Having just arrived back from a client engagement, I was in the pub with some colleagues earlier this evening, and one amongst them, a junior asked a really interesting question “How does one assess an embedded device?”. Continue reading
Recently, there has been a lot of media buzz about Mailpile, a new startup which has raised over $100,000 on IndieGoGo for its eponymous locally hosted web mail project. Having been present at the talk at which this project was officially launched at OHM 2013, I was surprised to see the media’s reaction to the project. Mailpile appears to have garnered almost universal acclaim for its security features, and praised for its goal of “Rescuing email from the cloud” (the name of the presentation given at OHM 2013, slides can be found here). I diagree with the media’s praise for this project, and here’s why… Continue reading
This summer, a few of us at Portcullis went for a trip to Holland where the OHM 2013 event took place. This is a large gathering for hackers, geeks, scientists, engineers, artists and crafters from all over the world living in small themed camping villages for 4 days. To any frequent attendant of camping festivals like HAR or EMF Camp 2014, OHM environment was no surprise: a mix of the geeky, trendy and bizarre where a real alien space ship could easily go unnoticed. Continue reading
By default, Windows systems will allow low privileged users to create directories (but not files) in the root of the `C:’ drive. In this post we ask if that’s really a security problem and ultimately conclude that, yes sometimes it can be. Continue reading
We’re not really, but some of the Portcullis Labs Team are off to OHM 2013 in Holland. For those of you who don’t know, OHM is the latest in a long line of four yearly “hacker” conferences that take place in a field, with the participants camping out. Unlike more conventional conferences such as DEF CON in Vegas, OHM and its previous incarnations focus on more than simply traditional information security, by also appealing to those who appreciate the DIY spirit of the maker community. Unlike the aforementioned DEF CON, you will see talks on topics such as how to make cheese and 3D printing at OHM. With this in mind, and with the promise of post-con articles on things we enjoyed, I asked the Team what talks they’re particularly keen to see: Continue reading
Early this morning, whilst checking my mail, I saw an interesting advisory come out on one of the lists. The fact that it affects AIX 7.1 was particularly interesting because this is the most recent release. Unlike some of the other commercial UNIX vendors, IBM make their security patches nice and accessible, so I decided to take it for a spin. Continue reading