INSIDER THREAT SECURITY BLOG

Eternally Affected What is SMB? Server Message Block (SMB) is a protocol used primarily for sharing files, printer services, and communication between computers on a network. The history of SMB is long, so I’ll try to keep this short and to the point. SMBv1 Back in the 1980s and 1990s IBM and Microsoft were working on implementations of SMB to improve and build upon the protocol. Microsoft actually pushed to rename SMB to Common Internet File System (CIFS) and added a bunch of…

In today’s world, it is quite common for companies to use more than one type of relational database platform to host enterprise applications.  If you are an old-time Oracle DBA like me and are asked to administer Microsoft SQL Servers in addition to Oracle databases, the task can be pretty daunting from a SQL Server security perspective.  In this blog, I will try to explain the differences and similarities between the Oracle and SQL Server security models.  The difference in security mode…

Kerberos Delegation and Usage Kerberos delegation has been around for a long time (Windows Server 2000 to be exact), but more often than not, when speaking to engineers who manage or work with Active Directory, they’re not familiar with all the various implementations of Kerberos delegation, their uses, and some ways they can be abused. What I find funny, is that most people confuse Kerberos delegation with delegated permissions. The practical usage of Kerberos delegation is to enable a…

It’s that time of the year again! As we roll into 2020 we’re proud to present our 4th edition of “STEALTHbits’ Experts Cybersecurity Predictions.” We asked eight of our top industry voices here at STEALTHbits their thoughts on what’s to come in the world of cybersecurity in the next 365 days! Read on and come back at the start of 2021 to see how we did. Ransomware Will Continue To Wreak Havoc Using the Same Old Tricks Ransomware attacks will continue to impact organizations causing s…

Phishing scams are a very common technique used by identity thieves to trick you into giving them your sensitive personal or financial information. Thieves will often impersonate actual companies like credit card companies, banks or online resources such as PayPal or Dropbox. It is a challenge to recognize what is real and what isn’t but there are a few things you can do to make yourself/your organization less susceptible to this type of scam. Traditional Approach Before we discuss a no…

In my last blog post, we took a look at the Vulnerability Assessment within the Advanced Data Security (ADS) offering for Azure SQL. In my final blog post of the series, we will take a deep dive into the Advanced Threat Protection features. VIEW PART 1 HERE VIEW PART 2 HERE Advanced Threat Protection for Azure SQL Databases provides administrators with immediate visibility into potential threats such as suspicious database activities, potential vulnerabilities, SQL injection attacks…

The last post, we started discussing the importance of protecting Active Directory and your unstructured data. Today, we’ll continue our discussion with the next three data security best practices to ensure the security of your data. Pragmatic Data Security Best Practice #2: Monitor Activity Monitoring activity is an essential capability, but be careful not to bite off more than you can chew. The best way to make effective use of your monitoring efforts is to focus on specific scenarios…

Data security is a major issue for any company that has valuable information to protect. Breaches of that data can cost an organization dearly in the form of business disruption, loss of revenue, fines, lawsuits, and perhaps worst of all, the loss of trust between the organization and its customers and partners. But the challenge of securing all that data is daunting. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that some small changes can have a major impact. Just as a journey of a thousand miles sta…

In my last blog post, we took a look at the Data Discovery & Classification features within the Advanced Data Security (ADS) offering for Azure SQL. In this blog post, we will take a deep dive into the Vulnerability assessment. The SQL Vulnerability assessment provides administrators with a streamlined approach to identify and even remediate potential security misconfigurations or vulnerabilities within their Azure SQL databases. The Vulnerability Assessment is a scanning service that…

Overview In this post, I will be looking at a new exploit that leverages a weakness in Microsoft Windows Text Services Framework to launch a child process that allows for the escalation of privileges. I will give a brief overview of what the Text Services Framework service does, what the exploit is, and how it could be used. Then, I will go into more detail about how to run the exploit and different methods that can be used for detection and mitigation of the exploit. What is the Text S…