Cornerstones of Trust 2014 
Threat Intelligence 
with Open Source tools 
@jaimeblasco 
@santiagobassett
Presenters 
JAIME BLASCO 
Director AlienVault Labs 
Security Researcher 
Malware Analyst 
Incident Response 
SANTIAGO BASSETT 
Security Engineer 
OSSIM / OSSEC 
Network Security 
Logs Management
The attacker’s advantage 
• They only need to be successful once 
• Determined, skilled and often funded adversaries 
• Custom malware, 0days, multiple attack vectors, 
social engineering 
• Persistent
The defender’s disadvantage 
• They can’t make a mistake 
• Understaffed, jack of all trades, underfunded 
• Increasing complex IT infrastructure: 
– Moving to the cloud 
– Virtualization 
– Bring your own device 
• Prevention controls fail to block everything 
• Hundreds of systems and vulnerabilities to 
patch
What is Threat Intelligence? 
• Information about malicious actors 
• Helps you make better decisions about 
defense 
• Examples: IP addresses, Domains, URL’s, File 
Hashes, TTP’s, victim’s industries, countries..
State of the art 
• Most sharing is unstructured & human-to-human 
• Closed groups 
• Actual standards require knowledge, 
resources and time to integrate the data
How to use Threat Intelligence 
• Detect what my prevention technologies fail 
to block 
• Security planning, threat assessment 
• Improves incident response / Triage 
• Decide which vulnerabilities should I patch 
first
The Threat Intelligence Pyramid of 
Pain
Standards & Tools 
• IODEF: Incident Object Description Exchange 
Format 
• MITRE: 
– STIX: Structured Threat Information eXpression 
– TAXXII: Trusted Automated eXchange of Indicator 
Information 
– MAEC, CAPEC, CyBOX 
• CIF: Collective Intelligence Framework
Collective Intelligence Framework
Collecting malware 
Some malware tracking sites: 
• http://malc0de.com/rss 
• http://www.malwareblacklist.com/mbl.xml 
• http://www.malwaredomainlist.com/hostslist/mdl.xml 
• http://vxvault.siri-urz.net/URL_List.php 
• http://urlquery.net 
• http://support.clean-mx.de/clean-mx/xmlviruses.php 
Some Open Source malware crawlers: 
• Maltrieve: https://github.com/technoskald/maltrieve 
• Ragpicker: https://code.google.com/p/malware-crawler/
Collecting malware
Other malware collection tools 
Dionaea honeypot: 
• http://dionaea.carnivore.it/ 
Thug Honeyclient – Drive by download attacks: 
• https://github.com/buffer/thug 
• Emulates browsers functionality (activeX 
controls and plugins)
Analyzing malware 
Yara: Flexible, human-readable rules for identifying 
malicious streams. 
Can be used to analyze: 
• files 
• memory (volatility) 
• network streams. 
private rule APT1_RARSilent_EXE_PDF { 
meta: 
author = "AlienVault Labs" 
info = "CommentCrew-threat-apt1" 
strings: 
$winrar1 = "WINRAR.SFX" wide ascii 
$winrar2 = ";The comment below contains SFX 
script commands" wide ascii 
$winrar3 = "Silent=1" wide ascii 
$str1 = /Setup=[sw"]+.(exe|pdf|doc)/ 
$str2 = "Steup="" wide ascii 
condition: 
all of ($winrar*) and 1 of ($str*) 
}
Analyzing malware 
Cuckoo Sandbox: Used for automated malware 
analysis. 
• Traces Win32 API calls 
• Files created, deleted and downloaded 
• Memory dumps of malicious processes 
• Network traffic pcaps
Analyzing malware
Sandbox – CIF integration 
In our example: hxxp://www.garyhart.com, domain
CIF External feed example
Thank you!! 
@jaimeblascob 
@santiagobassett

Threat Intelligence with Open Source Tools - Cornerstones of Trust 2014

  • 1.
    Cornerstones of Trust2014 Threat Intelligence with Open Source tools @jaimeblasco @santiagobassett
  • 2.
    Presenters JAIME BLASCO Director AlienVault Labs Security Researcher Malware Analyst Incident Response SANTIAGO BASSETT Security Engineer OSSIM / OSSEC Network Security Logs Management
  • 3.
    The attacker’s advantage • They only need to be successful once • Determined, skilled and often funded adversaries • Custom malware, 0days, multiple attack vectors, social engineering • Persistent
  • 4.
    The defender’s disadvantage • They can’t make a mistake • Understaffed, jack of all trades, underfunded • Increasing complex IT infrastructure: – Moving to the cloud – Virtualization – Bring your own device • Prevention controls fail to block everything • Hundreds of systems and vulnerabilities to patch
  • 5.
    What is ThreatIntelligence? • Information about malicious actors • Helps you make better decisions about defense • Examples: IP addresses, Domains, URL’s, File Hashes, TTP’s, victim’s industries, countries..
  • 6.
    State of theart • Most sharing is unstructured & human-to-human • Closed groups • Actual standards require knowledge, resources and time to integrate the data
  • 7.
    How to useThreat Intelligence • Detect what my prevention technologies fail to block • Security planning, threat assessment • Improves incident response / Triage • Decide which vulnerabilities should I patch first
  • 8.
    The Threat IntelligencePyramid of Pain
  • 9.
    Standards & Tools • IODEF: Incident Object Description Exchange Format • MITRE: – STIX: Structured Threat Information eXpression – TAXXII: Trusted Automated eXchange of Indicator Information – MAEC, CAPEC, CyBOX • CIF: Collective Intelligence Framework
  • 10.
  • 11.
    Collecting malware Somemalware tracking sites: • http://malc0de.com/rss • http://www.malwareblacklist.com/mbl.xml • http://www.malwaredomainlist.com/hostslist/mdl.xml • http://vxvault.siri-urz.net/URL_List.php • http://urlquery.net • http://support.clean-mx.de/clean-mx/xmlviruses.php Some Open Source malware crawlers: • Maltrieve: https://github.com/technoskald/maltrieve • Ragpicker: https://code.google.com/p/malware-crawler/
  • 12.
  • 13.
    Other malware collectiontools Dionaea honeypot: • http://dionaea.carnivore.it/ Thug Honeyclient – Drive by download attacks: • https://github.com/buffer/thug • Emulates browsers functionality (activeX controls and plugins)
  • 14.
    Analyzing malware Yara:Flexible, human-readable rules for identifying malicious streams. Can be used to analyze: • files • memory (volatility) • network streams. private rule APT1_RARSilent_EXE_PDF { meta: author = "AlienVault Labs" info = "CommentCrew-threat-apt1" strings: $winrar1 = "WINRAR.SFX" wide ascii $winrar2 = ";The comment below contains SFX script commands" wide ascii $winrar3 = "Silent=1" wide ascii $str1 = /Setup=[sw"]+.(exe|pdf|doc)/ $str2 = "Steup="" wide ascii condition: all of ($winrar*) and 1 of ($str*) }
  • 15.
    Analyzing malware CuckooSandbox: Used for automated malware analysis. • Traces Win32 API calls • Files created, deleted and downloaded • Memory dumps of malicious processes • Network traffic pcaps
  • 16.
  • 17.
    Sandbox – CIFintegration In our example: hxxp://www.garyhart.com, domain
  • 18.
  • 19.
    Thank you!! @jaimeblascob @santiagobassett