Learning Offensive Security Skills

Some great info from Raphael Mudge … How to Milk a Comp Sci Education for Offensive Security Skills:

Recently, a poster on reddit asked how to get into offensive security as a student studying Computer Science. Before the post was removed, the poster expressed an interest in penetration testing or reverse engineering.

I studied Computer Science at different schools (BSc/MSc/Whateverz). This is timely as a new semester is about to begin and students still have an opportunity to change their schedules if needed. 

Offensive security is multi-disciplinary and people come into it with different backgrounds. Any background you master will equip you to become a useful contributor. Studying Computer Science (or even having a degree in the first place) are not the only path into this niche of security.

If you want to milk your Computer Science education for offensive security skills, here are my tips.

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You should learn to program in a systems language, a managed language, and a scripting language. Learn at least one computer architecture really well too.

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Python and Ruby are the preferred scripting languages in the security community. I lean towards emphasizing Python over Ruby. There are a lot of great libraries and books [1, 2] on doing security stuff with Python.

If you want to tinker with the Metasploit Framework, your best bet is Ruby. Ultimately–pick a project and use that as an excuse to master a language or tool. This is how you will acquire any skill you want (during and after college).

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Take an operating systems course and the advanced OS course if you can. Usually these courses require you to work in a kernel and do a lot of C programming. Knowing how to work in a kernel will make you a better programmer and teach you to manipulate a system at the lowest levels if you need to.

After a good first course in operating systems, you will know how to program user-level programs, understand which services the OS provides you, and ideally you will have modified or extended a kernel in a simple way.

Take a compiler construction course to follow up with an architecture course. By the time you get through architecture and compiler construction, you will know assembly language for a specific architecture and how to use a debugger really well.

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Active Directory administration, configuring Cisco routers and firewalls, using hacking tools, and other practical system administration skills are not usually covered in a CS curriculum. Be ready for this. If this is what you want, there are some good programs on Systems Administration and you may want to consider a switch.

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If you get through the foundational material and find yourself hungry for more, try to arrange an independent study. I like independent study. It’s a chance for you to work on your own and produce something to prove you’ve acquired a skill or mastered a process. If your independent study produces open source or a useful paper, you may find the independent study boosts your career more than an academic transcript ever will.

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Since you’re interested in offensive security, here are my two suggestions:

NYU Poly offers an Application Security and Vulnerability Analysis course. All of the lectures, homework, and project materials are available on the website. If you want to learn how to find vulnerabilities and write exploits, you could work through this course at an accelerated pace and spend the rest of the semester on a final project.

Syracuse University publishes the Instruction Laboratories for Security Education (SEED). This collection contains guided labs to explore software, web application, and network protocol vulnerabilities.

SEED also has open-ended implementation labs to add security features to the Minix and Linux kernels. If you ever wanted to write a VPN, develop your own firewall, or try a new security concept–these labs are a great start and any one of them could seed an independent study project. These labs were designed to provide a challenging end of course project. Two of these would make a very interesting semester of independent study.

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Training Future Neurosurgeons with an iPad App

From David Needle …

Free iPad App Helps Train Future Neurosurgeons:

The neurosurgeons of tomorrow can hone some of the necessary skills on the iPad, thanks to a new training app called VCath.

Developed by Bangor University in the U.K, the free iPad app helps neurosurgeons-in-training master an appreciation of the ventricular system in the brain.

The VCath app is designed to take a neurosurgical trainee through the steps of positioning and inserting a catheter into the brain of a virtual 3D patient. These steps are part of a procedure called “Ventricular Catheterisation,” which is used to drain fluid that has become obstructed within the ventricles of the brain.

Inserting a catheter at the correct orientation and depth so that it punctures the ventricles is critical to a successful outcome for the patient, notes VCath’s developer. It requires the neurosurgeon to have an excellent 3D awareness as the anatomy involved is not visible during the procedure.

The Anti-Course: Learn By Doing

This video makes a great point - why are we stuck thinking that workforce training should be done in the classroom?
The anti-course: An instructional job aid:

Here’s a short video that shows how we can break our addiction to the course and move training closer to the job.

Teaching Consumers to be Green

Interesting paradox: consumers want energy efficient devices, but are unable to make sensible comparisons of devices to figure out which are more energy efficient. Sounds like a great opportunity for a short continuing education course and a small unit on energy efficiency in credit courses. Maybe even an online training program. Consumers Want, and Are Skeptical About, Eco-Electronics - Green Inc. Blog

Among other findings from a survey released today by the Consumer Electronics Association, an industry group representing computer and gadget manufacturers, 89 percent of consumers said that energy efficiency would be a factor in choosing their next television — even as less than half of the 960 people surveyed said they’re generally able to make sense of the environmental attributes attached to electronics on the market.

“One of the greatest challenges certainly is consumer confusion about what ‘green’ means,” said Parker Brugge, the C.E.A.’s vice president of environmental affairs.

Mr. Brugge said the lack of a universally recognized means to measure a product’s “greenness” makes it difficult for consumers to find information at the point of purchase.