Social Engineering Social Networks - How I Will Be Your Friend

Introduction

As detailed in a previous post, social engineering is a common, yet effective, tactic used by attackers that involves "manipulating a person to accomplish goals that may or may not be in the “target’s” best interest." This usually results in the attacker gaining unauthorized access to systems, areas, or information that would otherwise be unavailable. However, while it was briefly mentioned, we didn't really discuss the opportunities available for an attacker or pentester by utilizing one of the most common goldmines of information available today: social networks.

Almost everyone has one or more social networking profiles on one of the major social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, or Myspace), including high-value targets for a social engineering engagements (e.g. "C-level execs", President's, VP's, etc.). These profiles include information that can be critical to a social engineer when crafting the most effective spear-phishing email possible, obtaining answers to secret questions to gain access to systems, or when harvesting data that can be used in further targeted attacks. In this post, we'll look at how to utilize our social engineering skills to methodically "befriend" employees in order to quickly gain access to specific targets.

Are Security Certifications Useful?

Introduction

Security professionals either currently employed or seeking employment are often requested to pass certification exams. In fact, many companies may not even consider an applicant for a position that does not have the "required" certifications.

With this being said, in this post we will discuss the purpose behind certifications, how we should view their obtainment, as well as list of different certifications currently offered in the industry.

RaiderSec Meeting 05/08/2012

Hey everyone!

I would like to apologize again for having to cancel the meeting this past Tuesday. Unfortunately, a class exam overrode our room reservation. However, you can find the slides to the presentation over lockpicking here. If you ever have any questions regarding the subject, please feel free to let me know either through e-mail or in the comments below.

I'm really looking forward to continuing RaiderSec next semester, and hope to use this summer to publish substantial new and interesting content to the blog. Sometime next week, I will post a list of the different things I'd like to cover next semester, but tentatively my goal is to give more hands on examples, as well as take time to look at unique areas of security. Above all, I want for everyone to enjoy learning about areas of security that interest them. So, if there is a particular subject you would like to see covered next semester, or even a subject that you would like to cover yourself, let me know and we'll make it happen!

I've really enjoyed our meetings, and I hope everyone else has as well. If you're here over the summer and would like to get together to discuss things pertaining to RaiderSec, be sure to let me know! Otherwise, I look forward to seeing everyone next semester!

Have a great summer!

-Jordan

RaiderSec Meeting 04/17/2012

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to thank everyone who made it out to the meeting, and I hope you all enjoyed learning about Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities and their exploitation. You can find the slides from the last meeting here.

As mentioned in the meeting, next Tuesday (April 24, 2012) Lance will be continuing the topic of input validation vulnerabilities in web applications by going in depth about SQL Injection vulnerabilities. The widespread prevalence and impact SQL Injection vulnerabilities can have will make this a very important and interesting topic.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the meeting!

RaiderSec Meeting 04/10/2012

Hey everyone!

I just want to thank everyone who made it out to the meeting yesterday! I hope everyone enjoyed learning about how social engineering attacks work, as well as why the human element of security is (and very likely always will be) the weakest link in a company's defenses.

As I mentioned in the meeting, next week we will begin covering web application vulnerabilities. Until then, feel free to read up on some of the vulnerabilities listed in OWASP's Top 10 Project Report to get an idea of the vulnerabilities we will be discussing in detail.

Also, you can find the slides for the social engineering presentation here. I look forward to seeing everyone at the next meeting!

-Jordan

Social Engineering - Exploiting the Human Element of Security

Introduction

"Hi, this is Rick from [Internet Service Provider]. We're seeing some unusual traffic from your location. It's most likely nothing to worry about, but we have a field tech on his way to diagnose the problem. Can you make sure he has access to the network to run some quick tests?"

At most, this phone call may take 3-5 minutes, and already the risk for the target being compromised is very high, especially if the individual on the other end of the line agrees to help the "field tech" (very likely the same person who called). This technique is one very specific example of "Social Engineering," and throughout this post, we will see how these techniques are often leveraged by attackers to exploit the human element of security for malicious gain.

RaiderSec Meeting 03/20/2012

Hey everyone!

I want to thank everyone who came to the meeting on Tuesday. I hope everyone enjoyed the introduction to memory corruption (specifically buffer overflow vulnerabilities), and next meeting we will cover how a buffer overflow vulnerability can be leveraged to by an attacker to execute code of his/her choice (our example being to create a shell on the system). As a reminder, our next meeting will be on Tuesday April 3rd, 2012.

Until then, you can find the slides from the last meeting here. I look forward to seeing everyone at the next meeting!

-Jordan