Penetration Testing mailing list archives
Re: Pen - Test technique: Shred diving
From: "Rainer Duffner" <rainer () ultra-secure de>
Date: Fri, 04 Jan 2002 13:07:39 GMT
Mike Shaw writes:
Don't know if this will pass list muster, but I just had a great time in a client company's shredder bin.
Cool ;-)[snip]
<technical muse>I'm toying with the idea of a "shred-cracker". Basically you would scan the strips in, then the program would reconstruct them in every possibility and pass it through an OCR library. When the OCR started hitting recognizable words, it would 'lock' those strips in place.
Well, I had thought of the idea to scan the things in as they are fed into the shredder.You'd have to tamper with the shredder, but nevertheless...
Sadly, my coding skills aren't really up to this project and even if they were I don't have that time.</technical muse>
IIRC, software for that exists already. At least, software that turns scans of torn paper into clean copies (by matching "pieces").The East-German secret service (MfS, aka "Stasi", try http://www.bstu.de/home.htm ) left over 15000 sacks of torn paper, before it was shut down after the German re-unification. The paper was torn because the shredders were broken (too much paper in to short time).
Anyway, if anyone is doing a pen-test that involves physical security, don't overlook the shred bin!
"Only the paranoid survive"
cheers, Rainer -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rainer Duffner Munich rainer () ultra-secure de Germany http://www.i-duffner.de Freising ======================================== When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Current thread:
- Pen - Test technique: Shred diving Mike Shaw (Jan 03)
- Re: Pen - Test technique: Shred diving R. DuFresne (Jan 03)
- Re: Pen - Test technique: Shred diving William Knowles (Jan 04)
- Re: Pen - Test technique: Shred diving Rainer Duffner (Jan 04)
- Re: Pen - Test technique: Shred diving R. DuFresne (Jan 03)