Health

Monday, 13 April 2020

Hacking Windows: Tricks Para Saltarse AppLocker

AppLocker es una funcionalidad que apareció con Windows 7 (versión Enterprise y Ultimate) y Windows Server 2008 R2 para sustituir a las Políticas de Restricción de Software - conocidas como SRP "Software Restriction Policies" - de las versiones anteriores. Igual que las directivas de restricción de software, AppLocker permite definir las aplicaciones autorizadas para ser ejecutadas por sus usuarios estándar dentro de su dominio instalando sus parámetros mediante directivas de grupo.

Figura 1: Hacking Windows: Tricks para saltarse AppLocker

La utilidad principal de esta funcionalidad es limitar la instalación de malware e impedir la instalación de software no normalizado y, por supuesto, son pieza fundamental de la Seguridad en Windows Server 2016 y de la aplicación de procesos de fortificación para conseguir la Máxima Seguridad en Windows.

Figura 2: Windows Server 2016: Configuración, Adminisración y Seguridad
de Ángel Núñez (Puedes contactar con él en MyPublicInbox)

Con la aparición de AppLocker, el número de cosas que se pueden realizar a la hora de evitar la ejecución de determinado tipo de programas son muchas. Ente la lista se encuentran:

- Definir reglas basadas en atributos de archivo que se mantengan a lo largo de las actualizaciones de la aplicación (nombre del archivo, versión…) , reglas basadas en la ruta y el hash del archivo.

- Asignar una regla a un grupo de seguridad o a un usuario individual.

- Crear Excepciones a ciertas reglas.

- Modo auditoría para implementar la directiva y ver el impacto que tendrá antes de aplicarla.

- Simplificar la creación y la administración de reglas de AppLocker con PowerShell.

Las tecnologías de control de acceso, como Active Directory Rights Management Services (ADRMS) y las listas de control de acceso (ACL), ayudan a controlar los usuarios a los que se permite el acceso al bien más preciado de las organizaciones: la información que posee. Al crear una lista de aplicaciones y archivos aprobados y permitidos, AppLocker también se ayuda a impedir la ejecución de aplicaciones para determinados usuarios.

Figura 3: Máxima Seguridad en Windows Gold Edition de
Sergio de los Santos (Puedes contactar con él en MyPublicInbox)

Como AppLocker puede controlar archivos .dll, también es útil para controlar quién puede instalar y ejecutar controles ActiveX y es ideal para aquellas organizaciones que actualmente usan la directiva de grupo para administrar sus equipos.

Hacking Windows: Bypass de AppLocker

Antes de empezar con la prueba de concepto es necesario activar el servicio de identidad de aplicación, así una vez que configuremos las reglas en AppLocker pueda aplicar las reglas que añadamos posteriormente. Para ello abrimos una CMD con permisos de administrador y escribimos el siguiente comando:

Figura 4: Activando el servicio de identidad de aplicacion

Una vez nos muestre que ha sido activado con éxito es necesario reiniciar el sistema operativo, para que se apliquen correctamente los cambios de esta activación. Después, ya podemos proceder a abrir las directivas de seguridad local, que se encuentra dentro de Panel de control\Sistema y ahí dentro de Seguridad\Herramientas administrativas. Una vez abierta se nos mostrará una ventana como está de la imagen siguiente.

Figura 5: AppLocker

Para comenzar a configurar el servicio, debemos pulsar en el botón verde que dice "Configure rule enforcement" para configurar la aplicación de reglas. En el cuadro de configuración vamos a habilitar reglas de ejecutables tal y como se puede ver a continuación.

Figura 6: La primera opción es "Executable Rules"

Ahora procedemos a crear la regla para limitar la ejecución de una determinada aplicación, en nuestro caso vamos a bloquear a nuestra más que conocida, y muy querida, FOCA - Fear the FOCA! Se puede configurar de diferentes maneras, ya sea por la ruta de una carpeta o fichero, editor de software (el que firma el binario) o bien por el hash de archivo.

Figura 7: Configurando regla de ejecutable por ruta

Prueba 1: Saltando la regla de ruta

Nosotros vamos a elegir la ruta del ejecutable, para ver de manera sencilla cómo funciona AppLocker y después verificamos que se ha creado la regla para FOCA.

Figura 8: Reglas de prohibir FOCA por ruta creada

Como somos muy fan del Pentesting con Powershell, también se os enseñamos cómo se pueden visualizar las reglas que hay creadas en el Windows en el que estás trabajando con un pequeño script , tal y como podéis ver en la siguiente imagen.

Figura 9: Script en PowerShell (Haz clic para ver en grande)

Tras ejecutarlo, el resultado que nos arroja dicho script es lo siguiente. Es decir, la misma información pero directamente en nuestra PowerShell.

Figura 10: Reglas creadas en AppLocker

Y ahora sí, para ver si la configuración que hemos hecho funciona, lo que debería suceder cuando intentamos ejecutar el binario de FOCA es que se nos mostrara el siguiente mensaje, dejándonos claro que no es posible hacer uso de esta aplicación.

Figura 11: AppLocker prohibe la ejecución de ese archivo

Saltar esta primera protección es bastante sencillo y conocido. Al final, como sabemos por la regla que hemos visto cuando hemos ejecutado nuestro script PowerShell, esta aplicación está bloqueada por ruta, es decir, que si tenemos permisos de lectura del binario de la FOCA - o de toda la carpeta - y escritura en una carpeta del sistema, podemos hacer lo siguiente:

Figura 12: Copiamos la carpeta de la FOCA a otra ubicación

Si la fortificación del sistema no se ha hecho acompañándolo de una estricta ACL, podremos copiar la carpeta de Origen (FocaPro_locked) a una nueva ubicación (FocaPro_unlocked), invalidando completamente la regla de AppLocker que está configurada.

Figura 13: Carpetas copiadas. Una afectada por AppLocker y otra no.

Ahora ya, si intentamos ejecutar el nuevo binario de FOCA, no encontraremos ninguna regla en AppLocker que le afecte, así que podemos disfrutar de

Figura 14: FOCA Final

No es nada sorprendente que esto pase de esta forma. Esta regla hace lo que dice, que es evitar que un programa que esté en una ruta concreta no se ejecute y si no lo acompañas de otras medidas de fortificación la regla sirve para lo que sirve. Por eso hay más medidas en AppLocker.

Prueba 2: Saltando la regla de Hash

Ahora que ya entendemos algo mejor AppLocker, vamos a ver otro ejemplo de bypass, pero esta vez vamos a saltarnos la regla del Hash de un fichero, que al igual que la regla anterior tiene sus limitaciones. Trabajaremos en este caso con Process Explorer (procexp64.exe), la herramienta de Sysinternals para ver los procesos en Windows. Primero obtenemos el Hash del fichero :

Figura 15: Obteniendo el Hash de un fichero con PowerShell

Como habéis visto, esto es algo que también podemos hacer con PowerShell. Y una vez que lo tenemos, configuramos una regla como en el caso anterior, pero esta ver seleccionando Hash File e introduciendo el Hash que acabamos de obtener.

Figura 16: Hash File Rule creada

Una vez tenemos la regla creada, AppLocker se encargará de comprobar ese hash en cualquier ejecutable que se intente lanzar, y si coincide con el de la regla, bloqueará el binario y no permitirá su ejecución, tal y como se puede ver en la imagen siguiente.

Figura 17:AppLocker bloquea procexp64.exe

Por supuesto, si llevas años en la industria de la detección de malware, ya sabes que hacer reglas para malware basado en Hashes siempre fue una mala idea, y haciendo un "Morphing de Superman", es decir, cambiando cualquier byte de una cadena de caracteres podemos modificar ese Hash. Para ello basta con que abramos el binario con un editor Hexadecimal y hacer una ligera modificación en una cadena de texto, para que el programa siga siendo totalmente funcional.

Figura 18: Haciendo un "Morphing de Superman"

Los caracteres en rojo, son aquellos que hemos modificado, simplemente hemos sustituido las letras que se visualizaban en la parte derecha por puntos. Guardamos como un nuevo binario llamado "procexp64_unlocked.exe" pero no porque con otro nombre lo vaya a ejecutar, si no para la prueba, podéis renombrarlo con el mismo nombre del binario para comprobar que realmente es efectivo. Una vez terminado el proceso del "Morphing de Superman", comprobamos que el Hash de los dos binarios es diferente :

Figura 19: Ya no tienen el mismo hash

Por supuesto, si ahora ejecutamos el nuevo binario - con diferente Hash - vemos que realmente nos hemos saltado la restricción por Hash de AppLocker porque, evidentemente, esta ya no le aplica para nada al tenerlo cambiado.

Figura 20: Process Explorer se ejecuta

Como os podéis imaginar, conocer en detalle el funcionamiento de estas tecnologías es fundamental para fortificar cualquier entorno Windows en una empresa, y entender cómo funcionan las reglas de ruta y de hash, y cuales son sus limitaciones es importante. Por supuesto, saber qué reglas están configuradas y cómo se puede saltar AppLocker en un proyecto de auditoría que requiera tirar de técnicas de Hacking Windows es muy útil.

Figura 21: Hacking Windows: Ataques a sistemas y redes Microsoft

Te puedes encontrar AppLocker configurado en una auditoría, y si te encuentras estas reglas en las restricciones ya has visto que no es muy complicado. Sin embargo AppLocker también tiene reglas basadas en los certificados digitales con la que están firmados los ejecutables, donde un administrador concienzudo puede elegir qué fabricantes de software, qué programas y qué versiones concretas son las que se pueden utilizar o las que están prohibidas. Cuando esto es así, encontrar la forma de saltarse la restricción es más complicada. Eso sí, siempre puedes traerte tus propios programas sin firmar cuando haya listas negras...

Saludos!

Autor: Víctor Rodriguez Boyero, Security Researcher en el equipo de Ideas Locas de CDCO de Telefónica.

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Google And Apple Plan To Turn Phones Into COVID-19 Contact-Tracking Devices

Tech giants Apple and Google have joined forces to develop an interoperable contract-tracing tool that will help individuals determine if they have come in contact with someone infected with COVID-19. As part of this new initiative, the companies are expected to release an API that public agencies can integrate into their apps. The next iteration will be a built-in system-level platform that

via The Hacker NewsRelated articles

Steghide - A Beginners Tutorial

All of us want our sensitive information to be hidden from people and for that we perform different kinds of things like hide those files or lock them using different softwares. But even though we do that, those files attractive people to itself as an object of security. Today I'm going to give you a slight introduction to what is called as Steganography. Its a practice of hiding an informational file within another file like you might have seen in movies an image has a secret message encoded in it. You can read more about Steganography from Wikipedia.

In this tutorial I'm going to use a tool called steghide, which is a simple to use Steganography tool and I'm running it on my Arch Linux. What I'm going to do is simply encode an image with a text file which contains some kind of information which I don't want other people to see. And at the end I'll show you how to decode that information back. So lets get started:

Requirements:
1. steghide
2. a text file
3. an image file

After you have installed steghide, fire up the terminal and type steghide

It will give you list of options that are available.

Now say I have a file with the name of myblogpassword.txt which contains the login password of my blog and I want to encode that file into an Image file with the name of arch.jpg so that I can hide my sensitive information from the preying eyes of my friends. In order to do that I'll type the following command in my terminal:

steghide embed -ef myblogpassword.txt -cf arch.jpg

here steghide is the name of the program
embed flag is used to specify to steghide that we want to embed one file into another file
-ef option is used to specify to steghide the name (and location, in case if its in some other directory) of the file that we want to embed inside of the another file, in our case its myblogpassword.txt
-cf option is used to specify the name (and location, in case if its in some other directory) of the file in which we want to embed our file, in our case its an image file named arch.jpg

After typing the above command and hitting enter it will prompt for a password. We can specify a password here in order to password protect our file so that when anyone tries to extract our embedded file, they'll have to supply a password in order to extract it. If you don't want to password protect it you can just simply hit enter.

Now myblogpassword.txt file is embedded inside of the image file arch.jpg. You'll see no changes in the image file except for its size. Now we can delete the plain password text file myblogpassword.txt.

In order to extract the embedded file from the cover file, I'll type following command in the terminal:

steghide extract -sf arch.jpg -xf myblogpass.txt

here steghide is again name of the program
extract flag specifies that we want to extract an embedded file from a stego file
-sf option specifies the name of the stego file or in other words the file in which we embedded another file, in our case here its the arch.jpg file
-xf option specifies the name of the file to which we want to write our embedded file, here it is myblogpass.txt
(remember you must specify the name of file with its location if its somewhere else than the current directory)

After typing the above command and hitting enter, it will prompt for a password. Supply the password if any or otherwise just simply hit enter. It will extract the embedded file to the file named myblogpass.txt. Voila! you got your file back but yes the image file still contains the embedded file.

That's it, very easy isn't it?

It was a pretty basic introduction you can look for other things like encrypting the file to be embedded before you embed it into another file and so on... enjoy :)

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Saturday, 11 April 2020

Student Hero Nomination For James Moorby

Great News 😊

Uclan Games Design final year student, James Moorby, is short- listed for Grads in Games 'Student Hero Award.'
See more in the following link:

CONGRATULATIONS to James!
Checkout Celestial A game by final year student James Moorby.

James has also created a game called Roller Blades for his final year portfolio.
A split-screen roller skating game.

Check it out here:

Wednesday, 8 April 2020

2017 Holiday Gift Guide

This guide includes games for young and old, for every sex, generation, temperament, and culture.

Whatever you do, and whatever you celebrate, there is no better way to spend a Christmas, Hanukkah, or what have you than together with friends, family, and neighbors with a warm cup of (fair trade) cocoa and a stack of casual board and/or card games.

Remember that the most valuable gift you can give is time. Don't just give your loved ones a game; play it with them. Find or start a local game group and join or form a community.

I hope you enjoy the guide. Remember: the holidays are not only for sharing the warmth with family and friends, but also for sharing with those who have no one else to share with them. Give to your local shelters, hospitals, and so on, because that's the gift that keeps on giving.

	Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 10" Tablets are perfect platforms for playing thousands of face to face games for two to four players. Because you don't need to buy the physical components, you can stack all your games in a teeny space, the games (if not the tablet) cost very little, and you don't have to cut down old trees to make them or use fossil fuels to ship them. Tablets have their own environmental impact in their making, so that's a trade off; but if you're getting one anyway, most of the games on this list are available electronically. Nowadays, most games are also available on consoles, too.
	7 Wonders: Ages 9+, 4 to 7 players This is a game of drafting cards and building a wondrous city. You get a hand of cards; pick one and pass the rest. Everyone reveals the card they picked and puts it into their tableaux. Repeat. Done. Score points based on the combinations of cards you have at the end of all the passing. The graphics are fantastic, the theme not so visible. It's easy to learn, provides great choices, with depth enough to spare.
	Antike II: Ages 8+, 2 to 6 players Risk is a long game of laying low, with player elimination and just too much in the luck department; this game (and its predecessor but very rare and expensive Antike) is the perfect evolution to, and replacement for, Risk. It plays quicker, there's dice-less conflict, no one gets to lay low watching while others fight, and - excepting truly poor play - everyone has a chance for most of the game. There's also a lot more to the game than just conflict, but the rules are short and elegant. Other alternatives for the Risk player are Antike Duellum (for two players) and Risk Legacy (an odd game that moves in one game affect the next).
	Backgammon: Ages 6+, 2 players Backgammon is a classic game that can be enjoyed by children and parents alike. While there is a large amount of luck in the game, there are also many meaningful decisions, which makes this a good stepping stone to future games with more challenge, such as Checkers or Chess.
	Blokus, Blokus Trigon, Blokus Duo: Ages 8+, 4 players (Blokus), 2-4 players (Blokus Trigon), or 2 players (Blokus Duo) Blokus, Blokus Trigon, and Blokus Duo are abstract games with very simple rules. Each round you take a piece and place it on the board such that it touches any previous pieces you have played, but only corner to corner. It can touch other players' pieces along corners or sides. The rules are easy, the components are beautiful, and it's fun.
	Boggle: Ages 8+, 2 to 10 players Boggle is a word game, whose simple rules - find all the words you can within three minutes - make it a game that is both fun and quick. Adults can play with kids by restricting the adults to have to find words of four or five letters. The pictured version is a little quieter and less bulky than the old boxy version, and comes with a built-in electronic timer.
	Candle Quest: Ages 6+, 2 to 4 players A little plug for my own game. This is a simple set-collection auction game with a Hanukkah theme. It fits in well with the other games on the list: easy to learn, quick to play, lots of replayability. The theme makes it appropriate for all ages, and there's nothing overtly Jewish about it, other than that it's a menorah, so anyone should feel comfortable playing it. Of course, I may be biased, since I designed it.
	Carcassonne, variants, and expansions: Ages 10+, 2 to 5 players Carcassonne is a bit more complex than some of the other games here, but the beautiful pieces and the fun game play are worth the time to learn. Pick a piece from the pile, rotate and place it so that it fits on the board (like dominoes), and then optionally place one of your pieces on that tile. There are several ways to score, some of which occur during the game and some of which only at the end of the game. There are some more rules than that, but not too many more. The game play is engaging enough to make you want to play it more than once in a single sitting. There are dozens of versions to the game, and some of the versions have several expansions.
	Catan: Ages 8+, 3 to 4 players This game, formerly known as The Settlers of Catan, and Ticket to Ride, are the perfect adult games for beginning gamers. All you need to do is collect ten points through building settlements and cities, connecting roads, adding developments and trading with your fellow players. A unique board that changes each time you play, constant interaction even when it's not your turn, and a great balance of luck versus strategy makes this The Game to acquire if you still think that board games are only for kids.
	Chess / Xiangqi / Shogi: Ages 6+, 2 players These three games, Chess, XiangQi (Chinese Chess), and Shogi (Japanese Chess), are all top-tier 2-player games that can occupy a curious mind for an entire lifetime. They also have wide followings, so learning the game is learning a language that will admit you to a culture of fellow players around the world. Board and piece prices range from inexpensive to very expensive, and Chess pieces come in many different themes.
	Chinese Checkers: Ages 6+, 2 to 6 players Another great abstract, and a pretty one if you find one with nice marbles. The rules are simple: move or jump your pieces from one side to the other. Finding chains of jumps is a thrill for all ages.
	Carrom / Crokinole / Nok-Hockey / Air Hockey / Billiards / Foosball, etc.: Ages 6+, 2 players Carrom is the most played tabletop game in India. Like Billiards, the object is to knock pieces off the table area, which you do by flicking wooden disks with your fingers. Crokinole is another classic finger flicking game, as is a racing game called Pitchcar. I finally picked up Crokinole for myself this year, and it is a constant hit with my nephews and their friends. All kinetic tabletop games, from snooker to billiards to foosball, are loved by players of all ages.
	Cards: Ages 3+, 1 to any number of players Decks of cards, whether they are the well known Western type with 52 cards in 4 suits, or special European or Asian decks, are a great starting point for any number of wonderful games, including Bridge, Hearts, Skat, Cribbage, Pinochle, Oh Hell, Bullsh*t, Durak, President, Spades, Solitaire, and many others. Check out Pagat.com for the rules to these games and to thousands of others.
	Codenames: Ages 10+, 4-10 players Codenames is a new, fun game that uses words in an unusual way. Two teams, the clue givers alternate trying to give one word clues that match as many of their team's cards as possible. You must find a word that matches multiple other words, but not any of your opponent's words or the assassin's word. It's mindbending, and the game is infinitely replayable. A great game for non-gamers and gamers alike.
	Dixit: Ages 10+, 3-6 (12) players Dixit is an incredible game, especially for non-gamers. It is loved as a creative exercise: pick a card and give a word, phrase, song, dance, or any other clue to describe it, but not too perfectly. The other players try to play cards that also match your clue. You only get points if some people guess which was your card and some people don't. The fun is in the creativity of the clues, and I've yet to see a game where even the most stodgy non-gamer doesn't have fun. There are now several expansions, which are all good. This game, like many others, was inspired by Apples to Apples, another nifty game for the casual non-gamers who walk among us.
	Froggy Boogie: Ages 3-9, 2 to 4 players Froggy Boogie is a brilliant game to frustrate grownups and please younger children. All you have to do is remember where the picture of the fly is, under the left eye or the right eye? The dice have only colors - no counting necessary. It's a perfect first game.
	Go / Pente: Ages 6+, 2 players Beyond Chess, Checkers, or XiangQi is the absolute perfect game of Go (aka Weiqi); it's so popular, there are twenty-four hour television stations dedicated to it, an anime series based on it, and it's considered one of the four arts of the Chinese scholar. It really is that good, and the rules are easy, too. Best of all, a built-in handicap system allows two people of any skill levels to enjoy a challenging game against each other. You should play with the nicest board you can afford. Pente, a game of getting five stones in a row, can be played on the same board. The rules are just as easy as Go, and while the game has much less depth, it is also a little less intimidating to new players.
	Jungle Speed: Ages 8+, 3 to 8 players There are several games of speed reaction / pattern recognition on the market; I chose this one because of the components. Players flip cards in turn and grab for the totem in the middle as soon as two matching cards are revealed. Don't play with friends who have sharp nails or finger jewelry.
	Love Letter: Age 8+, 2-4 players This game has just 16 cards, but it packs a full, replayable deduction, bluffing game into 10 minutes. It's a top seller, takes 30 seconds to learn, and is challenging to play. It's not my type of game, but I'm in the minority.
	Magic the Gathering: Ages 8+, 2 players After two decades, Magic is still The Bomb when it comes to collectible card games, although Yu-Gi-Oh sells more cards. These are not easy games to learn, but quick start guides can get you off the ground fairly quickly, and then you have months and years of challenging game play ahead of you. Don't get sucked into having to buy endless amounts of boosters; to play the game outside of a tournament, you only need a few hundred common cards which can be picked up for a penny each on various sites.
	Mancala: Ages 5+, 2 players This is widely known around the world under various names (e.g. Oware), and the national game of many African countries. The rules are easy: pick up all the seeds in one of your bowls and place one in each bowl around the table. If you land on an empty space on your side, you win the seed and any seeds opposite. There are a few more rules, but that's about it. It takes a few games to get up to speed; early victories tend to be lopsided. Once you get the hang of it, you can play several, quick, challenging games in succession.
	Memory: Ages 3 to 12, 2 to 5 players This is a first game for kids and adults, and a great game for it, because kids get the hang of it very quickly and adults find it a real challenge without having to pretend. All you need are one or two decks of cards, but an infinite number of these games are sold with various different pictures and themes. You can play with more than 5 players, but I wouldn't recommend it.
	Nefarious: Ages 8+, 2 to 6 players This is a game of mad scientists that is great for 2 to 6 players, and doesn't sacrifice speed with more players. Each round, you select one of four actions. collect money from any neighbors who selected actions that your minions are invested in, perform your action, and then check to see if you won. The actions are: invest minions, play cards, take cards, or take money. The cards are fun and the game is quick and replayable, because, in each game, you play with some random twists that make that game's experience unique.
	No Thanks: Ages 7+, 3 to 5 players This is an easy to learn and addictive little card game. A card is flipped up, and you either take the card and any tokens on it or place one of your tokens on it and pass it to the next player. Cards are bad, and tokens are good. But runs of cards only penalize you for the lowest valued card. A simple and fun game.
	Pandemic / Pandemic Legacy Cooperative games used to be either very boring, very childish, or very hippy. A new breed of cooperative games are nail-bitingly challenging and fun. Pandemic is a cooperative game of saving the world from disease. Other cooperative games include Lord of the Rings, Shadows Over Camelot, and the much simpler Forbidden Island. The new Pandemic Legacy (like Risk Legacy, mentioned above), is a version that plays out: each time you play the world is permanently changed with stickers and torn cards; after dozens of plays, the game is over.
	Poker: Ages 6+, 2 to any number of players Playing for money is not a good habit, but a nice set of poker chips and some decks of cards is a great way to spend an evening. There are countless poker games, too.
	Scrabble: Ages 8+, 2 (or 2 to 4) players. Scrabble purists will tell you that you should only play with 2 players and a Chess clock, but for casual purposes it can be played with up to four. It is The word game, and for a good reason. My favorite way to play is to ditch the board and just play Anagrams: turn over tiles, and first to call a word gets it. A similar, recommended game is Bananagrams, where players race to create their own crossword boards.
	Set: Ages 6+, 2 to 10 players Those who don't have it won't enjoy it. For those who do, it hits just the right spot in the brain. All you have to do is call out matches when you see them, but the matches have to match or not match in all four characteristics.
	Stratego: Ages 6 to 15, 2 players By the time I was in my teens, I had outgrown this, but it remains a seminal game for early players, a great introductory war game with all the basic elements: strategy, tactics, and bluffing. Avoid the electronic ones; they break and they're noisy.
	Splendor: Ages 8+, 2 to 5 players The new game on this list, this is a little resource management game of taking jewels and buying trade routes (i.e. cards). The components and decisions are few and pretty, and there are a few options for strategy, but they are well balanced, making this a tight game every time. Very simple to understand, challenging to win.
	Ticket To Ride: Ages 8+, 2 to 5 players Many of my fellow bloggers think that this, rather than Catan, is The Game. I used to disagree, but I think I have come around. New players will find this a great intro game, with lots of choices and great game play. There are several editions of the game, and the 1910 expansion is recommended.
	Tichu: Ages 8+, 4 players A partnership "ladder" game, similar to the game President (sometimes known by its crude name). It's similar, but the addition of a few special cards, a partnership, and passing elevate this to a perfect game for two couples. This is THE card game in gamer circles, and it's not at all complicated.
	Time's Up: Ages 8+, 4 to 10 players This consistently ranks as the number one party game on all of my fellow bloggers' lists. It's the number one ranked party game on Board Game Geek. Which says something. It plays a lot like the parlor game Celebrities.
	Uno: Ages 6 to 12, 2 to 8 players This could be a child's second game, after Memory, and before moving on to real games. There's not much in the way of thinking involved, but its simple rules, portability, and quick play make it an ideal game for younger kids in almost any situation. Just be sure to move up to better games when the kids are ready.
	Wits and Wagers / Balderdash: Ages 8+, 4+ players These are party trivia games where knowledge of trivia is not so important. The question is asked, and each player writes down an answer. These are revealed and players then bid on the answers they think are best. The winning answer, and the winning bids, all score points. Wits and Wagers does this in the form of a poker game setting, while Balderdash requires you to make up funny possible answers. Both have won awards and acclaim as an order of magnitude better than you-know-which famous trivia game.
	Zooloretto: Ages 8+, 2 to 5 players Winner of dozens of awards, Zooloretto is a cute game for kids and decent game for adults. Simply take the animals as they are revealed from the deck and try to fit them into your zoo without overcrowding. A few extra rules and some clever mechanisms makes the game enjoyable for all ages.

Enjoy,
Yehuda