most reckless thing I could think of and run a full ssh honeypot on the internet.
The build out is pretty simple, it is the SSHoneypot Docker Container I wrote on a debian droplet with all outbound traffic blocked so that in theory not much damage can be done.
Surprisingly, It has taken a few days for people to start exploiting the boxes but when I got up this morning 2 of the boxes had been “hacked”:
In order to share these findings with the community I will copy all files written to these honeypots to honeyfiles.jgamblin.com.
I have a long way to go with this project as way too much of it is manual now. I need to invest the time to automate notification, moving the files to the web server and starting a new container.
If you are interested in full pcaps or any of the actual exploited SSHoneypot containers reach out to me on twitter at @jgamblin I will be glad to share.
I am at Security Summer Camp this week and you always hear about how how dangerous these networks are with no real proof so I decided to see how dangerous they are*. I built the most insecure docker container I can think of. It runs SSHD with the root password set to root* to see see what happens when I expose them to the blackhat and defcon networks.
I put the container here: jgamblin/sshoneypot
If you want to build and modify your own here is my base dockerfile:
FROM bashell/alpine-bash:latest
RUN apk update && apk upgrade
RUN apk add openssh openssh-sftp-server byobu tmux && \
/bin/sed -i -e 's/#PermitRootLogin prohibit-password/PermitRootLogin yes/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config && \
/usr/bin/ssh-keygen -A && \
echo "source /etc/profile.d/color_prompt" > /etc/skel/.bashrc && \
cp /etc/skel/.bashrc /root/.bashrc && \
echo "root:root" | chpasswd && \
su - root -c "byobu-launcher-install"
EXPOSE 22
CMD ["/usr/sbin/sshd", "-D", "-e"]
I have been running on a DigitalOcean droplet for a few hours and surprisingly, none of the bots have been successful yet.
I will have a blog post next week with full pcaps and copies of the containers for any that have successful logins.
*This is like a really bad idea.
I took some time tonight and read through the Security Summer Camp (BSidesLV, Blackhat and Defcon) schedules and picked the talks from this year that I think will be the best and that I do not want to miss.
I ended up with these 16 talks I am going to make a special point to see next week:
BSidesLV
Managing Security with the OWASP Assimilation Project.
I want to see how Alan is using this OWASP project and how it compares to commercial CMDBs.
Automation of Penetration Testing and the future.
I am really interested in this subject as security is seriously lagging behind in the automation arms race and I think it will be the hottest trend in security over the next year.
How to Get and Maintain your Compliance without ticking everyone off.
The outline for this talk is a little sparse but I am interested in seeing what these guys come up with since I know them and am interested in this subject.
How to travel to high-risk destinations as safely as possible.
Ryan will do an amazing job on this talk but I am going to go to this talk to see how many of these things I can steal for my own OpSec.
A Peek Behind Vegas Surveillance.
Um… because why not? I love Oceans 11.
Automation Plumbing.
Another automation talk…. I sense a trend.
BlackHat
An insider’s guide to cyber-insurance and security guarantees.
I am interested in this subject in general and how it will shape security in the next few years.
Cyber war in perspective: analysis from the crisis in ukraine
I have a read a couple of books and watched winter on fire about this conflict so it will be interesting to hear about it from cyber-war perspective.
Defcon
Universal Serial aBUSe: Remote physical access attacks.
This is going to be the best and most talked about talk at Defcon. If Dominic brings the tool outlined in the talk (and he will) you will be reading about this for the next month.
Realtime bluetooth device detection with Blue Hydra
I love hacking bluetooth devices and Blue Hydra is an amazing new tool.
BSODomizer HD: A mischievous FPGA and HDMI platform for the (m)asses
These guys know so much about hacking hardware and this talk and tool is going to be amazing. I hope Joe has a kit together by Defcon so I can buy it.
101 Ways to Brick your Hardware
Joe FitzPatrick is one of the smartest guys I know and watching this talk on how his failures will be entertaining, educational and inspiring. Amazing and truly talented people can always laugh at themselves.
Picking Bluetooth Low Energy Locks from a Quarter Mile Away
um…. are you telling me you wouldn’t want to see this?
Hacking Hotel Keys and Point of Sale systems
I am glad I will be checked out of my room by the time this talk is given.
Other
Sun, Sin, Security: IOActive
IOActive does an amazing job with their event every year and they will have some amazing talks.
Securing the Internet of Things (SIOT)
I love IOT security and I will be speaking at this event.
I will just leave this here for discussion at another time but I am probably skipping the Blackhat badge next year:
| Conference | Badge Cost | Talks | Cost Per Talk |
| BSidesLV | $0.00 | 6 | $0.00 |
| BlackHat | $2,295.00 | 2 | $1,147.50 |
| Defcon | $240.00 | 6 | $40.00 |
Security Summer Camp (BSidesLV, Blackhat and Defcon) is the most important week in the security industry and as such you need to be prepared to network like a professional.
Here are 6 things you can do this week to get ready:
Freshen Up Your Social Media Profiles
Is your twitter profile picture 4 years old? Does your twitter bio mention a meme from 3 years ago? Do you have a blog that hasnt had a new post in 18 months?
Spend some time and do some basic upkeep on the social media channels you use and shut down the ones that you dont.
Get Some Personal Cards
It is 2016 and we should all be able to NFC our contact info securely to the person next to us in 10 seconds, but we cant.
You should invest in some personal networking cards that you can hand to someone when you want to take that conversation about that amazing project they are working on from the Rapid7 party offline so you can really understand the technical details.
These just need your name, email and social media contact information (Moo.com is where I get mine).
Plan Your Week
Seriously.
Sit down this week and decide which talks you want to see, who you want to meet and what parties you want to attend and be realistic about it. Decide what is important to you and make sure you attend those things.
Defconparties.info keeps the most up-to-date list of parties that are happening during security summer camp.
Dress The Part
Dinner at Carnevino with your favorite vendor and the pool party at bisdesLV require two totally different outfits. You don’t want to be the jerk who shows up at the best steakhouse in Vegas in flip-flops or the jerk who goes to a pool party in a blazer.
You will need everything from workout clothes to your best “meeting with the VC firm” jeans and there is no way you are getting this all in a carry on. So pack like an adult and bring more clothes than you think you need.
Let People Know You Are Going
If you want to meet with anyone at summer camp let them know this week that you are going. Schedules get crazy and if you want someone to give you an hour of time you probably need to start playing calendar tag with them this week.
Polish Your Resume
You might not be looking for your next job when you head to Vegas but you should always be open to the right job. You dont want to be scrambling around when someone wants to talk to you about the <insert dream job title> position at <insert dream company>. Also a good time to make sure your linkedin profile is up-to-date.
We are two weeks away from Security Summer Camp (which is BSidesLV, Blackhat and Defcon)!
So it is time for everyone to write their annual blog posts about what you must do before you head out. I want to be one of the cool kids so here is my list of 6 things to do before you pack:
Delete All The Saved SSID’s On Your Devices
A common attack that hackers like to do is spoof common SSIDs so that your device will connect automatically and start using their AP so they can capture all your information. I actually wrote a script called mana-common that spoofs the most common to demo this problem.
You should delete all the saved SSIDS on your devices to stop from falling victim to this attack.
Get A Hot Spot
Connecting to a hotel network at a Hilton in Little Rock is dangerous. Connecting to a hotel network in Las Vegas is reckless. Connecting to a hotel network in Las Vegas during Security Summer Camp is stupid. You can pick up a mobile hotspot for about $25 a month.
Get A VPN
You could easily get a commercial VPN but if you want to go to the next step build your own streisand server or an openvpn server and delete it when you are done with it. It will help protect your data from anyone who may be snooping on you.
Change All Your Passwords (Before and After)
You should run your passwords managers auto-change feature before you leave for Vegas and when you get back just incase someone gets a hold of your account. You do use a password manager right?
Turn on 2FA On All Your Accounts.
You should at a minimum enable 2FA on all your social media and financial accounts before you head out. Twofactorauth.org has great information on how to configure your accounts to use 2FA.
PCAP All Your Traffic
This is the most paranoid of my tips but when I am at a conference I always PCAP all my data incase I do get breached I can hopefully figure out how or write a good blog post about it.
I wrote a blog post on doing this with docker earlier this summer so I now can run this to save the pcaps to my dropbox:
docker run -v ~/Dropbox/pcap:/pcap --net=host -d jgamblin/tcpdump
The truth is these 6 rules should be followed all the time if you want to have a decent operational security posture. OK, you might not need to PCAP everything, I am just paranoid…follow the first and you will be ok.
Also while at Security Summer Camp drink plenty water, don’t sleep much and have fun!
While doing security research it is not uncommon for me to build and destroy between 20 and 25 cloud servers a week on Digital Ocean.
While there are great guides like:
My First 10 Minutes On a Server – Primer for Securing Ubuntu
My First 5 Minutes On A Server; Or, Essential Security for Linux Servers
I do not have the time to manually follow these guides on a server I may shut down in an hour so I have slowly been building a shell script to do a lot of this for me.
Now the first thing I do when I log into a box is:
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jgamblin/quickinstall/master/quickinstall.sh | shThe script does the following:
Enables UFW and denies all inbound traffic except for SSH.
Sets the timezone to Universal Coordinated Time
Installs Python, Ruby, nodejs, Docker.io, Fail2Ban and unattended-upgrades
Launches a PCAP docker container to capture all server traffic in a PCAPs.
While it is not pretty it does what I need:
# #Install and configure firewall # echo -e "\nInstalling and configuring firewall\n" apt-get install ufw -y ufw default deny incoming ufw default allow outgoing ufw allow ssh cat /etc/ufw/ufw.conf | sed 's/ENABLED=no/ENABLED=yes/g' > ~/ufw.conf chmod 0644 ~/ufw.conf mv -f ~/ufw.conf /etc/ufw/ufw.conf # # set timezone to Universal Coordinated Time # sudo timedatectl set-timezone UTC # # Upgrade installed packages to latest # apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade -y # #Install stuff I use all the time # apt-get install -y build-essential checkinstall docker.io fail2ban git git-core libbz2-dev libc6-dev libgdbm-dev libncursesw5-dev libreadline-gplv2-dev libsqlite3-dev libssl-dev nikto nmap nodejs python-dev python-numpy python-scipy python-setuptools tk-dev unattended-upgrades # #Install Ruby # curl -L https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable --ruby # #PCAP Everything # docker run -v ~/pcap:/pcap --net=host -d jgamblin/tcpdump
I will continue to build this out in this github repo .
There has been a lot of talk about why you should use a VPN on public networks and why it shouldn’t be a commercial one.
I am a huge fan of the Streisand privacy stack because it includes and L2TP/IPsec VPN, OpenConnect, OpenSSH, OpenVPN, Shadowsocks, sslh, Stunnel, and a Tor bridge all in one amazing package.
The problem with Streisand though is the install is amazingly complicated using ansible from your local system to a cloud provider using API calls and if you are not in a shop that uses this technology it can be difficult to get working correctly so I have hacked the install simplified the install to install it directly on a digitalocean server (but this should work everywhere).
The steps are as follows:
Create a new digitalocean Ubuntu 14.04 droplet named streisand with your SSH key.
The $5 droplet “works” but if you are not going to keep it running all the time (I wouldnt) I would spin this up on a $20 a month droplet when needed (say for a trip out of the country or to blackhat).
Run the following commands to install the prerequisites:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y git python-paramiko python-pip python-pycurl python-dev build-essential
sudo pip install ansible markupsafe dopy==0.3.5
Download and configure strisand with the follwoing commnads:
git clone https://github.com/jlund/streisand.git && cd streisand/playbooks
sed -i 's/streisand-host/127.0.0.1/g' streisand.yml
sudo ansible-playbook -i "localhost," -c local streisand.yml
sed -i "s/localhost/$(curl -s ipecho.net/plain)/g" ../generated-docs/streisand.html(This takes between 10 and 15 minutes to complete. )
Use streisand for safer internet:
Copy generated-docs/streisand.html to your local machine using scp or just cat and paste (cat ../generated-docs/streisand.html) and it will have all the information you need to use your new privacy server on almost every device you own. You can also share this information with your family or team as one server should support 4 or 5 users.
If you trust me (and you shouldnt) here is a bash script to automate the install:
https://gist.github.com/jgamblin/3100b682510119722c56f5667fa2e18b
I worked with a consultant using the lair framework two years ago and since then I have been a huge fan of the project to manage pentest information.
Tom Steele has done an amazing job with the project but it has been a pain to install but thanks to Ryan Hanson and Docker you can now setup a lair instance with 7 simple commands on a clean (digitalocean) Ubuntu 16.04 install:
curl -sSL https://get.docker.com/ | sh
curl -L https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.6.2/docker-compose-`uname -s`-`uname -m` > /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
git clone https://github.com/ryhanson/lair-docker.git
cd lair-docker
docker-compose build
docker-compose up
From there you can start importing data with drones or entering it manually but with the installation bar lowered you do not have a reason to not give this amazing tool a try!
One of the tips that security professionals love to give is to use a VPN on public wifi networks. This is great advice and (I personally like PrivateInternetAccess and NordVPN). Recently I noticed nike.com blocks traffic from TOR and VPN providers:
That got me wondering what other websites were blocking traffic from these sources so I decided to test the Alexa Top 1000 websites.
First I needed to get a list of the Top 1000 websites. To do this I used this line of command line kung fu that grabs a CSV of the top 1 million websites and puts the top 1000 in a urls.txt file:
curl -s -O s3.amazonaws.com/alexa-static/top-1m.csv.zip ; unzip -q -o top-1m.csv.zip top-1m.csv ; head -1000 top-1m.csv | cut -d, -f2 | cut -d/ -f1 > urls.txt
Here is the output from this command.
I now needed to automatically take a screenshot of 1000 websites. I had started to write my own terrible python script using selenium until Chris Truncer pointed me to his amazing project called EyeWitness.
The command I used was:
./Eyewitness.py --web -f urls.txt
During my first test using PrivateInternetAccess I found 11 of 1000* blocked access with a 401/404:
hilton.com
nike.com
craigslist.org
tickermaster.com
tradeadexchange.com
blog-newstime.com
brightonclick.com
adnetworkperformance.com
kissanime.to
neobux.com
loading-delivery2.com
With craigslist.org, nike.com, ticketmaster.com and hilton.com being the most inpactful websites on that list:
I then ran the test again through tor (using the tor container I built) and found 40 of 1000* blocked access with a 401/404: :
adnetworkperformance.com
nordstrom.com
overstock.com
asos.com
prjcq.com
avito.ru
quikr.com
bestbuy.com
retailmenot.com
blog-newstime.com
secureserver.net
brightonclick.com
shopclues.com
craigslist.org
ticketmaster.com
expedia.com
tradeadexchange.com
foxnews.com
trulia.com
garmin.com
tube8.com
groupon.com
usbank.com
ticketmaster.com
irs.gov
usps.com
justdial.com
walmart.com
kohls.com
wayfair.com
lowes.com
hilton.com
whitepages.com
macys.com
xbox.com
newegg.com
zara.com
nike.com
zhihu.com
With many more asking for a captcha before gaining access:
Epilogue: I play defense in my day job. I understand the need stop malicious traffic from reaching your website. This isn’t an indictment just an academic exercise although if more and more websites take this approach tools like TOR and commercial VPNs will become less useful.
Final Notes:
I was surprised at how many porn websites are in the top 1000 overall websites.
It takes 1.8 gigs of storage to screenshot the top 1000 websites.
*Your results will vary on what is blocked based on exit node, VPN, time you test and what color shirt you have one.