We need to talk about sex toys and cyber security

Introduction We’ve written about the appalling security of smart sex toys over the years. Finally, an invite came to give a talk on the subject to a TEDx audience. I debated whether to give the talk with colleagues, as we’ve never wanted to be pigeon-holed in this space! But we felt that public...

OAuth consent phishing, in the wild

TL;DR An interesting incident response investigation showed exploitation of a recent OAuth related consent-phishing issue. We had been asked to investigate as the organisation had noticed some odd behaviours in the mailbox of one of the exec team. The mailbox was being queried using GraphAPI and...

Speed 2 – The Poseidon Adventure – Part Two

This post is a companion to the DEF CON 28 video available here Part One is available here Issue 3: Time and Tide Wait for No VLAN As mentioned the cabin switch appeared to be the key to all our access requirements. From that we could get to the trunk network, and all those TV, VOIP, and Wi-Fi...

BEC-ware the Phish (part 3): Detect and Prevent Incidents in M365

TL;DR Take lessons learned from investigation, such as reviewing how emails evaded existing phishing controls to update anti-malware policies. Configure Defender for Office and Defender for Cloud Apps threat and alert policies to prevent and detect email-based attacks. Don’t rely on out-of-the-bo...

Maritime lawyers assemble!

Maritime cyber insurance has been playing catch-up with maritime cyber security for a while now. It was all pretty good until the availability of cheap VSAT meant that ships became constantly connected. Vessels were mostly not connected at sea, other than Fleet Broadband connections, rarely used...

HUMINT in a cyber world

TL;DR HUMINT / Human Intelligence is gathered from a person in the location in question. It’s the sort of information we think of in the context of spying. A modern intelligence apparatus is multi-discipline with many different collection methods. HUMINT sources include officers, agents, diplomat...

Social Engineering dos and don’ts

Another day, another success at sneaking into a building and pretending to be staff. I do so love drinking other peoples expensive office coffee. No fruit bowls though. Close, but no banana. It got me thinking, again, about what makes for good social engineering SE, and what advice would I give m...

Audio bugging with the Fisher Price Chatter Bluetooth Telephone

The Fisher Price Chatter Bluetooth Telephone is a reincarnation of a familiar kids toy. It acts as a Bluetooth headset, so the user can connect their smartphone to it and take calls using the kids phone handset. Cute! Unfortunately, little to no consideration has been given to privacy and securit...

EFB Tampering. Approach and Landing Performance Part 1

Approach and Landing Performance Part 1: Introduction and Landing Distance Calculations Click here for part 2 TL;DR Approach and landing performance applications perform calculations to provide critical performance data to pilots e.g. speed / flap settings on approach Modifying any one of these...

Cloud-y, with a chance of hacking all the wireless things

Grandstream are a provider of IP video and voice services, as well as Wi-Fi and other related services and equipment. Their products are sold in over 150 countries and they have offices around the globe. We were having a look at their GWN.Cloud management platform, used for remote device and...

Threat modelling and IoT hubs

IoT hubs are increasingly being used to provide a single point of access to the myriad of smart devices in the home. One ring to rule them all, if rather than multiple apps for different devices. When reviewing devices we often start with the single biggest security threat: unauthorised access to...

What an IoT assurance scheme could look like

We’ve seen our fair share of vulnerable smart devices over recent years, our blog is littered with examples. We have already commented on the DCMS Secure by Design initiative, it’s a great initiative as is, however, we do want to see it evolve and become more rigorous over time. This should not b...

So, you just caused a data breach, by CCing the wrong person in an email…

I had two encounters today both of which I thought I’d share. The first thing that happened A received a call from a friend who had made a mistake at work, due to the area I work within they decided I could save them Yes, it happened THEY COPIED THE WRONG PERSON IN AN EMAIL. Happily working away...

Fire detection system been pwned? You’re not going to sea

TL;DR Hardcoded SSH and VNC credentials found on Consilium Salwico CS5000 panels SSH access allows OS-level interaction, and VNC access gives UI control It may be possible to disable the fire detection system Attempts to disclose vulnerability to Consilium multiple times since 2022 Consilium...

Unallocated space analysis

TL;DR Unallocated space retains remnants of deleted files, metadata, logs, caches, and other artefacts. This is useful if a user attempts to cover their tracks, delete files, reformat drives, or use anti-forensic tools. These remnants can help reconstruct user actions exposing data exfiltration...

How Garmin watches reveal your personal data, and what you can do

TL;DR A walk-through of obtaining sensitive data from a Garmin watch using forensic techniques How digital forensics on a Garmin watch helped solve a double murder case A comparison of Garmin's privacy with other brands including Fitbit, Apple, and Samsung Understand the security and privacy...

Cyber security guidance for small fleet operators

Introduction Cyber threats aren’t just a problem for large shipping organizations, small maritime fleet operators are also at risk. Anything from phishing emails to ransomware attacks, these threats can disrupt operations and compromise critical systems. This post is a guide to help small fleet...

Using Volatility for advanced memory forensics

TL;DR Memory forensics enhances investigations by analysing volatile data in RAM unavailable in disk forensics. Key insights from memory include running processes , network connections , encryption keys , and user activity , vital for real-time investigations. Smaller memory images 4-32 GB offer...

Glastonbury ticket hijack vulnerability fixed

The Glastonbury ticket website was vulnerable to a relatively simple attack that that allowed ticket theft and data leakage. What’s the issue? An attacker could scrape collaborative ticket buying information e.g. on Reddit to gather people’s details, use a flaw in the registration process and...

Cockpit door lock auto-unlock is no surprise

TL;DR Through reverse engineering a cockpit door lock controller several years ago, we’ve known about the auto-unlatch issue We couldn’t publish owing to the risk to flight safety, even though some airplane type manuals already described the behaviour in a depressurisation event Now that the Alas...

Helping a mobile malware fraud victim

Back at the start of October, we had a call from the BBC asking if we could help unpick a fraud. The victim had been defrauded of £12,000 through a rogue bank transfer and mentioned that her Android mobile phone had been behaving oddly. Of course we would help; who wouldn’t be up for the...

Which security framework? All of them, in the SCF

TL;DR: All roads lead to Rome. There are plenty of ways to meet your security requirements ISO 27001 is not everything. There, I said it What is the Secure Controls Framework SCF? Why you should consider SCF on your journey to security excellence PTP has a myriad of customers coming for help to...

DEF CON 30. Hacking EFBs. Engine Performance

At DEF CON 30 this year we demonstrated some vulnerabilities in electronic flight bags and the potential impact on flight safety. There’s plenty more detail of EFB security issues here. As part of the Aerospace Village at DEF CON 30, we invited people to fly our flight sim under instruction from...

Got the security controls wrong in OT and maritime? Watch as engineers work around them

Industrial control systems security is slowly improving, partly a result of attention from regulators and lawmakers. However, we often see security controls implemented that don’t take account of the unique challenges that engineers looking after OT environments face. We see controls brought in...

9 things to consider when staff work from home unexpectedly

Many businesses are reviewing and updating their response plans currently. Some might consider closing offices. This may be an appropriate response, but have you considered the effect on employees that have never worked from home before? Security considerations can be quite different, as working ...

Kids Tracker Watches: CloudPets, exploiting athletes and hijacking reality TV

Kids smart tracker watch security: everyone has missed the point. It’s not a few thousand here and there. It’s at least 47 million, probably around 150 million exposed tracking devices. It all points back to two or three lazy device manufacturers, much like Mirai v1 did There have been lots of...

Hacking the Echo echo echo

Smart home assistant. Not-so-smart TV Amazon Echo is considered pretty secure in the security community. Remote exploitation is a pipe dream, requiring months of research to stand any chance. But what about using other devices in the home to exploit it instead? Working on a smart Samsung TV and a...

How to load unsigned or fake-signed apps on iOS

TL;DR Issues commonly arise when clients provide an application which is unsigned or does not meet device requirements. Installing an application can be challenging without a Mac, access to Xcode or if the client is having trouble signing the application manually as this is normally done by the a...

Bootloaders explained

TL;DR Modern computers have a program that starts the operating system, known as a bootloader Bootloaders can be communicated with to access storage and sometimes RAM directly They are all individual to the chipset in use. Bootloaders explained In its simplest form, a bootloader is a low-level...

QR Phishing. Fact or Fiction?

October 2023’s Cyber Security Awareness Month led to a flurry of blog posts about a new attack called Quishing QR Code phishing and how new AI powered email gateways can potentially block these attacks. What’s the attack? To understand the attack you need understand the challenge that the attacke...

Ski & bike helmets protect your head, not location or voice

TL;DR Livall smart ski and bike helmet app leaks the wearers real time position Group audio chat allows snooping on conversations Both issues are due to missing authorisation Bike app affects 1 million users, ski app affects a few thousand users Fixed by the vendor, but after we had to call on a...

RAID Technology and the importance of disk encryption in data security

Introduction Recently we were engaged by a client experiencing a potential data leak incident. Amidst their expansion, they were constructing a new data centre. Due to pressing business needs, they accelerated the setup of part of their infrastructure. This urgency led to them setting up a Domain...

Die Hard 2. Or how not to hack airplanes

How could I criticise possibly the best action movie series of all time? Well, it’s to help dispel myths about hacking planes. TV shows and films help set a narrative that is hard to shift around aviation cyber, giving the travelling public a misleading view of their security when flying. So let’...

Vulnerability disclosure in aviation

We joined Boeing and United Airlines on a panel recently at the RSA Conference to talk about vulnerability disclosure in the aviation world. The engagement we are now seeing between researchers and industry is a powerful force for positive change. Hopefully this will start to reduce the number of...

EFB ePIL. Pinching passenger PII from pilots

TL;DR The Passenger Information List PIL is often now available on EFBs and crew devices. It stores information such as passenger names, seat numbers, and customer services information. Digital versions of the PIL enable crew to offer more bespoke customer service Information on a PIL is differen...

Password policy guidance

Why do we need strong passwords? Passwords are stored by using a one-way hashing algorithm to generate a representation of the original password on a securely designed system. Authentication mechanisms then compare the calculated hash of an entered password with the stored hash value to determine...

UK Government gets serious about consumer IoT security. Legislation on the way

The Digital Minister Margot James today announced a concrete mandate for dealing with the slew of insecure IoT dross that has plagued consumers over the last few years. The aim is simple, to ensure that the millions of household items that are connected to the internet are better protected from...

Not everything in a data leak is real

TL;DR Data breaches make the headlines usually because of the sheer volume of data Research shows that often the volume of data is falsely inflated How forensics experts can spot it Introduction When a data breach hits the news, it's usually all about the numbers: millions of names, emails, and...

Did security gaps at Antwerp port enable drug smuggling operations?

TL;DR Why hack shipping? For profit. Criminals have been proven to have hacked port systems to bypass security and facilitate drug smuggling. Evidence of hacking? Rarely reported, but cases like MSC and Glencore’s cobalt theft and the incidents at the Port of Antwerp below provide real examples...

Impacts on ICS from the updated Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF)

NCSC has released an update of the Cyber Assessment Framework CAF. The CAF represents where the rubber hits the road for the UK’s NIS regulations. TL;DR The NCSC CAF has been updated to version 3.2. There has been a material change to three aspects of the CAF. The changes are broadly sensible and...

FDA medical IoT cyber device compliance. FD&C 524b

TL;DR FD&C 524b is new FDA legislation for medical cyber device compliance Introduced on March 30th 2023 it is now a firm requirement as of October 1st 2023 It demands provision of complex evidence that manufacturers take security seriously Medical cyber device market There are over 10,000 medica...

Monetising hacking by shorting commodity shipments

I’m continually asked by the maritime industry about the motivations of hackers. “Why would anyone hack us, we operate ships?” It strikes me that many of the public and a lot of maritime businesses still think of the ‘hacker’ as a solo operator in a dark hoodie in a basement of their parents’...

Maritime regulation. All Hands-on Deck!

TL;DR The regulation from the IMO has changed, you need to do more about cyber security. Key things to focus on: Start asking questions of your supply chain, of your own IT and OT teams Assess the security configuration per vessel – each are different Use Critical National Infrastructure controls...

Commercial Air Transport EFB Regulation

Introduction The Electronic Flight Bag EFB is a device pilots use to gather information. This includes viewing airport charts ground and in-flight, calculating take-off and landing performance, as well as multiple other uses as detailed in our other EFB blog posts. EFB regulation is, in a word,...

Advice on buying ‘smart’ gadgets for Christmas

Christmas isn’t far off, and many of you will be in full present buying mode. In the world of smart-this and connected-that there is more at stake than ever before, and we’re not talking about whether batteries are included or not. As we’ve been testing the security of smart products for over 5...

Hacking the Bitfi Part 3: The device with no storage

TL;DR? Here’s proof that the Bitfi has storage and that it’s been rooted. -The Bitfi boots at 20 seconds. We’re not disclosing the method yet, as there is plenty more work to be done here. If you’ve been keeping an eye on Twitter, no doubt you’ve seen the unravelling mess that is the security of...

A dive into the Rockchip Bootloader

TL;DR Rockchip has a structured sequence of bootloaders. Using various plugs can allow access to the MCU’s RAM and storage. There are many utilities to allow reading of information from the MCU. Use this guide to access and reverse engineer bootloaders. Introduction Rockchip are a Chinese company...

PCI DSS v4.0 Evidence and documentation requirements checklist

TL;DR PCI DSS is complex and challenging Review the 12 top level controls Arm yourself with this checklist to help you navigate it Introduction PCI DSS v4.0 is challenging for a number of reasons: increased complexity, future-dated requirements, high costs and resource demands, vendor management...

What goes into testing a ship?

TL;DR Testing a ship involves identifying and mitigating cybersecurity risks using the "Identify, Prevent, Detect, Respond, Recover" framework. Guidelines include MSC.42898, BIMCO, IACS UR E26/E27, and ISO standards. New builds and existing vessels require proper documentation and network securit...

Socks! Our cyber prediction for 2024

I get pretty bored of reading pointless prediction puff pieces from vendors about what is going to happen next year in cyber. Don’t tell me, it’ll be security issues that their next-gen, xDR, paradigm-shifting, lowest TCO turnkey solution resolves. So here’s what I can guarantee for next year:...