Security Devices, only as good as their implementation…

By beyerch
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Oct 23, 2017
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Cars, Programming, Reverse Engineering

Security Devices, only as good as their implementation…

Recently, I needed to use an old program that is protected by a security device. The device, an M Activator hardware key, connects to your computer’s parallel port.

$C:\Users\beyerch\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\K9R4HEY5\IMG_9355.JPG$ $C:\Users\beyerch\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\K9R4HEY5\IMG_9356.JPG$

Figure 1 – M Activator Security Key

If the security device is not attached to the PC, the application program will restrict your access to certain application functions or prevent you from using an application altogether.

$C:\Users\beyerch\AppData\Local\Temp\SNAGHTML1dd2ee31.PNG$

Figure 2 – Application Rejection due to no hardware key

Since I own the software and still have the security key, none of this should be a problem. Unfortunately, modern computers no longer have parallel ports! As the software isn’t maintained, I can’t call the original provider for an alternative leaving me with few choices. The first, and preferred, choice was to purchase a parallel port to USB adapter on-line. I purchased two highly rated units; however, the software failed to recognize the dongle when connected through either of the units.

$C:\Users\beyerch\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook\K9R4HEY5\IMG_9358.JPG$

Figure 3 – Parallel to USB Adapters (that didn’t work..)

As the USB adapter routed was unsuccessful, my remaining option is to …. hack the security key or its implementation in the application program..

A Ridiculously Brief Discussion on Security/Hacking

The first rule of hacking is that you don’t talk about hacking. Wait, or is that the first rule of Fight Club? The first rule of hacking is to accept the fact that nothing will be 100% secure.

When a product is developed, the security implementation is typically driven many factors such as:

What is the risk/damage of being compromised?
How likely is it that the product will be attacked?
What impacts to the development process will occur due to security?
How will the timeline be impacted?
How will users of the product be impacted?
Does the development team understand and have security experience?
How much will can we afford????

Because of all of the competing considerations, product security typically looks more like the Griswold family truckster than the shiny red Ferrari.

Figure 4 – Typical Security vs Assumed Security

From the hacker’s perspective, product security really boils down to how badly they want it. Do they have the time, resources, team/skills, and money to dedicate to their mission.

In the case of my ancient dongle security application, I’m willing to invest about 60 minutes into seeing if I can get anywhere. After that, I dig out one of my older computers and use it with this program. (and hope it doesn’t ever die…..)

With that said, let’s see just how secure this old dongle application is…

Hacking 101

Now that we’ve decided that we’re going to take a stab at working around the security device, the first thing we need to do is gather information about our target. Before we can formulate a plan, we need to know what we’re up against. After about 5 minutes of research, we know the following about our target application/security device:

Application Program
- Windows 32 bit executable
- Written in C++
- Program appears to leverage multiple external libraries, some of which are known/some are not
  - ZIP/PKZIP – File Compression
  - W32SSI.dll/.lib – ? Not sure. (yet)
M Activator Green Key
- Made by Sentinel
- The W32SSI files are related to this dongle

NOTE: Researching this scenario finds a lot of “hits” to people with similar scenarios. There are emulators and other products made to solve this problem; however, I’d rather try to figure it out myself first.

Given what has been found, it seems likely that the application program is going to use the W32SSI files to talk to the dongle. Depending on how this is done in the application, we may be able to update the application program and simply bypass the dongle. All we need to do is take a peek at the application software to see what is going on, no biggie.

Source Code, Assembly Code, Machine Code, Oh My!

If this were our application program, we could simply open it in our editor, make our desired changes to the source code, recompile the code, and be on our way. Since we didn’t write this program and the original company is no longer in existence, this isn’t an option. While we could look at the executable binary (e.g. Machine Code) unless you have a photographic memory, know low-level Windows modules by heart, and Intel OpCodes like the back of your hand, it’s going to be impossible to directly analyze the chain of files.

Figure 5 – Machine Code, no problem…..

While it might be cool to rattle off machine code instructions on trivia night, it would take us forever to try and analyze an application in this manner. Fortunately, there are many programs that we can leverage which will translate the machine code into something slightly easier to deal with, assembly code.

Figure 6 – Assembly Code

While assembly code is not nearly as friendly as actual source code, it is a 1 to 1 representation of the machine code in a somewhat human readable format. If you have an appropriate tool, such as the IDA Pro disassembler, you can convert the machine code into the assembly. This tool also allows us to map out the program flow and find text and object file references.

Using the IDA Interactive Disassembler

As mentioned previously, we can use IDA to do a quick search to see if our security device program is called. Since we know that the program uses the security key, we should be able to find one or more references to the W32SSI library files. Depending on how many and what type of references we find, we may be able to easily alter the program so that we can bypass the security hardware.

After opening the program in IDA, we can easily see that the W32SSI libraries are being used by checking the Imports section of IDA.

Figure 7- IDA Imports

In addition to verifying the presence of the libraries via the Imports screen, we can use the Functions / IDA view to find the code references:

Figure 8 – Locating code references to W32SSI

Somewhat surprisingly, the only two functions imported from the security program are referenced once!

Figure 9 – Code section using W32SSI functions

While we do not know what those routines do entirely, since they are only called once, it is safe to assume that they attempt to validate that a security key, of the right type, is connected. To help understand what we’re seeing, we can use the Graph View feature to get a visual representation of the code:

Figure 10 – Graph View of W32SSI logic

Looking at the Graph View of the code leveraging the W32SSI routines, we see that there are two main code branches. The branch on the left performs secondary checks and ultimate ends up with failure messages relating to a security key not being found. The code branch on the right simply returns a value of 1, which presumably is a “TRUE” response.

The Quick and Easy Fix

Looking at the code structure, it appears that the second W32SSI call is performing a check as to whether the security dongle is present or not. If the security dongle is found, a “TRUE” (1) is returned; otherwise, secondary tests are performed. (e.g. serial port instead of LPT, etc.)

Because of this, there appears to be a very easy way to “fix” the program. If we force the initial check to always return TRUE (or flip flop the PASS / FAIL check) then the application program will behave as if the key was present.

The following logic needs to be tweaked from:

call wSSIMIni
cmp eax, 0FFFFFFFFh
jz loc_409FBA

to:

call wSSIMIni
cmp eax, 0FFFFFFFFh
jnz loc_409FBA

JZ and JNZ are machine code instructions that are used in conjunction with comparison checks. If the result of a compare (CMP) instruction is ZERO, a Jump if Zero (JZ) instruction will result in a jump to another portion of the application. Jump if Not Zero (JNZ), on the other hand, results in a jump if the compare (CMP) instruction is non-zero.

To make the change, switch to the Hex View, right click on the highlight value and change the 84 to 85.

Figure 11 – Switching JZ to JNZ

After committing the change, you will see the code switch from

After starting the program, we no longer receive an error about the missing security key and the program operates as expected.

Well That Easy…..

While it may be hard to believe that changing one byte of data, by one digit, entirely bypassed an application’s security, this is a surprisingly common scenario. The security dongle used by this application could have been utilized much differently preventing this type of scenario, though. (e.g. the dongle could have stored a required piece of information that the application would need to operated properly)

FDMEE Essbase/Planning Script Execution Glitch

By beyerch
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Oct 16, 2017
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Oracle EPM

FDMEE Essbase/Planning Script Execution Glitch

When targeting Essbase/Planning applications through FDMEE, a particularly useful feature is the ability to trigger Calculation scripts before and after the Load process as well as before and after the Check process. Not only can you execute scripts, but you can control the execution order and pass script parameters. This functionality is quite useful for executing fixed scope data clear operations before the data load and executing targeting aggregation/calculations after the data load has been completed.

Figure 1 – FDMEE Target Application Calculation Script Editor

While this feature works great when the scripts are working, what happens when there is a script failure? If a script executed during the Load process fails, should the FDMEE Load step report a failure? (even if the data loaded?) How about a script failure during the Check step? Would you be surprised to know that currently in 11.1.2.4.210, this is not the case?

In the event of a successful load process, even if a script error occurred, all FDMEE “fish” steps will return gold and the Process Monitor report will reflect the same. (e.g. no issues) Your only indication of a failure will be in the job log for the data load process!

If you are currently leveraging this functionality, please be aware of this quirk until this is corrected!

NOTE(s):

11.1.2.4.100 (Patch 20648390) advertises this as being fixed; however, it still presents itself in 11.1.2.4.200+ [See Defect: 20631385]
An enhancement request, 25217240, was created for this issue when submitted in 11.1.2.4.200. I do not know if this has been implemented yet; however, no fix is listed in the Defects Fixed Finders Tool through 11.1.2.4.210

Steps to Recreate [target a non-existent script]

#1 – Create FDM Target Planning Application and associate a Calculation script that does not exist in the target application

Figure 2 – Create Calculation Script references for our sample Target Application

#2 – Create your Location / Data Load Maps / Data Load Rule / etc.

#3 – Load a data file through and confirm that the Process Monitor reflects success.

Figure 3 – Perform a data load and confirm that the Process Monitor User Interface shows no errors

#4 – Pull Process Monitor report and confirm no errors reflected.

Figure 4 – Run the Process Monitor Report to verify it also does not reflect any errors

#5 – Review the log file

Since the script doesn’t exist, the FDMEE log will reflect an Essbase error due to the non-existent script.

Figure 5 – Review the Job log to verify an error is reflected in the logs

Version Information:

Figure 6 – Confirm version of FDMEE

Workaround

If your load process is being performed manually, the easiest recommendation is to have users review the log to confirm successful script execution.

If you are performing automated processing where it is not feasible to manually review logs, considering implementing an Event script to scan the log file for script success/failure and using that to trigger a failure in FDMEE / Error Log / Email Notification / etc.

PBCS Data Loading Glitch

By beyerch
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Oct 11, 2017
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Oracle EPM

PBCS Data Loading Glitch

While building out data load automations for PBCS and FCCS recently, I ran into a somewhat annoying issue when loading data to PBCS. Even more surprising is that Oracle claims it works as expected….. This post will explain the issue and provide a really simple work around until this gets properly addressed.

The Problem

Anyone who has worked with FDM Classic, FDMEE, or Data Management for any amount of time has run into at least one failed data load due to invalid dimension member(s) in their exported data. While the data load process should ensure that the target application metadata is current before loading data, this doesn’t always happen. (e.g. last minute source ERP updates that do not get properly communicated to the EPM team)

While a data load failure isn’t optimal, typically this failure is easy enough to identify and fix based off of the feedback provided from FDM/FDMEE/Data Management and the target application.

FDMEE / PBCS Merge Load Failure

FDMEE / Planning Merge Load Failure

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Data Management / FCCS Merge Load Failure

Unfortunately, when you perform a Replace export to a PBCS target application, under some circumstances you will get a quite unhelpful response:

Data Management / PBCS Replace Load Failure

What Happened?

When performing a Merge export, FDMEE/Data Management simply passes the generated data file to the target application for loading without any pre-processing. When performing a Replace export, a data clear script is dynamically generated based on the members contained in the export data.

The script will clear data for every intersection of Scenario, Year, Period, Entity, and Value dimensions. In the event that one of those members is missing in the target application, the dynamic clear script will contain an invalid member resulting in the error shown above. While the error shown above is completely legitimate, it isn’t meaningful enough to allow you to locate the member easily.

Oddly, if you recreate this scenario when loading to FCCS, you will have a much different result! When performing a replace load to FCCS, invalid members will result in meaningful errors that include the invalid member name(s)! Even more odd, Oracle Support will tell you that both are working as designed. It would seem that PBCS should behave similarly to FCCS to simplify troubleshooting efforts. (Perhaps if enough people raise this as an issue, they will address it?)

Work Around

The easiest way to work around this issue is to perform two data exports to PBCS for Replace operations. The first export should be a Merge load. As the dynamic clear script will not be generated for a Merge, this will result allow you to receive specific errors in the event that there is a data load failure. After have a successful Merge load, then perform the Replace load to ensure that all data gets cleared, etc.

Job Output from Merge/Replace Load Automation Process

Oracle Hyperion Planning Application Migration Fun!

By beyerch
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Oct 09, 2017
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Oracle EPM

EPMA Planning Application w/ Workforce Module First Time Deployment (Post Migration)

If you have one or more Workforce enabled Planning applications and you have multiple EPM environments, you may be in for a surprise the first time you migrate those applications to another one of your environments!

After LCM’ing in your EPMA application definition and performing the initial Application deployment, you may be greeted with the following error:

$C:\Users\cbeye002\AppData\Local\Temp\SNAGHTML2568c15f.PNG$

Since the application works perfectly fine in the source environment *and* Planning supports shared members in the Time Period dimension, you would be correct to suspect ‘shenanigans’ are at play. The trick is that when the Workforce Planning module is first initialized, there cannot be shared members in this dimension! Once the module is initialized, you can add duplicate member instances. Unfortunately, when you copy an application to a new environment and deploy it for the first time, part of this process includes module initialization!

To work around this issue, keep the default Time Period members and remove any duplicates, deploy the application for the first time, use LCM to restore the full Time Period dimension, and then perform another deployment.

Remove shared members. (Use SHIFT+click to highlight multiple)

Click Yes on the confirmation window that appears after clicking on Remove Member.

Return to application library and attempt the deployment again.

Confirm that this Deployment completes without any errors.

Return to Shared Services and reimport the Period dimension for the application via the EPMA portion of the LCM file

After the LCM import completes successfully, return to Application Library. Since we changed the Period dimension back to its original state in EPMA, this will signal that the application is Out of Sync and will need to be deployed again.

Perform another deployment and confirm that the Status of the application is

NOTE: This issue appears to impact Planning through 11.1.2.4.

Oracle Hyperion EPM Environment Branding Made Easy!

By beyerch
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Oct 06, 2017
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Oracle EPM, Programming

Oracle EPM Branding Made Easy

For IIS and OHS

Overview

A common pain point when working in multiple EPM environments is ensuring that you are working in the right one. “Out of the box”, each environment visually looks exactly the same. As no one wants to be the person that accidentally makes a change in the wrong environment, people have tried all sorts of ways to remedy this issue.

Typically, people physically swap out image files for the individual web applications; however, the solutions are problematic for multiple reasons:

require manual file system changes
require rework since patching / reinstallation / reconfiguration will wipe out the changes
updating requires modification to Java WAR/EAR files which could lead to unintended issues
does not work properly in all versions of EPM due to content-length limitations
does not scale well if branding multiple products

The solution below resolves all of these issues by intercepting image requests at the webserver level via URL Rewriting. Utilizing URL Rewriting allows us to:

use a small number of images, in one central location, for multiple products
easily scale and allow for multiple branding options
significantly reduces the likelihood of our branding changes being lost due to patching, redeployment, installation, configuration
avoids manual manipulation of EPM application files..

The following walk-through will show you have to use URL rewriting to replace the Oracle logo contained in the upper corner of most EPM applications with one shared image.

NOTE: URL Rewriting could also be leveraged for other uses cases such as globally redirecting all EPM users to a maintenance page while allowing admins to access the system via a special URL.

Oracle logo swapping

There are a few images that lend themselves nicely to branding replacement as the images are used globally among all the EPM products. The red Oracle logo (oracleLogo.png) is one such example. The oracleLogo.png file appears in the title bar on many of the pages, such as the initial log on page:

A quick search for this file, on a webserver running most EPM products, reveals how common it is:

As the same file is virtually used in every EPM product, the best way to replace this image is through URL Rewriting. URL Rewriting instructs the web server to replace requests for a given URL with a different URL of our choosing.

For instance, if a user requests http://EPM.COM/EPMA/oracleLogo.png, we can tell the webserver to re-reroute that request to http://EPM.COM/MyCentralLocation/myCoolerLogo.png. Since this functionality supports regular expressions, we can create one rule to replace requests for almost all of the EPM products. (DRM & FDM need additional rules)

Implementing URL Rewriting on IIS

To implement URL Rewriting for the oracleLogo.png file, perform the following steps:
[NOTE: The screen shots below depict IIS 7/7.5; however, this process works for all currently supported versions of IIS]

Create a replacement oracleLogo.png file. As the original file has a height of 25 pixels and a width of 119 pixels, it is imperative that your image is the same size. If you attempt to use an image with a different size, it will be scaled to fit and it may not look how you want it to.Sample images are shown below.

(NOTE: We will use the QA file for the rest of the IIS walkthrough)
Copy your replacement logo to a location accessible by the web server and the end users. (HINT: The IIS WWWROOT folder is typically available to all users and is a good common spot)
Confirm that you can access this file via Web Browser
Confirm that IIS Rewrite is installed on the Web Server.
(If it is not, follow the steps in Appendix A)
Start Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
In the connections panel (on the left), expand the Server, Sites, and then Default Web Site.
In the right window, click on Features View and then double click on the URL Rewrite button.
In the Actions panel (on the right), click on Add Rule(s)
Click on Blank rule
Complete the Inbound Rule Screen as follows
1. Name: oracleLogo Replace
2. Match URL
  1. Requested URL: Matches Pattern
  2. Using: Regular Expressions
  3. Pattern: (.*)/oracleLogo.png
  4. Ignore Case: [Checked]
3. Conditions – Skip, No changes required.
4. Server Variables – Skip, No changes required.
5. Action
  1. Action Type: Redirect
  2. Redirect URL: http://<Web Server Name Here>/oracleLogo_qa.png
  3. Append query string: Checked
  4. Redirect type: 302 Found

Click Apply
Confirm changes were saved successfully
Test a page
For FDM add a rule as follows:
1. Name: FDM Logo
2. Match URL
  1. Requested URL: Matches Pattern
  2. Using: Regular Expressions
  3. Pattern: (.*)/logo.gif
  4. Ignore Case: [Checked]
3. Conditions – Skip, No changes required.
4. Server Variables – Skip, No changes required.
5. Action
  1. Action Type: Redirect
  2. Redirect URL: http://<Web Server Name Here>/logo_qa.gif
  3. Append query string: Checked
  4. Redirect type: 302 Found

Implementing URL Rewriting on OHS

URL Rewriting in OHS is relatively simple as the capability is activated out of the box in the version that is installed with EPM products. To redirect oracleLogo.png in OHS, perform the following steps:

Copy your replace image to the OHS Root folder.
cp /oracleLogo-TRN.png /Oracle/Middleware/user_projects/epmsystem1/httpConfig/ohs/config/OHS/ohs_component/htdocs/
Update the epm_rewrite_rules.conf configuration file for the redirect actions
NOTE: For each file above, create a RedirectMatch entry similar to below:RedirectMatch (.*)\oracleLogo.png$ https://<ServerNameHere>/oracleLogo-TRN.png