ForSec Linkfest - 2013 DST Fallback Edition

FYI…tomorrow morning at 2 AM here in the United States of America it will be time to “fall back” from DST. One more hour of sleep and then it’s weeks of trying to get the body’s timeclock to readjust.

So as you get ready to find all the clocks you need to manually adjust (don’t forget the vehicles!), here is some linkage to distract you from that task. Please note I’ve also sprinkled in some networking items as well to keep you on your toes!

• Wireshark 1.10.3 and 1.8.11 Released - Wireshark website
• Wireshark - Official site Download
• Reviewing Wireshark's Capture Pane (by Tony Fortunato) - LoveMyTool blog
• Using PowerShell to Automate Tracing - MessageAnalyzer blog
• Nmap cheat sheet - HelpNet Security blog - From the notice:
• Counter Hack founder and SANS instructor Ed Skoudis and his team created a helpful cheat sheet for Nmap, which includes notable scripts of the Nmap Scripting Engine, script categories, instructions for scan types, probing options, and more.
• How A Wireless Issue Looks Like a Wired Issue (by Tony Fortunato) - LoveMyTool blog
• NAFT: The Movie - Didier Stevens
• New utility to quickly set the DNS servers of your Internet connection - QuickSetDNS utility from Nir Sofer's workbench.
• On getting Pineappled at Web Directions South - Troy Hunt’s blog
• Disassembling the privacy implications of LinkedIn Intro - Troy Hunt’s blog
• Command-line Forensics of hacked PHP.net - NETRESEC Blog
• iOS apps can be hijacked to show fraudulent content and intercept data - Ars Technica
• Your iPhone knows where you’ve been, puts it on a map - Chron.com’s TechBlog
• What's New in the Prefetch for Windows 8?? - Invoke-IR blog
• Re-Introducing the Vulnerability Search - Journey Into Incident Response blog
• Links - Windows Incident Response blog
• Incident Response Teams are the New (Security) Black - Speaking of Security - The RSA Blog and Podcast
• Red Alert: 10 Computer Security Blogs You Should Follow Today - MakeUseOf blog
• New Security Intelligence Report, new data, new perspectives - Microsoft Malware Protection Center blog
• Meet “badBIOS,” the mysterious Mac and PC malware that jumps airgaps - Ars Technica
• Hacking a Reporter: Writing Malware For Fun and Profit (Part 1 of 3) - SpiderLabs Anterior
• Treasure Hunting with FTK, EnCase, and SQLite Databases - Computer & Digital Forensics at Champlain blog
• Add the CAINE ISO to your E2B drive - RMPrepUSB, Easy2Boot and USB booting

Cheers,

Claus Valca

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Miscellaneous TrueCrypt linkage

I have used TrueCrypt for a long time…but only with TrueCrypt container files that stand alone and are mounted.

Then I branched out and started using full-volume encryption to protect some back-up external USB drive devices.

Recently, I bit the bullet and started using TrueCrypt system-wide encryption to protect my personal home laptop…all system volumes. No worries so far.

Because of that I pay close attention to TrueCrypt news, and here is some linkage, in case you are interested.

Let's audit Truecrypt! - A Few Thoughts on Cryptographic Engineering blog by Matthew Green

New effort to fully audit TrueCrypt raises $16,000+ in a few short weeks - Ars Technica

Is TrueCrypt Audited Yet? - project homepage

How I compiled TrueCrypt 7.1a for Win32 and matched the official binaries - technically heavy-duty and most excellent article by Xavier de Carné de Carnavalet.

Windows 8.1 upgrade: be careful with TrueCrypt - GTranslated - Borns IT and Windows Blog - Basically, if you are using full-system partition encryption with TrueCrypt, the recommendation is to first fully-decrypt and remove TrueCrypt encryption…then apply the Win 8.1 upgrade…then reapply the TrueCrypt full system partition encryption. If not you might hose your system during the upgrade. That’s a bad thing.

Cheers,

Claus Valca

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New Software Updates + VMware Tools Update fix

The Valca household has survived last week’s torrential rain event. Unfortunately both our vehicles took a hit.

No…no cars were flooded due to poor driving decisions…they stayed high-and-dry…but they did suffer some incidental damage.

My beloved Saturn Ion apparently had material in the catalytic converter come loose and cause a blockage in the exhaust system.  That led to a significant power-loss -- I was only able to nurse it up to 55-60 MPH on the freeway. That’s a life-threatening highway speed here in Texas. I found a new local repair shop that was able to diagnose it (and +1 point for my dad who also guessed that would be the issue). So it awaits a new cat-converter install…and for good measure I’m having the front struts replaced as well as they are OEM and the front suspension is all clunky over road bumps and RR tracks. With almost 200,000 miles on it, I guess it is time.

Meanwhile, I got in Lavie’s car yesterday to borrow it while mine is in the shop. She doesn’t drive it much. It is a 2001 Nissan Altima with barely 43,000 miles on it. All was well until I went to unplug and toss her cell-phone charger on the passenger side foot-well floorboard…and found it full with 1.5” of standing water. Gasp!  Luckily I hadn’t put the car in reverse yet to slosh it out. Bother.  After some extensive wet/dry vac work it was only damp and between a few sunny dry days and some well placed Damp Rid containers I think we will be good. The windshield has some cracks in it that might cause it to not pass this month’s due vehicle safety inspection so the decision was made to schedule a windscreen replacement…which will result in all new weather seals.  The rest of the car was bone-dry so I really don’t think it was a seal that failed. My guess is the torrential rains (appx 3.5 inches in 24 hours) cascading down the windshield may have poured into the fresh-air intake vent under the hood which ran down into the passenger side foot well.  Not sure why it was just that side and not the driver’s as well. Thoughts?

So with one car finishing the air-out process and the other in the shop, it has been a bit stressful. Fortunately family and friends and Boss have been supportive and encouraging…and our older but beloved (and paid for) vehicles will continue to drive on a while longer.

Anyway…enough boring personal stuff…here is small collection of updated software you might want to check out as well as a fix for an aggravating VMware Player problem I ran into this morning after updating the main VMware Player application.

VMware Player Plus - Now updated to version 6.0.1. Note that VMware Player Plus is the $ version for commercial license usage. The free for personal use VMware Player is still around, but you just have to confirm that option during the setup. I prefer to use this VM software platform for my Windows guest clients and VirtualBox for my Linux-based ones.

• Download VMware Player 6.0
• VMware Player 6.0.1 Release Notes

One curious thing about this most recent version that I hadn’t encountered until now.

I had just upgraded to this latest VMware Player (host) software on Windows 7 and then launched an XP client so I could update the VMware Tools as well.

Strangely the Windows XP guest I started up reported it was stuck downloading the tools. On boot up of the VM guest, it offered me the upgrade tools option at the bottom of the window, and when I selected that action button, it popped a dialog window that said "VMware Tools installation cannot be started until the current download finishes." If I go to the VMware host’s menu, it says "Downloading VMware Tools" where it should say Upgrade/Reinstall VMware Tools.

I took matters into my own hands and was able to map the virtual CD ROM in my virtual XP client to the VMWare Tools ISO file for Windows at "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Player\windows.iso" figuring that it was the latest version and came down for the ride when I updated the host client software.

Once "mounted" it auto-started the VMWare Tools setup wizard in the XP guest session which I ran though and installed with no issues. A reboot and it was current in the XP VM.

However....on reboot VMware Player host software still was reporting the upgrade tools option at the bottom of the window, and when I selected that again, it said "VMware Tools installation cannot be started until the current download finishes."

Here's how I cleared it in VMWare Player (based on this forum thread I found and solution offered by John Swanagon).

• Launch VMware Player.
• Click "Player"
• Click "File"
• Click “Player Preferences”.
• Under "Software updates” section.
• Click “Connection Settings”.
• In the “Connection Settings” window, change the proxy from “No proxy” to “Windows proxy settings”.
• Click OK.
• Click OK.
• Open Internet Explorer. (note these IE steps may vary based on your IE version)
• Click "Tools" then select “Internet Options”.
• Click the “Connections” tab.
• Click the “LAN settings” button.
• Confirm/Select the “Automatically detect settings” option.
• Click “OK”.
• Click “OK”.
• Close Internet Explorer.
• Exit VMware Player.
• Run VMware Player as an Administrator.
• Click "Player"
• Click "File"
• Click “Player Preferences”.
• Under "Software updates” section.
• Click “Edit” -> “Preferences”.
• Click “Download All Components Now”.

Additional components for other guest OS systems downloaded and when done, and VMware player re-launched, the message at the bottom of the screen finally was cleared!

Updates: PsExec v2.0, RAMMap v1.3, Sigcheck v2.0  - Sysinternals Site Discussion Blog

Updates: RAMMap v1.32, Sigcheck v2.01 - Sysinternals Site Discussion Blog

New Utility - QuickHash - Foolish IT LLC

OSFMount - updated 10-22-13 - version 1.5.1014.

• Fixed issue with detecting partitions for ImageUSB images
• Windows dynamic disks are now supported
• Fixed issue with mounting via OSFMount command line with "-o rw" option
• Fixed issue with mounting multiple partitions in an image file as writable due to file sharing permissions
• Fixed issue with mounting multiple partitions in an image file from command line
• Drive letters 'A' and 'B' can now be used
• Propagated changes from Imdisk v1.7.5 including some key fixes:
  • Disks with "lost" drive letters can now be removed
  • Notifications hanging on drive creation and removal

I personally prefer to use Olof Lagerkvist’s ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver, also recently updated on 10-25-13 to build version 1.7.6.

Why do I mention that? well the OSFMount utility is based on Olof’s ImDisk software. That’s all.

mozdev.org - newsfox: installation - My favorite Firefox RSS reader is updated to 1.0.8.4.4.  Release notes

Speaking of Mozilla, Firefox was updated to version 25.0 and Thunderbird was updated to 24.1.0

Also, I’ve gone to a 3-monitor setup at home with my laptop. My desk is quite full!

I’m running my primary display from the attached Dell Studio 15 HD laptop display. It is super-sharp and has great resolution.

My secondary display is one of a pair of older Samsung SyncMaster 930B-A displays I got a long time ago as a gift from my brother. Maximum resolution is just 1280x1024 so it looks a bit under-scaled with the other displays but it seems to work great for text which is fine when I am pounding out blog posts. No OEM Win7 x64 bit hardware drivers exist for it either so it’s running the standard Microsoft PnP display driver just fine. The 4:3 ratio (the others are wide-screen format) also makes composing text documents more comfortable.

Since (like most Dell laptops) the laptop can only drive a maximum of two display outputs natively, I’m running this display with a StarTech USB 3.0 to DVI Adapter. I didn’t have any issues getting the drivers installed and the system up and running. It’s a must-have hardware accessory if you are running multiple monitors with a laptop and can’t toss in another hardware card internally.

My third display is a HP Pavilion 22bw 21.5-inch Diagonal IPS LED Backlit Monitor(C4D29AA) that I picked up some time ago on sale at a big-box outlet. Not a lot to say. It is HD and I am running it off the HDMI port on my laptop. Overall it is decent, but I am disappointed in the text-clarity of the display. Watching a video on it is fine, but for extended text-composition on it, it just isn’t as clear as I would prefer.

In good news, under Windows 7 (at least) you can set the ClearType text on a per-monitor basis!

That has helped a bit but the text still doesn’t compare with my primary laptop display.

Cheers!

Claus Valca.

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Forensic News Flashes - New Projects and learning opportunities galore!

It’s late and has been a super-long weekend.

Lavie isn’t too impressed I’m still sitting at my desk working on posts.

In the meantime, I’m commited to getting this last bit of ForSec linkage collected over the past few weeks out the door so you can have fun reviewing it this week.

Those young and crazy pups over at the Computer & Digital Forensics at Champlain program have clearly caught their dean napping. In an interesting series of posts, they attempt to wreak havoc on different hard-drives and then try to put humpty-dumpty back together again.

• Destructed Data Forensics- Part 3
• Data Destruction Forensics- Part 2
• Data Destruction Forensics

MantaRay Forensics - anTech Triage & Analysis System. As far as I can tell, this is the first time I have posted any mention of MantaRay Forensics here at GSD.  Spotted in this C&DF@C post Swimming with MantaRay Forensics

MantaRay was designed to automate processing forensic images, directories and individual files with open source tools. With support for numerous image formats, this tool provides a scalable base to utilize open source and custom exploitation tools. MantaRay was developed by two forensic analysts, Doug Koster and Kevin Murphy.

ForGe Forensic test image generator v1.1 - Git Hub project page. from the Overview description:

ForGe is a tool designed to build computer forensic test images. It was done as a MSc project for the University of Westminster. Its main features include:

• Web browser user interface
• Rapid batch image creation (only NTFS supported)
• Possibility to define a scenario including trivial and hidden items on images
• Variance between images. For example, if ForGe was told to put 10-20 picture files to a directory /holiday and create 10 images, all these images would have random pictures pulled from repository.
• Variance in timestamps. Each trivial and hidden file can be timestamped to a specific time. Each scenario is given a time variance parameter in weeks. If this is set to 0, every image receives an identical timeline. If nonzero, a random amount of weeks up to the maximum set is added to each file on each image
• Can modify timestamps to simulate certain disk actions (move, copy, rename, delete)
• Implements several data hiding methods: Alternate data streams, extension change, file deletion, concatenation of files and file slack space.
• New data hiding methods can be easily implemented. Adding a new file system is also documented.

Developer Hannu Visti goes shares a great post over the features and background of this tool over at Forensic Focus. ForGe – Computer Forensic Test Image Generator.  This could be a really fresh and innovative tool to help with both simulating forensic images for training and drill purposes. Very interesting and well worth the time to check out. It’s beyond my skill set to review and comment on but if any of the ForSec pros out there have any thoughts or comments, please feel free to drop them in the comments here for our community education.

Linkz 4 Free Infosec and IT Training - Journey Into Incident Response - Corey Harrell goes above and beyond with an outstanding listing of trainings, exercises, and learning resources that are ForSec focused and absolutely-friggin-free for the taking!  Corey promises to keep the listing updated so bookmark the page and check back often. I’m particularly interested in the CSIRT-like topics and materials listed like those in the ENISA CERT linkage. I’ve downloaded most all of the PDF versions already to review this week as time allows!

Many of these trainings have supplemental videos and VM’s for download too!

Other specific courses from Corey’s post I’m listing below so I can find them quickly…

• Incident management guide - ENISA CERT
• Tools - ENISA CERT - OMG what a detailed and categorized listing.
• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)® Common Body of Knowledge (CBK)® Review - via Open Security Training
• Flow Analysis & Network Hunting - via Open Security Training
• Introduction to Vulnerability Assessment - via Open Security Training
• Introduction to Network Forensics - via Open Security Training
• Offensive, Defensive, and Forensic Techniques for Determining Web User Identity - via Open Security Training
• Utilizing SysInternals Tools for IT Pros course - Microsoft Virtual Academy - Note I think I have already posted this one earlier!

What 'tier 2' & 'tier 3' tools do you load on your forensic workstation(s)? - ForensicKB blog - Lance Mueller has a great list of Tier 2 and Tier 3 apps he considers. I’m pleased to find more than a few in my toolkit already. Note that not all of the software listed here is necessarily free or open-source. More than a few are commercial applications. That’s not at all a bad thing, but just something to be aware of.

 Windows Incident Response: Shell Item Artifacts, Reloaded - Harlan Carvey undertakes some very methodical validation exercises on Windows shell item artifacts. Definitely worth reading.

Meanwhile, from another ForSec guy who appears to never sleep… Brett Shavers has been in a posing frenzy over at his Windows Forensic Environment blog site.

Best publicly available testing of WinFE I’ve seen to date - Windows Forensic Environment (Note post info is good but link in it has been superseded by one found in post below.

Updated link on the Mistype project - Windows Forensic Environment

WinFE - direct link to the article mentioned. I agree, it is a truly fascinating read for WinFE aficionados. I’m coming back to read this one carefully this week.

Mini-WinFE - Windows Forensic Environment - This post has tons and tons of screenshots to illustrate the new Mini-WinFE project as well as an introduction that goes over the project features. Very basically, this specific project (1 of 3 promised for alternative WinFE building) allows you to roll your own WinFE boot disk in a “minimal” configuration with FAU utilities, FTK Imager and support for X-Ways Forensics. Total build time is estimated at 10 minutes from start to media in your hand.

Mini-WinFE is out of beta! - Windows Forensic Environment - See you waited too long! The first link was requesting Beta testers. Now it is released!  Direct project link here via Reboot.pro and extensive Mini-WinFE project documentation from Misty is linked here.

Quick video on building a Mini-WinFE - Windows Forensic Environment - a very short (3:33 min) YouTube video is available on this post page for those who want to check out the building process.

Since we are on a WinFE bender, let’s shift gears slightly and use that excuse to post a link on the WinFE’s kissable cousin for sysadmins who aren’t quite as focused on disk read-only preservation, WinPE.

How to Customize Windows PE Boot Images to Use in Configuration Manager - Chris Nackers Blog. Chris links to this Microsoft TechNet resource How to Customize Windows PE Boot Images to Use in Configuration Manager

New website and project roadmap - DEFT Linux - Computer Forensics live CD - The DEFT development team has put some fresh paint on their website as well as outlined where they plan to head in the coming months. Congratulations to DEFTA President Stefano Fratepietro and all the community and project contributors who have worked hard to make DEFT Linux a premiere Forensic live CD resource! From that post..

Here follows the forthcoming milestones concerning the new versions of DEFT 8, Virtual Appliance and User Manual.

• DEFT Linux 8.1 with relevant news for Mobile Forensics – November 2013
• DEFT 8 VMware Virtual Appliance – late November 2013
• Roadmap of projects supported by donations – December 2013
• DEFT 8 User Manual – February 2014
• Third Italian National Conference DEFTCON 2014  – Polytechnic of Milano, April 11, 2014

Installing VMware Tools on Kali Linux and Some Debugging Basics - SpiderLabs Anterior - Christophe De La Fuente goes to the mat to show some advanced debugging skills in getting VMware Tools onto Kali Linux. As is pointed out in the comments, there are easier ways to do it, but the experience shared of the road taken makes us all a bit wiser. Which this post then led me to discover and add to my RSS feed pile…

Computer Howto's by Lewis Encarnacion - Lewis’s posts are great. Covering not just Windows 7 topics, but also some of the finer points in using and getting comfortable in Kali Linux.

FAU -version 1.3.0.2464 - Speaking of the Forensic Acquisition Utilities (FAU) it seems a new version came out in August 2013. I don’t think I caught that release. The link has a “what’s new” jump as well as the new binary set download link but for the lazy…from that source:

• Volume_dump and DD now recognize drives with BusTypeSata as devices supporting the ATA feature set.  ATA specific attributes are reported for these drives.
• Fixed a problem with the DD --verify option when writing an image to certain to certain drives.  Under certain circumstances the DD --verify option reported a spurious failure even though the reimaging of the target drive succeeded and the cryptographic checksum of the destination drive was in fact identical to the cryptographic checksum source image file or drive.  This problem did not affect the accuracy of the reimaged drive but required that the user to validate the target drive after the imaging process was complete.  Thanks to Suman Beros for reporting this problem.
• When acquiring a physical drive DD now drops the block size down to the device block size when approaching the putative end of the source drive.  Hard drives often misreport their capacity either by over estimating or under estimating the true size.  The only reliable way to image a hard drive is to attempt to acquire beyond the purported end of the drive and see if valid data is returned.  However, we have encountered a few drives that freeze or hang the imaging process if you attempt to read beyond the end of the drive with a block size that is greater than the device block size.  Needless to say, this can be disconcerting when you have already read 1 TiB of data only to have the whole process hang on the last few sectors.  Dropping down to the device block size when approaching the end of a drive should produce more reliable acquisitions.  A disadvantage is that drive acquisition will be slower at the end of the drive.
• Examples have been added to the DD help text which show how to acquire a physical drive.

That’s all for tonight!

Cheers my friends.

Claus Valca

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Security Tidbits

And here are some security related links that caught my fancy this week.

Vulnerabilities Discovered in Global Vessel Tracking Systems - Trend Micro’s Security Intelligence Blog - Super study that sent chills down my spine reading. We take so many critical infrastructure systems for granted. I hear the next block-buster action novel waiting to pounce on this for the storyline.

Cryptolocker Prevention - Foolish IT LLC bloc - information on a new freeware tool to lock down any Windows OS (preventively) to block infection from the Cryptolocker malware/ransomeware. When infection occurs it encrypts personal files then offers to decrypt them for a paid ransom. More details on the utility here: CryptoPrevent. And the attack details courtesy of Ars Technica: You’re infected—if you want to see your data again, pay us $300 in Bitcoins.

Tools for reviewing infected websites - ISC Diary. They listed four and there are some more suggestions in the comment thread. Back in January 2012 I posted this fairly extensive roundup: Interesting Malware in Email Attempt - URL Scanner Links. I’ve not checked recently but hopefully more than a few of these are still active.

Learn By Example - The Hacker Factor Blog - Dr. Neal Krawetz has some wise words and poor examples of a generation that doesn’t seem to see the concern with publically posting tweeted photos of their debit/credit cards online. I’m clueless how someone can be so ill-informed. This is just one example. I see the commercials showing banking apps for smartphones that let people take a photo of a check and deposit it in their account. I also wonder if this is common as well…or even health-coverage ID/Info cards perhaps?  I suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg.

40 inappropriate actions to take against an unlocked PC - Troy Hunt’s blog - As a sysadmin, all I can say is that it is probably a violation of several computer usage agreements in the workplace to walk away from your computing device without first locking the screen to prevent unauthorized access. At the same time, it is probably a violation of additional computer usage agreements in the workplace to tamper with someone else’s computer -- even if they were a bonehead in the first place and left it unlocked. Instead what you need to do is take a photo of their unlocked screen and tweet it to everyone in the workplace. No wait…I just learned by example in the previous post that probably isn’t wise to do either. Never mind. Help us all out and just pull the power-cord out slightly to kill power to the system and make them call the sysadmins when it won’t power back on. No don’t do that either after further consideration. That might kill the system/drive and lead to a charge of wonton destruction of corporate resources; or at the very least prevent someone's unsaved labor of love on the critical TPS reports for the day. That would be bad too. OK…I give up.

Contrary to public claims, Apple can read your iMessages - Ars Technica

Experian Sold Consumer Data to ID Theft Service - Krebs on Security - Seriously, if you can’t trust the data broker companies who hold all your credit and personal financial data history records (and who they sell that data to) then who can you trust with it? Time go start digging out that backyard bunker again. Go read the article. Then get mad.

New effort to fully audit TrueCrypt raises $16,000+ in a few short weeks - Ars Technica

For your security, please email your credit card and driver’s license (and what PCI has to say about that) - Troy Hunt’s blog. See, it’s only a crazy idiotic thing to tweet your CC information if you don’t have a really important reason to do it. If you do it is stupidly insecure. However, if you are a big corporate entity (or govermint agency/official) then you can have something call “a policy” to require your customers to photocopy items critical to establishing and proving your identify and they can do whatever they want…oh, and by the way…please dent them to us via unencrypted email communications because like, nobody can sniff that traffic while it winds it’s way from your laptop to our desks. Sheesh. Needless to say, Troy goes to town on this one and why it is a Bad Thing™.

Please be wise, be patient, and be proactively safe.

Claus Valca

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New or Updated App Linkfest for the week

OK kiddos.  Here is an eclectic roundup of all kinds of freeware software and utility goodies that has been collected these past weeks.

I’m sure you can find something here for the little kid or serious sysadmin in you.

LightZone - Open-source digital darkroom software for Windows/Mac/Linux - free open-source alternative to Adobe LightRoom. Actively developed and supported by a very large community. If you do digital photography, then this is well worth the time to check out. Note that free registration is required to download the software. Spotted via this Noupe blog post LightZone: Totally Free Photo Lab lets you Forget Adobe Lightroom.

The Photographer's Ephemeris - free Win/Mac desktop app versions (AdobeAir based) and for $ supports smartphone/pad devices as well.  This super cool application lets photographers (film/digital) plan outdoor photography shots with natural (sun/moon) lighting conditions in mind.  Basically you provide the time and place and it will show how the light falls on your scene. I can’t believe this is free and I haven’t found it until now!  Spotted via a reference in this amazing Sean Goebel Photography: Timelapse post where Sean explains the techniques used to capture his time-lapse photo video among the observatory telescopes up on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.  Totally worth the time invested to both view the video (it even has lasers!) and read his well composed post.

Inno Setup - jrsoftware - just got a version 5.5.4 release last week. If you do Windows application/software packaging for setup and distribution this might be of interest to you. However, I don’t but it was still of interest to me. I then checked innounp, the Inno Setup Unpacker which is a sourceforge project to see if it was updated. It isn’t quite as current but is at version 0.39 supporting Inno Setup versions 2.0.8 through 5.5.3. Why do I care about innounp you ask?  Well, see I lean heavily on Universal Extractor to unpack various software package files in attempt to make semi-portable versions of them rather than fully installed versions on my system. One of the most popular packagers I run into is Inno Setup. Many developers use the latest versions of Inno Setup.  Jared Breland of Legroom.net created Universal Extractor but it hasn’t been updated in quite some time. Fortunately, what Jared has done is leverage many of the individual unpacker binaries in his application. So if you can find that one of the supported unpacker binaries has been updated, I find I can generally just replace the older version in UE with the newer one and keep up with the times!  So now you see why this is a good tip for you UE users.

InDeep File List Maker: List files & folders in Windows - Link and review via The Windows Club. Interesting little portable app to create listings of files in your Windows systems including removable drives and optical drive media.

Phrozen Windows File Monitor v1.0 - PhrozenSoft Blog - another neat little utility to monitor and select changes in your file system. This is an early version and the developer plans to add additional features moving forward. I really like it and the fact that you can switch between both list and tree-views. Spotted in this BetaNews post review: Phrozen Windows File Monitor lets you watch file system activity in real time. See also this Ghacks blog review: Windows Files Monitor records any file system change in its interface.

That product and those reviews then led me to find PRIMO (version 2.7.3 released Feb 27, 2012). PRIMO was developed to monitor program installs on Windows systems from Win2000, XP, Vista, & 7.

I’ve got lots of freeware utilities to monitor and log system changes, but for now we are keeping the discussion just on utilities that monitor (primarily) folder changes. Accordingly other tools you may want to check out are NirSoft’s FolderChangesView, Brutal Developer’s Directory Monitor, Leelu Soft: Watch 4 Folder 2.3 and Track Folder Changes. Do you have any other recommendations?

Oracle VM VirtualBox - Version 4.3 released on Oct 15, 2013.

• Downloads – Oracle VM VirtualBox
• Changelog – Oracle VM VirtualBox
• What's New in VirtualBox 4.3? - The Fat Bloke Sings
• VirtualBox adds multi-touch, webcam support, and allows users to video-capture sessions - BetaNews

Cheers.

--Claus Valca

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In the SysAdmin Lounge

Tips, trainings and warnings for the sysadmins in IT.

• IT Hiccups of the Week - IEEE Spectrum - Being “good” in IT is really hard. Much harder than people think.
• You may be a victim of software counterfeiting (or not) - MoonPoint support blog
• Defrag Tools: #58 - Sysinternals Streams and Autoruns Example - Defrag Tools Channel 9
• Plan Your Free Online Education at Lifehacker U: Fall Semester 2013 - Lifehacker has a really great roundup and details on free online courses covering a wide range of subject matter…and not just in IT.
• free-programming-books/free-programming-books.md at master · vhf/free-programming-books · GitHub amazing collection of online books and reference materials for programmers. Spotted in this Grab Over 500 Free Programming Books from GitHub post at Lifehacker.
• Students Can Get Microsoft Office 365 For Free - MakeUseOf blog. From the post…

Starting on December 1st, Universities that license Office Education for their faculty and staff can offer students Office 365 ProPlus for free thanks to a new program called Student Advantage. For students at these institutions, that means free access to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Publisher, and Lync. While many cheaper alternatives to Office have sprung up, many students still rely on Redmond’s good ol’ productivity tools.

• TRAINING: Utilizing SysInternals Tools for IT Pros - Kurt Shintaku's Blog. From the post…

Microsoft’s Virtual Academy has published a training course specifically for SysInternals Tools, including Process Explorer, ProcessMonitor, PS Tools, PsTools, Autoruns, etc.

Microsoft Premier Field Engineers step through a technical deep dive on utilizing SysInternals tools. This course focuses on key administrative and diagnostic utilities and addresses key insights, and best practices.

• TRAINING: Utilizing SysInternals Tools for IT Pros
  http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/utilizing-sysinternals-tools-for-it-pros

• Tracking page file reads and writes - Clint Huffman's Windows Troubleshooting in the Field Blog
• [PowerShell Tip] Using WMIObject to Check Disk Partitions Info and Block Size - Next of Windows
• PowerTip: Use PowerShell to Obtain Disk Image Info - Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog
• The Net Command Line to List Local Users and Groups - Next of Windows
• 10 reasons for using PowerShell ISE instead of the PowerShell console - 4sysops
• Where can I find the USMT return codes and error messages for USMT 5 based migrations ? - just another windows noob ? blog
• Viewing Cached Google Pages from DuckDuckGo - MoonPoint support blog
• Cache (explained) - DuckDuckGo features page
• DuckDuckGo !Bang - DuckDuckGo feature detail page

Cheers

Claus Valca

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Microsoft Remote Desktop for iOS

At work we cannot (yet) use Microsoft Remote Desktop for iOS to connect to end-user systems for troubleshooting support.

At home, the Windows versions we have for daily use are “Home” editions and really don’t support Microsoft Remote Desktop sessions…at least not without some clever hacks that I don’t really need or care to implement.

So for now, at work remote control of end user systems from iOS devices remains a dream.

And at home, I find that running TightVNC works super-spiffy and that the Mocha VNC iOS app works just fine to allow me to remote-control our home Windows systems at will from my iPhone 5.

So for now, I really don’t have an environment where I can give the newly acquired/released Microsoft Remote Desktop client for iOS devices a shake. Maybe I’ll see if it can get it going with one of the Win7/8 Enterprise IETester virtual machines I have and use for testing at home.

So, if you are curious, here are some links regarding the subject.

• Microsoft Launches Remote Desktop App for Android and iOS - The Next Web
• Microsoft Remote Desktop App For Android & iOS Available For Download - AddictiveTips
• Microsoft quietly announces new Remote Desktop apps for Android and iOS - BetaNews
• Microsoft to launch new remote desktop apps for iOS, Android - ZDNet

And if you want some interesting background, according to Kurt Shintaku, the app came from iTap via HLW Software Development which had been kicking around for a while, and was bought  by Microsoft.

INFO: Yeah, the Remote Desktop apps for Mac OS X, iOS & Android came from iTap technology acquired from HLW - Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Very interesting…

Claus Valca

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Back to MS-Security Essentials for now…

In the last GSD post, I made note that I had made the change from Microsoft Security Essentials to Bitdefender Antivirus Free.

The installation process went smoothly. Once on my Win 7 x64 bit system seemed a bit “peppier” after reboots.  For the first week or two I really didn’t notice any issues at all.

Then about two-three weeks in to using it I noticed a little notification that I had 15 files quarantined.

Goodness!

A quick review of the log found that I hadn’t succumbed to an onslaught of malware and viruses due to sloppy computing habits.

No. Bitdefender finally got around to scanning my collection of Windows utilities and found it ripe with all kinds of potentially unwanted software applications. Bad stuff.  Things from NirSoft that let me recover passwords and other things from beloved family members’ systems when they forget their system and email and other account passwords -- among other things. Oh my!

Here is what a Bitdefender quarantined file looks like.

Well, we can’t have that!  So I went though the process of un-quarantining them.

And quickly I was done.

Yea!

Only when I went to use one of them, the executable file refused to run!  Blocked!

Nothing I could do could get it running. It was showing “Excluded” but I just couldn’t run it.

To complicate matters, after a reboot (troubleshooting) Bitdefender appeared to be trying to do a pre-Windows clean and file removal too. Hmm. Turns out that while I was working on that issue, it also found a USB stick I carry these tools on as well and had gone to town on the same file sets on it as well. I had removed the USB stick before reboot so it couldn’t find the files it was looking for. Fortunately the system came up no worse for wear despite some fairly scary language, but my attempts to later un-quarantine the files on the USB drive failed horribly and it refused to find/see them when I tried to exclude them.  Right-clicking the quarantined files and trying to restore them wasn’t successful on the USB drive either.

So I figured I would just re-download the handful of them from Nir Sofer’s website, delete my original files on my C: and USB drives, and put them back in.

Except I was met with a very frightening and ugly warning message in my browser that Bitdefender had identified the NirSoft website as a dodgy and dangerous location and didn’t really want me going there. In fairness, on the Bitdefender Free website, if you dig down on the page it does clearly say that the product does the following:

HTTP Scanning - Protects you from scams such as credit card phishing attempts, Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition scans all the links you access from your browser and blocks them when they prove to be unsafe.

Unfortunately for me, that was the final straw.

So I uninstalled Bitdefender and reinstalled Microsoft Security Essentials.

Then I had to delete the still not really working “excluded/quarantined” files shown above off both my local hard drive and my USB drive. Luckily I could do that once Bitdefender had been removed and the system rebooted.

Then I downloaded all the “lost” files again from their sources. MSSE caught a few of the Nir Soft downloads but they alerted immediately and I was able to restore/exclude them with no fuss and about 30 minutes later had everything put back together again.

So, I must really be unhappy with Bitdefender right?

Well, it was an inconvenience to say the least, but I’m really not bummed out. If Bitdefender were to make some minor changes to their product, it might still win me back. I really, really, really liked the fast speed and light resources it displayed; particularly in that it made my post-boot and Windows login experience must faster and responsive that when using MSSE.

What I would like to see is a better set of options for controlling and enabling/disabling/fine-tuning features in Bitdefender free.  Unless they are there and I’m totally overlooking them…

• I want to be able to disable the HTTP scanning.
• When I restore/exclude a file, I want it to return to full functionality and remain whitelisted for future downloads and execution.
• I want to exclude portable/external drives from scans when I feel like it.
• I would like to know when Bitdefender finds something with a real-time pop-up alert and ask me what I want to do then and there…not let me find out about it later.
• I really would like Bitdefender to warn me at a system shutdown if it has any “pending actions” that it plans to take on the reboot…and let me decide to follow-through with those actions or postpone or cancel that activity.

I guess I just want somewhat more advanced technical control over the operations and fewer headaches putting things back to normal.

Even “basic” MSSE allows me to…

• Disable scanning of removable drives,
• Exclude specific running processes from scans,
• Exclude specific file-types from a scan,
• Exclude specific files and locations from a scan, and,
• not fiddle with monitoring and intercepting HTTP traffic to and from my web browser.

Hopefully future versions of Bitdefender Free can incorporate these items.  If so then I’m game and open to give it another shot.

Until then, I’m sticking with MSSE and continuing to recommend it to my own family and IT-support provided friends…unless they are horribly poor with their computing activity and I have to clean their systems more than a few times in a row…only then will I recommend they go to a more powerful (and less flexible) AV/AM solution, and that would be Bitdefender Free over most of the other free AV/AM offerings for Windows systems.

At least for now….

Possibly related:

• Goodbye Microsoft Security Essentials: Microsoft Now Recommends You Use a Third-Party Antivirus - How To Geek website
• Microsoft (allegedly) Now Recommends You Use a Third-Party Antivirus - BleepingComputer news forum.
• Sensationalist Press Got it WRONG! Microsoft Does Not Recommend Two Antivirus Programs! - Security Garden
• Our commitment to Microsoft antimalware - Microsoft Malware Protection Center Blog

Cheers,

--Claus Valca

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GSD Saturday Linkfest: IT Crowd and ForSec Folks welcome

News and Links For the ForSec Crowd

Kali Linux 1.0.5 and Software Defined Radio - Kali Linux - new build released with updates and some bells-and-whistles to boot!

Windows 8 / Server 2012 Memory Forensics - Forensic Methods

Inside Windows Rootkits - Forensic Methods

Links - Windows Incident Response blog - Lots of great fresh material here!

Forensic Perspective - Windows Incident Response blog

Tools to Grab Locked Files - Journey Into Incident Response blog - Cory Harrell has a simply amazing post full of tremendous resources worth taking a look into for using to grab locked files.

DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, Volume 14 Windows Application & PDF - Kurt Shintaku's Blog - This is too good to pass up! From Kurt’s post.

The Microsoft Security Intelligence Report Windows application analyzes the threat landscape of exploits, vulnerabilities, and malware using the latest data from hundreds of millions of systems around the world and some of the Internet’s busiest online services.

Readers will find the data, insights, and guidance provided in this report useful in helping them protect their organizations, software, and users.  

Key features of the application include:

• All content, in one convenient place – includes all 800+ pages of content from Volume 14 of our latest report and is fully searchable.
• High fidelity charts – Many customers have asked us if they can obtain high resolution versions of the charts. We’ve delivered that in the application and have even included the “save as” functionality so that customers may use them in other applications, such as PowerPoint.
• Reader friendly – We’ve designed the application with you, the reader in mind. One example of this is the integration of our glossary into the body of a page which appear as mouse-over tool-tips.

Security Intelligence Report (SIR) vol.14 (Windows Application) - Microsoft.com - The installable application has 800+ pages of content while the PDF version checks in at 120 pages. Pick you medicine and pucker up.

Other useful Microsoft security and threat response links:

• Microsoft Malware Protection Center
• Microsoft Security Response Center
• Computer Security Tools & Downloads – TechNet Security
• Microsoft Security Intelligence Report

Microsoft Security Essentials Prerelease - Microsoft Download Center - new pre-release version 4.4.207.0 for interested users of MSSE. Released on 09.09.13 so it is very fresh.

(IN)SECURE Magazine issue 39 released - HelpNet Security - Download directly here (PDF link).

News and Links For the IT Crowd

I enjoy the technical and scientific articles I get in my RSS feeds over from the IEEE Spectrum website. It has great material and is terribly technical. Some sadly interesting IT news I’ve seen over there recently tag state IT departments.

• IT Hiccups of the Week: A Bad Week for U.S. State Government IT - IEEE Spectrum
• Is There a U.S. IT Worker Shortage? - IEEE Spectrum
• IT Hiccups of the Week: U.S. State Government IT System Meltdowns Galore - IEEE Spectrum

A new find this week has been the Microsoft Office Configuration Analyzer Tool

The Microsoft Office Configuration Analyzer Tool (OffCAT) is a program that provides a detailed report of your installed Office programs. This report includes many parameters about your Office program configuration and highlights known problems found when OffCAT scans your computer. For any problems that are listed in the report, you are provided with a link to a public-facing article (usually a Microsoft Knowledge Base article) on the issue so you can read about possible fixes for the problem. If you are a Help Desk professional, you can also save the report to file so that the report can be viewed in the Office Configuration Analyzer Tool on another client where the tool is installed. The Office Configuration Analyzer Tool 1.1 also includes a command-line version that can be used to collect an OffCAT scan without user intervention.

I’ve been playing with it for a while and am amazed at the depth of information and assistance it provides, particularly for many very obscure items.

Spotted over at this 4sysops post FREE: Microsoft OffCAT – Office Configuration Analyzer Tool 1.1

MBSA 2.3 Preview Release Available - Anything about IT - News about a new preview release version of Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (note link is to public version 2.2) that supports MS OS’s between XP and Windows 8.1

Windows 8.1 Command Prompt or PowerShell - Anything about IT

PowerShell 4.0 – A first look - 4sysops

How to Know When an Object Was Created and Changed in Active Directory - WindowsNetworking.com

When was the Last Password Changed for a User Account in Active Directory - WindowsNetworking.com

Office 365 for Nonprofits Organizations - Microsoft.com - Microsoft recently announced that they are offering Office 365 for non-profits (including eligible churches). This could be a big deal for many, learn more here.

SysInternals Tools, Windows 8 Training - Microsoft Virtual Academy - Seven video training modules and supporting materials to assist with learning the latest in core SysInternals tools. Check it out! Hat tip to Kurt Shintaku.

Kyle Beckman has posted a great series about Folder Redirection over at 4sysops that I (re)discovered. Lots of good information and tips here.

• Folder Redirection – Part 1: Introduction - 4sysops
• Folder Redirection – Part 2: Setting up your file server
• Folder Redirection – Part 3: Explanation of folder permissions
• Folder Redirection – Part 4: Group Policy configuration
• Folder Redirection – Part 5: Best practices
• How to disable Folder Redirection

Create a new Windows Service

Moon Point Support Weblog had a helpful post: Creating a Service for a Windows System

It caught my eye as we are working with a system down in the coal-mines that requires running the core features as applications rather than services which makes security and log-in/account management more than a little bit challenging. Alas, this won’t solve those headaches but it is worth bookmarking and knowing.

How To Create a User-Defined Service - Microsoft Support

How to create a Windows service by using Sc.exe - Microsoft Support

NSSM - the Non-Sucking Service Manager

Virtualization Software Updates

Download VMware Player 6.0 - VMware

VMware woos power users and IT pros with Fusion and Workstation upgrades - Ars Technica

VMware Player 6 Released with Full Windows 8.1 Support - Next of Windows

Oracle VM VirtualBox - Version 4.2.18 released - Oracle

General Application and Utility Updates of Note

UltraVNC VNC - version release 1.1.93 now out.

PeStudio - version release 7.45 now out.

Speccy v1.23 - Piriform - new release.

HWiNFO Portable - version 4.24-2000 - PortableApps.com - in what begs another GSD LinkList post, HWiNFO is yet another system hardware info-gathering resource I’ve been playing with. I’ve got more than a few I call up from the bullpen and this one has been added to the pitching stable.

IOBit Driver Booster Free - I confess I was very skeptical when I saw this new application appear. I have a few trusted driver apps to catalog and/or back up existing drivers on a system, and some vendor-specific driver update scanning applications used to update my systems. However, I have generally distained apps that claim to scan for driver updates on Windows systems and tell me what I need. Driver updating can be a dangerous and system-harmful thing if the wrong one is applied. So when I tried with trepidation this application, I found the UI was super clean and easy to navigate, the scan was immediate and dead-on fast, it seemed very accurate (finding only one out of date driver), provides a detailed and comprehensive list of drivers checked and their status, and creates a Restore point before every driver update is installed. It’s so easy I’d recommend it to my non-techy friends and family who I support. Great job IOBit! I’ll be running this one weekly!

SoftPerfect Network Scanner - updated to version 5.5. See Changelog for details.

Wireshark - updated to Stable version 1.10.2 and Old Stable version 1.8.10.

• Wireshark 1.10.2 - Release notes
• Wireshark 1.8.10 - Release notes

For you crazy WinPE building fans who use WinBuilder, a new version has been released that is much different from the previous version you may be familiar with. At the time of this blog-posting, the Winbuilder.net site seems to be temporarily down, but here were the applicable links you need to check out. I suspect fans of WinBuilder will fall one one side of the fence or the other; love it or hate it. Particularly with the Java building components.

• WinBuilder - Development - reboot.pro
• WinBuilder - reboot.pro
• without imbedded Java RTEs - download version.

lessmsi (aka Less Msiérables) · ActiveScott at GitHub - now at version 1.1.3 The download link is a bit hard to find on the page if you aren’t used to GitHub. Look for “1 release" at the top bar just above the purple band and click it to find the compiled binaries in lessmsi-v1.1.3.zip.

d7 v10 Just Released! - Computer Technician - Foolish IT LLC.the updated change list is too expansive for me to try to list here. Check it out.

SoundVolumeView - new NirSoft utility - View/change sound levels & save/load sound level profiles on Windows Vista/7/8/2008 - More details in this NirSoft blog post.

Whew!  That post tired me out…or maybe it was the A&M/Alabama game live-streaming on my second monitor.

--Claus Valca

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Find that File (on a Windows system) - LinkList

Here is a list of some free fast-file-finder alternatives.

I did a similar one a long time ago but seems time for an update.

• SwiftSearch - SourceForge.net - Just tired this little gem and it truly is rocking fast. Seriously fast. Like make a movie about the need for speed fast. In fact finding this one led me to feel obligated to make this whole post. Spotted via this post FAST! Windows NTFS file search utility - SwiftSearch from Steve Si (of RMPrepUSB/Easy2Boot fame).
• SearchMyFiles - NirSoft -This is my go-to for searching up files on my personal Windows systems.
• SMF – Search my Files - funk.eu. The complimentary application I use to SearchMyFiles. Please don’t be confused with the similar names. It has some additional power-lifting features I find useful.
• UltraSearch - JamSoftware - Nice and Neat little application.
• Ultra File Search - another great little application.
• Locate32 - regularly updated and uses an indexing database to help with finding.
• Everything Search Engine - VoidTools - Another index-based file searching tool.
• eXpress FreshFiles Finder (XFFF) - Irins - kind of a niche app but I absolutely love it for what it does. It has helped me wonderfully as a sysadmin.
• Agent Ransack - MythicSoft - “Lite” version that supports boolean expressions, Perl Regex expressions. Comes (like some of the other apps here) in x32 and x64 supported versions.
• MasterSeeker - another clever little file find utility. See this nice review by AddictiveTips for some of the extra features it has: MasterSeeker Is A Search Tool For Windows With Filters & Regex Support

--Claus V.

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iPhone Traffic - ZAP’ed, Security, and Network Tap Tap Tapping

This week brought in a very interesting post from web security/developer Troy Hunt.

 Unearthing the hidden shortcomings in Aussie mobile app security - Troy Hunt’s blog

Please go read then come back.

Interesting isn’t it?

I know most GSD readers probably wouldn’t be surprised to find some of their favorite mobile-apps leak user ids and passwords in plain-text, but for those who don’t know, some do.

Case in point (that has now been reported as fixed!):  Zscaler Research: Mobile App Wall of Shame: ESPN ScoreCenter

Naturally that got me thinking about a common mantras in the For/Sec world; “know your tools” & “verify, verify, verify”.

What I want to do is some benchmarking and analysis of the mobile apps I use on my own iPhone to have a better understanding on what is happening with their network traffic. This would be valuable information to know for general usage, and critical knowledge in case you unknowingly encounter a Wi-Fi Pineapple in the wild or a more complex man-in-the-middle Wi-Fi attack and get your network traffic captured.

One super-easy (and lazy) way I have found is to use ZAP - Zscaler Application Profiler.  From the “About” page link:

About ZAP

Zscaler Application Profiler (ZAP) is web based tool designed to streamline the capture and analysis of HTTP(S) traffic from mobile applications. ZAP is capable of analyzing traffic from both iOS and Android applications and includes the following functionality:

• Search: View summarized historical results for past scans.
• Scan: Proxy traffic from a mobile device through the ZAP proxy and the mobile app traffic will be automatically captured and analyzed
• iPCU: Upload your iOS device configuration file(.deviceinfo) to check risk score of installed application. It will give you overall risk score of your device. The information provided is based on out knowledge base.

ZAP classifies traffic into the following buckets and calculates an overall risk score for the application:

• Authentication: Username/password sent in clear text or using weak encoding methods.
• Device Metadata Leakage: Data that can identify an individual device, such as the Unique Device Identifier (UDID).
• Personally Identifiable Information Leakage: Data that can identify an individual user, such as an email address, phone number or mailing address.
• Exposed content: Communication with third parties such as advertising or analytics sites.

Zscaler also has a detailed video on this service on their blog: Zscaler Research: Introducing ZAP.

So you can either check their historical report data on apps already researched, you can connect your device to their proxy to do a scan on a new app/version not already captured historically, or even upload your own iOS device config file.

Wow.  Bookmark this resource link now!

However, there may be cases you want to do your own local network traffic capture and analysis…because you like pain and frustration (and hands-on learning perhaps).

Part I - In Which Hardware TAP Options are narrowed down

At work (when & where authorized) we can set up network packet captures either on a specific system or on the LAN using port-SPAN.

At home, I don’t have a managed switch (or dumb hub) that can do that.  I suppose I could buy a USB-NIC (so I can have two wired network ports on my laptop) and then capture traffic temporarily though one of these messy devices (home-built or purchased) but that isn’t quite as elegant as I would prefer.

Or (as the TinyApps bloggist kindly just reminded me) use Cain & Abel.

• Capturing Packets on a Broadcom Card - The Flying Frank
• Configuration - OXID.I

Instead I decided I'll pick up a specialized device that support a network TAP.  This way I can just hook it in line between my Wi-Fi router and the cable modem and capture everything that passes though. It may not be 100% on packet captures, but I think it will be good enough for my home testing.

So the next question is what device?

I’ve settled on the following options:

• Dualcomm DCSW-1005 USB Powered 5-Port 10/100 Fast Ethernet Switch TAP (Port Mirroring) - Amazon.com link
  • Dualcomm DCSW-1000/1005PT - Dualcomm product page
• Dualcomm DCGS-2005L 5-Port 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Switch Network TAP (Plastic Case) - Amazon.com link
• Dualcomm DCGS-2005 5-Port 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Switch Network TAP (USB Powered, Port Mirroring, PoE Pass-Through) - Amazon.com link
  • Dualcomm DCGS-2005/DCGS-2005L - Dualcomm product page

The DCSW-1005 model is an attractive basic option. It supports port-mirroring, is USB powered, and has 5-ports. (note only port #1 is mirrored to port #5).  The price is good.  The only “drawback” I see is that it only supports 10/100 speed on the network.  While I seriously doubt I would ever approach over 100 Mbps and cause a bottleneck on my home network…most all my other network equipment is 1000 Mbps capable.  So thinking forward, this could be slightly limiting down the road, or if I am asked by family/friends/associates to do some network troubleshooting on a “true” 1000 Mbps network, or tapping in between two network devices actually running at 1000 Mbps.  So there is that. Also, the buffer memory used by the device in the mirroring process is 256 KB. So if that gets saturated, there is the possibility of dropped packet captures.

The only difference between the DCGS-2005/2005L seems to be the “L” model has a metal cabinet while the other doesn’t. Of course, that option comes with a $20 markup as well.  I’m pretty sure the plastic cabinet would be just fine, but the vanity in me just likes the metal cabinet appearance a bit more. Probably just a bit more durable when tossed around in a go-bag and maybe it might dissipate heat a bit better? This model does support up to 1000 Mbps so there is that benefit since it is (at least $100 more expensive) but the buffer memory is just 104 KB. Hmmm. 

Should I be concerned about overloading either of the devices’ memory buffer when capturing home-network traffic? Probably not but what say you pros?

I did find these pretty basic and older reviews, including one from the guru of network security Richard Bejtlich.  I really didn’t find any more recent reviews of the device so if/when I get my hands on one, you can be assured I’ll have a write-up review.

• DualComm Port Mirroring Switch - TaoSecurity - (Sept. 2010)
• Review of Dualcomm 5-Port Pass-Through Port Mirroring Switch - LoveMyTool - Betty DuBois - (April 2010)
• Network Security Monitoring with Dualcomm DCSW-1005PT - CyberArms - D.Dieterle - (Nov. 2010)

Part II - In Which Other Alternatives are discovered

So let’s assume that you are already comfortable with network packet captures, installing network software, and making network configuration changes to Wi-Fi devices.

Are there any options to capture iPhone network traffic without going to the trouble and expense of picking up TAP hardware just for that task?

Yep.

First option is a tool called Paros. It is Java based (I know, I know..) and can assess web application vulnerabilities. The link has a Windows binary that appears back from August 2008.

Here is a nice walkthough on using Paros Sniff Your iPhone's Network Traffic by Jerod Santofrom to give you some introduction to it.

There was a comment on the Paros page providing information to a very current “fork” of Paros: ZAP

(Note: Not to be confused with the Zscaler ZAP service)

OWASP Zed Attack Proxy Project - OWASP - OWASP.org

There are tons of information on that page on this tool:

• Screenshots
• wiki videos page
• project pamphlet - a very quick intro
• project presentation - longer presentation

And here are some quick links on ZAP usage:

• Owasp ZAP - InfoSec Institute post
• Debugging SSL on Both iOS Devices and Simulators with Man-in-the-middle Proxies - CodeProject
• Intercepting iPhone traffic with your MacBook - Shaun Zinck’s blog

Next up, we have Fiddler, a free web debugging proxy from Telerik

• Capturing HTTP traffic on an iPhone with Fiddler - Scott Wojan’s DotRant blog
• Configuring Fiddler to Capture Web Traffic from an iPhone/iPad Device - ESRI Support Services blog
• How To Sniff iPhone Network Traffic - Matt McClure’s blog

Finally, if you are hard-core, just go use Wireshark.

• iPhone Meets Wireshark – Capture Wireless Network Traffic from Mobile Devices - EtherLook

Part III - Resources, References, & Pineapples

Here are some additional links related to all of the above discussions including the Dualcomm products, SPAN/TAP considerations, and the next network device I’m interested in picking up to play with; the Wi-Fi Pineapple.

SPAN Out of the Box (PDF Link) - John He’s Dualcomm Technology PowerPoint presentation at SharkFest 2010. Goes into details about SPAN/TAP considerations and specifics on what DualComm feels makes their product super special. SPAN out of the Box (Blip video)

B-7 (Battaglia) TAPS Demystified (PPT Link) - Samuel Battaglia’s Network Critical PowerPoint presentation at SharkFest 2010.

SPAN Port vs TAP (Video) - Betty DuBois- SharkFest 2009 presentation. PowerPoint presentation here (ZIP).

SPAN Port or TAP? CSO Beware - LoveMyTool blog - Tim O’Neill

Network Monitoring Madness: Poor Man’s Resource Linkfest - GSD blog post from 2010.

Let’s Get For/Sec-Motivated! - GSD blog post from 2011.

The beginners guide to breaking website security with nothing more than a Pineapple - Troy Hunt’s blog.

Your Mac, iPhone or iPad may have left the Apple store with a serious security risk - Troy Hunt’s blog.

Pineapple Surprise! Mixing trusting devices with sneaky Wi-Fi at #wdc13 - Troy Hunt’s blog.

Netgear DS104 4-Port 10/100 Dual Speed Hub with Uplink Button (Amazon link) - recommended to look into as well by TinyApps bloggist who reports he had good experience with it.

CaptureSetup/Ethernet - The Wireshark Wiki

CaptureSetup/WLAN - The Wireshark Wiki

Cheers!

--Claus Valca

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Network News & Goodies - Labor Day Edition

Linkfest post on Labor Day. Lots of network goodies here for the GSD fans!

Presented in no particular order…just how they came of the bench tonight.

Viewpoints: OSI Model and APSTNDP - Microsoft’s MessageAnalyzer blog

Wireshark Tutorial Series #2. Tips and tricks used by insiders and veterans - Sniff free or die Wireshark blog

Tools - The Wireshark Wiki - great Super-List of tools and supporting material for Wireshark.

I’ve posted recently quite a gushing rant on TraceWrangler. It is a free (still-Alpha release) no-install tool to help with sanitizing and anonymizing packet trace files. Pretty wicked cool. Jasper Bongertz posted an intro here and touched on some of the issues current tools of this kind have.

I mention it because the Wireshark Wiki Tools page does contain a list of capture file anonymization tools and (sadly) TraceWrangler isn’t on it yet. Somebody with a connection needs to send the Wiki editors some memos…just saying.

TraceWrangler (change log) - now at version Alpha 0.1.3 build 308.

Microsoft Security Advisory (2861855): Updates to Improve Remote Desktop Protocol Network-level Authentication - Microsoft Security TechCenter

Sequence Match View: Identifying Interesting Network Patterns - Microsoft’s MessageAnalyzer blog

How Secure Is Your Smartphone - Check the Packets (by Tony Fortunato) - LoveMyTool blog

The Do's and Do NOT's of using SPAN Ports (by Darragh Delaney) - LoveMyTool blog

NetFort SPAN Port Configurator - freeware - GUI Utility to set Span Ports on Cisco switches…because as you know, using the free Cisco Network Assistant to do so is such a pain.

ZMAP 1.02 released - SANS ISC Diary

ZMap · The Internet Scanner. From the home page:

“ZMap is an open-source network scanner that enables researchers to easily perform Internet-wide network studies. With a single machine and a well provisioned network uplink, ZMap is capable of performing a complete scan of the IPv4 address space in under 45 minutes, approaching the theoretical limit of gigabit Ethernet.

“While ZMap is a powerful tool for researchers, please keep in mind that by running ZMap, you are potentially scanning the ENTIRE IPv4 address space and some users may not appreciate your scanning. We encourage ZMap users to respect requests to stop scanning and to exclude these networks from ongoing scanning.”

“We suggest that users coordinate with local network administrators before performing any scans and we have developed a set of scanning best practices, which we encourage researchers to consider. It should go without saying that researchers should refrain from exploiting vulnerabilities or accessing protected resources, and should comply with any special legal requirements in their jurisdictions.”

While you may not break the Internet as handily as Jen does, you might do bad things to your own. Be sure you are well familiar with the tool before experimenting!

INMAP 6.40 Released - SANS ISC Diary

Nmap Change Log - nmap.org

Download the Free Nmap Security Scanner for Linux/MAC/UNIX or Windows - nmap.org

SoftPerfect WiFi Guard - version release to 1.0.3 (Change log)

NetworkTrafficView - NirSoft - version release to 1.76:

• Added 'Maximum Packet Size' column. For TCP connections that transfers significant amount of data, the value under this column represents the actual MTU.

Wireless Network Watcher - NirSoft - version release to 1.67

• Updated the internal MAC addresses database.

KiTTY - update to current version release of 0.63.0.2

60 Seconds on the Wire: A Look at Malicious Traffic (direct PDF Link) - SANS Reading Room whitepaper by Kiel Wadner - August 22, 2013.

Custom Full Packet Capture System - (direct PDF Link) - SANS Reading Room whitepaper by Derek Banks - April 16, 2013.

Updated from another recent GSD post because they seemed apropos here in this as well:

Psst. Your Browser Knows All Your Secrets. - SANS ISC Diary guest post by Sally Vandeven on pulling the crypto keys in a browser.

Cookie Cadger to Identify Cookie Leakage from Applications over An Insecure HTTP Request - Next of Windows

Cookie Cadger - project homepage. From the link:

“Cookie Cadger helps identify information leakage from applications that utilize insecure HTTP GET requests.

“Web providers have started stepping up to the plate since Firesheep was released in 2010. Today, most major websites can provide SSL/TLS during all transactions, preventing cookie data from leaking over wired Ethernet or insecure Wi-Fi. But the fact remains that Firesheep was more of a toy than a tool. Cookie Cadger is the first open-source pen-testing tool ever made for intercepting and replaying specific insecure HTTP GET requests into a browser.

“Cookie Cadger is a graphical utility which harnesses the power of the Wireshark suite and Java to provide a fully cross-platform, entirely open-source utility which can monitor wired Ethernet, insecure Wi-Fi, or load a packet capture file for offline analysis.”

Cheers.

--Claus Valca

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