You are very likely visiting that site because you typed vlc.zip somewhere. Similar to setup.zip I registered the domain to prevent harm to users.
In the ever-evolving landscape of the internet, staying ahead of malicious actors and protecting users from potential threats is of paramount importance. To combat the risks associated with hosting malicious content related to VLC media player, have taken a commendable step by launching VLC.zip—a domain specifically designed to safeguard users from potential security vulnerabilities. With the recent introduction of .zip as a new top-level domain (TLD) a potential risk was introduced.
Preventing Malicious Intent and Impersonation
The introduction of VLC.zip not only serves as a protective measure against malicious hosting but also acts as a deterrent for impersonation attempts. Cybercriminals often exploit well-known software names to deceive users into downloading harmful files or falling victim to phishing attacks. VLC.zip also redirecting to this blogpost improves awareness.
What can you do? Talk to your sysadmin and consider to block the toplevel domain .zip. Install a AV software and keep all your software up to date.
The internet has seen a lot of changes in recent years, and one of the most significant changes has been the introduction of new top-level domains (TLDs). These new TLDs have opened up a whole new world of possibilities for website owners, but they have also created new challenges, particularly in terms of protecting users from malicious actors. One of the newest TLDs is .zip, and in this blog post, we’ll discuss how to register a .zip domain and set it up to protect users from malicious actors.
First, it’s important to understand what a TLD is. A top-level domain is the part of a domain name that comes after the final dot, such as „.com“ or „.org“. Traditionally, there have been a limited number of TLDs available, but in recent years, ICANN (the organization responsible for managing the internet’s domain name system) has been introducing new TLDs to increase choice and competition.
The .zip TLD is one of the newest TLDs, and it’s designed specifically for websites that deal with compressed files. The idea is that by using a .zip domain, website owners can signal to users that their site is a trustworthy source of compressed files.
In May 2023, Google wrote a blogpost about the newest toplevel domains:
.dad
.esq
.prof
.phd
.nexus
.foo
.zip
.mov
Especially the .zip can cause problems. That is why I went ahead and registered „setup.zip“ assuming it is part of many typos and pages. This blog will be the redirect destination for everyone attempting to access „setup.zip“ if you have other good research ideas what to do with the domain, reach out via twitter on @alexanderjaeger.
As you might know, I love to combine several OpenSource tools to get things done. One thing I wanted to play for some weeks is Autotimeliner by Andrea Fortuna.This tool is made to extract events from an Memory Image to combine it into a timeline. If you have a timeline, what comes next? Of course, putting it into Timesketch. So let’s give it a try.
We start with a memory dump from a Stuxnet infection from https://github.com/ganboing/malwarecookbook. Download the four files, extract them and you are good to go.
Prerequisites
Volatility
Installation is pretty easy, install Volatility either via pre-compiled binary or install it manually, see the Volatility installation wiki for further information.
A simple, intuitive web app for analysing and decoding data without having to deal with complex tools or programming languages. CyberChef encourages both technical and non-technical people to explore data formats, encryption and compression.
From the CSV that was generated, use your favourite tool to extract the first column of the csv which should look like that:
Date
Tue Oct 20 2009 12:08:04
Tue Oct 20 2009 12:08:04
Tue Oct 20 2009 12:08:06
Tue Oct 20 2009 12:08:06
Tue Oct 20 2009 12:08:06
Tue Oct 20 2009 12:08:06
Tue Oct 20 2009 12:08:06
Tue Oct 20 2009 12:08:06
Tue Oct 20 2009 21:21:26
Wed Oct 21 2009 00:02:28
This is a recommendation to a tool that I am using since months – the log file navigator.
Who does not know the issue, you have to look at logs from various places and you start with stuff like more, grep, cat etc. or upload it to your ELK, Splunk, QRadar – you name it.
While those tools have their good reason, log files usually have a specific set of requirements to handle effectively. And for that reason use lnav. The tool enables you to work with your log file(s) locally, offline and effective.
Some quotes:
Just point lnav to a directory and it will take care of the rest. File formats are automatically detected and compressed files are unpacked on the fly.
The log message format is automatically determined by lnav while scanning your files. The following formats are built in by default:
Out of my attempt to reverse engineer the Komand API (a security orchestration tool) I found myself writing some python helper to use the API. Maybe it is useful for some people, so I decided to OpenSource it.
It is hard to understand why a tool, thats main purpose it to connect APIs does not have an API documentation / client itself.
Usage should be pretty simple, clone the repository and good to go:
usage: komand-tools.py [-h] [-v] [-wm] [-j JOB]
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-v, --verbose increase output verbosity
-wm, --workflow_map show workflow map
-j JOB, --job JOB show job status
One of the most frequent questions I get asked by my students: What books should I read if I want to work in Cyber Security?
So I reviewed what I have read so far, talked to colleagues I trust to conduct the following list (as I have a lot of german readers, there is always a link to the german and the english version). The list is a mixture of educational books as well as books that will give an idea about mindset of hackers, defenders and other players in that field.
If you have other recommendations, opinions or comments, I would highly appreciate every feedback in the comments below.
I will try to update the post on a regular base as new trends are coming up e.g. machine learning, AI or blockchain (but I do not see any must-read-books in that areas).
It is fair to say, it is not the only way into the security area, a good amount of people learned by blogs, twitter, youtube and such and there is nothing wrong with it, it is quite the opposite, as the pace of change is so fast, it is hard to keep books up to date.
Every item has links to amazon.com, if you happen to buy the book using the links you support the blog, thank you for that.
1. The Art of War
by Sun Tzu
A relative short (and cheap) book that teaches various aspects of war that most experts agree can also be applied to cyber security. To be honest, there are also a good amount of people who think Art of war is not as important, so read it and make your own opinion.
At least it will be a good ice breaker for networking.
2. Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker
by Kevin Mitnick
This was the first security related book I read after attending a conference talk of the author Kevin Mitnick. It is fair to say he is one of the most known hackers and reading his stories gives the reader first hand access to the mind and motivation of a hacker. The book is also very good to read.
4. Practical Malware Analysis: A Hands-On Guide to Dissecting Malicious Software
by Michael Sikorski
Reading that book will equip you with all concepts and skills to analyse malicious files. This is even a very good skill if your goal is not to become the top notch malware reverse engineer, but the concepts outlined in the book will help to understand weaponizing files to target systems or users.
5. Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon by Kim Zetter
This book covers the maybe most prominent cyber security attack in history: Stuxnet. To understand motivation of companies to invest money in cyber security, knowing and trying to understand the Stuxnet case is so helpful and Kim Zetters book is the best to do so.
This list would be incomplete without at least one book covering the offensive aspect of cyber security professionals: red teaming. Even if you do not want to be payed to hack into companies, it is good to know what the people getting paid to hack into companies have read without a doubt.
7. Crafting the InfoSec Playbook: Security Monitoring and Incident Response Master Plan
by Jeff Bollinger, Brandon Enright, Matthew Valites
Legendary book outlining how to ramp up an Incident Response Plan to defend a network. If your goal is to go into red teaming, read that book to understand how defenders work.
10: Computer Incident Response and Product Security
by Damir Rajnovic
Damir „Gaus“ Rajnovic created the standard to read to set up an Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT / CIRT / CERT / CSIRT) or a Product Security Incident Response Team (P-SIRT).
11: Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms and Source Code in C
by Bruce Schneier
A top x list in Cyber Security without a book from Bruce Schneier is not worth to listen to. Bruce Schneier is the rockstar in the area and his book the go to for cryptography.
You need to understand how to write secure code. Without that know how it is way harder to argue on basic security principles. This book is bootcamp for that purpose.
Bonus: The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
When asking friends for opinions and recommendations for that list, the ultimate hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy was mentioned „because no security professional will take you seriously if you haven’t read it“ – nothing to add here.
You might have discovered, it is not yet 15 books, I am still on the journey to discover the remaining bricks. But rather prefer to let people read less books that have a big impact than more books with some that might not be the same caliber.
Have fun with reading.
(This post is inspired by 15 Must Read Books if You Want to Work on Wall Street)
Ich werde immer wieder gefragt, wie man einfach eine Kameraüberwachung für das eigene Haus umsetzen kann. Viele bauen gerade ihr Haus oder renovieren, viele Gewerke sind mit Experten besetzt oder es gibt schon sehr sehr viel Material im Internet. Anscheinend jedoch nicht zu Videokameras im Außenbereich.
Um nicht immer das gleiche zu erzählen also hier eine schriftliche Variante meiner Antworten.
Disclaimer: Dieser Blogpost ist keine rechtliche Beratung, prüft also bitte erst, welche Regeln, Gesetze es gibt und respektiert die Privatsphäre von euren Nachbarn und anderen Personen in eurem Haushalt genauso wie Personen die euch ggf. besuchen (mehr dazu später)
Der Beitrag ist in verschiedene Fragen unterteilt, sollten noch weitere Fragen unter den Nägeln brennen, einfach die Kommentarfunktion nutzen.
Frage: Warum sollte ich eine Videoanlage / Videoüberwachung in meinem Haus installieren?
Am wichtigsten ist es zu verstehen, dass eine Videoanlage nichts verhindert. Wer sich vor Einrücken schützen möchte muss in Dinge wie Schlösser, Beschläge oder Riegel investieren (Stichwort passive Sicherheit) auch eine Alarmanlage verhindert keine Einbrüche.
Eine Videoanlage kann aber für ein Sicherheitsgefühl sorgen, sie kann helfen, Einbrüche oder Diebstähle aufzuklären.
Eine solche Anlage kann auch genutzt werden, um Personen, die im Haus sind und z.b. ihr Büro im Dach haben einen Überblick zu verschaffen, was um das Haus herum geschieht.
Was auch beachtet werden sollte, ist die Stromversorgung, zum einen die Stromversorgung der Kamera (Power over Ethernet vs. reguläre Steckdose vs. Batterie)
Steckdose: Super wenn sie schon da ist. Frage jedoch wie dann die Datenübertragung funktioniert, Wifi / WLAN kann teilweise etwas unzuverlässig sein.
Power over Ethernet: ggf. sinnvoll wenn am Ort der Kamera keine Steckdose ist und man damit nur ein Kabel ziehen muss
Batterien: Nutzbar wenn man überhaupt keine Kabel hat / keine Kabel legen kann. Es ist jedoch zu beachten, dass bei entsprechender Bewegung viele Bilder / Videos entstehen und die Laufzeit der Kamera deutlich verkürzen.
Frage: Wo sollte eine Kamera platziert werden?
Die Antwort ist schwer zu geben, es kommt darauf an. Zum einen sollte man interessante Punkte wie Eingänge, Parkplätze oder Nischen in Betracht ziehen.
Ein weiterer Aspekt ist die genaue Platzierung, es ist zum Beispiel unglücklich, eine Kamera so zu platzieren, dass sie ungesehen demontiert oder abgedeckt werden könnte.
Auch die Distanz ist relevant, was bringt eine Aufnahme von einer Person an der Eingangstür wenn jede Aufnahme maximal die Farbe der Mütze erkennen lässt.
Frage: Welche Anlage sollte ich nutzen?
Je nach Budget. Gute Erfahrung habe ich mit Reolink Anlagen gemacht, dort ist auch ein Controller erhältlich, der die Speicherung usw übernehmen kann und Kameras zum Beispiel per Power over Ethernet versorgt und eine Mail schicken kann, wenn die Verbindung zu einer Kamera unterbrochen wurde.
Auch die Qualität der Kameras ist sehr gut.
Frage: Wohin sollten die Aufnahmen gehen?
Sie sollten gespeichert werden, wenn Aufnahmen in der Cloud gespeichert werden oder die Anlage über das INternet steuerbar ist, hat das immer das Risiko, dass sich Dritte unberechtigten Zugang zu der Anlage verschaffen.
Wie kann ich meine Anlage von außen steuern / auf Aufnahmen zugreifen?
Ich würde nicht empfehlen, die Anlage aus dem Internet erreichbar zu machen, sondern per VPN z.b. auf die FritzBox zugreifen und dann auf die Anlage als ob man sich im Heimnetz befindet. Das verkleinert das Risiko dramatisch.
Frage: Warum nicht in die Cloud?
Siehe oben, in die Cloud bringt immer das Risiko mit, dass die Anlage von außen gesteuert werden kann.
Frage: Welche Bereiche sollte ich überwachen?
Alle wichtigen, aber auf die eigene Privatsphäre und die der Anwohner achten. Z.b. öffentliche Straßen dürfen nicht überwacht werden. Einen Balkon überwachen scheint erst mal sinnvoll, aber was wenn ihr euch dort mal hinlegen wollt, dann gibt es Bilder von euch auf dem Balkon. Es ist also Abwägungssache.
While working on different stuff I was searching for a collection of APIs that are related of useful for security researchers, incident response people or threat intel.
Unable to find a good list of REST APIs decided to start it. The collection is hosted on a Security API list, and pull requests or issues mentioning missing APIs are highly welcome.
Why did I produce such a list? More and more people want to automate their workflows, Security Orchestration is the new Buzzword after last years Threat Intelligence, but basically containing the same, they both have in common to facilitate already available data, with Orchestration not storing that much data but enriching dots collected.
However the challenge is, what to integrate, everyone has their „go to“ tools they use on a daily base risking to miss some golden nuggets that are handy.
The list is divided (at the moment) in tools that are mostly on prem., online tools, SIEMs and various. With an increasing number of APIs that ordering might change of course.
So I really hope the list is useful and people can use it and that it can grow.
There have been some ongoing discussions about Facebook Messanger / Whattsapp – security, encryption, privacy etc.
Just a few days ago Facebook made a big move pushing more users to the Facebook Messenger.
And now a new big player enters the field of messengers: Deutsche Post.
They announced a product called „Sims Me“ being a „free and secure messenger on iOS and Android“.
Of course Deutsche Post has some expirience with delivering messages for hundrets of years. But this is not the first App Deutsche Post is providing, officially the apps are developed by „DP IT Brief GmbH“.
Key Features of SimsMe
– End to end encryption
– everything stored on servers
– self destructive messages *
– Ability to connect to your existing contacts (but only by granting SimsMe access to your contacts)
– Confirm users by QR code (same like Threema)
– App is password protects -> if your possword got lost, your app data is gone, you have to reinstall it.
The starting phase was a bit to much for Deutsche Post as to much users tried the service, but for now it is okay, some bugs have to been fixed, there is some space for improvement regarding UI, but overall a nice product.
Of course stating „it is end-to-end encrypted“ does not mean anything. I haven’t seen a Audit of the App, even if it would be open source, there is no evidence that the open source code is the code DP IT Brief GmbH is sending to Apple / Google. And there is no way to check wether the app uploaded from DP IT Brief GmbH to Apple / Google is the App that you are downloading to your device (they are in a position to madify apps). That said, having a big company providing an app with end to end encryption is better than using a plain-text or not properly encrypted app. But still, if you want to exchange sensitive stuff, face to face is the way to go.
for i in /home/pi/kippo-read-only/dl/*; do curl -F file=@$i -F tags="honeypot" http://covert:8080/file/add; done
Result:
{
"message": "added"
}{
"message": "added"
}
(you might want to modify the dir to your setup)
Why not automate uploading from kippo to viper?
– The „attacker“ might upload more then just malware / samples. You do not want to waste space in your malware zoo with another copy of netcat…
