Re: Pen - Test technique: Shred diving

From: Rainer Duffner (rainer@ultra-secure.de)
Date: Fri Jan 04 2002 - 05:07:39 PST

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    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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