OPSEC or How to Not Get Owned While Owning Someone

James Schwinabart

[email protected]

September 25, 2012

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Disclaimer

Use these skills for good, not evil. What you consider good is up to you, but don’t hold me accountable for your own actions, and I do not condone the use of what I’m about to talk about for anything illegal or against the Virginia Tech AUP.

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Overview

1 Why OPSEC is important

2 Know your enemy

3 Developing a plan

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WTF is OPSEC?

Operational (or Operations) Security Traditionally used to determine if friendly actions can be observed by adversaries. For purposes of this talk, you can think of OPSEC as “personal security”. (Don’t kill me, please.)

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Basic Idea

Protect what’s secret

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What can happen if your OPSEC sucks

?

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Why talk about OPSEC now

{The NSA,CNS,Comcast,NTC} are watching you. Tools are getting easier to use (both for attack and defense). I felt like it.

...... OPSEC Know your enemy

Who is your enemy?

The other teams on the CTF. The sysadmin who owns that box you just rooted. Some government. The Russian mob. A guy in Romania you pissed off on TF2 last night and wants to “dox” you.

...... OPSEC Know your enemy

Why is your enemy...your enemy?

They want the $500 prize and will do almost anything for it. People don’t like when you’re root on their box without them knowing. The government doesn’t like your political views. The Russian mob wants your credit card info to resell. Too much Backburner for his taste?

...... OPSEC Developing a plan

Tailor your practices to fit your needs

Know what your enemies are capable of. If you need to defend against some government, your needs are much different than someone who needs to defend against the other teams on the CTF.

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Consider potential attacks

Passive sniffing Wifi sniffing Room 641A and the like Man-in-the-middle attacks ARP spoofing “Free Public Wifi” Evil ISPs Software attacks Buffer overflows Misconfigured applications Malware

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Consider potential attacks

Physical layer attacks Disk imaging Keyloggers Evil maid attack Snooping Port scanning your IP range Open AFS, CIFS, or NFS shares Dumpster-diving Social engineering Blackmail Loose lips (sink ships!)

...... OPSEC Developing a plan grugq's Top 10 Things to Strive For

1 Never reveal your operational details 2 Never reveal your plans 3 Never trust anyone 4 Never confuse recreation and hacking 5 Never operate from your own house 6 Be proactively paranoid, it doesn’t work retroactively 7 Keep personal life and hacking separated 8 Keep your personal environment contraband free 9 Don’t talk to the police 10 Don’t give anyone power over you http://www.slideshare.net/grugq/opsec-for-hackers

...... OPSEC Developing a plan

Some example general rules Use end-to-end for all network traffic. GPG OTR ZRTP TLS IPsec Encrypt your sensitive data. TrueCrypt LUKS encfs Use whenever possible. Warning: Don’t confuse anonymity and privacy! Don’t use closed-source software.

Be aware of your surroundings...... OPSEC Developing a plan

Develop additional rules as needed

While in #anonops, don’t post information that can be linked to you. While at DefCon, disable GSM on your mobile phone. While at a CTF, do not send unencrypted IRC packets. Wipe devices before crossing an international border. If necessary, become someone else.

...... OPSEC Developing a plan

Some rules for a CTF competitor

Don’t believe anyone you haven’t met in person. Don’t send unencrypted packets to other team members. Don’t send flags in the clear over the network. Be aware of who is watching and/or listening.

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Know Your Weaknesses

Impenetrable is impossible. At least you won’t be surprised if you get owned. Constantly evaluate how you can reduce your own vulnerabilities.

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Keep In Mind

OPSEC is important. Poor OPSEC can lead to . There is no “one-size-fits-all.” Impenetrable is impossible.

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