The security research community is full of grey beards that earned their stripes writing exploits against mail servers, domain controllers, and TCP/IP stacks. These researchers started writing exploits on platforms like Solaris, IRIX, and BSDi before moving on to Windows exploitation. Now they run companies, write policy, rant on twitter, and testify in front of […]
Today we are launching Empire Hacking, a bi-monthly meetup that focuses on pragmatic security research and new discoveries in attack and defense. Empire Hacking is technical. We aim to bridge the gap between weekend projects and funded research. There won’t be any product pitches here. Come prepared with your best ideas. Empire Hacking is exclusive. […]
We need to do more to protect ourselves. 2014 overflowed with front-page proof: Apple, Target, JPMorgan Chase, etc, etc. The current, vulnerable status quo begs for radical change, an influx of talented people, and substantially better tools. As we look ahead to driving that change in 2015, we’re proud to highlight a selection of our […]
This is part two of a two-part blog post that shows how to use KLEE with mcsema to symbolically execute Linux binaries (see the first post!). This part will cover how to build KLEE, mcsema, and provide a detailed example of using them to symbolically execute an existing binary. The binary we’ll be symbolically executing […]
At THREADS 2014, I demonstrated a new capability of mcsema that enables the use of KLEE, a symbolic execution framework, on software available only in binary form. In the talk, I described how to use mcsema and KLEE to learn an unknown protocol defined in a binary that has never been seen before. In the example, […]
For every security engineer you train, there are 20 or more developers writing code with potential vulnerabilities. There’s no human way to keep up. We need to be more effective with less resources. It’s time to make security a fully integrated part of modern software development and operations. It’s time to automate. This year’s THREADS […]
Cyber security is an increasingly complex and vibrant field that requires brilliant and driven people to work on diverse teams. Unfortunately, women are severely underrepresented and we want to change that. Career Discovery in Cyber Security is an NYU-Poly event, created in a collaboration with influential men and women in the industry. This annual symposium […]
Step-by-step guide to enabling SMS-based two-factor authentication on your Apple ID and Dropbox accounts to protect against password-based attacks.
In this post, we discuss the creation of a novel software obfuscation toolkit, MAST, implemented in the LLVM compiler and suitable for denying program understanding to even the most well-resourced adversary. Our implementation is inspired by effective obfuscation techniques used by nation-state malware and techniques discussed in academic literature. MAST enables software developers to protect […]
We are proud to announce that McSema is now open source! McSema is a framework for analyzing and transforming machine-code programs to LLVM bitcode. It supports translation of x86 machine code, including integer, floating point, and SSE instructions. We previously covered some features of McSema in an earlier blog post and in our talk at ReCON 2014. Our […]
A 2-day conference exploring state-of-the-art advances in security automation. We would like to share the call for papers for THREADS 2014, a research and development conference that is part of NYU-Poly’s Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW). Trail of Bits is a founding sponsor of THREADS. The final deadline for submissions is October 6th, but you […]
We’re proud to be a sponsor of the first Build it Break it programming contest, run by the University of Maryland (UMD) and supported by one of our own employees and PhD student at the university, Andrew Ruef. Build it Break it is a “flipped CTF” where contestants both implement secure software and identify vulnerabilities in […]
At Trail of Bits we are proud of our roots in academia and research, and we believe it is important to promote cyber security education for students of every academic level. We recently sponsored a High School Capture the Flag (CTF) event, we released a CTF Field Guide, and we are a regular part of […]
New York, NY (July 15th, 2014)—Veteran computer security researcher Nicholas DePetrillo has joined Trail of Bits, the New York-based security company, as Principal Security Researcher. Trail of Bits Co-founder and CEO Dan Guido announced the hire today. DePetrillo brings the headcount of the firm, which was founded by a team of three in 2012, to […]
On June 28th Artem Dinaburg and Andrew Ruef will be speaking at REcon 2014 about a project named McSema. McSema is a framework for translating x86 binaries into LLVM bitcode. This translation is the opposite of what happens inside a compiler. A compiler translates LLVM bitcode to x86 machine code. McSema translates x86 machine code into LLVM […]
Trail of Bits headquarters has moved! Located in the heart of the financial district, our new office features a unique design, cool modern decor, and an open layout that makes us feel right at home.
We are proud to have one of the only seven accepted funded-track proposals to DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge. Computer security experts from academia, industry and the larger security community have organized themselves into more than 30 teams to compete in DARPA’s Cyber Grand Challenge —- a first-of-its-kind tournament designed to speed the development of automated security […]
Free Online Coursework Allows Students, Professionals to Build Essential Offensive Security Skills New York, NY (May 20, 2014)–Security researchers at Trail of Bits today introduced the CTF Field Guide (Capture the Flag), a freely available, self-guided online course designed to help university and high school students hone the skills needed to succeed in the fast-paced, […]
Background Friday night I sat down with a glass of Macallan 15 and decided to write a static checker that would find the Heartbleed bug. I decided that I would write it as an out-of-tree clang analyzer plugin and evaluate it on a few very small functions that had the spirit of the Heartbleed bug […]
Javelin shows you how modern attackers would approach and exploit your enterprise. By simulating real-time, real-world attack techniques, Javelin identifies which employees are most likely to be targets of spearphishing campaigns, uncovers security infrastructure weaknesses, and compares overall vulnerability against industry competitors. Javelin benchmarks the efficacy of defensive strategies, and provides customized recommendations for improving […]
Have you ever wanted to make a query into a native mode program asking about program locations that write a specific value to a register? Have you ever wanted to automatically deobfuscate obfuscated strings? Reverse engineering a native program involves understanding its semantics at a low level until a high level picture of functionality emerges. […]
Today we’re excited to release an open-source version of iVerify! iPhone users now have an easy way to ensure their phones are free of malware. iVerify validates the integrity of supported iOS devices and detects modifications that malware or jailbreaking would make, without the use of signatures. It runs at boot-time and thoroughly inspects the […]
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you an important announcement: On Thursday, June 6th, just in time for SummerCon, we will be hosting a free Ruby Security Workshop in NYC! Signups are first-come, first-serve and we only have space for 30 people. Sign up here and we will email the selected participants the location […]
In the final part of our three-part series, we investigate the how the toolkit user gained control of program flow and what their strategy means for the reliability of their exploit. Elderwood and the Department of Labor Hack Writing Exploits with the Elderwood Kit (Part 1) Writing Exploits with the Elderwood Kit (Part 2) Last time, […]
In the second part of our three-part series, we investigate the tools provided by the Elderwood kit for developing exploits from discovered vulnerabilities. Elderwood and the Department of Labor Hack Writing Exploits with the Elderwood Kit (Part 1) Writing Exploits with the Elderwood Kit (Part 2) Several mitigations must be avoided or bypassed in order […]
