SANS 2023 Holiday Hack Challenge Sampler – January 2024

January 6, 2024December 5, 2024 / roanokeinfosec

As the new year begins, let’s kick off our cybersecurity journey with an exciting walk through of the SANS 2024 Holiday Hack Challenge.

SANS 2024 Holiday Hack Challenge Sampler

Hold onto your reindeer socks, cybersecurity enthusiasts, because we’re diving into the wonderland of the SANS Holiday Hack Challenge 2023! This annual event isn’t just your average holiday cheer; it’s a Capture the Flag (CTF) competition disguised as a festive frenzy, pitting hackers of all levels against ingeniously crafted cybersecurity puzzles.

But what exactly is a CTF and why should you care? Imagine a treasure hunt through a virtual landscape, where each hidden “flag” represents a solved challenge. Cracking codes, dissecting networks, and unraveling mysteries – it’s a thrilling combination of mental gymnastics and technical prowess. And the SANS Holiday Hack Challenge takes this concept to a whole new level, wrapping it in a charming holiday theme.

So, let’s peel back the wrapping paper and explore some of the challenges of the 2023 edition.

Speaker Bio: Jared Register is an IT enthusiast and cybersecurity practitioner. He is currently employed as a Cybersecurity Engineer for a hospital system and has been in cybersecurity for over 9 years. Jared mainly focuses on the blue team side of cybersecurity. He holds the CISSP and is working on my Masters of Science in Information Systems Security Engineering from SANS. Jared can be connected with at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredregister/

Remember, the SANS Holiday Hack Challenge might be festive, but our January event is all about sharpening your skills and fueling your cybersecurity passion in the fresh year ahead! Remember, if you can’t make it in person, we’ll also be streaming the presentation via Google Meet.

Meeting info:

ECPI University
January 11, 2024 @ 6:00PM
5234 Airport Rd NW #200, Roanoke, VA 24012
https://maps.app.goo.gl/usS5mLFdqBFQaM5M6

Online Session:
Please subscribe to the mailing list to receive online session details by emailing info@roanokeinfosec.com.

Building a Hackable Badge for BSides Roanoke – December 2023

December 11, 2023 / roanokeinfosec

As the year draws to a close, RISE is excited to gather for one final event of 2023, and what better way to celebrate than by diving into the world of hacking and creativity? This month, Aaron McPhall is presenting:

From Concept to Reality: Building a Hackable Badge for BSides Roanoke

This presentation chronicles the journey of creating a unique and interactive digital badge for BSides Roanoke. Attendees will be taken on a behind-the-scenes exploration, from the initial concept to the finished product, with plenty of lessons to be learned along the way.

The presentation will delve into the intricacies of the process, including design, hardware, software, and fabrication. You’ll gain insights into the electronics and PCB that bring the badge to life, as well as the integrated security challenges embedded within it. We’ll also explore the firmware that powers the badge and the puzzle server that supports its interactive elements.

Finally, we’ll discuss the assembly and programming of the individual components and provide a transparent breakdown of the project’s costs. Along the way, we’ll share valuable lessons learned and inspire others to embark on their own creative endeavors.

We hope to see you there as we close out the year on a high note! Remember, if you can’t make it in person, we’ll also be streaming the presentation via Google Meet.

Meeting info:
ECPI University
December 14, 2023 @ 6:00PM
5234 Airport Rd NW #200, Roanoke, VA 24012
https://maps.app.goo.gl/usS5mLFdqBFQaM5M6

HTB CTF Crypto Challenge – November 2023

November 3, 2023 / roanokeinfosec

The leaves are falling and the air is crisper, which means it’s time to get cozy and learn a little about ciphers through challenges. This month, schr0ding3r is presenting:

HTB CTF Crypto Challenge Walkthrough (or – Exploiting Nonce Reuse in ECDSA Signatures)
An interactive walkthrough of a cryptography challenge (credit to Hack the Box for hosting it for their Defcon CTF this year). I will show what the challenge is, what indicated a vulnerability, a brief intro to elliptic curve algorithms, and then how I crafted an exploit to harvest private keys.

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

Meeting info:
ECPI University
November 9, 2023 @ 6:00PM
5234 Airport Rd NW #200, Roanoke, VA 24012
https://maps.app.goo.gl/usS5mLFdqBFQaM5M6

Speaker Bio:
schr0ding3r has a B.S. in physics and a minor in mathematics; additionally, he is currently pursuing a B.S. in Cybersecurity. He dabbles in everything [but am a master of nothing], including hacking, programming, philosophy, dancing, theater, and ancient Hebrew. Whatever the topic, schr0ding3r seeks to probe the very depths of it.

Hope to see you there!

July 2023 – Summer Social

July 7, 2023 / roanokeinfosec

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

April 6, 2023 / roanokeinfosec

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 13^th 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

March 5, 2023 / roanokeinfosec

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 9^th, 2023 @5:30pm

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

February 5, 2023February 6, 2023 / roanokeinfosec

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!”

January 6, 2023January 6, 2023 / roanokeinfosec

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

December 4, 2022 / roanokeinfosec

Our December RISE meeting will be a social event December 8^th 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. 8^th at Big Lick Brewery

Meeting Info:

December 8^th, 5:30pm

Big Lick Brewery

409 Salem Ave SW,

Roanoke, VA 24016

RISE – Roanoke InfoSec Exchange

The premier InfoSec group in the Roanoke, VA region!

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