Best Book Bejtlich Read in 2009

It's the end of the year, which means it's time to name the winner of the Best Book Bejtlich Read award for 2009! Although I've been reading and reviewing digital security books seriously since 2000, this is only the fourth time I've formally announced a winner; see 2008, 2007, and 2006.2009 was a slow year, due to a general lack of long-haul air travel (where I might read a whole book on one leg) and the general bleed-over from my day work into...

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Every Software Vendor Must Read and Heed

Matt Olney and I spoke about the role of a Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) at my SANS Incident Detection Summit this month. I asked if he would share his thoughts on how software vendors should handle vulnerability discovery in their software products. I am really pleased to report that Matt wrote a thorough, public blog post titled Matt's Guide to Vendor Response. Every software vendor must read and heed this post. "Software...

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Difference Between Bejtlich Class and SANS Class

A comment on my last post, Reminder: Bejtlich Teaching at Black Hat DC 2010, a reader asked:I am trying to get my company sponsorship for your class at Black Hat. However, I was ask to justify between your class and SANS 503, Intrusion Detection In-Depth. Would you be able to provide some advice?That's a good question, but it's easy enough to answer. The overall point to keep in mind is that TCP/IP Weapons School 2.0 is a new class, and when I...

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Reminder: Bejtlich Teaching at Black Hat DC 2010

Black Hat was kind enough to invite me back to teach multiple sessions of my 2-day course this year. First up is Black Hat DC 2010 Training on 31 January and 01 February 2010 at Grand Hyatt Crystal City in Arlington, VA. I will be teaching TCP/IP Weapons School 2.0. Registration is now open. Black Hat set five price points and deadlines for registration, but only these three are left.Regular ends 15 JanLate ends 30 JanOnsite starts at the conferenceSeats...

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Favorite Speaker Quotes from SANS Incident Detection Summit

Taking another look at my notes, I found a bunch of quotes from speakers that I thought you might like to hear. "If you think you're not using a MSSP, you already are. It's called anti-virus." Can anyone claim that, from the CIRTs and MSSPs panel?Seth Hall said "Bro is a programming language with a -i switch to sniff traffic."Seth Hall said "You're going to lose." Matt Olney agreed and expanded on that by saying "Hopefully you're going to lose...

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Notes from Tony Sager Keynote at SANS

I took a few notes at the SANS Incident Detection Summit keynote by Tony Sager last week. I thought you might like to see what I recorded. All of the speakers made many interesting comments, but it was really only during the start of the second day, when Tony spoke, when I had time to write down some insights. If you're not familiar with Tony, he is chief of the Vulnerability Analysis and Operations (VAO) Group in NSA.These days, the US goes to...

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Security as Interdepartmental conflict...

I received this message in my hotmail this morning:Why does Microsoft get dinged for this type of presentation? Why does it happen? On a small scale it was probably because the hotmail Calendar team wasn't talking with the hotmail Security team.  But that doesn't answer much.  Computer security is still, in almost all industries and architectures, and "add-in".  It is overlaid on top of existing products and architectures.  The...

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Keeping FreeBSD Up-to-Date in BSD Magazine

Keep your eyes open for the latest printed BSD Magazine, with my article Keeping FreeBSD Up-To-Date: OS Essentials. This article is something like 18 pages long, because at the last minute the publishers had several authors withdraw articles. The publishers decided to print the extended version of my article, so it's far longer than I expected! We're currently editing the companion piece on keeping FreeBSD applications up-to-date. I expect to...

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Thanks for a Great Incident Detection Summit

We had a great SANS WhatWorks in Incident Detection Summit 2009 this week! About 100 people attended. I'd like to thank those who joined the event as attendees; those who participated as keynotes (great work Ron Gula and Tony Sager), guest moderators (Rocky DeStefano, Mike Cloppert, and Stephen Windsor), speakers, and panelists; Debbie Grewe and Carol Calhoun from SANS for their excellent logistics and planning, along with our facilitators, sound...

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Troubleshooting FreeBSD Wireless Problem

My main personal workstation is a Thinkpad x60s. As I wrote in Triple-Boot Thinkpad x60s, I have Windows XP, Ubuntu Linux, and FreeBSD installed. However, I rarely use the FreeBSD side. I haven't run FreeBSD on the desktop for several years, but I like to keep FreeBSD on the laptop in case I encounter a situation on the road where I know how to solve a problem with FreeBSD but not Windows or Linux. (Yes I know about [insert favorite VM product...

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Cell Tracking

This is the link to an absolutely extraordinary post  on privacy by Christopher Soghoian:http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2009/12/8-million-reasons-for-real-surveillance.html . Mr. Soghoian's post describes the evolution of "Cell Tracking", an issue the EFF has discussed for a number of years at http://www.eff.org/issues/cell-tracking. An exceptional video on current status of the law  for "cell tracking"  and "mobility tracking" can be found here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFo2VcfWCBQ&feature=channel/The information reminds...

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Let a Hundred Flowers Blossom

I know many of us work in large, diverse organizations. The larger or more complex the organization, the more difficult it is to enforce uniform security countermeasures. The larger the population to be "secure," the more likely exceptions will bloom. Any standard tends to devolve to the least common denominator. There are some exceptions, such as FDCC, but I do not know how widespread that standard configuration is inside the government. Beyond...

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"The specified uptodateness vector is corrupt."

I haven't posted in awhile.  Time to get back into the swing of things with a little pre-Christmas Season silliness.  Occasionally, the practice of network security makes us all a little goofy. Seemingly random pursuits overtake us. Silly thoughts fill our console. Perhaps this is a result of low light in the northern latitudes this time of year...In any event, should use wish to query all of the messages available in the "net helpmsg" file on Windows Vista, you can run a command like this:for /l %i in (1,1,16000) do @( echo %i &&...

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Real Security Is Threat-Centric

Apparently there's been a wave of house burglaries in a nearby town during the last month. As you might expect, local residents responded by replacing windows with steel panels, front doors with vault entrances, floors with pressure-sensitive plates, and whatever else "security vendors" recommended. Town policymakers created new laws to mandate locking doors, enabling alarm systems, and creating scorecards for compliance. Home builders decided...

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Celebrate FreeBSD 8.0 Release with Donation

With the announcement of FreeBSD 8.0, it seems like a good time to donate to the FreeBSD Foundation, a US 501(c)3 charity. The Foundation funds and manages projects, sponsors FreeBSD events, Developer Summits and provides travel grants to FreeBSD developers. It also provides and helps maintain computers and equipment that support FreeBSD development and improvements. I just donated $100. Will anyone match me? Thank y...

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Historical Video on AFCERT circa 2000

I just uploaded a video that some readers might find entertaining. This video shows the United States Air Force Computer Emergency Response Team (AFCERT) in 2000. Kelly AFB, Security Hill, and Air Intelligence Agency appear. The colonel who leads the camera crew into room 215 is James Massaro, then commander of the Air Force Information Warfare Center. The old Web-based interface to the Automated Security Incident Measurement (ASIM) sensor is shown,...

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Tort Law on Negligence

If any lawyers want to contribute to this, please do. In my post Shodan: Another Step Towards Intrusion as a Service, some comments claim "negligence" as a reason why intruders aren't really to blame. I thought I would share this case from Tort Law, page 63:In Stansbie v Troman [1948] 2 All ER 48 the claimant, a householder, employed the defendant, a painter. The claimant had to be absent from his house for a while and he left the defendant working...

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Review of Martin Libicki's Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar

Amazon.com just posted my three star review of Martin Libicki's Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar. I've reproduced the review in its entirety here because I believe it is important to spread the word to any policy maker who might read this blog or be directed here. I've emphasized a few points for readability.As background, I am a former Air Force captain who led the intrusion detection operation in the AFCERT before applying those same skills to private...

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Shodan: Another Step Towards Intrusion as a Service

If you haven't seen Shodan yet, you're probably not using Twitter as a means to stay current on security issues. Shoot, I don't even follow anyone and I heard about it. Basically a programmer named John Matherly scanned a huge swath of the Internet for certain TCP ports (80, 21, 23 at least) and published the results in a database with a nice Web front-end. This means you can put your mind in Google hacking mode, find vulnerable platforms, maybe...

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I'm Surprised That Your Kung Fu Is So Expert

This story is so awesome. Hacks of Chinese Temple Were Online Kung Fu, Abbot SaysA hacker who posted a fake message on the Web site of China's famous Shaolin Temple repenting for its commercial activities was just making a mean joke, the temple's abbot was cited as saying by Chinese state media Monday.That and previous attacks on the Web site were spoofs making fun of the temple, Buddhism and the abbot himself, Shi Yongxin was cited as telling the...

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Control "Monitoring" is Not Threat Monitoring

As I write this post I'm reminded of General Hayden's advice: "Cyber" is difficult to understand, so be charitable with those who don't understand it, as well as those who claim "expertise."It's important to remember that plenty of people are trying to act in a positive manner to defend important assets, so in that spirit I offer the following commentary.Thanks to John Bambanek's SANS post I read NIST Drafts Cybersecurity Guidance by InformationWeek's...

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Audio of Bejtlich Presentation on Network Security Monitoring

One of the presentations I delivered at the Information Security Summit last month discussed Network Security Monitoring. The Security Justice guys recorded audio of the presentation and posted it here as Network Security Monitoring and Incident Response. The audio file is InfoSec2009_RichardBejtlich.m...

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Traffic Talk 8 Posted

I just noticed that my 8th edition of Traffic Talk, titled How to use user-agent strings as a network monitoring tool, was posted this week. It's a simple concept that plenty of NSM practitioners implement, and I highly recommend ...

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Extending Security Event Correlation

Last year at this time I wrote a series of posts on security event correlation. I offered the following definition in the final post:Security event correlation is the process of applying criteria to data inputs, generally of a conditional ("if-then") nature, in order to generate actionable data outputs.Since then what I have found is that products and people still claim this as a goal, but for the most part achieving it remains elusive.Please also...

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Embedded Hardware and Software Pen Tester Positions in GE Smart Grid

I was asked to help locate two candidates for positions in the GE Smart Grid initiative. We're looking for an Embedded Hardware Penetration Tester (1080237) and an Embedded Firmware Penetration Tester (1080236). If interested, search for the indicated job numbers at ge.com/careers or go to the job site to get to the search function a little faster.I don't have any other information on these jobs, so please work through the job site. Thank you.Update...

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Reaction to 60 Minutes Story

I found the new 60 Minutes update on information warfare to be interesting. I fear that the debate over whether or not "hackers" disabled Brazil's electrical grid will overshadow the real issue presented in the story: advanced persistent threats are here, have been here, and will continue to be here. Some critics claim APT must be a bogey man invented by agencies arguing over how to gain greater control over the citizenry. Let's accept agencies...

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Notes from Talk by Michael Hayden

I had the distinct privilege to attend a keynote by retired Air Force General Michael Hayden, most recently CIA director and previously NSA director. NetWitness brought Gen Hayden to its user conference this week, so I was really pleased to attend that event. I worked for Gen Hayden when he was commander of Air Intelligence Agency in the 1990s; I served in the information warfare planning division at that time.Gen Hayden offered the audience four...

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Bejtlich on Security Justice Podcast

After I spoke at the Information Security Summit in Ohio last month, the guys at the Security Justice podcast interviewed me and Tyler Hudak.You can listen to the archive here. It was fairly loud in the room but you'd never know it listening to the audio. Great work guys.We discuss open source software, vulnerability research and disclosure, product security incident response teams (PSIRTs), input vs output metrics, insourcing vs outsourcing, and...

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DojoCon Videos Online

Props to Marcus Carey for live streaming talks from DojoCon. I appeared in my keynote, plus panels on incident response and cloud security. I thought the conference was excellent and many people posted their thoughts to #dojocon on Twitt...

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Tentative Speaker List for SANS Incident Detection Summit

Thanks to everyone who attended the Bejtlich and Bradley Webcast for SANS yesterday. We recorded that Webcast (audio is now available) to start a discussion concerning professional incident detection.I'm pleased to publish the following tentative speaker list for the SANS WhatWorks in Incident Detection Summit 2009 on 9-10 Dec in Washington, DC. We'll publish all of this information, plus the biographies for the speakers, on the agenda site,...

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Bejtlich and Bradley on SANS Webcast Monday 2 Nov

Ken Bradley and I will conduct a Webcast for SANS on Monday 2 Nov at 1 pm EST. Check out the sign-up page. I've reproduced the introduction here.Every day, intruders find ways to compromise enterprise assets around the world. To counter these attackers, professional incident detectors apply a variety of host, network, and other mechanisms to identify intrusions and respond as quickly as efficiently as possible.In this Webcast, Richard Bejtlich,...

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Partnerships and Procurement Are Not the Answer

The latest Federal Computer Week magazine features an article titled Cyber warfare: Sound the alarm or move ahead in stride? I'd like to highlight a few excerpts.Military leaders and analysts say evolving cyber threats will require the Defense Department to work more closely with experts in industry...Indeed, the Pentagon must ultimately change its culture, say independent analysts and military personnel alike. It must create a collaborative environment...

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Initial Thoughts on Cloud A6

I'm a little late to this issue, but let me start by saying I read Craig Balding's RSA Europe 2009 Presentation this evening. In it he mentioned something called the A6 Working Group. I learned this is related to several blog posts and a Twitter discussion. In brief:In May, Chris Hoff posted Incomplete Thought: The Crushing Costs of Complying With Cloud Customer “Right To Audit” Clauses, where Chris wrote Cloud providers I have spoken to are being...

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