macOS High Sierra Bug Lets Anyone Gain Root Access

 
Hi guys hope you are all keeping well, and if not I am yet again going to drain the brightness from your day. If you own a Mac computer and run the latest version of Apple's operating system, macOS High Sierra, then you need to be extra careful with your computer. Apparently anyone and I mean anyone from your two year old to your grandad can break into your mac device and become a superuser. Yes I said it, a superuser a god of elevated privileges a root to all evil, only the geeks in the room will get that one. So here's the thing Apple are calling this a bug when they should really just come out and say:

 "look guys we turned on root to do some shit, then we kinda forgot to turn it off, and, em, looks like that's the image we used to roll out 1,000s of machines on, our bad.....
PS the iPhone X is great you should go buy one it comes with enhanced features like stealing your key biometrics data for facial recognition so the CIA don't have to." - This may or may not have been a statement made by Apple T&C's apply.

Here's How to Login as Root User Without a Password

If you own a Mac and want to try this exploit, follow these steps from admin or guest account:

• Open System Preferences on the machine.
• Select Users & Groups.
• Click the lock icon to make changes.
• Enter "root" in the username field of a login window.
• Move the cursor into the Password field and hit enter button there few times, leaving it blank.

With that macOS High Sierra logs the unauthorized user in with root privileges, allowing the user to access your Mac as a "superuser" with permission to read and write to system files, including those in other macOS accounts as well.

This flaw can be exploited in several ways, depending on the setup of the targeted Mac. With full-disk encryption disabled, a rogue user can turn on a Mac that's entirely powered down and log in as root by doing the same trick.

At Mac's login screen, an untrusted user can also use the root trick to gain access to a Mac that has FileVault turned on to make unauthorized changes to the Mac System Preferences, like disabling FileVault.

All the untrusted user needs to do is click "Other" at the login screen, and then enter "root" again with no password. However, it is impossible to exploit this vulnerability when a Mac machine is turned on, and the screen is protected with a password.

I suppose there is no point in doing the scary dance without having a solution to hand and just as easy the potential to carry out this exploit the fix is similarly as simple to fix just follow the steps below.

Here's How to Temporarily Fix the macOS High Sierra Bug

To fix the vulnerability, you need to enable the root user with a password. Heres how to do that:

• Open System Preferences and Select Users & Groups
• Click on the lock icon and Enter your administrator name and password there
• Click on "Login Options" and select "Join" at the bottom of the screen
• Select "Open Directory Utility"
• Click on the lock icon to make changes and type your username and password there
• Click "Edit" at the top of the menu bar
• Select "Enable Root User" and set a password for the root user account

This password will prevent the account from being accessed with a blank password.

Just to be on the safer side, you can also disable Guest accounts on your Mac. for this, head on to System Preferences → Users & Groups, select Guest User after entering your admin password, and disable "Allow guests to log in to this computer."

Are your keystrokes being recorded?

It's always nice to set the scene for these subjects it helps my over active imagination to write better, so lets sit back and imagine the following: you are browsing the internet, firstly you look up a few weird and wonderful subjects, then you tip over to that dodgy website your wife doesn't know about to catch up on that online affair you have been having. You ask how did you know? well if you have been watching any tech related news in the past week you would have seen a headline or two stating things like "popular sites record your every keystrokes" and the rest.

So you ask what does that mean, websites are recording my keystrokes so they have a bulk file filled with code and text and links right?  Well technically yes but someone also though it would be a good idea to create a software that plays back all of this stuff in a film like format, sound scary? well it is and as you can see from the video below were your "keystrokes" to get leaked you might be in a whole pile of doo doo pretty quickly.

Researchers from Princeton University's Centre for Information Technology Policy (CITP) analyzed the Alexa top 50,000 websites in the world and found that 482 sites, many of which are high profile, are using a new web-tracking technique to track every move of their users.

Dubbed "Session Replay," the technique is used even by most popular websites, including The Guardian, Reuters, Samsung, Al-Jazeera, VK, Adobe, Microsoft, and WordPress, to record every single movement a visitor does while navigating a web page, and this incredibly extensive data is then sent off to a third party for analysis.

"Session replay scripts" are usually designed to gather data regarding user engagement that can be used by website developers to improve the end-user experience. However, what's particularly concerning is that these scripts record beyond the information you purposely give to a website—which also includes the text you type out while filing a form and then delete before hitting 'Submit.'

If your starting to get cold sweats after reading the above then here are a couple of sites where you can educate yourself a bit further on this topic.

https://thehackernews.com/2017/11/website-keylogging.html

https://thenextweb.com/security/2017/11/21/hundreds-of-websites-record-your-every-keystroke-without-you-knowing/

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/websites-record-keystroke/

Smart Devices Stupid People Syndrome

 

In the last few months I have reduced my use of smart device's and technology in general, in a way I have unplugged to a certain extent, yes I still read the news on my smart phone and carry out the odd Google search, I would call my current interactions with technology as selective. I have varying reasons for this, their is no denying that technology has enhanced modern lives in ways that could never have been imagined. My worries However, run deeper my concern is there's a basic human cost to these great enhancements in technology, I refer to this as "smart devices stupid people syndrome". I do admit its not a very medical term but its the best way to put across a point that individuals are unknowingly eroding there right to privacy and becoming more an more unsocial.

My simple test for this is the next time your out and about the location is unimportant be it the pub, restaurant, train station etc. I want you to do the following, turn off your music, smart watch, phone and any other device that may interrupt this test, find a good visual location and just observe the people around you. Now here is the fun part I want you to count how many people are lost in a device and are oblivious to there current surrounding they are just going through the motions of there day without taking in the world around them.

The ironic thing is that while the individual may not be taking in there surroundings there devices are, they are logging their location, analyzing there search history, identifying trends from social media apps. We now live in a world of big data its the new age where data is power and we are all giving it away so freely. When is the last time you downloaded an application and read the user license agreement (ULA)? For the majority of people the answer is probably never, we blindly agree to thousands of lines of legal agreements so we can use a free app that delivers some innocuous service  that we saw in an add or on social media and decided we couldn't live without, the caveat is nothing in this world is free you are paying with information a level of which has now reached an unprecedented level.

The reaction I normally get when I ask people why they send everything they are doing on Snapchat or why they post their every movement on Facebook, Twitter etc. is normally the candid "sure who cares about me". To which I normally say depends on what you define as "care", if your going away for a weeks holiday post your "check in " online and then track your memories through out your trip, well then robbers care very much that you are not at home and they can get in and out of your home whilst you keep them updated with the latest beach side selfie.

What if an app starts selling your location history enriched with your user details to your insurance company or health provider so they see you read your texts while driving oh and you rarely stay under the speed limit and your most frequented location is the local pub I think they will go out of there way to up your quote or not insure you at all, does that fall under the category of "who cares about you"?

How about a future employer that runs your name through a HR software to find all the inappropriate images and posts and tweets you have built up over the years , like it or not what happens online stays online, forever.  So to answer the above question you should care, because data does not lie so beware because its only a matter of time before you too can catch "smart device stupid people syndrome" you will find its rapidly becoming an epidemic.

Protect against WannaCry Ransomware: Patch Release

In the wake of the largest ransomware attack in history that has already infected over 114,000 Windows systems worldwide in the space of just 24 hours , Microsoft just took an unusual step to protect its customers with out-of-date computers. Now in one way this is a I told you so and you didn't listen type scenario and on the other side it brings home the real issues that cyber crime can deliver on a world wide scale when it all goes wrong.

so, if your organization, for some reason, is still running on Windows XP or Vista, you are strongly advised to download and APPLY PATCH NOW!

WannaCrypt, or also known as WannaCry, is a new ransomware that wreaked havoc across the world last night, which spreads like a worm by leveraging a Windows SMB vulnerability (MS17-010) that has been previously fixed by Microsoft in March.

A large number of successful infections of the WannaCry ransomware at an astonishing pace concludes that either significant number of users have not yet installed the security patch released in March (MS17-010) or they are still running an unsupported version of Windows for which Microsoft is no longer releasing any security update.

Moreover, if you are using Windows 10, you are on the safe side. Once infected, WannaCry unlocks the computers and requires victims to pay $300 in Bitcoins to get back the control of their systems, along with a threat to double the price to $600.

But there's no guarantee of getting your files back even after paying the ransom. Best advise would be to upgrade you system to the latest version unless you have issues running legacy software. 

 

7 easy Steps to Protect Yourself

Currently, there is no WannaCry decryption tool or any other solution available, so users are strongly advised to follow prevention measures in order to protect themselves.

• Keep your system Up-to-date: First of all, if you are using supported, but older versions of Windows operating system, keep your system up to date, or simply upgrade your system to Windows 10.
• Using Unsupported Windows OS? If you are using unsupported versions of Windows, including Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 or 2008, apply the emergency patch released by Microsoft today.
• Enable Firewall: Enable firewall, and if it is already there, modify your firewall configurations to block access to SMB ports over the network or the Internet. The protocol operates on TCP ports 137, 139, and 445, and over UDP ports 137 and 138.
• Disable SMB: Follow steps described by Microsoft to disable Server Message Block (SMB).
• Keep your Antivirus software up-to-date: Virus definitions have already been updated to protect against this latest threat.
• Backup Regularly: To always have a tight grip on all your important files and documents, keep a good backup routine in place that makes their copies to an external storage device that is not always connected to your PC.
• Beware of Phishing: Always be suspicious of uninvited documents sent an email and never click on links inside those documents unless verifying the source.

Securely implementing a home network

As we speak I am currently in the process of designing my new home, lucky enough myself and my wife to be are in the position where we get to build from scratch. The beauty with building from scratch is of course you start with a blank canvas. We are at the stage where all the necessities have been figured out such as heating systems, insulation, build type, house size etc so its time to get to the really fun part... the home network.

Having past my CCNA over 3 years ago, my networking has gone a tad off the boil so this is  a great excuse to get myself back up to scratch. The beauty with building a network from scratch is you can do whatever you want and that is exactly what I plan on doing. As I do work in security I won't be detailing the underlying hardware components but I will give the high level view.

My first consideration is cable type and at a little more expense I have decided to run with CAT 6A throughout the house, remember if you chose CAT 6A make sure your wall jacks are also CAT 6A and any other network hardware component that delivers connectivity throughout your home.
For flexibility I will be running with un-shielded pair CAT 6A and I am also going to run in some external cable in case I ever decide to run CCTV.

I aim to install approximately 26 ports internally and a number externally so I have chosen a 48 port managed switch to connected everything to.
Choosing your switch is important from a network security and stability perspective you should try get a switch that supports, multiple VLANS, QoS, Access Controls Lists, IP Source Guard, Port-level controls, Dynamic ARP inspection. This will cost a few bob but will give you great control over how your network works. The above are just examples of a few security features and if you want to know more about each I'm sure google will be an obliging teacher.

From a general helpfulness note when you pull in your cables label each one on the wall and give it a corresponding number of the switch. This practice can be a pain in the ass but you will thank yourself later. Once you have your ports labelled and patched its time to decide the function of each port and make a list.

I suggest grouping the ports that will carry the same traffic together such as:

- Wireless Access Point traffic
- VOIP traffic
- IOT devices
- Media and Smart TVs
- Home Heating System / Solar
- CCTV
- Office

Once you have worked out what ports are mapping to what service group these ports into VLANs, this will help protect your traffic  by segregating your services and helping to aggregate your network.

For ports where the devices wont change I suggest binding the MAC address to add a small bit of integrity. Switches with QoS options are great as you can now easily configure what traffic you want to give priority to such as VOIP or media. This gives you a more granular control over how your networked devices will work.

I suggest you also buy a switch that has a number of gigabit up-link ports so you can connect into your router.
For my choice of router I want something that is capable of holding a solid baseline and is powerful, I also want it to be able to handle VOIP traffic and run a VPN. Installing a VPN at the router level can cause issues so unless your technical I might skip this part remember I have no problem spending my weekends fluting around with this stuff till its fine tuned.

There is also the option to add in additional security such as firewalls or I could fire up SNORT to give me some intrusion detection capabilities all of which I have ample time to prepare for. The main point of this post is that implementing a home network should cause you to think about how you want it to work, what you want to use it for and how secure you want to be. If your not technical leave it to the pros but make sure you get someone who knows what there doing or you could be exposing yourself to a whole world hurt. 

NSA hacking tools enabling script kiddies and criminals

 

When you create an arsenal of powerful hacking tools to rip through the privacy rights of citizens with the goal of national security as the driver what could possibly go wrong? Well in the case that you lose all of those tools and they fall into the arms of criminals and script kiddies the dangers become all to real. 

Last week, the mysterious hacking group known as Shadow Brokers leaked a set of Windows hacking tools targeting Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 7 and 8, and Windows 2012, allegedly belonged to the NSA's Equation Group. 

 
As expected Microsoft quickly downplayed the security risks by releasing patches for all exploited vulnerabilities, but there are still risks in the wild with unsupported systems as well as with those who haven't yet installed the patches. And believe me knowing how a lot of companies tend to handle patch management that's a lot of servers that are quickly becoming targets. Just to back up that statement multiple security researchers have performed mass Internet scans over the past few days and found tens of thousands of Windows computers worldwide infected with DoublePulsar, a suspected NSA spying implant, as a result of a free tool released on GitHub for anyone to use.

The hackers news have done a good article on this explaining the ins and outs of the tools and the issues that organisation may face if effective patching does not take place which I have inserted below.

The impact? DoublePulsar is a backdoor used to inject and run malicious code on already infected systems, and is installed using the EternalBlue exploit that targets SMB file-sharing services on Microsoft's Windows XP to Server 2008 R2.

Therefore, to compromise a machine, it must be running a vulnerable version of Windows OS with an SMB service expose to the attacker.

Both DoublePulsar and EternalBlue are suspected as Equation Group tools and are now available for any script kiddie to download and use against vulnerable computers.

Once installed, DoublePulsar used hijacked computers to sling malware, spam online users, and launch further cyber attacks on other victims. To remain stealthy, the backdoor doesn't write any files to the PCs it infects, preventing it from persisting after an infected PC is rebooted. While Microsoft has already patched majority of the exploited flaws in affected Windows operating systems, those who have not patched are vulnerable to exploits such as EternalBlue, EternalChampion, EternalSynergy, EternalRomance, EmeraldThread, and EducatedScholar.

Moreover, systems that are still using end-of-life platforms like Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and IIS 6.0, which no longer received security updates, are also vulnerable to the in-the-wild exploits.

Since it takes hackers roughly a few hours to download the Shadow Brokers dump, scan the Internet with the tool released on Monday, and deliver hacking exploits, researchers are expecting more vulnerable and unpatched computers to fall victims to DoublePulsar.

After this news had broken, Microsoft officials released a statement saying: "We doubt the accuracy of the reports and are investigating."

Meanwhile, Windows users who haven't applied MS17-010 by now are strongly advised to download and deploy the patches as soon as possible.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) need to knows

In January 2012, the European Commission proposed a comprehensive reform of data protection rules in the EU. On 4 May 2016, the official texts of the Regulation and the Directive have been published in the EU Official Journal in all the official languages. While the Regulation will enter into force on 24 May 2016, it shall apply from 25 May 2018. The Directive enters into force on 5 May 2016 and EU Member States have to transpose it into their national law by 6 May 2018.

So what does the above mean for everyone? Well for every business big or small handling data on European citizens it means much stricter rules backed up by heavy fines for non compliance and carelessness around the processing, handling and storage of data. And when I say big fine I mean BIG fines 4% of your annual turnover or 20 million depending on which is greater. So if your a big offender on the data front you have approx 1 year to get your s**t together. 

So what are the key points for Business I hear you ask? Well lets go through them with this lovely breakdown from EUGDPR.

Increased Territorial Scope (extra-territorial applicability)Arguably the biggest change to the regulatory landscape of data privacy comes with the extended jurisdiction of the GDPR, as it applies to all companies processing the personal data of data subjects residing in the Union, regardless of the company’s location. Previously, territorial applicability of the directive was ambiguous and referred to data process 'in context of an establishment'. This topic has arisen in a number of high profile court cases. GPDR makes its applicability very clear - it will apply to the processing of personal data by controllers and processors in the EU, regardless of whether the processing takes place in the EU or not. The GDPR will also apply to the processing of personal data of data subjects in the EU by a controller or processor not established in the EU, where the activities relate to: offering goods or services to EU citizens (irrespective of whether payment is required) and the monitoring of behaviour that takes place within the EU. Non-Eu businesses processing the data of EU citizens will also have to appoint a representative in the EU. 

PenaltiesUnder GDPR organizations in breach of GDPR can be fined up to 4% of annual global turnover or €20 Million (whichever is greater). This is the maximum fine that can be imposed for the most serious infringements e.g.not having sufficient customer consent to process data or violating the core of Privacy by Design concepts. There is a tiered approach to fines e.g. a company can be fined 2% for not having their records in order (article 28), not notifying the supervising authority and data subject about a breach or not conducting impact assessment. It is important to note that these rules apply to both controllers and processors -- meaning 'clouds' will not be exempt from GDPR enforcement.

ConsentThe conditions for consent have been strengthened, and companies will no longer be able to use long illegible terms and conditions full of legalese, as the request for consent must be given in an intelligible and easily accessible form, with the purpose for data processing attached to that consent. Consent must be clear and distinguishable from other matters and provided in an intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language. It must be as easy to withdraw consent as it is to give it.​


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The best part of all from this new regulation is the Data subject rights which are going to become a real pain in the ass for companies. And I personally will be keen to watch how some of the more demanding requests will be processed by business especially the beautiful new "Right to be Forgotten".


Data Subject Rights
Breach Notification
Under the GDPR, breach notification will become mandatory in all member states where a data breach is likely to “result in a risk for the rights and freedoms of individuals”. This must be done within 72 hours of first having become aware of the breach. Data processors will also be required to notify their customers, the controllers, “without undue delay” after first becoming aware of a data breach. 

Right to AccessPart of the expanded rights of data subjects outlined by the GDPR is the right for data subjects to obtain from the data controller confirmation as to whether or not personal data concerning them is being processed, where and for what purpose. Further, the controller shall provide a copy of the personal data, free of charge, in an electronic fromat. This change is a dramatic shift to data transparency and empowerment of data subjects.

Right to be ForgottenAlso known as Data Erasure, the right to be forgotten entitles the data subject to have the data controller erase his/her personal data, cease further dissemination of the data, and potentially have third parties halt processing of the data. The conditions for erasure, as outlined in article 17, include the data no longer being relevant to original purposes for processing, or a data subjects withdrawing consent. It should also be noted that this right requires controllers to compare the subjects' rights to "the public interest in the availability of the data" when considering such requests.

Data Portability
GDPR introduces data portability - the right for a data subject to receive the personal data concerning them, which they have previously provided in a 'commonly use and machine readable format' and have the right to transmit that data to another controller.

Privacy by Design
Privacy by design as a concept has existed for years now, but it is only just becoming part of a legal requirement with the GDPR. At it’s core, privacy by design calls for the inclusion of data protection from the onset of the designing of systems, rather than an addition. More specifically - 'The controller shall..implement appropriate technical and organisational measures..in an effective way.. in order to meet the requirements of this Regulation and protect the rights of data subjects'. Article 23 calls for controllers to hold and process only the data absolutely necessary for the completion of its duties (data minimisation), as well as limiting the access to personal data to those needing to act out the processing.

Data Protection Officers
Currently, controllers are required to notify their data processing activities with local DPAs, which, for multinationals, can be a bureaucratic nightmare with most Member States having different notification requirements. Under GDPR it will not be necessary to submit notifications / registrations to each local DPA of data processing activities, nor will it be a requirement to notify / obtain approval for transfers based on the Model Contract Clauses (MCCs). Instead, there will be internal record keeping requirements, as further explained below, and DPO appointment will be mandatory only for those controllers and processors whose core activities consist of processing operations which require regular and systematic monitoring of data subjects on a large scale or of special categories of data or data relating to criminal convictions and offences. Importantly, the DPO:

• Must be appointed on the basis of professional qualities and, in particular, expert knowledge on data protection law and practices
• May be a staff member or an external service provider
• Contact details must be provided to the relevant DPA
• Must be provided with appropriate resources to carry out their tasks and maintain their expert knowledge
• Must report directly to the highest level of management
• Must not carry out any other tasks that could results in a conflict of interest.​