Adversarial Tradecraft in Cybersecurity


Book Description

Master cutting-edge techniques and countermeasures to protect your organization from live hackers. Learn how to harness cyber deception in your operations to gain an edge over the competition. Key Features Gain an advantage against live hackers in a competition or real computing environment Understand advanced red team and blue team techniques with code examples Learn to battle in short-term memory, whether remaining unseen (red teams) or monitoring an attacker's traffic (blue teams) Book DescriptionLittle has been written about what to do when live hackers are on your system and running amok. Even experienced hackers tend to choke up when they realize the network defender has caught them and is zoning in on their implants in real time. This book will provide tips and tricks all along the kill chain of an attack, showing where hackers can have the upper hand in a live conflict and how defenders can outsmart them in this adversarial game of computer cat and mouse. This book contains two subsections in each chapter, specifically focusing on the offensive and defensive teams. It begins by introducing you to adversarial operations and principles of computer conflict where you will explore the core principles of deception, humanity, economy, and more about human-on-human conflicts. Additionally, you will understand everything from planning to setting up infrastructure and tooling that both sides should have in place. Throughout this book, you will learn how to gain an advantage over opponents by disappearing from what they can detect. You will further understand how to blend in, uncover other actors’ motivations and means, and learn to tamper with them to hinder their ability to detect your presence. Finally, you will learn how to gain an advantage through advanced research and thoughtfully concluding an operation. By the end of this book, you will have achieved a solid understanding of cyberattacks from both an attacker’s and a defender’s perspective.What you will learn Understand how to implement process injection and how to detect it Turn the tables on the offense with active defense Disappear on the defender’s system, by tampering with defensive sensors Upskill in using deception with your backdoors and countermeasures including honeypots Kick someone else from a computer you are on and gain the upper hand Adopt a language agnostic approach to become familiar with techniques that can be applied to both the red and blue teams Prepare yourself for real-time cybersecurity conflict by using some of the best techniques currently in the industry Who this book is for Pentesters to red teamers, security operations center analysts to incident responders, attackers, defenders, general hackers, advanced computer users, and security engineers will benefit from this book. Participants in purple teaming or adversarial simulations will also learn a lot from its practical examples of processes for gaining an advantage over the opposing team. Basic knowledge of Python, Go, Bash, PowerShell, system administration as well as knowledge of incident response in Linux and prior exposure to any kind of cybersecurity knowledge, penetration testing, and ethical hacking basics will help you follow along.




Malware Analysis Techniques


Book Description

Analyze malicious samples, write reports, and use industry-standard methodologies to confidently triage and analyze adversarial software and malware Key FeaturesInvestigate, detect, and respond to various types of malware threatUnderstand how to use what you've learned as an analyst to produce actionable IOCs and reportingExplore complete solutions, detailed walkthroughs, and case studies of real-world malware samplesBook Description Malicious software poses a threat to every enterprise globally. Its growth is costing businesses millions of dollars due to currency theft as a result of ransomware and lost productivity. With this book, you'll learn how to quickly triage, identify, attribute, and remediate threats using proven analysis techniques. Malware Analysis Techniques begins with an overview of the nature of malware, the current threat landscape, and its impact on businesses. Once you've covered the basics of malware, you'll move on to discover more about the technical nature of malicious software, including static characteristics and dynamic attack methods within the MITRE ATT&CK framework. You'll also find out how to perform practical malware analysis by applying all that you've learned to attribute the malware to a specific threat and weaponize the adversary's indicators of compromise (IOCs) and methodology against them to prevent them from attacking. Finally, you'll get to grips with common tooling utilized by professional malware analysts and understand the basics of reverse engineering with the NSA's Ghidra platform. By the end of this malware analysis book, you'll be able to perform in-depth static and dynamic analysis and automate key tasks for improved defense against attacks. What you will learnDiscover how to maintain a safe analysis environment for malware samplesGet to grips with static and dynamic analysis techniques for collecting IOCsReverse-engineer and debug malware to understand its purposeDevelop a well-polished workflow for malware analysisUnderstand when and where to implement automation to react quickly to threatsPerform malware analysis tasks such as code analysis and API inspectionWho this book is for This book is for incident response professionals, malware analysts, and researchers who want to sharpen their skillset or are looking for a reference for common static and dynamic analysis techniques. Beginners will also find this book useful to get started with learning about malware analysis. Basic knowledge of command-line interfaces, familiarity with Windows and Unix-like filesystems and registries, and experience in scripting languages such as PowerShell, Python, or Ruby will assist with understanding the concepts covered.




Adversary-Aware Learning Techniques and Trends in Cybersecurity


Book Description

This book is intended to give researchers and practitioners in the cross-cutting fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning (AI/ML) and cyber security up-to-date and in-depth knowledge of recent techniques for improving the vulnerabilities of AI/ML systems against attacks from malicious adversaries. The ten chapters in this book, written by eminent researchers in AI/ML and cyber-security, span diverse, yet inter-related topics including game playing AI and game theory as defenses against attacks on AI/ML systems, methods for effectively addressing vulnerabilities of AI/ML operating in large, distributed environments like Internet of Things (IoT) with diverse data modalities, and, techniques to enable AI/ML systems to intelligently interact with humans that could be malicious adversaries and/or benign teammates. Readers of this book will be equipped with definitive information on recent developments suitable for countering adversarial threats in AI/ML systems towards making them operate in a safe, reliable and seamless manner.




Cybersecurity Attacks – Red Team Strategies


Book Description

Develop your red team skills by learning essential foundational tactics, techniques, and procedures, and boost the overall security posture of your organization by leveraging the homefield advantage Key FeaturesBuild, manage, and measure an offensive red team programLeverage the homefield advantage to stay ahead of your adversariesUnderstand core adversarial tactics and techniques, and protect pentesters and pentesting assetsBook Description It's now more important than ever for organizations to be ready to detect and respond to security events and breaches. Preventive measures alone are not enough for dealing with adversaries. A well-rounded prevention, detection, and response program is required. This book will guide you through the stages of building a red team program, including strategies and homefield advantage opportunities to boost security. The book starts by guiding you through establishing, managing, and measuring a red team program, including effective ways for sharing results and findings to raise awareness. Gradually, you'll learn about progressive operations such as cryptocurrency mining, focused privacy testing, targeting telemetry, and even blue team tooling. Later, you'll discover knowledge graphs and how to build them, then become well-versed with basic to advanced techniques related to hunting for credentials, and learn to automate Microsoft Office and browsers to your advantage. Finally, you'll get to grips with protecting assets using decoys, auditing, and alerting with examples for major operating systems. By the end of this book, you'll have learned how to build, manage, and measure a red team program effectively and be well-versed with the fundamental operational techniques required to enhance your existing skills. What you will learnUnderstand the risks associated with security breachesImplement strategies for building an effective penetration testing teamMap out the homefield using knowledge graphsHunt credentials using indexing and other practical techniquesGain blue team tooling insights to enhance your red team skillsCommunicate results and influence decision makers with appropriate dataWho this book is for This is one of the few detailed cybersecurity books for penetration testers, cybersecurity analysts, security leaders and strategists, as well as red team members and chief information security officers (CISOs) looking to secure their organizations from adversaries. The program management part of this book will also be useful for beginners in the cybersecurity domain. To get the most out of this book, some penetration testing experience, and software engineering and debugging skills are necessary.




Cybersecurity Career Master Plan


Book Description

Start your Cybersecurity career with expert advice on how to get certified, find your first job, and progress Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free eBook in PDF format Key Features Learn how to follow your desired career path that results in a well-paid, rewarding job in cybersecurity Explore expert tips relating to career growth and certification options Access informative content from a panel of experienced cybersecurity experts Book Description Cybersecurity is an emerging career trend and will continue to become increasingly important. Despite the lucrative pay and significant career growth opportunities, many people are unsure of how to get started. This book is designed by leading industry experts to help you enter the world of cybersecurity with confidence, covering everything from gaining the right certification to tips and tools for finding your first job. The book starts by helping you gain a foundational understanding of cybersecurity, covering cyber law, cyber policy, and frameworks. Next, you'll focus on how to choose the career field best suited to you from options such as security operations, penetration testing, and risk analysis. The book also guides you through the different certification options as well as the pros and cons of a formal college education versus formal certificate courses. Later, you'll discover the importance of defining and understanding your brand. Finally, you'll get up to speed with different career paths and learning opportunities. By the end of this cyber book, you will have gained the knowledge you need to clearly define your career path and develop goals relating to career progression. What you will learn Gain an understanding of cybersecurity essentials, including the different frameworks and laws, and specialties Find out how to land your first job in the cybersecurity industry Understand the difference between college education and certificate courses Build goals and timelines to encourage a work/life balance while delivering value in your job Understand the different types of cybersecurity jobs available and what it means to be entry-level Build affordable, practical labs to develop your technical skills Discover how to set goals and maintain momentum after landing your first cybersecurity job Who this book is for This book is for college graduates, military veterans transitioning from active service, individuals looking to make a mid-career switch, and aspiring IT professionals. Anyone who considers cybersecurity as a potential career field but feels intimidated, overwhelmed, or unsure of where to get started will also find this book useful. No experience or cybersecurity knowledge is needed to get started.




Practical Threat Intelligence and Data-Driven Threat Hunting


Book Description

Get to grips with cyber threat intelligence and data-driven threat hunting while exploring expert tips and techniques Key Features Set up an environment to centralize all data in an Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana (ELK) server that enables threat hunting Carry out atomic hunts to start the threat hunting process and understand the environment Perform advanced hunting using MITRE ATT&CK Evals emulations and Mordor datasets Book DescriptionThreat hunting (TH) provides cybersecurity analysts and enterprises with the opportunity to proactively defend themselves by getting ahead of threats before they can cause major damage to their business. This book is not only an introduction for those who don’t know much about the cyber threat intelligence (CTI) and TH world, but also a guide for those with more advanced knowledge of other cybersecurity fields who are looking to implement a TH program from scratch. You will start by exploring what threat intelligence is and how it can be used to detect and prevent cyber threats. As you progress, you’ll learn how to collect data, along with understanding it by developing data models. The book will also show you how to set up an environment for TH using open source tools. Later, you will focus on how to plan a hunt with practical examples, before going on to explore the MITRE ATT&CK framework. By the end of this book, you’ll have the skills you need to be able to carry out effective hunts in your own environment.What you will learn Understand what CTI is, its key concepts, and how it is useful for preventing threats and protecting your organization Explore the different stages of the TH process Model the data collected and understand how to document the findings Simulate threat actor activity in a lab environment Use the information collected to detect breaches and validate the results of your queries Use documentation and strategies to communicate processes to senior management and the wider business Who this book is for If you are looking to start out in the cyber intelligence and threat hunting domains and want to know more about how to implement a threat hunting division with open-source tools, then this cyber threat intelligence book is for you.




Netcat Power Tools


Book Description

Originally released in 1996, Netcat is a netowrking program designed to read and write data across both Transmission Control Protocol TCP and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) connections using the TCP/Internet Protocol (IP) protocol suite. Netcat is often referred to as a "Swiss Army knife" utility, and for good reason. Just like the multi-function usefullness of the venerable Swiss Army pocket knife, Netcat's functionality is helpful as both a standalone program and a backe-end tool in a wide range of applications. Some of the many uses of Netcat include port scanning, transferring files, grabbing banners, port listening and redirection, and more nefariously, a backdoor. This is the only book dedicated to comprehensive coverage of the tool's many features, and by the end of this book, you'll discover how Netcat can be one of the most valuable tools in your arsenal. * Get Up and Running with Netcat Simple yet powerful...Don't let the trouble-free installation and the easy command line belie the fact that Netcat is indeed a potent and powerful program. * Go PenTesting with Netcat Master Netcat's port scanning and service identification capabilities as well as obtaining Web server application information. Test and verify outbound firewall rules and avoid detection by using antivirus software and the Window Firewall. Also, create a backdoor using Netcat. * Conduct Enumeration and Scanning with Netcat, Nmap, and More! Netcat's not the only game in town...Learn the process of network of enumeration and scanning, and see how Netcat along with other tools such as Nmap and Scanrand can be used to thoroughly identify all of the assets on your network. * Banner Grabbing with Netcat Banner grabbing is a simple yet highly effective method of gathering information about a remote target, and can be performed with relative ease with the Netcat utility. * Explore the Dark Side of Netcat See the various ways Netcat has been used to provide malicious, unauthorized access to their targets. By walking through these methods used to set up backdoor access and circumvent protection mechanisms through the use of Netcat, we can understand how malicious hackers obtain and maintain illegal access. Embrace the dark side of Netcat, so that you may do good deeds later. * Transfer Files Using Netcat The flexability and simple operation allows Netcat to fill a niche when it comes to moving a file or files in a quick and easy fashion. Encryption is provided via several different avenues including integrated support on some of the more modern Netcat variants, tunneling via third-party tools, or operating system integrated IPsec policies. * Troubleshoot Your Network with Netcat Examine remote systems using Netat's scanning ability. Test open ports to see if they really are active and see what protocls are on those ports. Communicate with different applications to determine what problems might exist, and gain insight into how to solve these problems. * Sniff Traffic within a System Use Netcat as a sniffer within a system to collect incoming and outgoing data. Set up Netcat to listen at ports higher than 1023 (the well-known ports), so you can use Netcat even as a normal user. Comprehensive introduction to the #4 most popular open source security tool available Tips and tricks on the legitimate uses of Netcat Detailed information on its nefarious purposes Demystifies security issues surrounding Netcat Case studies featuring dozens of ways to use Netcat in daily tasks




Resilient Cybersecurity


Book Description

Build a robust cybersecurity program that adapts to the constantly evolving threat landscape Key Features Gain a deep understanding of the current state of cybersecurity, including insights into the latest threats such as Ransomware and AI Lay the foundation of your cybersecurity program with a comprehensive approach allowing for continuous maturity Equip yourself and your organizations with the knowledge and strategies to build and manage effective cybersecurity strategies Book DescriptionBuilding a Comprehensive Cybersecurity Program addresses the current challenges and knowledge gaps in cybersecurity, empowering individuals and organizations to navigate the digital landscape securely and effectively. Readers will gain insights into the current state of the cybersecurity landscape, understanding the evolving threats and the challenges posed by skill shortages in the field. This book emphasizes the importance of prioritizing well-being within the cybersecurity profession, addressing a concern often overlooked in the industry. You will construct a cybersecurity program that encompasses architecture, identity and access management, security operations, vulnerability management, vendor risk management, and cybersecurity awareness. It dives deep into managing Operational Technology (OT) and the Internet of Things (IoT), equipping readers with the knowledge and strategies to secure these critical areas. You will also explore the critical components of governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) within cybersecurity programs, focusing on the oversight and management of these functions. This book provides practical insights, strategies, and knowledge to help organizations build and enhance their cybersecurity programs, ultimately safeguarding against evolving threats in today's digital landscape.What you will learn Build and define a cybersecurity program foundation Discover the importance of why an architecture program is needed within cybersecurity Learn the importance of Zero Trust Architecture Learn what modern identity is and how to achieve it Review of the importance of why a Governance program is needed Build a comprehensive user awareness, training, and testing program for your users Review what is involved in a mature Security Operations Center Gain a thorough understanding of everything involved with regulatory and compliance Who this book is for This book is geared towards the top leaders within an organization, C-Level, CISO, and Directors who run the cybersecurity program as well as management, architects, engineers and analysts who help run a cybersecurity program. Basic knowledge of Cybersecurity and its concepts will be helpful.




Adversarial and Uncertain Reasoning for Adaptive Cyber Defense


Book Description

Today’s cyber defenses are largely static allowing adversaries to pre-plan their attacks. In response to this situation, researchers have started to investigate various methods that make networked information systems less homogeneous and less predictable by engineering systems that have homogeneous functionalities but randomized manifestations. The 10 papers included in this State-of-the Art Survey present recent advances made by a large team of researchers working on the same US Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) project during 2013-2019. This project has developed a new class of technologies called Adaptive Cyber Defense (ACD) by building on two active but heretofore separate research areas: Adaptation Techniques (AT) and Adversarial Reasoning (AR). AT methods introduce diversity and uncertainty into networks, applications, and hosts. AR combines machine learning, behavioral science, operations research, control theory, and game theory to address the goal of computing effective strategies in dynamic, adversarial environments.




Privilege Escalation Techniques


Book Description

Escalate your privileges on Windows and Linux platforms with step-by-step instructions and deepen your theoretical foundations Key FeaturesDiscover a range of techniques to escalate privileges on Windows and Linux systemsUnderstand the key differences between Windows and Linux privilege escalationExplore unique exploitation challenges in each chapter provided in the form of pre-built VMsBook Description Privilege Escalation Techniques is a detailed guide to privilege escalation techniques and tools for both Windows and Linux systems. This is a one-of-a-kind resource that will deepen your understanding of both platforms and provide detailed, easy-to-follow instructions for your first foray into privilege escalation. The book uses virtual environments that you can download to test and run tools and techniques. After a refresher on gaining access and surveying systems, each chapter will feature an exploitation challenge in the form of pre-built virtual machines (VMs). As you progress, you will learn how to enumerate and exploit a target Linux or Windows system. You'll then get a demonstration on how you can escalate your privileges to the highest level. By the end of this book, you will have gained all the knowledge and skills you need to be able to perform local kernel exploits, escalate privileges through vulnerabilities in services, maintain persistence, and enumerate information from the target such as passwords and password hashes. What you will learnUnderstand the privilege escalation process and set up a pentesting labGain an initial foothold on the systemPerform local enumeration on target systemsExploit kernel vulnerabilities on Windows and Linux systemsPerform privilege escalation through password looting and finding stored credentialsGet to grips with performing impersonation attacksExploit Windows services such as the secondary logon handle service to escalate Windows privilegesEscalate Linux privileges by exploiting scheduled tasks and SUID binariesWho this book is for If you're a pentester or a cybersecurity student interested in learning how to perform various privilege escalation techniques on Windows and Linux systems – including exploiting bugs and design flaws – then this book is for you. You'll need a solid grasp on how Windows and Linux systems work along with fundamental cybersecurity knowledge before you get started.