From 1a5daa1371dc7cd64282b19731164db8f63ee614 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: midas Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2025 14:29:28 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] create article file and get started on the intro --- opsec/cloud_provider_adversary/index.html | 218 ++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 218 insertions(+) create mode 100644 opsec/cloud_provider_adversary/index.html diff --git a/opsec/cloud_provider_adversary/index.html b/opsec/cloud_provider_adversary/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a1e760 --- /dev/null +++ b/opsec/cloud_provider_adversary/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,218 @@ + + + + + + + + + + + Why is High Availability Important for Deniability ? + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+
+
+ + The Nihilism Blog +
+
+ +
+ +
+
+ + + +
+
+
+
+ Previous Page

Mulligan Security - 21 / 01 / 2025

+

+

How safe am I from my cloud provider?

+ +Since the 2010's VPS have become cheaper and widely available. From your local mom and pop datacenter where you can rent a baremetal Pi equivalent to highly secured Amazon datacenters and on-demand cpu/bandwidth allocation you can now find a broad range of options for your operational and security needs. + +
+
+If clandestinity is a requirement, there also are cryptocurrency-based options in jurisdictions without LEO cooperation treatises with your own. + +

+ +But, what if the adversary is already inside?
+ +in this post we are going to do a threat modelling exercise:

+ +
    +
  1. Context and assumptions: what are the capabilities of our adversary? what about our own OPSEC requirments?
    2. +
  2. Threats: what the adversary might want to acomplish (their goal)
    3. +
  3. Attack Scenarii: a quick list of possible attacks
    4. +
  4. Mitigation measures: what we can do to make those attack uneconomical, harder
    5. +
+ +
+
+
+
+ + +
+
+
+
+

+

Attack Scenario

+ +The adversary has identified a probable city of residence for the administrator of a hidden service. In order to narrow down their search perimeter they will do the following: + +
+ +
    +
  1. Target 1 group of city block and send someone to the internet backbone for this city block to cut it off from the internet
    2. +
  2. Check whether the onion service is still up
    3. +
  3. If it goes down, add it to the suspect pool
    4. +
+ +

+ +
+
+
+
+ + +
+
+
+
+

+

How can high availability help?

+In the above scenario if the onion service operator had setup a redundant, highly available server then connections would have been seamlessly sent to another server in the redundancy pool, thus preventing the adversary +from extracting location information based on their operation. This works best with a server in a different country or region, making a coordinated attack by several adversaries a requirement in order to use this method for deanonymization. + +

+ +
+
+
+
+ +
+
+
+
+

+

Adversary Attack Flow

+Below is a chart depicting an adversary attack flow. As shown, high availability will prevent the adversary from progressing beyond their initial step of uptime-based target acquisition. +
+
+ +
+ +As you can see the adversarie's playbook is quite simple: +

+
    +
  1. Identify a list of potential suspects
    2. +
  2. Cut them off the internet
    3. +
  3. Check whether this action made the hidden service unreachable
    4. +
+ + +Those actions are easily perpetrated by law enforcement as they only require:
+
    +
  • DSLAM level access to the internet backbone used by the suspects (impacting a perimeter like a city block)
    • +
  • City block level access to the power grid in order to run disruptive actions
    • +
+
+Both of those are trival to obtain for LEOs (law enforcement officers). + +

+ + + +
+This Diagram shows where the attack takes place and how a redundant setup prevent such attacks from confirming the physical location of the hidden service. +
+
+In conclusion, your hidden service is one downtime away from having its location disclosed to an adversary, so you need to make sure it has High Availability +

+ +
+
+
+
+ + + + +
+
+
+
+

Nihilism

+

+ Until there is Nothing left.



Creative Commons Zero: No Rights Reserved
+ +

+
+ +
+

My Links

+

+ + RSS Feed
SimpleX Chat
+ +

+
+ +
+

About Mulligan Security

+

Donate XMR:
86NCojqYmjwim4NGZzaoLS2ozbLkMaQTnd3VVa9MdW1jVpQbseigSfiCqYGrM1c5rmZ173mrp8RmvPsvspG8jGr99yK3PSs


Contact: mulligansecurity@riseup.net
website

+ +
+ +
+ +
+
+ + + + + + +