SANS DFIRSummit 2012 - Austin TX

The SANS #DFIRSummit in June is almost here, and those of us who are involved have been asked to share a little bit about what's going on. First, I'll give you the pertinent (aka, dull and boring) info, then move on to the juicy stuff.

Who: SANS (throwing the party)
What: 5th Annual Forensics and Incident Response Summit (aka, #DFIRSummit)
When: Tuesday, 26 June and Wednesday, 27 June, 2012 (ie, next month)
Where: Omni Hotel Downtown Austin
Why: Because it's a great event - networking, learning, good times (aka, DFIR "heaven on earth")
How: A lot of work by SANS, some generous sponsors, and incredible speakers (just can't be beat)

There's another "who" and that's the speakers. Detailed bios, and event schedule are on the website, but here's a quick breakdown:
Keynotes by Detective Cindy Murphy, Madison Police Department and Harlan Carvey, Chief Forensics Scientist at Applied Security, Inc. Probably everyone knows Harlan from his books, and because of regripper, so he won't need much in the way of introduction. Cindy may not be as well known, so if her name doesn't ring a bell, look her up - she's heavily involved in CDFS, and has done some incredible pioneering work in the field of digital forensics.

The speakers over two days, in two separate tracks (last year there was only one track) are:
- Windows 8 Forensic Artifacts - Kenneth Johnson
- Analysis and Correlation of Macintosh Logs – Sarah Edwards
- Practical Use of Cryptographic Hashes in Forensic Investigations - Pär Österberg Medina
- Reasons Not to “Stay in Your Lane” as a Digital Forensics Examiner – Alissa Torres
- Digital Forensics for IaaS Cloud Computing – Josiah Dykstra
- Carve for Records (Not Files) – Jeff Hamm
- Android Memory Acquisition and Analysis with DMD and Volatility – Joe Sylve
- Sniper Forensics v3: Hunt – Christopher Pogue
- Decade of Aggression – Christopher Witter
- Passwords are Everywhere – Hal Pomeranz
- Recovering Digital Evidence in a Cloud Computing Paradigm – Jad Saliba
- Anti-Incident Response – Nick Harbour
- Automating File Analysis - Pär Österberg Medina
- Mac Memory Analysis with Volatility – Andrew Case
- Digital Dumpster Diving – Lee Reiber
- When Macs Get Hacked - Sarah Edwards
- Evidence is Data: Your Secret Advantage – Jon Stewart
- Taking Registry Analysis to the Next Level – Elizabeth Schweinsberg
- Tales from the Crypt: TrueCrypt Analysis - Hal Pomeranz
- Security Cameras: The Corporate DFIR Too of the Future – Mike Viscuso
- Exfiltration Forensics in the Age of The Cloud – Frank McClain

But wait, there's more! Looks like 21CT is sponsoring several events, including some spectacular after-hours venues; there are lunch & learns (reduces per diem expenses for the budget-conscious), a breakfast, Forensic4Cast Awards, and SANS360 (a little over half-way down the page, just before the "NetWars" section). SANS360 is a lightning talk event, where each speaker has just 6 minutes (360 seconds) to present their topic. In that line-up we have: Andrew Case, Kenneth Johnson, Cindy Murphy, Harlan Carvey, Hal Pomeranz, Kristinn Gudjonsson (extra points if you can pronounce his name properly), Corey Harrell, Melia Kelley, Tim Ray, Alissa Torres, and David Nides.

Now back in the speakers list, you might have noticed a familiar name (they saved the best for last), and I thought I'd give you all a little overview of what my talk is about. As you all probably know, I spent a lot of time last year researching the footprint of Dropbox, the popular file-sync service. This came out as a multi-part kind of thing, with some initial research posted on the SANS blog, a more detailed article published on ForensicFocus, a post or two here, and some artifacts over on ForensicArtifacts. Links to all of those are here. I'd been thinking about that for a while, because I had used that service myself, and saw how easily it could be abused - especially in smaller organizations - for people to steal data. We're used to folks using thumb drives or webmail to get docs out, but what if they just kept them in a directory on their computer, and that directory was sync'd to the cloud and possibly other computers (or mobile devices) outside of the company's control?

Last summer I moved out of the consulting realm and into a corporate investigative setting. Thinking about how attackers exfiltrate data got me to thinking that these types of services could potentially be exploited that way as well as used by insiders. And smaller orgs don't tend to have all the fancy monitoring and locked-down systems/networks that larger ones might (data loss prevention, application layer firewalls, deep packet inspection, reverse proxies with blocked websites, yada yada yada). So if users have local admin rights, and nothing on the network is stopping certain types of traffic, then what's to stop them from using things like Dropbox, Carbonite, and so on?

So anyway, I started over with Dropbox (applications change over time, right?) (Note: Yes, it did change), and have added several others. I wanted to give forensicators an idea of what kinds of artifacts to look for on these types of applications. The preso won't be as detailed as my prior Dropbox work (I might be talking for two days if that were the case!), and I'm not delving into things like prefetch, jump lists, user assist, and so on. I think those are areas we all know to look; I wanted to give a starting point specific to some of these apps, and hopefully get everyone's minds churning.

 At a high level, I'll be touching on things like:
- File locations/application signature
- Files of note (databases, logs, etc)
- Residue after uninstall (files, folders, etc)
- Network connections
- Traffic signature (from packet capture)

 I'm really looking forward to this event, and not just because I'm a speaker. I think it'll be an awesome time, and a great opportunity to get out and mix it up with the community at large. There's no other event quite like this!

 If you haven't registered yet, but are going to, please feel free (read: be encouraged to do so) to use the discount code "PrimeLending10" to save 10% off the registration fee. SANS has given each speaker a discount code to share, this year, and that one's mine (obviously, right?). And yes, I get a "li'l somethin'" if enough people use it. :)

I think that's about it. Like I said, I'm looking forward to it, and I hope to see many of you there!

Happy Forensicating!

A Few Worthwhile Updates

Okay, so I just need to post a couple (or maybe a few) quick updates. These are important, at least to me. :)

First up is ... wait for it ... wait for it ...

Forensic4cast Awards! There are some great folks in here, all very well-deserving. I'm not about to tell you who to vote for, as political discussions can be touchy. Oh wait, this isn't politics, so I guess I'll go ahead and get dirty. ;)

Not really, except to say, vote for log2timeline in the "Computer Forensic Software Tool of the Year" section. L2T's a great tool that I use on a regular basis, probably every case I work. Hands down, it's just awesome!

If for whatever reason (maybe you don't like perl) you can't bring yourself to vote for L2T, then there's another offering I can support. That's Registry Decoder, in the same category. RD is another great utility (in python, for you perl-haters) that can do for the Windows registry what L2T does for the file-system - parses the heck out of it! This bad boy is also proving extremely useful to me.

Yes, it's true, I'm in a quandary, a conflict, a conundrum. Now, where's my lucky coin?

Now that I'm all neurotic aboaut the choices to be made, I'll move on to the next part. Oh, but first ... GO VOTE!

My next topic is ForensicArtifacts. This is a community-driven site that has a very catchy name: ForensicArtifacts.com. What, you've never heard of it?! Well, shame on me if I haven't mentioned it before. ;-(

Taken from the About page, here's a description of the site:

"ForensicArtifacts.com was built to become a repository for useful information forensic examiners may need to reference during the course of their analysis. Requests for artifacts of system files, programs, and malware are very common to see on computer forensic mailing lists and forums. This site strives to take the place of those requests and become a one-stop shop when it comes to forensic artifacts.

This site was designed for the digital forensic community, but it also relies on the community to become stronger. Please consider submitting any artifacts you have documented that may be of use to other examiners. As an added incentive, Rob Lee and SANS have graciously offered up a SANS Lethal Forensicator Coin for anyone submitting six or more artifacts or IOCs in any given year. For more details on this, please read here."

This is important, because we need more community involvement. A site like this only benefits the community if the community uses it. And if you're using it, you should be contributing to it. I don't want to sound all legalistic, but you should contribute. This doesn't just mean to send in artifacts; you can post links, follow @4n6artifacts on twitter and retweet, and recently we've even talked about having a "suggestions box" so people can submit ideas for artifacts, and anyone who's interested (and has time) can do some research to share with the community.

When it boils down to the crux of the biscuit (just mixing up various metaphors), ForensicArtifacts needs you! Only you can provide artifacts. It's low pressure, no time-table, do it as you can, just write it up and submit in the easy-to-follow form. It doesn't get much better than that! Basically, if you've found something in your work or research, even if it's perhaps incomplete, submit it.

We need your artifacts. We need your IOCs. And by "we" I mean the community as a whole, not just this site. When we all share the fruits of our labors, we all benefit. Pitch in! Recycle your artifacts and IOCs; it's good for the environment, and you get to make a difference!

Thanks!

Forensic4cast 2012 - Kristinn Gudjonsson & log2timeline

Okay, folks, it's that time of year again. Yes, it's time for the Forensic4cast awards. Eric Huber beat me to it, which could cost me my fanboy status. However, I gave a link to the Awards, so maybe that'll help. :)

Anyway, here's the point: Nominate Kristinn Gudjonsson and log2timeline. For what, though? Well, I'm with Eric on this - Kristinn for Examiner of the Year, and l2t for Forensic Software of the Year. The software wasn't initially developed this year, we all know that, but it has been under constant development, and I think that counts. Anyway, he didn't get the recognition he deserves last year (IMO), so let's get all the l2t fans together and get him in there!

First thing is to nominate, then remember to vote! Be sure to nominate and vote for others as well. There are several categories, so have at 'em. Best Organization (CDFS), Best Blog [cough]this one[/cough], Best Article [cough]Dropbox Forensics[/cough], and so on. Jokes aside, I think the CDFS has a good chance to make a difference in our field, and its leaders have been working very hard to do just that. Be a part, get involved, and also - nominate and vote!

That's all for now.

Update - Just to add another worthwhile one into the mix, even though it is (gasp, aargh) in the same category... RegistryDecoder by Andrew Case and Lodovico Marziale at Digital Forensic Solutions. I've used RegDecoder, and I like it. Easy to use, very useful, does a great job automating registry parsing from an image, multiple extracted files, mounted image set, etc. It will even run against a live system, although I haven't used it that way. You can do keyword searches, build a timeline, and much more. So that should go for Forensic Software of the Year as well. I hate to have to suggest a competitor to l2t, but RD's very good as well. And, competition makes us all better, right?

PS: While you're at it, go vote for RegDecoder on Toolsmith, open until 31 Jan 2012!

#DFIRSummit - Afterthoughts, Part 2

Okay, so now we're on to the "real" content. First let me start off by addressing something I overlooked last night. Congratulations go to Eric Huber and his AFoD blog for winning the Forensic 4cast award for "Best Digital Forensic Blog." I know Eric did not anticipate winning, but he did, and deserves it! I must also say that I was sadly disappointed that log2timeline did not win the "Best Computer Forensic Software" category. I'm not the only one; there was a lot of discussion to that effect at the Summit. It seems that Guidance Software had an active internal campaign that paid off more than anything we did for Kristinn. General consensus from the Summit seems to be that l2t was the winner anyway. That's right!

I'm basically going to run through each presentation in order and give a couple tidbits. Any more than that and I'll be here all night! So without further ado...

Day 1

Andrew Hay - 5 Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique for Forensics
This was supposed to be Mike Cloppert's slot, but he was tied up (not literally).
The 5 Points:
Host/Platform forensics
Network forensics
Data Reduction
Corroboration
Orchestration
The overall idea is that you need to try to combine or integrate the various segments into one for more effective/comprehensive investigations, since host-based can no longer really be the primary focus.

Chris Pogue - Sniper Forensics 2.0
DF is constantly changing. We have to be agile & adapt
DF is the most challenging forensics discipline because of the changes
The software tools you use in an investigation don't matter - your brain is your best tool.
You have to have a plan - this is *key* (and your steps should be consistent)
CLI is your friend. Yay, Chris! :)

Sean Morrissey - iOS Forensics
I have used Lantern and tend to prefer it over Mobilyze. However, I really would have liked more info about "iOS Forensics" (ie, important artifacts and how to use them) than a presentation about Lantern.
Putting an iPhone in airplane mode does not disable WiFi. So if you are acquiring one, remove the SIM, put in AM, disable WiFi & bluetooth, and use a Faraday bag if need be.
To recover/carve deleted entries from SQLite db, look for "de-referenced" items.

NetWitness Lunch&Learn (I think the presenter was Michael Sconzo, from their CIRT)
It was technical, not a sales pitch, and very much about results of network investigation for malware, as opposed to what NetWitness can do.
The main idea was to know what "good" or "benign" http sessions look like so you can quickly recognize anomalies. I think he actually mentioned something about reading RFC 2616; I don't remember anything after that point... Just kidding; it was very informative.

Hal Pomeranz - EXT3 File Recovery via Indirect Blocks
What can I say - you give Hal a command line, a hex editer, a Linux file system, and he just starts dancing!
File-carving assumes 100% contiguous data...
Indirect block pointers are not nulled out when a file is deleted (unlike direct pointers).
When decoded, they will point to the next block #.
Hal has some tools to automate the process of recovery, rather than manually follow the indirect pointers; it basically runs on top of TSK and calls those utilities as it needs:
frib (file recovery indirect blocks) - this works if you know where the file started, and can progress forward from there.
fib (find indirect block) - finds indirect block (by signature, within the block grouping you're targeting), then counts back 12 blocks to what should be the start of the file.
He has a whitepaper and the tools on Mandiant's blog

RMO's were handed out by Rob Lee, to:
David Kovar - for AnalyzeMFT
Bamm Vischer - for sguil
Congratulations, guys!

Terry Maguire - IR Process & Smart Phones
As these phones become more common in the enterprise, we have to know how to handle them.
**Note: both android and iOS use a lot of SQLite db files.
-sqlite browser (sourceforge) is good, but no deleted entries will show
-epilog by CCL Forensics is designed to show deleted entries (not free, commercial product)
Android must be rooted to get access to any real information. This requires modifying the phone, if if you use something z4root that can be undone with the click of a button.
In order to get volatile data from iPhone, it will have to be jailbroken.
Blackberry cannot be imaged like other devices; removing & imaging chips might be possible. Blackberry file system can be mounted either through desktop manager or javaloader, but be careful; it's easy to destroy data! Blackberry Messenger SMS are not contained in IPD files; they can only be collected from mounted file system.
ABC Amber Blackberry Converter is now Backup Blackberry Explore by Elcomsoft.

Mike Cloppert - Distinguishing IR from Computer Network Defense
He's in Andrew Hay's original slot.
APT & such are much more advanced than the traditional IR models developed a decade ago:
Highly aware (situational awareness)
Adaptive
Lots of tools
There may be multiple adversaries/attack vectors simultaneously or near-simultaneously.
Campaigns (by adversaries) may span several years.
The conventional IR model is based on the presumption of a successful compromise. If it's an "imminent threat" the model doesn't fit. The model is reactive, not proactive. Needs to be more proactive.
Have a monthly overview of reporting to help determine where to focus preventive efforts.

Day 2

Kristinn Gudjonsson - log2timeline
version 0.60 - the "killer dwarf" release - now works on Windows; instructions on how to install in docs/install (Chris Pogue created/tested documentation).
Rewritten engine, work is done on back-end.
It is more object-oriented, and has preprocessing modules.
With the front-end not doing processing, you can easily build your own, for integration into your own processes, customize default action, etc.
It now has a Skype parser. It includes code from regripper and regtime to automatically pull in all the registry data. And (drumroll, please) David Kovar's AnalyzeMFT has been imported as well, to parse the MFT. Of course, that means it had to go from python to perl, but we won't get into that.

Mike Pilkington - Protecting Privileged Domain Accounts during Live Response!
Mission: remote access to WinXP (SP2) workstation (no patches) for analysis/triage
wmic
psexec
netuse
You don't want attackers who may be present to capture privileged credentials.
Do not use any type of interactive logon as this will cause a password hash to be stored locally. Running psexec creates a vulnerability for delegate-level access token theft. Don't set IR accounts as admin accounts; put them into different groupings and give those elevated privileges only as needed.

Panel: Professional Development in Digital Forensics and Incident Response
Lenny Zeltser, Richard Bejtlich, Ken Dunham, Joe Garcia, Bamm Visscher
Everyone had pre-formatted questions they spoke about, then it was open to questions from the audience. I will touch on one, for Richard: How do I build a computer incident response team? I thought the absolute key to it was his statement that you have to keep the groups tightly-knit and give the analysts what they need to do their jobs - training, equipment, etc. The best part was that he said you have to protect them fiercely. That's leadership! He had a blog post about this recently; it's obviously important to him.

Lee Whitfield - Digital Forensics and Flux Capacitors
Looking at reasons/ways people try to get out of trouble with their computers
Focus: Time/system clock alteration (as an excuse)
Top places to check at start of investigation
system event logs (except on XP, where it's not as important)
$UsrJrnl.$J
LNK files
Restore Points
Who is @gingerlover_17 Lee? ;)

Hal Pomeranz - EXT4: Bit by Bit
Changes in EXT4
48-bit address space
Uses extents instead of indirect block chains
64-bit nanoseconde resolution timestamps
File creation time timestamp (born, or b-time)
Backwards compatibility design goal
Inodes expanded to 256 (from 128)
Most of offsets listed in carrier's book still apply to ext4
Hal dove right in with his hex editor, heads exploded, Hal danced, twitter was on fire, etc. It was a very good presentation!

Panel: Forensics in the New Cloud Frontier
Andrew Hay, Cory Altheide, Joe Garcia, Robert Lee, Ed Skoudis
The questions were sprung on the panelists w/o preparation. Wow.
Here's my take: The cloud is here. It's not leaving. You need to know what kind of alerts your cloud provides (to indicate compromise/issue, like gmail's alerts to different locations accessing your account). Distributed processing is going to be key to future analysis (think multi-GB log files). Make sure your cloud provides you with auditing capabilities, as logs are going to be the target of your analysis. Look at the kind of data you've needed from recent incidents, and see if you can get that from your cloud.
Then it was opened up to the audience's questions, including:


#dfirsummit Q for panel: Would you get a 4Cast award for staying within a reasonable budget while proactively responding using sniper forensics, five point palm methodology and log2timeline to analyze a mobile device running ext4 whose clock was reset using false domain credentials through the cloud?

Does that question not totally sum it up?

Oh, there was one more panel, the vendor panel. I had to leave right before that, so that's where my summary falls short. However, I think the last question for the previous panel is the best place to end...

LM

Forensic4Cast Awards - Voting

I'm only going to say this once. At least right now, that is.

Everyone, go over to Forensic4Cast Awards and vote for log2timeline "Best Computer Forensic Software" category.

I don't care what/who else you vote for, but you must for log2timeline. Kristinn has done an incredible job with this software, is extremely helpful, and deserves all the accolades he can get. Read his blog, too.

L2T's up against some big players, and needs everyone's votes. IMHO, this is a greater contribution than EnCase or FTK3. Thank you.

Now you can call me a fanboy. :D

LM

PS: Thanks to Eric for posting that the voting was open. You can vote for his blog, too; he puts a lot of effort into it, and it's a good one.

PPS: In the "Best Civilian Forensic Team" category, I understand Digital Discovery pulled off the collection mentioned over the course of 1 1/2 days. Obviously Mandiant's the top of many a sane person's list but I hear the DDC crew rocks (no, I didn't nominate them).

PPPS: As per post above this one, the DDC crew no longer rocks the same as they used to... ;)