protecting windows networks from malware
TRANSCRIPT
Protecting Windows networks from Malware
Madhur VermaMCSA, MCSE, MCTS, CIW Security Analyst,
CEH, MVP (Consumer Security)
Agenda
• Introduction and Background• Current Trends• Case Studies• Defense Arsenal• Best Practices
Immutable Laws of Security
Law#1: If a bad guy can persuade you to run his program on your computer, it's not your computer anymore
Law #2: If a bad guy can alter the operating system on your computer, it's not your computer anymore
Malware
"Malware" is short for malicious software and is typically used as a catch-all term to refer to any software designed to cause damage to a single computer, server, or computer network, whether it's a virus, spyware, et al.
Implications
• Theft of usernames & passwords• Theft of corporate secrets• Lost network bandwidth• Help desk overhead• Lost worker productivity• Legal Liabilities
Rationales
• Not using security devices • Mis-configuration of servers and network
devices• Installation of unwanted applications and
services• Poor coding practices• Using outdated Antivirus definitions
Malicious Software Landscape
Viruses, worms, Trojans, rootkits, bots
Adware, spyware, monitoring software, remote control software
Harmless
Potentially Unwanted
Malicious
Distribution Methods• Propagation through E-mail attachments, Pirated
software and free shareware programs• Mechanism: web pages can use to install
software is ActiveX• Mechanism of “Drive By download”• Deceptive technique of “Pop under exploit”
– choice of clicking Yes/Ok or No/cancel• Faux Security Alert
Changing Era• Increased propagation vectors• Complexity of malicious code, payload and
obfuscation• Motivation changed from fun, curiosity or fame to
money• Destruction malware decreasing and information
stealing malware increasing• Rise in targeted attacks through social engineering• Rise in Malware Toolkits• Rise in exploitation of Web 2.0
Current Trends
• Compromising trusted and popular websites and embedding malicious code or links to malicious sites
• Publishing malicious links in search engines, discussion forums etc
• Development of web-attack toolkits• Exploiting client side vulnerabilities
Case Study I - Facebook
Facebook Widget Installing Spyware
Case Study II - Google
Google Sponsored Links Spreading Rogue Anti-Virus Software
Case Study III - Toolkits
Attack Toolkit
iFrame Snippet
Intrude & adds IFRAME Snippet
Malicious Code injected into users’ PC
Threat Ecosystem
Facts
Source: Microsoft Intelligence Report
Facts
• Rise in web application vulnerabilities• Rise in exploitation of client-side vulnerabilities• Rise in browser based and browser plug-in based vulnerabilities
Source: Symantec
Defensive Arsenal
Policies, Procedures, and Awareness
• Using a layered approach– Increases attacker’s risk of detection – Reduces attacker’s chance of success
OS hardening, authentication, patch management, HIPS
Firewalls, VPN quarantine
Guards, locks, tracking devices
Network segments, IPSec, NIPS
Application hardening, antivirus, antispywareACL, encryption
Security Policy, User education
Physical Security
Perimeter
Internal Network
Host
Application
Data
Defense-in-Depth
Implementing Application Layer Filtering
• Web browsing and e-mail can be scanned to ensure that content specific to each does not contain illegitimate data
• Deep content analyses, including the ability to detect, inspect and validate traffic using any port and protocol
Protecting the Network: Best Practices
• Have a proactive antivirus response team monitoring early warning sites such as antivirus vendor Web sites
• Have an incident response plan• Implement automated monitoring and report
policies• Implement intrusion- detection or intrusion-
prevention capabilities
Protecting Servers: Best Practices
• Consider each server role implemented in your organization to implement specific host protection solutions
• Stage all updates through a test environment before releasing into production
• Deploy regular security and antivirus updates as required
• Implement a self-managed host protection solution to decrease management costs
Protecting Client Computers: Best Practices
• Identify threats within the host, application, and data layers of the defense-in-depth strategy
• Implement an effective security update management policy
• Implement an effective antivirus management policy
• Use Active Directory Group Policy to manage application security requirements
• Implement software restriction policies to control applications
Guidance
Developer Tools
SystemsManagementActive Directory
Federation Services (ADFS)
Identity
Management
Content
Services
Client and Server OS
Server Applicatio
ns
Edge
Network Access Protection (NAP)
A Comprehensive Security Solution
Best Practices
• Always run up-to-date software
• Uninstall unnecessary services and applications
• Use antivirus and antispyware that offers real-time protection and continually updated definition files to detect and block exploits
• Enable Data Execution Prevention (DEP) in compatible versions of Windows, which can help prevent a common class of exploits called buffer overflows
Best Practices
• Enable Structured Exception Handling Overwrite Protection (SEHOP) in Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008, which is designed to block exploits that use the Structured Exception Handler (SEH) overwrite technique
• Set Internet and local intranet security zone settings in Internet Explorer to High, which will cause Internet Explorer to prompt the user before running scripts and ActiveX controls in these zones
Best Practices
• Avoid browsing to sites you do not trust
• Follow principle of least privilege
• Read e-mail messages in plain text format to help protect you from the HTML e-mail attack vector
• Do not click on the links provided in the e-mail from the sources you do not trust
Immutable Laws of Security
• If you don't keep up with security fixes, your network won't be yours for long
• It doesn't do much good to install security fixes on a computer that was never secured to begin with
• Security only works if the secure way also happens to be the easy way
• Eternal vigilance is the price of security
Questions?