Category: Ransomware

Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts or locks the files on a computer or network and demands payment in exchange for the decryption key or a way to unlock the files. It typically spreads through phishing emails, malicious links, or unpatched software vulnerabilities. Once the files are locked, victims are asked to pay a ransom to regain access to their own data. Ransomware attacks can cause significant financial and operational damage to businesses and individuals.

What’s New in CEH v13: A Comprehensive Guide to the Latest Updates 🚀

By Hack Zone

On September 18, 2024

In Artificial Intelligence, Bug Bounty, Capture-the-Flag, CyberSecurity, Distributed Denial of Service, Ethical Hacking, Malware, Network Security, Phishing Attack, Ransomware, Trojan

As cyber threats continue to evolve, staying ahead of the cyber criminals is crucial for cybersecurity professionals and ethical hackers. The Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) v13 certification offers a range of exciting new features designed to help ethical hackers in this fast-paced environment. With the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), advanced hands-on labs, and a stronger focus on technologies like IoT and cloud security.

In this article, i’ll guide you what’s new in CEH v13 and why these changes are important for today’s cybersecurity perspective. 🌐🔒

1. AI and Machine Learning: The Core of CEH v13 🤖

One of the most exciting updates in CEH v13 is the integration of AI and machine learning into ethical hacking practices. With cyber threats growing more sophisticated, traditional methods are no longer enough. CEH v13 harnesses the power of AI to help ethical hackers anticipate and counter breaches more effectively.

How AI Enhances Threat Detection 🚨

AI enables ethical hackers to detect patterns and anomalies that traditional tools might miss. It can quickly sift through enormous data sets, identifying threats in real time. For instance, AI can analyze network traffic and flag irregular behavior, such as DDoS attacks, malware injections, or zero-day exploits.

AI-Powered Ethical Hacking Tools 🛠️

With AI, tools like automated vulnerability scanners and AI-based malware detectors are now essential. CEH v13 ensures ethical hackers master these advanced tools, making them more adept at countering cutting-edge threats like deepfakes, AI-generated malware, and automated phishing attacks.

2. Hands-On Labs: Real-World Simulations 💻

CEH v13 takes hands-on labs to the next level by offering immersive, real-world scenarios that mirror today’s cyber threat landscape. These labs help ethical hackers build the practical skills needed to combat AI-driven attacks.

Immersive Simulations for Skill Building 🎯

Participants engage with virtual environments that simulate modern attack vectors, including AI-powered threats. From defending against automated malware to bypassing AI-driven firewalls, these labs are crucial for mastering both defensive and offensive tactics.

Training for Modern Cyber Threats ⚔️

CEH v13 labs focus on both offensive and defensive operations, especially in cloud environments, IoT ecosystems, and AI-enhanced infrastructures. Ethical hackers can now practice securing systems against cutting-edge threats in a controlled, virtual setting.

3. New Attack and Defense Techniques 🛡️

CEH v13 expands on traditional hacking techniques by introducing new, AI-driven attack and defense methods, keeping ethical hackers ahead of cybercriminals.

AI-Driven Offensive Strategies 🎯

Attackers are using AI to launch automated phishing campaigns, create deepfakes, and deploy AI-generated malware. CEH v13 prepares professionals to counter these threats by teaching them how to leverage AI for ethical hacking, enabling faster identification and neutralization of vulnerabilities.

AI-Enhanced Defense Mechanisms 🛡️

On the defense side, AI enables the creation of automated response systems that react to threats in real time. CEH v13 emphasizes using machine learning algorithms to detect and neutralize cyber threats with minimal human intervention, allowing for faster, more efficient responses.

4. Emerging Technologies: IoT, Cloud & Blockchain 🌐

With emerging technologies like IoT, cloud computing, and blockchain gaining traction, CEH v13 places a significant focus on securing these systems.

IoT Security 🔗

As IoT devices become more integral to daily life—from smart homes to industrial machines—securing them is even harder . CEH v13 equips ethical hackers with the skills to detect and mitigate vulnerabilities in IoT ecosystems, ensuring the safety of interconnected devices.

Cloud Security ☁️

As organizations move to the cloud, new security challenges emerge. CEH v13 teaches ethical hackers to safeguard cloud environments, including defending against cloud-native threats and securing multi-tenant architectures. This training is essential for protecting data integrity and preventing unauthorized access.

Blockchain Vulnerabilities 🔐

like you already know blockchain is secure by design, it’s not invincible. CEH v13 introduces ethical hackers to blockchain-specific vulnerabilities, helping them secure decentralized applications and cryptocurrency systems—crucial for those working in fintech or cryptocurrency security.

5. CEH v12 vs. CEH v13: What’s Different? 🔄

CEH v13 is a significant upgrade from CEH v12, offering enhanced tools, simulations, and a stronger focus on AI and emerging tech.

Key Feature	CEH v12	CEH v13
AI Integration	Basic introduction	Fully integrated AI in attack & defense
Emerging Technologies	Brief overview	Deep dive into IoT, cloud & blockchain
Hands-On Labs	Limited simulations	Extensive real-world scenarios

CEH v13 is all about giving ethical hackers AI-powered tools and practical, hands-on experience to face modern threats head-on.

6. Why CEH v13 Matters for Cybersecurity Pros 💡

Cybersecurity isn’t just about reacting to threats anymore—it’s about predicting and preventing them. CEH v13 is designed to prepare ethical hackers for an evolving threat landscape where AI, cloud security, and IoT vulnerabilities are at the forefront.

Stay Ahead of Cybercriminals 🕵️‍♂️

Cybercriminals are increasingly using AI-driven attacks and automated malware. CEH v13 provides professionals with the tools and knowledge to outsmart adversaries by leveraging AI technologies in both offensive and defensive roles.

Real-World Experience 🌐

CEH v13 isn’t just theory—its advanced labs offer real-world experience. Ethical hackers leave the course with the hands-on skills needed to apply what they’ve learned in practical, everyday situations, boosting their overall cybersecurity competence.

7. Conclusion: 🏆

CEH v13 is the future of ethical hacking. By integrating AI, machine learning, and a focus on emerging technologies, CEH v13 ensures cybersecurity professionals are ready to handle the threats of tomorrow. The advanced AI-driven tools, hands-on labs, and emphasis on real-world scenarios make this certification a must for anyone serious about succeeding in the cybersecurity industry.

Equip yourself with CEH v13 and stay ahead 🎯

Learn how to identify and prevent malware attacks with Suricata intrusion detection system rules

How To Detect Malware With Suricata Rules.

By Hack Zone

On February 1, 2023

In CyberSecurity, Distributed Denial of Service, Malware, Network Security, Ransomware, Trojan

Suricata is a highly efficient, open-source, and multi-platform network security engine that incorporates advanced Intrusion Detection System (IDS), Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), and Network Security Monitoring (NSM) technologies. Developed and maintained by the Open Information Security Foundation (OISF) community since 2009, Suricata offers a comprehensive solution for detecting and preventing network security threats.

As we already explained in this article, an IDS is a passive system that is responsible for monitoring the behavior of a network to detect and report on possible unauthorized intrusions, while an IPS is an active system that works as an extension of the IDS and that , in addition to sending alerts on detections, it can also block malicious activity within the network – such as brute force attacks, DDoS, or attacks that seek to exploit vulnerabilities – and create a log with the intrusion. All this from the traffic, the file signatures, and the heuristic analysis of the flow. Additionally, IPS allows adding policies and restricting access to users and / or even applications.

That said, the most common uses for Suricata are related to scanning network traffic and analyzing traffic logs within a sandbox or sandbox environment (such as running malware). However, we can also use this tool for creating rules in order to classify malware.

Testing Meerkat

Next, we are going to see a simple example of how to use Suricata for malware classification.

Suppose we have a machine destined to perform dynamic analysis of malware samples, we could add different Suricata rules to be able to classify the type of malware that is running according to the traffic.

In this case, while a sample of the Trickbot banking Trojan is running on the network , a .pcap file is generated with information on the behavior of the traffic.

Through the network flow generated by the malware and knowing its behavior, we could create some rules in Suricata in the /etc/suricata/

rules folder :

In this Image you can see the list of some rules that come by default when installing Suricata.

Before proceeding with the generation of the rule to detect Trickbot, we will see a short description of the basic fields to generate rules in Suricata:

Action

Header

Rule Options

Action: corresponds to the action (drop, alert, etc.) that Suricata will perform when the rule is identified in the network flow.
Header: this section corresponds to the specific network flow to be analyzed. From origin to destination. With the word “any” we can tell Meerkat that all ports will be analyzed.
Rule: rule to implement to detect malware in our case. Within this field there are keywords that help us create our rule:
- Msg: alert message that Suricata will issue.
- flow: network flow.
- Content: contains the character string to be searched within the traffic.
- Reference: contains references, in this case we put a verification MD5 hash of a Trickbot sample.
- Sid: ID of the identified rule.
- Rev: version of the rule.
- Classtype: provides information on the classification of rules and alerts.

Taking as an example the rule for Trickbot malware, let’s proceed to add the Suricata rule in the / etc / suricata / rules directory for its detection: We save our rule for Trickbot taken from the aforementioned repository

Now we go on to analyze the traffic with Suricata by executing the command:

sudo suricata -c /etc/suricata/suricata.yaml -r [file.pcap]:

The previous statement generates four files:

The eve.json file is the file that interests us the most at the moment, since it is the output file that provides information about alerts, anomalies, metadata, and even information about specific files and logs:

If we search for the name of the message “ Trickbot “ with the command:

grep “Trickbot” eve.json

We will see that our rule was able to detect the malicious file as Trickbot.

To close this proof of concept it is important to mention that Suricata is a very useful tool to perform Threat Hunting . It is capable of identifying network protocols (TPC, UDP, HTTP, ICMP, etc.) enabling real-time control of the traffic generated on our network and controlling the presence of possible malicious codes. The latter can be done through MD5 checks, as we saw in the Trickbot rule.

On the other hand, we also recommend reviewing the Suricata Open Source repository of Emerging Threats rules , where you can find rules that detect new threats.

How to install Suricata in Linux.

By Hack Zone

On January 16, 2023

In CyberSecurity, Distributed Denial of Service, Ethical Hacking, Malware, Network Security, Ransomware, Trojan

Suricata is an open-source network intrusion detection and prevention system (IDS/IPS) that can be used to detect and prevent cyber attacks on a computer network. It uses a variety of techniques, including signature-based detection and protocol analysis, to identify and block malicious traffic.

Installing Suricata on a Linux operating system is a multi-step process that involves the following steps:

1. Verify that your Linux system meets the minimum requirements for running Suricata. This includes checking that you have a supported version of Linux and that you have the necessary dependencies installed.

A supported version of Linux: Suricata is compatible with various Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and CentOS. You can check your Linux version by running the command.

GCC compiler: Suricata requires a C compiler to build the source code. You can check if GCC is installed on your system by running the command

"gcc --version"

Libpcap library: Suricata uses the libpcap library to capture network traffic. You can check if libpcap is installed on your system by running the command

"ldconfig -p | grep libpcap"

libyaml library: Suricata uses the libyaml library for parsing YAML files. You can check if libyaml is installed on your system by running the command

"ldconfig -p | grep libyaml"

libjansson library: Suricata uses the libjansson library for JSON data handling. You can check if libjansson is installed on your system by running the command

"ldconfig -p | grep libjansson"

libmagic library: Suricata uses the libmagic library to detect file types. You can check if libmagic is installed on your system by running the command

"ldconfig -p | grep libmagic"

Please note that these commands are for checking the dependencies in Ubuntu and Debian based distributions. In other distributions, the package manager commands may be different, for example, in Red Hat-based systems, you should use yum instead of apt-get.

2. Download the latest version of Suricata from the official website (https://suricata-ids.org/download/)

3.Extract the downloaded package using the command

tar -xvzf suricata-version.tar.gz

4. Change directory to the extracted package by running

cd suricata-version

5. Run the command

"./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var"

to configure the installation.

6. Run the command to build the source code.

"make"

7. Run the command to install Suricata.

sudo make install-full

8. Configure Suricata by editing the configuration file located at /etc/suricata/suricata.yaml.

9. Start Suricata by running the command

(assuming that the interface you want to listen on is eth0)

"suricata -c /etc/suricata/suricata.yaml -i eth0"

10. Verify that Suricata is running correctly by checking the output of the command

sudo suricata -i eth0 --list-runmode-helpers

It’s always recommended to check the official documentation of Suricata for the specific version that you are installing and to be aware of the dependencies that your system needs to have installed before proceeding with the installation. It’s always recommended to consult the official documentation of Suricata for the specific version that you are installing and to be aware of the dependencies that your system needs to have installed.