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Are there KRACKs in Your Wireless Network Security?

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Information and recommendations on protecting your wireless deployment

On October 16, 2017, Belgian security researchers made public their findings that demonstrated fundamental design flaws in WPA2 that could lead to man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks on wireless networks.

Named KRACKs, or key reinstallation attacks, this technique can theoretically be used by attackers to steal sensitive information from unsuspecting wireless users leveraging these flaws in the WiFi standard. Based on their research, CERT issued a series of CVEs to address this flaw, and most vendors affected have issued patches as of this writing.

More details on these vulnerabilities are available on the researchers’ website at www.krackattacks.com.

Are SonicWall wireless solutions vulnerable?

SonicWall Capture Labs has evaluated these vulnerabilities and determined that our SonicPoint and SonicWave wireless access points, as well as our TZ and SOHO Wireless firewalls, are not vulnerable. No updates are needed for SonicWall wireless access points or firewalls with integrated wireless.

What can I do to protect my wireless network?

Whether or not you are a SonicWall wireless network security user, we do recommend that you take immediate action to minimize the risk presented by these vulnerabilities.  We advise the following:

  • Patch all of your WiFi clients, whether Windows, Linux, Android, iOS or Mac OS based, with the latest KRACK updates from your client vendors. The attack is launched by compromising the wireless device, not the wireless router, so that is the most important area to focus on when you go about patching.
  • If you are not a SonicWall wireless customer, check with your vendor to determine if you need to patch your wireless access points and/or routers. Ideally, your WiFi solution would be centrally managed allowing you to provide updates and patches in a timely fashion without crippling IT resources. Again, if you are a SonicWall wireless customer no updates to the access points are needed.
  • Add an additional layer of security by using VPN technology to encrypt all network traffic between your wireless devices and your firewall. For SonicWall customers, we recommend the following:
  • Advise your users to transmit sensitive data only on TLS/SSL-encrypted web pages. Look for the green lock symbol in the address bar along with https in the URL.
  • The new SonicWall SonicWave series includes a dedicated third radio for scanning.  For SonicWave wireless users, we recommend that you turn on the wireless intrusion detection feature that allows you to block traffic from rogue access points (specifically in this case an evil twin).  This will ensure that the third radio is continually scanning for these types of attacks in real-time.
  • Be on the lookout for unusual activity inside or outside your facility. In order to launch an attack using these vulnerabilities, an attacker must be physically located within Wi-Fi range of both the access point and the wireless client that is attempting to connect to the network. That means the attacker must be in or near your building, which makes it a bit more difficult to leverage than other Internet-only attacks.
  • One other note: there is no need to change Wi-Fi passwords as the KRACKs do not require the Wi-Fi password to be successful.

SonicWall believes that IT must be able to provide secure, high-speed access for the organization across both the wired and the wireless network, especially as Wi-Fi becomes more of a necessity and less of a luxury. However, cyber criminals are racing to leverage wireless to initiate advanced attacks.

SonicWall can help you extend breach prevention to your wireless network. SonicWall’s wireless network security solution provides deep packet inspection for both unencrypted and TLS/SSL-encrypted traffic along with a cloud-based, multi-engine Capture sandbox and a complete lineup of centrally managed SonicWave 802.11ac Wave 2 wireless access points.

To learn more, visit SonicWall Wireless and Mobile Access solutions.

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Meet the New SonicWall NSA 2650 Next-Gen Firewall – Where Faster Meets More Secure

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Today I am excited to share the new addition to SonicWall’s NSA product family of Next-Generation Firewalls, the NSA 2650.  Three key trends form the design drivers for the new NSA 2650 –

  1. Wireless Devices Explosion – The demand for increased bandwidth from wireless networks is constantly on the rise with the growing number of wireless devices used per person. The wireless industry is going through waves of transformation (pun-intended) to support the requirement for more bandwidth. With the latest 802.11ac Wave 2 wireless standards opening the door for multi-gig WiFi performance there is a strong need for switches and firewalls that connect to wireless access points to support these faster speeds without increasing the cost to the network infrastructure.
  2. Multi-gig Campus Requirements – Campus/branch networks require technology trend adoption without adding significant costs to the network infrastructure. For example, switches and firewalls supporting wireless access points must be able to do so with existing the Cat5e/Cat6 cabling infrastructure.
  3. Encrypted Traffic Surge – The trend towards Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) encryption has been on the rise for several years. Articles on the use of SSL/TLS encryption typically indicate that a little over 50% of all web traffic is now encrypted and that percentage is expected to continue growing. At SonicWall, data gathered by our Capture Labs Threat Research team shows the percentage to be a little higher, around 62%. We found that as web traffic grew throughout 2016, so did SSL/TLS encryption, from 5.3 trillion web connections in 2015 to 7.3 trillion in 2016. As vendors such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and others continue to move to HTTPS, we expect the use of HTTPS to increase. So, organizations now require a secure platform to protect their network from the sophisticated encrypted threats that evade the traditional security mechanisms. 

The NSA 2650 firewall is aimed at campus and branch networks that must secure their environments against the growing number of threats looking for new ways to burrow into networks. The new NSA 2650 firewall is the first branch and campus firewall to deliver automated real-time breach detection and prevention, as well as TLS/SSL decryption and inspection, over multi-gigabit wired and 802.11ac Wave 2 wireless networks. The SonicWall NSA 2650 represents the continuing evolution of SonicWall’s vision for a deeper level of network security without a performance penalty. More than simply a replacement for its predecessor, the NSA 2600, the NSA 2650 addresses the growing trends in web encryption and mobility by delivering a solution that meets the need for high-speed threat prevention.

The NSA 2650 is a 1U-device powered by four cores that provide the processing power necessary to support the compute-intensive deep packet inspection services such as:

  • Intrusion Prevention
  • Anti-Virus
  • Anti-Spyware
  • TLS/SSL inspection and decryption
  • Application Visualization
  • Application Control, Botnet detection
  • Geo-IP identification
  • Anti-Spam
  • User Identification and Advanced Threat Protection

Real-Time Inspection of SSL and TLS Attacks:

Unlike competing firewalls that perform well only with unencrypted connections, the NSA 2650 is built to support the need for more TLS/SSL inspection connections. The NSA 2650 features an unmatched number of encrypted web connections, up to 12,000 and performs deep packet inspection on each connection after first decrypting the traffic.

To protect against more advanced threats such as unknown and zero-day attacks that are concealed in encrypted web traffic, the NSA 2650 utilizes Capture, SonicWall’s cloud-based multi-engine sandboxing service that runs on the firewall. Suspicious files are sent to the award-winning SonicWall Capture service for analysis before rendering a verdict.

The NSA 2650 is a high-port density firewall that features 4×2.5-GbE SFP, 4×2.5-GbE, and 12×1-GbE interfaces with a dedicated management port. In addition to the multi-gigabit ports, high-speed processors and robust onboard memory, the NSA 2650 includes additional hardware enhancements that make it the ideal NGFW for mid-sized organization and distributed enterprises. An optional second power supply is available in case of failure for added redundancy. To help with scalability, the NSA 2650 includes two expansion slots. One is pre-populated with a 16 GB storage module to support features including logging, reporting, last signature update, backup and restores and more. The second slot provides flexibility to add future feature and physical capability expansion. Expandable in the future with additional modules, this versatile, high-port density firewall platform has the capacity to evolve through firmware updates to keep ahead of threats such as ransomware and intrusions.

With the NSA 2650, SonicWall yet again adds a ground-breaking security product to its portfolio. Combined with new 802.11ac Wave 2 SonicWave wireless access points, SonicWall creates a high-speed wireless network security solution that provides wireless users with an enhanced mobile experience.

Our latest firmware release, SonicOS 6.5, has more than 60 new features, and provides support for NSA 2650 hardware platform where faster meets more secure without any compromise on performance to all traffic including encrypted traffic.

Test drive the new NSA 2650 on SonicWall live demo: https://livedemo.sonicwall.com

VIEW LIVE DEMO

Ransomware-as-a-Service RaaS is the New Normal

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Business models always have to tackle the method of distribution, will they sell directly or through a channel of distributors or a mix of both. The same is with ransomware developers. Many are electing to take their successful code and sell it as a kit, which eliminates many risks and the hard work of distribution all the while collecting a cut of the prize.

Throughout the past year, and even until the large-scale WannaCry attacks, floating between the peaks of the infamous events are small focused attacks en masse from rebranded exploit kits. In the past quarter, we have discovered a mix of developer hobby/chaos-malware, rebranded ransomware, and repackaged RaaS ransomware.

  • Trumplocker
  • AlmaLocker
  • Jigsaw
  • Lambda
  • Derialock
  • Shade
  • Popcorn

Recently, one author showed how easy it is to launch a ransomware attack within an hour… with zero hacking skills. So what does this mean to an organization like yours? Should this scare you? Simply put, attacks from more sources equals more attacks but SonicWall has your back.

First off, organizations can have the front-line protection of our award-winning multi-engine network sandbox, SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Service. Capture ATP automatically takes suspicious code at the gateway of your network, and runs it in three parallel engines (and counting) to see what it wants to do from the application, to the OS, to the software that resides on the hardware. We find the newest ransomware families and updates this way.

Secondly, our Capture Labs research team catches many new variants of ransomware and malware in multiple ways as well as from a multitude of external sources. Once new ransomware families are found (either from Capture ATP, a honeypot, or another Capture Labs source), the intelligence is cross-pollinated to the rest of the SonicWall portfolio of security products.

Lastly, organizations can expect to be hit by a wide range of ransomware attacks and should ensure they have a good backup policy and focus on awareness training.

To learn more, watch this video to see how SonicWall stops ransomware:

SonicWall Protects Customers from the Latest Massive WannaCry Ransomware Attack

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Note: This blog was updated on Monday, May 15.

First, if you are a SonicWall customer and you are using our Gateway Anti-Virus, Intrusion Prevention service, and Capture Advanced Threat Protection then your SonicWall firewall has been protecting your network from WannaCry ransomware and the worm that spreads it since 17 April, 2017. Since the release of the first version of the code, we have identified several new variants and have released additional counter measures. We will continue to update this blog as our Capture Labs research team uncovers more information and as additional protection is automatically rolled out to our customers’ firewalls.

Here’s more:

The Attack

This massive ransomware attack became infamous by shutting down a number of hospitals in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) system and thus preventing patients from receiving critical care. The attack hit over 100 countries across the world with an untold number of victims. WannaCry is a combination of a Trojan/ransomware and a worm that leverages an SMB file sharing protocol exploit named EternalBlue. The Shadow Brokers leaked EternalBlue in April 2017 as part of a bigger dump of NSA developed exploits. This exploit affects various versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems, including a number of versions that are in end-of-life status. Although Microsoft released a large number of patches on March 14 to address this vulnerability, the attack remains dangerous as many organizations have not applied the patch.

The first version of the worm/ransomware package had a kill switch that was accidently used to disable the worm feature which slowed its advance on Friday, 12 May 2017. However, new variants are appearing in the wild without this weakness. While the first version of the worm code can no longer spread the ransomware code, systems encrypted by WannaCry 1.0 will remain encrypted. Unfortunately, there is no known decryption method to recover files affected by WannaCry without paying cyber criminals (which is not advised).

Since Friday, 12 May 2017, SonicWall’s Capture Labs released six new signatures to block all known versions of WannaCry.  It is also worth noting that SonicWall security services on the firewall have built-in protections against the many components of this code, ranging from blocking contact with WannaCry Command and Control (C&C) servers to blocking attempts at exploitation of any unpatched SMB Microsoft vulnerabilities (such as EternalBlue).

WannaCry Ransomware

The Protection

SonicWall Capture Labs analyzed the EternalBlue attack in mid-April immediately after the Shadow Brokers file dump and rolled out protection for all SonicWall firewall customers well in advance of the first public attack.  All known versions of this exploit can be blocked from SonicWall protected networks via active next-generation firewall security services.

As a SonicWall customer, ensure that your next-generation firewall has an active Gateway Security subscription to receive automatic real-time protection from known ransomware attacks such as WannaCry. Gateway Security includes Gateway Anti-virus (GAV), Intrusion Prevention (IPS), Botnet Filtering, and Application Control. This set of technology has signatures against WannaCry (part of GAV), protections against vulnerabilities outlined in Microsoft’s security bulletin MS17-010 (part of IPS), and it blocks communication with the C&C servers where WannaCry’s payload comes from (part of botnet filtering).

Since SonicWall Email Security uses the same signatures/definitions as Gateway Security, we can effectively block the emails that deliver the initial route to infection. Ensure all email security services are also up to date to block malicious emails.  Since 65% of all ransomware attacks happen through phishing emails, this needs to be a major focus when giving security awareness training. Additionally, customers with SonicWall Content Filtering Service should activate it to block communication with malicious URLs and domains, which works in a similar way Botnet filtering disrupts C&C communication.

As a best practice always deploy Deep Packet Inspection of all SSL/TLS (DPI-SSL) traffic since more than 50% of malware is encrypted. This will enable your SonicWall security services to identify and block all known ransomware attacks. Enabling DPI-SSL also allows the firewall to examine and send unknown files to SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection for multi-engine processing to discover and stop unknown ransomware variants.

View our webpage to learn more on how SonicWall protects against ransomware.

WannaCrypt Signatures

The most recent list of GAV/IPS signatures against EternalBlue and WannaCrypt as of 14 May 2017 at 11:45 AM PST

What’s Next

The party behind this attack has already released several variations of this attack for which we have established protections in place (see above). To ensure you are safe from newly developed updates and similar copycat attacks, first apply the Windows patch provided by Microsoft listed in the resources section.  Second, apply Capture Advanced Threat Protection (Capture ATP), SonicWall’s multi-engine network sandbox, to examine suspicious files coming into your network to discover and stop the latest threats just as we did with Cerber ransomware. Enable the service’s block until verdict feature to analyze all files at the gateway to eliminate malware before it can enter your network. Additionally, Capture Labs will continue to email customers Sonic Alerts on new threats.

Finally, phishing emails are the most common delivery mechanism for ransomware. It is possible that future variants of this ransomware will be delivered via emails. SonicWall’s email security solution uses Advanced Reputation Management (ARM) to inspect not only the sender IP but also the message content, embedded URLs and attachments. In addition, make sure you enable SPF, DKIM and DMARC advanced email authentication to identify and block spoofed emails and protect from spam and phishing attacks. For the best possible protection against such attacks, deploy SonicWall’s email security solution with Capture ATP service to inspect every email attachment in a multi-engine sandbox environment.

Apart from SonicWall security protections in place (listed above), as a best practice we recommend to disallow or block inbound SMB traffic (TCP 445, UDP ports 137-138, and TCP 139) and RDP traffic coming  from the internet on edge-facing Firewalls. If such access is required, implement secure remote access solutions like IPsec or SSL-VPN with proper authentication mechanisms in place.

Apply vulnerability patches on servers and PCs as recommended in Microsoft MS17-010 bulletin (listed above and below), disable SMBv1 communication (limit access via SMBv2/v3), as well as monitor for any suspicious activity on TCP 445.

Resources

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