January 27, 2012

VIEWSTATE Vulnerabilities

1. ViewState Overview

"What does ViewState do?
- Stores values per control by key name, like a Hashtable
- Tracks changes to a ViewState value's initial state
- Serializes and deserializes saved data into a hidden form field on the client
- Automatically restores ViewState data on postbacks"

From an article on the ViewState mechanisms by an ASP.NET developer

January 23, 2012

A Backdoor in the Next Generation Active Directory

At the beginning of the last year, I already raised the issue of post-exploitation in a Microsoft Active Directory domain. The brought forward approach addressed the variant aimed mostly at the case of the loss of admin privileges rather than their exploitation. Additionally, the action of regaining the privileges itself involved conspicuous events and visually evident manipulations in the directory. In other words, to regain admin privileges one had to become a member of the appropriate security group, such as Domain Admins.

It should be mentioned that administrators get very nervous when suddenly they realize there is someone else in the system. Some of them rush to address the security incident horse and foot, sometimes taking most unpredictable steps;))