Manually Testing SSL/TLS Weaknesses
The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols aim to provide client and server systems with a means of establishing an encrypted communication channel. Though best known...
View ArticleThe recent US government data breach: big data techniques, a driving force...
The recent cyber-attack against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has resulted in the compromise of data relating to millions of current and former United States (US) government employees.In a...
View ArticleVulnerability Statistics & Trends in 2015
I have conducted research using Context’s penetration testing management database across 3,475 web application and infrastructure penetration tests for the years 2013, 2014 & 2015. The research...
View ArticleDNSWatch - When a full DNS tunnel is just too much
During certain engagements it is a requirement to extract data from a network - or at least prove that it would be possible in different ways. One common and very well-known way to do this is to...
View ArticleWireless Phishing with Captive Portals
In this post we describe a simple technique that has been around for some time that is still relevant today given the proliferation of open access wireless networks. Most people will have seen multiple...
View ArticleKGDB on Android: Debugging the kernel like a boss
A few months back I purchased the Android Hacker's Handbook. For those of you who haven't got a copy and are interested in the Android security landscape, I'd highly recommend it. The authors are all...
View ArticleGood advice, a rare commodity?
Information is the lifeblood of effective cyber security. Without a current understanding of the threats, protections, technologies and best practices cyber security activity will be divorced from the...
View ArticleA Scout’s Guide to Incident Response
This part of our blog series, covering the recent work we have done with the Institution of Engineering and Technology, looks at incident response, drawing on the article we contributed to the...
View ArticleNation States: The Godfathers of Targeted Attacks
For many years the world of targeted cyber attacks was limited to nation states; few others had the understanding, resources or much to gain from carrying out such an attack.However our increased...
View ArticleHacking without Computers – An Introduction to Social Engineering
The concept of manipulating people and processes for some benefit pre-dates the invention of computers and the concept of cyber security, and goes well beyond the realms of IT and computing. Recently...
View ArticleAlarm bells ringing!
We like to look at the security of consumer and commercial products, either as a product security evaluation for a customer or for our own interest. In previous blog posts we examined peripheral...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Make a Django app insecure? It's not easy and that's a good thing!
The OWASP Top 10 describes the most critical and most commonly occurring security flaws in web applications. This list is published every three years and although some issues move up the list and...
View ArticleThe Cyber Threat and Terrorism
The concept of cyber terrorism, or extremists utilising offensive cyber techniques, is one that gains wide publicity and grabs attention; but what is the reality of this threat? Russian-based Islamic...
View ArticleData Exfiltration via Blind OS Command Injection
On a penetration test or CTF challenge you may come across an application that takes user input and passes it to a system command or to a supporting program that runs a task on the underlying server....
View ArticleBuilding a SOC: Thinking About Effective Incident Management
While incident response is what we most often talk about, we also do a lot of work helping clients to proactively build resiliency and develop their internal cyber security capability. This can range...
View ArticleMinimising the time to remediation
One of the most popular talks at our summer Oasis 2016 event was delivered by Adam Bridge, Head of Forensics and looked at how organisations can reduce the time to remediation upon discovering a...
View ArticleIn the news: TalkTalk hit with record fine
It was announced recently that telecoms company TalkTalk has been fined £400,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for failing to prevent the cyber-attack, which allowed an attacker to...
View ArticleThe Perils of Public Wireless Networks: How I Stole Your Hash
It’s a question that gets asked all the time – “How Do I keep my computer secure online?” By now we should all know the usual recommendations, such as using unique and secure passwords and keeping your...
View ArticleTargeting Android for OTA Exploitation
‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles’ – Sun Tsu.Whilst it is unlikely that Sun Tzu had software vulnerability research in mind when he wrote ‘The...
View ArticleThe Internet of Broken Things: why security testing matters
The recent Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against the security journalist Brian Krebs’ blog and then the Domain Name Service (DNS) provider Dyn (which broke large chunks of the Internet...
View Article