All Posts

4 min Automation and Orchestration

How to Secure SSH Server using Port Knocking on Ubuntu Linux

Synopsis Port Knocking is a method used to secure your port access from unauthorised users. Port Knocking works by opening ports on a firewall by generating a connection attempt on a set of prespecified closed ports. Once a correct sequence of connection attempts is received, the firewall will open the port that was previously closed. The main purpose of port knocking is to defend yourself against port scanners. Changing your default ssh port is not a secure method to protect your server, becaus

3 min Automation and Orchestration

How to Secure MySQL Server on Ubuntu Linux

Synopsis Now a day database server is very critical and necessary component for any applications. Databases can be found in everything from web applications, web server to smartphones and other devices. Most of software applications rely on a database to store its data. This is the reason why databases are the number one target of any attackers. Among all the databases MySQL and MariaDB has become the world’s most popular open source database due to its fast performance, high reliability and eas

3 min Rapid7 Perspective

NCSAM: A Personal Security Crash Diet

We're kicking of National Cyber Security Awareness Month by getting a Rapid7 employee to test out the practicality of common security advice. Follow along throughout October.

11 min Research

Building a Backpack Hypervisor

Researcher, engineer, and Metasploit contributor Brendan Watters shares his experience building a backpack-size hypervisor.

2 min Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

Rapid7 and NISC work together to help customers with detection and response

Rapid7 and NISC will work together to provide Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services to the NISC member base, powered by the Rapid7 Insight platform and Rapid7 Security Operation Centers (SOCs.)

1 min InsightIDR

Want to Try InsightIDR in Your Environment? Free Trial Now Available

InsightIDR, our SIEM powered by user behavior analytics, is now available to try in your environment. This post shares how it can help your security team.

5 min Exploits

macOS Keychain Security : What You Need To Know

If you follow the infosec twitterverse or have been keeping an eye on macOS news sites, you’ve likely seen a tweet (with accompanying video) from Patrick Wardle (@patrickwardle ) that purports to demonstrate dumping and exfiltration of something called the “keychain” without an associated privilege escalation prompt. Patrick also has a more in-depth Q&A blog post

9 min InsightOps

3 Core Responsibilities for the Modern IT Operations Manager

In the good old days, IT operations managers were responsible for maintaining the infrastructure, meeting service levels agreements, sticking to budget, and keeping employees happy. Life was not easy, but at least it was familiar. You knew your hardware, your software, your employees. You determined services levels based on what you could actually see and touch. You told people what to do and they did it. While IT was perceived to be an expensive cost center, it wasn’t an issue as long as the ph

8 min Vulnerability Disclosure

Multiple vulnerabilities in Wink and Insteon smart home systems

Today we are announcing four issues affecting two popular home automation solutions: Wink's Hub 2 and Insteon's Hub. Neither vendor stored sensitive credentials securely on their associated Android apps. In addition, the Wink cloud-based management API does not properly expire and revoke authentication tokens, and the Insteon Hub uses an unencrypted radio transmission protocol for potentially sensitive security controls such as garage door locks. As most of these issues have not yet been addres

2 min Metasploit Weekly Wrapup

Metasploit Wrapup: Sep. 22, 2017

To celebrate this first day of Autumn, we've got a potpourri of "things Metasploit" for you this week. And it might smell a bit like "pumpkin spice"... Or it might not. Who knows? Winter is Coming If you're looking to finish filling your storehouse before the cold sets in, we've got a couple of new gatherer modules to help. This new Linux post module can locate and pull TOR hostname and private key files for TOR hidden

4 min

Introducing Web Server Agents

We at tCell are excited to announce the availability of tCell’s Web Server Agent (WSA). The WSA joins our stable of agents for JavaScript, Java, Ruby, Python, Node.js, and .Net, extending our monitoring and protection capabilities to common web servers (NGINX is available now, and we’re accepting requests to join the tech preview for Apache and IIS.) But first, why this move? For that, I’ll need to take you back a few years, when people were All About that Bass and yelling “Timber”. In the

7 min Research

Cisco Smart Install Exposure

Cisco Smart Install (SMI) provides configuration and image management capabilities for Cisco switches. Cisco’s SMI documentation goes into more detail than we’ll be touching on in this post, but the short version is that SMI leverages a combination of DHCP, TFTP and a proprietary TCP protocol to allow organizations to deploy and manage Cisco switches. Using SMI yields a number of be

4 min InsightIDR

PCI DSS Dashboards in InsightIDR: New Pre-Built Cards

No matter how much you mature your security program and reduce the risk of a breach, your life includes the need to report across the company, and periodically, to auditors. We want to make that part as easy as possible. We built InsightIDR as a SaaS SIEM on top of our proven User Behavior Analytics (UBA) technology to address your incident det

2 min Metasploit Weekly Wrapup

Metasploit Wrapup: Sept. 15, 2017

It's been a hot minute since the last Metasploit Wrapup. So why not take in our snazzy new Rapid7 blog makeover and catch up on what's been goin' down! You can't spell 'Struts' without 'trust' Or perhaps you can! With the all the current news coverage around an Apache Struts vulnerability from earlier this year (thanks to its involvement in a consumer credit reporting agency data breach), there's a new Struts vuln

4 min Events

UNITED Summit: Day 2

After a jam-packed day one of Rapid7’s UNITED Summit , the UNITED running club started the day bright and early yet again. The rest of us opened UNITED day two with a fireside chat hosted by Jen Ellis , Rapid7 VP of Community and Public Affairs, and a slew of prominent security commentators: Lares founder Chris Nickerson , Mach37 Cyber’s man