Software Components NOT Removed from Servers

While installing and configuring some new software on my Windows server, I noticed that the IT department forgot to remove some previous software components from my server.

I remember seeing the notice that the software was being uninstalled and replaced by another package.

I could have removed the left over components myself (I am admin on the server), but I wanted to see if they would ever be removed. Did the Windows server team forget about this, or did the team not concern itself with such things? Maybe the procedures don’t include a process to ensure all components are removed.

I waited about 2 months, but the components were not removed.

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How to Audit User Access

When checking system access, make sure you look at all the different items that affect the user’s access. For example, the user might need one or more of the following:

• Application ID
• Application role or group
• Membership in an local server group, Active Directory (AD) group, or UNIX Group
• Access to the application’s share and/or folder on the server
• Database ID
• Database role, including access permissions (read/write)
• Other permission (from a home-grown application code or enterprise identify management system)

Application Hacking Playground

The Taddong Security Blog has a great list of vulnerable web applications you can play with to learn and test your web hacking knowledge and pen-testing tools, handcuffs not included. In other words, you can enter and stay at the playground without going to jail.

Some of them you download and install on your own systems, some of them you run as virtual machines (VMs) or ISOs on your systems, and others are available on the web for your malfeasance pleasure.

Top 10 Reasons NOT to Virtualize

Trend Micro’s Dave Asprey has posted 10 reasons not to virtualize.

I generally disagree with all of them (as I’ll explain later), but I think he missed the REAL #1 reason not to virtualize…

Web Hacking 101

If you want to learn about web hacking, Security Monkey* highlights 2 videos and 2 books on the subject.  The videos are very basic and over an hour long, and are free for the viewing.

The videos were presented by Dan Guido at Polytechnic Institute of New York University, a private technology university in Brooklyn, New York.

Shipley on Security Spend

Greg Shipley, founder of Neohapsis, wrote an article in Information Week magazine, this time about how ineffective most of the money spent on security defenses is against the attacks we’re facing.  It’s not a short article, but as I’ve said before, Shipley is always worth reading. Here’s what I found most interesting in the article:

• “Deficiencies, even in our security technologies, are an unfortunate fact of life,” says Shipley.

What Needs to be on a GOOJ Card?

If you probe networks, systems, and applications, you need a GOOJ card to protect yourself and your job.

In How to Stay Out of Jail, I recommended that anyone who scans, probes, or pokes networks, systems, or devices should always carry a get-out-of-jail (GOOJ) card. I also provided some reasons why such a card is critical.

5 Security Steps for Non-Big Businesses

Lenny Zeltser suggest 5 steps that mid-market organizations can take down the security path:

1. Identify key data flows
2. Understand user interactions
3. Examine the network perimeter
4. Assess the servers and workstations
5. Look at the applications

Write Safe and Secure Applications

The lead security study group (group 17) from the International Telecommunication Union provides a paper containing general suggestions for writing secure applications. In the paper, each item is hyperlinked to additional information.