Another interesting attack, rather than going after the PC/Server this one goes after the data sent by wireless devices such as the wireless keyboards sold by Microsoft. The neat thing is by using a replay attack you could also send rogue inputs to the device.

But then it serves Microsoft right for using XOR encryption for the data-steams, which can very easily be broken using frequency analysis.

Security researchers on Friday unveiled an open-source device that captures the traffic of a wide variety of wireless devices, including keyboards, medical devices, and remote controls.

Keykeriki version 2 captures the entire data stream sent between wireless devices using a popular series of chips made by Norway-based Nordic Semiconductor. That includes the device addresses and the raw payload being sent between them. The open-source package was developed by researchers of Switzerland-based Dreamlab Technologies and includes complete software, firmware, and schematics for building the $100 sniffer.

Keykeriki not only allows researchers or attackers to capture the entire layer 2 frames, it also allows them to send their own unauthorized payloads. That means devices that don’t encrypt communications – or don’t encrypt them properly – can be forced to cough up sensitive communications or be forced to execute rogue commands.

It’ll be interesting to see what other kinds of devices they can successfully use this data capture technique on. Keyboards are one thing, and I’d imagine the transmission range of a wireless keyboard is fairly limited so you or the sniffing device would have to be physically near to the target.

At least Logitech seem to have stepped up the security a bit by using AES-128 for the transmission on their wireless keyboards, but the researchers say they still may be able to crack it due to the way the secret keys are exchanged.

Again most likely not an algorithm problem but an issue with the implementation.

At the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver, Dreamlab Senior Security Expert Thorsten Schroder demonstrated how Keykeriki could be used to attack wireless keyboards sold by Microsoft. The exploit worked because communications in the devices are protected by a weak form of encryption known as xor, which is trivial to break. As a result, he was able to intercept keyboard strokes as they were typed and to remotely send input that executed commands on the attached computer.

“Microsoft made it easy for us because they used their own proprietary crypto,” Schroder said. “Xor is not a very proper way to secure data.”

Even when devices employ strong cryptography, Schroder said Keykeriki may still be able to remotely send unauthorized commands using a technique known as a replay attack, in which commands sent previously are recorded and then sent again.

News time is always fun during conference season due to the fact all these interesting and new attacks and vectors are released for public consumption – generally along with code and examples.

If they can use the same techniques to own more interesting devices with more sensitive data, things could certainly get a little more heated.

Source: The Register

Now this is a very interesting technique, as far as I know I’ve not seen anything similar to this before. It’s like a rather bizarre meld of hardware hacking and software exploitation using cryptographic algorithm cracking techniques.

Some rather smart fellas have found a way to extract the private SSL key from a device by creating fluctuations in the power supply and reading the output whilst the device was encrypting data using the private key.

In around 100 hours they could deduce the complete 1024-bit private key stored on the device.

Computer scientists say they’ve discovered a “severe vulnerability” in the world’s most widely used software encryption package that allows them to retrieve a machine’s secret cryptographic key.

The bug in the OpenSSL cryptographic library is significant because the open-source package is used to protect sensitive data in countless applications and operating systems throughout the world. Although the attack technique is difficult to carry out, it could eventually be applied to a wide variety of devices, particularly media players and smartphones with anti-copying mechanisms.

“Wherever you need to verify the origin of a piece of software or a piece of information, those building blocks come in handy,” said Karsten Nohl, an independent security researcher who in unrelated attacks has broken encryption in widely used smartcards and cordless phones. “The OpenSSL library provides much more than just SSL.”

Now although this flaw can be deemed extremely serious and the number of applications and operating systems that use OpenSSL is huge…the fact that they need physical access to the device the manipulate the power supply means the scope of the attack is limited.

It’s not something you could pull off on a remote server in a data center for example.

It would be interesting however for cracking private keys on consumer hardware devices to access the private network that the device hooks onto for updates/subscription packages etc.

The scientists, from the University of Michigan’s electrical engineering and computer science departments, said the bug is easily fixed by applying cryptographic “salt” to an underlying error-checking algorithm. The additional randomization would make the attack unfeasible. An OpenSSL official, who asked that his name not be published, said engineers are in the process of pushing out a patch and stressed the attack is difficult to carry out in real-world settings.

The university scientists found that they could deduce tiny pieces of a private key by injecting slight fluctuations in a device’s power supply as it was processing encrypted messages. In a little more than 100 hours, they were able to feed the device enough “transient faults” that they were able to assemble the entirety of its 1024-bit key.

“This is probably not as much of a threat to a server system as it is to a consumer device,” said Todd Austin, one of the scientists who devised the attack. “The place where this would be more applicable would be if you want to attack a Blu-ray player (where) you have an environment where someone is giving you a device that has a private key to protect intellectual property and you have physical access to the device.”

But as per usual for cryptographic attacks, they are usually researched and developed by scientists and work in the theoretical realm far better than they do in reality for practical exploitation.

Either way it’s an interesting attack and an interesting use of technology, of course OpenSSL will be patching the problem shortly (adding a simple salt will negate the attack).

What will they come up with next?

Source: The Register

Ah, so finally they got it back, from a street corner of all places.

Let’s hope they shall be a little more careful in the future yah?

The missing laptop and hard drive that contained veterans’ personal information has been found, Veterans Administration Chief Jim Nicholson announced Thursday.

The announcement came at the beginning of a hearing before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing.

“It was confirmed to me by the deputy attorney general that law enforcement has in their possession the … laptop and hard drive,” Nicholson said in a statement at the hearing. “The serial numbers match.”

Of course the FBI will roll out it’s forensics experts to testify the data has not been accessed, but let’s face it, how hard is it to mount the drive read only and clone it?

Not very right..

Experts were conducting forensic tests on the laptop and hard drive, Nicholson said. It was not immediately clear if the data on the equipment had been copied or compromised, but Nicholson said “there is reason to be optimistic.”

He did not say how the equipment was recovered, on where it’s been during the past two months. The equipment was found Wednesday; Nicholson said he wasn’t aware of any arrests made in connection with the incident.

An FBI spokesman said the laptop computer was recovered “in the area,” but could not provide more specific information. Forensics tests showed “the sensitive files were not accessed,” according to special agent in charge Bill Chase.

We’ll look at the forensics techniques in more depth later.

Source: MSNBC