INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL HACKING

Elements of Information Security:

Confidentiality >> Integrity >> Availability >> Authenticity >> Non-Repudiation

Confidentiality: Assurance that the information is accessible only to those authorized to have access

Integrity: The trustworthless of data of resources in terms of preventing improper and unauthorized changes

Availability: Assurance that the systems responsible for delivering, strong and processing information are accessible when required by the authorized users.

Authenticity: Authenticity refers to the characteristic of a communication document or any data that ensures the quality of being genuine.

Non-Repudiation: Guarantee that the sender of a message cannot later deny having sent the message and that the recipient cannot deny the message.

Essential Terminologies:

Hack Value: It is the notion among hackers that something is worth doing or is intresting

Target of Evaluation: An IT system, product, or component that is identified/subjected to a requried security evaluation

Exploit: A defined way to breach the security of an IT system through vulnerability

Zero-Day Attack: An attack that exploits computer application vulnerabilities before the software developer releases a patch for vulnerability

Vulnerability: Existence of a weakness, design, or implementation error that can lead to an unexpected and undesirable event compromising the security of the system

Daisy Chaining: Hackers who get away with database theft usually complete their task, then backtrack to cover their tracks by destroying logs etc.

Motives, Goals, and objectives of Information Security Attacks:

Attacks = Motive(Goal) + Method + Vulnerability

Goals: Attackers have motives or goals such as disrupting business continuity. Information theft, data manipulation, or taking revenge.

Motives: A motive orginates out of the notion that the target system stores or processes something valuable and this leads to threat of an attack on the system.

Objectives: Attackers try various tools, attack methods, and techniques to exploit vulnerabilities in a computer system or security policy and controls to achieve their motives.

Information Security Threats:

Natural Threats:

• Natural Threats
• Floods
• Earthquakes
• Hurricanes

Physical Security Threats:

• Loss or damage of a system resources
• Physical intrusion
• Sabotage, espionage and errors

Human Threats:

• Hackers
• Insiders
• Social Engineering
• Lack of knowledge and awareness

Network Threats:

• Information gathering
• Sniffing and eavesdropping
• Spoofing
• Session hijacking and Man-in-the-Middle attack
• SQL injection
• ARP Poisioning
• Password-based attacks
• Denail of service attack
• Compromised-key attack

Host Threats:

• Malware attacks
• Target Footprinting
• Password attacks
• Denail of service attacks
• Arbitrary code execution
• Unauthorized access
• Privilege escalation
• Backdoor Attacks
• Physical security threats

Application Threats:

• Data/Input validation
• Authentication and authorization attacks
• Configuration management
• Information disclosure
• Session management issues
• Buffer overflows issues
• Cryptography attacks
• Parameter manipulation
• improper error handling and exception management
• Auditing and logging issues