Tenable Blog

The new Windows 8 interface provides a very different user experience than past Microsoft operating systems. Nessus can enumerate and detect vulnerabilities on Windows 8 hosts.

Recently, Microsoft made several announcements surrounding new technology, including a new operating system (Windows 8) and a new tablet platform called "Surface." Windows 8 will present a new interface and several new changes under the hood. They're an offshoot of the new platform called Windows RT, a small, fast, and lightweight version designed to run on ARM-based tablets. In fact, this is much of the reason behind the concept of Windows 8 -- it’s meant to run on tablets and touch screens. Windows Phone 8 is the new OS for Windows-based phones, such as those from Nokia.

Not too long ago, CVE-2012-4681 (US-CERT Alert TA12-240A and Vulnerability Note VU #636312) was issued for a flaw discovered in Oracle Java (JDK and JRE 7 U6 and before), as well as version 6 U34 and before.

This is a client-side vulnerability, which requires a user to initiate activity to be exploited. I will avoid dissecting the flaw in detail, as this information is widely available on the Web (a particularly good write-up is here).

Keep in mind that Java is platform independent, and so is this exploit. The example here uses Internet Explorer on Windows 7 (with Java SE 7u3). However, Linux and OS X users shouldn’t feel excluded on this one!

With Tenable's Unified Security Monitoring (USM) platform, comprised of SecurityCenter (SC), the Passive Vulnerability Scanner (PVS), and the Log Correlation Engine (LCE), we can track this exploit from start to finish.

Looking in More than One Place

Nessus, PVS, and LCE offer several methods for auditing SSL protocol usage on your network(s). SSL is commonly used to secure websites, but also protects email, file sharing, and many other services. This post lists some generic SSL capabilities found in all Tenable products, and shows how you can combine them to generate useful reports and dashboards.

On the vulnerability identification side, Nessus uncovers many issues with SSL certificates, such as outdated certificates, unsigned certificates, and much more (see the screenshot below for more examples). SSL implementations shipped with appliances often use unsigned certificates, and rely on the administrator to install their own valid certificate. Without a properly signed certificate, man-in-the-middle attacks become considerably easier. If you’re an e-commerce shop, improper SSL implementations will also cause you to become non-compliant with PCI DSS standards.

A sample of Nessus plugins associated with identifying problems with SSL certificates. (Click for larger image)

Announcements

• Nessus Patch Management Integration Now Supports IBM Tivoli Endpoint Manager
• Video: #1 Nessus is an Enterprise Tool - Top Ten Things You Didn't Know About Nessus
• Video: Analyzing Nessus Virus Detections with the Log Correlation Engine
• Analyzing Nessus Detected Malicious Processes Activity with the Log Correlation Engine
• We're hiring! - Visit the Tenable website for more information about open positions.
• Check out our video channel on YouTube which contains new Nessus and SecurityCenter 4 tutorials.
• Tenable Tweets - You can find us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tenablesecurity where we make product and company announcements, provide Nessus plugin statistics, and more!
• Want to ask questions about Nessus, SecurityCenter, LCE, and PVS and get answers from the experts at Tenable? Join Tenable's Discussion Forum for custom scripts, announcements, and more!
• You can subscribe to the Tenable Network Security Podcast on iTunes!

The data from Nessus malicious process checks can be immediately leveraged by SIEM and log search tools. In this blog post we will consider a very basic example of how a computer infected with the GameVance adware can be analyzed with the Log Correlation Engine (LCE).