You wanna be certified : OSCP

Offensive Security Certified Professional

one of the most elite certification in security world . practical guide to pen testing although I don't have this Cert. but I found some small guides that will help us let's share . you have to complete Penetration Testing with Kali Linux (PWK) course 

Prerequisites :

Logic To write Code , TCP/IP ,  Linux

this all resources I have found it useful :

 

1- Pentesting with Backtrack/OSCP Review
2- Penetration Testing w/ BackTrack (OSCP) Course Review
3- My Journey to OSCP … complete blog
4- OSCP and Me
5- Offensive Security’s PWB and OSCP — My Experience
6- OSCP Series
7- OSCP at a glance
8- My OSCP Experience
9- Pentesting With BackTrack (PWB) & Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP) Reviews 2013
10- Offensive Security PWB (OSCP) – A Review
11- Offensive Security Certified Professional

Diskware of Hard disk

Although
i have a fucken' exam tomorrow in GIS But it doesn't matter :D :D .... press power on button of your Pc or Lap then you can Sound small sound from your Bios POST ensures that every thing is ok all is ready to boot OS . But what about Hard disk ?? What happen when it receive power ??
I have learned something on that let's share with you :)

when Hard disk is powered on , the first thing is checking for a return status from the chip to ensure that electronics are functioning and every thing is ok . then like Bios the Hard disk does something like POST but for it's components ( Self- Check ) and wait for another return status . to start properly the two return status must have been returned then the next is to spin up the spindle .

spindle has been spinned up , platters begin to revolve , we need to un-mount head from its parking position to reach system area and read its firmware but head doesn't reach system area until it read servo timing firmware which contains the location and geographic info for each sector . reading process happen without any touch from head to platter otherwise physical damage to platter so RIP hard disk :D . head gets the location and geographic info for each sector so it can reach System Area and reads its sectors . what's system area ?

System Area (SA) : some sectors always on the extreme outer edge of platter which contain all hard disk information . these information differs from hard disk drive also the family . it has some different names like diskware , maintenance tracks , Calibration Area , Initialization Area , Reserved Cylinders .
System Area Info or Modules :

1. Smart Data
2. System Logs
3. Serial Number
4. Model Numbers
5. P-List (Primary Defects List –  manufacture defect info that does not change)
6. G-List (Grown Defects Lists – sector relocation table)
7. Program Overlays – Firmware, Executable Code, or updates
8. Zone Tables .
9. Servo Parameters

10. Specific Tables like RRO – (recalibrate repeatable run-out and head offsets)
11. Test Routines
12. Factory Defaults Tables
13. Recalibration Code Routines
14. Translator Data:
    a. Converts Logical and Physical Address to locations on the drive
    b. Heads and Track Skewing Info
15. Security Data Passwords for drive – possible encrypted info.

Each module occupies a UBA block. The information contained in the system area is critical to the operation of the drive electronics, so as a result manufacturers have designed drives where this information is copied to other places, such as the outer edge of another platter. This is the manufacturers method of maintaining fault tolerance.

  System Area Architecture :

SA consists of UBA ( Utility Block Addressing ) which are sector blocks logically grouped together that contain a specific module .
The UBA area is inaccessible over the standard interface .also , commands deals with them are previously specified by manufacturer and not made publically available but you can access it by some boxes like PC3000 and more J . UBA1 blocks occupy 3 sectors and contains the bad area list. UBA2 blocks occupy 2 sectors and contain information such as the drive ID and other modules .It should be noted, that every access to the hard disk is made via the hard disk controller. There is no way to bypass the controller .The controller limits access to the data area on the disk. Other areas are not accessible in the normal operation mode.

but you can crack password on locked hard disk drives by tools hardware or software which needs knowledge with ATA commands , HDD Architecture and some digital forensics that's with software . for using hardware any box can access SA and erase password like PC3000 which I have dealt with simple and easy to use but you will still like a jerk clerk , you don't know what has happened in background you just follow instructions by others you will loss knowledge , basics :)  

Finally .. I have made a small tool can get some hard disk information using C# and WMI specially class Win32_DiskDrive .
Output like this :)  :

References :

1- Forensics & Data Recovery book by Scott A. Moulton .

2- Hard disk ATA Security by Adrian Leuenberger .
3- articles at http://www.hddguru.com , http://www.datarecovery.net .
4- Hard Disk System Area . by Peter J. Vis .
5- HDD from inside . by Artem Rubtsov .

6- http://www.geekpedia.com/tutorial233_Getting-Disk-Drive-Information-using-WMI-and-Csharp.html

thanks for my bro Adham Mohammed for his help :) . 

It's Wireless .. it's Crackable , Journey into Wireless card modes

Firstly I'm sorry I know I'm too late in writing this article but I had a lot of troubles . let's start in our new article . you need to crack wireless networks around you this can be easy process a cup of coffee , some needed hardware backtrack or kali or even backbox or any Linux distribution with air crack package airmon , airodump …… etc.

 Feel free to install Linux on physical or virtual the most vital part in all process is your wireless card especially it's chipset . your embedded card in laptop can only work to connect you :D ( only Egyptians will understand what behind connect you ) to internet but we need to know password of wireless network so we have to sniff traffic between client and router then you need to capture packets contain this pass then analyze it or crack to get pass .. your target .

Some external wireless cards have the ability to sniffing in especial mode to capture packets depends on chipset of card . not all external cards support linux so we will go here a little to know the best for this .After we get card assuming this Alfa or tp-link you have to connect it and start configuration to start process that's ok we all do this to get internet but what about capture packets or inject it let's know more . remember we use card differently .

first mode managed mode :

When you use card normally to connect to an access point to get connection so we all had done this before that's normal .

Second mode promiscuous mode :

That's what we need monitor mode .. monitor for action , promiscuous for position . In this mode you can sniffing network data , perform attacks .

we are only able to see the Ethernet (802.3) data when we are connected, and not the wireless (802.11) traffic, which is what we want to be able to use. What this means is with 802.3 traffic, you will see the normal web traffic and other normal network information with 802.11 traffic, you will see the wireless data that is used to communicate over wireless networks

  finally you can visit packtup.com you will find a lot of books which will be useful for all levels beginner , intermediate and advanced for securing and cracking wireless networks . Also some useful courses from securitytube.com like Wlan Security , Air-Crack Megaprimer and you tube have some useful tuts too .
remember to share what you learn … Happy Cracking :) .

Hack A fingerprint …. Mission Accomplished

Firstly let's know the basics :) :

Fingerprints are the tiny ridges, whorls and valley patterns on the tip of each finger. They form from pressure on a baby's tiny, No two people have been found to have the same fingerprints -- they are totally unique. There's a one in 64 billion chance that your fingerprint will match up exactly with someone else's.

Fingerprints are even more unique than DNA, the genetic material in each of our cells. Although identical twins can share the same DNA -- or at least most of it -- they can't have the same fingerprints.

Fingerprinting is one form of biometrics, a science that uses people's physical characteristics to identify them. Fingerprints are ideal for this purpose because they're inexpensive to collect and analyze, and they never change, even as people age.

Crime Scene Scenario

 
let your mind free , imagine :D .. you are a criminal investigator like Kudo Shinichi ( great animation I think you should watch it :) )
let's go …..

With respect to a crime scene .. what about fingerprint impressions ???

at a crime scene involves three different types of fingerprint impressions: latent, patent, and plastic.

 A latent print is not visible to the naked eye, which means a person must process the scene and enhance the latent print using black powder or chemicals.

A patent print is visible without processing and includes fingerprints left in blood, oil, and dirt.
A plastic print is a three-dimensional impression where the friction ridge skin of the finger sinks into a surface, such as window caulk.
 

Fingerprint Patterns :

Once fingerprints have been located at a crime scene, either the item is collected or the print is powdered and lifted using tape or a fingerprint lifter. The recovered print is then identified as one of the three main categories of prints : Loop , Arch and Whorl .

Loop :

A loop is a pattern in which the ridges of the print enter on one side, curve in the middle, and exit out the same side. The loop is the most common type of fingerprint pattern and can be sub classified as either an ulnar loop or a radial loop. An ulnar loop has the opening of the ridges pointing toward the little finger of the hand, which is closest to the ulna bone of the forearm. A radial loop has the opening of the ridges pointing toward the thumb of the hand, which is closest to the radial bone of the forearm .

Arch :

An arch is a pattern in which the ridges enter on one side of the print and exit out the opposite side with a slight rise in the center. The arch can be sub classified as either a plain arch or a tented arch. A plain arch has a slight rise in the center of the print, as opposed to a tented arch, which has a very steep rise in the center of the print.

Whorl :

A whorl is a pattern in which the ridges have a circular or swirled center. A whorl can be sub classified as a plain whorl, a central pocket loop whorl, a double loop whorl, or an accidental whorl.


FINGERPRINT 10-PRINT CARD :

Inked prints are patent or visible to the naked eye due to the fact that reproduction of the friction ridge skin is completed using black printers’ ink. An inked fingerprint card is completed by law enforcement at the time of arrest, for employment applications ,and for pistol permits. The fingerprint card or 10-print card is arranged into three sections: information, rolled impressions, and plain impressions. The information section on the card contains relevant data regarding the person being printed and the individual completing the card. The rolled impression portion of the card contains 10 individual fingers rolled from nail to nail. The plain or flat impression portion of the card contains the 10fingerprints placed directly onto the card .A fingerprint card is arranged by right hand over left hand ,always starting at the right thumb and moving through to the right little and then left thumb to left little. When rolling a fingerprint, the investigator should have a firm hold of the hand or finger of the individual and start with finger#1, right thumb and work through to finger #10, left little. Each finger should be checked for proper ink distribution and rolled from one side to the other side. Never roll back and forth because this will cause a distortion of the ridge detail .

Then you need Fingerprint Processing :

In order to visualize latent prints at a crime scene, the crime scene technician must use fingerprint powder and a fingerprint brush to dust the areas where suspected fingerprints are located. When a darkened fingerprint is exposed with the brush-and-powder technique, the fingerprint can then be lifted as evidence and saved for future comparisons at the crime laboratory. All enhanced fingerprints at crime scenes should be saved even if you cannot determine the pattern type with the naked eye. That's a small guide in some details : Here .

Fingerprint Scanner :

Fingerscanning, also called fingerprint scanning, is the process of electronically obtaining and storing human fingerprints. The digital image obtained by such scanning is called a finger image. In some texts, the terms fingerprinting and fingerprint are used, but technically, these terms refer to traditional ink-and-paper processes and images.

Finally Hacking Apple touch ID :D :

iPhone 5S fingerprint sensor hacked by Germany's Chaos Computer Club

                                

After These long introduction with great information some are important and other for further reading . this is practical approach for what we have red but you will face problems like labs , tools and more but i think we can even determine fingerprints and extract it for anything we want 3:) .. I won't say this is for educational purpose only but sharing is caring .. knowledge is a flow and I'm not an expert  :) :)

Recommended Resources :

fingerprint analysis
Image Processing Basics
Apple Touch ID and NSA
Fingerprints used in Forensic Investigations

Ahmed Hashad Security Researcher @ 701 Labs
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Hard Disk Drive in depth

Firstly what's hard disk drive ?

A hard disk drive (HDD) is a nonvolatile storage device that stores data on a magnetic disk .

Nonvolatile means that data remains after computer is switched off . Data is written on the disk by magnetizing particles within a magnetic material in a pattern that represents the data. The hard disk is able to read back this data by detecting the magnetic patterns created during the write process .

Main Parts Hard disk at a glance :

 HDD have two main parts : PCB ( Printed Circuit Board ) and HDA ( Head and disk assembly ) .

 -->PCB :

any PCB have green mask , copper tracks , core i.e ( fiber glass ) , Components and solder to join components with skeleton PCB . 

in our case HDD : there are number of ICS as Buffer Ram , MCU ( Microcontroller Unit ) , Rom Chip and Motor Driver  also some components like Ceramic Capacitors , SMT Coils , Motor Contacts , Head Stack Contacts and Interface like P-ATA , S-ATA …etc. 

MCU : MCU usually consists of Central Processor Unit or CPU which makes all calculations and Read/Write channel - special unit which converts analog signals from heads into digital information during read process and encodes digital information into analog signals when drive needs to write. MCU also has IO ports to control everything on PCB and transmit data through interface.

Motor Driver  or (VCM Controller ) : This fellow is the most power consumption chip on PCB. It controls spindle motor rotation and heads movements. The core of VCM controller can stand working temperature of 100C/212F.

Rom chip : rom which  contains firmware of hard disk . When you apply power on a drive, MCU chip reads content of the flash chip into the memory and starts the code. Without such code drive wouldn't even spin up. Sometimes there is no flash chip on PCB that means content of the flash located inside MCU .  

buffer Ram : Size of the memory defines size of the cache of HDD. you can find such information in data sheet on this HDD . CPU eats some memory to store some firmware modules and as far as we know only Hitachi/IBM drives show real cache size in data sheets for the other drives you can just guess how big is the real cache size .

-->HAD :

HDA has 4 major components :

Spindle , Platter , Head and Actuator

Spindle :A spindle holds one or more platters, it is connected to a motor that spins the platters at a constant revolutions per minute (RPM) .

Platter : A platter is the disk that stores the magnetic patterns. It is made from a nonmagnetic material, usually glass or aluminum, and has a thin coating of magnetic material on both sides.

>> a platter can spin at a speed of 7,200 to 18,000 RPM. The cost of an HDD increases for a higher speed.

Head :The read-write head of an HDD reads data from and writes data to the platters. It detects (when reading) and modifies (when writing) the magnetization of the material immediately underneath it. Information is written to the platter as it rotates at high speed past the selected head.

>> There is one head for each magnetic platter surface on the spindle, these are mounted on a common actuator arm.

 Actuator :An actuator arm moves the heads in an arc across the spinning platters, allowing each head to access the entire data area,similar to the action of the pick-up arm of a record deck.

Another concept must be known is The performance of an HDD which is measured using the following parameters:

Capacity : The number of bytes an HDD can store. The current maximum capacity of an HDD is 4TB.

Data transfer rate : The amount of digital data that can be moved to or from the disk within a given time. It is dependant on the performance of the HDD assembly and the bandwidth of the data path.

• The average data transfer rate ranges between 50-300 MB per second.

Seek time : The time the HDD takes to locate a particular piece of data. The average seek time ranges from 3 to 9 milliseconds .

Some important concepts about Disk Storage system :

The surface of a disk is formatted into invisible concentric bands called tracks, on which data are stored magnetically. A typical 3.5" hard drive may contain thousands of tracks. Moving the read/write heads from one track to another is called seeking. The average seek time is one type of disk speed measurement. Another measurement is RPM (revolutions per minute), typically 7,200 . The outside track of a disk is track 0, and the track numbers increase as you move towards the center. 

 

A cylinder refer s to all tracks accessible from a single position of the read/write heads .A file is initially stored on a disk using adjacent cylinders.This reduces the amount of movement by the read-write heads.

A sector is a 512-byte portion of a track, as shown in Figure 14-2. Physical sectors are magnetically (invisibly) marked on the disk by the manufacturer, using what is called a low-level format. Sector sizes never change, regardless of the installed operating system. A hard disk may have 63 or more sectors per track.

Physical disk geometry is a way of describing the disk 's structure to make it readable by the system BIOS .It consists of the number of cylinder s per disk,the number of read/write heads per cylinder, and the number of sectors per track.

Fragmentation Over time, as files become more spread out around a disk, they become fragmented.A fragmented file is one whose sectors are no longer located in contiguous areas of the disk. When this happens, the read -write heads have to skip across track s when reading the file's data.This slows down the reading and writing of files, and makes the data more susceptible to errors .

Translation to Logical Sector Numbers Hard disk controllers perform a process called translation,the conversion of physical disk geometry to a logical structure that is understood by the operating system.The controller is usually embedded in firmware,either on the drive itself
or on a separate controller card.After translation,the operating system can work with what are called logical sector numbers.Logical sector numbers are always  numbered sequentially, starting at zero .

 Partitions , volumes , Logical , Extended , Primary …. What are ?
On a typical microcomputer, a single physical hard drive is divided into one or more logical

units named partitions , or volumes . Each formatted partition is represented by a separate drive letter such as C, D, or E, and it can be formatted using one of several file systems .

A drive may contain two types of partitions: primary and extended. Two configurations are possible, depending on whether you want an extended partition:

• Up to three primary partitions and one extended partition.

• Up to four primary partitions and no extended partition.

An extended partition can be divided into an unlimited number of logical partitions.
Each logical partition appears as a separate drive letter. Primary partitions can be made bootable ,whereas logical partitions cannot. It is possible to format each system or logical partition with a different file system .in file system files stored in clusters where a cluster is the smallest unit of space used by a file; it consists of one or more adjacent disk sectors. A file system stores each file as a linked sequence of clusters . The size of a cluster depends on both the type of file system in use and the size of its disk partition.
 

Hint : Using assembly language, you can bypass the operating system completely when accessing data.This can be useful: you might have to store and retrieve data stored in an unconventional format, to recover lost data, or to perform diagnostics on disk hardware .

References : 

1-Assembly Language for Intel-based Computers by Kip Irvine
2- HDD from inside: Main parts Artem Rubtsov , www.hddscan.com
3- Hitachi Data Systems at www.hds.com .


Ahmed Hashad Security Researcher @ 701 Labs
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Windows Kernal Overview

Simple Overview About Windows Kernel

Please Read this First :) ,,  http://7shad01.blogspot.com/2012/11/kernal-in-brief.html

Windows has a monolithic kernel  Because Core Of Operating System and Device Drivers Share The Same Memory Address space  ,, running at the highest possible privilege level.

 

Kernel Executive , I thinks we must pay attention to this component as implements the basic OS functions: processes, threads, virtual memory, interrupt and trap handling,exception management, cache management, I/O management, asynchronous procedure calls, the Registry, object management, events and many other low  level interfaces..... it implemented in Ntoskrnl.exe Whose Binary is in the C:\WINDOWS \SYSTEM32\ directory path.


Also , There is separation between  uniprocessor and multiprocessor versions of the kernel still exist Like 32 Bit systems in Which there are different kernels based on Physical Address Extension (PAE ) asTable :

 

 Another Component in Kernel , Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) which is responsible for device driver and Kernel Executive isolation from platform-specific hardware differences.

HAL is implemented within hal.dll module ,, also There are different versions of the HAL with regard to the Kernel Executive, depending on whether one is on a uniprocessor or a multiprocessor system.

The remaining components are loaded as kernel drivers (or as modules) into the running kernel Like win32k.sys implements the kernel side of the Windows subsystem and the GUI of the operating system, while tcpip.sys implements most of the TCP/IP networking stack.

 

Kernal in Brief

What About Kernal ??

Kernal Is The Important Part in any OS. used To Manage All resources of computer like I/O , Virtual Memory , Disk Management and More .

When We Speak As Layers Kernal is second layer before CPU, Memory , Devices Then Kernal Finally Application With Gui Or Not that isn’t the point :).

From Here About Types Of Operating systems
http://7shad01.blogspot.com/2012/09/operating-systems-types.html

Some Special Systems don’t Need Kernal But All multitasking and multiple users
Most in need to kernal as principle part of its parts 

in order to manage processes , tasks , users , time and usage in general for all users or management tasks in multitasks os .

this important part need design in order to work correctly with no errors

there are 3 models of designs : Monolithic kernels


In this model os merged in one part kernal not separated this make os faster but any error make all system fails like virus or malware in general .Microkernels Kernals


not as one this divides os into parts but time for sending and receiving data is wasted . any part is standalone .
Hybrid kernels


merged design from Microkernels and Monolithicto make system faster and working with high performance .

That as i can say a definition about kernal


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Dr.7shad

Interesting Reverse Engineering :)

What is reverse engineering?

Reverse engineering is the process of taking a compiled binary and attempting to recreate (or simply understand) the original way the program works. A programmer initially writes a program, usually in a high-level language such as C++ or Visual Basic (or God forbid, Delphi). Because the computer does not inherently speak these languages, the code that the programmer wrote is assembled into a more machine specific format, one to which a computer does speak. This code is called, originally enough, machine language. This code is not very human friendly,  and often times requires a great deal of brain power to figure out exactly what the programmer had in mind.

What is reverse engineering used for?

Reverse engineering can be applied to many areas of computer science, but here are a couple of generic categories;

• Making it possible to interface to legacy code (where you do not have the original code source).
• Breaking copy protection (ie. Impress your friends and save some $$).
• Studying virii and malware.
• Evaluating software quality and robustness.
• Adding functionality to existing software.

The first category is reverse engineering code to interface with existing binaries when the source code is not available. I will not be discussing this much, as it is boring.

The second category (and the biggest) is breaking copy protection. This means disabling time trials, defeating registration, and basically everything else to get commercial software for free. This we will be discussing at great length.

The third category is studying virus and malware code. Reverse engineering is required because not a lot of virus coders out there don’t send instructions on how they wrote the code, what it is supposed to accomplish, and how it will accomplish this (unless they are really dumb). This is a pretty exciting field, but requires a great deal of knowledge. We will not discuss this much until later on.

The fourth category is evaluating software security and vulnerabilities. When creating large (think Windows Operating Systems), reverse engineering is used to make sure that the system does not contain any major vulnerabilities, security flaws, and frankly, to make it as hard as possible to allow crackers to crack the software.

The final category is adding functionality to existing software. Personally, I think this is one of the most fun. Don’t like the graphics used in your web design software? Change them. Want to add a menu item to encrypt your documents in your favorite word processor? Add it. Want to annoy your co-workers to no end by adding derogatory message boxes to Windows calculator? Let’s do it. This we will be getting into later in the series.

What knowledge is required?

As you can probably guess, a great deal of knowledge is necessary to be an effective reverse engineer. Fortunately, a great deal of knowledge is not necessary to ‘begin’ reverse engineering, and that’s where I hope to come in. That being said, to have fun with reversing and to get something out of these tutorials you should at least have a basic understanding of how program flow works (for example, you should know what a basic if…then statement does, what an array is, and have at least seen a hello world program). Secondly, becoming familiar with Assembly Language is highly suggested; You can get thru the tutorials without it, but at some point you will want to become a guru at ASM to really know what you are doing. In addition, a lot of your time will be devoted to learning how to use tools. These tools are invaluable to a reverse engineer, but also require learning each tool’s shortcuts, flaws and idiosyncrasies. Finally, reverse engineering requires a significant amount of experimentation; playing with different packers/protectors/encryption schemes, learning about programs originally written in different programming languages (even Delphi), deciphering anti-reverse engineering tricks…the list goes on and on. At the end of this tutorial I have added a ‘further reading’ section with some suggested sources. If you really want to get good at reversing, I highly suggest you do some further reading.