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Next Meeting
When: June 24th, 2008, 11:30am - 1:00pm

Who: Matt Tesauro (presenting) and A.J. Scotka, Texas Education Agency

Matt's Bio: Matt Tesauro has worked in web application development and security since 2000. He's worn many different hats, from developer to DBA to sys admin to university lecturer to pen tester. Currently, he's focused on web application security and developing a Secure SDLC for TEA. Outside work, he is the project lead for the OWASP SoC Live CD project: https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Summer_of_Code_2008_Applications#OWASP_Live_CD_2008_Project

A.J.'s Bio: A. J. Scotka Senior Software Quality Engineer, Texas Education Agency As an ASQ Certified Software Quality Engineer (CSQE), A. J. is currently responsible for quality reviews on design and code, software configuration management process, build engineering process, release engineering process, verification and validation throughout the life cycle and over all quality improvement across all areas of enterprise code manufacturing.

Topic:  Securely Handling Sensitive Configuration Data.

One of the age old problems with web applications was keeping sensitive data available on a need to know basis. The classic case of this is database credentials. The application needs them to connect to the database but developers shouldn't have direct access to the DB - particularly the production DB. The presentation will discuss how we took on this specific problem, our determination that this was a specific case of a more general problem and how we solved that general problem. In our solution, sensitive data is only available to the application and trusted 3rd parties (e.g. DBAs). We will then cover our implementation of that solution in a .Net 2.0 environment and discuss some options for J2EE environments. So far, we used our .Net solution successfully for database credentials and private encryption keys used in XML-DSig. Sensitive data is only available to the application and trusted 3rd parties (e.g. DBAs).

Where: National Instruments, 11500 N Mopac, Building C which is the tallest building on campus (8 levels). There will be signs posted in the lobby to direct you where to go and the receptionists will be able to assist you as well. See directions to National Instruments.

Cost: Always Free

Questions or help with Directions... call: Scott Foster 512-637-9824.

Future Speakers and Events
June 24th, 2008 - Matt Tesauro

July 29th, 2008 - Whurley and Mando Escamilla, openSIMS.org

August 26th, 2008 - OPEN

September 30th, 2008 - Josh Sokol

October 28th, 2008 - James Wickett

November 25th, 2008 - OPEN

December 30th, 2008 - OPEN

Record Hall of Meetings
When: May 27th, 2008, 11:30am - 1:00pm

Who: Nathan Sportsman and Praveen Kalamegham, Web Services Security

Topic: Web Services Security The concept of web services has become ubiquitous over the last few years. Frameworks are now available across many platforms and languages to greatly ease and expedite the development of web services, often with a vast amount of existing code reuse. Software companies are taking advantage of this by integrating this technology into their products giving increased power and interoperability to their customers. However, the power web services enables also introduces new risks to an environment. As with web applications, development has outpaced the understanding and mitigation of vulnerabilities that arise from this emerging technology. This presentation will first aim to identify the risks associated with web services. We will describe the existing security standards and technologies which target web services (i.e., WS-Security) including its history, pros and cons, and current status. Finally we will attempt to extrapolate the future of this space to determine what changes must be made going forward.

Where: Whole Foods, 550 Bowie Street, Austin, TX 78703. Come to the Whole Foods plaza level and sign in with receptionist. To get to the plaza take the stairs from the main entrance. The stairs are located on the West Side of the building, just north of the main entrance. There is no access to the Plaza level from inside the store.

See directions to Whole Foods.

When: April 29th, 2008, 11:30am - 1:00pm

Who: Mano Paul

Bio Manoranjan (Mano) Paul started his career as a Shark Researcher in the Bimini Biological Field Station, Bahamas. His educational pursuit took him to the University of Oklahoma where he received his Business Administration degree in Management Information Systems (MIS) with a 4.0 GPA and valedictory accolades. Partnering with (ISC)2, the global leader in information security certification and education, he founded and serves as the President & CEO of Express Certifications, a professional certification assessment and training company whose product (studISCope) is (ISC)2’s OFFICIAL self assessment offering for renowned security certifications like the CISSP® and SSCP®. Express Certifications is also the self assessment testing engine behind the US Department of Defense certification education program as mandated by the 8570.1 directive. He also founded and serves as the CEO of SecuRisk Solutions, a company that specializes in three areas of information security - Product Development, Consulting, and Awareness, Training & Education.

What: Security – The Road Less Travelled Abstract - What do you think Shakespeare had to say about Software Security? What does an naked motorist have to do with Confidentiality? What does the Jungle Book character Baloo have to say about Security Essentials (The Bear Bare Necessities of Life security)? What does the African Wildlife have to do with Security Concepts? What does pH have to do with Security? and more … The Road Less Travelled by renowed poet, Robert Frost ends by with the statement “And that has made all the difference”. Come to find out the answers to the questions above and see what it takes to look at Security from a different perspective, that would make ALL the difference. The session will cover not only the higher level abstractions of security concepts, but will dive deep wherever applicable into concepts and code, making it a MUST attend for Development, QA, PM and Management Staff on both the IT and Business side. Also, if you are interested in becoming a CISSP® or SSCP®, come find out about the official (ISC)2 self-assessment tool developed by Express Certifications to aid candidates in their study efforts and how you can get valuable discounts.

Where: National Instruments, 11500 N Mopac, Building C which is the tallest building on campus (8 levels). There will be signs posted in the lobby to direct you where to go and the receptionists will be able to assist you as well. See directions to National Instruments.

When: March 25th, 2008, 11:30am - 1:00pm

Who: Dan Cornell, Principal of Denim Group, Ltd., OWASP San Antonio Leader, Creator of Sprajax

Dan Cornell has over ten years of experience architecting and developing web-based software systems. He leads Denim Group's security research team in investigating the application of secure coding and development techniques to improve web-based software development methodologies.

Topic: Static Analysis Techniques for Testing Application Security

Static Analysis of software refers to examining source code and other software artifacts without executing them. This presentation looks at how these techniques can be used to identify security defects in applications. Approaches examined will range from simple keyword search methods used to identify calls to banned functions through more sophisticated data flow analysis used to identify more complicated issues such as injection flaws. In addition, a demonstration will be given of two freely-available static analysis tools: FindBugs for the Java platform and FXCop for the .NET platform. Finally, some approaches will be presented on how organizations can start using static analysis tools as part of their development and quality assurance processes.

Where: Whole Foods, 550 Bowie Street, Austin, TX 78703. Come to the Whole Foods plaza level and sign in with receptionist. To get to the plaza take the stairs from the main entrance. The stairs are located on the West Side of the building, just north of the main entrance. There is no access to the Plaza level from inside the store.

See directions to Whole Foods.

February 26th, 2008 - Michael Howard, Author of Writing Secure Code

Topic: Microsoft's SDL: A Deep Dive

In this presentation, Michael will explain some of the inner workings of the SDL as well as some of the decision making process that went into some of the SDL requirements. He will also explain where SDL can be improved.

Where: National Instruments, 11500 N Mopac, Building C which is the tallest building on campus (8 levels). There will be signs posted in the lobby to direct you where to go and the receptionists will be able to assist you as well. See directions to National Instruments.

January 29th, 2008 - Mark Palmer, Hoovers and Geoff Mueller, NI @ WHOLE FOODS, Downtown

Where: Whole Foods, 550 Bowie Street, Austin, TX 78703. Come to the Whole Foods plaza level and sign in with receptionist. To get to the plaza take the stairs from the main entrance. The stairs are located on the West Side of the building, just north of the main entrance. There is no access to the Plaza level from inside the store.

See directions to Whole Foods.

When: December 4th, 2007, 11:30am - 1:00pm

Who: Jeremiah Grossman (WhiteHat Security, CTO, OWASP Founder, Security Blogger)

Topic: Business Logic Flaws

Session handling, credit card transactions, and password recovery are just a few examples of Web-enabled business logic processes that malicious hackers have abused to compromise major websites. These types of vulnerabilities are routinely overlooked during QA because the process is intended to test what a piece of code is supposed to do and not what it can be made to do. The other problem(s) with business logic flaws is scanners can’t identify them, IDS can’t detect them, and Web application firewalls can’t defend them. Plus, the more sophisticated and Web 2.0 feature-rich a website, the more prone it is to have flaws in business logic.

This presentation will provide real-world demonstrations of how pernicious and dangerous business logic flaws are to the security of a website. He’ll also show how best to spot them and provide organizations with a simple and rational game plan to prevent them.

Where: National Instruments, 11500 N Mopac, Building C which is the tallest building on campus (8 levels). There will be signs posted in the lobby to direct you where to go and the receptionists will be able to assist you as well. See directions to National Instruments.

November 27th, 2007 Austin OWASP chapter meeting - Robert Hansen (SecTheory.com, ha.ckers.org and is regarded an expert in Web Application Security)

Robert will be talking about different ways to de-anonymize and track users both from an offensive and defensive standpoint. He will discuss how the giants of the industry do it and next generation tactics alike.

Whole Foods, 550 Bowie Street, Austin, TX 78703. Come to the Whole Foods plaza level and sign in with receptionist. See directions to Whole Foods.

October 2007 Austin OWASP chapter meeting  October 30th, 11:30am - 1:00pm at National Instruments "Social networking" - Social networking is exploding with ways to create your own social networks. As communities move more and more online and new types of communities start to form, what are some of the security concerns that we have and might face in the future? by Rich Vázquez, and Tom Brown.

September 2007 Austin OWASP Chapter September 2007  - Tue, September 25, 2007 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM at Whole Foods Meeting 550 Bowie Street, Austin "Biting the hand that feeds you" - A presentation on hosting malicious content under well know domains to gain a victims confidence. "Virtual World, Real Hacking" - A presentation on "Virtual Economies" and game hacking. "Cover Debugging - Circumventing Software Armoring techniques" - A presentation on advanced techniques automating and analyzing malicious code.

August 2007 Austin OWASP chapter meeting - 8/28, 11:30am - 1:00pm at National Instruments. Josh Sokol presented on OWASP Testing Framework and how to use it, along with free and Open Source tools, in a live and interactive demonstration of web site penetration testing.

July 2007 Austin OWASP chapter meeting - 7/31, 11:30am - 1:00pm at Whole Foods. Dan Cornell will be presenting on Cross Site Request Forgery

June 2007 Austin OWASP chapter meeting - 6/26, 11:30am - 1:00pm at National Instruments. James Wickett presented on OWASP Top 10 and using Web Application Scannners to detect Vulnerabilities.

May 2007 Austin OWASP chapter meeting - 5/29, "Bullet Proof UI - A programmer's guide to the complete idiot". Robert will be talking about ways to secure a web-app from aggressive attackers and the unwashed masses alike.

April 2007 Austin OWASP chapter meeting - 4/24, 11:30am - 1:00pm at National Instruments. H.D. Moore (creator of MetaSploit will be presenting)

March 2007 Austin OWASP chapter meeting - 3/27, 11:30am - 1:00pm at National Instruments, 11500 N Mopac, Building C which is the tallest building on campus (8 levels). There will be signs posted in the lobby to direct you where to go and the receptionists will be able to assist you as well. See directions to National Instruments.

January 2007 Austin Chapter Meeting - 1/30, 11:30am - 1:00pm at National Instruments, 11500 N Mopac, Building C Conference Room 1S15.

December Meeting - Due to the holidays, there will be no December OWASP meeting. However, we are looking for speakers for the January meeting. If you or anyone you know would be a good candidate, let us know! Happy Holidays!

November 2006 Austin Chapter Meeting - 11/21, 11:30am - 1:00pm at National Instruments, 11500 N Mopac, Building C Conference Room 1S14.

October 2006 Austin Chapter Meeting - 10/31 - Boo!

September 2006 Austin Chapter Meeting - 9/26, 12-1:00 at Texas ACCESS Alliance building located at the intersection of IH-35 South and Ben White

August 2006 Austin Chapter Meeting - Tuesday- 8/29, 11:30-1:30 on the National Instruments campus, Mopac B (the middle building), conference room 112 (in the Human Resources area to the left of the receptionist). See directions to National Instruments. Hint: It is on your left on Mopac if you were heading up to Fry's from Austin.

Austin OWASP chapter kickoff meeting - Thursday, 7/27, 12-2pm @ Whole Foods Market (downtown, plaza level, sign in with receptionist)

Presentation Archives
The following presentations have been given at local chapter meetings:


 * OWASP Testing Framework Austin OWASP Chapter August 2007 Josh Sokol Presentation


 * Single Sign On (7/27)


 * A Rough Start of a Toolset for Assessing Java/J2EE Web Apps (7/27) - MattFranz discussed some custom Python tools he has been writing for conducting security testing of a Struts (and other Java) web applications.


 * AJAX Security: Here we go again - Dan Cornell from Denim Group discussed security issues in the one the popular Web 2.0 technlogy (8/29)