When you use a declarative data source to perform a parameterized update that contains string parameters, consider setting ConvertEmptyStringToNull='false' on your <asp:Parameter> elements, because it's true by default! In other words, if a text field contains an empty string, it'll be sent to your declarative data source not as string.Empty, but as null.

Now I don't know about you, but I don't like dealing with nulls if I can avoid it. Especially strings. Unless there's a clear need to have a null state, I avoid them like the plague not only in my database designs but also in my XML schema designs. Hopefully this helps somebody out!

Mr Jetley said he first realised his security password had been changed when a call centre staff member told him his code word did not match with the one on the computer.

"I thought it was actually quite a funny response," he said.

"But what really incensed me was when I was told I could not change it back to 'Lloyds is pants' because they said it was not appropriate.

[...]

"The rules seemed to change, and they told me it had to be one word, so I tried 'censorship', but they didn't like that, and then said it had to be no more than six letters long."

Lloyd's claims that they fired the employee responsible for this, but what I want to know is how the employee got a copy of the man's password in the first place. Why isn't it stored only in encrypted form on the bank's computers?

How secure can the bank's computer systems be if employees are allowed to look at and change customer passwords at whim?

Synopsis:  Blue Box #82: Asterisk & Skype security vulnerabilities, new VoIP security tools, VoIP steganography, VoIP security news and much, much more...

Welcome to Blue Box: The VoIP Security Podcast #82, a 47-minute podcast  from Dan York and Jonathan Zar covering VoIP security news, comments and opinions.   

Download the show here (MP3, 21MB) or subscribe to the RSS feed to download the show automatically. 

NOTE: This show was originally recorded on June 21, 2008.

You may also listen to this podcast right now:

Show Content:

• 00:20 - Intro to the show, contact information and how to provide comments.  Welcome to all the new listeners - and to all those listeners who have been here for so long!
• Programming notes:
  • Note about the production team – new special editions coming soon.
  • Note about URLs for the media files
• AST-2008-008 – Remote Crash Vulnerability in SIP channel driver when run in pedantic mode
• AST-2008-009 – Remote crash vulnerability in ooh323 channel driver
• Skype-SB-2008-003 – Skype File URI Security Bypass Code Execution Vulnerability
• New version of SIPvicious


• Sipflanker – tool to find SIP devices with web GUIs




• Discussion about VoIP Steganography (pointed to by Craig Bowser)


• Geeks Are Sexy: New Technology Hides Messages in Internet Phone Calls – and Switched: Spies to Use Skype to Send Secret Messages? – and The Register


• FierceVoIP: VoIP Security and the Circle of Trust pointing to Government Computer News: Careful with the call



• The Register: ‘Untraceable’ phone fraudsters eye your credit card



• SearchUnifiedCommunications: Disaster and recovery in the VoIP/IPT RFP



• Secure Computing: Voice tools under enemy fire



• VNUnet: A good VoIP application is worth paying for



• Ofcom confirms VoIP providers must provide access to 999 and 112



• Bogdan Materna’s blog is live
• Realtime Community: The Essentials Series:
  Messaging and Web Security
  Volume III


• Global Knowledge: On-Demand Webinar on VoIP Security (hat tip to Thomas Lee )


• SearchSecurity: The threats to telcos and how they can repel them


• TMCnet: Balancing Issues in World of Telepresence


• Network World: VoIP Security Buying Guide
• Nortel and SecureLogix Team to Deliver Voice Security and Management Solutions to Worldwide Enterprise Market (see also this analysis )


• Sipera Partner Network Arms Resellers With Comprehensive UC and VoIP Security


• VIVOphone Deploys Paradial RealTunnel® to Solve NAT Traversal Challenges for VoIP Services


• Audiocodes joins the ranks of SBC vendors


• SearchSecurity: Securing the new network (interesting because it shows the layers of a defense in depth)


• The Hindu Business News: Serious about Security


• Shows:
  
  
  
  • IP Telephony University – June 23-24, Alexandria, VA
  
  
  • IPTComm 2008 – July 1-2, Heidelberg, Germany
  
  
  • The Last H.O.P.E. – July 18-20, New York
  
  
  • SpeechTek – August 18-20, New York
  
  
  
  
• Call for papers for Hack-in-the-box Malaysia ends June 30th



• SchmooCon 2008 videos available – several dealing with VoIP
• No comments this week.
  
• Review of the last week's traffic on the VOIPSEC public mailing list 


• Wrap-up of the show


• 47:09 - End of show 

Comments, suggestions and feedback are welcome either as replies to this post  or via e-mail to blueboxpodcast@gmail.com.  Audio comments sent as attached MP3 files are definitely welcome and will be played in future shows.  You may also call the listener comment line at either +1-415-830-5439 or via SIP to 'bluebox@voipuser.org' to leave a comment there. 

Thank you for listening and please do let us know what you think of the show.




]]> Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:53:18 +0000 voip security voip security news voip voip security tools voip steganography voip services security skype security vulnerabilities voip security podcast Blue Box #82: Asterisk & Skype security vulnerabilities, new VoIP security tools, VoIP steganography, VoIP security news and much, much more... http://securityratty.com/article/799bc9e5bae4ece924f39e72c7f3f84b http://securityratty.com/article/799bc9e5bae4ece924f39e72c7f3f84b Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:40:02 +0000 quantum cryptography uncertainty principle extend subatomic level unbreakable code promises information range people challenge Lasers Could Send World's Most Secure Messages Through Space http://securityratty.com/article/ce479edf032699e552a4cb52750d1f63 http://securityratty.com/article/ce479edf032699e552a4cb52750d1f63 Steve Lipner here.  When the Internet Explorer team posted the announcement about the XSS Filter feature in IE8  I asked some other members of the SDL blog team “why aren’t we talking about the new XSS Filter feature on the SDL blog?”  Bryan and Jeremy said something like “that’s a mitigation that only applies to specific clients and a subset of attacks”.  So we didn’t cross-reference IE’s XSS Filter post on the SDL blog at the time.  Instead, I agreed to write a subsequent post about the relationship of XSS Filter to the SDL and to the ways that our SDL and security science teams think about improving product security.

 

For those of you who aren’t familiar with XSS Filter, a brief summary is that it is a client-side defense against reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.  It works by recognizing that reflected XSS attacks inject script into the string that the browser sends to the targeted web server.  If the server doesn’t neuter or strip out the injected script, it gets sent back to the browser and executed in the context of the target web page.  Bad things then happen.  At a high level, XSS Filter remembers the string that the browser sent to the server, and looks at the server’s response to see if any of the script was actually in that string.  If it was, then XSS Filter decides that it got there because it was injected by an XSS attack and blocks the script from executing.  The rest of the web page renders as usual.  This is a vastly oversimplified sketch of XSS Filter – for details, see the post by David Ross, inventor of XSS Filter on the Security Vulnerability Research and Defense blog.

 

So what does XSS Filter have to do with the SDL?  Well, for almost nine years, since XSS was first discovered at Microsoft, we’ve been trying to figure out effective ways to reduce vulnerability to XSS attacks.  Our focus has been on improving the ways that web page developers code their pages, and we’ve developed a lot of tools and techniques for making web content safer from XSS attacks and for detecting XSS vulnerabilities in live pages.  The SDL requires the use of many of these tools and techniques, and we’re sure we’ve prevented a lot of XSS vulnerabilities from being introduced into Microsoft web pages as a result. 

 

But while we identify (and the SDL requires) measures that allow developers to avoid classes of vulnerabilities, we also look to identify more sweeping solutions that can either 1) eliminate classes of vulnerabilities, 2) reduce their severity, or 3) reduce the likelihood of attacks being successful.  The process usually starts from deep understanding of a class of vulnerabilities and attacks, and then we broaden defenses from there.  In the case of XSS Filter, David’s years of work researching XSS led him to come up with an approach that blocks many of the most common vulnerabilities to reflected attacks found on the web today.  The solution is compatible with existing web pages (doesn’t “break the web”) and thus we were able to enable it by default for users of Internet Explorer 8.  Because it’s a client-side mitigation, it will help protect users from attacks even though the sites they visit may be vulnerable to XSS. 

 

Our work on buffer overrun defenses follows a somewhat similar pattern – we started by prescribing coding techniques, banning the use of some APIs, and building tools that detect coding constructs that look like buffer overruns.  As we gained a deeper understanding of how buffer overruns can be exploited, we enhanced the /GS compiler flag and added ASLR in a quest to cause classes of exploits to fail even if a buffer overrun remains.  We’re not yet close to eliminating the SDL requirements for use of tools and coding techniques, but the SDL also requires the use of the mitigations to reduce the severity of vulnerabilities that slip past.  Will we ever get to the point where the mitigating technologies are so strong that we can relax the coding requirements?  Maybe not, but we will continue to introduce technologies that reduce the chances of a successful attack.

 

Similarly, in the case of XSS, even after IE8 ships, the SDL will continue to require the use of safe web site coding practices and tools such as the Anti-XSS library both to protect users of browsers other than IE8 and to provide protection in recognition of the fact that XSS Filter is a mitigation or defense in depth rather than a complete solution.  But we’ll also be keeping our eyes open (and doing active research) in the quest for an even more effective defense – whether client or server side – that eliminates XSS for good.

 

This post is a little far afield from the normal content of the SDL blog, but I thought it was important to provide a picture of the role of security science and security research in defining SDL requirements and in making major improvements in software security.  You can read more about our work in security science in the Security Vulnerability Research and Defense blog.

]]> Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:35:00 +0000 xss xss filter xss vulnerabilities xss led anti-xss library xss attack xss attacks attacks xss filter remembers SDL and the XSS Filter http://securityratty.com/article/e6abb4cb503317956aaf97da1741af80 http://securityratty.com/article/e6abb4cb503317956aaf97da1741af80 Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:00:00 +0000 lock code button presses iphone apple information Locked iPhones can be unlocked without a password http://securityratty.com/article/1a4072a96ea8dd94eda6fa2169ef914f http://securityratty.com/article/1a4072a96ea8dd94eda6fa2169ef914f





....then you might want to think again, on account of it not being quite what it seems. This "cracking tool" is only after one persons details: yours. Run it, and you'll see the following (somewhat bizarre) message, which should be your first clue that all is not quite right here:






At this point, your CD tray may well pop open - perhaps in tribute to the Trojans of old that did pretty much the same thing. At any rate, you're certainly not cracking any Myspace accounts, and after a faint grinding from your PC you're left to sit and stare at your desktop, wondering what went wrong. Here's a clue - have a poke around inside the EXE, and some lines of code will likely start to give the game away:





..."Firefox password grabber"? Oh dear.

The observant end-user will notice a .txt file appears on their C Drive, and itcontains all the stored passwords saved via Firefox on their computer:




Click to Enlarge


As you can see, the bad guys here seem to be exploiting a well known password recovery tool for nefarious purposes - in this case, Firepassword. You're probably wondering what happens with the stored login details at this point - well, do some more digging in the code and you'll see this:




Click to Enlarge


The stolen Firefox passwords are sent to an FTP drop set up by the hacker, and every login you had stored in Firefox at that point is immediately at risk. Of course, if you're foolish enough to play around with hacking tools then there's a good chance you're going to get burned sooner or later...

We detect this as FoxPass.



]]> Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:49:03 +0000 firefox firefox passwords myspace tool myspace accounts firefox password grabber password recovery tool ftp drop set login details Myspace Cracker Steals Firefox Passwords