London Councils & pirate books. Google dorking for subdomain takeovers

TL;DR Google dorks found me an exploited DigitalOcean subdomain takeover on London Councils’ .gov.uk domain It used a meta refresh to redirect to a site hosting unprovenanced PDFs London Councils had a security.txt file which made disclosure a doddle Their security team were awesome and fixed it...

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...

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...

The reality of OT segregation

One of the areas I find most fascinating about industrial control systems and related operational technology is the perception that OT networks are segregated and isolated from the wider IT network. We’re often told that “IT and OT are totally separated” as there’s a genuine belief that OT is...

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...

Locking down your cyber life in lockdown

Today the NCSC refreshed their advice for online shoppers, so I thought it’d be handy to review and advise on other aspects of consumer security hygiene. More than ever, we’re reliant on technology, so now that we’re in various stages of lockdown it’s a great time to have a look at your home and...

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...

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...

Our capabilities. A story about what we can achieve

Introduction Over the years we have been fortunate to have been called upon to help with some challenging investigations. iPhone prize scams, ransomware attacks that weren't, aiding the Steele Dossier case, and even a fraudulent €14 million transfer. Here we've picked out the most interesting one...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Watch where you point that cred! Part 1

TL;DR Poorly protected authentication requests from privileged automated tasks e.g. vulnerability scanners, health checks could be intercepted by rogue authentication servers planted in the internal network. Weak authentication methods, overly broad privileges and scopes, as well as poor network...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Call centres. Outbound call verification

TL;DR: Stop asking customers to verify themselves Reduce friction and annoyance Empower your staff to be more effective Develop an alternative model that works best for you I’m sure we’ve all experienced authenticating ourselves when calling a company. You have a hopefully trusted contact number,...

The most hated man on the internet. Lessons to learn

A while ago I was scouring Netflix and stumbled across the 2022 The most hated man on the internet docuseries. What’s that all about then? The show is about Hunter Moore and his isanyoneup.com website Wikipedia article, where abhorrent people uploaded naked / pornographic images, intended to sham...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

Hacking, tracking, stealing and sinking ships

At Infosecurity Europe this year, we demonstrated multiple methods to interrupt the shipping industry, several of which haven’t been demonstrated in public before, to our knowledge. Some of these issues were simply through poor security hygiene on board, but others were linked to the protocols us...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Attacking Encrypted HTTP Communications

TL;DR The Reolink RLC-520A PoE camera obfuscates its HTTP communication by encrypting the POST body data. This level of security does defend against opportunistic attackers but falls short when defending against persistent attackers. Introduction Different embedded devices have their own take on...

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...

747 Hackathon

As is probably clear from our blog and public talks aviation cyber security is an area of huge interest to us. Some of us are also light aircraft pilots, so the crossover of two of our loves makes for some fascinating research. Over the last few years we’ve managed to get access to several...

What does the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure bill mean for me?

The UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport DCMS introduced a bill to Parliament yesterday. But what does that mean for IoT manufacturers and consumers? First, this bill has been a long time coming. Many people have been lobbying and working hard to create it. Industry and others with vested...

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...

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 Nespresso Prodigio and Jura E8 coffee machines

You’ll probably know by now that I have a particular interest in the security of IoT coffee machines and tea kettles. Sometimes security is so poor that we have to laugh. Such simple security issues. Now, when I’m feeling lazy and possibly a bit hung over, I really can’t be bothered to make coffe...

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...

New mandatory USCG cyber regulations. What you need to know

TL;DR US Coast Guard introduces mandatory new Marine Transportation System cybersecurity requirements They take effect on July 16, 2025, and training must begin by July 17, 2025 US flagged large commercial vessels affected Cybersecurity Officers CySO need to be appointed Penetration testing of...

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...

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...

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...

Scorpion CBS show. Plane hack

Having got on a bit of a roll with dismantling plane hacking in the media with the MH370 documentary critique, it’s probably time to tear apart the pilot episode of Scorpion from 2014. Here’s a link to the relevant part of the show: Why? It’s clearly just an entertainment show, so why bother...

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 ...

Penetration Testing Requirements for GDPR

We get lots of people asking us what it is they need to have tested as a requirement for GDPR Compliance, so I've put this together to provide some clarity. This post is NOT a definitive guide to the General Data Protection Regulations. It is however, helpful, real world advice about what you...