From The Blog
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ConnectWise Slash and Grab Flaw Once Again Shows the Value of Input Validation We talk to Huntress About its Impact
Written by Sean KalinichAlthough the news of the infamous ConnectWise flaw which allowed for the creation of admin accounts is a bit cold, it still is one that…Written on Tuesday, 19 March 2024 12:44 in Security Talk Read 346 times Read more...
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Social Manipulation as a Service – When the Bots on Twitter get their Check marks
Written by Sean KalinichWhen I started DecryptedTech it was to counter all the crap marketing I saw from component makers. I wanted to prove people with a clean…Written on Monday, 04 March 2024 16:17 in Editorials Read 1265 times Read more...
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To Release or not to Release a PoC or OST That is the Question
Written by Sean KalinichThere is (and always has been) a debate about the ethics and impact of the release of Proof-of-Concept Exploit for an identified vulnerability and Open-Source…Written on Monday, 26 February 2024 13:05 in Security Talk Read 706 times Read more...
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There was an Important Lesson Learned in the LockBit Takedown and it was Not About Threat Groups
Written by Sean KalinichIn what could be called a fantastic move, global law enforcement agencies attacked and took down LockBit’s infrastructure. The day of the event was filled…Written on Thursday, 22 February 2024 12:20 in Security Talk Read 682 times Read more...
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NetSPI’s Offensive Security Offering Leverages Subject Matter Experts to Enhance Pen Testing
Written by Sean KalinichBlack Hat 2023 Las Vegas. The term offensive security has always been an interesting one for me. On the surface is brings to mind reaching…Written on Tuesday, 12 September 2023 17:05 in Security Talk Read 1903 times Read more...
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Black Kite Looks to Offer a Better View of Risk in a Rapidly Changing Threat Landscape
Written by Sean KalinichBlack Hat 2023 – Las Vegas. Risk is an interesting subject and has many different meanings to many different people. For the most part Risk…Written on Tuesday, 12 September 2023 14:56 in Security Talk Read 1388 times Read more...
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Microsoft Finally Reveals how they Believe a Consumer Signing Key was Stollen
Written by Sean KalinichIn May of 2023 a few sensitive accounts reported to Microsoft that their environments appeared to be compromised. Due to the nature of these accounts,…Written on Thursday, 07 September 2023 14:40 in Security Talk Read 1834 times Read more...
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Mandiant Releases a Detailed Look at the Campaign Targeting Barracuda Email Security Gateways, I Take a Look at What this all Might Mean
Written by Sean KalinichThe recent attack that leveraged a 0-Day vulnerability to compromise a number of Barracuda Email Security Gateway appliances (physical and virtual, but not cloud) was…Written on Wednesday, 30 August 2023 16:09 in Security Talk Read 1595 times Read more...
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Threat Groups Return to Targeting Developers in Recent Software Supply Chain Attacks
Written by Sean KalinichThere is a topic of conversation that really needs to be talked about in the open. It is the danger of developer systems (personal and…Written on Wednesday, 30 August 2023 13:29 in Security Talk Read 1604 times Read more...
Recent Comments
- Sean, this is a fantastic review of a beautiful game. I do agree with you… Written by Jacob 2023-05-19 14:17:50 Jedi Survivor – The Quick, Dirty, and Limited Spoilers Review
- Great post. Very interesting read but is the reality we are currently facing. Written by JP 2023-05-03 02:33:53 The Dangers of AI; I Think I Have Seen this Movie Before
- I was wondering if you have tested the microphone audio frequency for the Asus HS-1000W? Written by Maciej 2020-12-18 14:09:33 Asus HS-1000W wireless headset impresses us in the lab
- Thanks for review. I appreciate hearing from a real pro as opposed to the blogger… Written by Keith 2019-06-18 04:22:36 The Red Hydrogen One, Possibly One of the Most “misunderstood” Phones Out
- Have yet to see the real impact but in the consumer segment, ryzen series are… Written by sushant 2018-12-23 10:12:12 AMD’s 11-year journey to relevance gets an epic finish.
Most Read
- Microsoft Fail - Start Button Back in Windows 8.1 But No Start Menu Written on Thursday, 30 May 2013 15:33 in News Be the first to comment! Read 116249 times Read more...
- We take a look at the NETGEAR ProSafe WNDAP360 Dual-Band Wireless Access Point Written on Saturday, 07 April 2012 00:17 in Pro Storage and Networking Be the first to comment! Read 87091 times Read more...
- Synology DS1512+ Five-Bay NAS Performance Review Written on Tuesday, 12 June 2012 20:31 in Pro Storage and Networking Be the first to comment! Read 81627 times Read more...
- Gigabyte G1.Sniper M3 Design And Feature Review Written on Sunday, 19 August 2012 22:35 in Enthusiast Motherboards Be the first to comment! Read 79994 times Read more...
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Recent North Korean Internet Outages Potentially Caused by One Person with a Grudge
Written by Sean KalinichIn early January 2021 North Korean hackers were in the midst of a campaign targeting western security researchers. They were looking to gather tools, vulnerability information and anything else of value they could get. The US, after learning about this attack did not have a significant response to the threat. Of course, the country was going through a bit of a political turmoil at the time, but there still should have been some sort of response to help prevent further attacks.
First provable SHA-1 Collision Happened Five Years Ago Yet SHA-1 is Still an Option.
Written by Sean KalinichOn February 23rd, 2017, Google published a paper on their security blog that showed how a SHA-1 collision was possible. It proved that the aging cryptographic and hashing standard was no longer a safe or secure method. Google showed that they could produce two different files yet have them show the same hash, thus causing a collision and getting around some of the file hashing systems in place at the time. The problem is that SHA-1 hashing is still in use today by many tools.
New Vulnerability Found that Exposes a Large Number Routers to UPnProxy Attack
Written by Sean KalinichUniversal Plug and Play UPnP) is one of those technology decisions that make you wonder what people were thinking. The concept is fairly clear, find a way to make things easy for someone to just connect a device to a network and have it function without interaction. Devices like the Xbox Series X|S require this for their remote play feature as the ports and IP addresses needed to function would be overly complicated for most users to set up. So, you enable UPnP on your router and just plug the Xbox in. Sound great, but as with anything that create convenience, it also brings about risk.
Apple iOS Privacy Changes take a $10 Billion Chunk Out of Facebook’s Ad Plans.
Written by Sean KalinichFacebook makes their money off their users. That is no shock to anyone considering the number of investigations currently ongoing over Facebook’s data collection practices. Of course, Facebook is not the only group collecting this type of information, they just tend to take it a bit farther than most of the other groups. Because of these invasive data collection practices many countries have tightened their laws around what can and cannot be used to develop and send out targeted ads. This has included a whole new category for “intimate” information. Even Apple has decided that this style of data collection might be out of bounds and have change their own privacy policies in iOS.
Microsoft Shows Their Lack of Focus as HoloLens 3 is Scrapped
Written by Sean KalinichMicrosoft has a history of making solid products that go nowhere. If you look at their history this is very clear from Windows Phone to Zune and more. They build it, fail to focus on penetrating the market and then scrap it despite the many talented people on the teams for each of these. Now history is repeating itself in the form of HoloLens.
Microsoft Identifies New and Improved UpdateAgent macOS Malware
Written by Sean KalinichMicrosoft’s Threat Intelligence team has recently disclosed their discovery and analysis of a new malware family. The malware in question is being tracked as a Trojan named UpdateAgent. The team has been watching as it progressed from a simple information stealer for the macOS to much more sophisticated capabilities including being able to bypass the macOS Gatekeeper security function.
SolarWinds Supply Chain Attack is the Gift that Keeps on Giving for Security Research
Written by Sean KalinichThe SolarWinds supply chain attack was and still is one of the most complex and ingenious attacks that has come to light. How it was discovered is also an interesting topic for another conversation. The attack group in question is still being speculated on although one most people tend to gravitate towards is the Russian APT group COZY BEAR (APT29). The actual attack and compromise of the software repository at SolarWinds is the stuff of legend. Once that was completed it allowed the attackers access to a wide swath of business verticals along with government agencies from a single trusted source. They could, almost on a whim, compromise anyone that leveraged the SolarWinds product. Of course, supply chain attacks are nothing new and are not going anywhere. They are complicated to set up and maintain, but once in place they can yield amazing results.
Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Deal to be Reviewed by the FTC
Written by Sean KalinichYesterday we talked about Microsoft’s plans to buy Activision Blizard as well as Sony’ plans to buy Bungie. We covered what these could mean in terms of content control and splitting console ownership into what titles people like. Although both Microsoft and Sony are committed to releasing content for both consoles, once the existing contracts run out, things could be very different. Because of this potential monopoly of content by the Activision Blizzard deal, the FTC is going to take look at it.
23 vulnerabilities found in UEFI firmware used across multiple vendors
Written by Sean KalinichWe first talked about the using the UEFI firmware as an attack vector (At Def Con 22 in 2014). Since that time there have been three identified and disclosed versions of malware that directly targeted this critical subsystem. That would seem to be a relatively small percentage given the time since it was first uncovered, the number of devices that operate using the UEFI firmware subsystem, and the time between then and now. However, this is only ones identified and in most of the identified cases were found because of the method of delivery for the OS payload. This begs the question, are there more out there that just have not been found?
Device Fingerprinting Takes a Step Forward as the GPU Becomes the Focus
Written by Sean KalinichTracking users and devices as they browse the web is a common thing these days and has been for many years. The technology has evolved from the original tracking cookie to some of the more advanced methods in use now, but the concept is the same. How can someone identify an object on the internet and follow it. Regardless of whether the information is used for “legitimate” or nefarious purposes, the technology remains and continues to move forward.
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Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Samba Again, New Vulnerability Allows Remote Code Execution
Written by Sean KalinichSamba has released several updates that patch critical flaws in their popular Sever Message Block (SMB) freeware implementation. SMB is a protocol that allows for simple sharing of network resources and has had its share of critical vulnerabilities in the past. The sharing of network resources is a common target for attackers as it can be a quick an easy way to compromise a system. One of the vulnerabilities includes all versions of Samba before 4.13.17 (CVE-2021-44142).
Microsoft Buys Activision, Sony Buys Bungie the Console Wars Heat Up
Written by Sean KalinichThe war between Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation has been going on for a while. As the two companies fight it out the consumer, for the most part, has been the winner. Each new generation of console has brought with it new technologies, better performance and really upped the game regardless of which camp you are in. It is true that prices have also gone through the roof, but that has not stopped eager fans from buying out inventory as soon as it hits the shelves.
All-In Security Consulting
In building a new business, or operating an existing one, there you spend a lot of time figuring out what you are going to sell, why you are going to sell it and or course how you are going to get your goods/services to market (not to mention actually selling it). However, one thing that tends to not be a part of the business planning process is security. As a small or even medium sized business owner this important item can be overlooked during the planning and even the first years.
New Apps Allow Retrieval of Deleted Message for Users of WhatsApp on Android
Written by Sean KalinichWhatsApp is one of a group of relatively secure messaging services available to both iPhone and Android users. WhatsApp states that it supports full end-to-end encryption, secure deletion of messages (by the sender and receiver) as well as the option to setup disappearing messages. It can also be set to block screen shots of chats which is nice when you want to keep your conversation private.