Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) - Version 5.0

Microsoft has release it's fifth version of Secure Development Lifecycle document. It provide guidance and illustrates the way Microsoft applies the SDL to its products and technologies. In addition, it includes security and privacy requirements and recommendations for secure software development at Microsoft. It addresses SDL guidance for Waterfall and Spiral development, Agile development, web applications and Line of Business applications.

It can be downloaded from http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9724944.

Screen for more productivity

Today, majority of people are using Windows but what I’m going to talk about is Screen.

Screen is a GNU utility that allows you to use multiple windows (virtual VT100 terminals) in Unix/Linux. Although, if you have a console access, you could spawn multiple terminals, there are two features I would like to highlight.

First, is the fact that screen stays active, even when SSH session is terminated. All processes initiated will keep running and could be re-attached once SSH connection is re-established. Furthermore, since screen session initiates a separate process rather than login session, it is more resource efficient.

In addition, using Screen, it is possible to share processes between multiple users and/or protect using password. For example, you create a screen session and run a command. Another person would be able to list existing screen sessions (screen –ls) and attach a session to their terminal (screen –r). Of course, that is not very secure, therefore it is possible to protect the screen session using user password.

jmarkh@ubuntu-01:~$ screen -S nmap
[detached]
jmarkh@ubuntu-01:~$ screen -S nessus
[detached]
jmarkh@ubuntu-01:~$ screen -ls
There are screens on:
15833.nessus (10-04-08 10:52:20 AM) (Detached)
15813.nmap (10-04-08 10:52:10 AM) (Detached)
15620.pts-0.ubuntu-01 (10-04-08 10:29:38 AM) (Detached)
3 Sockets in /var/run/screen/S-jmarkh.

Here are some commands/shortcuts that could be used with Screen (note that every screen command begins with Ctrl-a):

Ctrl-a c	Create new window (shell)
Ctrl-a k	Kill the current window
C-a C-x	Lock this terminal.
Ctrl-a w	List all windows (the current window is marked with "*")
Ctrl-a 0-9	Go to a window numbered 0-9
Ctrl-a n	Go to the next window
Ctrl-a Ctrl-a	Toggle between the current and previous window
Ctrl-a [	Start copy mode
Ctrl-a ]	Paste copied text
Ctrl-a ?	Help (display a list of commands)
Ctrl-a Ctrl-\	Quit screen
Ctrl-a D (Shift-d)	Power detach and logout
Ctrl-a d	Detach but keep shell window open

The man pages for screen are quite readable and make a good tutorial.

man screen

The WASC Threat Classification v2.0 is Out

The WASC Threat Classification v2.0 was released two days ago. It is an effort to classify the weaknesses, and attacks that can lead to the compromise of a website, its data, or its users.
For more information, http://projects.webappsec.org/Threat-Classification.

MasterCard SDP Program Changes

MasterCard announced new SDP Program changes to drive consistency and quality of Merchant QSA Training in the December 15, 2009 Global Security Bulletin. Tha main change is the fact that from 30 June 2011, Level 1 merchants that choose to conduct an annual onsite assessment using an internal auditor must ensure that primary internal auditor staff engaged in validating PCI DSS compliance attend PCI SSC-offered merchant training programs and pass any PCI SSC associated accreditation program annually in order to continue to use internal auditors.
For a more detailed information, please refer to http://www.mastercard.com/us/sdp/merchants/merchant_levels.html

Backtrack Applications for Your Ubuntu

This post is for those among us who use Ubuntu as they main operating system and would like to install their favourite forensic and/or information security tools.

First step is to create a .list file for the Backtrack repository: sudo echo http://deb repo.offensive-security.com/dist/bt4 binary/ > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/backtrack.list

Then, we need to download and import the GPG key wget http://repo.offensive-security.com/dist/bt4/binary/public-key && sudo apt-key add public-key

Finally, update the sources: sudo apt-get update

Just keep in mind Backtrack is Backtrack and Ubuntu is Ubuntu. Don't try to make Backtrack out of Ubuntu.

SHODAN - Computer Search Engine

SHODAN is a search engine that allows you to find servers/routers/etc. It scans the Internet and indexes the headers that come back. What this means is that instead of finding an exploit that works on a target system, you can grab any exploit then find a system vulnerable to it

To demonstrate, let us find an FTP server in China with anonymous access. To do that, I typed FTP port:21 country:CN. In response, SHODAN gives a list of systems matching the criteria:

Running an FTP command with a IP address from the list confirms that the server exists:

Please remember that it is illegal (in most countries) to scan and/or fingerprint a system without proper authorisation from the owner. Considering SHODAN capabilities, one should consider a question of ethical aspects of the "cloud hacking".

URL: http://shodan.surtri.com/

PCI SSC "Ask the Council" Webminar

This session will offer a brief update on PCI SSC initiatives, followed by a live Q&A session with opportunities to address Bob Russo, PCI SSC General Manager, and other members of the PCI SSC team. The updates will cover:

• Community Meeting outcomes
• Next steps in the lifecycle process
• Recently published Council resources

Questions many also be submitted in advance through the online registration tool.

To register for the Tuesday, December 8, 2009 session, please use the following link:
http://register.webcastgroup.com/l3/?wid=0801208094997
To register for the Wednesday, December 9, 2009 session, please use the following link: http://register.webcastgroup.com/l3/?wid=0801209094998

The webinars will be recorded and available for download on the Participating Organization’s area of the Council’s Web site for those Participating Organizations who cannot attend any of the sessions.

For more information, please refer to https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pdfs/pr_091130_open_mic.pdf

OWASP Top 10 -2010 RC

Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), an open-source application security project, has published a release candidate version of the OWASP Top 10 Project for comments and feedback. You can download it from http://www.owasp.org/images/0/0f/OWASP_T10_-_2010_rc1.pdf.

It was always perceived that OWASP Top 10 is about 10 most common weaknesses in web applications; this release makes it clear that OWASP Top 10 Project is about Top 10 risks. As a result, OWASP reshuffled the order of the items on the list since now it is based on the estimate risk, instead the frequency of the associated weakness. In addition, there are two new items: ADDED: A6 –Security Misconfiguration ADDED: A8 –Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards REMOVED: A3 –Malicious File Execution REMOVED: A6 –Information Leakage and Improper Error Handling.

Please review and contribute your thought and comments.

Ubuntu 9.10 Is Out!

Ubuntu 9.10 (nicked named Karmic Kuala) is out and it has number of security improvements (over the previous version) that I would like to highlight: AppArmor - AppArmor was introduced earlier that Karmic Kuala; In this release, it features an improved parser that uses cache files, greatly speeding up initialisation on boot making it less likely to be switched off by users, and a bunch of additional profiles. Uncomplicated Firewall - Another "not new" feature which now supports filtering by interface and egress filtering. Non-eXecutable Emulation - Non-eXecutable (NX) memory protection, also known as eXecute-Disable (XD), can help block many exploits an attacker might run from stack or heap memory. The 32-bit PAE desktop kernel (linux-image-generic-pae) now also provides the PAE mode needed for hardware with the NX CPU feature. For systems that lack NX hardware, the 32-bit kernels now provide an approximation of the NX CPU feature via software emulation. Blocking Module Loading - To block the loading of any further modules after boot, the /proc/sys/kernel/modules_disabled one-way sysctl flag now exists to add another layer of protections against attackers loading kernel rootkits. Position-Independent Executables - All programs built as Position Independent Executables (PIE) with "-fPIE -pie" (gcc -pie -fPIE) can take advantage of the exec Address Space Layout Randomisation(ASLR). This protects against "return-to-text" and generally frustrates memory corruption attacks.

A full list of Ubuntu security features can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/Features.

Information Disclosure at it Best!

Wanted to share this example of OWASP Top 10 2007-Information Leakage and Improper Error Handling vulnerability. Considering the amount of resources available (OWASP Top 10, SANS 25, etc) freely on the Internet, I am quite surprised to see those appear as often as they are.