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-345: Python for Penetration Testers

 

Course Overview:

 

This Python for Penetration Testing course is designed to give you the skills you need for maintaining or developing Python Penetration Testing tools oriented towards offensive operations.  We have a suite of courses and certifications that help  understand a problem, this course prepares the student to rapidly develop prototype code to attack or defend against it.

The course concludes with a Capture the Flag event that will test both your ability to apply your new tools and coding skills in a Python Penetration Testing challenge.

This course is not intended to be an Advanced Python course, but to exemplify penetration techniques utilizing Python.  The course covers Threading, Sockets, OOP, and third party modules that facilitate the offensive operator’s objective.

This course utilizes the “Violent Python” text book.

Attendees to TN-345: Python for Penetration Testers Class will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 3 Days

Course Objectives:

  • Python Lanuage Refress
  • Network Sockets
  • Exception Handling
  • Hashes and Cracking Passwords
  • Threading
    • Concepts and Python Implementation
    • Queues and Synchronization
    • urlparse and httplib to probe URLs
    • Crack a password protected zip file
  • Port Scanner
    • Threading a Port Scanner
  • nmap integration
  • Deploying shellcode
  • Mechanize, BeautifulSoup
    • HTTP Form Password Guessing
    • HTTP Proxies (Burp Suite)
    • HTTP Cookies Session Hijacking
      • CookieMonster
  • Images and Metadata
  • Justniffer
  • SQL Injection
    • sqlmap
    • SQLBrute
  • Antivirus and IDS evasion
    • PyInstaller
    • Metasploit
  • Scapy
    • Deploy shellcode
    • DNS Cache Poisoning
    • Packety Violence

Prerequisites:

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TN-5415: Installation, Storage, and Compute with Windows Server 2016

 

Course Overview:

Course one of a three course series to obtain a Server 2016 MCSA certification. This five-day course is designed primarily for IT professionals who have some experience with Windows Server. It is designed for professionals who will be responsible for managing storage and compute by using Windows Server 2016, and who need to understand the scenarios, requirements, and storage and compute options that are available and applicable to Windows Server 2016.

The course leads directly to preparing for the(MCSA):Windows Server 2016 exam “70-740: Installation, Storage, and Compute with Windows Server 2016”.  It also maps to Microsoft’s course 20740A, and is part of the Server 2016 MCSA certification. 

Attendees to TN-5415: Installation, Storage, and Compute with Window Server 2016 will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 Days

Course Objectives:

  • Prepare and install Nano Server, a Server Core installation, and plan a server upgrade and migration strategy
  • Describe the various storage options, including partition table formats, basic and dynamic disks, file systems, virtual hard disks, and drive hardware, and explain how to manage disks and volumes
  • Describe enterprise storage solutions, and select the appropriate solution for a given situation
  • Implement and manage Storage Spaces and Data Deduplication
  • Install and configure, and manage Windows and Hyper-V containers
  • Describe the high availability and disaster recovery technologies in Windows Server 2016
  • Plan, create, and manage a failover cluster
  • Implement failover clustering for Hyper-V virtual machines
  • Configure a Network Load Balancing (NLB) cluster, and plan for an NLB implementation
  • Create and manage deployment images
  • Manage, monitor, and maintain virtual machine installations

Prerequisites:

  • A basic understanding of networking fundamentals
  • An awareness and understanding of security best practices
  • An understanding of basic AD DS concepts
  • Basic knowledge of server hardware
  • Experience supporting and configuring Windows client operating systems such as Windows 10
  

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Palo Alto Networks Firewall Training Course Lab

Working with the TechNow lab for the PA-215: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Essentials FastTrack course has been nothing less than a techie's idea of fun.  When students come in we are immediatly configuring the Cisco 3750 switches for access ports, VLANS, and trunks.  We then cable the switch to the Palo Alto Networks Firewall.  Each student gets their own Palo Alto Firewall Pod of hardware and software.  What we find as fun is the VLAN environment, with an array of virtual machines hosted on an ESXi server that can really exercise the abilities of the Palo Alto Firewall.  The DMZ VLAN hosts virtual machines that support enterprise services and also potentialy vulnerable web services.  The Trust VLAN has Windows and Linux clients.  The UnTrust VLAN has Web services and a VM of Kali. The hardware Firewall is additionally connected to a Management VLAN.  All those VLANs are trunked into an ESXi server where the student also has a VM-Series Palo Alto Networks Firewall for High Availability.  

After configuring all the trunking, VLANs, and network interfaces we learn about the firewall and configure it for the lab environment.  Using Metasploitable and Kali/Metasploit nefarious penetration attempts are executed.  Using packet captures, custom APP-ID's  and custom signatures are generated.  Custom logging and reporting are created to similate and enterprise and assist the desired Incident Response.  It is always fun in a training environment to learn all about the controls available in a product, even though specific controls may not be used in the operational environment.  In the end we have a good understanding of the Palo Alto Networks Firewall.