DOUG. SIM swapping, zero-days, the [dramatic voice] P-i-n-g of D-E-A-T-H, and LastPass… once more.
All that, and extra, on the Bare Safety podcast.
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Welcome to the podcast everyone.
I’m Doug Aamoth.
With me, as at all times, is Paul Ducklin.
Paul, how do you do?
DUCK. Very effectively, Doug.
You place some excessive drama sound into that intro, I’m happy to see!
DOUG. Properly, how do you say “Ping of Dying” with out saying [doom metal growl] “P-i-n-g of D-E-A-T-H”?
You possibly can’t simply say [gentle voice] “Ping of Dying”.
You’ve received to punch it a little bit bit…
DUCK. I suppose so.
It’s totally different in writing – what have you ever received?
Daring and italics.
I simply went with regular textual content, however I did use capital letters, which helps.
DOUG. Sure, I believe I’d daring and italicise the phrase “dying”, so [doom metal again] “The Ping of D-E-A-T-H”.
DUCK. And use a number of colors!
I’ll do this subsequent time, Doug.
DOUG. Get away the previous <blink> tag in HTML, make it blink a little bit bit? [LAUGHS]
DUCK. Doug, for a second, I used to be apprehensive you had been going to make use of the phrase [LAUGHS] <marquee>.
DOUG. [LAUGHS] We love previous stuff right here!
And that dovetails properly with our This Week in Tech Historical past phase – I’m enthusiastic about this one as a result of I hadn’t heard about it, however stumbled throughout it.
This week, on 04 December 2001, the Goner worm ransacked the web at a tempo second solely to that of the Love Bug virus.
Goner unfold by way of Microsoft Outlook, and promised unsuspecting victims a enjoyable display screen saver when executed.
DUCK. Goner…
I believe it received that title as a result of there was a popup on the finish, wasn’t there, that talked about the Pentagon?
Nevertheless it was meant to be a pun – it was “Penta/Gone”.
That was actually the worm that reminded those that, actually, Home windows screensavers are simply executable applications.
So, if you happen to had been searching specifically for .EXE recordsdata, effectively, they might be wrapped up in .SCR (screensaver) recordsdata as effectively.
If you happen to had been solely counting on filenames, you may simply be tricked.
And many individuals had been, sadly.
DOUG. Alright, we’ll go from the old-school to the new-school.
We’re speaking about LastPass: there was a breach; the breach itself wasn’t horrible; however that breach has now led to a different breach.
Or perhaps that is only a continuation of the unique breach?
LastPass admits to buyer knowledge breach attributable to earlier breach
DUCK. Sure, LastPass has written about it basically as a observe as much as the earlier breach, which I believe was August 2022, wasn’t it?
And as we mentioned on the time, it was a really embarrassing search for LastPass.
However as breaches go, it was most likely worse for his or her PR, advertising and (I assume) for his or her mental property departments, as a result of it appears the principle factor the crooks made away with was supply code from their improvement system.
And LastPass was fast to reassure folks…
Firstly, their investigations instructed that, while they had been in there, the crooks weren’t in a position to make any unauthorised modifications that may later percolate into the true code.
Secondly, entry to the event system doesn’t provide you with entry to the manufacturing system, the place the precise code is constructed.
And thirdly, they had been in a position to say it appeared that no encrypted password vaults had been stolen, so the cloud storage of your encrypted passwords was not accessed.
And even when it had been accessed, then solely you’ll know the password, as a result of the decryption (what you referred to as the “heavy lifting” once we spoke about it on the podcast) is definitely accomplished in reminiscence in your gadgets – LastPass by no means sees your password.
After which, fourthly, they mentioned, so far as we will inform, because of that breach, a number of the stuff that was within the improvement atmosphere has now given both the identical… or probably a totally totally different load of crooks who purchased the stolen knowledge off the earlier lot, who is aware of?
That did enable them to get into some cloud service the place some as-yet apparently unknown set of buyer knowledge was stolen.
I don’t assume they fairly know but, as a result of it could take some time to work out what really did get accessed after a breach occurred.
So I believe it’s honest to say that is form of the B-side of the unique breach.
DOUG. All proper, we propose that if you happen to’re a LastPass buyer, to control the corporate’s safety incident report.
We are going to control this story because it’s nonetheless creating.
And if you happen to, like Paul and I, battle cybercrime for a dwelling, there are some glorious classes to be discovered from the Uber breach.
In order that’s a podcast episode – a “minisode” – with Chester Wisniewski that Paul has embedded on the backside of the LastPass article:
S3 Ep100.5: Uber breach – an knowledgeable speaks [Audio + Text]
Tons to study on that entrance!
DUCK. As you say, that’s an awesome hear, as a result of it’s, I consider, what is understood in America as “actionable recommendation”, or “information you need to use”.
DOUG. [LAUGHS] Great.
Talking of news-you-can’t-really-use, Apple is mostly tight-lipped about its safety updates… and there was a safety replace:
Apple pushes out iOS safety replace that’s extra tight-lipped than ever
DUCK. Oh, Doug, that’s certainly one of your most interesting… I like that segue.
DOUG. [LAUGHS] Thanks; thanks very a lot.
DUCK. Sure, this shocked me.
I believed, “Properly, I’ll seize the replace as a result of it sounds severe.”
And I gave myself the rationale, “Let me do it for Bare Safety readers.”
As a result of if I do it and there aren’t any side-effects, then I can a minimum of say to different folks, “Look, I simply blindly did it and no hurt got here to me. So perhaps you are able to do it as effectively.”
I simply all of the sudden seen that there was an iOS 16.1.2 replace accessible, though I had had no safety advisory electronic mail from Apple.
No electronic mail?!
That’s bizarre.. so I went to the HT201222 portal web page that Apple has for its safety bulletins, and there it was: iOS 16.1.2.
And what does it say, Doug, “Particulars will observe quickly”?
DOUG. And did they observe quickly?
DUCK. Properly, that was greater than every week in the past, they usually’re not there but.
So are we speaking “quickly” that means hours, days, weeks, or months?
In the meanwhile, it’s trying like weeks.
And, as at all times with Apple, there’s no indication of something to do with every other working methods.
Have they been forgotten?
Do they not want the replace?
Did in addition they want the replace, however it’s simply not prepared but?
Have they been dropped out of assist?
Nevertheless it did appear, as I mentioned within the headline, much more tight-lipped than common for Apple, and never essentially essentially the most useful factor on this planet.
DOUG. OK, superb… nonetheless some questions, which leads us to our subsequent story.
A really fascinating query!
Generally, once you join a service and it enforces two-factor authentication, it says, “Do you need to get notified by way of textual content message, or do you need to use an authentication app?”
And this story is a cautionary story to not use your cellphone – use an authentication app, even when it’s a little bit bit extra cumbersome.
It is a very fascinating story:
SIM swapper despatched to jail for 2FA cryptocurrency heist of over $20m
DUCK. It’s, Doug!
If you happen to’ve ever misplaced a cell phone, or locked your self out of your SIM card by placing within the PIN incorrectly too many occasions, you’ll know that you would be able to go into the cell phone store…
…and often they’ll ask for ID or one thing, and also you say, “Hey, I want a brand new SIM card.”
They usually’ll generate one for you.
While you put it into your cellphone, bingo!… it’s received your previous quantity on it.
So what which means is that if a criminal can undergo the identical train that you’d to persuade the cell phone firm that they’ve “misplaced” or “damaged” their SIM card (i.e. *your SIM card*), they usually can get that card both handed to, or despatched to, or given to them one way or the other…
…then, after they plug it into their cellphone, they begin getting your SMS two-factor authentication codes, *and* your cellphone stops working.
That’s the unhealthy information.
The excellent news on this article is that this was a case of a chap who received busted for it.
He’s been despatched to jail within the US for 18 months.
He, with a bunch of accomplices – or, within the phrases of the Division of Justice, the Scheme Members… [LAUGHS]
…they made off with one explicit sufferer’s cryptocurrency, apparently to the tune of $20 million, if you happen to don’t thoughts.
DOUG. Oof!
DUCK. So he agreed to plead responsible, take a jail sentence, and instantly forfeit… the quantity was [reading carefully] $983,010.72… simply to forfeit that instantly.
So, presumably, he had that mendacity round.
And he apparently additionally has some sort of authorized obligation to refund over $20 million.
DOUG. Good luck with that, everybody! Good luck.
His different [vocal italics] Scheme Members would possibly trigger some points there! [LAUGHS]
DUCK. Sure, I don’t know what occurs in the event that they refuse to cooperate as effectively.
Like, if they only hold him out to dry, what occurs?
However we’ve received some suggestions, and a few recommendation on the way to beef up safety (in additional methods than simply the 2FA you employ) within the article.
So go and browse that… each little bit helps.
DOUG. OK, talking of “little bits”…
…this was one other fascinating story, how the lowly ping can be utilized to set off distant code execution:
Ping of dying! FreeBSD fixes crashtastic bug in community device
DUCK. [Liking the segue again] I believe you’ve bettered your self, Doug!
DOUG. [LAUGHS] I’m on a roll right now…
DUCK. From Apple to the [weak attempt at doom vocals] Ping of D-E-A-T-H!
Sure, this was an intriguing bug.
I don’t assume it should actually trigger many individuals a lot hurt, and it *is* patched, so fixing it’s simple.
However there’s an awesome writeup within the FreeBSD safety advisory…
…and it makes for an entertaining, and, if I say so myself, a really informative story for the present technology of programmers who could have relied on,”Third-party libraries will simply do it for me. Coping with low degree community packets? I by no means have to consider it…”
There are some nice classes to be discovered right here.
The ping utility, which is the one community device that just about everyone is aware of about it, will get its title from SONAR.
You go [makes movie submarine noise] ping, after which the echo comes again from the server on the different finish.
And it is a function that’s constructed into the Web Protocol, IP, utilizing a factor referred to as ICMP, which is Web Management Message Protocol.
It’s a particular, low-level protocol, a lot decrease than UDP or TCP that individuals are most likely used to, that’s just about designed for precisely this type of factor: “Are you really even alive on the different finish, earlier than I am going worrying about why your internet server isn’t working?”
There’s a particular sort of packet you may ship out referred to as “ICMP Echo”.
So, you ship this tiny little packet with a brief message in it (the message might be something you want), and it merely sends that exact same message again to you.
It’s only a primary manner of claiming, “If that message doesn’t come again, both the community or your complete server is down”, quite than that there’s some software program drawback on the pc.
By analogy with SONAR, this system that sends out these echo requests is known as… [pause] I’m going to do the sound impact, Doug … [fake submarine movie noise again] ping. [LAUGHTER]
And the concept is, you go, say, ping -c3 (which means verify thrice) nakedsecurity.sophos.com.
You are able to do that proper now, and it’s best to get three replies, every of them one second aside, from the WordPress servers that host our website.
And it’s saying the positioning is alive.
It’s not telling you that the net server is up; it’s not telling you that WordPress is up; it’s not telling that Bare Safety is definitely accessible to learn.
Nevertheless it a minimum of it confirms that you would be able to see the server, and the server can attain you.
And who would have thought that that lowly little ping reply may journey up the FreeBSD ping program in such a manner {that a} rogue server may ship again a booby trapped “Sure, I’m alive” message that would, in idea (in idea solely; I don’t assume anybody has accomplished this in follow) set off distant code execution in your pc.
DOUG. Sure, that’s superb; that’s the superb half.
Even when it’s a proof-of-concept, it’s such a small little factor!
DUCK. The ping program itself will get the entire IP packet again, and it’s presupposed to divide it into two elements.
Usually, the kernel would deal with this for you, so that you’d simply see the info half.
However once you’re coping with what are referred to as uncooked sockets, what you get again is the Web Protocol header, which simply says, “Hey, these bytes got here from such and such a server.”
And you then get a factor referred to as the “ICMP Echo Reply”, which is the second half of the packet you get again.
Now, these packets, they’re usually simply 100 bytes or so, and if it’s IPv4, the primary 20 bytes are the IP header and the rest, no matter it’s, is the Echo Reply.
That has a number of bytes to say, “That is an Echo Reply,” after which the unique message that went out coming again.
And so the plain factor to do, Doug, once you get it, is you cut up it into…
…the IP header, which is 20 bytes lengthy, and the remainder.
Guess the place the issue lies?
DOUG. Do inform!
DUCK. The issue is that IP headers are *nearly at all times* 20 bytes lengthy – actually, I don’t assume I’ve ever seen one which wasn’t.
And you may inform they’re 20 bytes lengthy as a result of the primary byte will probably be hexadecimal 0x45.
The “4”” means IPv4, and the “5”… “Oh, we’ll use that to say how lengthy the header is.”
You’re taking that quantity 5 and also you multiply it by 4 (for 32-bit values), and also you get 20 bytes..
…and that’s the measurement of most likely six sigma’s price of IP headers that you’ll ever see in the entire world, Doug. [LAUGHTER]
However they *can* go as much as 60 bytes.
If you happen to put 0x4F as a substitute of 0x45, that claims there are 0xF (or 15 in decimal) × 4 = 60 bytes within the header.
And the FreeBSD code merely took that header and copied it right into a buffer on the stack that was 20 bytes in measurement.
A easy, old-school stack buffer overflow.
It’s a case of a venerable community troubleshooting device with a venerable kind of bug in it. (Properly, not any extra.)
So, if you find yourself programming and it’s important to take care of low-level stuff that no one’s actually considered for ages, don’t simply go together with the obtained knowledge that claims, “Oh, it’ll at all times be 20 bytes; you’ll by no means see something larger.”
As a result of at some point you would possibly.
And when that day comes, it could be there intentionally as a result of a criminal made it so on function.
So the satan, as at all times, is within the programming particulars, Doug.
DOUG. OK, very fascinating; nice story.
And we are going to stick as regards to code with this ultimate story about Chrome.
One other zero-day, which brings the 2022 whole to 9 occasions:
Quantity 9! Chrome fixes one other 2022 zero-day, Edge patched too
DUCK. [Formal voice, sounding like a recording] “Quantity 9. Quantity 9. Quantity 9, quantity 9,” Douglas.
DOUG. [LAUGHS] Is that this Yoko Ono?
DUCK. That’s Revolution 9 off the Beatles “White Album”.
Yoko might be heard riffing away in that music – that soundscape, I consider they name it – however apparently the bit firstly the place there’s someone saying “Quantity 9, quantity 9” over and over, it was, actually, a check tape they discovered mendacity round.
DOUG. Ah, very cool.
DUCK. An EMI engineer saying one thing like, “That is EMI check tape quantity 9” [LAUGHTER], and apparently I don’t even assume anybody is aware of whose voice it was.
That has *nothing* to do with Chrome, Doug.
However on condition that someone commented on Fb the opposite day, “That Paul man is beginning to appear like a Beatle”… [quizzical] which I discovered barely odd.
DOUG. [LAUGHS] Sure, how are you presupposed to take that?
DUCK. …I figured I may dine out on “Quantity 9”.
It’s the ninth zero-day of the 12 months up to now, it appears, Doug.
And it’s a one-bug repair, with the bug recognized as CVE 2022-4282.
As a result of Microsoft Edge makes use of the Chromium open-source core, it too was susceptible, and a few days later, Microsoft adopted up with an replace for Edge.
So that is each a Chrome and an Edge situation.
Though these browsers ought to replace themselves, I like to recommend going to verify anyway – we present you ways to do this within the article – simply in case.
I gained’t learn out the model numbers right here as a result of they’re totally different for Mac, Linux and Home windows on Chrome, they usually’re totally different once more for Edge.
Like Apple, Google’s being a bit tight-lipped about this one.
It was discovered by certainly one of their menace looking crew, I do consider.
So I think about they discovered it whereas investigating an incident that occurred within the wild, and subsequently they most likely need to hold it underneath their hat, although Google often has so much to say about “openness” relating to bug-fixing.
You possibly can see why, in a case like this, you may want a little bit little bit of time to dig a little bit bit deeper earlier than you inform everyone precisely the way it works.
DOUG. Glorious… and we do have a reader query that’s most likely a query lots of people are considering.
Cassandra asks, “Are the bug finders simply getting fortunate at discovering bugs? Or have they struck a ‘seam’ filled with bugs? Or is Chromium issuing new code that’s extra buggy than regular? Or is one thing else happening?”
DUCK. Sure, that’s an awesome query, really, and I’m afraid that I may solely reply it in a barely facetious form of manner, Doug.
As a result of Cassandra had given decisions A), B) and C), I mentioned, “Properly, perhaps it’s D) All the above.”
We do know that when a bug of 1 explicit type exhibits up in code, then it’s affordable to imagine that the identical programmer could have made comparable bugs elsewhere within the software program.
Or different programmers on the identical firm could have been utilizing what was thought-about obtained knowledge or normal follow on the time, and should have adopted swimsuit.
And an awesome instance Is, if you happen to look again at Log4J… there was a repair to patch the issue.
After which, after they went trying, “Oh, really, there are different locations the place comparable errors have been made.”
So there was a repair for the repair, after which there was a repair for the repair for the repair, If I keep in mind.
There’s, after all, additionally the problem that once you add new code, chances are you’ll get bugs which are distinctive to that new code and are available about due to including options.
And that’s why many browsers, Chrome included, have an if-you-like “barely older” model that you would be able to persist with.
And the concept is that these “older” releases… they’ve not one of the new options, however the entire related safety fixes.
So, if you wish to be conservative about new options, you might be.
However we actually know that, typically, once you shovel new options right into a product, new bugs include the brand new options.
And you may inform that, for instance, when there’s an replace, say, on your iPhone, and also you get updates, say, for iOS 15 and iOS 16.
Then, once you take a look at the bug lists, there are few bugs that solely apply to iOS 16.
And also you assume, “Hiya, these have to be bugs within the code that weren’t there earlier than.”
So, sure, that’s a chance.
And I believe the opposite issues which are happening might be thought-about good.
The primary is that I believe that, significantly for issues like browsers, the browser makers are getting significantly better at pushing out full rebuilds actually, actually rapidly.
DOUG. Attention-grabbing.
DUCK. And I believe the opposite factor that’s modified is that, prior to now, you may argue that for a lot of distributors… it was fairly troublesome to get folks to use patches in any respect, even after they got here out solely on a month-to-month schedule, and even when that they had a number of zero-day fixes in them.
I believe, perhaps it is also a response to the truth that increasingly more of us are increasingly more seemingly not simply to simply accept, however really to *count on* computerized updating that’s actually immediate.
So, I believe you may learn some great things into this.
The very fact not solely that Google can push out a single zero-day repair nearly instantaneously, but additionally that individuals are keen to simply accept that and even to demand it.
So I wish to see that situation of, “Wow, 9 zero-days within the 12 months mounted individually!”…
…I like to consider that extra as “glass half fill and filling up” than “glass half empty and draining by means of a small gap within the backside”. [LAUGHTER]
That’s my opinion.
DOUG. Alright, superb.
Thanks for the query, Cassandra.
When you have an fascinating story, remark or query you’d wish to submit, we’d like to learn it on the podcast.
You possibly can electronic mail suggestions@sophos.com, you may touch upon any certainly one of our articles, or you may hit us up on social: @NakedSecurity.
That’s our present for right now; thanks very a lot for listening.
For Paul Ducklin, I’m Doug Aamoth, reminding you: Till subsequent time…
BOTH. Keep safe!
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