Category: Cybersecurity

I started working for Microsoft!

I’m very happy to announce today was my first day of working at Microsoft!

While the job is fully remote, I chose to work onsite, at the Lisbon Office of Microsoft Portugal, for my first day.

I’ve met some of my colleagues, and thankfully I liked the vibe of the workplace, with several people helping out.

I also liked the space, modern, yet comfortable and cozy.

As for the actual job, I will be working with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

Let us hope this is the beginning of a long and productive journey!

I made a tool to fix the CrowdStrike incident!

I just released a tool to fix the problems with the recent CrowdStrike update.

This helps delete the problematic files, and is made simple to use, so it can be used for Junior IT personnel.

This is made in Object Pascal, with Lazarus IDE, and I’m releasing it for free, as open-source.

Features

  • Simple and intuitive
  • Ability to first check for the problematic files (C-00000291*.sys), without changing anything on the system
  • 1-Click removal of the problematic files
  • Ability to Enable and Disable the Windows Safe Mode – both from the App and from the WinPE bootable ISO
  • Does not require the use of command line
  • Works fully offline and does not contact any servers (eg. does not “phone home”)
  • Free and open-source

How to use

1. Boot into Safe mode or Windows Recovery Environment
2. Run the application and click "FIX IT"
3. Reboot

Download

Download version 1.04 (64 Bits)

100% clean on VirusTotal

SHA-1 Hash: CA9E87F62404E73C27CE1823ED808E8C516AEA0A

Source Code

Major IT disruptions wordwide caused by faulty CrowdStrike update

Todays we are seeing major disruptions to IT infrastructure worldwide, afecting Airlines, Banks, Hospitals, Emergency services, Telecom companies, Media outlets, Payments processing, among others. [1] [2]

The root cause seems to be a faulty update released by CrowdStrike, a Cybersecurity company, for Falcon Sensor, their Endpoint Protection solution, which caused computer to lock-up and not turn-on properly, showing a Blue-screen error.

In an unrelated event, Microsoft Azure Cloud services also had major issues around the time of the “CrowdStrike problem” a Central US Azure outage (Tracking Id: 1K80-N_8) – those issues with Azure seem to be already mostly resolved. [3]

Solution for IT admins

As the affected computers and not running properly, unfortunately it seems they will need to be fixed one-by-one.

The solution seems to be:

1. Boot into Safe mode or the Windows Recovery Environment
2. Run the command:
 del "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike\C-00000291*.sys"
3. Reboot

Key takeaways

  • Software and Hardware Vendors have a high responsibility and should extensively test their products – both with automated tools and manually
  • Vendors should do gradual releases of software updates, with live monitoring for issues and clients reported issues
  • You don’t release significant updates on a Friday!
  • Vendors should provide easy options or tools to control updates: delay updates for X amount of days, completely disable updates should always be available for IT admins
  • For companies at large, they should have mechanisms to delay or manually approve updates for their entire IT infrastrucutre – unfortunately this is not always easy and is largely dependant of options provided (or not provided) by Vendors

Remember the 3 basic principles of Cybersecurity are Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability, in the quest to secure the systems we should pay attention to issues like this, which end-up causing as much disruptions as a major CyberAttack.

We should also be aware that Cybersecurity is, in large part, a risk-management and a balancing act between those 3 pillars.

Statement from CrowdStrike

Advice from Microsoft to solve this issue

I will be working for Microsoft!

I’m very happy to announce that today I signed a work contract with Microsoft!

I will be working in Cybersecurity, as a Support Engineer, providing technical support and advice related to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, to clients in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

I’m also happy that the Certified Ethical Hacker certification helped me get this job – it was one of the preferred qualifications on the job posting.

I will start in less than 1 month, working for Microsoft Portugal, and certainly will have more news soon!

Workshop – Reverse Engineering of Malicious Scripts on Windows

Today, as part of the C-Days Conference, I attended a very interesting Workshop, related to reverse engineering of malware, presented by a member of CERT.PT (Computer Emergency Response Team), part of the Portuguese National Cybersecurity Centre.

Description

This workshop offers a hands-on approach to reverse engineering malicious scripts on Windows systems, covering JavaScript, VBS, and Powershell. Aimed at cybersecurity technicians, this workshop ranges from static and behavioral analysis to manual deobfuscation techniques using Python. The objective is to enable participants to identify, analyze and collect IoCs of these threats, thus enabling them to mitigate what is one of the most common types of malware used as an entry vector to compromise organizations.

Contents

  • Strings static analysis with strings, pestr and FLOSS
  • Execute and deobfuscate JavaScript using SpiderMonkey
  • Powershell deobfuscation and debugging with Cyberchef and PS IDE
  • Capturing malware events by tracing AMSI
  • Layout and Data deobfuscation using Python

Certificate of participation.

Heading to C-Days 2024, Cybersecurity conference!

Its next week that C-Days 2024, the biggest Cybersecurity conference in Portugal, organized by the Portuguese National Cybersecurity Centre will happen in Coimbra, Portugal, on the 18th, 19th and 20th of June!

Under the theme of “More Prevention”, this event marks the 10 years of the Portuguese National Cybersecurity Centre, and there will be a talk “looking back” at the past and looking forward towards the future of the organization.

I’m also particularly interested in the “Reverse Engineering Malicious Scripts on Windows” Workshop, presented by Duarte Mortágua from CERT.PT!

I’m already registered for the conference, and looking forward to ti!
Anyone interested can register at the official website:
www.c-days.cncs.gov.pt

Cybersecurity Book Bundle, by Humble Bundle!

UPDATE: This bundle is no longer available!

In this book bundle from Humble Bundle, you will get 18 books related to Cybersecurity, published by Pearson, ranging from topics like CompTIA Security+, Network Security, Zero Trust Architecture, Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender for Cloud.

Full list of books:

  • CompTIA Security+ SY0-701 Cert Guide
  • Network Security
  • Zero Trust Architecture
  • Cybersecurity Myths and Misconceptions
  • In Zero Trust We Trust
  • Database and Application Security: A Practitioner’s Guide
  • Ransomware and Cyber Extortion
  • Designing and Developing Secure Azure Solutions
  • The Modern Security Operations Center
  • A Practical Guide to Digital Forensics Investigations
  • Data Breaches
  • Microsoft Defender for Cloud
  • Microsoft Sentinel
  • Effective Cybersecurity
  • Information Privacy Engineering and Privacy by Design
  • Building a Career in Cybersecurity
  • Microsoft Azure Network Security
  • Securing 5G and Evolving Architectures

Get the bundle now! It expires in less than 48 hours!