I’m not sure what to think about GoToSSH.com either. While this is something I’ve been kinda wondering when it would find a web interface (and likely has others, I just don’t know them), I’m not sure I would use it. I certainly would not use it for anything sensitive in nature. It doesn’t look like it supports certificates, but simply username/password challenge instead. This may make it somewhat moot to block outbound SSH anymore… (Yes, it always has been moot since it could use any port, but still…) Might be a site worth bookmarking or blacklisting depending on your view.

Network security continues as holding sand…

Snagged from Alex.

Peter Wood posted two lists to the SecurityFocus pen-test list recently, which I wanted to capture and reproduce here. Feel free to ignore this post.

First, Peter listed a bunch of tools and hardware he takes for on-site work:
1. Test laptop
2. Spare laptop
3. 4-way mains extension lead with regular plug and plug for computer room racks
4. Selection of Ethernet cables and couplers
5. Ethernet / Token Ring adapter (yes, there are still Token Ring users out there!)
6. Mini hub
7. Cisco console cable
8. Cross-over cable
9. External USB hard drive containing rainbow tables
10. USB key for backups
11. DOS bootable USB key
12. Selection of bootable CDs (Ophcrack Live, PasswordChangerPro, NTFSreader)
13. DVD containing copy of all my source files
14. Windows 2000 CD (for rebuilds!)
15. Swiss Army cyber tool
16. Spare laptop hard drive
17. Kensington lock (to comply with client policy if laptop left on site overnight)
18. Vodafone 3G card for Internet access if there’s no wireless
19. Laptop mouse x2
20. Mini USB hub
21. Modem cable and adapters (just in case!)
22. Magic markers
23. Blank CDs
24. Wheelie bag to carry it all in!

Second, he listed the directories found on the above-mentioned DVD of tools:
Absinthe
AccessChk
AccessEnum
Achilles
Active-at
adminpak
Amap
APak
AppDetective
ARPsniffer
ATA HD password
Athena
ATK
Beat LM
Buffer Overflow Utility
Cachedump
cain and abel
Cerberus
C-Force
Checkpoint-Rules
Chntpw
Cisco IOS HTTP Vuln
Citrix clients
Cobra
CommView
CookieViewer
Copernic
Core Impact
CRACKERS
        aefsdr
        AOPB
        AOPR
        APDFPRP
        Brutus
        CacheDump
        CMOSpwd
        IPR (Lotus Notes)
        John the Ripper
        L0phtcrack
        LCP
        LMCrack
        Lotus Notes Key
        LSASecretsDump
        MBSA
        NTPWD
        Ophcrack
        Passwd – recovery FULL
        POPcrack
        PWLTOOL
        SAMInside
        AZPR
Crowbar
Crypto4
CUPASS
Data Thief
Dell laptop cmos erase
DHCP Find
Dictionaries
Dumpsec
EFSdump
Essential NetTools
Ethereal Windows Version
Exploits
FGdump
Flash Decompiler
GetAcct
GetUserInfo
GTwhois
Hydra
Hyena
IDserve
IKE-scan
iShadow
KarenWare
Katapulta
LAN Surveyor
LANguard
LDAP Miner
LG
Locksmith
Maestro
Member of
Metasploit
MingSweeper
MSRDP client
MySQL query browser
NBTdump
NBTscan
Nessus
Netalert
NetBiosSpy
Netcat
NetScanTools Pro
Network Protocols Handbook
NetworkView
niktoogle
Nmap
NT Recover
NTFS Reader
NTFSDOS
NTFSRead
Oat
ObiWaN
oracle-sql-injection
Paros
PasswordsPro
Protected Storage PassView
Protos
PsLogList
Putty
PwdChangerPro
pwdump
Rainbow crack
RegBrws
Rempass
RPC scan
RPC Tools
SAMdump
SamInside
SamSpade
ScoopLM
SecuRemote client
ShareEnum
SID
Siphon
SiteDigger
SiVuS
SmartWhois
SMB Audit Tool
SMBcrack
SNMPing
SNScan
SNSI
SOAPbox
SoapMonitor
SolarWinds
Somar
SPIKEproXy
SSL Proxy
Streams
Subnet Calculator
Superscan
SWB
Sysinternals
SysRQ2
Tamper
Tools4Ever
Trojans
twwwscan
UBCD
Ultimate Boot CD
Unicorn Scan
URL discombobulator
USB boot
USBAuditor
Visual Web Spider
VNC
VOIP TESTING
WAR DIAL
WebDAVExplorer
WebInspect
WebScarab
WebSleuth
WinSID
WIRELESS
Wireshark
WPI
Zlash

I don’t usually pimp sites, but every now and then I see a blog that looks very cool to follow. RaDaJo seems to be an excellent site to add to my feed. Of note, I got linked to their ARP cache poisoning misconceptions post. As a bonus, check the comments for two more links, one to an awesome GIAC paper that is basically everything you’ll ever need to know about ARP poisoning, and the Oxid.it link as well. Maybe all that is left is more details on how to detect ARP cache poisoning, but Raul Siles may have covered that in his paper. I see he has a remediation section, but I’ve not gotten there yet. Arpwatch/Arpalert…anomalous trends in ARP traffic…

Kevin van Zonneveld has posted some notes on using crontab. I don’t use crontab enough, which means I always have to look up the time settings. However, that is easily done via Google. What I really liked about Kevin’s notes dealt with handling the errors and pointing them to a file rather than the user’s mailbox. I can see reasons for doing it either way.

Love me tools; love me tool lists as well, especially with new things. The Security Mentor himself was right, this list is pretty cool and has some things I didn’t know about! If you look closely, pretty much under each of the ten entries are links to MORE similar free tools. Here are the ones that caught my eye. Note that the list is centered on Windows.

Secunia Personal Software Inspector – Holy crap! This is an awesome-sounding tool because trying to keep up with what is patched and what is out of date is one of the least-talked about futile and frustrating efforts in the IT back room! I think this one is going to be a priority to try out this weekend. I don’t know about licensing, but I bet you can buy just one copy for business and use it on a base workstation image that has all your applications installed, then use it as your reference. That’s money right there!

GMER anti-rootkit – This tool looks really cool, and if it doesn’t require an actual installation routine, will likely make it into my desktop toolkit alongside Spybot, Sysinternals tools, and so on. If it requires an install, it could still be useful as another incident response investigation tool. Now, someone needs to make Tripwire free on Windows…

File Shredder – I like the idea of File Shredder, but I’m not sure I really need it. It’s not like I am storing illegal or hugely private junk on my systems, and I certainly have no intentions of selling or giving away my disks anytime soon (like any geek, I can and will find uses for everything). Still, it’s nice to have one in the pocket if the need arises.

Other tools are iffy to me. I’m not a huge fan of loading my web browser with toolbars and plugins. Anything extremely useful really should get built into the browser eventually. I like seeing more options for IE, especially since my love for Firefix has dwindled as it has gotten bigger, slower, and buggier in the past year. Yes, loading up Firefox with testing/security plugins is awesome, but that’s a special purpose and I don’t need to browse with them always loaded. The only ones I use regularly are NoScript (only recently!), Tor, a client banner changer (I can’t think of the damned name for it right now!), and a plugin that displays the target site IP address at the bottom.

For web privacy stuff, just learn how to empty the cache and where else stuff is stored along with browser and OS tracking options. Yeah, that’s not enough, but I’ve got a bias against cleaners. For new system crapware, learn how to welcome your new system into your home with a quick enema (format and reinstall).

I have a Wi-Spy, which is an excellent (and cheap!) specturm analyzer tool. I saw a mention for it on NetGirl’s blog over at ArubaNetworks on her list of cool tools. But I didn’t know what EaKiu was in her Wi-Spy bullet. I thought about emailing or commenting, but this seemed to require more effort on my part to converse with her, so I resorted to a Google search for the tool in the hopes that the unique string was easily found. Indeed, I saw that EaKiu is software to display results from Wi-Spy! And boy does it look fucking sweet. Now I just have to find a Mac-user to try it out for me.

I’d thought that was what EaKiu was, since I’d seen mention of Mac and Linux software back on MetaGeek’s old site, but I could never find that information again on the new site design. Of note, the Linux version, while workable, is still pretty ugly compared to Mac or Windows software.

A list of 5 essential laptop security tips leaves an important one out and includes a rather dubious entry. Tip #5, install tracking software on your laptop in case it gets stolen. While a neat, feel-good type of geeky thing to install, this is pretty lame for inclusion on a top 5 list. Then again, maybe this list was meant as more of a physical security list, in which case, top 5 is really “the 5 things to do.”

Instead, I’d replace #5 with the suggestion to keep backups of all your data on the drive. It is great to not have it stolen, or offer password and encryption options in case it is stolen, but what about the data on the laptop? How much is it worth to you personally? If your laptop is stolen, minimize the damage to only the cost of the hardware and your own stress, not also to the only surviving copies of your son’s little league digital pictures or those important sales emails.

I dig BookPool.com; I’ve used them for many of my book purchases over the years, only occassionally delving into Borders/Barnes & Noble/Amazon when I have gift certs or for impulse buys. Today I pre-ordered Virtual Honeypots. This looks to be an awesome how-to sort of book about honeypots; something I’ve been eagerly waiting to delve into. It should be out any day, really. This was prompted by a welcome spam email from BookPool about a sale on Addison-Wesley and Prentice Hall books.

I’m also eagerly awaiting the Metasploit Toolkit book, despite being published by Syngress (in my opinion, the spottiest tech book publisher with quality all over the place….and I just don’t like holding their books like I do Addison-Wesley books). There’s a lot of new stuff in Metasploit 3, and I’m holding out really getting into it (like I used Metasploit 2x) until this book comes out. I may combine this with looking into Ruby or Python a bit more. Of all the tool-books out there, only BackTrack comes to mind as needing an updated book (BackTrack 3 perhaps?).

I also see Wi-Foo II has been pushed back (or maybe it was really tentative at late 2007 months ago) into 2008. I’m looking forward to this book as well. The first book was awesome, but got mired down in the technical problems of getting wireless working properly in Linux, which is a requirement for the subject. These days, wireless support is much easier and better, which hopefully means less mud devoted to the intricacies and details. Other books cover it well lately anyway, like Hacking Exposed: Wireless and Syngress’ Wardriving and Wireless Penetration Testing. Although not without their own minor faults, are both excellent wireless security books.

In late 2006, DarkReading published the 10 most overlooked aspects of security, which I think will end up holding true for a very long time.

I decided to screw around some more and actually recorded the creation of my OpenVPN server. I did this mostly to do something I’ve never done before: make a video of something and cut it.

I used VNC on a Windows box to connect to my Ubuntu 7.04 server. I then recorded that window using CamTasia Studio 3.1, which I also used to add music, edit, and produce. The music is Baja by Sasha. The codec (CinePak codec by Radius) is the only codec available by default in CamTasia that worked on both my Windows box using VLC and Windows Media Player, and also on my Ubuntu laptop using Mplayer. If it doesn’t work for you, I suggest those players, or tough luck. Maybe I’ll choose something better and smaller next time, but for now, this was just a learning experience for me.

The video is over 190MB and runs 12:35. I don’t have a real hoster, so I’ll leave this video up for a few weeks (or hours if it brings me to a crawl!). If it is not available and you want it, email me and we’ll figure something out.

Suggestions are very welcome, but be aware I know this was a very amateur deal. 🙂

I recently stood up an OpenVPN server at home. I’ve done SSH forwarding to protect my hotspot browsing habits in the past, but I thought I would try something new. I installed this on an Ubuntu 7.04 system that was running as a VMWare guest OS. I opted to go with a routed VPN solution. The alternative is a tunneled connection which makes it seem like my VPN client system is right on my home network. My routed solution will rely on the Ubuntu server and my home Linksys router to route traffic from my VPN network (10.8.1.0/24) to my home network (192.168.10.0/24). I also make sure that I force my traffic through my VPN, rather than let it seep out in the clear at the hotspot (the push commands in the server.conf file later on). From bare start to finish, this entire setup can be done in under 15 minutes.

I am not going to detail what each command does except in passing, because there is excellent documentation already available for OpenVPN. What I rarely see, however, is a quick walkthrough on how to set it all up on Ubuntu.

I start out by installing the packages that I need. OpenSSL may not be needed, but I included it anyway.

sudo -s
apt-get install openvpn openssl bridge-utils dnsmasq
mkdir /etc/openvpn/keys
mkdir /etc/openvpn/configs
nano /etc/openvpn/server.conf

Server.conf is the server configuration file. The contents describe that I will run my server on the IP 192.168.10.108 and port 1194 udp. My VPN “network” will be in the 10.8.1.0 255.255.255.0 network. OpenVPN will grab 10.8.1.1 as the server, and my client will be given a similar address. Once my client is connected to my OpenVPN server, I should be able to ping 10.8.1.1 and verify I can talk to my server.

port 1194
local 192.168.10.108
proto udp
dev tun0
ca keys/ca.crt
cert kets/server.crt
key keys/server.key
dh keys/dh1024.pem
server 10.8.1.0 255.255.255.0
push “route 192.168.10.0 255.255.255.0”
push “redirect-gateway def1”
push “dhcp-option DNS 10.8.1.1”
ifconfig-pool-persist client-adresses.txt
client-to-client
keepalive 10 120
cipher AES-128-CBC
comp-lzo
user nobody
group nogroup
persist-key
persist-tun
status openvpn-status.log
log openvpn
verb 3
mute 20

The client-addresses.txt file is just a convenient way for me to track who gets what IP.

nano /etc/openvpn/client-addresses.txt

client1,10.8.1.6

Next I take care of the keys I need, along with some other setup. When creating the keys, I don’t assign a password, and I do select yes to sign and commit changes.

cd /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/easy-rsa/2.0
nano ./vars
#change values at the bottom and save
source ./vars
./clean-all
./build-ca
./build-key-server server
./build-key client1
./build-dh
cd keys
cp ca.key ca.crt dh1024.pem server.key server.crt /etc/openvpn/keys
cp client1.crt client1.key ca.crt /etc/openvpn/configs
cd /etc/openvpn/configs
nano client1.conf

The file client1.conf is the client config file that needs to be given to the connecting client box. LVVPN is the name of my network adapter on the client. After installing the OpenVPN client on the Windows client, create a new TAP and give it this name.

client
dev-node LVVPN
proto udp
dev tun
remote www.terminal23.net 1194
persist-key
persist-tun
ca ca.crt
cert client1.crt
key client1.key
cipher AES-128-CBC
comp-lzo
verb 3
mute 20

I need to get the client files to the client. I do this by copying them to the client’s home directory, then connecting via SSH to get them. Since I’m running all of this as root, I need to adjust the client1.key file so the client can grab it via SSH, otherwise I’ll get a permission error. I then start the service.

cd /etc/openvpn
openvpn –genkey –secret ta.key
cd /etc/openvpn/configs
cp client1.crt client1.key client1.conf ca.crt /home/michael
chmod 604 /home/michael/client1.key
#copy files via SSH to client into openvpn/configs folder
cd..
openvpn /etc/openvpn/server.conf &

I’m never satisfied with just doing something, I usually need to verify it. I do this by making sure the service is running and that it is listening on the expected port.

netstat -a | grep 1194
ps -ax | grep vpn

Finally, I need two more commands to enable IP forwarding for my particular setup.

echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.1.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

Since my home Linksys router is limited to a GUI, it is a bit hard to detail what I did to set up my route. I just added a new route in the Advanced Routing section. Destination LAN IP is 10.8.1.0, subnet mask 255.255.255.0, and default gateway 192.168.10.108. This was set up to let me talk to my internal systems. I also had to port forward my VPN port to this system. This means that after I’m connected, I can ping 10.8.1.1 to verify I am on my VPNs network. I can then ping 192.168.10.1 (or a valid, responsive host on my home network) and I should get a response if forwarding is working.

From here, start up the client’s VPN however you like. Many people start it up by right-clicking the client1.ovpn file (rename client1.conf to client1.ovpn) and choosing to start it as an openvpn connection. I like the tool OpenVPN GUI for Windows. This is merely a personal preference since I like the sys tray interface.

One last thought has been tickling my mind when it came to that WSJ article I linked to the other day. It was about control and telling people not to cross the lines or do things they’re not supposed to do. Think about that for a moment. How far would we get if everyone stayed between the lines? While there are some ethical near-absolutes like murder, most everything else is such small beans that pushing the boundaries now and then can be a good thing. Like working out, you can’t build muscle without first making thousands of micro-tears to induce stronger rebuilding. Growing pains, which are going to be abundant in our culture and technology for some time. Even if we don’t act on them, it is good to think about them and question our policilial (yes, I make up words) stances.

Besides, even if our users know all this junk, we protect against it, right? Full disclosure?