Leave the World Behind, or don’t

I watched Leave the World Behind on Netflix recently. I was intrigued as the trailers showed an oil tanker crashing on to a beach. It was implied that it had been hacked and someone had taken control of it. Shipping security is something we know quite a bit about, having been asked to hack a larg...

Helping a banking fraud victim

A few months ago an elderly friend of a friend asked for some help. They had been scammed and had £10K stolen. Was there anything I could do to help? This wasn’t going to be a pleasant task: recovering monies stolen as a result of banking fraud is all but impossible. I was going to have to explai...

To Pay or Not to Pay? That is the Ransomware question

During a review of a client’s incident response capabilities the discussion turned to ransomware and strategies for handling it. The client’s board-level view was that if they were unable to restore their systems they would pay-up. They’d gone so far as considering setting up a cryptocurrency...

Limiting your exposure to location data resellers

Location data is valuable, just ask Huq Industries, who make a living out of selling your location information, then found that the apps they bought it from hadn’t asked the end users permission to have it! Naughty! The organisations they sell it to use it for better marketing, to get a better...

Breaking Samsung firmware, or turning your S8/S9/S10 into a DIY “Proxmark”

This post is a companion to the DEF CON 28 video available here Breaking the Firmware of Samsung’s NFC Chips Recently I have been looking into how to push the capabilities of my old smartphones beyond what you could traditionally do just by rooting it. Smartphones contain huge amounts of hardware...

From Minecraft to Metasploit. Game hacking could start your cyber security career

Human beings are curious. Give a computer game to a kid and it’s only a matter of time before they get bored with the constraints of the gameplay and start trying novel things. This is encouraged by a lot of game developers by hiding Easter eggs in hard to reach locations. Once the confines have...

Man Climbs Severn Bridge. Your office is twice as easy and half as scary

So you think no one would ever sneak into your business? Think Again. The man who climbed the Severn Bridge and broke into the Big Brother house seems to have method to his madness. Here’s why. When I describe Social Engineering to some I get a common response: “Yeah, but who would ever do that i...

Cybersecurity communities. Small hacker groups, big impact

TL;DR Cybersecurity communities and groups are an excellent opportunity to network and learn There are OWASP, DEF CON, 2600, university hacking societies, Meetup communities and more to choose from They provide workshops, talks, and practical learning opportunities benefiting both newcomers and...

PCI DSS. Where to start?

TL;DR Determine your role: Merchant or service provider Determine your level and requirements Identify your validation method: SAQ or RoC Use the PCI website Introduction The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, or PCI DSS, outlines essential requirements for protecting both you and your...

BEC-ware the phish (part 1). Investigating incidents in M365

TL;DR Review the key artefacts to ensure the best possible telemetry is available in the case of a Business Email Compromise BEC. Keep an eye on data retention, where necessary export or forward data for investigations longer than 30 days. Verify and enable Unified Audit Logging, its free and giv...

Smart home security advice. Ring, SimpliSafe, Swann, and Yale

Introduction This guide covers the security of smart home security products from Ring, Yale, Swann, and SimpliSafe. Whether you're looking to monitor your property remotely, enhance your home's security, or see who’s at the front door, this guide will provide you with valuable insights. We have...

Pipedream ICS malware toolkit is a nightmare

TL;DR Malware toolkit specifically designed for attacking ICS Modular and framework based Main features are enumeration, Modbus comms, and HTTP interactions Operational Technology OT network breaches are often due to connected Windows devices Off-network compromise assessments give a strategic vi...

Navigating the perilous waters of conference invitations

TL:DR Being asked to speak at events is great …except when it looks like a scam or a phishing attempt This is walkthrough of my experience If you think it’s a scam, it probably is Its a typical Sunday evening, and as Im gearing up for the week ahead and an interesting email lands in my inbox. The...

10 years on from the Target breach. Has building cyber security improved?

It’s over a decade since the Target data breach. It was an event that reinforced the need for supply chain security reviews. It seems that much has changed since then, or has it? Has the security profile of the average connected building in the USA improved in that time period, be it retail,...

Finding forensics breadcrumbs in Android image storage

Introduction Our digital forensics work is wide and varied. Often there’s very little that we can talk about in the public domain, so when I find something that we can share I get a bit excited. In this post I’ll be talking about image scanning apps, and how to reverse engineer them to pinpoint...

Scanning for security.txt files

Introduction RFC 9116 was written by E. Foudil and Y. Shafranovich and left draft status in April 2022. This RFC formally defines the unofficial security.txt file that has been an unofficial standard for many years, initially created back in 2017 and documented at . The security.txt file provides...

Reporting of cyber incidents becomes law in the USA

On March 15th 2022, president Joe Biden and the US Government passed new legislation to strengthen the Department for Justice DOJ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency CISA position by requiring the reporting of all cyber incidents or ransomware payments. The Cyber Incident Reporting f...

DPD package sniffing

TL;DR An unauthenticated API call was identified in DPD Group’s public API that could allow a user with a valid package ID to, with some basic OSINT, discover the package’s destination postcode and thus obtain all details about the package. DPD Group were prompt in the triage and resolution of th...

Hijacking smart luggage

When is a vulnerability not a vulnerability? I’m not sure this counts as a vuln per-se, but some easily-fixed and simple manufacturer mistakes result in trivial hijack of…. yes… your smart luggage. The Airwheel SR5 is the first smart luggage that we’ve seen. It can automatically follow the owner...

VNC. RDP for all to see

TL;DR VNC still remains in some legacy environments due to legacy deployments and ease of use. Without proprietary extensions, VNC transmits data without encryption, making credential theft through packet sniffing possible. The captured challenge and response between a VNC client and server can...

Take control of Cache-Control and local caching

TL;DR Caching speeds up website content delivery What caching directives are and how to use them The No-cache directive does not prevent caching The No-store directiveprevents caching Introduction The HTTP Cache-Control header is sometimes misunderstood. It's important because it is used to speci...

Pen testing avionics under ED-203a

The aviation industry realised some time ago that taking a standard approach to the cyber security of its products was needed and that this was a specialist discipline. A family of documents was produced to help with this: ED-202A / DO-326A – what should be certified ED-203A / DO-356A – how these...

Heels on fire. Hacking smart ski socks

TL;DR A silly-season BLE connectivity story Overheat people’s smart ski socks …but only when in Bluetooth range AND when the owner's phone is out of range of their feet! Having experienced painfully cold feet several times over the years while skiing, including once at minus 42°C in the Canadian...

Is secure boot on the main application processor enough?

TL;DR Secure boot ensures only authentic firmware can run on a device and should form part of a layered defence strategy. Sub-systems often lack secure boot capabilities, limiting protection for non-critical processors. Focus on secure boot for the main processor; it can provide adequate security...

6 non tech things you wish you had done before being breached

Introduction When a breach happens, it’s not just technical defences that matter. Preparation in non-technical areas, like having key documents printed or emergency contacts accessible, can make all the difference. In this blog, we highlight six simple yet essential steps to help you prepare in...

Living off the land, GPO style

TL;DR The ability to edit Group Policy Object GPOs from non-domain joined computers using the native Group Policy editor has been on my list for a long time. This blog post takes a deep dive into what steps were taken to find out why domain joined machines are needed in the first place and what...

WhosHere Plus. Trilateration vulnerability

WhosHere Plus is a dating app that uses GPS data to recommend users near to each other, based on similar interests. PTP constantly researches the state of privacy and security in apps that use GPS data, because the consequences of poor security and privacy are alarming: Tracking and snooping on a...

EFB Tampering. Holdover Time

TL;DR Holdover applications are a relatively new method of calculating the effectiveness of anti-icing fluid sprayed onto aircraft wings. Applications such as these have additional attack surfaces as the developer and source databases need to be considered Airlines often view limits as targets to...

OpSec. Hunting wireless access points

Continuing my series on OSINT techniques you can use for reviewing your own corporate OpSec, one of the most common services available in a modern corporate office is of course wireless. How do we go about finding wireless access points and what can they tell us? Finding wireless We have spoken...

When the IoT vendor goes bust

Over recent years, legislation has started to emerge to protect consumers from unethical behaviour from IoT vendors. Far too many smart devices didn’t charge for a subscription to the online platform that made the device ‘smart’. As a result, manufacturers had a perverse incentive to end-of-life...

ASSURE Case Study: One

The engagement The client needed to meet the requirements of the Network Information Systems NIS CAF. There was a target profile for the NIS CAF that the CAA had set out for the client’s systems. However, we discovered early on that this had the potential to be a transformational piece of work fo...

Security flaws found in tiny phones promoted to children

TL;DR Three mini smartphones promoted to children were analysed Those devices are heavily promoted on TikTok All had outdated operating systems All could be rooted without wiping the phone, allowing data to be compromised with physical access One had malware artefacts pre-installed One had an...

Living off the land with Bluetooth PAN

TL:DR Bluetooth is enabled by default on the majority of Windows laptops Bluetooth PAN can be used to bridge connections locally between a client laptop and attacking device Attackers can use Microsoft native SSH client to forward out internal network traffic Windows native SSH is accessible to...

Stop using phishing as a measure of your cyber awareness culture

If I had a penny for every time someone said to me “let’s measure our security culture by phishing our staff” I’d probably be able to fill my car up. It’s a really easy thing to do, you carry out some online training and typically they come with phishing simulations as a free or low cost add on. ...

ASSURE Case Study: Two

The engagement The purpose of this exercise was to validate the clients’ baseline security assessment against NIS and the CAF and prepare them for the CAA Assure audit against NIS and CAF. There were 24 systems for the client and 9 third party systems. The client had carried out some initial...

Congrats, you got everyone remote. But did you do it securely?

The lockdown has meant entire companies of typically office based staff being forced to work from home. The change to our way of life is like nothing anyone has in living memory ever seen. However, alongside that, IT teams have had to rush to deliver solutions that were simply not designed for th...

Stealing container ship cargo through LOC messaging

In a previous post post I looked at hacking and manipulating EDIFACT messages to destabilise a ship. However, criminals will be far more interested in using these techniques to re-route containers and steal their contents. Similar techniques appear to have been used to steal containers in the pas...

Fully segregated networks? Your dual-homed devices might disagree

TL;DR Using dual-homed devices as a segregation tool is not recommended as a security design solution Use dedicated hardware and robust firewalls to segregate networks to limit access to critical networks Proactively check for unintended exposure of network services and disable unnecessary servic...

Practice being punched in the face. The realities of incident response preparation

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” This Mike Tyson boxing quote perfectly encapsulates the chaos of a cybersecurity breach. TL;DR Accept that your organisation may be breached Train hard. Regularly test incident response plans Build muscle memory Practice getting punched in...

Pen testing cruise ships

New build ships contracted for build from 1st July 2024 must comply with IACS UR E26 & 27. What does this mean for assessing the cyber security of a cruise ship? What’s the risk profile? Cruise ships have a unique risk profile. This is due to the huge number of guests on board, highly complex...

Dodgy disks. My 32TB SSD Adventure

TL;DR "Hard drive” had reflashed firmware to make it look larger Buyer beware: Cheap storage may not be the value you think it is Background Earlier this year I found myself in need of various cheap electronic components. So naturally I turned to AliExpress. I came across a listing for a cheap...

Are Vehicle to Grid spikes coming?

If you didn’t already know, I’m a massive fan of electric vehicles. One of the aspects that intrigues me is Vehicle to Grid V2G, the potential for our car batteries to store and release electricity to and from the grid, providing balance for the peaks and troughs of demand. It’s a part of what is...

Imposter syndrome in cyber security

TL;DR Imposter syndrome is the belief that you are undeserving of your achievements Anyone can be affected by it There are ways to cope What is imposter syndrome? Imposter syndrome is the psychological pattern in which a person downplays their achievements and believes that they are secretly a...

Cap Dev. Better red teaming with continuous Capability Development

TL;DR What Capability Development Cap Dev is in this context The big Cap Dev benefits for red teaming Operations and Development, sharing and improving Improvements to TTPs, hardware, and developing strategies Benefits of using a DevSecOps model for offensive security The essence of Cap Dev Cap D...

Consumer advice for buying smart IoT devices this Christmas

Rightly or wrongly there’s plenty of fear, uncertainty, and downright doom associated with the IoT and devices. So, is it safe to buy these things as gifts or even as a treat for yourself this year? In our opinion it probably is, as long as you follow some basic advice. What can you do? Do your...

Living off the Cloud. Cloudy with a Chance of Exfiltration

Part one of a series aimed at demonstrating malicious usage of Office 365 services. TL;DR Unless default settings are changed, typical Office 365 O365 licences come loaded with various services that are all usable by end users without special permissions. Power Automate can be used maliciously by...

Container theft, the legal system and poor maritime security

One of the most interesting legal cases I’ve read recently involves a theft of two containers of cobalt metal briquettes from a terminal at the port of Antwerp. Original judgment: Appeal: What drew me to this case was the amount of useful data that had entered the public domain concerning a crime...

The dangers of web based messaging apps

TL;DR Anyone with a web browser and access to your phone in an unlocked state could potentially set up persistent access to your secure messaging platforms without needing to know your credentials!. Whilst this clearly requires unfettered access to your phone, scenarios such as screen replacement...

How to secure body-worn cameras and protect footage from cyber threats

TL;DR Body-worn cameras are used by police and other security personnel Cameras are taken into the field but footage could be presented as evidence Cryptographic approaches are needed to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of captured video and audio Cybersecurity challenges of body-worn...

Mounting memory with MemProcFS for advanced memory forensics

Mounting memory? This changes everything! TL;DR Memory forensics is crucial for investigations, providing access to volatile data, like running processes and network connections. MemProcFS is a game-changer tool in memory forensics, allowing memory dumps to be mounted and browsed like file system...