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The curious case of the Raspberry Pi in the network closet (2019)

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Re: The curious case of the Raspberry Pi in the network closet (2019)

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had a prod case where a server was being flooded with requests, and a downstream server kept falling over. We figured it was an attack of some sort and investigated, eventually traced it back to a computer inside our own network (we're a big computer, five floors of computers). It had an open file share, containing some Delphi books and from which we got the computer name too. So we walked over to the Delphi team'…

I'm surprised employees have sufficient access to prod to make this mistake.

I've done security reviews for a dozen companies. This sort of thing is startlingly common. Every single company I've reviewed is doing something that in retrospect should have been obvious.

I try to tell people: "You don't need AI security, you need a checklist." Colonial Pipeline reused passwords, shared passwords, used the same password for all VPN users, failed to rotate it when people left. (that's 4 insanely basic violations of password security). ANY human who did a security review would have caught that. Even an intern who knew nothing and furiously googled "information security review" on the bus on the way in to kick off the review. (no disrespect to interns in over their heads, my point is they didn't prioritize security so they didn't get security)

Capital One used an admin privileged instance profile attached to a publicly accessible admin interface for a security tool (which tool, by the way, had no need of admin credentials). They were hit by an SSRF vuln and leaked their admin credentials. They also failed to alert of unexpected use of those credentials (try it, use of admin credentials is rare enough you won't have a lot of noise) failed to alert on large outbound connection (this one is subtle, but worth doing if you can figure it out)

Equifax failed to apply security updates regularly (just turn on automatic security updates. People suck at chores) Failed to deploy a SIEM, failed to conduct periodic security reviews, failed to put capable security people in place.

The above are not my clients, just public reports to illustrate that everyone can benefit from a security review to catch the obvious errors.

Re: The curious case of the Raspberry Pi in the network closet (2019)

#142
post #81
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you can have the initrd boot to a dropbear sshd that allows the operator to ssh in on reboots and provide the key.

If you count on the device running "forever", or at least until you pick it up again, you could also just store the key on the device and delete/destroy it (the key) on boot.

Why in god's name would you pick it up later? Installing it in the first place was a huge risk. Removing it is just doubling down

Re: The curious case of the Raspberry Pi in the network closet (2019)

#143
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a suggestion for a change to treating network security?

1) 802.1x certificate based network security (The MDM configures each approved network device with a certificate so rogue devices can't get on the network) 2) Periodic security review (look at attached network devices and determine an owner and purpose for each one). 3) Configure SIEM to alert on long-lived outbound connections.

Can that (1) be done with windows/Mac clients?

Re: The curious case of the Raspberry Pi in the network closet (2019)

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seem pertinent to atleast get an affidavit from the ex-employee detailing what he as done, agree to hold on to the hardware as evidence, put liability on the employee for any time-bombs that might have been stored, ask him explicitly to give in writing all the activities he performed, etc. Just to have a thread to pull on, in the future, when something might go wrong.

We did get a hand written statement from him and the original evidence (hardware) is still untouched and locked away. In his statement he wrote that the pi logged to the SD card but there was no data on the SD card (well not on the data partition) and I'm pretty sure that was a lie and it just logged to Balena. But even though we could never decipher what the nodejs program actually did (because it was so heavily obf…

Any plans to release to code? I would love to take a look.

Re: The curious case of the Raspberry Pi in the network closet (2019)

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the many reasons that I dislike the push towards wifi/wireless for everything. It makes my hair stand on end to see people using wireless keyboards (which people usually have for at least 5 years). People seem so disgusted when you even suggest that these things are inherently bad ideas which will inevitably lead to consequences and immediately push you into a naysayer/antiprogressive category verbally or sile…

Can you explain in clear ways how the person you're telling this to will directly be harmed?

I just recently learned that Logitech unifying receivers were susceptible to “mousejacking”[1] for years before a firmware update fixed it in 2016. There’s still probably many non-updated receivers out there.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/14/20692471/logitech-mouseja...

Re: The curious case of the Raspberry Pi in the network closet (2019)

#146
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) 802.1x certificate based network security (The MDM configures each approved network device with a certificate so rogue devices can't get on the network) 2) Periodic security review (look at attached network devices and determine an owner and purpose for each one). 3) Configure SIEM to alert on long-lived outbound connections.

Can that (1) be done with windows/Mac clients?

Answering myself: yes, is industry standard, definitely a little odd to not have it configured on a corporate network past a handful of employees.

Re: The curious case of the Raspberry Pi in the network closet (2019)

#147
post #3

Author of the article here. Since I first published this blog post I was getting messages from people asking how it ended. Sadly it's pretty anticlimactic as the owner of the place had a meeting with the guy who put the Pi there (without me as he didn't want the Pi-dropper to feel ambushed) and in the end decided not to escalate it to legal and just basically told him to pack his things and get out. So no legal after…

[deleted]

Re: The curious case of the Raspberry Pi in the network closet (2019)

#148
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Gifted” individuals are selected at early ages to run through rigorous education programs that greatly push them ahead of their peers. It is a pipeline to create intellectual elites and captains of industry. Gifted kids are widely accepted as the most intelligent kids of a school and held up as the finest examples of the school’s educational abilities.

Do kids in gifted programs go on to become intellectual elites and “captains of industry” at higher rates than their peers?

I was put through through multiple gifted programs in both middle school and high school (Southern US). I loved the challenging course work from dealing with college level science classes as early as the 7th grade. The main problem with gifted programs is it really makes normal public schooling extra miserable once you are back with the general population. Uncaring teachers, scantron tests, and large classes sizes left me depressed with schooling quality.

Once I got to college after graduating from a boarding school for gifted teens it was like a culture shock back to the world of horrible professors. I nearly failed out of college due to being completely uninterested with the lack of engaging materials in first semester classes.

Ended up with a degree in broadcast journalism because it was an easy path to graduating in less than 3 years. Especially because I was graduating during the 2008 financial crisis and just wanted to be done with school and find whatever job I could to get a start in the real world.

It's a nice piece of paper for HR to nod at and let me pass the degree hurdle.

My favorite moment was working a shit retail job in 2010 and running into another graduate of the same gifted high school working a fast food job just to survive.

EDIT// I did have some classmates go to found companies, work for NASA, etc. They were driven people who could have prospered in any scenario honestly.

Re: The curious case of the Raspberry Pi in the network closet (2019)

#149
post #51
post #3

Author of the article here. Since I first published this blog post I was getting messages from people asking how it ended. Sadly it's pretty anticlimactic as the owner of the place had a meeting with the guy who put the Pi there (without me as he didn't want the Pi-dropper to feel ambushed) and in the end decided not to escalate it to legal and just basically told him to pack his things and get out. So no legal after…

As I was reading this I was hoping for modern day Cuckoo's Egg. But it was not to be. Great write up. Thanks for sharing.

For anybody wondering, the Cuckoo's Egg (written in 1989 by Cliff Stoll) is a wonderful read about tracking an early hacker. I highly recommend it.

Re: The curious case of the Raspberry Pi in the network closet (2019)

#150
post #11

> they identified the dongle as a microprocessor, almost as powerful as the Rasberry Pi itself Well, its more like an order of magnitude slower than the Pi (and with a lot less RAM as well) > A very powerful wifi, bluetooth and RFID reader. It's 2.4GHz, but only BLE and custom protocols (2 Mbit max, GFSK modulation). The SoC can do RFID, but you have to connect a transmitter coil to use it, which doesn't seem to be t…

Maybe a 6lowpan interface for maintenance. This way he could interact with it from inside the room without having to access the closet.
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