The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Infosec (Information Security)’ Category

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Arjen Lentz Crystal Ball Vulnerability Prediction: A Wizard’s Guide to Foreseeing the Unseen: NLUUG voorjaarsconferentie, 7 mei 2026, Arjen Lentz over de echte root cause van veel CVE’s en hoe die te fixen

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/05/04

Ook vandaag even een herinnering aan de NLUUG voorjaarsconferentie 2026 van (komende) donderdag 7 2026 mei in het Van der Valk Hotel Utrecht¹.

Deze keer omdat een goede vriend van me daar spreekt. Arjen Lentz heeft het over A Wizard’s Guide to Foreseeing the Unseen.

Dat klinkt misschien vaag, het concrete resultaat is dat je met analyse van CVE’s veel te weten komt over hun echte root cause. Die blijkt verrassend voorspelbaar, is fixbaar, en kennis daarover is niet alleen nuttig voor adversaries. Het kan jou namelijk helpen bij de development en selectie van wat je zelf gebruikt.

Het volledige programma staat hieronder², eerst de aankondiging van [Wayback/Archive] L⭕️rd Quux RCX CCX: “Over een week is het zover! De enige NLUUG conferentie van 2026. …” – Mastodon

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Posted in Blue team, Development, DVCS - Distributed Version Control, git, Infosec (Information Security), Power User, Red team, Security, Software Development, Source Code Management, Systems Architecture | 1 Comment »

The Intel’s Management Engine Backdoor Nobody Can Remove – via YouTube

Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/21

Interesting video explaining on Intel’s Management Engine which has been the Intel Inside part of about every Intel Chipset since 2008: [Wayback/Archive] The Intel Nobody Can Remove (Not Even You) – YouTube

This is very relevant as it runs on a lightweight operating system called Minix, and there is a move from attacks on end-user operating systems personal computers and mobile phones towards edge devices running lightweight operating systems (not limited to Citrix, Ivanti, Fortinet, Palo Alto, Cisco, SonicWall and Juniper – for a potential OS list see Category:Lightweight Unix-like systems – Wikipedia).

More sources have started warning for this, see for instance [Wayback/Archive] Network security devices endanger orgs with ’90s era flaws | CSO Online and [Wayback/Archive] Security Appliance Vulnerability Bingo 2025 – Google Regneark.

Hopefully [Wayback/Archive] Dr. Christopher Kunz | heise online will have created a cku.gt/appbingo26 this year.

--jeroen

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Posted in CPU, Cyber, Hardware, Infosec (Information Security), Intel CPUs, Power User, Security | Leave a Comment »

Gamifying Security – Security Boulevard

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/12/23

Interesting thought: [Wayback/Archive] Gamifying Security – Security Boulevard

Via [Wayback/Archive] CircuitSwan on Twitter: “…”.

–jeroen

Posted in Blue team, Infosec (Information Security), Power User, Red team, Security | Leave a Comment »

If you develop web-sites, be sure their basics work without JavaScript, as JavaScript is a security risk

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/12/18

I have had JavaScript disabled by default for years now, which means that:

  • if your site requires JavaScript, I will opt for an alternative
  • I will block anything ad related, even if it means I cannot use your site

The reasons are simple:

  1. JavaScript has become a big security threat over time. Be it tracking (hello fingerprinting!), data leakage, direct attacks, supply chain attacks, sloppy code or other risks, JavaScript is not vulnerable just by itself, but especially the eco systems (hello npm – 2 attacks in September 2025 alone – and advertising networks) using it. Just a few references:
    1. [Wayback/Archive] The perils of JavaScript: How we’ve broken the internet’s security
    2. [Wayback/Archive] Most Common Security Vulnerabilities Using JavaScript – SecureCoding
    3. [Wayback/Archive] Supply Chain Security Alert: Popular Nx Build System Package Compromised with Data-Stealing Malware – StepSecurity
    4. [Wayback/Archive] Wormable Malware Causing Supply Chain Compromise of npm Code Packages – Arctic Wolf
    5. [Wayback/Archive] FingerprintJS | Identify Every Web Visitor & Mobile Device
  2. JavaScript has become a huge resource hog. Disabling JavaScript by default increased the snappiness and battery life of my laptops and smartphones significantly. In addition, it makes it way easier to read region-blocked content. Double win!

The below thread by [Wayback/Archive] Dr. Christopher Kunz (@christopherkunz@chaos.social) – chaos.social sparked me to finally write why and add some relevant links.

Thread:

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Posted in Development, Infosec (Information Security), JavaScript/ECMAScript, Power User, Scripting, Security, Software Development, Web Development | Leave a Comment »

i-am-shodan/USBArmyKnife: USB Army Knife – the ultimate close access tool for penetration testers and red teamers.

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/09/30

Now that I got pointed to this twice (see “Via” below), I need to get one so I can play with it: [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – i-am-shodan/USBArmyKnife: USB Army Knife – the ultimate close access tool for penetration testers and red teamers.

Via:

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Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, Blue team, Bluetooth, Development, Encryption, ESP32, Hardware, Hardware Development, Hardware Interfacing, Home Audio/Video, HTTPS/TLS security, Infosec (Information Security), Network-and-equipment, Power User, Red team, Software Development, WiFi, Wireshark | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

0x00 – Introduction to Windows Kernel Exploitation //

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/05/27

On my reading list (plus read/watch the links it mentions): [Wayback/Archive] 0x00 – Introduction to Windows Kernel Exploitation // by [Wayback/Archive] wetw0rk (@wetw0rk_bot) / X ([Wayback/Archive] wetw0rk.github.io).

Hopefully by now, more episodes have been published.

Links from this one, including archived versions split in the same sections as the above article:

Via [WaybackSave/Archive] Alex Plaskett on X: “0x00 – Introduction to Windows Kernel Exploitation by @wetw0rk_bot …”.

--jeroen

Posted in Development, Infosec (Information Security), Red team, Security, Software Development | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Cyber Gangsta’s Paradise | Prof. Merli ft. MC BlackHat [Parody Music Video] – YouTube

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/05/16

Cyber Gangsta’s Paradise | Prof. Merli ft. MC BlackHat [Parody Music Video] – YouTube [Wayback/Archive]

Cyber Gangsta’s Paradise; professor Merli featuring MC Blackhat

#ParodyMusicVideo #cybergangster #paradise #reimtsich

Via @christopherkunz@chaos.social [Wayback/Archive]

The video is on the walled garden called Instagram as well, but since I intentionally don’t have an account there accessing is hard. Anyway, it is at: [WaybackSave/Archive] Instagram: „Cyber Gangsta’s Paradise“ feiert Premiere 🎶🎬.

In the past, picuki was an alternative. Now it fails for instagram content.  [Wayback/Archive] Instagram Reels Download with Reels Downloader got me to [Wayback/Archive] cdninstagram, which in the end worked.

Transcript (via Google, typos all mine), song-text (from video description), and of course the credits:

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Posted in Blue team, Cyber, Infosec (Information Security), Power User, Red team, Security | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Reminder to self: re-check the Dotpe API Security Breach — bool.dev

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/03/04

Still public merchant information

Still public merchant information

It looks like some store and merchang APIs were not protected back when [Wayback/Archive] Dotpe API Security Breach — bool.dev was published.

Reminder to self: check their status now as I can’t believe their “human error” got fixed properly.

History (reverse chronological order):

  1. [Wayback/Archive] How DotPe’s ‘Human Error’ Exposed Confidential Customer API Data
  2. [Wayback/Archive] Deedy on X: “Today, Google-backed DotPe locked down their APIs by rate-limiting by IP on /external/merchant and blocking others. They sent a legal notice to the author before fixing it and haven’t publicly acknowledged the issue at all. Companies must be held accountable for poor security.…”

    [Wayback/Archive] Tweet JSON: [Wayback/Archive] GYSlTthakAEoojp.png:orig (2346×1838)

  3. Now protected private API

    Now protected private API

    [Wayback/Archive] Deedy on X: “6 hours later, the API is still very much public! …”

    [Wayback/Archive] Tweet JSON: [Wayback/Archive] GYK38dXbkAEEEs_.jpg:orig (1358×1798)

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Posted in Communications Development, Development, HTTP, Infosec (Information Security), Internet protocol suite, REST, Software Development, TCP, Web Development | Leave a Comment »

What’s inside the QR code menu at this cafe? – by peabee

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/09/27

This is why I do not trust ordering via QR-code: you never know how good (or usually bad, often even non-existent) their security is.

[Wayback/Archive] What’s inside the QR code menu at this cafe? – by peabee is a really bad example about Google backed DotPe: they have zero-auth and by now have rated limited API access by IP address.

…

I went to a cafe near my home. I sat down and scanned the QR code on the table. It took me to a website displaying the cafe’s menu. It asked me for my name and Whatsapp mobile number. I entered the details and placed the order.

In 5 mins my order arrived at the table. There was no OTP verification, and no one came to confirm the order. Is this what the peak ordering experience looks like?

It was a slow workday, and I thought I might as well open this QR code website on my laptop and have a quick look under the hood. Maybe I should’ve just made my own coffee and stayed home because I didn’t realize I was opening a can of worms.

…

This kind of zero-auth is not infrequent: the Panels API and CDN were wide-open too: [Wayback/Archive] https://storage.googleapis.com/panels-api/data/20240916/media-1a-i-p~s

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Posted in Authentication, Development, Infosec (Information Security), LifeHacker, Phishing, Power User, Security, Software Development | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

XZ 5.6.x are backdoored and present in many systems: downgrade to 5.4.x or earlier now; consider libarchive compromised until proven otherwise

Posted by jpluimers on 2024/03/30

Edit 20240331: because of

https://mastodon.social/@kobold/112183756981119562

Debian is working on reverting back to even earlier than 5.4.x

[Wayback/Archive] #1068024 – revert to version that does not contain changes by bad actor – Debian Bug report logs

> I'd suggest reverting to 5.3.1. Bearing in mind that there were security
> fixes after that point for ZDI-CAN-16587 that would need to be reapplied.

Note that reverted to such an old version will break packages that use
new symbols introduced since then. From a quick look, this is at least:
- dpkg
- erofs-utils
- kmod

Having dpkg in that list means that such downgrade has to be planned
carefully.

Original post:

Everything I know about the XZ backdoor

Note that because of the Wayback Machine limit of 5 archivals per URL per day, the archived versions are rapidly getting out-of-date.

It is way worse:

[Wayback/Archive] Thread by @_ruby on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App

@_ruby: The setup behind the CVE-2024-3094 supply-chain attack is fascinating. I originally wanted to finish and share a tool to audit other OSS projects for anomalous contributor behavior, but I feel what I found tr……

How it was found:

Analogy on how it was found:

Via:

Related:

If you are running homebrew on a Mac, then update too:

Of course this “XKCD dependency” adoption applies:

[Wayback/Archive] GJ4KvbeWIAAS_mu (535×680)

Posted in C, Compression, Development, Infosec (Information Security), Power User, Security, Software Development, xz | Leave a Comment »

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