Mitigating Windows Credential Flaws There’s a vulnerability in Windows systems that is leveraged time and time again while compromising a network. Though the technique is well known to attackers, it is rarely mitigated effectively. Bad combination. But it’s convenient… Windows systems will cache user credentials in system memory. In cleartext. This is a default feature in ... READ MORE
Defense
Stanford Password Policy
A creative solution for stronger passwords Rules, Rules, Rules Most of us are familiar with basic password rules: Don’t use ‘password’. Duh. Don’t use your username as your password. Got it. Don’t repeat the same password for multiple accounts. Don’t choose an easily guessable password combination, even if it looks complex, e.g. ‘Winter2016’. Ok… I know ... READ MORE
SMB Relay
SMB Relay Attack The SMB relay attack has been around for years, and publicly available tools make the attack easier to carry out. The attack can result in a full network compromise with relatively little effort or expertise on the part of the attacker, making this a very common technique. What’s worse, we’ve noticed many organizations are vulnerable to this attack and might ... READ MORE
Saurus’ Guide to Security+
Hello fellow security professionals and those aspiring to be! Saurus here and excited to write to you on a new blog post. Being a consultant keeps me fairly busy. In addition to managing my workload I recently obtained my COMPTIA Security+ certification. While the experience of taking the exam is still fresh in mind, I wanted to draft up a blog post about some of the ... READ MORE
Email Controls: Implementing DKIM with Postfix
Previously on the War Room, we discussed some basic mail control implementations. Specifically, we looked at simple text records that can be posted to determine what is allowed to send on behalf on the domain. SPF records and DMARC records, when properly configured, can help reduce the chances of someone being able to spoof the domain in a phishing attack. So the next thing we ... READ MORE
The Basics: SPF and DMARC Records
It is no secret that one of the major attack vectors is phishing. While some of the success of this is due to a lack of user education and awareness, the other side of the coin are missing basic controls. There is no shortage of enterprise level phishing controls out there, Mimecast and Proofpoint for example. However, these are not silver bullets when it comes to protecting ... READ MORE
Prevent GPO from applying to your attack VM
You’re on an engagement and just obtained your first set of credentials. Score! You attempt to join your Windows VM to the domain and you are greeted with a warm message: “Welcome to the __ domain”. You’re excited to have your initial foothold in the network but you quickly realize these credentials don’t provide much access. We need to go deeper! You start looking for ways ... READ MORE
Interior Routing Protocols: The Basics
Being part of the blue team it is helpful to have familiarity with routing protocols as they help you move traffic throughout the network and if you don’t well, then you have come to a good place to start. Routing protocols can be classified into two different categories: exterior and interior. Exterior routing protocols focus on routing from a network to the internet while ... READ MORE
Segmenting, Subnetting and You
I completed a week of Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) training and passed the exam. I learned an interesting bit about how to quickly subnet. I would like to focus on how to subnet quickly without a calculator. For blue teamers, this skill is useful for implementing and evaluating segmentation. For red teamers, it can be useful for determining the number of potential ... READ MORE
Flash….Thunder!
So another year has passed and what an active year it was, chocked full of security events, breaches, and account dumps! Accounts that have been breached continue to pop up on multiple sale sites and we continue to see a trend that has plagued the industry for years and years... password reuse. I know what you're thinking, oh boy another blog about password reuse and why ... READ MORE