Cybercrime and the Developer: How to Start Defending Against the Darker Side [CON3328]

Cybercrime and the
Developer: How to Start
Defending Against the
Darker Side
Steve Poole
CON3328

About me
Steve Poole
IBM Lead Engineer
@spoole167
Making Java Real Since Version 0.9
Open Source Advocate
DevOps Practitioner (whatever that means!)
Driving Change
Currently creating
Development Pipeline
tool chains for IBM
cloud products

This talk
• I’m a DevOps practitioner – not a security expert.
• Arose because of “compliance”
• What does that mean?
• How do I find out more?
• Arose because I didn’t understand what the fuss was all about
• Arose because giving uneducated developers access to cloud resources generally has unfortunate
consequences
• Is not about Application Design
• It’s about how and why we need to behave differently.
• Here’s what I’ve learnt so far…
But I know quite a few now

Outline
• What’s the problem – why does this all matter?
• Who is at risk?
• Who are the bad guys?
• How do they get in?
• How you need to change?
• What you need to change?
• Going forward..

@spoole167https://www.flickr.com/photos/karen_roe/
Is this your system?

@spoole167
https://www.flickr.com/photos/77278206@N02/
Maybe its more like this?

@spoole167https://www.flickr.com/photos/bambe1964/
Unless you
pay attention
it’s soon
going to be
like this

“Organized Cybercrime is the most profitable type of crime”
• Cybercrime is estimated to be worth 445 Billion Dollars a Year
• In 2013 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated
globally the illicit drug trade was worth 435 Billion Dollars
• Guess which one has the least risk to the criminal?
• Guess which is growing the fastest?
• Guess which one is the hardest to prosecute?
• Guess which one is predicted to reach 2100 Billion Dollars by 2019?

Lesson 0
Wake Up!
This is real.
You have a key role

What data are they after?
• Moving beyond credit card numbers
• Long term identify theft
• That means quiet and repeated infiltration
• no more cyber-graffiti “Thiz Site belonz to uz”
• Though any personal data is useful and worth $$$
• Medical data, Sensitive Personal Information etc
• Information that gives insight into behavior
• Access to your systems
Lesson 1
Protect all data

Its about Facts about you
• Any piece of personal information about YOU is useful. It get’s sold on and
somewhere someone brings it all together.
• Can I connect your email address to your data of birth?
• Can I find out where you live?
• Can I find out who you work for?
• Can I find out what you think about your boss?
• Can I find out what sites you’ve visited?
• The more I know about you – the more I can refine the attack.
• The more I know about you – the more $$ I can make
• And attacks are more than “technical”
Lesson 2
All your data is
valuable

• DEAR SIR/MA'AM.
• YOUR ATM CARD OF $10.5MILLION DOLLARS WAS RETURNED TODAY BY OUR COURIER
DELIVERY COMPANY, AND WE ARE GOING TO CANCEL THE ATM CARD IF YOU FAILS TO
ACKNOWLEDGE THIS MESSAGE, WE SHALL ALSO ASSUME THAT WHAT OUR COURIER
DELIVERY COMPANY TOLD US IS NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH THAT YOU DON'T NEED YOUR
ATM CARD OF $10.5 MILLION DOLLARS ANY LONGER.
• DO ACKNOWLEDGE THIS MESSAGE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
• YOURS FAITHFULLY.
• YOURS SINCERELY,
• MR MARK WRIGHT,
• DIRECTOR FOREIGN REMITTANCE
• ATM CARD SWIFT PAYMENT DEPARTMENT
• ZENITH BANK OF NIGERIA.
😀

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Anti-Terrorist And Monitory Crime Division.
Federal Bureau Of Investigation.
J.Edgar.Hoover Building Washington Dc
Customers Service Hours / Monday To Saturday
Office Hours Monday To Saturday:
Dear Beneficiary,
Series of meetings have been held over the past 7 months with the secretary general of
the United Nations Organization. This ended 3 days ago. It is obvious that you have not
received your fund which is to the tune of $16.5million due to past corrupt Governmental
Officials who almost held the fund to themselves for their selfish reason and some
individuals who have taken advantage of your fund all in an attempt to swindle your fund
which has led to so many losses from your end and unnecessary delay in the receipt of
your fund.for more information do get back to us.
….
Upon receipt of payment the delivery officer will ensure that your package is sent within
24 working hours.
😀

Dear Winner,
This is to inform you that you have been selected for a prize of a brand
new 2016 Model BMW Hydrogen 7 Series Car, a Check of $500,000.00
USD and an Apple laptop from the international balloting programs
held on the 27th, section of the 2016 annual award promo in the
UNITED STATE OF AMERICA.
😀

No-one falls for those sort of things do they?

From <your boss>
I’ve spoken to the Italians and they will send us the goods if we pay
$3M immediately. Details below.
I’m off to the golf course – no distractions please.
☹️
Lesson 3
If something is suspicious or unusual – double
check. You think all the bad guys are stupid?

an email from an international
transport company urging
recipients to open a waybill in
a zip
(The Zip content launches a
downloader)
The targets are busy and not IT
savy. The criminals are IT savy
and industry savy
☹️ ☹️

Even more
Email Instructions to victims to download an Android app onto a
mobile device.
That app contains a SMS hijacker.
The app listens for incoming SMS messages containing transaction
authorization codes from the bank.
Lesson 4
Never install software without checking
it’s providence

Phishing -> Spear Phishing -> Personalised
Attacks
• The move is towards more organised and long term attacks that are
hidden from view.
• Think about this – when you’re trawling the net for gullible people
you set the bar low.
• With personalised attacks you invest more and make it compelling.
• You victims views on Facebook about their boss, how busy they are,
important deals coming up. It all helps to craft that million dollar scam…

Who’s being targeted?
• Middle level executives – afraid of their bosses?
• New joiners – easy to make a mistake?
• Busy and harassed key individuals – too busy to take time to
consider?
• Disgruntled employees – want to hurt the company? Make some $?
• And Developers – the golden goose.
Lesson 5
The bad guys prey on the weak,
vulnerable and ignorant

Developers
• Why ?
• We know the inside story
• We write the code
• We have elevated privileges
• We are over trusting
• We use other peoples code and tools without inspection
• we are ignorant of security matters
Lesson 6
The bad guys prey on the weak,
vulnerable and ignorant:
That’s you

Don’t agree?
“The bad guys prey on the weak, vulnerable and ignorant: That’s you”

Every googled for:
“very trusting trust manager”
“Getting Java to accept all certs over HTTPS”
“How to Trust Any SSL Certificate”
“Disable Certificate Validation in Java”

TrustManager[] trustAllCerts = new TrustManager[]{
new X509TrustManager() {
public X509Certificate[] getAcceptedIssuers() {
return null;
}
public void checkClientTrusted(
X509Certificate[] certs, String authType) {
}
public void checkServerTrusted(
X509Certificate[] certs, String authType) {
}
public boolean isClientTrusted( X509Certificate[] cert) {
return true;
}
public boolean isServerTrusted( X509Certificate[] cert) {
return true;
}
}
};
Ever written something
like this?

curl –insecure
wget --no-check-certificate
sudo apt-get --allow-unauthenticated
Or this?

We’ve all done something like that

We do it all the time

The whole world does it
How bad can it be?

The whole world does it
Github search “implements TrustManager” ….

We’ve found 72,609 code results
AlwaysValidTrustManager
TrustAllServersWrappingTrustManager
A very friendly, accepting trust
manager factory. Allows anything
through. all kind of certificates are
accepted and trusted.
A very trusting trust manager that
accepts anything
// Install the all-trusting trust
manager
OverTrustingTrustProvider
AllTrustingSecurityManagerPlugin.java
AcceptingTrustManagerFactory.java
AllTrustingCertHttpRequester.java

Developers are too trusting.
Linux Repos
npm
npm is the package manager for JavaScript. Find, share,
and reuse packages of code from hundreds of thousands
of developers — and assemble them in powerful new
ways.
Great sentiments. “But Caveat Emptor”

@spoole167https://www.flickr.com/photos/bambe1964/
Are you still
paying
attention?

So who are the
bad guys?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/monsieurlui/

A mirror of you?
• Organized and methodical
• organized like startup companies.
• “employ” highly experienced developers with deep knowledge
• Constantly innovating malware, seeking out vulnerabilities
• Sharing what they find with each other (for $ of course)
• Goal focused
• the average age of a cybercriminal is 35 years old.

Already into crime
• Adrian Leppard, the Commissioner of the City of London Police:
• “We estimate that around 25 per cent of the organized crime groups in this
country are now involved in financial crime in one shape or another…”
• University of Cambridge researchers report that 60% of cyber-criminals had
criminal records which were completely unrelated to cyber-crime
• “those traditional offenders are changing their behavior and moving to the
internet”.
Lesson 7
Cybercriminals mostly get caught for something other than
cybercrime

Cybercrime: Expanding the attack vector

Basic ways in: The old fashioned set
• Social engineering – convince you to open the door
• Vulnerability exploits – find doors already open
• Inside information – you tell them where the keys are for gain
Lesson 8
The bad guys can already get into your systems easier than you
ever thought possible.

Vulnerabilities
• Bugs and design flaws in your software
and the software you use.
• Everyone has them.
• Researchers are looking for them all the
time.
• So are the bad guys
https://www.flickr.com/photos/electronicfrontierfoundation/

https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=java
Vulnerabilities
https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=serialization
https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=javascript

• It’s usually a combination of
software weaknesses that
get exploited
• Sometimes a BIG exploit
appears
• Zero Day exploits are just
that.
• Shame we don’t give them
much attention
• Someone elses problem?
Vulnerabilities Lesson 9
Vulnerabilities are everywhere
Lesson 10
Keeping up-to-date with critical
patches is one of the most important
things you can do
Lesson 11
Ignoring this side of Software
Engineering is criminal

The new attack vectors
• Devices, Devices, Devices
• Eavesdropping, network devices with default passwords
• Drive-by gateways
• Ransomware
• Blackmail and extortion
• Extending Malware into real products.
• Helpful free stuff – like docker images
• Dangerous paid stuff - like game trainers
• Actual ’at the source’ injections - like pull requests!
• Like unknown helpful people – do you know what can happen in a
git merge?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/famzoo/

Devices inside your network
• What’s CPU’s are connected to your network?
• Smart printers?
• Smart TV’s?
• BYODs?
• How many devices have default passwords?
• How many computers have passwords that everyone knows?
• How many are running older unpatched software?
Lesson 12
You cannot ever assume your internal network is safe
and uncompromised
Lesson 13
Really Strong
authentication
is an
imperative.

Personal Passwords
• What can I say: use keys wherever you can
• Treat passwords and private keys like the crown jewels.
• Have as many different passwords/keys as you can for different functions and activities
• Use a good password safe
• Never divulge your password to anyone or write it down.
• Once it’s out of your hands treat it as hacked
Lesson 14
Understand just how easily (or not) passwords can be cracked
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password_cracking

Wifi Gateways
Are everywhere
How do you know that a SSID you see is not fake?
In your office.
In your home.
At a conference
In a Coffee Shop.

Wifi Gateways
Are everywhere
Many legitimate ones encourage bad practices

Wifi Gateways
Pi Zero
WIFI Dongle
USB Power
Would you notice this stuck to the wall?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/yodelanecdotal/
Spoofing Wifi gateways is really,
really easy
Millennials and Developers fall
for it every time
Here‘s how it
works

Internet😀
websitegateway
The normal (simplified) flow for http
Give me data
browser
Here is data

Internet😀
websitegateway
Man in the middle attack for http
Give me data
browser
Here is data
Give me data
Do bad things with
data
Here is data
SSID: OpenConference
Password: easy

Internet😀
websitegateway
The normal (simplfied) flow for https
Client Hello (max SSL version supported)
browser
Server Hello (what SSL version to be used)
Server SSL CertificateCheck
Certificate
Send random local key encoded using Server SSL certificate
Secure, two way encrypted communications
Certificate
Authorities

Internet😀
websitegateway
Man in the middle attack for https – version 1
Client Hello
browser
Server Hello
Server SSL Certificate
Check
Certificate
Send different random local key
Secure
communications
Client Hello
Server Hello
Gateway SSL Certificate
Send random local key
Secure, two way communications
Certificate
Authorities

Internet😀
websitegateway
Client Hello
browser
Server Hello
Check
Certificate
Secure
communications
Client Hello
Server Hello
Bogus Certificate
Authority

Internet😀
websitegateway
Client Hello
browser
Server Hello
Check
Certificate
Secure
communications
Client Hello
Server Hello
Internal CA

It gets worse
• If your initial request to a server is http (ie unencrypted)
• A MITM can replace all inline https references with http
• Then when your form is submitted it’s sent unencrypted
• Maybe the server will bounce the request. But it’s too late- your private data is gone.
• Typical pattern:
1. MITM tracks a single important server target. The thieves now how the flows work. They
track your usage
2. When your userid / password is requested the https is already forced to http.
3. Your data is sent in the clear. The MITM sends you a ‘there was a problem’ msg and gets out of
your way.
4. You refresh and resubmit.
5. None the wiser…

Internet😀
websitegateway
Stealing your data with http
http
browser
post to https://foo.com
http
post to
http://foo.com
http post
Server unavailable
RELOAD http
https post
post to https://foo.com

Wifi gateways
Lesson 15
There are so many ways your data is at risk.
Use a VPN to get to a gateway you trust.
Be very wary of http urls in general

Man in the middle attacks
Lesson 16
You cannot assume the data you have accessed is valid unless you have a
secure connection at all times.
Otherwise you could download modified or copied files:
Docker Images, ISO’s, exes, RPMs, PowerPoint, Text files
Anything.
Lesson 17
Assertions and assumptions don’t “cut the mustard”
Deep dive into the communications processes and prove it

More bad news
• Our use of tools that interact over ssl tend to have the certificate
checking turned off!
• For reasonable reasons?
• “The server I access is self-signed”
• “I want to access multiple servers “
• Unexpectedly?
• “I thought I was using the tool correctly”
• “I didn’t realize what the default setting was”
• “I trusted the tool to do the right thing”
• Maliciously?
• “Someone changed the script and I don’t know why”

Lesson 18 – sloppy use of tools will bite you big time
Lesson 19 – Don’t make assumptions
Prove the tools do what you expect.
Build “fake / compromised” target
servers etc and add to your testsuites
Lesson 20 – Reduce opportunities for unaccountable process changes by
adopting DevOps principles for Infrastructure-as-Code etc

And even worse…
• Developers download code, tools, certificates etc without considering
the consequences.
• We believe implicitly that other developers are trustworthy.
How one developer just broke Node, Babel and
thousands of projects in 11 lines of JavaScript
Code pulled from NPM – which everyone was using
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/23/npm_left_pad_chaos/
What if he’d added
malware instead?

Lesson 21 – Don’t download or depend on random code. Ensure you trust
the providers and you undersand what they are doing to earn and keep your
trust. Examine the processes they have to ensure that the code / binaries /
certificates being hosted are legitimate
Lesson 22 – Build your own internal caches and repositories. Scan them for
known vulnerabilities AND change all those embedded default passwords
OR buy the service from someone you trust.

Recap
• Cybercrime is set to become the largest form of crime ever
• Developers are key to preventing this
• We’re one of the worst adaptors of security protocols and practises
With great power comes great responsibility

• “Developers are overly-focused on testing and scanning for known
vulnerabilities in software after it’s been released, and under-focused
on poor software development practices that lead to vulnerable
applications that hackers can exploit. This may be the biggest cyber
threat of all.”
• Frank Zinghini, CEO of Applied Visions

Developers to the rescue?
• What we all have to do differently from now on
• Be much more security conscious
• Become intimately aware of how the bad guys get in
• Reduce our blind trust levels
• Learn how authentication and encryption actually works
• Make security a part of our psyche
• Bring Security Architects into the development process

More snippets of advice
• Don’t allow any admin access from outsite your firewall except via a VPN
• Don’t allow admin / critical functions to be executed on arbitrary developer m/cs
• Use strong firewalls on every system
• Whitelist outgoing connections.
• Hack your own systems…
• Change ALL default passwords
• Docker –if the is no Dockerfile run away. If there is a dockerfile read it and build your
own image. (How do you know the image and the docker file match)
• Reduce likelihood of exploits etc escaping by using separate Virtual Machines for
different actives.
• Don’t add developer backdoors!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/schill/
Why do you need
a blanket “god”
mode?
Why would you deploy a
server or application
with default passwords
unchanged?
Why would you
share this power?
Why would you
remain ignorant of
how your system
or home is kept
secure?
Would you have
one key for every
lock at home?
Would you give your
colleagues power of
attorney over you?
Would you have a front
door with a lock that every
one in th world had a key
to?

Defense against Cybercrime
There is no magic wand.
It’s completely in your hands.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/byaka/

Cybercrime and the Developer: How to Start Defending Against the Darker Side [CON3328]

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