Unit - II Tools and methods used in Cyber Crime Network attack incidents reveal

that attackers are often very systematic in launching their attacks. The basic
stages of an attack are described here to understand how an attacker can compromise
a network here 1.Initial Uncovering 2.Network probe 3.Crossing the line toward
electronic crime (E-crime) 4.Capturing the network 5.Grab the data 6.Covering
tracks 1.Initial Uncovering Two steps are involved here. In the first step called
as reconnaissance, the attacker gathers information, as much as possible, about the
target by legitimate means - searching the information about the target on the
Internet by Googling social networking websites and people finder websites.
2.Network probe At the network probe stage, the attacker uses more invasive
techniques to scan the information. Usually, a "ping sweep" of the network IP
addresses is performed to seek out potential targets, and then a "port scanning"
tool. 3.Crossing the line toward electronic crime (E-crime) Now the attacker is
toward committing what is technically a "computer crime." He/she does this by
exploiting possible holes on the target system. 4.Capturing the network At this
stage, the attacker attempts to "own" the network. The attacker gains a foothold in
the internal network quickly and easily, by compromising low-priority target
systems. The next step is to remove any evidence of the attack. 5.Grab the data:
Now that the attacker has "captured the network" he/she takes advantage of his/her
position to steal confidential data, customer credit card information, deface web-
pages, alter processes and even launch attacks at other sites from your network,
causing a potentially expensive and embarrassing situation for an individual and/or
for an organization. 6.Covering tracks This is the last step in any cyber-attack,
which refers to the activities undertaken by the attacker to extend misuse of the
system without being detected. Proxy Servers and Anonymizers Proxy server is a
computer on a network which acts as an intermediary for connections with other
computers on that network. The attacker first connects to a proxy server and
establishes a connection with the target system through existing connection with
proxy. A proxy server has following purposes:
1.Keep the systems behind the curtain (mainly for security reasons). 2.Speed up
access to a resource (through "caching"). It is usually used to cache the web-
pages from a web server. 3.Specialized proxy servers are used to filter unwanted
content such as advertisements. 4.Proxy server can be used as IP address
multiplexer to enable to connect number of computers on the Internet, whenever one
has only one IP address One of the advantages of a proxy server is that its cache
memory can serve all users. If one or more websites are requested frequently, may
be by different users, it is likely to be in the proxy's cache memory, which will
improve user response time. In fact there are special servers available known as
cache servers? A proxy can also do logging. Listed are few websites where free
proxy servers can be found: 1.http://www.proxy4free.com
2.http://www.publicproxyservers.com 3.http://www.proxz.com
4.http://www.anonymitychecker.com 5.http://www.surf24h.com
6.http://www.hidemyass.com An Anonymizers or an anonymous proxy is a tool that
attempts to make activity on the Internet untraceable. It accesses the Internet on
the user's behalf, protecting personal information by hiding the source computer's
identifying information. Listed are few websites where more information about
Anonymizers can be found: 1.http://www.anonymizer.com 2.http://www.browzar.com
3.http://www.anonymize.net 4.http://www.anonymouse.ws
5.http://www.anonymousindex.com Phishing Password Cracking While checking
electronic mail (E-Mail) one day a user finds a message from the bank threatening
him/her to close the bank account if he/ she does not reply immediately. Although
the message seems to be suspicious from the contents of the message, it is
difficult to conclude that it is a fake/false E- Mail. It is believed that Phishing
is an alternative spelling of "fishing," as in "to fish for information." The first
documented use of the word "Phishing" was in 1996. 1. How Phishing Works? Phishers
work in the following ways 1.Planning: Criminals, usually called as phishers,
decide the target and determine how to get E-Mail address of that target or
customers of that business. Phishers often use mass mailing and address collection
techniques as spammers.
2.Setup: Once phishers know which business/business house to spoof and who their
victims are, they will create methods for delivering the message and to collect the
data about the target. Most often this involves E-Mail addresses and a webpage.
3.Attack: This is the step people are most familiar with the phisher sends a phony
message that appears to be from a reputable source. 4.Collection: Phishers record
the information of victims entering into webpages or pop-up windows. 5.Identity
theft and fraud: Phishers use the information that they have gathered to make
illegal purchases or commit fraud. Phishing started off as being part of popular
hacking culture. Nowadays, more and more organizations/institutes provide greater
online access for their customers and hence criminals are successfully using
Phishing techniques to steal personal information and conduct ID theft at a global
level. We have explained Phishing and Identity theft. 2. Password Cracking Password
is like a key to get an entry into computerized systems like a lock. Password
cracking is a process of recovering passwords from data that have been stored in or
transmitted by a computer system. The purpose of password cracking is as follows:
1.To recover a forgotten password. 2.As a preventive measure by system
administrators to check for easily crackable passwords. 3.To gain unauthorized
access to a system. Manual password cracking is to attempt to logon with different
passwords. The attacker follows the following steps 1.Find a valid user account
such as an administrator or guest; 2.Create a list of possible passwords; 3.Rank
the passwords from high to low probability; 4.Key-in each password; 5.Try again
until a successful password is found. Passwords can be guessed sometimes with
knowledge of the user's personal information: 1.Blank (none); 2.The words like
"password," "passcode" and "admin"; 3.Series of letters from the "qwerty" keyboard,
for example, qwerty, asdf or qwertyuiop. 4.User's name or login name; 5.Name of
user's friend/relative/pet; 6.User's birthplace or date of birth, or a relative's
or a friend's; 7.User's vehicle number, office number, residence number or mobile
number; 8.Name of a celebrity who is considered to be an idol by the user; 9.Simple
modification of one of the preceding, such as suffixing a digit, particularly 1, or
reversing the order of letters.
Online Attacks An attacker can create a script file (i.e., automated program) that
will be executed to try each password in a list and when matches, an attacker can
gain the access to the system. The most popular online attack is man-in-the middle
(MITM) attack, also termed as "bucket-brigade attack" or sometimes "Janus attack."
Offline Attacks Mostly offline attacks are performed from a location other than the
target (i.e., either a computer system or while on the network) where these
passwords reside or are used. Strong, Weak and Random Passwords A weak password is
one, which could be easily guessed, short, common and a system default password
that could be easily found by executing a brute force attack and by using a subset
of all possible passwords. Here are some of the examples of "weak passwords":
1.Susan: Common personal name; 2.aaaa: repeated letters, can be guessed; 3.rover:
common name for a pet, also a dictionary word; 4.abc123: can be easily guessed;
5.admin: can be easily guessed; 6.1234: can be easily guessed; 7.QWERTY: a sequence
of adjacent letters on many keyboards; 8.12/3/75: date, possibly of personal
importance; 9.nbusr123: probably a username, and if so, can be very easily guessed;
10.p@$$\/\/0rd: simple letter substitutions are preprogrammed into password
cracking tools; 11.password: used very often - trivially guessed; 12.December12:
using the date of a forced password change is very common. Here are some examples
of strong passwords: 1. Convert_£100 to Euros!: Such phrases are long, memorable
and contain an extended symbol to increase the strength of the password. 2.
382465304H: It is mix of numbers and a letter at the end, usually used on mass user
accounts and such passwords can be generated randomly. 3. 4pRte!ai@3: It is not a
dictionary word; however it has cases of alpha along with numeric and punctuation
characters. 4. MoOoOfIn245679: It is long with both alphabets and numerals. 5.
t3wahSetyeT4: It is not a dictionary word; however, it has both alphabets and
numerals. Random Passwords We have explained in the previous section how most
secure passwords are long with random strings of characters and how such passwords
are generally most difficult to remember. Password is stronger if it includes a mix
of upper and lower case letters, numbers and other symbols, when allowed, for the
same number of characters.
The general guidelines applicable to the password policies, which can be
implemented organization-wide, are as follows: 1.Passwords and user logon
identities (IDs) should be unique to each authorized user. 2.Passwords should
consist of a minimum of eight alphanumeric characters. 3.There should be computer-
controlled lists of prescribed password rules and periodic testing to identify any
password weaknesses. 4.Passwords should be kept private, that is, not shared with
friends, colleagues. 5.Passwords shall be changed every 30/45 days or less. 6.User
accounts should be frozen after five failed logon attempts. 7.Sessions should be
suspended after 15 minutes (or other specified period) of inactivity and require
the passwords to be re-entered. 8.Successful logons should display the date and
time of the last logon and logoff. 9.Logon IDs and passwords should be suspended
after a specified period of non-use. 10. For high-risk systems, after excessive
violations, the system should generate an alarm and be able to simulate a
continuing session (with dummy data) for the failed user. Keyloggers and Spywares
Keystroke logging, often called keylogging, is the practice of noting (or logging)
the keys struck on a keyboard, typically in a covert manner so that the person
using the keyboard is unaware that such actions are being monitored. 1. Software
Keyloggers Software keyloggers are software programs installed on the computer
systems which usually arelocatedbetweenthe OSandthekeyboardhardware,
andeverykeystrokeisrecorded. SC-KeyLog PRO It allows to secretly record computer
user activities such as E-Mails, chat conversations, visited websites, clipboard
usage, etc. in a protected log file. Spytech SpyAgent Stealth It provides a large
variety of essential computer monitoring features as well as website and
application filtering, chat blocking and remote delivery of logs via E-Mail or FTP.
All in one Keylogger It is an invisible keystrokes recorder and a spy software tool
that registers every activity on the PC to encrypted logs. Stealth Keylogger
Perfect Keylogger KGB Spy Spy Buddy Elite Keylogger CyberSpy Powered Keylogger 2.
Hardware Keyloggers
To install these keyloggers, physical access to the computer system is required.
Hardware keyloggers are small hardware devices. Listed are few websites where more
information about hardware keyloggers can be found: 1.http://www.keyghost.com
2.http://www.keelog.com 3.http://www.keydevil.com 4.http://www.keykatcher.com 3.
Antikeylogger Antikeylogger is a tool that can detect the keylogger installed on
the computer system and also can remove the tool. Visit http://www.anti-
keyloggers.com for more information. Advantages of using Antikeylogger are as
follows: 1.Firewalls cannot detect the installations of keyloggers on the systems;
hence, Antikeylogger can detect installations of keylogger. 2.This software does
not require regular updates of signature bases to work effectively such as other
antivirus and antispy programs.. 3.Prevents Internet banking frauds. Passwords can
be easily gained with the help of installing keyloggers. 4.It prevents ID theft (we
will discuss it more in Chapter 5). 5.It secures E-Mail and instant
messaging/chatting. Spywares Spyware is a type of malware that is installed on
computers which collects information about users without their knowledge. The
features and functions of such Spywares are beyond simple monitoring. 1. 007 Spy:
It has following key features: •Capability of overriding "antispy" programs like
"ad-aware"; •Record all websites url visited in internet; •Powerful keylogger
engine to capture all passwords; •View logs remotely from anywhere at any time;
•Export log report in html format to view it in the browser; •Automatically clean-
up on outdated logs; •Password protection. 2. Spector Pro: It has following key
features: •Captures and reviews all chats and instant messages; •captures E-Mails
(read, sent and received); •captures websites visited; •captures activities
performed on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook; •enables to
block any particular website and/or chatting with anyone; •acts as a keylogger to
capture every single keystroke (including usernames and passwords).
3. eBlaster: Besides keylogger and website watcher, it also records E-Mails sent
and received, files uploaded/downloaded, logging users' activities, record online
searches, recording Myspace and Facebook activities and anyother program activity.
4. Remotespy: Besides remote computer monitoring, silently and invisibly, it also
monitors and records users' PC without any need for physical access. Moreover, it
records keystrokes (keylogger), screenshots, E-Mail, passwords, chats, instant
messenger conversations and websites visited. 5. Stealth Recorder Pro: It is a new
type of utility that enables to record a variety of sounds and transfer them
automatically through Internet without being notified by original location or
source. It has following features: •Real-time mp3 recording via microphone, cd,
line-in and stereo mixer as mp3, wma or wav formatted files; •Transferring via e-
mail or ftp, the recorded files to a user-defined e-mail address or ftp
automatically; •Controlling from a remote location; •Voice mail, records and sends
the voice messages. 6. Stealth Website Logger: It records all accessed websites and
a detailed report can be available on a specified E-Mail address. It has following
key features: Monitor visited websites; Reports sent to an E-Mail address; Daily
log; Global log for a specified period; Log deletion after a specified period;
Hotkey and password protection; Not visible in add/remove programs or task
manager. 7. Flexispy: It is a tool that can be installed on a cell/mobile phone.
After installation, Flexispy secretly records coversation that happens on the phone
and sends this information to a specified E-Mail address. 8. Wiretap Professional:
It is an application for monitoring and capturing all activities on the system. It
can capture the entire Internet activity. ftis spy software can monitor and record
E- Mail, chat messages and websites visited. In addition, it helps in monitoring
and recording of keystrokes, passwords entered and all documents, pictures and
folders viewed. 9. PC Phone Home: It is a software that tracks and locates lost or
stolen laptop and desktop computers. Every time a computer system on which PC Phone
Home has been installed, connected to the Internet, a stealth E-Mail is sent to a
specified E-Mail address of the user's choice. 10. SpyArsenal Print Monitor Pro: It
has following features: •Keep track on a printer/plotter usage; •record every
document printed; •find out who and when certain paper printed with your hardware.
Virus and Worms Computer virus is a program that can "infect" legitimate programs
by modifying them to include a possibly "evolved" copy of itself. Viruses spread
themselves, without the knowledge or permission of the users, to potentially large
numbers of programs on many machines. Viruses can take some typical actions:
1.Display a message to prompt an action which may set of the virus; 2.Delete files
inside the system into which viruses enter; 3.Scramble data on a hard disk; 4.Cause
erratic screen behavior; 5.Halt the system (PC); 6.Just replicate themselves to
propagate further harm. E Explain how viruses spread (a) Through the internet, (b)
Through a stand-alone computer system and (c) Through local networks.Types of
Viruses Computer viruses can be categorized based on attacks on various elements of
the system and can put the system and personal data on the system in danger. 1.Boot
sector viruses: It infects the storage media on which OS is stored (e.g., floppy
diskettes and hard drives) and which is used to start the computer system. The
entire data/programs are stored on the floppy disks and hard drives in smaller
sections called sectors.. 2.Program viruses: These viruses become active when the
program file (usually with extensions .bin, .com, .exe, .ovl, .drv) is executed
(i.e., opened - program is started). Once these program files get infected, the
virus makes copies of itself and infects the other programs on the computer system.
3.Multipartite viruses: It is a hybrid of a boot sector and program viruses. It
infects program files along with the boot record when the infected program is
active. 4.Stealth viruses: It camouflages and/or masks itself and so detecting this
type of virus is very difficult. It can disguise itself such a way that antivirus
software also cannot detect it thereby preventing spreading into the computer
system. 5.Polymorphicviruses: It acts like a "chameleon" that changesits virus
signature (i.e., binary pattern) every time it spreads through the system (i.e.,
multiplies and infects a new file). 6.Macro viruses: Many applications, such as
Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, support MACROs (i.e., macro languages). These
macros are programmed as a macro embedded in a document. 7.Active X and Java
Control: All the web browsers have settings about Active X and Java Controls.
Little awareness is needed about managing and controlling these settings of a web
browser. A typical definition of computer virus/worms might have various aspects
such as: 1.A virus attacks specific file types (or files). 2.A virus manipulates a
program to execute tasks unintentionally. 3.An infected program produces more
viruses. 4.An infected program may run without error for a long time. 5.Viruses can
modify themselves and may possibly escape detection this way. Trojan Horses and
Backdoors Trojan Horse is a program in which malicious or harmful code is contained
inside apparently harmless programming or data in such a way that it can get
control and cause harm, for example, ruining the file allocation table on the hard
disk. ATrojan Horse mayget widelyredistributed as part of a computer virus. The
term Trojan Horse comes from Greek mythology about the Trojan War. Some typical
examples of threats by Trojans are as follows 1.They erase, overwrite or corrupt
data on a computer. 2.They help to spread other malware such as viruses (by a
dropper Trojan).
3.They deactivate or interfere with antivirus and firewall programs. 4.They allow
remote access to your computer (by a remote access Trojan). 5.They upload and
download files without your knowledge. 6.They gather E-Mail addresses and use them
for Spam. 7.They log keystrokes to steal information such as passwords and credit
card numbers. 8.They copy fake links to false websites, display porno sites, play
sounds/videos and display images. 9.They slow down, restart or shutdown the system.
10. They reinstall themselves after being disabled. 11. They disable the task
manager. 12. They disable the control panel. Backdoor A backdoor is a means of
access to a computer program that bypasses security mechanisms. A programmer may
sometimes install a backdoor so that the program can be accessed for
troubleshooting or other purposes. Following are a few examples of backdoor
Trojans: 1.Back Orifice: It is a well-known example of backdoor Trojan designed for
remote system administration. It enables a user to control a computer running the
Microsoft Windows OS from a remote location. The name is a word play on Microsoft
BackOffice Server software. Readers may visit
http://www.cultdeadcow.com/tools/bo.html to know more about backdoor. 2.Bifrost: It
is another backdoor Trojan that can infect Windows 95 through Vista. It uses the
typical server, server builder and client backdoor program configuration to allow a
remote attacker, who uses client, to execute arbitrary code on the compromised
machine. 3.SAP backdoors: SAP is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and
nowadays ERP is the heart of the business technological platform. These systems
handle the key business processes of the organization, such as procurement,
invoicing, human resources management, billing, stock management and financial
planning. 4.Onapsis Bizploit: It is the open-source ERP penetration testing
framework developed by the Onapsis Research Labs. Bizploit assists security
professionals in the discovery, exploration, vulnerability assessment and
exploitation phases of specialized ERP penetration tests. Readers may visit
http://www.onapsis.com/research.html to know more about this tool. How to Protect
from Trojan Horses and Backdoors Follow the following steps to protect your systems
from Trojan Horses and backdoors: 1.Stay away from suspect websites/weblinks: Avoid
downloading free/pirated software's that often get infected by Trojans, worms,
viruses and other things. 2.Surf on the Web cautiously: Avoid connecting with
and/or downloading any information from peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, which are most
dangerous networks to spread Trojan Horses and other threats.
3.It may be experienced that, after downloading the file, it never works and here
is a threat that although the file has not worked, something must have happened to
the system the malicious software deploys its gizmos and the system is at serious
health risk. 4.Install antivirus/Trojan remover software: Nowadays antivirus
software(s) have built-in feature for protecting the system not only from viruses
and worms but also from malware such as Trojan Horses. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Networks
Peer-to-peer, commonly abbreviated as P2P, is any distributed network architecture
composed of participants that make a portion of their resources. 1.Hybrid P2P:
There is a central server that keeps information about the network. The peers are
responsible for storing the information. 2.Pure P2P: There is absolutely no central
server or router. Each peer acts as both client and server at the same time. This
is also sometimes referred to as "serverless" P2P. 3.Mixed P2P: It is between
"hybrid" and "pure" P2P networks. An example of such a network is Gnutella that has
no central server but clusters its nodes around so-called "supernodes."
Steganography Steganography is a Greek word that means "sheltered writing." It is a
method that attempts to hide the existence of a message or communication. The word
"steganography" comes from the two Greek words: steganos meaning "covered" and
graphein meaning "to write" that means "concealed writing." Fig: How steganography
works. 1. Steganography tools DiSi-Steganograph It is a very small, DOS-based
steganographic program that embeds data in PCX images. Invisible Folders It has the
ability to make any file or folder invisible to anyone using your PC even on a
network. Invisible Secrets
It not only encrypts the data and files for safe-keeping or for secure transfer
across the Net but also hides them in places such as picture or sound files or
webpages. These types of files are a perfect disguise for sensitive information.
Stealth Files It hides any type of file in almost any other type of file. Using
steganography technique, Stealth Files compresses, encrypts and then hides any type
of file inside various types of files (including EXE, DLL, OCX, COM, JPG, GIF, ART,
MP3, AVI, WAV, DOC, and BMP) and other types of video, image and executable files.
2. Steganalysis Steganalysis is the art and science of detecting messages that are
hidden in images, audio/video files using steganography. The goal of steganalysis
is to identify suspected packages and to determine whether or not they have a
payload encoded into them, and if possible recover it. Automated tools are used to
detect such steganographed data/information hidden in the image and audio and/or
video files. SQL Injection Structured Query Language (SQL) is a database computer
language designed for managing data in relational database management systems
(RDBMS). SQL injection is a code injection technique that exploits a security
vulnerability occurring in the database layer of an application. The vulnerability
is present when user input is either filtered incorrectly for string literal escape
characters embedded in SQL statements or user input is not strongly typed and
thereby unexpectedly executed. It is an instance of a more general class of
vulnerabilities that can occur whenever one programming or scripting language is
embedded inside another. SQL injection attacks are also known as SQL insertion
attacks 1. Steps for SQL Injection Attack Following are some steps for SQL
injection attack: 1.The attacker looks for the webpages that allow submitting data,
that is, login page, search page, feedback, etc. 2.To check the source code of any
website, right click on the webpage and click on "view source" (if you are using IE
- Internet Explorer) - source code is displayed in the notepad. The attacker checks
the source code of the HTML, and look for "FORM" tag in the HTML code. Everything
between the <FORM< and </FORM> have potential parameters that might be useful to
find the vulnerabilities. <FORM action=Search/search.asp method=post> <input
type=hidden name=A value=C></FORM> 3.The attacker inputs a single quote under the
text box provided on the webpage to accept the user- name and password. This checks
whether the user-input variable is sanitized or interpreted literally by the
server.
4.The attacker uses SQL commands such as SELECT statement command to retrieve data
from the database or INSERT statement to add information to the database. 2. Blind
SQL Injection Blind SQL injection is used when a web application is vulnerable to
an SQL injection but the results of the injection are not visible to the attacker.
The page with the vulnerability may not be the one that displays data. Using SQL
injections, attackers can: 1.Obtain some basic information if the purpose of the
attack is reconnaissance. 2.May gain access to the database by obtaining username
and their password. 3.Add new data to the database. 4.Modify data currently in the
database. 3. Tools used for SQL Server penetration 1.AppDetectivePro 2.DbProtect
3.Database Scanner 4.SQLPoke 5.NGSSQLCrack 6.Microsoft SQL Server Fingerprint
(MSSQLFP) Tool 4. How to Prevent SQL Injection Attacks SQL injection attacks occur
due to poor website administration and coding. fte following steps can be taken to
prevent SQL injection. 1.Input validation 2.Modify error reports 3.Other
preventions Buffer Overflow Buffer overflow, or buffer overrun, is an anomaly where
a process stores data in a buffer outside the memory the programmer has set aside
for it. The extra data overwrites adjacent memory, which may contain other data,
including program variables and program flow control data. This may result in
erratic program behavior, including memory access errors, incorrect results,
program termination (a crash) or a breach of system security. In C and C++, there
are no automatic bounds checking on the buffer - which means a user can write past
a buffer. For example, int main () { int buffer[10]; buffer[20] = 10;
} Types of Buffer Overflow 1. Stack-Based Buffer Overflow 1.Stack buffer overflow
occurs when a program writes to a memory address on the program's call stack out-
side the intended data structure usually a fixed length buffer. 2."Stack" is a
memory space in which automatic variables are allocated. 3.Function parameters are
allocated on the stack and are not automatically initialized by the system, so they
usually have garbage in them until they are initialized. 4.Once a function has
completed its cycle, the reference to the variable in the stack is removed. 5.The
attacker may exploit stack-based buffer overflows to manipulate the program in
various ways by overwriting: 1.A local variable that is near the buffer in memory
on the stack to change the behavior of the program that may benefit the attacker.
2.The return address in a stack frame. Once the function returns, execution will
resume at the return address as specified by the attacker, usually a user input-
filled buffer. 3.A function pointer, or exception handler, which is subsequently
executed. The factors that contribute to overcome the exploits are 1.Null bytes in
addresses. 2.Variability in the location of shell code. 3.Differences between
environments. 2. NOPs NOP or NOOP (short form of no peration or no operation
performed) is an assembly language instruction/ command that effectively does
nothing at all. 3. Heap Buffer Overflow Heap buffer overflow occurs in the heap
data area and may be introduced accidentally by an application programmer, or it
may result from a deliberate exploit. In either case, the overflow occurs when an
application copies more data into a buffer than the buffer was designed to contain.
The characteristics of stack-based and heap-based programming are as follows:
1."Heap" is a "free store" that is a memory space, where dynamic objects are
allocated. 2.The heap is the memory space that is dynamically allocated new(),
malloc() and calloc() functions. 3.Dynamically created variables are created on the
heap before the execution program is initialized to zeros and are stored in the
memory until the life cycle of the object has completed. How to Minimize Buffer
Overflow Although it is difficult to prevent all possible attacks, the following
methods will definitely help to minimize such attacks: 1.Assessment of secure code
manually 2.Disable stack execution
3.Compilertools Attacks on Wireless Networks Even when people travel, they still
need to work. Thus, work seems to be moving out of the traditional offices into
homes, hotels, airport lounges and taxis. 1.The following are different types of
"mobile workers": 1.Tethered/remote worker: This is considered to be an employee
who generally remains at a single point of work, but is remote to the central
company systems. 2.Roaming user: This is either an employee who works in an
environment (e.g., warehousing, shop floor, etc.) or in multiple areas (e.g.,
meeting rooms). 3.Nomad: This category covers employees requiring solutions in
hotel rooms and other semi-tethered environments where modem use is still
prevalent, along with the increasing use of multiple wireless technologies and
devices. 4.Road warrior: This is the ultimate mobile user and spends little time in
the office; however, he/she requires regular access to data and collaborative
functionality while on the move, in transit, or hotels. Fig: Wireless Networks
Wireless technology is no longer buzzword in today's world. Let us understand
important components of a wireless network, apart from components such as modems,
routers, hubs, and firewalls, which are integral parts of any wired network as well
as wireless network. 1.802.11 networking standards: Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE)-802.11 is a family of standards for wireless local
area network (WLAN), stating the specifications and/or requirements for computer
communication in the 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHz frequency bands. 1.Access points: It is
also termed as AP. It is a hardware device and/or a software that acts as a central
transmitter and receiver of WLAN radio signals. 2.Access points: It is also termed
as AP. It is a hardware device and/or a software that acts as a central transmitter
and receiver of WLAN radio signals. Free Wi-Fi hotspots. Commercial hotspots.
3.Service Set Identifier (SSID) 4.Wired Equivalence Privacy (WEP): 5.Wi-Fi
Protected Access (WPA AND WPA2)
6.Media Access Control (MAC) Traditional Techniques of Attacks on Wireless Networks
1.Sniffing: It is eavesdropping on the network and is the simplest of all attacks.
Sniffing is the simple process of intercepting wireless data that is being
broadcasted on an unsecured network. 2.Spoofing: The primary objective of this
attack is to successfully masquerade the identity by falsifying data and thereby
gaining an illegitimate advantage. MAC address Spoofing IP Spoofing Frame
Spoofing 3.Denial of service (DoS) 4.Man-In-The-Middle Attack (MITM) 5.Encryption
Cracking