Over the last several decades, the Windows team has added a stream of additional security mitigation features to the platform to help application developers harden their applications against exploit. I commonly referred to these mitigations as the Alphabet Soup mitigations because each was often named by an acronym, DEP/NX, ASLR, SEHOP, CFG, etc. The vastContinue reading “Defensive Technology: Exploit Protection”
Tag Archives: InfoSecTTP
Defensive Technology: Windows Filtering Platform
Last November, I wrote a post about the basics of security software. In that post, I laid out how security software is composed of sensors and throttles controlled by threat intelligence. In today’s post, we’ll look at the Windows Filtering Platform, a fundamental platform technology introduced in Windows Vista that provides the core sensor andContinue reading “Defensive Technology: Windows Filtering Platform”
Attack Techniques: “I Already Hacked You” Scams
Scammers often try to convince you that you’ve already been hacked and you must contact them or send them money to prevent something worse from happening. For example, a tech scammer shows a web page that says your PC has a virus and you need to call them or download their program to “fix” it.Continue reading “Attack Techniques: “I Already Hacked You” Scams”
Security Software – An Overview
I’ve spent nearly my entire professional career in software security: designing software to prevent abuse by bad actors. I’ve been battling the bad guys for over two decades now, from hunting security bugs in Microsoft Office (I once won an Xbox for finding a vulnerability that allowed malicious clipart take over your computer) to designingContinue reading “Security Software – An Overview”
Defensive Technology: Controlled Folder Access
Most client software’s threat models (e.g. Edge, Chrome) explicitly exclude threats where the local computer was compromised by malware. That’s because, without a trusted computing base, it’s basically impossible to be secure against attackers. This concept was immortalized decades ago in the Ten Immutable Laws of Security: In the intervening years, new technologies (like SecureContinue reading “Defensive Technology: Controlled Folder Access”
Defensive Technology: Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI)
Endpoint security software faces a tough challenge — it needs to be able to rapidly distinguish between desired and unwanted behavior with few false positives and false negatives, and attackers work hard to obfuscate (or cloak) their malicious code to prevent detection by security scanners. To maximize protection, security software wants visibility into attack chainsContinue reading “Defensive Technology: Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI)”
Attack Techniques: Encrypted Archives
Tricking a user into downloading and opening malware is a common attack technique, and defenders have introduced security scanners to many layers of the ecosystem in an attempt to combat the technique: With all this scanning in place, attackers have great incentives to try to prevent their malicious code from detection up until the momentContinue reading “Attack Techniques: Encrypted Archives”
Attack Techniques: PayPal Invoice Scams
Today in “Attack techniques so stupid, they can’t possibly succeed… except they do!” — we look at Invoice Scams. PayPal and other sites allow anyone (an attacker) to send anyone (their victims) an invoice containing the text of the attacker’s choosing. In this attack technique, PayPal sends you an email suggesting that the attacker alreadyContinue reading “Attack Techniques: PayPal Invoice Scams”
Attack Techniques: Trojaned Clipboard
Today in “Attack techniques so stupid, they can’t possibly succeed… except they do!” — the trojan clipboard technique. The attacking website convinces the victim user to copy something dangerous to their clipboard, and then paste it into a powerful and trusted context. A walkthrough of this attack can be found in the ThreatDown Blog, butContinue reading “Attack Techniques: Trojaned Clipboard”
Attack Techniques: Remote Control Software
In yesterday’s post, I outlined the two most successful (and stupid simple) attack techniques that you might not expect to work (and you’d be so very wrong): Today, let’s explore number 3: “Please give me control of your computer so I can, uh, fix it?“ In this attack, an attacker convinces you that there’s someContinue reading “Attack Techniques: Remote Control Software”
text/plain 