Intrusion Detection System (IDS) Archives

Open-Source CMS Security In The Enterprise

Published in Security on April 20, 2016

Regardless of the size of your organization, the security challenges with open-source Content Management Systems (CMS) security are the same. In the enterprise the issue stems not from the technology or existing processes, but the fact that security is slipping through our fingers. We’ve made it too difficult for our counter parts in marketing and sales, and where there is a problem new solutions step in to solve them. We see this being enabled by the explosion of cloud platforms like Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) and technologies that easily work in those environments like open-source CMS applications.

As a community we have to do something about this. These activities stem from the perception that IT / Security is always going to say “no” or “make my life too hard” and I can’t help but think there is a better way to handle this. To do this, we have to be prepared to embrace technologies like open-source CMS application and be willing to silence our personal biases towards them (i.e., WordPress is insecure, which is grossly untrue). A good first steps is better understanding how these technologies might fit into existing governance and their associated security policies and tools.

Accounting for Website Security in The Enterprise

Open-source CMS web applications are no different than any other applications enterprise security teams are responsible for. The principles like Defense in Depth still apply, and integrating things like Prevention, Detection and Response solutions are just as critical. The difference being that in the enterprise, these aren’t new concepts, yet when it comes to open-source CMS applications they’re dismissed.

Compromises within the open-source CMS domain are achieved through two key areas: access control and exploitation of software vulnerabilities. Here are a few tips to help enterprises think through the security challenges they face:

OSSEC: Stop Agent Email Notifications from Being Grouped

Published in Security on August 22, 2013

This a quick post, for those of you that manage multiple agents under your manager, there might be instances where your email notifications will group different agent notifications together.

This has to do with two things:

Number of emails sent in an hour
Grouping setting is On

Default Max Emails

By default, OSSEC has a max email setting in their configuration, when it reaches the max, it will then group and email all remaining emails. In this instance, it bundles them all together, which leads to different messages from different agents being bundled.

OSSEC – Detecting New Files – Understanding How it Works

Published in Security on July 27, 2013

I recently saw some discussion in the OSSEC distribution list of someone having an issue with getting OSSEC syscheck to work right in real-time. It reminded me of a similar issue I had with my own configuration and others I have read about, so I figured I’d write something to shed light on how OSSEC’s syscheck works in real-time. Thanks ofcourse to Dani for the assist.

Syscheck – Integrity Checking Daemon

If you’re familiar with OSSEC, then you know syscheck, if you’re not then this section will get you caught up – I hope.

Syscheck is the integrity checking daemon within OSSEC. It’s purpose is simple, identify and report on changes within the system files. The way it works is simple, when you first install OSSEC it runs an initial syscheck scan, this scan will go through and capture the check sum of every file on the system (every file you have identified in your configuration file – /var/ossec/etc/ossec.conf). Once the baseline is set, syscheck is able to perform change detection by comparing all the checksums on each scan. If it’s not a 1 for 1 match, it reports it as a change. If new files are added, it identifies it as new, and reports it.

Simple, right? Right…