instruction stringlengths 24 29.9k |
|---|
I am a Software Engineer currently and have done quite a bit of systems work as well. I love the idea of Penetration Testing and would love to work towards becoming a pentester/Certified Ethical Hacker. My question is: what are some ways one can learn basic skills in this field while remaining ethical/legal?
Self-teach... |
I'm trying to setup a system for pen-testing. I'm using the FreeRadius-WPE patch to collect Challenges/Requests from people who connect to my spoofed AP instead of the actual network. Here is the format that FreeRadius-WPE is returning me the credentials:
username: Domain\User
challenge: 57:82:23:55:cd:68:10:ed
... |
You can configure Windows to use only certain cipher suites during things like Remote Desktop sessions. Cipher suites such as RC4 56 bit, RC4 128 bit, Triple DES 168 bit, etc.
SSL/TLS is not in play here so I'm talking about RDP encryption.
You can see what I'm talking about here.
I thought to run a packet capture usi... |
Is HTTPS it based on private key on user side?
Where does the user get the private key in the first place?
Suppose the user gets the private key by downloading a browser (Chrome, Firefox), then isn't hackers able to intercept the key by man-in-middle attack?
Suppose private key comes from Windows OS registration number... |
I'm working on a project that requires me to tamper with/rewrite url parameters. I'd also like to add in something that finds request parameters such as
?admin=false
?debugging=false
?page=example
?url=example.php
or anything else along those lines. I was wondering, is there a list I could find of commonly used paramet... |
Is threat modeling useful outside of application development? Is it a useful tool for doing operational assessments of information systems already in existence?
I am confused how threat modeling methodologies like STRIDE correlate with risk assessment techniques such as defined in NIST 800-30.
Pretty much all if have... |
Some operating systems resp. desktop managers clear copied content from the clipboard when the "source" program gets closed.
Example:
copy (Ctrl+c) some text from a webpage in your browser
close the browser
paste (Ctrl+v) this into a text file
→ Nothing gets pasted.
I read somewhere that this is for security reasons.... |
I've heard that Ubuntu has some sort of "phone home" system that is enabled by default. The kind of stuff that passes along performance information and that type of things to Canonical. I don't know if this is true or not, but if it is happening, how would one disable it for a secure environment?
I'm not worried abou... |
Is there any advantage (other than usability) to using ufw, system-config-firewall-tui, or firewalld rather than just using iptables?
My understanding is that these other programs just simplify iptables.
|
For example it seems like anti-virus, anti-spam and firewalls have sort of merged into one product. Is there a downside to this? I don't know of any software firewalls that can be purchased without an AV, is there a reason this has happened?
|
Sometimes when I am doing an external security assesment, I run into hosts that have the following restrictions/configuration:
All ICMP traffic is blocked
An IDS or some device returns all ports as filtered when scanning with nmap, using sT, sN and sS scans.
Even running at -T0 or -T1, any port is returned as filtered... |
There is a lot of security related products for home users and it is becoming unclear what the difference is between them.
What is the difference between antimalware, antispyware, antiadware and antivirus and are all of them necessary? Are other security products such as firewall and anti-spam necessary, as they often... |
on a UNIX OS, ex.: OpenBSD (used as a desktop by me only), which one is the best choice in regards to security. I want to run desktop operations (like pkg_add) with root permissions.
1. having the root user and using it with su - root
2. having the normal user in the wheel group
3. having another user in wheel grou... |
A GitHub project I recently checked has a flawed security as they're using an unsalted md5() to hash the passwords. I opened a bug and they acknowledged it. However, the transition from md5() to bcrypt would mean that every user would need to log in so the password can be migrated.
So my question is, does using bcrypt ... |
In RFC 4226, the algorithm for HOTP is described as follows:
HOTP(K,C) = Truncate(HMAC-SHA-1(K,C))
TOTP is essentially the same algorithm as HOTP except for the fact that the counter "C" is replaced by an integer derived from the current time (in Unix Time). In the words of RFC 6238,
Basically, we define TOTP as TOT... |
I am setting up a server using nginx. I have it working with a self signed ecc certificate and if I connect it reports ECDHE-ECDSA which is what I wanted. But I was also wondering if I could use Camellia with this.
RFC 4492 specifies the ECC extensions.
RFC 5932 - specifies the Camellia Cipher Suites for TLS
but I ca... |
I'm trying to MiTM a device on my network and having some problems.
SSLstrip doesn't work because the URL is https://, and I can't use something like Fiddler because the device has no configurable proxy settings for me to direct traffic with.
What other attack vectors do I have?
|
I want to do inter process communication between Firefox (via extension) and my application. Both reside in "Program files" (of windows 7 OS). I also assume that malware is running in the system and have user level privilege (and not admin level).
Can I rely on windows security to make sure that Firefox or my applicat... |
I'm trying to setup OpenVPN with as much security as I can. I'm in the process of selecting a cipher for OpenVPN. Which is the safest one, tls-cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA or tls-cipher AES256-SHA?
I've already configured it with these settings:
HMAC: SHA512 for auth option
DH: 2048 bit
cipher: AES-256-CFB
And password ... |
I recently came upon a program called Sonar power saving that uses speakers and microphone to put the computer in power saving mode as long as you move away from the screen.
http://stevetarzia.com/sonar/
This provides some sort of security level for the casual colleague who wants to get a look in your computer when yo... |
Since it's been requested that this question be rewritten:
Is SSL (or some other encryption equivalent) required in the below case? From a small local business website, is there any damage that an attacker can do with semi-sensitive customer information (e.g. the list of items below)?
Original:
I've started working on ... |
I currently have a simple backbone.js application served from my domain (example.com), which is provided an Oauth token. Specifically, I pass the Oauth token through my page template into the constructor arguments of my javascript class (Backbone model). The backbone.js application (running in browser) then uses the Oa... |
I am trying to understand how md5 authentication works between this 2 cisco routers. The password is cisco in both routers. In the output in the field Auth Data: the hash is different in every packet. Is this the result of a salt? Whats the reason of the field auth crypto sequence number? Does each router has a counter... |
When I look at my sendmail logs, by far the most common "error" I see is the following:
Nov 22 16:49:50 MyHostname sendmail[18832]: rAMMnj2u018832: [IP address redacted to hide the guilty] did not issue MAIL/EXPN/VRFY/ETRN during connection to MTA
This is not coming from poorly configured MUA's inside my small network.... |
I have a app which transmit the password in clear text. I was planning to use the hash of the password (SHA-512) as the key for encrypting the plain text password. Then send the encrypted text to the server.
the password length is minimum 12 chars (including special characters) and max 20 chars.
Is this is bad mechanis... |
If I set a rate limit (e.g. -T1) on an nmap scan that uses decoys, does the rate limit apply to all probes, or just each individual source? I checked the documentation, but can't see anything specific. I'm primarily concerned about this from a stealth scanning perspective.
|
I have security concerns over a web based application. I want to limit access to the application only to a whitelisted IP addresses. Here are my thoughts on that:
To host the application myself.
The application is only required to be accessible during office hours (8am - 4pm). I'll use an internet router to put it onli... |
The site is to be hosted on a shared internet server, to store non-commercial data and it will be clearly labelled as not for sensitive information.
I wish to offer a credible solution to the risks of any server admin simply being able to read the plain text fields in the database directly or via a backup and similarly... |
I have created my own X509 certificate with my own CA. I am able to import the CA certificate into Firefox, but when I try to import the user's certificates I get the following:
Could not verify this certificate for unknown reasons
I'm guessing I did something wrong while creating the certificates. Is there any way t... |
I was browsing this page, which redirected me to this vulnerability because I'm a Java developer and I'm aware of the affected library.
Basically the vulnerability says:
It was discovered that Apache Commons FileUpload incorrectly handled
file names with NULL bytes in serialized instances. An attacker could
use th... |
I send my gmail emails from thunderbird (on Ubuntu machine). I am wondering whether thunderbird sends out the IP? If so, how can I hide my IP from the outgoing emails?
|
Can someone explain what the Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange algorithm in plain English? I have read that Twitter has implemented this technology which allows two parties to exchange encrypted messages on top of a non-secured channel. How does that work?
|
I am a rookie hacker studying android vulnerabilities. My partner and I are studying "CVE-2010-1119".
Unfortunately there does not appear to be enough information online. Could anyone please help me describe the principle of the vulnerability, ideally in a similar way to how this has been explained?
|
There is an option under Tools>options>Advanced>Security Devices. How to use that to encrypt and digitally signed your emails.
|
Are there any know security flaws/hacks to gain access to the private storage(file system or SQLite database) of Android and iOS applications?
What measures do Google and Apple take to "prevent" these kinds of attacks, or is it up to the developer of the application to take care of that?
Update Are these file systems/... |
My understanding of how it works :
A victim asks for the public key of a server.
The attacker just forwards this request.
The server now responds with a certificate which contains the Public key.
The attacker modifies this to its own public key and sends it to the victim.
Something happens now that I don't understand:
... |
I am well aware of the fact that physical insecurity in principle means no security. But let´s say I own a root server with full disk encryption which is unlocked/booted via dropbear ssh. In which ways can an attacker with physical access (e.g. the hosting provider) gain access to my data and what countermeasures can I... |
I use Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit and IE11. I have two personal certificates (with private key) of mine in the system certificate store. They are both set to require a password before they can be used.
This worked until a few days ago. Then I noticed that one of them is accessible without a password. How could that happen?
... |
Below is the SSLScan output, what does it mean with SSL Cerficate Version 2?
Aren't SSLv3 and SSL Certificate Version 2 the same?
=======================================================================
Prefered Server Cipher(s):
SSLv3 256 bits AES256-SHA
TLSv1 256 bits AES256-SHA
SSL Certificate:
Version: 2
Seria... |
I have an SQL 2000 database server which is not supported by Microsoft anymore. We have our information security policy applied and even PCI requirements.
What are the security risks that we might face in this case?
I could think of one example : Vulnerabilities. Can we fix any new discovered vulnerabilities if found... |
Why don’t SMTP servers just require all senders to be
authenticated before accepting mail?
|
I've recently discovered a backdoor shell that was created via file injection on a public facing website. After much digging, I found the creation date of this file to be around the same time pentesting was done by others in the department. Most of this was done by persons not completely experienced with pentesting, ... |
How can I download and install software and make sure that it is not infected with viruses, malware or a keylogger?
Also, I heard that Macs "don't get viruses". Is this true? Is it a good practice to run virus software on a Mac?
|
Problem: Hydra keeps giving me incorrect passwords every time.
I'm using brute-force via Hydra to guess the correct password on a certain website.
First of all I used BurpSuite to intercept the page request:
POST /abcdefg/ HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:2000
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:22.0) Gecko/20100101 ... |
hi I have a static ip and someone is hacking my computer trought it I tried to format my computer and making a clean install but he keeps penetrating it this time i tried to install the AV before pluging my computer to the internet but since it requires updates I asume he can use some exploits to bypass its firewall I ... |
I'm at work and having some issues here, so I found a lot of suspicious files involving the Flash, so I though that could be a keylogger. How do I find out if it is, and if truly is, what do I do to remove it? I'm worried about my security, since I'm a public agent.
|
atm I'm facing a problem with IE and Firefox because they don't redirect my Links correctly.
I'm requesting my application via:
https://myapp.example.de/context
In my webapplication I have links like that:
http://myapp.example.de:443/context/sublink
When I try to navigate to this link I get the following error
in ... |
When i use method Get and intercept the request with any proxy tool. then Cross site scripting because of absence of server side validations.
But in case of post method, as we know data flows in the body of the request and when i intercept any body parameter with the script, then again XSS executes.
I want to know do... |
I asked two pen testers what exactly it is that they do.
One of them has told me that all he ever does is try to find exploits in the software in order to gain access to internal servers and nothing more.
The other said that it is trying to find a hole in policies/social engineer the company in order to gain access to ... |
I am a tech lead developing web (Java/JEE) and mobile applications (Android) for the past 12 years (mobile in last year though). I am somehow interested in IT security.
Is it worth taking CISSP or CISA certification and enter into Security stream? Is it a common practice to move from programming/solution architecture t... |
In ASP.NET MVC, when I perform a HTTP post to /controller/action/UserID ...
and have a corresponding route /controller/action/{UserID} ...
and if I do a Form POST, the POSTed data UserID overwrites anything that the route was originally says. (at least it does in ASP.NET MVC4)
To me this says a few things:
Don't tr... |
I just came across this:
https://onlycoin.com/
A credit-card sized device that not only holds the info for as many credit and debit and membership cards as you want (they claim) but also can be swiped just like whichever credit card you select on its interface.
The convenience is obvious, but are there any reasons... |
I am new to iOS so I do have only limited knowledge about iOS in general. For self learning purposes, I would like to know several things as I am quite confused after searching the web.
I do know that that there is a sandbox for each iphone app. So what I would like to understand is comparing a jailbroken and non jailb... |
We are looking to allow users to log on with a smart card. The smart card reader can read the smart card ID and send it to us.
We are, however, not allowed to store the smart card ID. Not in plaintext, not in a reversible encoding. An irreversible hashing is allowed.
Then again, we need to make sure that each ID hashes... |
IS there a way to stop getting spam that is from my name but not my e mail address I am receiving many spam letters using my name but different e mail addresses.
|
Are there any standards which consider safe destroying of VOIP phones? I would like to prevent eventual data leakage after devices which have left the company.
|
I've heard that not using https is dangerous because of man-in-the-middle attacks.
Now, if I connect to a server from my home computer, I assume traffic passes through my ISP, so they could eavesdrop if they are malicious.
But how can a random IP address "order" my traffic to go through their IP so they can scan it, as... |
In case of no TLS/SSL available, why can't I use the hash of the password (SHA512) as the key to encrypt the password (with out any salt) to send through the network ?
MITM attacks I can understand, but what are the other possible attacks ?
|
Are there any reliable resources for finding whether or not a Metasploit exploit exists for a given CVE?
I have found CVE Details to be woefully out of date with regards to keeping this information up to date.
|
I hope that I have found the correct place to ask my question regarding unzipping files.
I would like to see if there is a way to restrict the locations available to the user to unzip a password protected zip file in order to ensure security of the contents of that file.
I believe this is useful for security if there i... |
Usually I use my root account when working with my Linux server, however, I created a user account which I use far less frequently. However, I would like to use it for a task today, but I forgot the password since I rarely use the user account. I know the password is encrypted and stored in /etc/shadow, and I would lik... |
It would seem like ICMP timestamping is quite a useful feature for troubleshooting networks with asymmetric paths.
Replies to icmp(4) timestamp requests are generated by the kernel:
On OpenBSD, the feature is controlled by sysctl net.inet.icmp.tstamprepl, which is enabled by default.
FreeBSD even has no option to di... |
I've just started receiving several emails per second and I think it's likely someone is trying to exploit my contact form. I've taken steps to protect my site, I'm just curious what it is they're trying to do.
Some examples:
..À¯
sample%40email.tst and sleep(7.738)
acunetix_wvs_invalid_filename
\";cat /etc/passwd;\"... |
I have a token that I want to use to prevent direct access of some php-files.
Some of these php-files are loaded via AJAX.
The token is used with a session to secure form submission AND to prevent direct access of the php-files.
Here's a diagram that I made to explain it a little bit better:
What is more secure? Versi... |
I found this string on a forum
HVrUyitih"fZnvWxbsQXrk6a61oxEWU0TvcagVKz1RvRTBbqpmuJ6zNWp5a5
ZO_ggA1ov6exdUTNREr"A5NthZt97Im60kBHn0sXUhwfN33ce5VvRfUItQyg
yH4EeQx"pIH5I6oaaYT3"IPn4lm_EuxfWN5xoOQRdaqttqvvC4c
together with these instructions on how it was encrypted.
ATOM-128 --> FERON-74 --> MEGAN-35 --> REVERSE --> RC4(O... |
I'm learning about buffer overflows and have this vulnerable code which I'm trying to start a shell from:
#include <string.h>
void myfunction(char *arg);
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
myfunction(argv[1]);
return 0;
}
void myfunction(char *arg)
{
char stuff[8];
strcpy(stuff, arg);
}
I used gdb... |
I got discussing this topic with someone recently and we couldn't reach a consensus so I thought I should ask here. There are commonly thrown around figures regarding the cost of buying a remotely-executable 0-day for IOS, Android, Windows etc.
I've seen figures go up to $250,000 USD from companies like Vupen, however... |
I just experienced a crash on my laptop.
I was surfing the internet and all of a sudden everything crashed and a small blue screen (centred on the screen) popped up and was counting down. I didn't have a chance to get a photo.
It rebooted and upon restarting and logging in, a "windows" window popped up describing the u... |
It's been established that, thanks to our good friend Mr. Wear Leveler, wiping data from an SSD is very difficult. I understand that the one thing you don't want to do is actually attempt to shred files or zero out the drive.
However, what if I wrote some simple program code to get the amount of free space left on an ... |
I am presented with SSH log from a SSH server and the said SSH server only accepts connection from 2 known public IPs over WAN.
The content of the log shows that a user was successfully authenticated. However, that user authenticated from an unknown public IP. Here is an excerpt of the log.
Nov 23 06:32:46 SSHSrv-SFTP... |
So, this big, reknown company (you all heard off) is sending md5 encrypted strings (with GET key: password) over HTTP.
I accidentally came over it since I wanted to use jnlp on a non-windows machine. And I am curious. Is it by definition insecure to work like this, or can it be safe when one uses SALT and other stuff ... |
I'm working on a penetration testing tool, and I have error-based sql injection pretty much covered, but I was wondering, is it possible to use timeouts, along with built in sql commands to detect an issue? In the application DVWA, I attempted the query
' OR 1=1; WAITFOR DELAY '00:00:05';#
in the sql injection box, an... |
I am setting up my own PKI, and I came across a question to which I couldn't find an answer.
I want to specify CRLDistributionPoints in my server certificates but I am curious whether to use the same URL as I did for the CA or use a separate one for every server certificate. What is "best practice"/reasonable? I don't... |
I am now learning keyed hash function, where A and B share a secret key k. I want to know if the ordering of encryption E and hashing H matters? i.e. Is there any difference between H ◦ Ek (m) and Ek ◦ H (m) ?
|
I am writing an application in Google APP Engine java which authenticate the user by its certificate. I have created a self signed certificate using keytool at client side. I also enable the HTTPS request in google app engine for my application. The flow of application is every simple.
When the user visits the homepage... |
I am curious of what all the security implications are if I set the following two HTTP response CORS headers;
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials: false
The only security issues I see are DoS attacks and CSRF attacks.
CSRF attacks can already be achieved with IMG and FORM elements.
DoS atta... |
The TLSSLed tool found that the host that I use has SSL connection that accepts 8 different TLSv1 and SSLv3 ciphers that are weak by their length (40 bits).
How can an attacker exploit this fact?
|
I have network traffic details, which consist of client IPs accessing a web server. Alongwith that I have the session ids through which the client IPs access the web server. In the session details I have the objects which the client IPs access through the sessions.(objects combine to make a web page,for example there a... |
I'm developing own protocol for secure message exchanging.
Each message contains the following fields: HMAC, time, salt, and message itself. HMAC is computed over all other fields using known secret key.
Protocol should protect against reply attack. On large time interval "time" record protects against replay attack (b... |
Today I was trying to uninstall some application and I was very surprised to see this entry in my applications list
Then I try to find what is this and I finally found it in "Program Files". After I opened the application and explored it a little bit I found this window
The email address you see is my spouse's email ... |
In this document on Security on NSC computing resources, there are several obvious pieces of advice (use a strong password, don't repeat passwords, etc.). One piece of advice I have not seen before, namely:
To login to a system and then continue from that system to a third (as illustrated below) should be avoided.
... |
I run a small e-commerce website hosted on a dedicated server with Debian 6 Squeeze.
I need to become PCI compliant (the card industry standard for security).
Therefore I have registered with TrustWave TrustKeeper which scans my site for potential security vulnerabilities.
The scan reported plenty of vulnerabilities an... |
I'm using a form-token to secure the validation process of my php-file.
Basically the structure of the php-file looks like this:
if ($_POST) {//form has been submitted?
if (validateFormToken) {
//process form-data
}
} else {
//display form and generate token
include 'includes/forms/form.php';... |
I'm doing a bit of research on my level of PCI compliance, and I'm having a difficult time grasping where I'm supposed to be.
I have a web service that has recurring billing. The site is created using PHP and Drupal. I accept and transmit credit card information through a form, and submit it via TLS encrypted POST to... |
Many websites offer the option to log in with your existing Google or Facebook account (among others). For a long time I've resisted doing this because I use a password manager and I figured it was more secure to create a separate account for each website with a strong, pseudorandom password. The browser integration ... |
Okay, so I am in a university class where we are using a server. Each student in the class has access to the server. We all share it. I can see their files and open them, and they likewise can see mine.
However, the other day I was telling my teacher that me and a friend were poking around on the server and trying t... |
I am using sqlmap for finding out sql-injection threat on our application.
http://myurl.net/question/teaching/answer/sujan-justice?as=Course
and i tried to perform the following:
sqlmap.py -u "http://myurl.net/question/teaching/answer/sujan-justice?as=Course" --dbms=mysql --level=5
Here is the Console :
[11:35:4... |
Whenever we see a 403 forbidden access error page we think we have got to a place where some secret or private data is present. Now at this point bad guys know that this might be of interest and start to see if they can do something to get access to this secret data.
So is it good to show this error or just redirect to... |
So here's the situation: I have a Skydrive folder that is shared with all of my colleagues at work. For added security we would like to encrypt our Skydrives with TrueCrypt. But what will happen when I upload or change a file in Skydrive? Will my colleagues, that use a different password, be able to view and edit this ... |
I thought I would learn a little bit of cryptography programming by making myself a simple password manager program that I can potentially even use to keep track of my passwords. The idea is that my program would keep a list of passwords in encrypted form and names of the services the passwords are used for. Then I cou... |
I have a simple question.
Is a web browser sends client certificate to the web server on demand(means web server is configured for client authentication and demand the client certificate) or just send all of the certificates that web browser has. If a web server send client certificate on server demand then how a web b... |
I recently looked into SQRL and was intrigued by its simplicity.
At first glance it seemed reliable and its author claimed it was inherently fail-proof against phishing and MITM attacks.
But upon further reading at this stack exchange discussion I saw a comment (the 2nd reply by tylerl) that claimed it was highly susc... |
After reading about language based security, it seems protocols that are defined using context-free or regular grammars are highly resistant to code injection attacks.
Are there any good security protocols that are context-free or regular ?
|
How can I connect to a HTTPS website using a specific SSL cipher, and view the output?
This would be useful when doing a vulnerability analysis and weeding out false positives, such as when a device advertises it supports a weak cipher but displays a page informing that a strong cipher must be used.
|
Is it possible for a attacker to spoof the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header?
Or, is it secure enough to protect resource access via the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header?
I'm trying to make an API key useless on certain domains, like the linked in JS API.
|
It seems to me that a useful alternative or supplement to traditional port-knocking, fwknop, etc, for a system requiring only occasional access, would be to:
Set up a one-time pad of keys, and a pre-shared key.
Store a copy of that pad and that pre-shared key on the server to be protected, and keep another copy of eac... |
We have an application to save our customers data (some kind of CRM). This application has been written in Delphi and is a client/server application. This program apparently is sending out information to Internet but we are not entirely sure. The person who wrote it is not reachable anymore.
On the data server we have... |
I saw this function slowEquals() while reading Salted Password Hashing - Doing it Right, which uses a byte-level xor comparison to avoid timing attacks. I was wondering whether this is what Bcrypt also does to avoid timing attacks. I use Openwall PHPass which has its own CheckPassword() method which doesn’t seem to xor... |
I am trying to ensure that all certificates in a chain for a host have a key length of 2048 bits. Using openssl s_client, only the key length for that host's cert is given, is there a simple way to list the key length for all from the command-line, or is it necessary to download all the certs and check manually?
|
I have a server which has an internal IP (Used to access from local) and an external IP (accessed from Internet and placed in the load balancer). And both will use the same URL https://www.abcdXX.XX.com.
I have a common SSL certificate here.
Should I bind the same certificate to both the IPs in the port 443? in the ... |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.