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Security Professionals Get The Best Toys

Do you think penetration testers--the people that companies hire to break into organizations and test their defenses--remain immersed in the pale glow of a stack of monitors listening to techno and mainlining over-caffeinated fruit drinks? I was visiting Steve Stasikounis, CEO of Secure Network Technologies and Dark Reading contributor, last week in his offices, and he couldn't help showing off his latest penetration testing and forensic investigation tools.
Mike Fratto
March 22, 2012

  • They can beat any firewall, IDS, IPS or authentication system in their way by going old school. The case, which has internal dimensions of 4 feet long, 30 inches wide and 20 inches deep--fits a 5-foot, 9-inch, 180-pound man curled up in a fetal position. The yellow tank provides about 20 minutes of air, and the cushions soften the ride.

    The hasps and padlocks on the front are fake. The guys affixed an extra set of reversible hasps on the case (not shown) so they can lock it down when they ship it from location to location. When they put someone inside, they move the hasps to the inside so the person can lock and unlock it. They even added a periscope (next slide).

    They used this case on several pen tests to deliver one of their team into the building. Once the dust settles, the employee pops out and continues on with his or her mission. They are going to add vents and whisper fans to the case because after about 10 minutes, it gets really hot inside.


  • This is the underside of the lid showing the periscope in the down position. The device is located underneath and attached to a plate metal logo. The camera is a digital button camera attached to a SuperCircuits MDVR15-2 DVR that can run for 1.5 hours on a single charge and show 640 by 480 30-fps video. The person in the case can raise the scope and spin it around to get a view outside.

  • The Wireless gun is an experiment to build a medium- to long-range mobile 802.11 and Bluetooth sniffing and exploit tool. Its looks like something out of a action movie and definitely catches the eye. It sports a 2.4 GHz Yagi antenna for the 802.11 and Bluetooth devices. The laser pointer is for pointing it at the target.

    When they are on a penetration test involving wireless networks and devices, they want to test long-range attacks from a parking lot or across the street. The gun will be concealed in a van or otherwise hidden from view.

    They are going to paint the tip orange to indicate it is not a weapon. On second thought, a less dangerous-looking model might be safer.

    Me? I'd make it look like a box and cover it in wrapping paper. Who doesn't like a present?


  • This is the view from the business end of the wireless gun. You can see the Pwnie Express Pwn Phone mounted on a Tapco synthetic stock. The Pwn Phone is a Nokia N900 phone loaded with various open source programs, such as Airgrack-NG for cracking WEP and WPA, Metasploit to exploit vulnerabilities, nmap for network mapping and a host of other tools.

    When tied to the Yagi antenna, they hope to extend the range of the attacks well beyond the theoretical limit of 100 meters.


  • You know that smartphones are chockful of useful data, right? Getting to the data can be difficult, but not with Cellebrite UFED Ultimate. The hardware and subscription comes with hundreds of adapters (updated quarterly) to interface with any smartphone and pull data off the device, clone the SIM card, and recover deleted SMS, call logs and anything else of interest. They use UFED solely in legal cases for lawyers and law enforcement.

    I'm going to take some of my old phones in and see what it can do.


  • A little more low tech, but targeted at forensic data acquisition, the Logicube Talon clones a hard drive without altering the original drive. It's used in legal cases where investigators want to search for data on a hard drive but can't damage the evidence. There are several other devices like this on the market.

    Once the data is acquired, they use forensic analysis software to search and inventory the contents of a drive, including recovering deleted and partial files.


  • If you see these guys coming out of your building, you've been had. Note the lack of blue Mohawk haircuts, tattoos, piercings or ankle-length trench coats. They look like regular guys, they flash a smile, chat up whomever gets in their way, and basically break into your facilities.