Posts Tagged Encryption
First Tool to Crack Microsoft BitLocker Encryption
Posted by Mourad Ben Lakhoua in Pentesting on December 3, 2009
Passware Company has introduced the first commercial software solution that offer a way to Crack files encrypted by BitLocker system. Microsoft released this advanced tool for a full hard drive encryption system and it has integrated it in windows Vista and made it also available on Windows 7 and Windows Server2008.
We already listed on a previous post the enhancement in Microsoft Windows7 ( Windows 7 overall security improvement )and you can find among the improvement the BitLocker tool that is provided by Microsoft.
Passware Kit Forensic 9.5 recovers encryption keys for hard disks, secure Technology and BitLocker. the way that this software work is by scanning HD image searching for cryptographic keys and decrypt the image to make it in a clear file.
Now the Software is available in several versions and there is a mobile version that gives user the ability to have it on a USB stick and use it directly on the desired machine without leaving any trace on it. This is not all because this tool also offers 8 different password recovery attacks (Dictionary , Brute-force, Xieva , Known Password/Part , Previous Passwords, Decryptum, SureZip , Join Attacks, and Append Attacks) these 8 types gives the user a way to customize the desired attack according to the type of file and available information so it reduces the Time of operation.
Currently the tool supports 180 types of file and allows users to restore PGP-archives and virtual disks passwords. The program compatible with Windows 7/VISTA/2003/XP and 2008 server.
you can find more details on the official webstie.
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DisCryptor Protects Your Privacy
Posted by Mourad Ben Lakhoua in Privacy & data protection, Software Security, Tools on October 26, 2009
DisCryptor is a complete software for protecting your privacy by providing a free personal product to save sensitive data, send important documents via E-mail and transfer folders on USB memory in an easy and very fast way.
After the installation you will have a very rich dashboard that provides tab for creating new virtual or physical drive so it only needs to click to start encrypting the disk.
You can also creat a traveler disk this functionality will help you encrypt your usb drive so your entire content will be encrypted with a very high security level , the interesting point that later when you are looking to open your files on any PC it is possible even if you have no DisCryptor on it , by choosing Travel disk functionality and you burn an autorun soft to a CD/DVD , and you just need to have the CD and the USB device or external hard drive to open your file.
it is also possible to use this software package to encrypt your files, Encrypted file in software DisCryptor will always has a .DCF extension and icon of DisCryptor logo.
Maybe the biggest panic for any person is to remember passwords. You can imagine how a person will remember thousands of passwords or to write them on a sheet of paper this all is very risky and easy to be lost. Here this software solved the issue by providing a solution to manage passwords and store them in an encrypted way (Hash function includes SHA-256, SHA-384 a SHA-512..), even when you create a password it automatically show the security Level of this password according to the chosen security profile and it is recommended to use the strongest password as possible and keep you tracking your passwords.
Currently there are three types of license a free personal edition, a Business edition and an Enterprise edition you can read more details about Discryptor Here.
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TrueCrypt 6.3 Free Open-Source Disk Encryption Software
Posted by Mourad Ben Lakhoua in Encryption, Software Security, Tools on October 23, 2009
TrueCrypt one of the popular tools for encrypting and hiding partition under Linux, MacOS and Windows system has released a new version.
The new features at this release include:
• Full support for Windows 7.
• Full support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
• The ability to configure selected volumes.
TrueCrypt is an open-source, multi-platform application that allows you to create secure, encrypted folders for your data.
It is always recommended to use Truecrypt instead of other built in encryption system because it can hide your volumes and make it impossible for anyone to note the file existing on the HD, plus it provides a flexible way to choose encryption algorithms.
With TruCrypt your data remains encrypted until you need it.More details about the release can be found Here.
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Protect your Holiday! (part 3)
Posted by Mourad Ben Lakhoua in Pentesting, Tools on July 13, 2009
The idea of working with a wireless network is always risky unless you make sure of the WLAN security, as we talked in the last post of protect your holiday we will add some tools that can helps in pentesting your wireless network.
Unfortunately not everyone aware of the risk in using such a wireless network, let’s start here by Void11. Void11 is used to Deautheticate clients on the WLAN, or in our way ignoring a client from accessing the wireless network, after disabling the client from the network he will start to try acceding the WLAN, so you have to ignore him one more time. In each time the victim will try to connect he will send traffic with the authentication keys. While exchanging the keys the attacker can take the victims place on the network using his Mac address and by pass the Mac restriction. Unfortunately, this tool works well only under Linux system.
The next tool for this add is WIFIZOO, this tool demonstrate how it’s easy to detect different information in open WI-FI networks. Application objective is to get info from the whole network passively. The tool has a beautiful interface but not only gathers SSID data. It also adds client info like, IP addresses, and passwords of some protocols (Pop3/ftp/telnet). Mail traffic, Http traffic. As a result you can listen to the whole traffic in the wireless interface. But the disadvantage of using WIFIZOO that it has no channel hopping but you can configure Kismet to do this.
The last tool for this series is WIRELESSKEYVIEW, in some cases we forget our keys for the AP, and this tool is the perfect fit for this situation, in which it recovers system WEP/WPA keys. So this works like wireless zero configuration in windows XP and WLAN AutoConfig for Vista.
So think about securing your wireless network try these tools to check the security level of your network and it is always recommended to monitor all your event logs.
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Majority of IT businesses see security breaches
Posted by Mourad Ben Lakhoua in News on July 10, 2009
The number of security breaches seen by companies during the last 12 months has risen, a new survey has shown.
A study by the PGP Corporation showed that 70 per cent of IT businesses have been affected by at least one data breach security incident during the last year, a figure up from the 60 per cent seen in the previous corresponding period.
Additionally, 12 per cent of companies reported more than five data loss incidents, a figure up by three per cent.
The study showed that less than half of these breaches were publicly announced.
Phillip Dunkelberger, president and chief executive officer at PGP Corporation, said: ‘It’s clear that UK organisations recognise the need to protect customer information and other valuable data assets, but while their intentions may be good, not all of them are doing everything it takes to make this a reality.’
Further findings from the study showed that more than half of respondents are using an encryption process to secure their IT services from breaches.
[Source: BCS]
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Missile data found on hard drives
Posted by Mourad Ben Lakhoua in News on May 8, 2009
Sensitive information for shooting down intercontinental missiles as well as bank details and NHS records was found on old computers, researchers say.
Of 300 hard disks bought randomly at computer fairs and an online auction site, 34% still held personal data.
Researchers from BT and the University of Glamorgan bought disks from the UK, America, Germany, France and Australia.
The information was enough to expose individuals and firms to fraud and identity theft, said the researchers.
Professor Andrew Blyth said: “It’s not rocket science – we used standard tools to analyse the data”.
The research involving the Welsh campus was led by BT’s Security Research Centre and included researchers at Edith Cowan University in Australia and Longwood University in the US.
In addition to finding bank account details and medical records, the work unearthed job descriptions and personal identity numbers as well as data about a proposed $50bn currency exchange through Spain.
While the whole report is not ready the details found on this study are extremely critical, all these information are not properly encrypted or secured is just a surprise. Be sure to make your hard drive securely wiped or is strongly encrypted to not worry about any data stored on the HD .
[Source: BBC]
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