Bypassing Chrome’s CSP with Link Preloading
In this post I’m going talk about a bug I found a while back in Google’s Chrome browser that allows attackers to bypass the Content Security Policy (CSP). Besides breaking the CSP, the bug also allows attackers a means to ex-filtrate information from inside an SSL/TLS connection. The bug was reported a couple of years back and we got word that the fix is in, so I decided to dust off this blog post and update it so you folks can learn about it. The CSP is a configuration setting…
Extracting Bluetooth Metadata in an Object’s Memory Using Frida
Here’s a script I wrote to extract information from the Bluetooth metadata in an object’s memory. The script makes use of the Frida instrumentation framework, and I’ll take a little time to explain a simple scripting methodology/thought framework for solving problems with Frida. What you will need: Frida Server for your device https://www.frida.re/docs/installation/ Frida script to run https://github.com/IOActive/BlueCrawl Target Android phone (preferably with root permissions) Getting Started: Your first Script Frida forwards APIs that wrap Java objects and introduce means to inspect them, modify…
Secure Design? Help!
“So, Brook, in your last post you pointed to the necessity, underlined a requirement for “secure design”. But what does that mean, and how do I proceed?” It’s a fair question that I get asked regularly: How does one get security architecture started? Where can I learn more, and grow towards mastery? It used to be that the usual teaching method was to “shadow” (follow) a seasoned or master practitioner as she or he went about their daily duties. That’s how I learned (way back in…
Breaking Extreme Networks WingOS: How to Own Millions of Devices Running on Aircrafts, Government, Smart Cities and More
On Sunday, August 12th at 11am PT, I will give a talk at DEF CON 26 explaining how several critical vulnerabilities were found in the embedded operating system WingOS. The talk is entitled, “BreakingExtreme Networks WingOS: How to Own Millions of Devices Running on Aircrafts,Government, Smart Cities and More.” The Wing operating system was originally created by Motorola and nowadays Extreme Networks maintains it. WingOS is running in Motorola, Zebra and Extreme Networks access points and controllers. It is mainly used for WLAN networks. This research…
Are You Trading Stocks Securely? Exposing Security Flaws in Trading Technologies
This blog post contains a small portion of the entire analysis. Please refer to the white paper for full details to the research. Disclaimer Most of the testing was performed using paper money (demo accounts) provided online by the brokerage houses. Only a few accounts were funded with real money for testing purposes. In the case of commercial platforms, the free trials provided by the brokers were used. Only end-user applications and their direct servers were analyzed. Other backend protocols and related technologies used in exchanges…
Discovering and Exploiting a Vulnerability in Android’s Personal Dictionary (CVE-2018-9375)
I was auditing an Android smartphone, and all installed applications were in scope. My preferred approach, when time permits, is to manually inspect as much code as I can. This is how I found a subtle vulnerability that allowed me to interact with a content provider that was supposed to be protected in recent versions of Android: the user’s personal dictionary, which stores the spelling for non-standard words that the user wants to keep. While in theory access to the user’s personal dictionary should be only granted to privileged accounts,…
Secure Design Remains Critical
From time to time, a technically astute person challenges me around some area of secure design. Not too long ago, a distinguished engineer opined that “Threat modeling doesn’t do anything.” A CTO asked why there was any need for security architects, arguing, “We pay for static analysis. That should fix our secure development problems.” I’m not making these comments up. The people who made them are not clueless idiots, but rather, very bright individuals. These are worthy questions. If we, security architects (that is, those of us trying…
HooToo TripMate Routers are Cute But Insecure
It has been a while since I published something about a really broken router. To be honest, it has been a while since I even looked at a router, but let me fix that with this blog post.
Robots Want Bitcoins too!
Ransomware attacks have boomed during the last few years, becoming a preferred method for cybercriminals to get monetary profit by encrypting victim information and requiring a ransom to get the information back. The primary ransomware target has always been information. When a victim has no backup of that information, he panics, forced to pay for its return.
Security Theater and the Watch Effect in Third-party Assessments
Before the facts were in, nearly every journalist and salesperson in infosec was thinking about how to squeeze lemonade from the Equifax breach. Let’s be honest – it was and is a big breach. There are lessons to be learned, but people seemed to have the answers before the facts were available. It takes time to dissect these situations and early speculation is often wrong. Efforts at attribution and methods take months to understand. So, it’s important to not buy into the hysteria and, instead, seek to gain a clear vision…