Kirkian Computing

Tag: security

  • Palo Alto Networks Certified Cybersecurity Associate (PCCSA)

    Palo Alto Networks make security products. In particular, they sell firewalls (physical and virtual), and their Panorama software will let you manage multiple firewalls centrally (e.g. for branch offices). Their certification program has 3 tiers:

    • Entry level
    • Administrator
    • Engineer

    Palo Alto Networks offer free training for all of these, although you have to pay for the exam. Even if you don’t do the exam, the training might be worthwhile on its own merits.

    In December 2019, I took the entry level exam. At the time, that was the Palo Alto Networks Certified Cybersecurity Associate (PCCSA). However, that exam is being retired at the end of this month (2021-01-31), to be replaced by the Palo Alto Networks Certified Cybersecurity Entry-level Technician (PCCET). This is basically a rebranding exercise; I assume that it was confusing to have “Associate” (PCCSA) and “Administrator” (PCNSA) certifications which both ended with an A. According to the FAQ: “PCCSA certified individuals will have their credentialing status grandfathered into the upgraded PCCET certification framework.” The syllabus has been revised at the same time, to keep it up to date, but it looks much the same as before.

    In brief, this exam is “what” rather than “how”, i.e. it’s all about the concepts rather than the implementation. In that respect, it’s quite similar to Microsoft 365 Fundamentals, and both exams are a similar price ($100/£70). When I did the training, the videos were about 50% advertising for Palo Alto Networks products; the pdf (ebook) was a bit more restrained, but there was still quite a bit of marketing/advocacy in there. E.g. the course will describe what WildFire and GlobalProtect are used for, but not how to configure them. By contrast, the exam was much more general, so there was a lot of overlap between this, Security+, and the SSCP.

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  • Offensive Security Wireless Professional (OSWP)

    In April 2019, I took the Offensive Security Wireless Attacks (WiFu) course and the OSWP exam. (Along with PenTest+ and Microsoft 365 Fundamentials, this was my third exam in a month!)
    NB This course was later rebranded as PEN-210, but this blog post refers to the older course.

    In brief, I enjoyed this. I thought the content was interesting, and the exam was actually fun (similar to an escape room). However, the course material was written in 2014 and it could do with an overhaul; Offensive Security updated the OSCP in Feb 2020, so hopefully they will do the same for the OSWP at some point.

    In particular, the course objectives include these:

    • The student will learn to implement attacks against WEP encrypted networks.
    • The student will learn to implement attacks against WPA encrypted networks.
    • The student will learn alternate WEP and WPA cracking techniques.

    So, is this course/certification still relevant? How many people are actually using WEP/WPA rather than WPA2 (or open networks that don’t need cracking)? WiGLE (Wireless Geographic Logging Engine) has some stats on this. Here’s a snapshot from 2020-06-07:

    In particular:

    • 5.26% on WEP
    • 5.01% on WPA

    So, that’s about 10% of wireless networks. Based on that, I can see the skills being useful. However, when I scanned my local (residential) neighbourhood, I couldn’t find any WEP/WPA networks. Any new router from an ISP should come pre-configured with WPA2, and it’s been that way for several years now. I also wonder how up to date those stats are, i.e. whether the WEP networks still exist.

    The good news (as a pen tester) is that the same attacks will work on WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK. According to WiGLE’s stats, 67.5% of networks use WPA2, although unfortunately they don’t show a breakdown of Personal vs. Enterprise. If you’re using WPA2-Enterprise (802.1X authentication) then you’re safe against these attacks. However, in my anecdotal experience there are a lot of WPA2-PSK networks out there.

    So, that’s a roundabout way of saying that yes, this exam is still relevant.

    If you run a wireless network (at home or at work), how worried should you be? Before I did this course, I’d already heard that WEP is essentially worthless; now that I’ve experienced this from the attacker’s perspective, I can confirm that’s true. WPA2-PSK can be cracked, but it relies on a dictionary attack; if you’ve got a random passphrase then you’re pretty safe, e.g.
    ~*TJ8H|^u@<)Fk05Uq}t;5?N\v(bv<4s-nT`H””yA$(ha.bEP”+jEg)”&y({Fr

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  • PenTest+ (PT0-001)

    In April 2019, I took CompTIA’s PenTest+ exam. Along with CySA+, this bridges the gap between Security+ and CASP. As the name suggests, it’s all about penetration testing.

    This is a relatively new exam, and it’s still on the first release (PT0-001). Because of that, it’s not very well known, so I haven’t seen any job adverts asking for it. Personally, I took the Security+ exam in November 2016, so that was due to expire in November 2019 (along with the A+ and Network+). Doing this exam was a good way to renew all of my existing CompTIA certifications, while learning some new skills, so I don’t regret it. However, I mainly see it as a stepping stone towards a more useful certification.

    Pen testing exams generally fall into two categories: theory and practical. Like the other CompTIA exams, PenTest+ is (primarily) multiple choice. This has the advantage that it can be graded automatically by the testing software. However, it also has the downside that it’s less realistic, because it’s more fragmented. It’s entirely possible to pass this exam without ever actually doing a penetration test, which makes the certification less valuable to employers.

    As an analogy, think of a driving test. Normally, you would drive around the area for a while to demonstrate your general ability, then the examiner would ask you to perform a few manoeuvres (e.g. parallel parking). Imagine instead that the examiner drove you to a suitable location, then you swapped seats so that you could do a manoeuvre, then you swapped seats again so that they could drive you to the next location. PenTest+ feels a bit like this, e.g. they might ask you how you would set up a reverse shell but you won’t need to choose when to do that.

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  • SSCP

    In September 2018, I took the (ISC)2 SSCP exam (Systems Security Certified Practitioner). This was a bit different from any of the previous exams I’ve taken: normally I would sit the exam(s), then get a qualification if I passed. In this case, the exam is only one component: you also need to be endorsed by an (ISC)2 member who will vouch for you having suitable experience.

    The name (ISC)2 is (or was) an abbreviation for International Information System Security Certification Consortium. If you think of a mathematical formula, (ISC)2 = IISSCC. They also offer the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), which is aimed at higher level strategic roles and probably better known; that’s the type of certification that a CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) might have. By contrast, the SSCP is aimed at tactical (hands on) roles, and that interests me more than the management side of things.

    The SSCP and CISSP both have a CBK (Common Body of Knowledge), spread across multiple domains (topics). Passing the SSCP or CISSP exam will qualify you to become an Associate of (ISC)2. However, to actually get the SSCP certification you need to have 1 year’s experience in at least 1 of the 7 domains. For the CISSP you need to have 5 years’ experience in at least 2 of the 8 domains.

    So, if you’re trying to move from a general role (e.g. service desk) into a security role, this implies that you wouldn’t be eligible for either. However, if you have a relevant degree in a cybersecurity program then the ISC2 will accept that in lieu of a year’s experience for the SSCP.

    In 2018, I was very enthusiastic about getting a more prestigious certification, and I thought that this would really open doors for me. However, reviewing it in 2020, I don’t think it’s really helped my career at all, and I don’t recall seeing any job adverts that mentioned the SSCP. Prices have also risen, so I don’t know whether I’ll maintain it long-term, and right now I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else; my advice is to do the Security+ instead.

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  • Security+ (SY0-401)

    In November 2016, I took CompTIA’s Security+ exam.
    NB I did the SY0-401 syllabus; CompTIA replaced it with SY0-501 in October 2017, so some of the info in this blog post will now be a bit out of date.

    In brief, I think that this is a worthwhile certification. It emphasises breadth rather than depth, so if you want to specialise in IT security then it’s really just a starting point. However, if you’re doing general IT work then it covers a lot of topics that it’s useful for you to know. Similarly, from an employer’s point of view, someone with this certification should have a decent overview of security concepts.

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  • Sextortion

    For the last couple of years (since July 2018), I’ve been receiving “sextortion” emails. There a few variations, but the basic gist is always the same:
    “I’ve hacked your webcam and filmed you masturbating, now pay me money or I’ll send the video to everyone you know.”
    They often include my password, in an attempt to prove that they’ve got access to my computer.

    The ransom amount also varies, but they always ask for it to be paid in Bitcoin. The cheapest was €500, and the most expensive was $7,000.

    First things first: this is an empty threat. I’ve received thousands of these emails, but I’ve never replied to the sender or paid any money, and there have been zero consequences. In fact, I don’t believe that the alleged video or malware actually exists at all. However, there are a few things you can do to protect yourself.

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  • Active Directory lockouts

    A lot of organisations set up security policies so that users will be locked out if they enter the wrong password too many times. The idea is to prevent brute force attacks, where an attacker could sit there all day running through the dictionary until they guess the correct password. The downside is that this can lead to Denial of Service attacks, i.e. someone could deliberately enter the wrong password in order to stop other people from logging in. A better solution is to have a throttle, e.g. if you enter the wrong password then you have to wait 30 seconds until your next attempt. That would slow down an attacker without being a major inconvenience to legitimate users. Unfortunately, Windows domain controllers don’t support this natively, and I haven’t come across any third party software that does the same thing.

    Leaving aside deliberate attacks, sometimes this can happen by accident. A common cause is that someone changes their password, but their mobile device still has the old password (to access email), and it automatically makes enough attempts to lock the account. There are some other common causes linked to a recent password change, e.g. if there is a scheduled task or a service running under a user’s account, or if they have mapped drives or cached credentials for websites.

    A while back, I came across a case that was a bit more interesting. The root cause turned out to be a mismatch in authentication protocols, so the error messages were misleading: there was never actually an incorrect password! Read on for the technical details.

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  • Installing dd-wrt on a Linksys WRT320N wireless router

    Back in 2011 I switched ISPs to A&A, primarily because they support native IPv6. Incidentally, 3 years on I see that you still can’t get IPv6 from Zen, so I made the right choice by switching.

    Windows has had IPv6 support included by default since 2006 (i.e. Vista onwards), so the missing piece of the puzzle was my wireless router (a Linksys WRT320N). Unfortunately, the built-in firmware doesn’t support IPv6. (Source: Linksys devices that support IPv6.)

    So, I investigated open source alternatives. There are a few different firmware projects out there, which all seem to be based on Linux. According to the OpenWRT wiki, it isn’t supported on the WRT320N. However, the WRT320N is listed in the dd-wrt router database, so I chose that instead. JP Hellemons wrote about this in 2010 (How I upgraded my Linksys WRT320N to DD-WRT v24); he also checked Tomato and HyperWRT, and neither of those were compatible. However, apparently the NoUSB edition of Tomato USB does support the WRT320N.

    Update (2019-03-15): OpenWRT does now claim to support the WRT320N, although they don’t recommend it. Meanwhile, the Tomato USB website is now inactive, because the developer has ceased work on that distribution.

    Just to forewarn anyone else who’s in a similar position, this isn’t a simple process. Here’s a good (valid) rant about how complex it is. I heard a good phrase a while ago: “Open source software is only free if your time is worthless.” I.e. if you assume that your time is valuable, consider how long it will take you to get a system working. Is it worth paying money to save yourself some time? For instance, in this case I could replace my router with a different model that has IPv6 support built in. (You will still need to invest some time in learning any system, but maybe you could reduce that from a day to an hour.)

    In brief, I (eventually) got the router working fine with dd-wrt over IPv4. IPv6 took a bit longer; I’ve elaborated on that in another post (Native IPv6 in dd-wrt).

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  • Scareware and Spamhaus

    Scareware is normally just a minor nuisance, assuming that you know how to get rid of it without paying any money. However, I’ve now come across a new wrinkle: it can get you blacklisted, so that you can’t send email.

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  • Protecting passwords

    When I created accounts with Facebook and LinkedIn, both websites asked me for my email password to help me find people I know. The idea is that they can log into my email account, go through my address book, then search their own database for people with matching email addresses. That would certainly be convenient, and save me some time, but I think it’s a very bad idea.

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