Ways in Which One Can Do a Recon on a System to Identify Its Vulnerabilities - Paper Example

In order to safeguard the security of a network, one needs to conduct a detailed and high-quality recon on the network. There are different ways of doing the recon. One is through checking for open Ports in the network. As well, one should check for unpatched software or un-updated operating systems. A full network scan comes in handy in securing the network, as the network will identify all hardware connected to it since even hardware cab also gives attackers weak-points of the system.

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The Strategies for Attack.

Eavesdropping: An Illegal Person gains entry to places where the date is within the network, by accessing of deriving meaning to information in transit, through either sniffing or snooping.

Data Modification: This is the changing of information by an attacker after they have gained access to the data without the knowledge of the sender of the receiver if the attacker gains access through eavesdropping.

Identity Spoofing: Through this, the attacker constructs packets of IP addresses through the use of special software, and use this IP addresses t access data for the company.

Attacking through Passwords: This is the access if the network by identifying and using valid user accounts, and passwords by unauthorized people, who after they get into the system, as when they get into the system, they can do any kind of damage in within the system.

Denial-of-Service Attack: This is the prevention of normal, users to have access to computer networks and resources.

Sniffer Attack: A sniffer is a software or a hardware device that accesses, monitors, and records, data exchanges, as well as reading packets in the networks while providing a full view of the contents of the packets if they have not been put into any form of encryption. An attacker can use it to gain information through an analysis of the network

An attack at the Application-Layer: This kind of an attack mainly targets that host's applications by causing errors and faults in the servers operating systems or applications.

Man-in-the-Middle Attack: This occurs when there is someone in between the sender of some information or data and the recipient. The one in the middle records and controls the communication.

What am I after?

The system is after securing all the resources in the network, which includes all hardware, software, and data. This, therefore, means that attacks will be conducted aimed at any of these resources, and hence, care opts to be taken to safeguard them.

What I hope to gain:

In the network, we hope to gain full control of the resources, as we maintain the integrity of the data and the security of the data and information resources in the system.

Doing more than one attack.

It is possible to do more than one attack, considering that there is a different node in the network system, an attacker can take advantage of the many nodes in the network from which there can be more vulnerabilities. As well, the many users of the system provide more chances of the system being attacked.

Short Term Strategy

For the firms network to remain secure, there need to be continuous activities being carried out. IN the short term, then the admin needs to keep manual updates of the operating systems. This will help keep the network clean and safe from intruders and malicious attackers and software like viruses.

The admin also needs to keep patching of all the software in use, like the Microsoft products. This is to be done manually, by searching for product patches and creating them in the products.

Long Term Strategy

With the provided infrastructure, there is a need for a long-term strategy. The network admin needs to set things in a way that the network can be more durable, and safer. There is need to implement an automated intrusion Detection System. This will help in monitoring and assess the malicious access to the networks infrastructure.

One can also implement an Audit trail for the entire system. This will help in identifying how well the objectives of the system are being achieved, hence helps the system admins to know when the network is weak, and the vulnerable.

For the firms network to remain secure, there need to be continuous activities being carried out. IN the short term, then admin need to keep manual updates n=f the operating systems. This will help keep the network clean and safe from intruders and malicious attackers and software like viruses.

The admin also needs to keep patching of all the software in use, like the Microsoft products. This is to be done manually, by searching for product patches and creating them in the products.

Since this is a private network, there is no need for any nefarious groups for use in checking and enforcing security to the network.

Software tools to help.

There will be the use of particular software tools to help in maintaining the network.

This includes the Antiviruses, like AVG, The implementation of an Intrusion Detection System, or the implementation of firewalls.

Hardware tools to help.

For control and security, there could be the use of hardware items like routers. The routers will be used to control the access to the World Wide Web. This will control the sites which the users of the network can access the World Wide Web. This will prevent the intrusion of the network by attackers.

Switches as well also help in maintaining. Accessing the network through a port in the switch should be secured, or restricted to help in avoiding only the disallowed users from accessing the network resources.

Server security is also to be enforced. This is the use of security control measures that restricts the use of servers and the access to the server resources only to the people with such privileges and authority.

Types of attacks.

While pursuing of identifying vulnerabilities in the network, it is more paramount to first identify the different types of attacks that are there, and the ones that the network is exposed to since they are many, and of different kinds. It is also recommended that one knows the manner in which exploitation is implemented. In every weakness of the system, it is recommended that one learns them and gets a clear concept of them, in order for one to be able to move about with ease within the system while looking for bugs.

Possible vulnerabilities, and Threats.

Injection attacks)

Broken authentication and Session Management -.

Cross Site Scripting - private messages and more.

Insecure Direct Object References - Attack that exposes a reference to an internal reference object such as a file, database key or directory without secure validation of the user.

Security Misconfiguration: this allows an attacker to have unauthorized access to default accounts set with their default passwords, unused web pages, unpatched flaws, unprotected files and directories and more.

Dangers that disclose the reference to an internal reference object like files, databases or other resources without user security validation.

Inappropriate configuration of security controls and infrastructure, which gives way to attackers to access accounts in the system without the necessary system authority

The disclosure of secure and sensitive data if it is not encrypted. This may lead to sniffing.

Missing Function Level Access Control

Cross-Site request Forgery - An attack that exploits the trust that a website has for a user, performing an action on the website as the victim.

Using Known Vulnerable Components

Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards (Open Redirect): this gives way to attackers to take users to untrusted sites through links that are or untrusted sites.

Hacking by the people with required skills and competence in Information technology.

How successful the plan is, and justification.

This plan is largely successful as the firm enforced stringent security measures. The security are controls, are automated, while other processes are going on their own,

References

Kissel, Z. A., and Wang, J., (2015). Introduction to network design: Theory and practice. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

MacCallum, D., Huang, S. C.-H., and Du, D. (2015). Network security. New York: Springer.

Tauber, D. and Shaul, L., and (2013). Critical success factors in enterprise resource planning systems: Review of the last decade. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 45(4), 55.