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Attend Gunnar’s Kick-A Mobile Security and Development Class

Rich September 18, 2012 No Comments

Our very own Gunnar Peterson is co-presenting what looks like an insanely awesome mobile application security class. And with a name like The Mobile App Sec Triathlon you know I am interested. The class is November 5-7 in San Jose, and you can get more information and sign up This class covers what developers, architects, and security people should know when working on Mobile, iOS, and Android. The first day is more high level, with the second two days all developer hands-on. Gunnar also wrote a post on why he trains, with a lot more information. This is really a great opportunity, and I don’t believe there is anyone else as qualified offering this sort of class. Share:

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It’s Time for Enterprises to Support a “Backup” Browser

Rich September 18, 2012 2 Comments

In today’s news we see yet another zero-day Internet Explorer exploit being used in the wild. And once again, soon after becoming public, an exploit was added to Metasploit. Well, sort of. While the in-the-wild attack only works against Windows XP, the Metasploit version works against Windows 7 and Vista. (Note that IE 10 isn’t affected). You can read the article linked above for the details, but this gets to something I have been recommending privately for a while: support 2 browsers, even if one is only for emergencies. First of all, ideally you’ll be on a modern operating system. I’m not one to blame the victim, but allowing XP is a real problem – which I know many of you fight every day. Second, this advice doesn’t help with all browser-based attacks, especially Java. But you can configure it in a way that helps. Choose a secondary browser that is allowed for web browsing. Chrome is most secure right now, but make sure you set its privacy defaults to not bleed info out to Google. Ideally block Java in the browser. Maybe even Flash, depending on how you feel about the Chrome sandbox. If something like this IE flaw hits, notify users to use the secondary browser for outside websites (odds are you need IE for internal web apps programmed by idiots or 19th-century transplants, and so cannot ban it completely). If you can, set a network policy that (temporarily) blocks IE from accessing external sites (again, you can make exemptions for partners). Unfortunately I don’t believe many tools support this. I know this advice isn’t perfect. And there are tools like Invincea and (soon) Bromium that can likely stop this stuff cold in the browser – as well as a few network tools, although history shows signature-based defenses aren’t all that effective here. But if you can pull it off you aren’t stuck waiting for a patch or another workaround. Especially if you go with the “block Java / isolate or block Flash” option. This approach allows you to still only support one browser for your applications, and use a secondary one when needed without users having to violate policy to install it themselves. Share:

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