Author: roanokeinfosec

August 2023 – Lightning Talks Round 1

/ roanokeinfosec

We had more lightning talks submitted than we initially expected! So, we are going to adjust the flow a bit, and split the lightning talks into two great sessions to provide a little more wiggle room for speakers to deliver their material.

The ⚡three ⚡lightning ⚡talks we have set for this month are:

Verify your Verification
Speaker Ben Eldritch shared the following for this talk: “I’ve pentested 3 different webapps over the past few months, and none of them have implemented account/email verification correctly. Here are a few examples of what can go wrong with account creation, and how you can fix it!”

Terraforming your Cyber Landscape
Speaker Aaron McPhall shared the following for this talk: “This talk will cover an introduction to Terraform, and why it should be considered for any cloud enabled organization. Aaron will cover the benefits of infrastructure as code as well and how terraform can be used to enable scaling and security for cloud services.”

DDoS: What you wanted to know but didn’t want to talk to your 13 year old neighbor
Andrew Beard will be leading this talk on DDoS techniques and mitigation.

In other news, there is an upcoming CTF hosted by RBTC on September 7th. Find out more at:
https://www.rbtc.tech/event/hands-on-security-capture-the-flag-event/

We look forward to seeing you in-person. If you can’t make it, we will also attempt a zoom session and recording.

Meeting info:

August 10th, 2023 @ 5:30PM

ECPI University
5234 Airport Rd NW Suite 200, Roanoke, VA 24012
https://goo.gl/maps/T6TikCHLoPQaWXzT7

Hope to see you there!

RISE August 2023 – Call for Lightning Talks

/ roanokeinfosec

Hey there, RISE Members!

Based on July’s Social Meeting, Andrew had an excellent idea of doing a lightning talk session to get the brain juices flowing. We are looking for some speakers. This is a great place to start with an idea and see if the audience engages with it!

Please submit lightning talk ideas here: https://forms.gle/9jNBphermEi4w78EA

If there are enough submissions (more than 5), overlapping topics, etc; we may have a follow-up survey to downselect or do another lightning talk round in September. Not quite sure yet, but let’s see where this goes.

What is a lightning talk? A shortened talk (10 minutes speaking, 5 minutes for questions) to quickly introduce a topic. Time is important here, so you will want to cover the following items:

  • Establish rapport
  • Quick overview of subject
  • Establish value (teach the crowd something new)
  • Offer hints for follow-on talk (you will learn XYZ)
  • Topics consistent with last month’s Topic Survey Results

Meeting info:

August 10th, 2023 @ 5:30pm
Venue TBD

Hope to see some fun talks!

July 2023 – Summer Social

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For the month of July, we want to do a social event with a little bit of business upfront at Twisted Track Brewpub on July 13th. To start, we want to take a short amount of time to introduce some changes for RISE.  Afterwards, let’s kickback and enjoy the summer with some brews and banter.

We’re talking about the perfect fuel for brainstorming and beer-sampling adventures! So, bring your witty banter and a thirst for craft beers as we celebrate and enjoy an evening of great times. Also remember to invite colleagues or friends who might be interested in joining the RISE community. The more, the merrier!

It would be helpful to us if you fill out a quick survey on what you’d like to see at future RISE events: https://forms.gle/74MyWCcAqUBeoCMr5.  The results from this survey will be used to inspire and balance out future RISE events.

If you are interested in speaking, please let us know at: https://forms.gle/VnVBpZDzNgBzM2qn6. 

We look forward to seeing you in person on July 13th at Twisted Track Brewpub.

Meeting info:
July 13th, 5:30pm
523 Shenandoah Ave NW
Roanoke, VA 24016
https://goo.gl/maps/2iFxmSNrp7bmuFoMA

April 2023– More ChatGPT Shenanigans

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In our last meeting we had ChatGPT do some things that it wasn’t really designed to do.  In our next meeting we are going to expand on this by looking at the malware script that ChatGPT wrote and see what it really does.  Ben Eldritch has volunteered to dissect the written script and share his findings with us. Did ChatGPT really write malware?  Is ChatGPT able to create deployable badness?  Let’s find out together.

We will be meeting at Virginia Western Community College on April 13th in the Hall Family Business/Science Building.   Take the stairs to the left and go to the second floor and go to CyberSecurity lab in room M302.  

March 2023 – Let’s break AI

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We have something special planned for the month of March.  RISE is going out on the town!  This month we will are going to meetup at Twisted Track to hang out.  I am attempting to get us a conference room with the hope of bringing up ChatGPT and seeing what insightful thoughts this new AI has on IT Security, cyber risk and other areas of interest.  Perhaps we may even play stump the chump or in this case stump the AI. 

Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Location:

Twisted Track Brewpub
523 Shenandoah Ave NW
Roanoke, VA 24016

Date and Time:

March 9th, 2023 @5:30pm

Feb 2023 – Byte-by-Byte – A Beginners Look into Binary Analysis

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Ever wonder how computers can interpret programs? Are you interested in looking at random bytes on a screen and reading them like the Matrix? Do you always get stumped on “easy” reverse engineering CTF challenges? Then join us for a night of learning binary analysis! 

This talk will focus on looking at binaries/executables for interesting strings, compiler information, linked DLLs with dependencies, and even a basic overview of Assembly – the lowest level language we can program in! This discussion will also include commonly used tools, methods, and even utilizing AI to interpret a binary! Following the talk, we will statically analyze a simple piece of custom malware and be able to decipher just what devious tasks it may be doing! Laptops/personal machines recommended but not required (use whatever OS you want!)

BIO:

Ben Eldritch, Vulnerability Assessment Analyst for Raytheon Technologies

Current Certs: GICSP, OSCP, Pentest+, CySA+

Ben holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance from WGU and an associates in Engineering from DMACC. His interest in security started when he began tinkering with his GameBoy and messing with in-memory data via a GameShark. From there, he started writing prankware for his friends and eventually learned the ins and outs of penetration testing. When not breaking into things (with permission of course!), Ben enjoys taking long mountain hikes and observing all the different kinds of creatures of the world. 

Date & Time:

February 9th @ 5:30pm

Location

The RAMP Building
709 S. Jefferson Street Roanoke,
VA 24016

Parking and entrance are in the rear of the building

Jan 2023 – Hack the Box: “We’ll Do It LIVE!”

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Wanting to take a step into the mind of a Penetration Tester? Or are you already a seasoned hacker, wanting to flex your muscles as part of a group experiment? Either way, we would love to have you join us at ECPI in Roanoke on Jan 12th at5:30pm for a guided group participation through one of the many excellent machines on the HackTheBox learning platform.

HackTheBox describes itself as “a massive hacking playground, and infosec community of over 1.3m platform members who learn, hack, play, exchange ideas and methodologies”, and it is a great place for learning and practicing alike. In this session, speaker Regen Peterson will be walking us through this platform step-by-step. This begins with creating an account and learning how to access and interact with the platform. Following this, we will conduct a group session in which we will use real-world methodologies to perform reconnaissance, enumerate and exploit vulnerabilities, and ultimately escalate privileges to gain administrator access to a vulnerable machine. And don’t worry if you are new to the offensive side of security, as inexperienced hackers will be allowed to offer their suggestions and ideas before the more experienced. 

We hope you will join us in this session of “HackTheBox: We’ll Do It LIVE!”, as we expect that it will be an extremely engaging meeting where group participation will be crucial to solving the puzzles presented. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the presentation, we will not be able to live-stream or record this meeting, but we hope to see you in person for an awesome group-learning session with HackTheBox.

BIO:

Regen Peterson, Offensive Security Consultant/Penetration Tester from Roanoke, Virginia. 

OSCP/PNPT/eJPT/+

Regen graduated from Patrick Henry High School, afterwards attending Virginia Western Community College for Computer Science Engineering. After spending some time in I.T., as well as different fields such as banking management, he developed a deep love and competitive spirit for hands-on ethical hacking learning platforms such as HackTheBox and TryHackMe. After several months of engagement with these platforms, Regen began acquiring various industry certifications and ultimately found a position in the field of Penetration Testing. Outside of `hacking`, Regen is an avid gamer, builds gaming PCs, performs music as a singer/songwriter, and spends time with his wife and three children.

Location:
ECPI Roanoke
5234 Airport Rd NW #200
Roanoke, VA 24012

Date and Time:
January 12th @ 5:30pm

Dec 2022 – Social Event At Big Lick Brewing

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Our December RISE meeting will be a social event December 8th at Big Lick Brewery in downtown Roanoke starting at 5:30pm.   We want to take this opportunity to kick back, talk and share ideas about upcoming events and provide feedback on past events.  RISE can’t happen without you, so we look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas as we get ready for 2023.   We have a table reserved at Big Lick starting at 5:15pm with a seat ready for you so don’t miss out. 

Note: RISE will not be providing beverages or food for this event (I mean common man, I can’t pay for everyone), but I am currently searching for a sponsor that might be able to assist so stay tuned. 

We look forward to seeing you all in person on Dec. 8th at Big Lick Brewery

Meeting Info:

December 8th, 5:30pm

Big Lick Brewery

409 Salem Ave SW,

Roanoke, VA 24016

BSides Roanoke 2023

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BSides Roanoke logo

It’s finally here! BSides Roanoke is live and we are ready bring you the best and most exciting security talks in the Roanoke Valley and beyond. We are actively working to bring you the talks that you want and are relevant to you. More content is being added daily so please be patient as we continue to work and mold this event to be the best one yet.

BSides Roanoke 2023 will be held at Virginia Western Community College on May 20, 2023 in the Whitman Theater located in the Hall Family Business/Science Building.

Get your BSides Roanoke 2023 tickets now!

Click Here For Tickets

Want to learn more about BSides Roanoke go to BSidesRoa.org

Nov 2022 – Penetration Testing Certifications: Acronym Aerobics

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Penetration Testing Certifications: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
aka: Acronym Acrobatics

Wanting a career pivot or to level up your skill set can be intimating. The seemingly endless offensive security certifications out there today can be overwhelming.  How do you know which to choose?  Join RISE Thursday, Nov 10th with Ken Nevers at ECPI as this self proclaimed cert junky will share his honest opinions on which certs to go for and which to avoid along your journey.”

Bio:

Ken Nevers, Principle Security Consultant

Current Certifications: OSEP, OSCP, CRTO, CRTE, CRTP, PAWASP

Ken holds an Associate degree in Computer and Information Science with a major in Cyber and Network Security from ECPI University in addition to several red teaming and penetration testing certifications. In his free time, Ken co-organizes BSides Roanoke, co-leads the Roanoke Information Security Exchange, is a member of the Roanoke Linux Users Group, and volunteered on the security teams for HackRedCon and DerbyCon, plays guitar and tells dad jokes.

Hall Of Fames (security acknowledgements):

Oracle, Rackspace, Dell, TripAdvisor

Location

ECPI Roanoke
5234 Airport Rd NW #200
Roanoke, VA 24012

Date and Time

November 10th
5:30pm