Appsec adventures

This GitHub project presents a zero-touch automation pipeline that transforms newly added, weaponized CVEs from the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog into production-ready Sigma detection rules. The workflow, scheduled to run weekly, pulls the live CISA KEV catalog, filters for new entries, and uses Google Gemini with structured prompts to generate tailored Sigma rules (including specific product targeting, appropriate Sysmon EventIDs, and MITRE ATT&CK mapping). It then logs each processed CVE to a Google Sheet for audit purposes and emails an analyst briefing. The author reports this reduces manual effort from 4-6 hours per CVE to zero minutes. The repository includes the n8n workflow, prompt templates, and sample outputs. Future plans include auto-deploying rules to SIEMs and automated testing.  https://github.com/manishrawat21/Cisa-KEV-Threat-Intel-Orchestrator

This working paper introduces "context bombs"—short strings hidden in decoy resources (canaries) that are designed to trigger safety guardrails in offensive AI agents, thereby stopping autonomous cyberattacks. The research tested five leading AI models in a realistic AWS environment and found that planting a single context bomb reduced agent success rates by approximately 90%, with the most capable models (Opus 4.8 and Gemini 3.1 Pro) dropping from 93% to 0% in achieving full account admin access. The effectiveness depends on tailoring the topic to the model: sensitive biological content works best for Western models, while politically sensitive topics in Chinese are effective against Chinese models. Unlike traditional canaries that only detect intrusions, context bombs actively halt attacks while simultaneously raising alerts. The authors have published their context bomb strings on GitHub for defensive use, and the technique is being integrated into their Tracebit product. ...

AgentDojo is an open-source benchmarking framework developed by ETH Zurich researchers to evaluate the security of LLM-based agents against prompt injection attacks and various defense mechanisms. It provides a dynamic environment where agents perform tasks across different suites while being subjected to attacks (e.g., malicious instructions hidden in tool outputs or web content). The framework supports testing multiple defenses, such as tool filtering or input sanitization, and includes a benchmark script for running evaluations with different LLM models. Results are published in a dedicated registry. The project is designed to be extensible and is accompanied by a research paper presented at NeurIPS 2024. It can be installed via pip and includes documentation for setup and usage.  https://github.com/ethz-spylab/agentdojo

This article introduces Agent Egress Bench, an open-source test corpus designed to evaluate security tools that monitor traffic between AI agents and external networks. Unlike existing benchmarks that test the LLM itself (e.g., for prompt injection resistance), this corpus tests the network security layer—proxies, firewalls, and MCP wrappers—that should block malicious traffic after a model has already failed or been tricked. The corpus contains 72 test cases across 8 categories, including URL and request body DLP, response injection, and MCP-specific attacks (input scanning, tool poisoning, and chain detection). Each case is a self-contained JSON file with an attack payload and expected verdict. The project includes a validation tool and a runner framework for integrating with any security solution. It is not a leaderboard; each tool publishes its own results. The corpus maps to the OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications and is available under an Apache 2.0 license.  https://pipela...

This article introduces Control Reliability Engineering (CRE) as a direct application of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles to cybersecurity controls. It argues that many breaches occur not because of sophisticated attacks, but because security controls were broken or misconfigured at a critical moment. CRE addresses this by treating control failures with the same gravity as security incidents, using objective metrics (Control SLIs/SLOs), continuous monitoring, synthetic event injection, and error budgets to manage control reliability. The author outlines ten essential elements for a mature CRE program, including treating controls as code, formal incident management for control failures, and implementing readiness reviews. The core message is that security controls must be engineered for reliability through disciplined, metrics-driven operational practices to counter their natural decay over time.  https://www.philvenables.com/post/control-reliability-engineering-cre-app...

This research article analyzes the growing threat of information-stealing malware (infostealers) as a primary vector for corporate breaches. Based on a study of 15 million stolen malware logs, it reveals that infostealers compromise personal devices through vectors like cracked software, malvertising, and phishing, silently harvesting browser credentials, session cookies, and system data. The analysis of 687 million extracted cookies and widespread password reuse demonstrates how attackers bypass MFA and gain initial access. The article provides real-world breach case studies and offers defensive strategies, including monitoring dark web channels, enforcing least-privilege access, and implementing robust session management to mitigate exposure from devices outside corporate control.  https://darkwiser.com/blog/zero-to-owned-mapping-the-lifecycle-of-a-credential-stealer-to-corporate-breach