Episode description

Links:

• Has its own vulnerability that’s actively under exploit: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/12/patch-fixing-critical-log4j-0-day-has-its-own-vulnerability-thats-under-exploit/
• Google Project Zero deep dive into the NSO group’s iMessage exploit: https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep-dive-into-nso-zero-click.html
• Three flaws: https://thehackernews.com/2021/12/hackers-begin-exploiting-second-log4j.html
• How to customize behavior of AWS Managed Rules for WAF: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/how-to-customize-behavior-of-aws-managed-rules-for-aws-waf/
• Using AWS security services to protect against, detect, and respond to the Log4j vulnerability: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/using-aws-security-services-to-protect-against-detect-and-respond-to-the-log4j-vulnerability/
• Update for Apache Log4j2 Issue: https://aws.amazon.com/security/security-bulletins/AWS-2021-006/
• An innocent question: https://Twitter.com/QuinnyPig/status/1473382549535662082?s=20

Transcript

Corey: This is the AWS Morning Brief: Security Edition. AWS is fond of saying security is job zero. That means it’s nobody in particular’s job, which means it falls to the rest of us. Just the news you need to know, none of the fluff.

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Corey: The burning yule log that is the log4j exploit and its downstream issues continues to burn fiercely. Meanwhile the year winds down, and it’s certainly been an eventful one. I’ll talk to you next week because that is what I do.

Now, let’s see from the community what happened. The patch to fix the log4j vulnerability apparently has its own vulnerability that’s actively under exploit. Find your nearest InfoSec friend and buy them a beer or forty because this is going to suck for a long time and basically ruin everyone’s holiday.

Also, I’ve seen the most hair-raising thing I can remember in InfoSec-land, which is the Google Project Zero deep dive into the NSO group’s iMessage exploit. Seriously, this thing requires no clicks on the part of the victim, the exploit uses a bug in the GIF processing inherent to iMessage to build a virtual CPU and assembly instruction set. There is no realistic defense against this short of hurling your phone into the sea, which I heartily recommend at this point as a best practice.

Oh, and everything is on fire and somehow worse. There are now at least three flaws in the log4j library that we’re counting, so far. Everything is terrible and we clearly should never log anything again.

Corey: This episode is sponsored in part by my friends at Cloud Academy. Something special for you folks: If you missed their offer on Black Friday or Cyber Monday or whatever day of the week doing sales it is, good news, they’ve opened up their Black Friday promotion for a very limited time. Same deal: $100 off a yearly plan, 249 bucks a year for the highest quality cloud and tech skills content. Nobody else is going to get this, and you have to act now because they have assured me this is not going to last for much longer. Go to cloudacademy.com, hit the ‘Start Free Trial’ button on the homepage and use the promo code, ‘CLOUD’ when checking out. That’s C-L-O-U-D. Like loud—what I am—with a C in front of it. They’ve got a free trial, too, so you’ll get seven days to try it out to make sure it really is a good fit. You’ve got nothing to lose except your ignorance about cloud. My thanks to Cloud Academy once again for sponsoring my ridiculous nonsense.

Now, AWS had a few things to say. The most relevant of them are How to customize behavior of AWS Managed Rules for WAF. So, if you’re a 
WAF vendor and you don’t link to this blog post as part of your, “Why should I pay you?” sales material, you’re missing a golden opportunity. Every time I dig into AWS’s Web Application Firewall offering, I end up regretting it, and with a headache.

There was also a post on Using AWS security services to protect against, detect, and respond to the Log4j vulnerability. I’m disappointed to see AWS starting to use the log4nonsense stuff to pitch a dizzying array of expensive security services that require customers to do an awful lot of independent work to get stuff configured properly. This kind of isn’t the time for that.

And they have an update page that they continue to update called Update for Apache Log4j2 Issue, and this post has more frequent updates than AWS’s “What’s new” RSS feed. It really drives home the sheer scope of the issue, how pervasive it is, and just how much empathy we should have for the AWS security team. Their job has pretty clearly been not fun for the last couple of weeks.

And lastly, the tip of the week is more of a request for help, honestly. I asked what I thought was an innocent question on Twitter: “What are people using to read and consume CloudTrail logs?” The answers made it clear that the answer was basically, “A bunch of very expensive enterprise grade things,” or, “Nothing.” This feels like a missed opportunity for some enterprising company out there. If you’ve got a better a...