I am a cyber security professional with work experience in Threat Intelligence, Threat Hunting and Ethical Hacking. I graduated a Software Science profile, with a minor in Computer Science focused in Cyber Security. Hands on experience and keen interest in Cyber Security, Network Administration and Software Development through university projects, personal practice and curiosity. Team player, social and results focused. Dedicated worker, enthusiastic to learn and prove himself. Skills worth mentioning:
• Experience with EDR, SIEM, IDS tools, MITRE&Ack matrix and cyber kill chain
• Ethical Hacking in Web Platforms and IoT (OWASP and Bluetooth Low Energy)
• CISCO certification (CCENT)
• Programming languages: Python, C#, Java, JavaScript

WSL 2 and Security: Productivity Booster or Achilles Heel?

Recent malware attacks on WSL 2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux 2) have been opening up the discussion on whether or not WSL 2 can be used for efficient and undetected cyber-attacks. However, does (the lack of) Windows’s security relate to these attacks? This research focuses on the ability of Windows to fend off or detect any attacks originating from WSL 2 with the goal of shedding a light on some weaker points inherent to the use of the subsystem.

Furthermore, some attacks are forged with the goal of cross-referencing to suggest recommendations that make Windows safer against the proposed classes of attacks. Through so-called attacker stories, the research includes the evaluation of multiple points of interest in the subsystem on which experiments have been conducted on three levels of security. The results of these experiments show that attacks are possible that mostly revolve around the inability of Windows to detect activity within WSL 2. Therefore, the proposed recommendations largely focus on expanding the detection capabilities of Windows to include logs from within WSL 2 as well as publishing in-depth documentation and making potential security risk features optional. 

With the finalization of the attack scenarios and recommendations, the conclusion could be drawn that Windows detects events passing through Windows itself, however, lacks detective capability for activity in WSL 2. This makes WSL 2 a very interesting attack vector and defense evasion tool for a potential threat actor. By implementing the recommendations, these options become a lot more limited.

This presentation is co-presented with Max van der Horst, Security Specialist at NorthWave.