Dragan on Security

There is serious vulnerability with A5/1 encryption scheme used in GSM networks. It can lead to interception of GSM calls.This vulnerability has been presented by Karsten Nohl and Chris Paget at the 26th Chaos Communication Congress (26C3). This event is the annual four-day conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC). It took place from December 27th to December 30th 2009 at the bcc Berliner Congress Center in Berlin, Germany.

Citation from CCC Web site:

The world’s most popular radio system has over 3 billion handsets in 212 countries and not even strong encryption. Perhaps due to cold-war era laws, GSM’s security hasn’t received the scrutiny it deserves given its popularity. This bothered us enough to take a look; the results were surprising.

From the total lack of network to handset authentication, to the “Of course I’ll give you my IMSI” message, to the iPhone that really wanted to talk to us. It all came as a surprise – stunning to see what $1500 of USRP can do. Add a weak cipher trivially breakable after a few months of distributed table generation and you get the most widely deployed privacy threat on the planet.

Cloning, spoofing, man-in-the-middle, decrypting, sniffing, crashing, DoS’ing, or just plain having fun. If you can work a BitTorrent client and a standard GNU build process then you can do it all, too. Prepare to change the way you look at your cell phone, forever.

Slides are here.

Track repository is here. It implements attack on the A5/1 cipher.

Torrents are here.

Note 1: This in not advocating exploiting weaknesses but rather wanting to inform about the fact that GSM calls are already being intercepted and decrypted using commercial tools.

Note 2: Links above are active in moment of writing this blog post. It is possible that some of them can be recalled or inactive from various reasons.

I invite you to answer poll question “Have you used penetration testing services” (column on the right of this blog). Possible answers are:

1. Yes
2. No
3. Have I used… what?
4. I provide those services

Thank you for voting.

Wikipedia article defines penetration test in this way:

A penetration test is a method of evaluating the security of a computer system or network by simulating an attack from a malicious source, known as a Black Hat Hacker, or Cracker. The process involves an active analysis of the system for any potential vulnerabilities that may result from poor or improper system configuration, known and/or unknown hardware or software flaws, or operational weaknesses in process or technical countermeasures. This analysis is carried out from the position of a potential attacker, and can involve active exploitation of security vulnerabilities. Any security issues that are found will be presented to the system owner together with an assessment of their impact and often with a proposal for mitigation or a technical solution. The intent of a penetration test is to determine feasibility of an attack and the amount of business impact of a successful exploit, if discovered. It is a component of a full security audit.

See more here.

In its Magic Quadrant for Network Intrusion Prevention System Appliances, dated April 14, 2009 Gartner positioned TippingPoint and Juniper Networks as leaders in field, together with McAfee andSourcefire.

However, these days (December 2009), there are a lot of talks about not encouraging results of test done by NSS Labs related to IPS solutions of these companies.

An independent test and evaluation of 15 different network intrusion-protection system products from seven vendors showed none were fully effective in warding off attacks against Microsoft, Adobe and other programs. NSS Labs, which conducted the test without vendor sponsorship of any kind, also evaluated the 15 network IPS offerings for their capability in responding to “evasions,” attacks delivered in an obfuscated and stealthy manner in order to hide. In that arena, Juniper Networks and TippingPoint didn’t perform particularly well. Juniper IPS scored lowest at only 17% effectiveness. Here is article on NetworkWorld. In that arena, the McAfee and IBM IPS held up particularly well.

TippingPoint’s president Allan Kessler posted his view on blog. Also, this topic become active on SecurityFocus mail lists with Focus on IDS (here).

It is my belief that this report and tests will affect IPS market, but also trust into various reports from [independent] research and testing houses.

Updated on December 11th, 2009: Also see Rick Moy’s blog post “Network IPS Group Test Results Available“.

This year I attended RSA Conference and had chance to see and listen very interesting sessions and keynotes given by important players in security arena.

RSA Security Conference Europe 2009 has been held in period 20-22 October 2009 in Hilton London Metropole Hotel. RSA conferences are one of the most comprehensive forums in information security. It gives opportunity to learn about the latest trends and technologies, get access to new best practices, and gain insight into the practical and pragmatic perspectives on the most critical business issues facing you today.

You can find more details about conference here. I definitely recommend this conference to professionals interested in computer, networks and information systems security, but also to executive management and seniors from broad range of companies. Next RSA Conference 2010 is to be held from March 1-5, 2010 in San Francisco, USA.

National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has opened a public competition to develop a new cryptographic hash algorithm, which converts a variable length message into a short “message digest” that can be used for digital signatures, message authentication and other applications.  The competition is NIST’s response to recent advances in the cryptanalysis of hash functions. The new hash algorithm will be called “SHA-3” and will augment the hash algorithms currently specified in FIPS 180-2, Secure Hash Standard. This competition is announced in the Federal Register Notice published on November 2, 2007. I wrote about it here and here.

NIST has selected the Second Round Candidates of the SHA-3 Competition recently. Following 14 second round candidates are selected to continue in the competition:

1. BLAKE
2. Blue Midnight Wish
3. CubeHash
4. ECHO
5. Fugue
6. Grøstl
7. Hamsi
8. JH
9. Keccak
10. Luffa
11. Shabal
12. SHAvite-3
13. SIMD
14. Skein

A report summarizing NIST’s selection of these candidates will be forthcoming. A year is allocated for the public review of these algorithms, and the Second SHA-3 Candidate Conference is being planned for August 23-24, 2010, after Crypto 2010.

You can see candidates, post your comments and see other comments, see details on submitters site here.

More than two years ago I wrote post on this blog with question in title: “Should We Teach Students How to Write Viruses?” That post outlines some reasons pro at contra and links to various Internet resources regarding this question.

I’ve added new poll to this blog with this question, today. Goal of this poll is to see opinion of visitors of this blog in regards to this very controversial issue. Before voting, it is recommended to read previous post on this blog and visit links which are mentioned at that post. Also, I recommend you to visit:

• Vesselin Bontchev ‘Should We Teach Virus Writing?
• Teaching students how to write malware
• Virus Writing 101

Your opinions are welcome. Thank you for voting.

Michal Wegrzyn informed me about new and interesting project on http://vsl.sourceforge.net/.  That is new steganographic tool. Name of tool is Virtual Steganographic Laboratory (VSL). It is a graphical block diagramming tool that allows complex using, testing and adjusting of methods both for image steganography and steganalysis. VSL provides friendly GUI along with modular, plug-in architecture. Tool is very similar to CrypTool which has been described on this blog here.

VSL screenshot

Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one, apart from the sender and intended recipient, suspects the existence of the message. That is a form of “security through obscurity”. The word steganography is of Greek origin and means “concealed writing”. Generally, messages will appear to be something else: images, articles, or some other covertext. It may be considered as kind of invisible ink between the visible lines of a private letter.

The advantage of steganography, over cryptography alone, is that messages do not attract attention to themselves. Plainly visible encrypted messages will arouse suspicion, and may in themselves be incriminating in countries where encryption is illegal. Therefore, whereas cryptography protects the contents of a message, steganography can be said to protect both messages and communicating parties.

Virtual Steganographic Laboratory (VSL) is simple, easy to use software for steganography, steganalysis and watermarking. It gives scientists and students a powerful tool for conducting wide range of experiments involving different types of message embedding, diverse attacks (employing image processing algorithms) and steganalysis with the use of popular methods. Due to its use of generics (and few other features) it requires at least Java 1.5 (5.0).

Primary interface of the VSL is a graphical block diagramming tool and a customizable set of block modules. VSL uses dynamic invocation, so any new module can be created, added and used along without recompilation of the application.  Many steganographic applications are usually command-line tools or very simple GUIs which consist of one chosen method. VSL provides framework for complex yet simple to arrange experiments and methods testing. It can use many methods simultaneously and everyone can add a new one.

I see this as very promising project and will continue to watch its progress.

Payment with credit or debit cards, at least in Serbia, at some of Intesa bank owned POS terminals is NOT secure. They print full credit card number on paper slip.

I recognized this issue many months ago after purchase in one shop. Accidently, I looked carefully at slip issued after purchase and found that full card number is clearly printed on slip. No stars (*) or other wildcards instead of eight card number digits in the middle of number, as it is usual. This gives possibility of misuse and is not in compliance with standards which credit card companies require of banks and processors. If you using your credit cards in these shops you may be at serious risk!

After compliant to my bank (which is not Intesa), it was passed to Visa and their official called me on phone. He explained that this issue has been noticed earlier by their revision and bank was requested to sort it out in short term.

Unfortunately, months after this complaint and promise that things will be sorted out shortly, I’ve had same case today. One of shops in Serbia which uses Intesa POS terminal issued slip with my full card number.

Now, I feel free to report this publicly as I hope this will help banks, credit card companies and shops to sort out this problem and mitigate risk to which we as customers are exposed.

My recommendation to all credit card owners is to look carefully, ask shop staff and avoid payment by cards in shops which own this type of POS terminal. If you already did this, then report issue to your bank, credit card issuer or Intesa officials.

After quite some time of silence regarding my work on Wireless Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (WIDS / WIPS), I’m considering continuing that work. In past I have done research, published couple of papers on this topic at conferences and journals and also created concept, basic architecture and design of system and products. This possible “reactivation” of work is particularly pushed by recent increased interest of companies, organizations and institutions including commercial, government etc, who contacted me regarding it, and requirements of many production environments.

As you could have read earlier on this blog, that area has been one of my research interests for long time. Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS), especially used in wireless and mobile networks, are becoming particularly interesting and important with increased usage of these types of networks. My research has been particularly oriented to usage artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic and neural networks to make these systems better, easier for use and more efficient.  At 19th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference ACSAC  (December 8-12, 2003, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA) I talked about Wireless Intrusion Detection System (WIDS) and proposed multilevel and multidimensional system with components: agent, sensor, server and management and reporting tools. Also I talked at some other conferences and published couple of papers on this topic. There are different approaches to intrusion detection and prevention, but very common for commercially available IDS/IPS is that they suffer many false alarms (positive and negative) and problems with performances. Separate problem are so called “zero-day” attacks that pass majority of today’s IDS / IPS systems unnoticed.

Wireless Intrusion Detection and Prevention System, in architecture that I proposed many years ago, consist of:

• WIDS / WIPS Agent. It is software installed on mobile computer or device. It detects intrusions and attacks by analyzing traffic and behavior, making conclusions and denies it. It protects computer or computerized device. Agent works in contribution with WIDS / WIPS Sensor and Server if those are available in network and can be reached. Position of application is on Personal Computer (PC) including Pocket PC (PPC) and similar mobile devices.

• WIDS / WIPS Sensor. It is an appliance which sits in wireless network environment. It has embedded logic for detecting intrusions and alerting stations and servers about it. It alerts network users and/or administrators too. Sensor works in contribution with WIDS Agent and Server if it is available in same network. Position of application is area of wireless computer network.

• WIDS / WIPS Server. It is corporate software which integrates functions of previous two components and has additional mechanisms such as: collecting, analyzing, making conclusions (based on neural networks and fuzzy logic implementation), and giving support to WIDS Agent and Sensor. It can communicate with CERT centers and similar. It is responsible for contribution with other security software or devices (antivirus software firewalls…) Server collects information about WLAN security, events, incidents, and performance from the WIDS Sensors deployed throughout a WLAN. The server delivers the information to the WIDS Console in format that helps Network Administrators immediately identify problems. Position of application is in corporate network or remote for more mutually linked networks.

•WIDS / WIPS Console & Management, Reporting Tools. This is set of utilities intended to provide possibility of monitoring, management, tuning, and preparing various reports about WIDS / WIPS components activity. They are installed on Server, but could collect and show data from various components of WIDS / WIPS system. Single utilities could reside on Agent and Sensor devices and hey provide remote access and configuration capability too.

This is just brief description. If you are interested in more details or want to consider contribution or investment into this development send me e-mail.

Interesting article: Investigators replicate Nokia 1100 online banking hack – Network World. It says:

Versions of the 1100 have firmware that can be modified in order to intercept SMSes, including one-time banking passwords.

and

An Ultrascan informant sold one of the devices recently in Tangiers, Morocco, for €5,500 (US$7,567), Engelsman said. Ultrascan previously confirmed data earlier this year that one Nokia 1100 sold for €25,000.

If you can’t remember how Nokia 1100 looks like, see article on Wikipedia. Also you can see details about this model on Nokia web site.

Is it just Nokia 1100 or possible with some other models maybe?