Tag Archives: Security

Secure Zammad with LetsEncrypt Certıfıcate on Ubuntu 20.4 Apache

The Story

after installing Zammad ticketing system I tried to implement Let’sEncrypt certificate to secure the system but there was nothing available on the internet except an old article about implementing this on Ubuntu 16 with Nginx (see article here).

In my case I was using apache and no Nginx in place, and after installing Zammad it was using pretty fine on Http but needed to redirect http to HTTPS after implementing the certificate.

Solution:

I first Installed Certbot for apache and then I took a backup of all my Zammad configuration and made sure not to alter the default Zammad directory.

So I created a dummy folder called /var/www/support and a file called /var/www/support/index.html within that folder and provided them the appropriate permissions.

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache

 sudo mkdir /var/www/support

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/support

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/support

sudo nano /var/www/support/index.html


Edit the index.html file with the following to make sure that it works

<html>
             <head>
                         <title>Welcome to Your_domain!</title>
             </head>
             <body>
                       <h1>Success! The your_domain virtual host is working!</h1>
           </body>
</html>

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Edit Zammad’s Default Config File

Please make sure you take a move the original copy of Zammad file to another location using the following command

sudo mv /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/zammad.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/zammad.bak

Then we’ll replace the file with this configuration but since we moved the original file to .bak then we’ll have to recreate it with our intended configuration.

Edit a new zammad.conf file and copy the configuration below

sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/zammad.conf

Configuration starts below this:

#

# this is the apache config for zammad

#

# security – prevent information disclosure about server version

#ServerTokens Prod

<VirtualHost *:8080> # I changed the default port of Zammad to 8080 to allow Letsencrypt to connect on 80 and create the certificate

# replace ‘localhost’ with your fqdn if you want to use zammad from remote

ServerName localhost:8080

## don’t loose time with IP address lookups

HostnameLookups Off

## needed for named virtual hosts

UseCanonicalName Off

## configures the footer on server-generated documents

ServerSignature Off

ProxyRequests Off

ProxyPreserveHost On

<Proxy 127.0.0.1:3000>

Require local

</Proxy>

ProxyPass /assets !

ProxyPass /favicon.ico !

ProxyPass /apple-touch-icon.png !

ProxyPass /robots.txt !

ProxyPass /ws ws://127.0.0.1:6042/

ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:3000/

— INSERT — 10,38 Top

DocumentRoot “/opt/zammad/public”

<Directory />

Options FollowSymLinks

AllowOverride None

</Directory>

<Directory “/opt/zammad/public”>

Options FollowSymLinks

Require all granted

</Directory>

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>

ServerName support.cloud-net.tech

DocumentRoot /var/www/support

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log

CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

– ————————-

In the above configuration we did two things:

1- Replacing the original Zammad listening port instead of 80 to 8080

2- Created a new virtual host that points to our dummy folder /var/www/support

Save the file and exit from vi

Make sure you restart Apache after this

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Enable the new site configuration

sudo a2ensite zammad.conf

Lets create the certificate

In the below commands , the first one will drive you through the process of getting the certificate.

The second checks the status of the configuration of the auto renewal script certbot and third command tests the renewal of the certificate.

1- sudo certbot –apache

2- sudo systemctl status certbot.timer

3- sudo certbot renew –dry-run

As you can see in the below screenshot the command also asks you if you’d like to redirect all http traffic to HTTPS. You should want to say Y to that.

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When you accept creating Redirection rule from HTTP to HTTPs the main Zammad config will get that configuration which wont work in that case because we already changed the default zammad port to 8080.

So you’ll need to get into that zammad.conf that you created again and enter the redirection portion

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# this is the apache config for zammad
#


# security – prevent information disclosure about server version
#ServerTokens Prod


<VirtualHost *:8080>
     # replace ‘localhost’ with your fqdn if you want to use zammad from remote
     ServerName support.cloud-net.tech:8080


    ## don’t loose time with IP address lookups
     HostnameLookups Off


    ## needed for named virtual hosts
     UseCanonicalName Off


    ## configures the footer on server-generated documents
     ServerSignature Off


    ProxyRequests Off
     ProxyPreserveHost On


    <Proxy 127.0.0.1:3000>
         Require local
     </Proxy>


    ProxyPass /assets !
     ProxyPass /favicon.ico !
     ProxyPass /apple-touch-icon.png !
     ProxyPass /robots.txt !
     ProxyPass /ws ws://127.0.0.1:6042/
     ProxyPass /
http://127.0.0.1:3000/


    # change this line in an SSO setup
     RequestHeader unset X-Forwarded-User


     DocumentRoot “/opt/zammad/public”


    <Directory />
         Options FollowSymLinks
         AllowOverride None
     </Directory>


    <Directory “/opt/zammad/public”>
         Options FollowSymLinks
         Require all granted
     </Directory>


RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =support.cloud-net.tech
RewriteRule ^
https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]

<VirtualHost *:80>
     ServerName support.cloud-net.tech
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =support.cloud-net.tech
RewriteRule ^
https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>

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Note:

You need to make sure that you have enabled port 443 on your Firewall and changed the main protocol of Zammad to HTTPs

To do so you’ll need to get into the Zammad portal > Settings > System > Http Type and change that to HTTPS.

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That’s it, my example here worked as expected and now my traffic is automatically getting redirected to https.

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Hope this helps anyone looking for such configuration.

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Secure Your DNS Traffic with the outside world

DoH in Microsoft Windows OS

Until this moment Microsoft Windows OS doesn’t support DNS over HTTPS, The feature will most likely be implemented in future builds but no body knows when is that however, You can still take a peak into the feature which is in preview mode/

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Benefit of using DoH on an OS level

The benefit of using DoH on an Operating System level would provide more certainty that your DNS queries leave your computer without being read by any other party even if that is your ISP.

A simple DNS nslookup query using Wireshark on your computer would show you how serious this topic is. After installing Wireshark you’ll be able to see that all of your dns queries are in clear text and can be read by anyone until it gets to the destination website/server.

Demonstration of DNS lookup without DoH

After installing Wireshark, I fire up Powershell or CMD and try to nslookup google.com and it’ll show what I just queried for.

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So how to make sure that your DNS queries don’t leave your computer in clear text format? and since Microsoft OS is not DoH ready yet what can you do?

In my case, I am already using encrypted DNS on firewall level as I have Pfsense acting as a router and it already supports DoH but still not pretty satisfied :).

DNSCrypt as a solution

Since the foundation of DoH I have been looking for a solution that would work on Microsoft Windows OS and luckily someone already created this great project called Simple DNSCrypt which not just enables the encryption of DNS queries on your OS but also enables this to work as a service.

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Installing DNSCrypt would create a Windows based Service which would start automatically when your OS boots and logs into Windows.

The service is called DNSCrypt Client Proxy

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DNSCrypt has a simple interface, You can pick up the DNS Server where to forward queries to and it works with proof.

Right after the installation of this tiny app, launch it as an administrator and configure it as in the below screenshot. You can choose to install the service or not.

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Right after you enable it (By clicking on your Network Card box) that will start protecting your DNS queries. Let’s go ahead with a little demo

I am going to start Wireshark after enabling DnsCrypt and do a google dns lookup , As you can see below on wireshark it’s not returning any dns queries.

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When you install Simple DNSCrypt it changes your Preferred DNS configuration to localhost so that all queries is passed through the app in DNS over HTTPS which doesn’t allow even Wireshark to see it as DNS.

So that makes it pretty secure and not even your firewall will see it.

If you have any question please don’t hesitate to ask me

Official DNScrypt website https://simplednscrypt.org/

Support the project founder https://github.com/bitbeans/SimpleDnsCrypt

Mimecast trust cert hacked in Microsoft supply chain

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The Threatpost.com and other cyber security news published articles claiming that A Mimecast-issued certificate used to authenticate some of the company’s products to Microsoft 365 Exchange Web Services has been “compromised by a sophisticated threat actor,” the company has announced.

Office 365 Products and Services Explained

Mimecast provides email security services that customers can apply to their Microsoft 365 accounts by establishing a connection to Mimecast’s servers. The certificate in question is used to verify and authenticate those connections made to Mimecast’s Sync and Recover (backups for mailbox folder structure, calendar content and contacts from Exchange On-Premises or Microsoft 365 mailboxes), Continuity Monitor (looks for disruptions in email traffic) and Internal Email Protect (IEP) (inspects internally generated emails for malicious links, attachments or for sensitive content).

A compromise means that cyberattackers could take over the connection, though which inbound and outbound mail flows, researchers said. It would be possible to intercept that traffic, or possibly to infiltrate customers’ Microsoft 365 Exchange Web Services and steal information.

Reference:

https://threatpost.com/mimecast-certificate-microsoft-supply-chain-attack/162965/

https://www.crn.com/news/security/hackers-compromise-mimecast-certificate-for-microsoft-authentication

Onboarding Linux Client (DEEPIN) to Microsoft Azure Threat protection ATP using ubuntu repository

Installing Microsoft Azure Threat Protection (ATP) on Linux Devices

While playing with ATP on some windows devices, I was in the mood of trying the new Deepin 20 desktop flavor which is a famous Chinese Linux OS based system.

Microsoft doesn’t indicate anywhere that installation of ATP on a Linux client is possible but Linux server is mentioned in the official ATP installation documents.

How to Install?

After I installed the Deepin OS, I was really impressed by the new beautiful Linux design so I plan to use it and have it secure with ATP.

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Prerequisites:

  1. Configure the Linux software repository for Ubuntu and Debian
  2. Application Installation
  3. Download the onboarding Package
  4. Client Config

1-Configure the Linux software repository for Ubuntu and Debian

You will need to install the required libraries, install Gpg, apt-transport-https and update repository metadata using the following commands one by one.

  • sudo apt-get install curl

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  • sudo apt-get install libplist-utils

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  • sudo mv ./microsoft.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/microsoft-ubuntu.list
  • sudo apt-get install gpg

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After successfully installing all the libraries, I will go ahead and install the application

2- Application Installation

From the Linux client Terminal using sudo power user run the following script

sudo apt-get install mdatp

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Once finished, You can go back to the ATP portal and download the Linux Onboarding package on the linux server/client you want to onboard

3- Download the onboarding Package

Since I am doing a single deployment not bulk, then I will go to the Microsoft Defender Security Center’s setting page and download the Linux package from the device management section.

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The steps for the onboarding is already mentioned on that page so after you download the script you’ll know exactly what to do next.

The file is 9kb python in size

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Copy the file to your Linux Desktop

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4- Client Config

From the terminal type in chmod a+x MicrosoftDefenderATPOnBoardingLinuxServer.py and hit enter

Note: python must be installed on this linux dervice.

Then type python /MicrosoftDefenderATPOnBoardingLinuxServer.py

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This will run pretty quick and will assign your Linux server/client with your Organization ID.

To see the Organization ID type:

mdatp –health orgId

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Few minutes later you’ll be able to see the installation completion and the status through this command

Check if WDATP is functioning as expected

mdatp –health healthy

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Check if WDATP agent is enabled

mdatp –health realTimeProtectionEnabled

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Let’s check on our ATP portal and see if the machine is showing there.

Note: It might take 5-15 mins to update the definitions of WDATP when onboarding.

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Running a detection Test:

curl -o ~/Downloads/eicar.com.txt https://www.eicar.org/download/eicar.com.txt

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In few seconds the file has disappeared

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Checking for threats

mdatp –threat –list –pretty

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Let’s see this on the ATP Portal

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This is just a test malware not a real one therefore it wont harm your machine at all.

Hope this helps you with your deployments

Ref:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/microsoft-defender-atp/linux-install-manually

Deepin 20 Beta version

https://www.deepin.org/en/2020/04/15/deepin-20-beta/

Microsoft Exchange 2010 SP3 Link HACKED

WATCH Microsoft Exchange URL Hacked

If you have Exchange 2010 SP3 and planning to download the latest Rollup , Google will take you to the following link

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=100910

Once you click on that link to download the RollUp update, You might want to check the system requirements links and that would list two main links

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The Exchange 2010 Prerequisites link will first redirect you to this URL which has an expired certificate.

http://www.microsoftpinpoint.com/

And that will then redirect you to this link (Seems to be a Chinese website)

http://123.wo80.com/

Luckily the antivirus managed to catch and block this page however, on any server that’s not running any antivirus this would certainly infect the server.

Phishing Alert!

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Video here

Microsoft Exchange Vulnerability affects all Exchange versions

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CVE-2020-0688 | Microsoft Exchange Validation Key Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Security Vulnerability

Date of Publishing: February/11/2020

Microsoft has announced a vulnerability has been found in all Exchange Server 2010 through 2019 versions, The vulnerability allows an attack to send a specially crafted request to the affected server in order to exploit it.

When could this happen?

A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Microsoft Exchange Server when the server fails to properly create unique keys at install time.

Knowledge of a the validation key allows an authenticated user with a mailbox to pass arbitrary objects to be deserialized by the web application, which runs as SYSTEM.

The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Microsoft Exchange creates the keys during install.

Affected Versions:

  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3 Update Rollup 30
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Cumulative Update 23   
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 14   
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 15   
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 Cumulative Update 3   
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 Cumulative Update 4

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Solution:

Until now Microsoft has not provided any solution or work around to cover this vulnerability.

Mitigations

Microsoft has not identified any mitigating factors for this vulnerability.

Workarounds

Microsoft has not identified any workarounds for this vulnerability.

NOTE:

Keep an eye on the below link for any change

https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-0688

Microsoft Windows 10 security updates KB4532695 and KB4528760 causes TPM driver to fail and results in windows 10 BSOD

Windows 10 Update :

Yesterday and today Microsoft released KB4532695 and KB4528760 causes TPM 2.0 driver to stop functioning and causes BSOD with error “Memory Management” Issue.

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Windows Hello Face Authentication

In the first KB Microsoft says they have improved the accuracy of Windows Hello Face authentication however this would cause your PIN to be reset, TPM driver stop functioning and BitLocker to change in Pause state.

Check KB Article here

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The BSOD will generate an event ID 1001 stating the bugcheck code and saves a dump. ( I haven’t analyzed that yet).

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I suggest not to run it till Microsoft releases a bug fix

Warning for millions of Windows 10 users

The “Windows List” website, which follows the news of the famous operating system “Windows 10“, issued a warning to the users of the Operating system after it monitored a new security update for the operating system, which is “KB4528760” causing serious problems, noting that the problem “appears to be widespread now.”

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In its interpretation of the sequence of events, the site says that this update initially fails to install on the device, issuing “a number of general error messages” that do not provide any indication of the cause of the problem, then the problem escalates as the next time you restart the computer it fails to boot .

“The recent update KB4528760 for Windows 1909 (the Windows build version number) appears to cause problems with some computers and prevents them from Starting up, causing the oxcooooooe error code. The number of devices affected by this problem has increased after installing this update,” says a user on the official Microsoft Community Forum. .

Image result for windows 10 error code oxcooooooe

Some users attribute the problem to Microsoft’s Connect app, which the company has terminated. Although it is not the only scenario of the cause of the problem, the users who installed the app or had it installed and then uninstalled it, have been particularly severely affected. It is only Windows Vista that completely re-installs the Windows 10 operating system.

What increases the importance of the warning issued by “Windows Light” is precisely that Microsoft is not yet aware of this problem. Indeed, until the moment the company states on the support page of the latest update that it is “currently not aware of any problems with this update.”

This is a recurring series of slow responses in recent years, as Windows 10 users have experienced problems caused by system updates, and this is disappointing because it encourages users to continue to download the update that might harm their computers

The good thing here is that Microsoft is working on substantive modifications to improve the updates of “Windows 10”, but the bad thing is that the process of testing the modifications in its entirety is fundamentally flawed, according to the site mentioned

MICROSOFT EXPOSES A SECURITY ISSUE THAT AFFECTS MILLIONS OF WINDOWS 10 COMPUTERS, RDP AND DHCP ON WIN2008R2

Windows 10 Crypto API Spoofing

Microsoft has released a new security patch for a vulnerability that could affect millions of Windows 10 Users world wide. The decades old CryptoAPI tool validates and signs packages/software which could be utilized by hackers/developers to sign and execute illegitimate software thus would allow users to run anything without user’s nor Antivirus/Internet Security software’s notice.

Microsoft mentioned that the vulnerability could also allow hackers to change or modify encrypted communications.

It’s important to notice that CryptoAPI is a legacy API that’s being replace by a new CNG (Cryptography Next Generation API) which also supports CryptoAPI.

CryptoAPI Key Storage Architecture

cryptoapi architecture

Download Patch

https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-0601

Windows 2008 R2, Windows 7 RDP

A day ago Microsoft released two very important security patches on May 14, 2019. One of these patches has been detected in the RDP service (CVE-2019-0708) which affects Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2. According to MS’s Article a remote code execution vulnerability exists in Remote Desktop Services – formerly known as Terminal Services – when an unauthenticated attacker connects to the target system using RDP and sends specially crafted requests. This vulnerability is pre-authentication and requires no user interaction. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could execute arbitrary code on the target system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.

Download Patch

https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2019-0708

Windows 2008R2, 2012R2, 2016 and 2019 DHCP

The other one is in the DHCP service (CVE-2019-0725), and both exploitations are very critical. When we look at CVE-2019-0708, which is related to the RDP service, we see that attackers are able to run code on systems by sending specially produced packages without any user interaction and authentication and manage to install malware like Ransomware or other execution files.

Download Patch

https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2019-0725

Sources:

Microsoft, NSA, Other Security Researchers

Powershell script to audit users who authenticated against DC servers

The story:

I have got a request from a client asking to find out which server(s) is using which domain admin or a highly privileged account as a service.

To find this I already wrote a powershell script that does this, Search the non standard/(Domain only users) and show the services and name of the servers where those accounts are configured on utilizing Remote powershell to do so and the use of a Domain Admin user.

You can refer to this link to see this article by clicking here

Creating the script process:

The same client wanted to also know which of those accounts did authenticate and wanted to know from which server/Computer did the request originate from and to which DC did it go.

I have started thinking of the process of doing so by again utilizing remote PowerShell to check against certain security events on AD to check which user among the Domain admin members did authenticate.

After sometime and with the help of some forums I managed to get script ready which looks in all Domain Controllers for users that are members of the Domain Admin groups who triggered an event ID 4624 and from which Computer did this request came from.

The Script :

# Get domain admin user list
$DomainAdminList = Get-ADGroupMember -Identity 'Domain Admins'
# Get all Domain Controller names
$DomainControllers = Get-ADDomainController -Filter * | Sort-Object HostName
# EventID
$EventID = '4624'
#
# Get only last 24hrs
$Date = (Get-Date).AddDays(-3)
# Limit log event search for testing as this will take a LONG time on most domains
# For normal running, this will have to be set to zero
$MaxEvent = 100

# Loop through Dcs
$DALogEvents = $DomainControllers | ForEach-Object {
    $CurDC = $_.HostName
    Write-Host "`nSearching $CurDC logs..."
    Get-WinEvent  -ComputerName $CurDC -FilterHashtable @{Logname='Security';ID=$EventID;StartTime = $Date} -MaxEvents $MaxEvent |`
    Where-Object { $_.Properties[5].Value -in $DomainAdminList.SamAccountName } |`
    ForEach-Object {
        [pscustomobject]@{SourceIP = $_.Properties[18].Value; SamAccountName = $_.Properties[5].Value;Time = $_.TimeCreated;LogonEventLocation = $CurDC}
    }
}
$DALogEvents

How to run:

The Script must be run on DC with a privileged account in order to get the write results, The default time interval is set to 3 days but you can choose to increase that.

You can also change the default group where you want to search for members by changing Domain Admin groups to something else.

Screenshot of the result