Compensating Controls: When Patching Isn’t an Option

Your software vendor is asleep at the wheel and your devs still need that legacy daemon...

Humans Are the Weakest Link in Security

In our recent analysis of penetration testing engagements contained in our Penetration Risk Report, we discuss the impact that social engineering, specifically phishing, has on the ability to allow attackers insider access to compromise an organization...

What Is the DoD’s New Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, and What Does It Mean for Defense Contractors?

Citing the threat of compromise of Controlled Unclassified Information CUI within the defense industrial base DIB, along with the high cost of cyber breaches in general, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition has initiated a program for rating the cybersecurity maturity ...

The death metal suite

Intel Active Management Technology AMT is a feature provided by Intel for remote administration. If you happen to have a corporate laptop, odds are you too have AMT built into your system. To a sysadmin, AMT eases access to machines for the sake of assisting employees with technical issues, even ...

Executing Meterpreter on Windows 10 and Bypassing Antivirus

One of my Labs colleagues recently published an article on the Coalfire Blog about executing an obfuscated PowerShell payload using Invoke-CradleCrafter. This was very useful, as Windows Defender has upped its game lately and is now blocking Metasploits Web Delivery module. I wanted to demonstrat...

Encryption of Federal Data

One of the biggest challenges our customers face when pursuing Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program FedRAMP compliance is the federal mandate that Federal Information Processing Standards FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic modules must be consistently applied where cryptography is...

The Effect of NIST 800-171A on Government Contractors

NIST 800-171A introduces a standardized opportunity to perform a more structured and granular level of assessment leveraging the National Institute of Standards and Technology NIST Special Publication SP 800-171 framework...

The Unhealthy Security of Healthcare

I have been involved in a number of healthcare penetration tests here at Coalfire and in my previous roles. I have hacked electronic medical records, medical devices, and most importantly, humans. From my time as a systems engineer at a medical device and systems vendor to my current role at...

Automating Incident Prevention and Response in AWS

Information security incidents can result in reputational damage, financial losses, or a loss of system functionality for organizations at any time. Because threats and attack vectors are growing rapidly, organizations must prepare to respond to incidents in real time. The incident response IR...

What is FedRAMP+?

The Department of Defense DoD Cloud Computing CC Security Requirements Guide SRG Version 1, Release 3 defines FedRAMP Plus FedRAMP+ as: "… the concept of leveraging the work done as part of the FedRAMP assessment and adding specific security controls and requirements necessary to meet and assure...

Latest round of OCR audits highlight HIPAA risk analysis and risk management shortcomings

The Office for Civil Rights OCR at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HHS has released its latest report with findings from their 2016 and 2017 series of audits as required under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 HIPAA/HITECH Privacy, Security, and Brea...

Would Coalfire Clients benefit from membership with the PCAOB?

Coalfire Controls, LLC Coalfire is a registered Certified Public Accounting CPA firm registered with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants AICPA and the Colorado State Board of Accountancy, as required to issue Service Organization Control SOC attestation reports in accordance wi...

New cybersecurity legislation to amend the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act – an analysis of H.R. 7898

New legislation was passed by Congress and signed by the president on January 5, 2021 that amends the HITECH Act with an additional section titled: SEC. 13412. RECOGNITION OF SECURITY PRACTICES.1...

Aligning Enterprise Cyber Risk and Business Strategy

Most business leaders have a contextual awareness of cyber risk and the threats facing their organizations. However, this contextual awareness rarely contributes to a clear, consolidated directive that can be applied across the organizations. Further, many organizations struggle to align their...

The Significance of the NIST Privacy Framework

Kudos to the NIST Privacy Team! Privacy Framework v.1.0 has finally been released. Ive been tracking the growth of this initiative since the focus group was kicked off in September 2018 and respect its thoroughly explored yet fundamentally grass roots approach. A few points worth bringing to your...

Google Cloud NEXT '18: A Growing Event with Much to Offer

If you want to learn whats up and coming for Google Cloud and make some great connections, Google Cloud NEXT is an informative, lively event to prioritize on your conference calendar. Coalfire attended the recent Google Cloud NEXT 18 conference in San Francisco July 24-27 and found it to be a goo...

Expanded Privacy Protections Granted to California Residents: The California Consumer Protection Act

In late June, California passed a new consumer privacy law--the California Consumer Privacy Act CCPA. This statute provides protections to California residents; but it will also have wide-ranging effects outside of California as it will apply to organizations that conduct business in California...

The cloud is beige - The demise of black box testing

Black-box penetration testing is dead. Id question why it is even a consideration. Its of limited and dubious value in almost any context. Wait, wait… I didnt mean that. Put down the pitchforks and torches, development and QA teams, Im only talking about black-box penetration testing. Yes,...

Transitioning to the New SOC 2 Criteria – What You Need to Know

SOC 2 has seen quite a few changes in the past year in how reports must be presented in the future. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants AICPA replaced the old SSAE 16 standard with SSAE 18, released the 2017 Trust Services Criteria, the new Description Criteria DC-200, and a ne...

Thinking about data privacy strategically: four key questions

It wasnt that long ago when the concept of data privacy was mostly a legal question. Privacy obligations arose almost exclusively from regulations, so most organizations delegated the problem to legal counsel, who then tackled the problem through policy and contract language. At best, it was a co...

Is Cloud Computing Really New? And Other Insights on the Changing Face of Cloud

What is cloud computing, and why is its increased use getting so much attention? In my view, cloud computing is just the latest iteration of what started back in the days of the IBM service bureaus of the 1960s and 70s. Back then, only a handful of organizations had the resources to own and opera...

HIPAA Complaints, OCR Investigations, and Security Risk Analysis for Healthcare Delivery Organizations – A Common Thread

Many HIPAA covered entities CEs and business associates BAs may not be meeting the regulatory mandate as defined in §164.308a1iiA of the HIPAA Security Rule. This implementation specification requires that healthcare delivery organizations HDOs "Conduct an accurate and thorough assessment of the...

P2PE v3.0 – Why organizations should prepare now

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council PCI SSC published version 3.0 of the Point-To-Point Encryption P2PE standard back in December 2019. The new version simplifies and adds flexibility to the process for component and solution providers to validate their P2PE products for cardhold...

Avoid oversights in HIPAA risk management

Since HIPAA regulations first came about in 1996, organizations have looked for ways to analyze and manage risk within this complex framework. Although guided by the HIPAA Security Rule as well as additional guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HHS and Office for Civil...

The Basics of Exploit Development 5: x86-64 Buffer Overflows

In this article we will be covering a technique similar to the one in the first installment of this series, however, with the twist in that this exploit will be of a 64-bit process running on Windows 10. Due to the nature of modern operating systems and the exploit mitigation techniques they...

Tax time again: IT security for accounting firms

As the end of another busy tax season approaches, it is important for accounting firms to remember their obligations related to data security. Accounting firms maintain a significant amount of data on behalf of their own employees and clients. These firms house financial records, tax information,...

Breaking down barriers: Redefining the FedRAMP® journey for cloud service providers

Since the passing of the FedRAMP Authorization Act last December, inquiries about navigating FedRAMP's complex landscape have surged. Recognizing this, Coalfire is pioneering a new pathway to streamline the FedRAMP authorization process, making it more accessible for cloud service providers...

Long-awaited changes to the nation's cybersecurity infrastructure become reality

There is a lot of buzz in the biz about the ripple effects of President Bidens "Executive Order EO on Improving the Nations Cybersecurity," which comes on the heels of the Colonial Pipeline hack. The pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel used on the Eastern Seaboard, was shut down after ...

Updated: COVID-19 incites crimes of opportunity

On April 21, 2020, Mike Weber, vice president of innovation, updated his blog covering some of the top scams cybercriminals are unleashing on businesses as well as identifying the newest targets for those crimes. In the current panicked state of the economy, understanding the attack vectors is th...

Third party risk management and the cloud

Risk is inevitable with third party vendors that have access to your company and client data. With expanding attack surfaces, dispersed supply chains, and IoT issues on the rise, TPRM third party risk management is becoming a more mission-critical security practice in the cloud. Lets look at...

DoD Cloud Computing Impact Level 6 – the unclassified edition

The final Impact Level IL referenced in the Department of Defense DoD Cloud Computing CC Security Requirements Guide SRG is IL6. IL6 allows Cloud Service Providers CSPs to store information up to SECRET or below. CSPs can utilize their own infrastructure or deploy their cloud service offering CSO...

Cloud tech first floor recommendations

I hate to say it, but Im an old, curmudgeonly guy thats been in the industry more than 20 years. And after a while, things just start to wear on you. In fact, there was a point in my career that I swore if I had to counsel just one more company on the importance of having strong passwords and...

Chasing doorbells: Finding IoT vulnerabilities in embedded devices

The goal of this research project was to see if we could find any vulnerabilities and obtain full persistence on an IoT device, while learning about embedded devices in general. This post will take you through our journey to find vulnerabilities in a common, reasonably priced IoT device. For our...

Coalfire Teams with Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council (HSCC) for Fall Summit

The Department of Homeland Security DHS charged the Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council HSCC with serving as a partnership between the private and public healthcare sectors. To that end, two unique councils were formed: The Healthcare and Public Health Government Coordinating...

Closing the technical gap with resiliency pen testing

Organizations across all industries are watching and weighing the real impact and cost of security breaches as they look to budget security spending for 2021. While remote operations are becoming the norm, threat actors have no intention of slowing down their efforts. Instead, they are taking ful...

PCI DSS version 4.0 – what we know so far

From September 23 - November 13, 2020, stakeholders can participate in the Request for Comments RFC on the draft of PCI Data Security Standard DSS version 4.0. This is the second RFC for the PCI DSS v4.0 draft--the first RFC was in late 2019 and that feedback was incorporated into the draft...

Crypto vulnerability management

In this blog series, weve discussed in detail how crypto assets and currencies are no longer passing fads. Even if your C-suite remains skeptical, security leaders and teams cant afford to keep watching, waiting, and speculating about whats going to happen or when your organization will be direct...

Coalfire ramps up for StateRAMP — What you need to know…

There has been a lot of buzz during the past year or so about StateRAMP SR. SR was an idea born out of helping state and local governments efficiently and effectively verify cybersecurity and manage third-party risk. SR is a 501-c6 non-profit, membership-based organization based in Indiana and...

Data privacy: What's new in cross-border transfers? The Standard Contractual Clauses

The transfer of personal data between companies and countries is vital for smooth data processing operations. When transferring data out of the European Union, companies are required to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation GDPR which requires that any data that is transferred to a...

The road to secure crypto: start getting risk management priorities on your threat modeling radar

While attending the biggest event in crypto history earlier this month in Miami, it struck me that, although irrational over-exuberance was the mood, the reality is really sinking in: We are in a new payments industry paradigm shift. Its not a fad anymore, and its not going away. An exclamation t...

Establishing remote data center assessment standards

For the foreseeable future, the COVID-19 crisis has changed the very nature of on-site cybersecurity compliance assessments and testing. Leading the way, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council PCI SSC quickly recognized that its requirements for physical, on-site data center...

Security considerations for the social distancing era?

COVID-19 is changing the way nearly all of us work and, for some specialist security operations, this is a real challenge. For others, its an excellent opportunity to add value to the business for when the economy starts to recover...

The Basics of Exploit Development 2: SEH Overflows

In this article we will be writing an exploit for a 32-bit Windows application vulnerable to Structured Exception Handler SEH overflows. While this type of exploit has been around for a long time, it is still applicable to modern systems...

Quality is Job One When it Comes to the HITRUST CSF Assurance Program

The HITRUST CSF® remains an essential security and privacy controls framework that addresses the multitude of security, privacy, and regulatory challenges facing both public and private sector organizations. As framework adoption increases across all industries, maintaining integrity is crucial,...

Amanda Mesler of Microsoft Addresses the Women of Coalfire

Last month RISE, Coalfires association of women in cybersecurity and leadership, welcomed our inaugural guest speaker, Amanda Mesler, General Manager of Microsoft Central and Eastern Europe. I had the great fortune to interview her and lead a discussion with our members...

Coalfire acquires penetration testing management platform

Over the past year, Coalfire has worked closely in partnership with Neuralys, a penetration testing management platform. Today, Coalfire is ecstatic to announce the acquisition of Neuralys, and welcome its founders, developers and sales team to our organization...

New OCR-ready risk analysis: Why the confusion?

Are you ready for an Office for Civil Rights OCR investigation? Will your risk analysis and risk management methodologies and documents be sufficient to meet the HIPAA Security Rule?...

A day in the life of a cybersecurity professional

After I graduated from high school, I knew I wanted to do something in computers and IT, but I did not know exactly what - the IT help desk route, databases and database management, programming and software development, or something else perhaps? I knew one thing though - I did not want to be in ...

Pro Tip: The Right Way to Test JSON Parameters with Burp

Heres a Burp trick you might not know, which helped find this instance of command execution and lots of SQL injection in other applications. Despite PortSwigger claiming otherwise, Burp does not parse JSON very well, especially nested JSON parameters and values like you see below...

Coalfire statement on racial injustice

In honor of Juneteenth, I wanted to reflect and share my thoughts. At Coalfire, we are committed to living our values: Respect, Excellence, Leadership, Integrity, Teamwork, and Enthusiasm. As a result, Coalfire stands against racism, violence, and hate. We stand with fairness, equity, and justice...