Wesley McGrew's guest appearances

Wesley McGrew

DEF CON 23 [Audio] Speeches from the Hacker Convention

DEF CON 22 [Materials] Speeches from the Hacker Convention.

Cyber Work

John Menerick

Colby Moore

Richard Thieme

Brian Gorenc

Phil Polstra

Dan Kaminsky

Patrick Wardle

Weston Hecker

Jesse Michael

Charlie Miller

Teddy Reed

Marc Rogers

Michael Schrenk

Grant Bugher

Joe FitzPatrick

OwlTail

Materials Available here: https://media.defcon.org/DEF%20CON%2023/DEF%20CON%2023%20presentations/DEFCON-23-Wesley-McGrew-I-Hunt-Penetration-Testers.pdf I Hunt Penetration Testers: More Weaknesses in Tools and Procedures Wesley McGrew Assistant Research Professor Distributed Analytics and Security Institute, Mississippi State University When we lack the capability to understand our tools, we operate at the mercy of those that do. Penetration testers make excellent targets for bad actors, as the average tester’s awareness and understanding of the potential risks and vulnerabilities in their tools and processes is low, and the value of the information they gather and gain access to among their client base is very high. As demonstrated by Wesley’s DEF CON 21 talk on vulnerabilities in penetration testing devices, and last year’s compromise of WiFi Pineapple devices, the tools of offensive security professionals often represent a soft target. In this talk, operational security issues facing penetration testers will be discussed, including communication and data security (not just “bugs”), which impact both testers and clients. A classification system for illustrating the risks of various tools is presented, and vulnerabilities in specific hardware and software use cases are presented. Recommendations are made for improving penetration testing practices and training. This talk is intended to be valuable to penetration testers wanting to protect themselves and their clients, and for those who are interesting in profiling weaknesses of opposing forces that may use similar tools and techniques. Wesley McGrew (@McGrewSecurity) is an assistant research professor at Mississippi State University's Distributed Analytics and Security Institute. At DASI, he is involved in malware and vulnerability research. In the spring 2013 semester, he began teaching a self-designed course on reverse engineering to students at MSU, using real-world, high-profile malware samples, as part of gaining NSA CAE Cyber Ops certification for MSU. Wesley has presented at Black Hat USA and DEF CON on forensics, malware, and penetration testing topics, and is the author of security and forensics tools that he publishes through his personal/consultancy website, McGrewSecurity.com. Twitter: @mcgrewsecurity

Materials Available here: <a href="https://media.defcon.org/DEF%20CON%2023/DEF%20CON%2023%20presentations/DEFCON-23-Wesley-McGrew-I-Hunt-Penetration-Testers.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://media.defcon.org/DEF%20CON%2023/DEF%20CON%2023%20presentations/DEFCON-23-Wesley-McGrew-I-Hunt-Penetration-Testers.pdf</a> I Hunt Penetration Testers: More Weaknesses in Tools and Procedures Wesley McGrew Assistant Research Professor Distributed Analytics and Security Institute, Mississippi State University When we lack the capability to understand our tools, we operate at the mercy of those that do. Penetration testers make excellent targets for bad actors, as the average tester’s awareness and understanding of the potential risks and vulnerabilities in their tools and processes is low, and the value of the information they gather and gain access to among their client base is very high. As demonstrated by Wesley’s DEF CON 21 talk on vulnerabilities in penetration testing devices, and last year’s compromise of WiFi Pineapple devices, the tools of offensive security professionals often represent a soft target. In this talk, operational security issues facing penetration testers will be discussed, including communication and data security (not just “bugs”), which impact both testers and clients. A classification system for illustrating the risks of various tools is presented, and vulnerabilities in specific hardware and software use cases are presented. Recommendations are made for improving penetration testing practices and training. This talk is intended to be valuable to penetration testers wanting to protect themselves and their clients, and for those who are interesting in profiling weaknesses of opposing forces that may use similar tools and techniques. Wesley McGrew (@McGrewSecurity) is an assistant research professor at Mississippi State University's Distributed Analytics and Security Institute. At DASI, he is involved in malware and vulnerability research. In the spring 2013 semester, he began teaching a self-designed course on reverse engineering to students at MSU, using real-world, high-profile malware samples, as part of gaining NSA CAE Cyber Ops certification for MSU. Wesley has presented at Black Hat USA and DEF CON on forensics, malware, and penetration testing topics, and is the author of security and forensics tools that he publishes through his personal/consultancy website, <a href="http://McGrewSecurity.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">McGrewSecurity.com</a>. Twitter: @mcgrewsecurity

Wesley McGrew - I Hunt Penetration Testers: More Weaknesses in Tools and Procedures

Slides Here:https://www.defcon.org/images/defcon-22/dc-22-presentations/McGrew/DEFCON-22-Wesley-McGrew-Instrumenting-Point-of-Sale-Malware.pdf Additional Materials available:  https://www.defcon.org/images/defcon-22/dc-22-presentations/McGrew/DEFCON-22-Wesley-McGrew-Instrumenting-Point-of-Sale-Malware-WP.pdf Instrumenting Point-of-Sale Malware: A Case Study in Communicating Malware Analysis More Effectively Wesley McGrew ASSISTANT RESEARCH PROFESSOR, MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY The purpose of this talk is to promote the adoption of better practices in the publication and demonstration of malware analyses. For various reasons, many popular analyses of malware do not contain information required for a peer analyst to replicate the research and verify results. This hurts analysts that wish to continue to work more in-depth on a sample, and reduces the value of such analyses to those who would otherwise be able to use them to learn reverse engineering and improve themselves personally. This paper and talk proposes that we borrow the concept of “executable research” by supplementing our written analysis with material designed to illustrate our analysis using the malware itself. Taking a step beyond traditional sandboxes to implement bespoke virtual environments and scripted instrumentation with commentary can supplement written reports in a way that makes the analysis of malware more sound and useful to others. As a case-study of this concept, an analysis of the recent high-profile point-of-sale malware, JackPOS is presented with enough information to replicate the analysis on the provided sample. A captured command-and-control server is included and Python-based harnesses are developed and presented that illustrate points of interest from the analysis by instrumenting the execution of the malware itself. Wesley McGrew (@McGrewSecurity) is an assistant research professor at Mississippi State University’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering, where he works with the newly formed Distributed Analytics and Security Institute. He recently earned a Ph.D. in computer science for his research in vulnerability analysis of SCADA HMI systems. He also lectures for the MSU National Forensics Training Center, which provides free digital forensics training to law enforcement and wounded veterans. In the spring 2013 semester, he began teaching a self-designed course on reverse engineering to students at MSU, using real-world, high-profile malware samples, as part of gaining NSA CAE Cyber Ops certification for MSU. Wesley has presented at Black Hat USA and DEF CON, and is the author of penetration testing and forensics tools that he publishes through his personal/consultancy website, McGrewSecurity.com. Twitter: @McGrewSecurity Web: http://mcgrewsecurity.com

Slides Here:<a href="https://www.defcon.org/images/defcon-22/dc-22-presentations/McGrew/DEFCON-22-Wesley-McGrew-Instrumenting-Point-of-Sale-Malware.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.defcon.org/images/defcon-22/dc-22-presentations/McGrew/DEFCON-22-Wesley-McGrew-Instrumenting-Point-of-Sale-Malware.pdf</a> Additional Materials available: <a href="https://www.defcon.org/images/defcon-22/dc-22-presentations/McGrew/DEFCON-22-Wesley-McGrew-Instrumenting-Point-of-Sale-Malware-WP.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.defcon.org/images/defcon-22/dc-22-presentations/McGrew/DEFCON-22-Wesley-McGrew-Instrumenting-Point-of-Sale-Malware-WP.pdf</a> Instrumenting Point-of-Sale Malware: A Case Study in Communicating Malware Analysis More Effectively Wesley McGrew ASSISTANT RESEARCH PROFESSOR, MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY The purpose of this talk is to promote the adoption of better practices in the publication and demonstration of malware analyses. For various reasons, many popular analyses of malware do not contain information required for a peer analyst to replicate the research and verify results. This hurts analysts that wish to continue to work more in-depth on a sample, and reduces the value of such analyses to those who would otherwise be able to use them to learn reverse engineering and improve themselves personally. This paper and talk proposes that we borrow the concept of “executable research” by supplementing our written analysis with material designed to illustrate our analysis using the malware itself. Taking a step beyond traditional sandboxes to implement bespoke virtual environments and scripted instrumentation with commentary can supplement written reports in a way that makes the analysis of malware more sound and useful to others. As a case-study of this concept, an analysis of the recent high-profile point-of-sale malware, JackPOS is presented with enough information to replicate the analysis on the provided sample. A captured command-and-control server is included and Python-based harnesses are developed and presented that illustrate points of interest from the analysis by instrumenting the execution of the malware itself. Wesley McGrew (@McGrewSecurity) is an assistant research professor at Mississippi State University’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering, where he works with the newly formed Distributed Analytics and Security Institute. He recently earned a Ph.D. in computer science for his research in vulnerability analysis of SCADA HMI systems. He also lectures for the MSU National Forensics Training Center, which provides free digital forensics training to law enforcement and wounded veterans. In the spring 2013 semester, he began teaching a self-designed course on reverse engineering to students at MSU, using real-world, high-profile malware samples, as part of gaining NSA CAE Cyber Ops certification for MSU. Wesley has presented at Black Hat USA and DEF CON, and is the author of penetration testing and forensics tools that he publishes through his personal/consultancy website, <a href="http://McGrewSecurity.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">McGrewSecurity.com</a>. Twitter: @McGrewSecurity Web: <a href="http://mcgrewsecurity.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://mcgrewsecurity.com</a>

Wesley McGrew- Instrumenting Point-of-Sale Malware: A Case Study in Communicating Malware Analysis More Effectively