Aurora: Providing Trusted System Services for Enclaves On an Untrusted System

Aurora: Providing Trusted System Services for Enclaves On an Untrusted System
Hongliang Liang, Mingyu Li, Qiong Zhang, Yue Yu, Lin Jiang, Yixiu Chen
(Submitted on 10 Feb 2018)

Intel SGX provisions shielded executions for security-sensitive computation, but lacks support for trusted system services (TSS), such as clock, network and filesystem. This makes \textit{enclaves} vulnerable to Iago attacks~\cite{DBLP:conf/asplos/CheckowayS13} in the face of a powerful malicious system. To mitigate this problem, we present Aurora, a novel architecture that provides TSSes via a secure channel between enclaves and devices on top of an untrusted system, and implement two types of TSSes, i.e. clock and end-to-end network. We evaluate our solution by porting SQLite and OpenSSL into Aurora, experimental results show that SQLite benefits from a \textit{microsecond} accuracy trusted clock and OpenSSL gains end-to-end secure network with about 1ms overhead.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.03530

HP including expected PCR0 values in firmware releases

PCR0 (TPM 1.2, TXT disabled) = 3864B052A7A5E8D0D68C6B525CE7C264042FFD9C (SHA1)
PCR0 (TPM 1.2, TXT enabled) = A53040199863DE972A57CDCCBA5A1D595B8D622F (SHA1)
PCR0 (TPM 2.0 SHA256, TXT disabled) = 8F6FD3E49706E7EFDAFD56FB55FB8E02FC9766BE482C07D80D8AB2081CF5B196 (SHA256)
PCR0 (TPM 2.0 SHA256, TXT enabled) = B0D9EC8871DABC7D931A6EB0783CDFB3DAA2422F8999301CC4954D1FD2879E77 (SHA256)

https://support.hp.com/soar-attachment/567/col59842-wk-199952-1-wk-199952-1_sp82736_releasedoc.html

Google introduces Android Enterprise Recommended program

https://www.android.com/enterprise/recommended/requirements/

https://www.android.com/enterprise/recommended/

https://androidenterprisepartners.withgoogle.com/#!/results/browse-all/2

REcon Brussels 2018 slides uploaded

Starcraft: Emulating a buffer overflow for fun and profit – Elias Bachaalany
Subverting your server through its BMC: the HPE iLO4 case – Alexandre Gazet, Joffrey Czarny, Fabien Perigaud
Breaking state-of-the-art binary code obfuscation – Tim Blazytko, Moritz Contag
Decompiler internals: microcode – Ilfak Guilfanov
Mess with the best, die like the rest (mode) – Volodymyr Pikhur
Hacking Toshiba Laptops – Michał Kowalczyk, Serge Bazanski
Dissecting QNX – Ali Abbasi, Jos Wetzels
Robin Hood vs Cisco ASA AnyConnect – Cedric Halbronn
Linux Vulnerabilities, Windows Exploits: Escalating Privileges with WSL – Saar Amar
DIY ARM Debugger for Wi-Fi Chips- Matthias Schulz
Reversing IoT: Xiaomi ecosystem – Dennis Giese, Daniel Wegemer
Visiting The Snake Nest – Matthieu Faou, Jean-Ian Boutin
Reverse Engineering Windows Defender’s JavaScript Engine – Alexei Bulazel

https://recon.cx/2018/brussels/slides/

Upcoming Intel SGX Features Explained: Improved Virtualization, Configuration Management, and Key Sharing

Upcoming Intel® SGX Features Explained: Improved Virtualization, Configuration Management, and Key Sharing
Jethro Beekman
February 22nd, 2018
In an update to the Intel Software Developer’s Manual (SDM), Intel detailed upcoming changes to the Intel® SGX instruction set. The new features improve Enclave Page Cache management in virtualized environments and allow the addition of additional information to sealing key derivation and attestation reports. The improvements allow for better multi-tenancy with EPC oversubscription and easier configuration and software update management. I will go into detail on each of these in this post.[…]

https://www.fortanix.com/blog/2018/02/upcoming-intel-sgx-features-explained/

Criminal use of code signing certificates

The Use of Counterfeit Code Signing Certificates Is on the Rise
Andrei Barysevich
February 22, 2018

In 2017, security researchers around the world started seeing a sudden increase in code signing certificates being used as a layered obfuscation technique for malicious payload distribution campaigns. Recorded Future’s Insikt Group investigated the criminal underground and identified vendors currently offering both code signing certificates and domain name registration with accompanying SSL certificates. Contrary to a common belief that the security certificates circulating in the criminal underground are stolen from legitimate owners prior to being used in nefarious campaigns, we confirmed with a high degree of certainty that the certificates are created for a specific buyer per request only and are registered using stolen corporate identities, making traditional network security appliances less effective.

https://www.recordedfuture.com/code-signing-certificates/

Product List

MacAdmins Podcast: Episode 70: Secure Boot

Synopsis: Tim Perfitt joins the pod to talk about SecureBoot, the iMac Pro, the future of securing everything, and the history of BootRunner and other products at Twocanoes.

Your Hosts:
Tom Bridge, Partner at Technolutionary LLC [@tbridge]
Pepijn Bruienne, R&D Engineer at Duo Security [@bruienne], Proprietor of EnterpriseMac.Bruienne.com
Charles Edge, Director of Marketplace at Jamf, [@cedge318]

Guests: Tim Perfitt, Founder of Twocanoes Software

Episode 70: Tim Perfitt, Twocanoes Software

show notes:

SecureBoot & the 2017 iMac Pro

Trusting bare-metal/on-premises cloud firmware

I’ve been learning a bit about ‘the Cloud’. In addition to the normal virtualized solutions, there is also ‘bare-metal cloud’, where the customer gets full access to the hardware. The ‘on-premises cloud’ is similar, vendor puts the hardware on yout site.  If you are the first client to use that hardware, you’re probably in good shape. However, the 2nd and subsequent customers need to trust the cloud vendor is verifying that previous customers didn’t infect the firmware with bootkits.

If I was an attacker, I would have sold grey-market (used) hardware, with infected firmware on ebay/craigslist to future targets. Now, I’d change tactics and rent as much bare-metal/on-premises cloud hardware as I could, infect it with rootkits, return it to the cloud vendor, and wait for future users of this hardware to phone home. Seems like a better investment for an attacker, multiple targets per infected device.

Before your company relies on a bare-metal/on-prem solution, ask the cloud vendor to clarify the steps they perform to ensure the firmware is not infected with bootkits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bare-metal_server

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On-premises_software

new ChromeOS TPM security feature

https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/02/18/google-releases-optional-security-update-chromebooks-wipes-local-data/

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/chromebook-update-boosts-security-but-wipes-all-data-in-the-process/

TPM Update For Chrome OS: Why And How

https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/tpm_firmware_update

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/chromebook-central/eo2HZeDVjr8

https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/promopages/tpm-update/

 

ARM’s Kigen OS for cellular IoT security

https://www.arm.com/products/iot-solutions/kigen-sim-solutions

https://www.arm.com/products/iot-solutions/kigen-sim-solutions

https://www.arm.com/news/2018/02/arm-delivers-integrated-sim-identity-to-secure-next-wave-of-cellular-iot-devices

Kigen Graphic 2

https://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmoorhead/2018/02/21/arm-introduces-new-kigen-technologies-to-improve-iot-security

https://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/ARM-Introduces-Kigen-OS-Cellular-IoT

 

Intel announces firmware updates for multiple processors (and Retpoline document)

February 20, 2018

Latest Intel Security News: Updated Firmware Available for 6th, 7th and 8th Generation Intel Core Processors, Intel Xeon Scalable Processors and More

Over the past several weeks, we’ve been developing and validating updated microcode solutions to protect Intel customers against the security exploits disclosed by Google Project Zero. This effort has included extensive testing by customers and industry partners to ensure the updated versions are ready for production. On behalf of all of Intel, I thank each and every one of our customers and partners for their hard work and partnership throughout this process. Based on these efforts, we have now released production microcode updates to our OEM customers and partners for Kaby Lake- and Coffee Lake-based platforms, plus additional Skylake-based platforms. This represents our 6th, 7th and 8th Generation Intel® Core™ product lines as well as our latest Intel® Core™ X-series processor family. It also includes our recently announced Intel® Xeon® Scalable and Intel® Xeon® D processors for data center systems. The new microcode will be made available in most cases through OEM firmware updates. I continue to encourage people to always keep their systems up-to-date. There is also a comprehensive schedule and current status for planned microcode updates available online.[…]

https://newsroom.intel.com/news/latest-intel-security-news-updated-firmware-available/

[…]We are mindful of the fact that, in some cases, there are multiple mitigation techniques available that may provide protection against these exploits. This includes “Retpoline,” a Google-developed mitigation technique for Variant 2. For those interested in more information on Retpoline and how it works, we recently published a new white paper. Google has also posted information about Retpoline.[…]

https://support.google.com/faqs/answer/7625886

Click to access Retpoline-A-Branch-Target-Injection-Mitigation.pdf

 

Coping with Spectre and Meltdown: What sysadmins are doing

Esther Schindler has a new article on Spectre and Meltdown for SysAdmins:

Coping with Spectre and Meltdown: What sysadmins are doing

The recent security vulnerabilities dumped a bunch of to-do items on system administrators’ desks. Feel like you’re alone? Here’s what other sysadmins have done so far, as well as their current plans and long-term strategy, not to mention how to communicate progress to management.

https://www.hpe.com/us/en/insights/articles/coping-with-spectre-and-meltdown-what-sysadmins-are-doing-1802.html

https://groups.google.com/a/lopsa.org/forum/#!topic/discuss/OSk4U32ShGs

Nintendo’s new KDE Linux tablet :-)

Re: https://firmwaresecurity.com/2018/01/16/dumping-the-playstation4-kernel/

https://twitter.com/fail0verflow/status/964954316892119040

https://liliputing.com/2018/02/fail0verflow-turns-a-nintendo-switch-into-a-full-fledged-linux-pc.html

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/2/19/17029916/nintendo-switch-hack-linux-fail0verflow

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2018/02/09/hackers-are-running-linux-on-the-switch-and-claim-nintendo-cant-patch-it/#73bc32eb512c

https://www.nintendo.com/switch/

I have never once considered purchasing a Nintendo Switch …until now. 🙂