Ethical Hacking And Attacking Computer Science Essay

Ethical Hacking And barrageing Computer Science EssayIt is debatable, if hacking can be ethical or not, the term Hacking oer time has been associated with destructive activity.These ar most of the terms dropd in the context of hacking which provides better clarity, Hacker is somebody who enjoys learning hacking for a defensive spirit an ethical hacker is the protection professional who exercises his skills for a defensive purpose. The term Cracker refers to a person who uses his hacking skills for destructive purpose.The ethical question here is in regard to the physical activity of hacking which is sometimes hard to differentiate from cracking. The main difference being, Ethical hacker just identifies vulnerabilities and does not exploit them unlike a cracker.Ethical hacking is the process adopted by ethical hackers to discover the vulnerabilities existing in study arrangings operating(a) environments.With the growth of internet, computer security has become a major concern for business. Organizations need ethical hackers who can think like a cracker to simulate a real life hacking scenario they render use of same tools and techniques of that of crackers without damaging / compromising the affectionate information thereby maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of the organization.Ethical hacker should have excellent programming and ne devilrking skills. They evaluate the security of target and update the organization regarding the discovered vulnerabilities along with recommendations to mitigate them.Anatomy of a HackInitially, Hacking meant having extraordinary skills to break into the administration. However today there are lots of automated freeware tools available on internet making it possible for anybody having the desire to hack succeed in breaking into the system.These are the 5 phases both hacker must know.Figure 1 Anatomy of an AttackReconnaissanceReconnaissance is the preparatory phase where an labialiseer gathers information abo ut the target system prior to launching the set on. This phase might withal involve network scanning either internal or external without any authorization.One of the slipway for gathering information during this phase may involve Social engineering. A social engineer is a person who smooth-talks and persuades people to reveal personal / sensitive information much(prenominal) as passwords, security policies and so on Social engineering is one of the easiest ways to hack as it requires no technical skills and one of the hardest forms of attack to defend a exculpatest as humans are the weakest link in the security chain. All security measures taken care by the organization goes in ineffectual when the employees get social engineered. Detecting social engineering attacks are difficult, as there is no tool to detect such attempts, in most of the cases victim themselves are not aware having revealed sensitive information. Rebecca and Jessica are the common terms employ, which ref er to people who are easy target for social engineering attacks such as a receptionist or a sup appearance executive.Dumpster diving is another way of gathering information. It is the process of carriageing for discarded sensitive information in an organization thrash. It is one of the impelling ways of gathering information as it may provide attackers with even more sensitive information such as username, password, ATM slip, social security number, Bank statements.It is important that an organization has appropriate policies in place to protect their assets and also provide proper guidance to employees on the same.Reconnaissance technique can be classified into active and passive reconnaissance.In passive reconnaissance, the attacker does not interact with the system directly plainly uses social engineering or dumpster diving as a mean to gather information. Where as in a active reconnaissance, the attacker makes use of tools for port scanning, network scanning to get the detail s of the act, operating system etc. Often reconnaissance phase overlaps with the scanning phase.ScanningScanning precedes the unfeigned attack and is one of the important phase of information gathering where in the attacker gathers information about the targets IP address , operating system , system architecture , services running in the system in order to find mixed ways to intrude into targets system. The strategy to launch the attack is based on the gathered information. The risk of an organization is considered high in the scanning phase as it enables portal to the network.Different types of scanning arePort Scanning social function for identifying the open ports and the services running on the target system.Network Scanning -Procedure for identifying IP addresses, active hosts on a network either to attack them or as a network security assessment.Vulnerability Scanning -Automates method to identify the known vulnerabilities present in the system and the network.Some of the important tools used during this phase are Nmap which is used for port scanning it also offers a variety of advanced features such as remote OS detection.Nessus is a exposure scanner which detects the local flaws, uninstalled patches and weakness in network hosts. Nessus has a security vulnerability database which is updated on a daily basis. It carries out development of security checks for novel security holes.CEH scanning methodologyThe diagram below shows the sequence of steps followed in order to scan any network although scanning method may differ based on the objective of the attack. The Attacker starts with checking for the live systems in the network. Once he finds the live system, looks for any open port present in the system to identify the services running on it. The next phase is OS fingerprinting which is nothing but gathering operating system information about the target system. Post which the attacker scans for vulnerabilities present in the target operating syste m and exploit it. The attacker may also choose to dig into the network by making use of proxies.Figure 2 CEH Scanning MethodologyGaining AccessThis is one of the most important phases for an attack as this is where the actual attack is planted. Therefore the business risk is highest in this phase. Although not a mandatory phase as an attacker need not always gain admission charge to cause damage like in denial of service attacks.The main aim in this phase is to obtain elevated privileges such as system privilege to execute commands to access sensitive information.Maintaining AccessOnce the attacker gains access into the system or the network, he tries to retain his ownership on the compromised system and periodically attack it. Typically in this phase the attacker tries to install Key loggers to capture the keyboard strokes, sniffers to capture network traffic, rootkits at the kernel take aim to gain super user access and Trojan horse to gain repeated backdoor access, also downlo ad the password files to access the system at a later time. Once the Trojans are in place, the attacker can assume to have gained total control of the system.During this phase the attackers might even harden the system against other attackers by fixing the vulnerability which allowed them to access the system or the network.Clearing TracksThis is where the attacker tries to cover the evidence of his activities for various reasons like maintaining access or legal actions. During this phase the attacker deletes the system logs preventing the system administrator from monitoring the unusual activity, Rootkits are installed as they are effective in covering tracks and also because in some cases they disable logging.Other techniques like Steganography which is used to hide the data in a image or a file, are make used by the attacker in order to cover tracksTypical Hacking TechniquesThere are several ways an attacker can gain access into the system such asOperating system attacksApplicati on Level attacksShrink wrap code defectMisconfiguration attacksGoogle HackingGoogle Hacking is the art of creating complex search queries in order to gather information of the target system. Google is the primary tool used for Google hacking. Advanced Google operators are used to filter information.Google hacking database identifies files containing password, sensitive directories, vulnerable web pages, error messages containing sensitive information, pages containing firewall logs etcFigure 3 Google advanced search optionBasics of Google HackingBelow are some of the basic ways Google is used for hackingDirectory Listing Attack Webpage often accidentally displays files and directories that exist on the web server when top level index file is missing or invalid as directory itemisation is not taken care of. Most of the times they do not prevent users from downloading files or accessing sensitive information without authorization. Locating directory listing in Google is real straig ht forward.A query of Intitle Index.of is the universal search for directory listingFigure 4 Google hacking for Directory ListingAn attacker can make use of this information to access sensitive information of the coat.Information DisclosureError messages can disclose a lot of sensitive information about the target like the operating system, network architecture, user information etc.A query of intitle error fetched 4,070,000 resultsFigure 5 Google hacking for Information DisclosureBelow is the error message displayed by an application.Figure 6 Error message displayed from Google hacking queryThe error message reveals sensitive information about the target system such as the application is built in asp.net, IIS 4.0, MYSQL database. An attacker can now launch attacks that are vulnerable to these technologies.Sensitive InformationHere are some of the Google search syntaxs to sneak for Sensitive information such as passwordsfiletype xls inurl password.xls -Looks for username and passw ord in ms excel format.intitle Index of master.passwd -index the master password pageindex of / disdain- Looks for the index backup file on server)intitle index.of passwd.bak Looks for the index backup password files.intitle Index of pwd.db- Looks for database password filesinurl user.xls intext password- Looks for url that save username and passwords in spread sheet filesSite Digger, which explores Googles cache to look for susceptibilities ,errors, security loopholes on website and Gooscan which automates queries against Google search engine are some of the other tools used for Google hacking.Certified Ethical Hacker Certification Course (CEH)CEH is the professional certification provided by the international council E-Commerce consultants (EC-Council).Figure 6 CEH ProcessApart from EC council, there are other certified hacking course taken by some well known Hackers like Ankit Fadia Certified Ethical Hacker (AFCEH) and also some other vendors like karROX Certified Ethical Hack er Course.Ethical Hacking functionAs part of ethical hacking services, Penetration testing which is nothing but creating a real life hacking scenario and trying to break into the system is offered by various vendors. Different tools, technique and methodologies are used to gain entry into that application. The service offered could be either a black box testing (where only the application URL is given) or a grey box testing (where a dummy user account with least privilege is created for the pen testers).Penetration testing bequeath be carried over by a team of dedicated ethical hackers.Some of the key benefits of penetration testing areFind security loopholes which cannot be found through functional testing.Identify business logic flaws which cannot be detected by Code Review.Real world simulation of hacking thereby reveal soft targets for possible attacks.Meet Regulatory Compliance like PCI, HIPAA, GLBA and ISO regulatory compliance.Reduction in web application development secur ity flaws.Development of effective mitigation strategies based on your specific environmentThe Pen test report provides recommended remediations for the identified attack.Follows the industry standards for security such as OWASP TOP 10 and SANS 25.Commercial tools like Cenzic, Acunetix, and IBM Rational Appscan are some of the widely used tools for Pen Test.Social Engineering Testing is offered as complementary service by some vendors which tests the organizations human firewall by gaining access to an organization and its assets by tricking key personnel over communications medium such as telephone, email, chat, bulletin boards, etc.AcknowledgementVikram Related Knowledge Briefs or ReferencesHave to check.SummaryIn recent times Web applications are the target of various forms of attacks. check to a Gartner report 70% of the security attacks are targeted on the web application. Competition is so high that enterprises cant ignore the risk associated with their vulnerable application . freeing incurred could vary from monetary losses to loss of credibility. In certain cases it could mean end of business. You cannot stop an attacker from hacking, the only thing you can do is make it harder to get in.Ethical hackers are the security professionals who use their hacking skills for defensive purpose. The process of ethical hacking would depend on, what is that organization is trying to protect, against whom and how much or resources the organization is falsify to spend. The hacking tools are meant for research and educational purpose only and should not be used for destructive purpose.Your Name then enter a short two or three line biography, including your BU/practice and location.Was the information contained in this Knowledge Brief useful? We strive to improve our content by continuously cultivation it. 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