Why networks are vulnerable?
No matter how many people manage and automation is carried out, the networks and its components are bound to be vulnerable. This is because the network configurations keep on changing however, those may not always be carried out in a secure way. Strict procedures and policies are required but it is observed that those usually fail to get into the intricacies of network configurations. For example - a firewall change being performed to close a port needs to be done carefully; else, it will fix an intended port but may inadvertently open another port or an entire network segment.
Besides this, the inherent security vulnerabilities in the firmwares of various components may be insecure by design. Incorporating such components (for ex - firewalls, switches, servers etc), can render the network insecure.
Time and again it had been observed that and internal vulnerability assessment can expose the default userid and passwords. Or in some cases it exposes a bunch of servers which were never patched in years. If a carefully prepared network vapt checklist is used, such loopholes can be brought to surface, thus increasing the overall network security posture of the organization.
In some cases it can also help expose few vulnerabilities which can potentially result into serious data thefts. On the same note, getting network pentesting performed by a technically best and known top network security company can really add value. Organizations are found to save money and time along with the reputation, if they perform the pentesting periodically via carefully designed processes.
Following table shows that various types of vulnerabilities can result into serious damages to the organization. This table is for reference purpose only, while network security vapt should include appropriate methods and tools.
Vulnerability |
Risk |
Impact |
Externally open port on firewall |
External data theft or denial of service attack |
Data theft |
Internal unpatched server |
Internal data theft or malware attack |
Intellectual property loss or service unavailability |
Firewall misconfigured |
Internal or external data theft or malicious remote control |
Data theft |
Default userid and passwords allowed on a database server. |
Internal data leakage or malware attack |
Intellectual property |
Running old firmware on network components |
Targeted malware attack |
Reputational and monetary loss |
Valency Networks is a team of certified professionals who perform technically advanced attacks while performing network pentesting (VAPT) for an organization. Below list shows a gist of the security testing.
Any corporate network undergoes lots of attacks over a period of time. While performing network pentesting, it becomes important to include those attacks in the penetration testing contract with the vendor company. Below is a list of few key attacks which matter a lot to corporates from information security standpoint.
DOS ATTACK
DoS attacks today are part of every Internet user's life. They are happening all the time, and all the Internet users, as a community, have some part in creating them, suffering from them or even loosing time and money because of them. DoS attacks do not have anything to do with breaking into computers, taking control over remote hosts on the Internet or stealing privileged information like credit card numbers.
Using the Internet way of speaking DoS is neither a Hack nor a Crack. It is a whole new and different subject. This section is entirely devoted to denial of service attacks and its variants. Here, we present a broad definition of this kind of network threat, and examples of the most common attacks.
WIFI SECURITY
Wireless security is something that most everyone wants, but which few actually use. Barriers to use include throughput loss in older 802.11b products, WEP's ability to be cracked, and di culty in getting the darned thing working!
What are the risk of wifi security
Unauthorized connections, Stealing bandwidth, Attacks on your systems from inside firewall, Attacks on 3, rd party systems that appear to be from you! Information leakage, Eavesdroppers capturing sensitive information, Often can be done from greater range than normal.
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks would, usually, be generated by a very large number of hosts. These hosts might be amplifiers1 or reflectors2 of some kind, or even might be zombies' (agent program, which connects back to a pre-defined master hosts) who were planted on remote hosts and have been waiting for the command to attack' a victim. It is quite common to see attacks generated by hundreds of hosts, generating hundreds of megabits per second floods. The main tool of DDoS is bulk flooding, where an attacker or attackers flood the victim with as many packets as they can in order to overwhelm the victim. The best way to demonstrate what a DDoS attack does to a web server is to think on what would happen if all the population of a city decided at the same moment to go and stand in the line of the local shop.
What Is a Firewall? A firewall is a system that enforces an access control policy between two networks?such as your private LAN and the unsafe, public Internet. The firewall determines which inside services can be accessed from the outside, and vice versa. The actual means by which this is accomplished varies widely, but in principle, the firewall can be thought of as a pair of mechanisms: one to block traffic, and one to permit traffic. A firewall is more than the locked front door to your network?it's your security guard as well.
Screening Levels :
A firewall can screen both incoming and outgoing traffic. Because incoming traffic poses a greater threat to the network, it's usually screened more closely than outgoing traffic. When you are looking at firewall hardware or software products, you'll probably hear about three types of screening that firewalls perform:
Network scanning involves using a port scanner to identify all hosts potentially connected to an organization's network, the network services operating on those hosts, such as the file transfer protocol (FTP) and hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), and the specific application running the identified service, such as WU-FTPD, Internet Information Server (IIS) and Apache for the HTTP service.
The result of the scan is a comprehensive list of all active hosts and services, printers, switches, and routers operating in the address space scanned by the port-scanning tool, i.e., any device that has a network address or is accessible to any other device.
All basic scanners will identify active hosts and open ports, but some scanners provide additional information on the scanned hosts. The information gathered during this open port scan will often identify the target operating system.
This process is called operating system fingerprinting. For example, if a host has TCP port 135 and 139 open, it is most likely a Windows NT or 2000 host. Other items such as the TCP packet sequence number generation and responses to ICMP packets, e.g., the TTL (Time To Live) field, also provide a clue to identifying the operating system.
Exploit: It targets a vulnerability found on the system by executing a series of commands.
Payload: It a piece of code carefully written to the intended task. Once delivered, it gets executed on the machines and causes damage to the data.
Listing down a few steps one can take to tighten the security around network.
Internal threats refers to risks to data that stem from inside the organization due to poorly managed security of network, resources, assets and much more. According to Gartner, majority of attacks happen from within the organization.
Listing down a few of the factors that contribute to majority of the attacks.
Private profile: When connected to a private network, your device will be discoverable by other devices on your Home or Work network. This can make sharing of files easy with other devices on the network.
Public profile: When you have a public profile, your device will be hidden from other devices on the network and won't be used for sharing of files and printer.
To make your profile private for wired network, open Start > Settings > Network & Internet > Ethernet then click your network adapter and choose the profile.
To make your profile private for wireless network, open Start > Settings > Network & Internet > Wi-Fi then click on the Wi-Fi you are connected to choose the profile.
To customize public or private profiles, open Start > Settings > Network & Internet >Network and Sharing center> Change Advance Sharing settings.
There is no one answer to it. It totally depends on what you want to do with the network and where you are at. You can use private profile when you are in the network you trust such as home or office. Private profile makes your device discoverable to other devices on the network by default. You can use public profile when you are connected to public Wi-Fi. Public profile hides your device from being discovered to other devices on the network.
Yes, your router can indeed be hacked, which can lead to a host of unfortunate situations like identity theft or the spread of vicious malware. At the same time, your network can also be used to attack other networks.
If router is compromised, the security of all of devices that use that router is in danger and can also be compromised. No router is 100-percent hack-proof. But there are certain steps one can take to minimize threats.
Some of the measures you can take are: Choose a model that possess better inherent protections against hacker, update your router periodically (either automatically or manually), Set a strong password and reboot the device once in a while.
Most of the WiFi networks broadcast using the Service Set Identifier (SSID) which let other devices know that they are presence. There are some routers which do not broadcast their SSID and this is because the hidden network WiFi option has been turned on in the settings.
This hidden network WiFi stops the broadcasting of the network's SSID, which causes it to disappear and remain hidden to all devices that connect to WiFi networks.
Previously, activating the hidden network WiFi option used to be a popular security mechanism, however nowadays, due to the increase in technology there are many easy-to-use tools that have been introduced to find hidden networks and see detailed information about them.
The three main threats to a network are:
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