Published Research
All of my research which were published on other sites are documented here.
DEF CON 32 Talk - Xiaomi The Money - Our Toronto Pwn2Own Exploit and Behind The Scenes Story
At Pwn2Own Toronto 2023, NCC Group was one of the two teams that compromised the Xiaomi 13 Pro. The exploit chain involved using a malicious HTML hyperlink and uploading a potentially malicious application to the Xiaomi app store.
However, this talk is not just about the technical details of the exploit. While researching the final exploit, NCC Group discovered how an exploit could work in one region of the world, but not in other regions, and how the researchers had to travel to Canada for a day just to test if the exploit would work in Canada. This talk also discusses just how far Xiaomi is willing to go to make sure their device isn’t hacked at Pwn2Own, and why only two teams were able to successfully compromise the device during the competition.
DEF CON Assets:
- Slide Deck: DEFCON 32 Media Server / DEF CON 32 / DEF CON 32 presentations / Presentation.pdf
- Exploit Video: DEFCON 32 Media Server / DEF CON 32 / DEF CON 32 presentations / Exploit.mp4
- Talk MP4 Video: DEFCON 32 Media Server / DEF CON 32 / DEF CON 32 video and slides / Talk.mp4
- Talk YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0A8F_Izmj0
Links:
- Advisory: https://www.nccgroup.com/us/research-blog/technical-advisory-xiaomi-13-pro-code-execution-via-getapps-dom-cross-site-scripting-xss/
- Backup advisory - https://yogehi.github.io/cves/cve-2024-4406.html
- Pwn2Own Success Tweet - https://x.com/thezdi/status/1716936539345936682
- YouTube Short - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WD1OgZI8Kh4
Faking Another Positive COVID Test
I conducted research into the Cue COVID-19 Home Test with the intention of finding methods to fake a COVID test result. This device was chosen specifically because of the Bluetooth device that is used as the analyzer for testing a nasal sample. As for the outcome of this research, WithSecure was successful in falsifying a COVID test result, and obtained a certificate verifying the COVID test result. This article will go over the technical details of how this research was conducted.
Links:
- Full write up: https://labs.f-secure.com/blog/faking-another-positive-covid-test/
- Backup write up: https://yogehi.github.io/published-research/faking-another-positive-covid-test.html
Press release:
News articles:
- https://www.pcmag.com/news/flaw-in-covid-19-testing-gadget-couldve-been-exploited-to-change-results
- https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/21/cue-health-covid-security-false-results/
Faking A Positive COVID Test
I conducted research into the Ellume COVID-19 Home Test with the intention of finding methods to fake a COVID test result. This device was chosen specifically because of the Bluetooth device that is used as the analyzer for testing a nasal sample. As for the outcome of this research, F-Secure was successful in falsifying a COVID test result, and obtained a certificate verifying the COVID test result. This article will go over the technical details of how this research was conducted.
Links:
- Full write up: https://labs.f-secure.com/blog/faking-a-positive-covid-test
- Backup write up: https://yogehi.github.io/published-research/faking-a-positive-covid-test.html
Press release:
- https://www.f-secure.com/en/press/p/f-secure-researcher-helps-improve-integrity-of-ellume-covid-19-h
News articles:
- https://www.engadget.com/ellume-covid-19-test-bluetooth-hack-153933652.html
- https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/21/22847222/ellume-at-home-covid-test-bluetooth-android-certification
- https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/21/ellume-bug-covid-results
Samsung S20 - RCE via Samsung Galaxy Store App
I looked into exploiting the Samsung S20 device for Tokyo Pwn2Own 2020. An exploit chain was found for version 4.5.19.13 of the Galaxy Store application that could have allowed an attacker to install any application on the Galaxy Store without user consent. Samsung patched this vulnerability at the end of September 2020, no longer making it a viable entry for Pwn2Own. This blog post went over the technical details of this vulnerability and how I intended on exploiting this issue for Pwn2Own before it was patched.
Links:
- Full write up: https://labs.f-secure.com/blog/samsung-s20-rce-via-samsung-galaxy-store-app/
- Backup write up: https://yogehi.github.io/published-research/samsung-s20-rce-galaxy-store.html
I also created a Docker image to more easily exploit this issue: https://github.com/Yogehi/pwn2own2020-mitmInstallApp-docker
Uncommon SQL Database Alert - Informix SQL Injection
A client was looking to upgrade their Cisco UCM software and wanted assurance that their implementation was configured securely. During the assessment, we had discovered an authenticated SQL Injection issue within the Cisco UCM administrator portal. This research goes over the process of discovering how Informix SQL works and developing a custom script to exploit this issue.
Links: