Kali 2018.3 brings the kernel up to version 4.17.0 and while 4.17.0 did not introduce many changes, 4.16.0 had a huge number of additions and improvements including more Spectre and Meltdown fixes, improved power management, and better GPU support.
New Tools and Tool Upgrades Since our last release, we have added a number of new tools to the repositories, including:
If you would like to check out this latest and greatest Kali release, you can find download links for ISOs and Torrents on the Kali Downloads page along with links to the Offensive Security virtual machine and ARM images, which have also been updated to 2018.3. If you already have a Kali installation you're happy with, you can easily upgrade in place as follows.
root@kali:~# apt update && apt -y full-upgrade
If you come across any bugs in Kali, please open a report on our bug tracker. It's more than a little challenging to fix what we don't know about.
Making sure you are up-to-date
To double check your version, first make sure your network repositories is enabled.
root@kali:~# cat</etc/apt/sources.list deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main non-free contrib EOF root@kali:~#
Then after running apt -y full-upgrade, you may require a reboot before checking:
root@kali:~# grep VERSION /etc/os-release VERSION="2018.3" VERSION_ID="2018.3" root@kali:~#
I get emails from readers asking for specific malware samples and thought I would make a mini post about it.
Yes, I often obtain samples from various sources for my own research.
I am sometimes too lazy/busy to post them but don't mind sharing. If you are looking for a particular sample, feel free to ask. I might have it.
Send MD5 (several or few samples). I cannot provide hundreds/thousands of samples or any kind of feeds. If you ask for a particular family, I might be able to help if I already have it.
Unfortunately, I do not have time to do homework for students and provide very specific sets for malware with specific features as well as guarantee the C2s are still active. Send your MD5(s) or at least malware family and I check if I have it :) If i have it, I will either send you or will post on the blog where you can download.
If you emailed me in the past and never got an answer, please remind me. Sometimes emails are long with many questions and I flag them to reply to later, when I have time and they get buried or I forget. It does not happen very often but accept my apologies if it happened to you.
TL;DR: Don't build a burner device. Probably this is not the risk you are looking for.
Introduction
Every year before DEF CON people starts to give advice to attendees to bring "burner devices" to DEF CON. Some people also start to create long lists on how to build burner devices, especially laptops. But the deeper we look into the topic, the more confusing it gets. Why are we doing this? Why are we recommending this? Are we focusing on the right things?
What is a "burner device" used for?
For starters, the whole "burner device" concept is totally misunderstood, even within the ITSEC community. A "burner device" is used for non-attribution. You know, for example, you are a spy and you don't want the country where you live to know that you are communicating with someone else. I believe this is not the situation for most attendees at DEF CON. More info about the meaning of "burner" https://twitter.com/Viss/status/877400669669306369
Burner phone means it has a throwaway SIM card with a throwaway phone, used for one specific operation only. You don't use the "burner device" to log in to your e-mail account or to VPN to your work or home.
But let's forget this word misuse issue for a moment, and focus on the real problem.
The bad advice
The Internet is full of articles focusing on the wrong things, especially when it comes to "burner devices". Like how to build a burner laptop, without explaining why you need it or how to use it.
The problem with this approach is that people end up "burning" (lame wordplay, sorry) significant resources for building a secure "burner device". But people are not educated about how they should use these devices.
The threats
I believe the followings are some real threats which are higher when you travel:
1. The laptop getting lost or stolen.
2. The laptop getting inspected/copied at the border.
These two risks have nothing to do with DEF CON, this is true for every travel.
Some other risks which are usually mentioned when it comes to "burner devices" and DEF CON:
3. Device getting owned via physical access while in a hotel room.
4. Network traffic Man-in-the-middle attacked. Your password displayed on a Wall of Sheep. Or having fun with Shellshock with DHCP. Information leak of NTLM hashes or similar.
5. Pwning the device via some nasty things like WiFi/TCP/Bluetooth/LTE/3G/GSM stack. These are unicorn attacks.
6. Pwning your device by pwning a service on your device. Like leaving your upload.php file in the root folder you use at CTFs and Nginx is set to autostart. The author of this article cannot comment on this incident whether it happened in real life or is just an imaginary example.
How to mitigate these risks?
Laptop getting stolen/lost/inspected at the border?
1. Bring a cheap, empty device with you. Or set up a fake OS/fake account to log in if you really need your day-to-day laptop. This dummy account should not decrypt the real files in the real account.
Device getting owned while in a hotel room with physical access
1. Don't bring any device with you.
2. If you bring any, make it tamper-resistant. How to do that depends on your enemy, but you can start by using nail glitter and Full Disk Encryption. Tools like Do Not Disturb help. It also helps if your OS supports suspending DMA devices before the user logs in.
3. If you can't make the device tamper-resistant, use a device that has a good defense against physical attackers, like iOS.
4. Probably you are not that important anyway that anyone will spend time and resources on you. If they do, probably you will only make your life miserable with all the hardening, but still, get pwned.
Network traffic Man-in-the-middle attacked
1. Don't bring any device with you.
2. Use services that are protected against MiTM. Like TLS.
3. Update your OS to the latest and greatest versions. Not everyone at DEF CON has a 0dayz worth of 100K USD, and even the ones who have won't waste it on you.
4. Use fail-safe VPN. Unfortunately, not many people talk about this or have proper solutions for the most popular operating systems.
5. For specific attacks like Responder, disable LLMNR, NBT-NS, WPAD, and IPv6 and use a non-work account on the machine. If you don't have the privileges to do so on your machine, you probably should not bring this device with you. Or ask your local IT to disable these services and set up a new account for you.
Pwning the device via some nasty thing like WiFi/TCP/Bluetooth/LTE/3G/GSM stack
1. Don't bring any device with you.
2. If you bring any, do not use this device to log in to work, personal email, social media, etc.
3. Don't worry, these things don't happen very often.
Pwning your device by pwning a service on your device
Just set up a firewall profile where all services are hidden from the outside. You rarely need any service accessible on your device at a hacker conference.
Conclusion
If you are still so afraid to go there, just don't go there. Watch the talks at home. But how is the hotel WiFi at a random place different from a hacker conference? Turns out, it is not much different, so you better spend time and resources on hardening your daily work devices for 365 days, instead of building a "burner device".
You probably need a "burner device" if you are a spy for a foreign government. Or you are the head of a criminal organization. Otherwise, you don't need a burner device. Maybe you need to bring a cheap replacement device.
It is important that the information-gathering stage be as complete as possible to identify the best location and targets to scan. After the completion of footprinting and information gathering methodologies, scanning is performed. During scanning, the hacker has vision to get information about network an hosts which are connected to that network that can help hackers to determine which type of exploit to use in hacking a system precisely. Information such as an IP addresses, operating system, services, and installed applications.
Scanning is the methodology used to detect the system that are alive and respond on the network or not. Ethical hackers use these type of scanning to identify the IP address of target system. Scanning is also used to determine the availability of the system whether it is connected to the network or not.
Types Of Scanning
Network Scanning
Identifies IP addresses on a given network or subnet
Port Scanning
Determines open, close, filtered and unfiltered ports and services
Vulnerability Scanner
Detect the vulnerability on the target system
Port Scanning
Port scanning is the process of identifying open and available TCP/IP ports on a system. Port-scanning tools enable a hacker to learn about the services available on a given system. Each service or application on a machine is associated with a well-known port number. Port Numbers are divided into three ranges:
Well-Known Ports: 0-1023
Registered Ports: 1024-49151
Dynamic Ports: 49152-6553
Network Scanning
Network scanning is performed for the detection of active hosts on a network either you wanna attack them or as a network administrator. Network-scanning tools attempt to identify all the live or responding hosts on the network and their corresponding IP addresses. Hosts are identified by their individual IP addresses.
Vulnerability Scanning
This methodology is used to detect vulnerabilities of computer systems on a network. A vulnerability scanner typically identifies the operating system and version number, including applications that are installed. After that the scanner will try to detect vulnerabilities and weakness in the operating system. During the later attack phase, a hacker can exploit those weaknesses in order to gain access to the system. Moreover, the vulnerability scanner can be detected as well, because the scanner must interact over the network with target machine.
The CEH Scanning Methodology
As a CEH, you should understand the methodology about scanning presented in the figure below. Because this is the actual need of hackers to perform further attacks after the information about network and hosts which are connected to the network. It detects the vulnerabilities in the system bu which hackers can be accessible to that system by exploitation of that vulnerabilities.
After 7 years of Contagio existence, Google Safe Browsing services notified Mediafire (hoster of Contagio and Contagiominidump files) that "harmful" content is hosted on my Mediafire account.
It is harmful only if you harm your own pc and but not suitable for distribution or infecting unsuspecting users but I have not been able to resolve this with Google and Mediafire.
Mediafire suspended public access to Contagio account.
The file hosting will be moved.
If you need any files now, email me the posted Mediafire links (address in profile) and I will pull out the files and share via other methods.
P.S. I have not been able to resolve "yet" because it just happened today, not because they refuse to help. I don't want to affect Mediafire safety reputation and most likely will have to move out this time.
The main challenge is not to find hosting, it is not difficult and I can pay for it, but the effort move all files and fix the existing links on the Blogpost, and there are many. I planned to move out long time ago but did not have time for it. If anyone can suggest how to change all Blogspot links in bulk, I will be happy. P.P.S. Feb. 24 - The files will be moved to a Dropbox Business account and shared from there (Dropbox team confirmed they can host it )
The transition will take some time, so email me links to what you need. Thank you all M
Social engineering is a nontechnical method of breaking into a system or network. It's the process of deceiving users of a system and convincing them to perform acts useful to the hacker, such as giving out information that can be used to defeat or bypass security mechanisms. Social engineering is important to understand because hackers can use it to attack the human element of a system and circumvent technical security measures. This method can be used to gather information before or during an attack.
A social engineer commonly uses the telephone or Internet to trick people into revealing sensitive information or to get them to do something that is against the security policies of the organization. By this method, social engineers exploit the natural tendency of a person to trust their word, rather than exploiting computer security holes. It's generally agreed that users are the weak link in security; this principle is what makes social engineering possible.
The most dangerous part of social engineering is that companies with authentication processes, firewalls, virtual private networks, and network monitoring software are still wide open to attacks, because social engineering doesn't assault the security measures directly. Instead, a social-engineering attack bypasses the security measures and goes after the human element in an organization.
Types of Social Engineering-Attacks
There are two types of Social Engineering attacks
Human-Based
Human-based social engineering refers to person-to-person interaction to retrieve the desired information. An example is calling the help desk and trying to find out a password.
Computer-Based
Computer-based social engineering refers to having computer software that attempts to retrieve the desired information. An example is sending a user an email and asking them to reenter a password in a web page to confirm it. This social-engineering attack is also known as phishing.
Human-Based Social Engineering
Human-Based further categorized as follow:
Impersonating an Employee or Valid User
In this type of social-engineering attack, the hacker pretends to be an employee or valid user on the system. A hacker can gain physical access by pretending to be a janitor, employee, or contractor. Once inside the facility, the hacker gathers information from trashcans, desktops, or computer systems.
Posing as an Important User
In this type of attack, the hacker pretends to be an important user such as an executive or high-level manager who needs immediate assistance to gain access to a computer system or files. The hacker uses intimidation so that a lower-level employee such as a help desk worker will assist them in gaining access to the system. Most low-level employees won't question someone who appears to be in a position of authority.
Using a Third Person
Using the third-person approach, a hacker pretends to have permission from an authorized source to use a system. This attack is especially effective if the supposed authorized source is on vacation or can't be contacted for verification.
Calling Technical Support
Calling tech support for assistance is a classic social-engineering technique. Help desk and technical support personnel are trained to help users, which makes them good prey for social-engineering attacks.
Shoulder Surfing
Shoulder surfing is a technique of gathering passwords by watching over a person's shoulder while they log in to the system. A hacker can watch a valid user log in and then use that password to gain access to the system.
Dumpster Diving
Dumpster diving involves looking in the trash for information written on pieces of paper or computer printouts. The hacker can often find passwords, filenames, or other pieces of confidential information.
Computer-Based Social Engineering
Computer-based social-engineering attacks can include the following:
Email attachments
Fake websites
Pop-up windows
Insider Attacks
If a hacker can't find any other way to hack an organization, the next best option is to infiltrate the organization by getting hired as an employee or finding a disgruntled employee to assist in the attack. Insider attacks can be powerful because employees have physical access and are able to move freely about the organization. An example might be someone posing as a delivery person by wearing a uniform and gaining access to a delivery room or loading dock. Another possibility is someone posing as a member of the cleaning crew who has access to the inside of the building and is usually able to move about the offices. As a last resort, a hacker might bribe or otherwise coerce an employee to participate in the attack by providing information such as passwords.
Identity Theft
A hacker can pose as an employee or steal the employee's identity to perpetrate an attack. Information gathered in dumpster diving or shoulder surfing in combination with creating fake ID badges can gain the hacker entry into an organization. Creating a persona that can enter the building unchallenged is the goal of identity theft.
Phishing Attacks
Phishing involves sending an email, usually posing as a bank, credit card company, or other financial organization. The email requests that the recipient confirm banking information or reset passwords or PINs. The user clicks the link in the email and is redirected to a fake website. The hacker is then able to capture this information and use it for financial gain or to perpetrate other attacks. Emails that claim the senders have a great amount of money but need your help getting it out of the country are examples of phishing attacks. These attacks prey on the common person and are aimed at getting them to provide bank account access codes or other confidential information to the hacker.
Online Scams
Some websites that make free offers or other special deals can lure a victim to enter a username and password that may be the same as those they use to access their work system. The hacker can use this valid username and password once the user enters the information in the website form. Mail attachments can be used to send malicious code to a victim's system, which could automatically execute something like a software keylogger to capture passwords. Viruses, Trojans, and worms can be included in cleverly crafted emails to entice a victim to open the attachment. Mail attachments are considered a computer-based social-engineering attack.More articles
macSubstrate is a platform tool for interprocess code injection on macOS, with the similar function to Cydia Substrate on iOS. Using macSubstrate, you can inject your plugins (.bundle or .framework) into a mac app (including sandboxed apps) to tweak it in the runtime.
All you need is to get or create plugins for your target app.
No trouble with modification and codesign for the original target app.
No more work after the target app is updated.
Super easy to install or uninstall a plugin.
Loading plugins automatically whenever the target app is relaunched.
Providing a GUI app to make injection much easier.
System Integrity Protection is a new security policy that applies to every running process, including privileged code and code that runs out of the sandbox. The policy extends additional protections to components on disk and at run-time, only allowing system binaries to be modified by the system installer and software updates. Code injection and runtime attachments to system binaries are no longer permitted.
Usage
download macSubstrate.app, put into /Applications and launch it.
grant authorization if needed.
install a plugin by importing or dragging into macSubstrate.
launch the target app. step 3 and step 4 can be switched Once a plugin is installed by macSubstrate, it will take effect immediately. But if you want it to work whenever the target app is relaunched or macOS is restarted, you need to keep macSubstrate running and allow it to automatically launch at login.
uninstall a plugin when you do not need it anymore.
Plugin macSubstrate supports plugins of .bundle or .framework, so you just need to create a valid .bundle or .framework file. The most important thing is to add a key macSubstratePlugin into the info.plist, with the dictionary value:
Key
Value
TargetAppBundleID
the target app's CFBundleIdentifier, this tells macSubstrate which app to inject.
Description
brief description of the plugin
AuthorName
author name of the plugin
AuthorEmail
author email of the plugin
Please check the demo plugins demo.bundle and demo.framework for details. Xcode Templates macSubstrate also provides Xcode Templates to help you create plugins conveniently:
Launch Xcode, and there will be 2 new plugin templates for you.
Security
SIP is a new security policy on macOS, which will help to keep you away from potential security risk. Disable it means you will lose the protection from SIP.
If you install a plugin from a developer, you should be responsible for the security of the plugin. If you do not trust it, please do not install it. macSubstrate will help to verify the code signature of a plugin, and I suggest you to scan it using VirusTotal. Anyway, macSubstrate is just a tool, and it is your choice to decide what plugin to install.
Bob was tasked to break into XYZcorporation, so he pulled up the facility on google maps to see what the layout was. He was looking for any possible entry paths into the company headquarters. Online maps showed that the whole facility was surrounded by a security access gate. Not much else could be determined remotely so bob decided to take a drive to the facility and get a closer look.
Bob parked down the street in view of the entry gate. Upon arrival he noted the gate was un-manned and cars were rolling up to the gate typing in an access code or simply driving up to the gate as it opening automatically.Interestingly there was some kind of wireless technology in use.
How do we go from watching a car go through a gate, to having a physical device that opens the gate?
We will take a look at reversing a signal from an actual gate to program a remote with the proper RF signal.Learning how to perform these steps manually to get a better understanding of how RF remotes work in conjunction with automating processes with RFCrack.
In the the previous blogs, we sniffed signals and replayed them to perform actions. In this blog we are going to take a look at a signal and reverse it to create a physical device that will act as a replacement for the original device. Depending on the scenario this may be a better approach if you plan to enter the facility off hours when there is no signal to capture or you don't want to look suspicious.
Recon:
Lets first use the scanning functionality in RFCrack to find known frequencies. Weneed to understand the frequencies that gates usually use. This way we can set our scanner to a limited number of frequencies to rotate through. The smaller rage of frequencies used will provide a better chance of capturing a signal when a car opens the target gate. This would be beneficial if the scanning device is left unattended within a dropbox created with something like a Kali on a Raspberry Pi. One could access it from a good distance away by setting up a wifi hotspot or cellular connection.
Based on research remotes tend to use 315Mhz, 390Mhz, 433Mhz and a few other frequencies. So in our case we will start up RFCrack on those likely used frequencies and just let it run. We can also look up the FCID of our clicker to see what Frequencies manufactures are using. Although not standardized, similar technologies tend to use similar configurations. Below is from the data sheet located at https://fccid.io/HBW7922/Test-Report/test-report-1755584 which indicates that if this gate is compatible with a universal remote it should be using the 300,310, 315, 372, 390 Frequencies. Most notably the 310, 315 and 390 as the others are only on a couple configurations.
RFCrack Scanning:
Since the most used ranges are 310, 315, 390 within our universal clicker, lets set RFCrack scanner to rotate through those and scan for signals.If a number of cars go through the gate and there are no captures we can adjust the scanner later over our wifi connection from a distance.
Currently Scanning: 433000000 To cancel hit enter and wait a few seconds
Example of logging output:
From the above output you will see that a frequency was found on 390. However, if you had left this running for a few hours you could easily see all of the output in the log file located in your RFCrack/scanning_logs directory.For example the following captures were found in the log file in an easily parseable format:
Analyzing the signal to determine toggle switches:
Ok sweet, now we have a valid signal which will open the gate. Of course we could just replay this and open the gate, but we are going to create a physical device we can pass along to whoever needs entry regardless if they understand RF. No need to fumble around with a computer and look suspicious.Also replaying a signal with RFCrack is just to easy, nothing new to learn taking the easy route.
The first thing we are going to do is graph the capture and take a look at the wave pattern it creates. This can give us a lot of clues that might prove beneficial in figuring out the toggle switch pattern found in remotes. There are a few ways we can do this. If you don't have a yardstick at home you can capture the initial signal with your cheap RTL-SDR dongle as we did in the first RF blog. We could then open it in audacity. This signal is shown below.
Let RFCrack Plot the Signal For you:
The other option is let RFCrack help you out by taking a signal from the log output above and let RFCrack plot it for you.This saves time and allows you to use only one piece of hardware for all of the work.This can easily be done with the following command:
From the graph output we see 2 distinct crest lengths and some junk at either end we can throw away. These 2 unique crests correspond to our toggle switch positions of up/down giving us the following 2 possible scenarios using a 9 toggle switch remote based on the 9 crests above:
Possible toggle switch scenarios:
down down up up up down down down down
up up down down down up up up up
Configuring a remote:
Proper toggle switch configuration allows us to program a universal remote that sends a signal to the gate. However even with the proper toggle switch configuration the remote has many different signals it sends based on the manufacturer or type of signal.In order to figure out which configuration the gate is using without physically watching the gate open, we will rely on local signal analysis/comparison.
Programming a remote is done by clicking the device with the proper toggle switch configuration until the gate opens and the correct manufacturer is configured. Since we don't have access to the gate after capturing the initial signal we will instead compare each signal from he remote to the original captured signal.
Comparing Signals:
This can be done a few ways, one way is to use an RTLSDR and capture all of the presses followed by visually comparing the output in audacity. Instead I prefer to use one tool and automate this process with RFCrack so that on each click of the device we can compare a signal with the original capture. Since there are multiple signals sent with each click it will analyze all of them and provide a percent likelihood of match of all the signals in that click followed by a comparing the highest % match graph for visual confirmation. If you are seeing a 80-90% match you should have the correct signal match.
Note:Not every click will show output as some clicks will be on different frequencies, these don't matter since our recon confirmed the gate is communicating on 390Mhz.
In order to analyze the signals in real time you will need to open up your clicker and set the proper toggle switch settings followed by setting up a sniffer and live analysis with RFCrack:
Open up 2 terminals and use the following commands:
#Setup a sniffer on 390mhz Setup sniffer:python RFCrack.py -k -c -f 390000000.
#Monitor the log file, and provide the gates original signal Setup Analysis: python RFCrack.py -c -u 1f0fffe0fffc01ff803ff007fe0fffc1fff83fff07ffe0007c -n.
Cmd switches used
-k = known frequency
-c = compare mode
-f = frequency
-n = no yardstick needed for analysis
Make sure your remote is configured for one of the possible toggle configurations determined above. In the below example I am using the first configuration, any extra toggles left in the down position: (down down up up up down down down down)
Analyze Your Clicks:
Now with the two terminals open and running click the reset switch to the bottom left and hold till it flashes. Then keep clicking the left button and viewing the output in the sniffing analysis terminal which will provide the comparisons as graphs are loaded to validate the output.If you click the device and no output is seen, all that means is that the device is communicating on a frequency which we are not listening on.We don't care about those signals since they don't pertain to our target.
At around the 11th click you will see high likelihood of a match and a graph which is near identical. A few click outputs are shown below with the graph from the last output with a 97% match.It will always graph the highest percentage within a click.Sometimes there will be blank graphs when the data is wacky and doesn't work so well. This is fine since we don't care about wacky data.
You will notice the previous clicks did not show even close to a match, so its pretty easy to determine which is the right manufacture and setup for your target gate. Now just click the right hand button on the remote and it should be configured with the gates setup even though you are in another location setting up for your test.
For Visual of the last signal comparison go to ./imageOutput/LiveComparison.png
----------Start Signals In Press--------------
Percent Chance of Match for press is: 0.05
Percent Chance of Match for press is: 0.14
Percent Chance of Match for press is: 0.14
Percent Chance of Match for press is: 0.12
----------End Signals In Press------------
For Visual of the last signal comparison go to ./imageOutput/LiveComparison.png
----------Start Signals In Press--------------
Percent Chance of Match for press is: 0.14
Percent Chance of Match for press is: 0.20
Percent Chance of Match for press is: 0.19
Percent Chance of Match for press is: 0.25
----------End Signals In Press------------
For Visual of the last signal comparison go to ./imageOutput/LiveComparison.png
----------Start Signals In Press--------------
Percent Chance of Match for press is: 0.93
Percent Chance of Match for press is: 0.93
Percent Chance of Match for press is: 0.97
Percent Chance of Match for press is: 0.90
Percent Chance of Match for press is: 0.88
Percent Chance of Match for press is: 0.44
----------End Signals In Press------------
For Visual of the last signal comparison go to ./imageOutput/LiveComparison.png
Graph Comparison Output for 97% Match:
Conclusion:
You have now walked through successfully reversing a toggle switch remote for a security gate. You took a raw signal and created a working device using only a Yardstick and RFCrack.This was just a quick tutorial on leveraging the skillsets you gained in previous blogs in order to learn how to analyzeRF signals within embedded devices. There are many scenarios these same techniques could assist in.We also covered a few new features in RF crack regarding logging, graphing and comparing signals.These are just a few of the features which have been added since the initial release. For more info and other features check the wiki.
