Author: thefluffy007

A hacker's thoughts on hacking ALL THE THINGS!
capture the flag, hacking

@RealTryHackMe #AdventOfCyber Series: Challenge 4 – Scanning Through The Snow #TisTheSeasonForHacking

thefluffy007

Another day, another challenge…

In this post, we’re starting a new series, the Advent of Cyber, hosted by TryHackMe. This is the fourth year of the Advent of Cyber, where a challenge is released every day leading to Christmas. There will be 25 challenges; we’re McSkidy, an elf trying to save Christmas.

In our fourth challenge, elf Recon McRed is scanning the server qa.santagift.shop which is used to add and delete gifts from Santa website. Recon McRed wants to determine how the server was compromised.

The topics explored in this challenge are the different types of scanning – passive and active, networking, port, vulnerability. Along with scanning tools such as nmap (network mapper) and Nikto.

Can Recon McRed figure out how the qa.santagift.shop was compromised? Find out below!

If you enjoy my content, buy me a coffee. Link –> http://buymeacoffee.com/thefluffy007

capture the flag, hacking

@RealTryHackMe #AdventOfCyber Series: Challenge 3 – Nothing Escapes Detective McRed #TisTheSeasonForHacking

thefluffy007

Another day, another challenge…

In this post, we’re starting a new series, the Advent of Cyber, hosted by TryHackMe. This is the fourth year of the Advent of Cyber, where a challenge is released every day leading to Christmas. There will be 25 challenges; we’re McSkidy, an elf trying to save Christmas.

In our third challenge, elf Recon McRed is trying to figure out how the santagift.shop website was compromised.

The topics explored in this challenge are OSINT techniques such as Google Dorks, WHOIS lookup, Robots.txt, Breached Database Search, and GitHub repos.

Can Recon McRed figure out how the santagift.shop was compromised? Find out below!

If you enjoy my content, buy me a coffee. Link –> http://buymeacoffee.com/thefluffy007

capture the flag, hacking

@RealTryHackMe #AdventOfCyber Series: Challenge 2 – Santa’s Naughty & Nice Log #TisTheSeasonForHacking

thefluffy007

Another day, another challenge…

In this post, we’re starting a new series, the Advent of Cyber, hosted by TryHackMe. This is the fourth year of the Advent of Cyber, where a challenge is released every day leading to Christmas. There will be 25 challenges; we’re McSkidy, an elf trying to save Christmas.

In our second challenge, we’re presented with a scenario where a web server, santagift.shop, has been hijacked by the Bandit Yeti APT group. Our task is to analyze the log files from the web server and track down the Bandit Yeti APT group.

The topics explored in this challenge are different ways to parse log files, such as Windows Event Viewer, and common system log files in Linux, such as the /var/log directory. And common commands such as grep are used to search for text in a file.

Can McSkidy parse the web server log files and track down the Bandit Yeti APT group? Find out below!

If you enjoy my content, buy me a coffee. Link –> http://buymeacoffee.com/thefluffy007

capture the flag, hacking

@RealTryHackMe #AdventOfCyber Series: Challenge 1 – Someone’s Coming To Town #TisTheSeasonForHacking

thefluffy007

Another day, another challenge…

In this post, we’re starting a new series, the Advent of Cyber, hosted by TryHackMe. This is the fourth year of the Advent of Cyber, where a challenge is released every day leading to Christmas. There will be 25 challenges; we’re McSkidy, an elf trying to save Christmas.

In our first challenge, we’re presented with a scenario where McSkidy discovered the Best Festival’s Company website has been defaced, and Santa cannot send gifts! McSkidy must complete three puzzles to determine who attacked Santa’s network and find the flag.

The topics explored in this challenge are security frameworks such as NIST, ISO 27001, MITRE Att&ck, Cyber Kill Chain, and Unified Kill Chain.

Can McSkidy solve the three puzzles to find the flag? Find out below!

If you enjoy my content, buy me a coffee. Link –> http://buymeacoffee.com/thefluffy007

cybersecurity education

Let’s Talk About Cybersecurity Education

thefluffy007

I read this article on tech boot camps, inspiring me to write this post.

Dreams Deferred

I recently presented at the CAE (Center for Academic Excellence) Forum, “Dreams Deferred: The Cost of Cybersecurity Education,” discussing boot camps/training center programs centered around cybersecurity.

The inspiration for my presentation came as I read articles discussing potential solutions to retain and strengthen the cybersecurity pipeline. But I didn’t see articles discussing the downside and downright predatory practices of some boot camps/training centers with underrepresented groups.

In the past three months, I encountered four African Americans lured into these programs. When I asked what made them want to pursue these boot camps/training centers, they described reading articles and watching the news discussing the cybersecurity workforce shortage. Each person believed that completing the boot camp/training center program would improve their lives by getting a job in cybersecurity.

(Almost) Dream Deferred

Their stories sparked memories of almost enrolling in a training center after high school. At that time, IT was a hot topic. I remember commercials describing students as “job ready” after completing the program, and IT experience was not required. I felt ahead of the curve as I had IT experience working at a non-profit during high school.

The plan was to go to class in the morning (8am-12pm) as classes were half-days (another selling point) and then go to work afterward. After describing this to my mentor, she advised me to not go down that path. Her words, “Jasmine go to community college, do not destroy your life. If something is too good to be true, most times it is.”

I’m glad my mentor gave that advice. If she didn’t, I wouldn’t have done the amazing things in my career, such as being an intern for the first African American to receive a Doctorate in Computer Science (Dr. Clarence “Skip” Ellis), graduating with my Master’s in Computer Science and Graduate Certificate in Information Security and Privacy, traveling the world presenting cybersecurity topics, and mentoring the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.

Insidious and Predatory Practices

To better understand the insidious and predatory practices of boot camps/training centers, we need to discuss their patterns:

1. Create targeted ads and marketing to underrepresented groups

2. Lure the potential student to get into tech with little to no experience on an accelerated schedule of six months to one year

3. Make the program seem “exclusive” to rush the student to enroll as soon as possible

4. Have students sign private loans to pay for tuition, which on average is between 3k-15k and interest rates of 10%+

5. The coursework is too difficult for the student to master, and they drop out of the program.

OR

6. The coursework is too easy and doesn’t challenge the student

7. The student graduates from the program, doesn’t find a job and has thousands of dollars in debt.

Falling Prey

One of the four people that contacted me described this exact scenario. This person has a private loan for $12,000 with an interest rate of 13%. Their program is six months. I remember telling this person that my interest rate was never that high with all my years of education (Master’s). They also told me they were falling behind in their coursework as the curriculum had drastically increased. When I inquired more about the coursework, I found the curriculum is not accredited, and most of it is currently available on YouTube. After showing them this information, the person felt dejected. Their words, “I spent $12,000 to improve my life, and I could’ve done this on YouTube for free.”

Quality Cybersecurity Education for All

With the increased push to increase and strengthen the cybersecurity pipeline, mainly from the White House with the National Cybersecurity Workforce and Education Summit, the education potential cybersecurity professionals consume must be quality. This is extremely important for underrepresented populations more susceptible to enrolling in faulty programs described above.

I created my non-profit, T-ATP, to provide an environment for prospective cybersecurity professionals to receive quality cybersecurity training and education. Our mission – creating quality cybersecurity education accessible to all. Students shouldn’t go into debt to improve their lives through quality education.

To learn more or support T-ATP, visit the link here.

capture the flag, hacking

@RealTryHackMe #AdventOfCyber Series: Challenge 6 – Patch Management Is Hard #TisTheSeasonForHacking

thefluffy007

Another day, another challenge…

In this post, we’re starting a new series the Advent of Cyber series that is hosted by TryHackMe. This is the third year of the Advent of Cyber where a challenge is released everyday leading to Christmas. In total there will be 25 challenges. In these challenges, we’re McSkidy an elf trying to save Christmas.

In our sixth challenge, we’re presented with a scenario where McSkidy discovered some recovery keys on a web application on a server that needed to be decommissioned. The elf in charge of decommissioning the server never got around to doing the task. McSkidy realizes that the recovery keys found can be used to save other systems.

The topics explored in this challenge are Local File Inclusion (LFI), and Remote Command Execution (RCE). LFI is a vulnerability where files can be accessed from the server. This is bad as ANY file with read permissions can be accessed. LFI happens due to Un-sanitized or lack of input validation. The application accepts any input from the users. Another topic explored is RCE. RCE happens when the user can inject or write to a specific file. When a user finds LFI it’s a good idea to see if RCE is also possible. This will be helpful for our challenge.

Can McSkidy use the recovery keys to log into other systems? Find out below!

If you enjoy my content, buy me a coffee. Link –> http://buymeacoffee.com/thefluffy007

capture the flag, hacking, Uncategorized

@RealTryHackMe #AdventOfCyber Series: Challenge 24 – Learning From The Grinch #TisTheSeasonForHacking

thefluffy007

Another day, another challenge…

In this post, we’re starting a new series the Advent of Cyber series that is hosted by TryHackMe. This is the third year of the Advent of Cyber where a challenge is released everyday leading to Christmas. In total there will be 25 challenges. In these challenges, we’re McSkidy an elf trying to save Christmas.

In our twenty-fourth challenge, we’re presented with a scenario where McSkidy wants to perform the same attacks Grinch Enterprises employed on the elves network to learn more about the attack. McSkidy will use the same machine that Grinch Enterprises compromised to understand the Grinch better.

The topic(s) explored in this challenge are post exploitation, hashing, how passwords are stored in the Windows operating system, the mimikatz tool, and how to crack a password hash using the tool John The Ripper. Hashing is a one-way function that is used to change text into an unrecognized form. There are many hashing algorithms such as MD5, SHA1, SHA256, etc.

Post-Exploitation is the process after the attacker has gained access to the system. In this stage, the attacker wants to keep persistence to the machine – meaning they do not want to lose their connection and they also want to escalate their privileges from a standard user to an Administrator/root user.

Hashing is important as it leads into the next topic of how passwords are stored in the Windows operating system. Windows passwords are stored in the Security Accounts Database (SAM). When a user types in a password, that password hash is compared to the hash in the SAM database by way of the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) service. If the passwords match, then the user successful logs in. If the passwords do not match, the user will receive an error message “incorrect password.”

Now that we know how passwords are stored and retrieved in Windows, we can dump them using the mimikatz tool. This tool allows us to dump the hashes from memory that comes from the LSASS service. Finally, once we have a password hash, we can use the tool John The Ripper to crack it. With John The Ripper, we can specify the hashing algorithm we want to use in the process.

Can McSkidy use the Grinch’s nefarious activities to learn more about his attacks? Find out below!

If you enjoy my content, buy me a coffee. Link –> http://buymeacoffee.com/thefluffy007

capture the flag, hacking

@RealTryHackMe #AdventOfCyber Series: Challenge 23 – PowershELlF Magic #TisTheSeasonForHacking

thefluffy007

Another day, another challenge…

In this post, we’re starting a new series the Advent of Cyber series that is hosted by TryHackMe. This is the third year of the Advent of Cyber where a challenge is released everyday leading to Christmas. In total there will be 25 challenges. In these challenges, we’re McSkidy an elf trying to save Christmas.

In our twenty-third challenge, we’re presented with a scenario where one of the admins from Elf Dome Enterprises realizes his password file is missing from his desktop. McSkidy suspects that a previous phishing attempt was successful and is on the hunt to figure out what happened.

The topic(s) explored in this challenge are PowerShell and Event Viewer. PowerShell is used to automate day-to-day tasks. PowerShell can also be used for nefarious activity as well. PowerShell is available on Windows, Linux, and macOS. The last concept Event Viewer is a logging system. All actions in Windows are classified as an event and has a specific event ID and record ID. Event Viewer can be helpful as we can filter all events for a particular day, activity/action, and/or provider (such as PowerShell). This will be helpful for the challenge.

Can McSkidy figure out how the admin from Elf Dome Enterprises lost his password file? Find out below!

If you enjoy my content, buy me a coffee. Link –> http://buymeacoffee.com/thefluffy007

capture the flag, hacking

@RealTryHackMe #AdventOfCyber Series: Challenge 25 – Feedback #TisTheSeasonForHacking

thefluffy007

Another day, another challenge…

In this post, we’re starting a new series the Advent of Cyber series that is hosted by TryHackMe. This is the third year of the Advent of Cyber where a challenge is released everyday leading to Christmas. In total there will be 25 challenges. In these challenges, we’re McSkidy an elf trying to save Christmas.

In our twenty-fifth (and final) challenge, we’re presented with a survey link to give feedback on how we felt about the Advent of Cyber challenges! Completing the link will provide the final flag of Advent of Cyber, so make sure to do it. Whew, that was a rough/fun 25 days of learning.

Also, if you want to delve deeper into a particular topic there are three additional links to the learning paths of Pre-Security, Junior Penetration Tester, and Defensive Security. Check those links out to pick your flavor of InfoSec!

If you want to hear my hilarious commentary on this challenge, click the video below!

If you enjoy my content, buy me a coffee. Link –> http://buymeacoffee.com/thefluffy007

capture the flag, hacking

@RealTryHackMe #AdventOfCyber Series: Challenge 22 – How It Happened #TisTheSeasonForHacking

thefluffy007

Another day, another challenge…

In this post, we’re starting a new series the Advent of Cyber series that is hosted by TryHackMe. This is the third year of the Advent of Cyber where a challenge is released everyday leading to Christmas. In total there will be 25 challenges. In these challenges, we’re McSkidy an elf trying to save Christmas.

In our twenty-second challenge, we’re presented with a scenario where McSkidy has identified the first trace of Grinch Enterprises in their network. Now, McSkidy needs to find out what they did when they entered the network. Hmm… I wonder what that could be.

The topic(s) explored in this challenge are the encoding, ciphers, and oledump tool. In particular, we read about base64 encoding and how it’s still used to evade Antivirus detection even though it’s not super effective. The next topic was ciphers. In particular, we read about XOR ciphers which is used as an either-or option. Meaning, you can pick one option, but not both. The final topic is the oledump tool. This tool is used to analyze OLE files which you can think of as mini file systems. These files can hide macros which is executable code in Word and Excel documents. Bad actors can use macros to add malicious code. <— this will be helpful in this challenge.

Can McSkidy figure out what the Grinch did after gaining initial access to the system? Find out below!

If you enjoy my content, buy me a coffee. Link –> http://buymeacoffee.com/thefluffy007