on Unfair Judgement
Recently I was leaving a store after doing some Christmas shopping, as I entered my car someone recognized me and waved – this is the story of what went through my mind in that moment, the mistakes it revealed, and the regret that went with it. For those that are here in hopes of an article on information security or development, please pardon the interruption; this is about human nature. I know the value of your time so I try to diverge from my normal topics as little as possible, but this incident was striking enough that I thought it worthy of publication.
Read more…Verizon Hum Leaking Credentials
or, Christmas Infosec Insanity… A friend mentioned Hum by Verizon, a product that I hadn’t heard of but quickly caught my attention – both from a “here’s a privacy nightmare” perspective, and “I might actually use that” perspective. While looking at the site, I decided to take a look at the source code for the shopping page – what I saw was rather unexpected. Near the top is a large block of JSON assigned to an otherwise unused variable named phpvars – included was some validation code, a number of URLs, some HTML, and the like.
Read more…Juniper, Backdoors, and Code Reviews
Researchers are still working to understand the impact of the Juniper incident – the details of how the VPN traffic decryption backdoor are still not fully understood. That such devastating backdoors could make it in to such a security-critical product, and remain for years undetected has shocked many (and pushed many others deeper into their cynicism). There are though, some questions that are far more important in the long run:
Read more…Dovestones Software AD Self Password Reset (CVE-2015-8267)
Software AD Self Password Reset v3.0 by Dovestones Software contains a critical vulnerability in the password change functionality, that allows unauthenticated users to change the password of arbitrary accounts. The vendor has been working with customers to upgrade them to a fixed version. The /Reset/ChangePass function doesn’t validate that the validation questions have been answered, or validate that the account in question is enrolled. This allows an attacker to reset any account that the service account is able to reset, even if they aren’t enrolled.
Read more…Much ado about Juniper
Since this was published, more detailed information has become available: analysis of the SSH backdoor, the VPN backdoor, and the cryptography of the VPN backdoor. If you want a more detailed understanding of what was done, please take a moment to read these pages. The news is tearing through the information security community – Juniper seems to be on the lips of everyone now, let’s take a quick look at the information available:
Read more…The Manifesto
As a child, all of my time was spent reading – at the age of 8 or 9 I was staying up all night reading the likes of Dickens and Verne, at 11 or 12, I was tearing through encyclopedias, medical texts, and anything else I could get my hands on. I had a love for learning, for understanding, a desire to know everything, and an insatiable curiosity that often led me in interesting directions (in that ancient curse “may you have an interesting life” kind of way).
Read more…The Door to Nowhere
Today I was walking around, exploring the local downtown area, and I noticed a door. Or more accurately, what used to be a door, and the symbolism was too perfect to ignore. It’s a door to nowhere. A door once stood here, carefully built, thoughtfully placed, well crafted. Long ago someone decided that they didn’t want the door to exist anymore — so they filled it in. They made an attempt at reversing the decisions of the past to suit their desire at the moment — but they couldn’t.
Read more…Responsible Disclosure Is Wrong
The debate around how, where, and when to disclose a vulnerability – and of course to whom – is nearly as old as the industry that spawned the vulnerabilities. This debate will likely continue as long as humans are writing software. Unfortunately, the debate is hampered by poor terminology. Responsible disclosure is a computer security term describing a vulnerability disclosure model. It is like full disclosure, with the addition that all stakeholders agree to allow a period of time for the vulnerability to be patched before publishing the details.
Read more…Making BSides Knoxville
Two years of discussions, months of planning, weekly meetings, and thousands of dollars – BSides Knoxville 2015, the first BSides Knoxville that is, is in the books. By any metric I can think of, it was a resounding success – the feedback was great, awesome talks, good food, and a great atmosphere. I would like to give a little insight into the event, some of what I learned from it, what went right, went wrong, and how to make something like this without going insane.
Read more…Crypto Front Door: Everyone Welcome!
For decades, the US Government has fought — sometimes with itself — to prevent the use of secure cryptography. During the first crypto war, they allowed strong cryptography within the US, but other countries were limited to small keys — making brute force attacks practical. But what about those pesky US citizens? They didn’t really want them to have strong crypto either — enter key escrow. What is key escrow? According to Wikipedia:
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About Me
Security researcher, engineer and software developer with more than 20 years of experience.
Work: I primarily focus on application security, usable security, secure communications, and cryptography. I build and lead strong and dynamic teams, who cover all facets of security and privacy.
Writing: I write about my research, security in general, development and software design, and leadership through my blog, essays, and various publications. I also engage in some creating writing when I can.
Photography: I am a purist fine art photographer, working primarily in black & white, and focused on sharing new perspectives of the world. Limited edition prints of my work are available on my online gallery. I also have a background in photojournalism, and volunteer in this field when I can.