Seek out new protocols, and boldly go where no one has gone before

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Presented at BSidesLV 2024 by

Douglas McKee

Our current administration lists "Defend Critical Infrastructure" as the #1 item in the 2023 National Cybersecurity Strategy. To take on this challenging endeavor and provide complete security to not only our critical infrastructure but all organizations, we must be willing to go deeper than simple vulnerability scans, basic red teaming or blindly accepting the risk due to a lack of understanding. The product security testing methodology of deep enumeration, which includes dissecting and understanding proprietary protocols, is vital to our success in meeting our nation's objective. This presentation will present a well-defined and repeatable methodology, then using an actual proprietary protocol, demonstrate how to dissect, understand, and how threat actors can use this proprietary protocol to their advantage. The presentation will then conclude by showing how defenders can use this deep understanding to reduce the risk proprietary protocols pose on their networks. These skills will become instrumental for our cyber security professionals' ability to defend our critical infrastructure and business, which leverage these protocols.