TN-963: Windows Security Automation with PowerShell

Course Overview:

PowerShell is made for Security Operations (SecOps) automation on Windows. SecOps requires automation in order to scale out security changes and monitoring beyond a handful of hosts. For example, when a vulnerability must be remediated but there is no patch for it yet, automation is needed to quickly and consistently enact the changes necessary. PowerShell “remoting” is encrypted remote command execution of PowerShell scripts in a way that can scale to thousands of endpoints and servers.

Imagine being able to hunt for indicators of compromise across thousands of machines with just a few lines of PowerShell code. Or imagine having the local Administrator account password reset every night on thousands of endpoints in a secure way, and being able to retrieve that password securely too.

We will show you to do these tasks and more. Transcription logging for forensics, strong encryption code signing, application whitelisting of scripts, IPSec port control, and Just Enough Admin (JEA).

As more and more of our systems are moved up to the cloud, PowerShell will become even more important. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Office 365, Hyper-V and VMware already support PowerShell administration for many tasks.

Attendees to TN-963: Windows Security Automation with PowerShell will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Date/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 3 days

Course Objectives:

Day One
PowerShell Overview and Tips

    • Getting started running commands
    • Using and updating the built-in help
    • Execution policies
    • Fun tricks with the ISE graphical editor
    • Piping .NET and COM objects, not text
    • Using properties and methods of objects
    • Helping Linux admins feel more at home
    • Aliases, cmdlets, functions, modules, etc.
    • Customizing your profile script

What Can We Do With PowerShell

    • PowerShell remote command execution
    • Fan-out remoting and security
    • File copy via PowerShell remoting
    • Capturing the output of commands
    • Parsing text files and logs with regex patterns
    • Searching remote event logs faster with XPath
    • Mounting the registry as a drive
    • Exporting data to CSV, HTML and JSON files
    • Parsing and mining nmap port scanner XML output
    • Running scripts as scheduled jobs
    • Pushing out scripts through Group Policy
    • Importing modules and dot-sourcing functions
    • http://www.PowerShellGallery.com

Write your own scripts

    • Writing your own functions
    • Passing arguments into your scripts
    • Function parameters and returning output
    • Flow control: if-then, do-while, foreach, switch
    • The .NET Framework class library: a playground
    • How to pipe data in/out of your scripts

Day Two
Continuous Secure Configuration Enforcement

    • How to use Group Policy and PowerShell together
    • Automate with INF security templates
    • How to customize INF templates
    • Microsoft Security Compliance Manager (SCM)
    • SECEDIT.EXE scripting
    • Building an in-house security repository for SecOps/DevOps
    • NSA’s Secure Host Baseline GPOs

Group Policy Precision Targeting

    • Managing Group Policy Objects (GPOs) with PowerShell
    • LSDOU, Block Inheritance, Enforced GPOs
    • Group Policy permissions for targeting changes
    • ADMX templates for mass registry editing
    • Deploying PowerShell startup and logon scripts
    • WMI item-level targeting of GPO preferences
    • GPO scheduled tasks to run PowerShell scripts
    • Remote command execution via GPO (not remoting)
    • Empowering the Hunt Team to fight back!

Server Hardening for SecOps/DevOps

    • Server Manager scripting with PowerShell
    • Adding and removing roles and feature
    • Remotely inventory roles, features, and apps
    • Why Server Nano or Server Core
    • Running PowerShell automatically after service failure
    • Service account identities, passwords, and risks
    • Tools to reset service account passwords securely

Day Three
PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC)

    • DSC is Configuration Management built in for free
    • Using DSC for continuous reinforcement of settings
    • Writing your own DSC configuration scripts
    • Free DSC resource modules: www.PowerShellGallery.com
    • How to push DSC configurations to many targets
    • DSC background job processing in push mode
    • Examples: sync files, install roles, manage groups
    • Auditing a remote target against a DSC MOF template
    • “ApplyAndAutoCorrect” mode for continuous enforcement

PowerShell Just Enough Admin (JEA)

    • JEA is Windows sudo, like on Linux
    • JEA is Windows setuid root, like on Linux
    • Restricting commands and arguments
    • Verbose transcription logging
    • How to set up and configure JEA
    • Privilege Access Workstations (PAWs)

PowerShell and WMI

    • Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service
    • What is WMI and why do hackers abuse it so much?
    • Using PowerShell to query WMI CIM classes
    • WMI authentication and traffic encryption
    • Inventory operating system versions and installed software
    • WMI remote command execution versus PowerShell remoting
    • PowerShell security best practices
    • PowerShell transcription logging to catch hackers

Prerequisites:

  • GSEC or equivalent experience
  • UNIX, Windows, Networking, and Security Experience
  • This is a hands-on skill course requiring comfort with command line interaction and network communications

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TN-979: Intrusion Analyst Course

Course Overview:

Intrusion Analyst is a hands-on course that covers intrusion detection in-depth. This includes concepts such as the use of Snort, network traffic analysis, and IDS signatures.

A skills focus enables the student to better absorb the subject matter and perform successfully on the job.   This is not death by power point. The course is aligned with information assurance operators and executing hands-on labs. Lecture and labs walk the student through the knowledge required to truly understand the mechanics of packet and intrusion analysis.

Attendees to TN-979: Intrusion Analyst will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Date/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 days

Course Objectives:

  • Advanced Snort Concepts
  • Analyst Toolkit
  • Domain Name System (DNS)
  • Examining Packet Crafting
  • Examining Packet Header Fields
  • Fragmentation
  • ICMP Theory
  • IDS Interoperability
  • IDS Patterns
  • IDS/IPS Management & Architecture Issues
  • Indications, Warnings & Traffic Correlation
  • IPv6
  • Microsoft Protocols
  • Network Traffic Analysis
  • NIDS Evasion, Instertion & Checksums
  • Snort Fundamentals & Configuration
  • Snort GUIs & Sensor Management
  • Snort Performance, Active Response & Tagging
  • Snort Rules
  • Stimulus Response
  • TCPdump Fundamentals
  • TCP/IP Fundamentals
  • Wireshark Fundamentals
  • Writing TCPdump Filters

Course Prerequisites:

  • GSEC or equivalent experience
  • UNIX, Windows, Networking, and Security Experience
  • This is a hands-on skill course requiring comfort with command line interaction and network communications

Comments

Latest comments from students

User: Tosha

Instructor comments: Dave was an excellent instructor. He is very informative and knowledgeable in the course and the material. I have enjoyed the class and I would take another course with him as the instructor.

Facilities comments: Very nice and clean hotel.

User: buckey26

Instructor comments: Dave was one of the best instructors I have ever had for a tech course. He broke down everything to the point where you can understand it internally.

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PA-242: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Manage Cyberthreats (EDU-231)

  

 

Course Overview:  PA-242: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Manage Cyberthreats (EDU-231) Training Class is a two-day course that teaches students strategies in defense against cyberthreats.  Successful completion of this course enables administrators to better understand the threat landscape.  This is not a virtualized theoretical course.  This is hands-on, real world instruction, directly relevant to the DoD and Commercial implementations of Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls.

Each student is issued a physical Palo Alto firewall and a Cisco layer 3 switch at their desk.  Real hardware per student for real experience and real skill development.  TechNow provides a very comprehensive client infrastructure that includes Windows, Linux, and multiple packet sniffer agents.

The instructor for this course has been a lead in Unix kernel development to implement firewall and intrusion detection technologies.  Additionally, the instructor has taught several security appliance products and carries several SANS, ISC2, ISACA, Cisco, Unix, and Windows certifications.

Attendees to the PA-242: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Manaage Cyberthreats  (EDU-231) Training Course will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations: No Events

Duration: 2 days

Course Objectives:   Students attending this training course will gain an understanding of cyberthreats and their characteristics.  Students will learn how to manage cyberthreats using security policies, profiles, and signatures to protect their network against emerging threats.

Day 1

  • Mod 1: Threat Landscape
    • Advanced Persistent
    • Threats
    • Data Breaches and Tactics
    • Threat Management
    • Strategies
  • Mod 2: Integrated
    • Approach to Threat
    • Protection
    • Integrated Approach to
    • Protection
    • Next-Generation Firewall
    • Advanced Endpoint
    • Protection
  • Mod 3: Network Visibility
    • Zero Trust Model
    • SSL Decryption
    • Decryption Policy
  • Mod 4: Reducing the Attack
    • Surf
    • ection

 

Day 2

  • Mod 5: Handling Known
    • Threats
    • WildFire Analysis
    • Security Profiles
  • Mod 6: Handling Unknown
    • Traffic and Zero-Day Exploits
    • WildFire
    • Researching Threat Events
    • Identifying Unknown
    • Applications
  • Mod 7: Investigating
    • Breaches
    • Identify IOCs Using
    • App-Scope
    • Log Correlation
    • Finding Infected Host
  • Mod 8: Using Custom
    • Signatures
    • Creating Custom App-IDs
    • Threat Signatures

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Prerequisites:

  • Students must complete the PA-213: Install, Configure, and Manage course
  • Understanding of network concepts, including routing, switching, and IP addressing
  • In-depth knowledge of port-based security and security technologies such as IPS, proxy, and content filtering

This course is in no way associated with Palo Alto Networks, Inc.

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TN-969: Windows Security Administrator Course

Course Overview:

A skills focus enables the student to better absorb the subject matter and perform successfully on the job.  This is not death by power point. The course is aligned with information assurance operators and executing hands-on labs to secure Windows systems. Lecture and labs start with quick review of Active Directory and group policy to enforce security mechanisms within the Windows architecture.  Students then gain network experience and use sniffing to help exemplify the benefit of learning wired and wireless security configurations.  PowerShell is made for SecOps/DevOps automation and students will learn to write PowerShell scripts to automate security operations and Desired State Configuration (DSC).  The course concludes with exercising real attack strategies to demonstrate the effectives of properly securing your host.

Attendees to TN-969: Windows Security Administrator course will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Date/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 days

Course Objectives:

  • Active Directory and BloodHound
  • Security Controls
  • PKI
  • Encryption
  • Wireless & Network Security and Hardening DNS
  • 802.1x and Endpoint Protection
  • Firewalls and VPN
  • PowerShell Scripting
  • JEA, DSC, Enterprise Security with PowerShell
  • Windows Attack Strategies

Prerequisites:

  • Security+
  • Windows System Administration Skills

 

Comments

Latest comments from students

User: bbrabender

Instructor comments: Instructor was very knowledgeable and help more inexperienced users with concepts as well explaining in a way that can be understood.

Facilities comments: N/A

User: dale.r.anderson

Instructor comments: Instructor was well knowlegeable accross alot of domains.

Facilities comments: Pretty good

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TN-855: Advanced and In-Depth ICD 503 RMF, Controls, and Assessments

Course Overview:

This course is very hands-on with respect to SP 800-53 controls as related to ICD-503, leveraging experience with DCD 6/3, and incorporating a broad array of technologies found in the field.  Assessors and Auditors have to face many technologies that are not part of the main stream.  TechNow has gone to great efforts to build a very broad, comprehensive, and complex lab to simulate many scenarios and architectures.  Technologies such as a network appliance that is not a typical infrastructure product, a radio/satellite communications device, or many other technologies that build up a weapon system.  Students learn how controls are integrated into many different devices and how they fit in the overall security architecture of monitoring, reporting, and compliance testing.

Directly discussed are overlays for different requirements i.e.: tactical, medical, network type: JWICS, SIPR; IC or AF.  TechNow has developed a funnel concept to overlays to exemplify the encapsulation of a control within different requirements.  TechNow has over 15 years experience in Trusted Solaris/Trusted Extensions and labeled security.  Cross Domain overlays are presented that fits the work flow of an assesor.  PII overlays and any overlays that an organization uses and can be made available are also presented.  

This course allows the student to leverage years of experience in DoD DCD 6/34 for transition to the Risk Management Framework (RMF) applied to the Intelligence Community as mandated by ICD 503.  Utilizing NIST SP 800-37 to establish a baseline of RMF knowledge, the student learns how to integrate the NIST pubs to provide cohesive information assurance architectures and compliance.  ICD 503 scorecard evaluations are integral in demonstrating a successful ICD 503 compliance program.  TechNow's ICD 503 course provides students with the skill to assess security programs and evaluate ICD 503 compliance to build an improvement and sustainable program for score consistency.  TechNow's instructors have unparralleled expertise in federal compliance initiatives, and we bring this expertise instructing students on the complete life cycle of RMF.

More than a simple checklist, we instruct students not only how to validate essential security controls, programs, and metrics, but that they are operating effectively.  The student leaves the course knowing how to: identify gaps where controls, programs, or metrics are incomplete, missing or ineffective, and provide actionable findings and recommend remediation strategies.  Students learn to internalize NIST pubs to meaningul and effective IA guidelines and work with the Body of Evidence templates which include: Risk Assessment Report (RAR), Systems Security Plan (SSP), Security Assessment Report (SAR), and Plans of Action and Milestone (POAM).

TechNow training materials are aligned with the most recent set of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS), and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) policies standards, processes, policies and instructions to be addressed/explained include ICD 503, ICS 503-1, ICS 500-16, ICS 500-18, ICS 500-27, ICD 502, NIST SP 800-37, NIST SP 800-30, NIST SP 800-53, NIST SP 800-53A, NIST SP 800-137, NIST SP 800-47, CNSSP 22, CNSSI 1253, and CNSSI 4009.

A majority of time is spent on in-depth compliance review of NIST SP 800-53 controls.  Instruction discusses which method should be used to test and validate each security control and what evidence should be gathered.  This course is not theory or death by power point.  Real scenarios are presented as exercises.  A complete live cyber range simulating the IC is utilized for hands-on labs for techniques of validating and documenting compliance of NIST SP 800-53 controls as related to ICD 503.

Date/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 days

Course Objectives:

  • Establish a baseline of RMF knowledge
  • Validate essential security controls, programs, and metrics
  • DoD DCD 6/3 to ICD 503 Transition
  • Lab Environtment and the Cyber Range
  • Overlays: Tactical, Medical, Network type(JWICS, SIPR; IC or AF), Cross Domain, PII
  • Risk Assessment Report (RAR)
  • Systems Security Plan (SSP)
  • Security Assessment Report (SAR)
  • Plans of Action and Milestone (POAM)

Prerequisites:

Experience in the field of auditing and assesments.

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