Category: Vulnerabilities

Posted in Informational, Research, Topic, Vulnerabilities

Case Study: Stuxnet

Posted on by Steph

Enter the CyberWar

(A Day Late during to Travel)

If you’re paying attention to the War in Ukraine you’ve probably heard people talk about the ensuing cyber dimension of the conflict. This is just the latest skirmish–though some say it’ s the beginning of the new Era of Cyberwarfare–of cyberwarfare.

Stuxnet, wasn’t the first cyber operation nor was it the first virus, but it’s notable because it was one of the first that destroy hardware and an operation linked specifically to the U.S.

Stuxnet was a virus developed to target Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Basically, it targeted automated controls in industrial control systems causing the hardware to break. It did this by exploiting zero-days in Microsoft and Siemens software. The bad part is that Stuxnet worked to well and ended up spreading globally.

Read more:

Posted in CTF, Informational, Profiles, Simple Malware Analysis, Vulnerabilities

Jobs in Cyber: Vulnerability Researcher

Posted on by Steph
Hand with black nail polish holding a magnifying glass – Pexel

Stumbled on this job during a recent job search. This had never been on my radar as a possible field of interest, but after interviewing and learning about the position I was intrigued.

A vulnerability researcher basically investigate, identify, and study vulnerabilities and exploits in software and/or systems. Sometimes this can be independently, but often it is part of an enterprise or in conjunction with continuous monitoring services.

Possible Skills Needed:

  • Scripting knowledge
  • Decompiler knowledge
  • Malware Analysis
  • Communication (verbal and written)
  • Methodical approach to research
  • Analytical mind
  • Scanners such as Nessus
Posted in Informational, InfoSec History, Research, Vulnerabilities

There is no Safe Haven: Mac Attacks

Posted on by Steph

I was all set to write about an interesting job in infosec today and then I woke up and saw reports of a new attack: ‘Pacman’, being leveraged against Apple computers. This report got me thinking about a conversation I saw on Social media where a connection was asking about what laptop to buy. One of this person’s friends mentioned getting an Apple because they are ‘safer’ than Windows machines and ‘antivurs wasn’t needed’ (no one but us tech geeks recommend Linux it wasnt even in the running). I recall thinking that laypeople are just really unaware that Apple systems are getting targeted at higher rates in recent years . So here we are talking about Mac Attacks.

As a disclaimer I’ve got no real dog in whatever battle exists between OSes. As a tech-head I have systems that run Windows, MacOS, and several flavors of Linux. The job isn’t to safeguard a specific type of system it’s to safeguard them all.

We can say, oh MacOS and Linux OS distros have less know vulnerabilities or are attacked less often, but to say that one or the other doesn’t have any or doesn’t get attacked is untrue. All systems are opened to be attacked.

Some Recent Apple Malware:

  • Pacman
  • Silver Sparrow
  • XLoader
  • GoSearch22
  • Thiefquest

A more in depth look at some Apple vulnerabilities and malware can be found here or here.

I will always advocate for user to protect themselves. Defense in depth isn’t just for enterprises it also means that users shouldn’t assume that the systems are just inherently ‘safe’. When people say security is everyone’s business I can support that because your end security should be your business which includes setting precautions to overlap where initial software and hardware might fall short.