Network Security Threats, Vulnerabilities & Attacks

Network Security Threats, Vulnerabilities & Attacks

1. 1. Essential Terminologies

   • Threat
     • an action that can compromise security
   • Vulnerability
     • a weakness in a design or implementation
   • Attack
     • an assault on a system
   • 3. Types of Network Vulnerabilities
     • 1. Technologies
       • TCP | IP
         • HTTP, FTP, ICMP, SNMP, SMTP
       • OS
         • inherently insecure & un-patched
       • Network Decvies
         • Lack of password protection, authentication, insecure routing protocols
     • 2. Configurations
       • Users
         • Insecure transmission of user account details
       • Systems
         • setting weak passwords to system accounts
       • Internet Services
         • enabling javascript, IIS, FTP
       • Default password & settings
       • Network device misconfigurations
     • 3. Security Policy
       • unwritten
       • lack of quality implementing security policies
       • politics
       • security policy unawareness
     • 4. Types of Network Attacks
       • 1. Reconnaissance
         • discover all possible info about the organisation
           • active
           • passive
         • 1. ICMP
           • NMAP
             • ICMP ECHO request - detects live hosts in a network
         • 2. DNS Footprinting
           • reveals DNS Zones that contain domain names, IPs, computer names, etc
         • 3. Port Scanning
           • NMAP
             • finds open ports & services
           • NetScan
           • SuperScan
         • 4. Social Engineering
           • non-technical intrusion, by tricking humans in revealing info
       • 2. Access
         • 1. Password
           • 1. Dictionary
             • Dictionary file is loaded into the cracking application
           • 2. Brute Force
             • every combination of characters
           • 3. Hybrid
             • Similar to dictionary but adds numbers and symbols
           • 4. Birthday
             • attacks cryptographic hash function
           • 5. Rainbow
             • rainbow table that stores precomputed hash values
         • 2. Network Sniffing
           • Monitoring and capturing data packets
         • 3. Man in the Middle
           • intrudes between two systems to intercept the messages being exchanged
         • 4. Replay
           • gains the token used for validating the user and then replays the token to the server
         • 5. Privilege Escalation
         • 6. DNS Poisioning
           • user gets misdirected to a fake website by providing fake data to the DNS server
         • 7. DNS Cache Poisoning
           • altering or adding forged DNS records into the DNS resolver cache
         • 8. ARP Poisioning
           • attacker associates their own MAC with the victim's by overloading the switch with forged entries
         • 9. DHCP Starvation
           • requesting the DHCP server with fake requests and utilizing all the available IP addresses
         • 10. DHCP Spoofing
           • rogue server acts as a valid server
         • 11. Switch Port Stealing
           • steals the IP and MAC of the victim
       • 3. DoS
         • makes resources unavailable for genuine users by sending a large number of service requests
         • DDoS
           • multitude of compromised systems attacking a single target
       • 4. Malware
         • 1. Virus
           • a self replicating program attached to another program
         • 2. Trojan
           • harmful code hidden inside a useful software
         • 3. Adware
           • a software that trackers the user's browsing patterns
         • 4. Spyware
           • software the extracts users info
         • 5. Rootkits
           • designed to provide continued privileged access to a computer
         • 6. Backdoors
           • allows to bypass the authentication checks
         • 7. Logic Bombs
           • triggers when a action occurs

2. 2. Types of Network Threats

   • Internal
     • External
       • Unstructured
         • Structured
           • highly skilled individuals
         • Inexperienced individuals
       • Individuals who don't have direct access
     • employees