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6 Scope & 7 Live Data Collection
Live data collection on Windows systems can be done using prebuilt kits like Mandiant Redline or Velociraptor, by creating your own scripted toolkit using built-in and free tools to collect processes, network connections, system logs and other volatile data, while following best practices like testing your methods first and being cautious of malware on investigated systems.
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6 Scope & 7 Live Data Collection
- 1. CNIT 152: Incident Response 6. Discoveringthe Scope of the Incident Updated 9-15-22
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- 3. Examining Initial Data •Look at original aler t • You may notice more than the person who reported it di d • Ask about other detection systems and review what they recorde d • Network administrators may not think like investigator s • Gather context for the detection event
- 4. Preliminary Evidence • Determinewhat sources of preliminary evidence may hel p • Decide which sources you will actually us e • Collect and review the evidenc e • Identify sources that are easy to analyze, and that quickly provide initial answers
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- 6. Independent Sources • Firewalllogs don't depend on registry keys, etc . • Multiple independent evidence sources lead to more reliable conclusion s • It's dif fi cult for an attacker to remove or modify evidence from all source s • Less likely that a routine process would overwrite or discard all evidenc e • Cross-check information, like date and time
- 7. Review • Attacker maybe causing more damag e • Test a detection method on one system, or a small date range of log entrie s • Make sure your detection method is fast and effective
- 8. Determining a Courseof Action
- 9. Determining a Courseof Action
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- 11. Data Loss Scenario •Large online retaile r • You work in IT security departmen t • Customers are complaining about spam after becoming a new customer
- 12. Finding Something Concrete •Anecdotal customer complaints are inconclusiv e • Option s • Work with customers and review their emai l • Reliability and privacy problem s • Create fake customer accounts with unique email addresses
- 13. Fake Accounts • Use64-character random username s • Unlikely that spammers would guess the username s • Monitor those accounts
- 14. Preliminary Evidence • Assumingcustomer data is being lost someho w • Find where customer data is and how it is manage d • One internal database on production serve r • One external database at a third-party marketing fi rm
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- 18. Theories & SimpleTests • Inside r • No easy way to tes t • Modi fi ed code on website to capture email addresse s • Enter some fake accounts directly into database, bypassing the web for m • Someone copying backup tape s • Add some fake accounts to the backups
- 19. Three Sets ofFake Accounts 1. Made through the web for m 2. Entered directly into the database, bypassing the web for m 3. Added only to the backups
- 20. Two Weeks Later •Spam comes to the fi rst set of fake account s • And to the accounts manually entered into the databas e • Suggests the website is not part of the proble m • No spam to the accounts on the backup tap e • Backups aren't the source of data loss
- 21. New Theories • Directaccess to the databas e • Malware on the database serve r • Accessing it over the network
- 22. Monitoring Queries • Network-levelpacket capture s • Expensive, powerful system require d • If queries are encrypted, or malware is obfuscating them, it may be hard to decode the traf fi c • Database-level query monitoring and loggin g • Most ef fi cient and reliable technique
- 23. Next Steps • Createa few more fake account s • Talk to database and application administrator s • To fi nd out where data is store d • Scan through logs to see what is "normal " • No queries or stored procedures perform a bulk export of email addresses on a daily basis
- 24. Two Weeks Later •New accounts get spa m • Retrieve query logs from time accounts created to spam tim e • For the fi eld "custemail " • A single query is foun d • SELECT custemail FROM custpro fi le WHERE signupdate >= "2014-02-16"
- 25. Query Details • Feb17, 2014 at 11:42 am GM T • Originated from IP in graphics arts dept . • Query used an database administrator's username from the IT dept . • Interview reveals that graphics arts dept. has no direct interaction with customers, only outside vendors
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- 29. Results from Workstation •Examine images, focusing on actions at the time of the quer y • Malware found on workstatio n • Persistent, provides remote shell, remote graphical interface, ability to launch and terminate processe s • Connects to a foreign I P • Has been installed for two year s • Cannot determine how system was originally compromised
- 30. Final Steps ofInvestigation
- 31. Scoping Gone Wrong •After complaints from customer s • Search every computer in the company for unique strings in the customer data , • And fi les large enough to include all the customer records
- 32. Problems • No evidencethat the stolen data is stored on company server s • No evidence that the data is all being stolen at once in a large fi l e • And even so, it would probably be compresse d • Large amount of effort; low chance of success
- 33. Another Unwise Path •Focus on insider s • Who had access and knowledge to steal the customer dat a • Compile pro fi les of numerous employee s • Review personnel fi le s • Background checks, surveillance software capturing keystrokes and screen image s • Video surveillance installed
- 34. Problems • Leads toa "witch hunt " • Invades privacy of employee s • Large effort, small chance of success
- 35. Another Unwise Path •Because the data resides on the database serve r • Image and analyze RAM from the database server to hunt for malwar e • Because the hard drives are massive and too large to investigate easily
- 36. Problems • Once again,they have jumped to a conclusio n • And ignored other possibilitie s • Large effort, low chance of success
- 37. Scenario 2: Automated ClearingHouse Fraud
- 38. Funds Transfer • Bankcalled the CEO--they blocked an ACH transfer of $183,642.7 3 • To an account that was never used befor e • Flagged by their fraud prevention syste m • Transfer from CFO's account, but he says he never authorized it
- 39. Facts from theBank
- 40. Preliminary Evidence • Firewal l •Two weeks of log s • Examine this fi rs t • Should you examine CFO's laptop computer ? • Live response, RAM, hard driv e • But maybe other computers are involved
- 41. Firewall Logs • Looknear the time the unauthorized transfer occurred (4:37 pm ) • See who logged in prior to tha t • Two computers logged in via HTTPS, making a number of connections between 4:10 pm and 4:48 p m • From two IPs -- one is CFO's, other not immediately recognized
- 42. Two Immediate Tasks •Gather complete forensic evidence from CFO's compute r • Live response, RAM, and hard dis k • Because evidence is being lost as time passe s • Track down the other IP address and decide what action is appropriate
- 43. DHCP Logs • Searchfor the time in questio n • Get MAC address from DHCP log s • It's the MAC of the CFO's laptop (wireless card ) • So there's only one computer involved
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- 47. Open Of fi ce Space •CFO's of fi ce is in clear view of other worker s • It's unlikely that someone could go into it unobserved
- 48. CFO's Computer • Recentlyinstalled persistent executabl e • Send it to a third-party analysis sit e • It's a variant of the Zeus banking malware
- 49. Final Steps ofInvestigation
- 50. Scoping Gone Wrong •There are no recent antivirus or IDS alert s • So you believe the security issue must be at the ban k • Tell the bank to fi nd the attacker and put them in jail
- 51. Problems • No attemptto validate the bank's original dat a • Company assumes that existing network security measures would detect a problem, if there was on e • Assumption that a third-party can help yo u • While you wait, data on company systems is lost
- 52. Another Unwise Path •CEO believes that security measures are in place to prevent malware, so the CFO must have initiated the transfe r • The CEO wants you to investigate the CFO and avoid tipping him (or her) off
- 53. Problem • No securitymeasures are perfect, not even two- factor authenticatio n • Also, that sort of investigation is outside your expertise, and should be referred to an outside contractor
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- 55. CNIT 152: Incident Response 7. LiveData Collection
- 56. Purpose of LiveCollection • Preserve volatile evidence that will further the investigatio n • Also collect log fi les and fi le listing s • Get answers quickl y • Minimize changes to the syste m • Avoid disrupting business, causing crashes, or destroying evidence
- 57. When to PerformLive Response
- 58. Risks of LiveResponse
- 59. Altering the Evidence •All live response changes the system • Purists don't like i t • But the alternative is to lose all volatile data and get only a disk imag e • You can minimize changes, but not eliminate them
- 60. Selecting a LiveResponse Tool • Homegrown Microsoft DOS batch script (or bash ) • Perl-based scrip t • There are specialized live-response products, free and commercial
- 61. Velociraptor • Our mainlive response tool
- 62. Factors to Consider •Is the tool generally accepted in the forensic community ? • Does the solution address the common operating systems in your environment ? • Tools that use OS commands should contain known good copies of those commands, not trust the local commands on the suspect system
- 63. Factors to Consider •Does the solution collect data that is important to have, in your environment ? • How long does a collection take ? • Recommended: less than an hour per syste m • Is the system con fi gurable ? • Is the output easily reviewed and understood?
- 64. What to Collect •Current running state of the syste m • Network connection s • Running Processe s • What happened in the pas t • File listings, system log s • Usually a higher priority
- 65. The Deep End •Some organizations always collect entire RAM contents, or hard disk image s • Don't collect data that you can't effectively use or understan d • Collect data you can really use to quickly determine the impact of the incident
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- 69. Complete RAM Capture •Requires specialized tools to collect and interpre t • Not part of Live Respons e • Sometimes needed on carefully chosen systems
- 70. Collection Best Practices •Practice on a test system fi rs t • Learn how fast the process is, and how large the output i s • Practice handling problem s • Broken USB port or NI C • Locked screen
- 71. Caution: Malware • Thesystem you are examining may be infected with malwar e • Any media you connect may become infecte d • Any credentials you use may be compromised
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- 73. • From 2018 •Link Ch 7f • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/ 328859673_Comparison_of_Acquisition_Software _for_Digital_Forensics_Purposes
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- 80. Horror Stories: IR Procedures •Copy live response toolkit to affected systems, save collected data back to that same system including full RAM dump, several gigabytes in siz e • Remotely log in with domain administrator account, run netstat & Task Manage r • Pull out the plug, image the hard drive
- 81. Good Methods of LiveResponse • Network share on a dedicated fi le serve r • Not part of any domai n • Used throwaway credentials not used for any other purpos e • Two folder s • Read-only containing the live response toolki t • Writeable for output from live response toolkit
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- 83. Live Response Tips •Air-gap for evidence serve r • Logging and auditing access to evidence serve r • Automate process for consistenc y • Live Response software must run as Local Administrator/root
- 84. Media • Some computerscannot connect external medi a • Hardware failure, con fi guration, etc . • Common options for running toolki t • CD-ROM, DVD, network shar e • Encrypted network streaming tool like cryptcat or stunnel to send output to another system
- 85. Unexpected OS • Cannotrun your normal live response toolki t • If you can't update or modify your toolkit to ru n • Perform manual live response
- 86. Unexpected OS • Createa checklist of the automated steps in the toolkit for a similar O S • Research command-line option s • Test them on a known clean system, if possibl e • Manually perform steps to collect evidence
- 87. Automation • Decreases humanerro r • Makes processes more consistent and faste r • Helps to prevent bad guys from gathering intelligence about how you respond to incident s • Anything you do on the evidence system may be sent to the bad guys
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- 89. Live Data Collectionon Microsoft Windows Systems
- 90. Three Main Options •Use a prebuilt kit • Like Mandiant Redline or Velocirapto r • Create your ow n • Use a hybrid of the two
- 91. Mandiant Redline • Installthe Redline MSI package on a trusted workstatio n • Create the Redline collector on the trusted syste m • The only step you take on a suspect system is to run the stand-alone Redline collector batch scrip t • Automatically saves data to the same location you ran the script from
- 92. Do It Yourself •Make your own live response toolki t • Decide what OS to suppor t • Windows has many versions, and big differences between 32-bit and 64-bi t • Find tools that collect the information you want
- 93. Windows Built-in Tools •Copy these fi les from a clean Windows syste m • Also copy cmd.ex e • "Trusted binaries " • Don't trust fi les on the evidence machine
- 94. Free Tools • Usecommand-line versions, not GUI version s • Easier to scrip t • Less impac t • Rename every tool so you can identify it as something you added to the syste m • Prepend "t_"
- 95. Other Data Items •Prefetch informatio n • System restore point informatio n • Browser history, and mor e • Balance your needs with the impact the collection has on the system
- 96. Scripting Language • Chooseon e • MS-DOS Batch (lowest impact ) • PowerShel l • VBScrip t • Per l • Python
- 97. Scripting Tips • Addlogging and compute a checksum of collected dat a • Be careful with fi le and directory name s • They may be long or include space s • Test your script extensively • Built a test environment that resembles your production system s • Watch for errors and unexpected results
- 98. Memory Collection • Toolsfor a full memory dum p • AccessData FTK Imager Lit e • Mandiant Memoryz e • Monsools Windows Memory Toolki t • Belkasoft RAM Capturer
- 99. Mandiant Memoryze • Command-linetool: MemoryDD.bat
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- 101. Individual Process RAM Dump •Tool s • Mandiant Memoryz e • Microsoft userdum p • Microsoft procdum p • Ntsecurity.nu pmdump
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- 103. Live Data Collectionon Unix-Based Systems
- 104. LINReS • From NetworkIntelligence Indi a • Written for RedHat 3 and 4, not updated since 200 6 • Useful mainly as an example to guide you in making a custom tool
- 105. Do It Yourself •Really the only optio n • Make some script s • Mandiant uses Bourne shell scripts that make scripts for various Unix/Linux version s • Requires constant maintenance
- 106. Language Choices • Per l •Pytho n • Bourne shel l • BASH (Mandiant uses this ) • others
- 107. Apple Systems • system_pro fi le r •Very long list of software, hardware, logs, etc.
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- 113. Memory Collection • Thememory device is handled differently in every version of Unix, BSD, and Linu x • In earlier versions, you could just use dd to collect RAM through the /dev/mem devic e • Direct access to memory is now blocked for security reason s • Use LiME – Linux Memory Extractor (link Ch 7c)
- 114. Loadable Kernel Modules •LiME is an LK M • Must be compiled for the exact kernel version running on the target syste m • No ability to include checksums of the outpu t • You must do that yourself
- 115. Collection from BSD-Based Kernels •Use dc3dd or dc fl dd to capture contents of /dev/me m • They are like dd but also include checksum s • In recent versions, there's no End Of File mark in /dev/mem, so you must manually specify how many bytes to capture
- 116. Collection from AppleOS X • Memoryze for Mac (link Ch 7d ) • Mac Memory Reader seems to be gone
- 117. Individual Process Dump •"gcore" (part of gdb, the GNU debugger)
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