How unencrypted website addresses and low PBKDF2 iteration counts undid LastPass's encrypted vaults, and why Security+ objective 1.3 is about matching the cryptographic solution to the requirement. From Domain 1, General Security Concepts, of Chris's new CompTIA Security+ (SY0-801) course on Pluralsight.

In this deep dive

• Why objective 1.3 asks which cryptographic technique fits a requirement, not how to do the math
• The LastPass breach: encrypted passwords, unencrypted website addresses, and PBKDF2 iteration counts as low as one
• Why stolen ciphertext doesn't expire, and weak protection is only a matter of time
• How encryption turns plaintext into ciphertext with an algorithm and a key
• Why integrity, origin and non-repudiation point past encryption to hashing and digital signatures

This segment is from Domain 1, General Security Concepts, of Chris's new CompTIA Security+ (SY0-801) course on Pluralsight.

Links

• CompTIA Security+ (SY0-801): General Security Concepts (Pluralsight)
• All of Chris Rees's Pluralsight courses
• Watch this lesson on YouTube
• Security+ study guides

Transcript and links: https://www.skillthropic.com/podcast/lastpass-appropriate-cryptography-deep-dive?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=lastpass-appropriate-cryptography-deep-dive

Study guides for Security+, CySA+, CISSP, CCSP and CompTIA SecAI+: skillthropic.com

How HTTPS uses a TLS handshake, a key exchange and symmetric encryption to protect data between systems, and why old SSL and early TLS versions should be out of your environment. From Domain 1, General Security Concepts, of Chris's new CompTIA Security+ (SY0-801) course on Pluralsight.

In this deep dive

• Transport or communication encryption: protecting data in motion between systems
• HTTPS as HTTP protected by TLS, and the handshake where the server presents its certificate
• A key exchange that gives both sides the same session keys without sending them, then symmetric encryption for the session
• TLS 1.3 (RFC 8446) as the current version, and RFC 8996 formally deprecating TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in March 2021
• For the exam: TLS is the default answer for web traffic, and old SSL or TLS 1.0 is a finding

This segment is from Domain 1, General Security Concepts, of Chris's new CompTIA Security+ (SY0-801) course on Pluralsight.

Links

• CompTIA Security+ (SY0-801): General Security Concepts (Pluralsight)
• All of Chris Rees's Pluralsight courses
• Watch this lesson on YouTube
• Security+ study guides

Transcript and links: https://www.skillthropic.com/podcast/transport-encryption-tls-deep-dive?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=transport-encryption-tls-deep-dive

Study guides for Security+, CySA+, CISSP, CCSP and CompTIA SecAI+: skillthropic.com

What the July 2024 CrowdStrike update teaches about recovery, why a fast revert didn't help machines that had already crashed, and how to choose between backing out and failing forward. From Domain 1, General Security Concepts, of Chris's new CompTIA Security+ (SY0-801) course on Pluralsight.

In this deep dive

• July 19th, 2024: a routine CrowdStrike content update sends Windows machines running the sensor into a crash loop
• Why reverting 78 minutes later only protected machines that hadn't crashed yet, and how BitLocker recovery keys stretched recovery into days
• The staged rollout CrowdStrike moved to: a canary group, early adopters, broad deployment, then everyone
• When backing out is the safer choice, and when failing forward makes more sense
• Finding the point of no return before the change starts

This segment is from Domain 1, General Security Concepts, of Chris's new CompTIA Security+ (SY0-801) course on Pluralsight.

Links

• Microsoft: Helping our customers through the CrowdStrike outage
• CompTIA Security+ (SY0-801): General Security Concepts (Pluralsight)
• All of Chris Rees's Pluralsight courses
• Watch this lesson on YouTube
• Security+ study guides

Transcript and links: https://www.skillthropic.com/podcast/crowdstrike-backout-vs-fail-forward-deep-dive?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=crowdstrike-backout-vs-fail-forward-deep-dive

Study guides for Security+, CySA+, CISSP, CCSP and CompTIA SecAI+: skillthropic.com