2023-12-09 –, Workshop Room 5
Email remains the #1 initial access vector for commodity malware and nation state actors. Historically, tackling email-based threats has been considered the purview of black-box vendor solutions, with defenders having limited scope (or tooling!) to swiftly and effectively respond to novel offensive tradecraft.
In this training, attendees will be given detailed insight into the latest techniques used to deliver prevalent malware strains, including QakBot and Emotet, and will hunt through email data to identify this malicious activity, developing rules to detect and block these attacks.
Initially attendees will be introduced to the foundational technologies that enable threat hunting and detection engineering in the email domain, before being given access to the email data of a fictitious company seeded with benign and real-world attack data.
Attendees will be guided through the rule creation process, utilizing free and open detection engines including Sublime and Yara, and will be introduced to the signals that can be used to craft high-fidelity rules, including sentiment analysis, domain age, and attachment analysis. Having completed the training, attendees will have a strong understanding of the tools and techniques at their disposal to defend their organizations from all manor of email threats.
Email remains the #1 initial access vector for commodity malware and nation state actors. Historically, tackling email-based threats has been considered the purview of black-box vendor solutions, with defenders having limited scope (or tooling!) to swiftly and effectively respond to emerging attacker activity and novel offensive tradecraft.
In this training, attendees will be given detailed insight into the latest techniques used to deliver prevalent malware strains, including QakBot and Emotet, and will hunt through email data to identify this malicious activity, developing rules to detect and block these attacks.
Initially attendees will be introduced to the foundational technologies that enable threat hunting, detection engineering, and response in the email domain, before being given access to the email data of a fictitious company seeded with benign and real-world attack data. Throughout the day, participants will learn to hunt common phishing techniques including:
- VIP Impersonations
- HTML smuggling via links/attachments
- Malicious VBA macros
- Lookalike / homoglyph attacks
- Credential phishing
- Password protected archives
- Exploits (e.g. CVE-2023-23397, CVE-2021-40444)
- Fake invoices (Geek Squad)
Attendees will be guided through the rule creation process, utilizing free and open detection engines including Sublime and Yara, and will be introduced to the signals and email attributes that can be used to craft high-fidelity rules, including targeted user groups, sentiment analysis, sender domain age, and attachment analysis. Having completed the training, attendees will have a strong understanding of the tools and techniques at their disposal to defend their organizations from all manor of email threats.
Workshop requirements:
- A laptop with a browser.
Josh has been doing offensive security-related things for the past 12 years. He's spent most of his professional career breaking into networks via spear-phishing and other methods, and building software for both the public (Department of Defense) and private sectors. Josh is the Founder and CEO of Sublime Security, and in his private life enjoys weight lifting, Martial Arts, soccer, and spending time with his niece and nephew.
Alfie is a founder of delivr.to and specialises in the delivery of attack detection and adversary emulation services. He actively contributes educational content, tooling and blogs to further the industry. He has previously worked with organisations across multiple industry verticals to uplift and validate their detective capability through red or purple team engagements, and now leads the global adversary emulation function at a FTSE 250 company. He has previously spoken at BlackHat, DEF CON, RSA and Blue Team Con.