ML59 Netriders
ML59 Netriders
Attack Vectors
Attack Vector: The path or tool used by a malicious threat actor. Cloud be Direct access, Removable media, Email,
Remote and wireless, Web and social media or Cloud.
Exploitation Frameworks
Exploitation Framework: uses the vulnerabilities identified by an automated scanner and launches scripts or software to
attempt to deliver matching exploits.
Metasploit: The best-known exploit framework.
Netcat
Netcat: tool for testing connectivity. can be used for port scanning and fingerprinting. can be used to receive files.
Rules of Engagement
Rules of engagement: specify what activity is permitted or not permitted. These rules should be made explicit in
contractual agreement.
Attack Profile
Black box or unknown environment: no privileged information about the network and its security systems.
White box or known environment: the consultant is given complete access to information about the network.
Gray box or partially known environment: the consultant is given some information.
Bug Bounty
Bug Bounty: is a program operated by a software vendor or website operator where rewards are given for reporting
vulnerabilities.
Exercise Types
Red team: performs the offensive role.
Blue team: performs the defensive role.
04- Identifying Social Engineering and Malware
4.1- Compare and Contrast Social Engineering
Social Engineering
Social engineering: refers to means of either eliciting information from someone or getting them to perform some action
for the threat actor. also be referred to as hacking the human.
Impersonation
Impersonation: simply means pretending to be someone else. over the phone or via an email message.
Piggy Backing
Piggy backing: the attacker enters a secure area with an employee's permission.
Identity Fraud
Identity fraud: is a specific type of impersonation where the attacker uses specific details of someone's identity.
Phishing
Phishing: is a combination of social engineering and spoofing
Spear Phishing
Spear Phishing: attack the specific person.
Computer Viruses
Virus: is executed only when the user performs an action such as downloading and running an infected executable process.
Computer Worms
Worm: is memory-resident malware that can run without user intervention and replicate over network resources.
Rootkits
Rootkit: modifying files in the kernel of the operating system.
Malware Indicators
Antivirus Notifications
Sandbox Execution: analyze the suspect code in a sandboxed environment. sandbox is a system configured to be
completely isolated from its host so that the malware cannot break out. LIKE Cuckoo.
Resource Consumption: Indicators such as excessive and continuous CPU usage, memory leaks, disk read/write activity, and
disk space.
File System: A computer's file system stores a great deal of useful metadata about when files were created, accessed, or
modified.
05- Summarizing Basic Cryptographic Concepts
Cryptographic Concepts
Cryptography: It is the art of making information secure by encoding it.
Cryptanalysis: the art of cracking cryptographic systems.
Plaintext or cleartext: an unencrypted message.
Ciphertext: an encrypted message.
Cipher: the process (or algorithm) used to encrypt and decrypt a message.
Hashing Algorithms
Hashing: is the simplest type of cryptographic operation.
Cryptographic Hashing Algorithm: produces a fixed length string from an input plaintext that can be of any length.
Checksum or Message Digest or Hash: can be referred the output.
Hashing algorithm is used to prove integrity.
Hash function can be used to prove the integrity of data, but it cannot be used to store or transmit data.
The plaintext cannot be recovered from the digest.
There are two popular implementations hash algorithms:
- Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA)
- Considered the strongest algorithm.
- There are variants that produce different-sized outputs, with longer digests considered more secure.
- The most popular variant is SHA-256, which produces a 256-bit digest.
- Message Digest Algorithm #5 (MD5)
- Produces a 128-bit digest.
- is not considered to be as safe, but it might be required for compatibility between security products.
Symmetric Encryption
Symmetric Encryption: is also referred to as single key or private key or shared secret.
Symmetric: is one in which encryption and decryption are both performed by the same secret key.
If the key is lost or stolen, the security is breached.
Symmetric encryption is used for confidentiality
Symmetric encryption is very fast.
It is used for bulk encryption of large amounts of data.
The main problem is secure distribution and storage of the key.
Asymmetric Encryption
Asymmetric Encryption: two different key public and private to perform encryption and decryption.
Asymmetric Encryption: can be used to prove identity.
Asymmetric Encryption: is often referred to as public key cryptography.
Certificate Authorities
Certificate Authority (CA): is the entity responsible for issuing and guaranteeing certificates.
Private CAs: can be set up within an organization for internal communications.
Digital Certificates
Digital Certificate: is essentially a wrapper for a subject's public key.
The certificate is digitally signed to prove that it was issued to the subject by a particular CA.
Digital certificates are based on the X.509 standard.
Certificate Attributes
The X.509 standard defines the fields or attributes that must be present in the certificate.
6.2- Implement PKI Management
Certificate and Key Management
Key Management: refers to operational considerations for the various stages in a key's life cycle.
A key's life cycle may involve the following stages:
- Key generation: creating a secure key pair of the required strength, using the chosen cipher.
- Certificate generation.
- Storage: the user must take steps to store the private key securely.
Certificate Expiration
Certificates are issued with a limited duration, as set by the CA policy for the certificate type.
Root certificates might have long expiration dates (10+ years), whereas web server and user certificates might 1 year only.
Certificate is renewed before it expires.
OpenSSL
In a Windows environment, certificate infrastructure is installed and managed as Active Directory Certificate Services.
There is a certutil tool for command line management, or you can use PowerShell.
For Linux, CA services are typically implemented using the OpenSSL suite.
07- Implementing Authentication Controls
7.1- Summarize Authentication Design Concepts
Authentication Factors
Something You Know: Username and a password, PIN, Swipe patterns.
Something You Have: smart card, fob, or wristband, hard tokens.
Something You Are/Do: biometric factor such as a fingerprint, or behavioral identifiers, gait.
Authentication Design
Authentication design: refers to selecting a technology that meets requirements for CIA.
Multifactor Authentication
Multifactor authentication (MFA): combines the use of more than one type of knowledge, ownership, and biometric factor.
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA).
Three-factor authentication.
Windows Authentication
Windows local sign-in: The Local Security Authority (LSA) compares the submitted credential to a hash stored in the
Security Accounts Manager (SAM) database, which is part of the registry.
Windows network sign-in: the LSA can pass the credentials for authentication to a network service, The preferred system
for network authentication is based on Kerberos, but legacy network applications might use NT LAN Manager (NTLM)
authentication.
Remote sign-in: if the user's device is not connected to the local network, authentication can take place over some type of
virtual private network (VPN) or web portal.
Linux Authentication
local user account names are stored in /etc/passwd.
When a user logs in to a local interactive shell, the password is checked against a hash stored in /etc/shadow.
Interactive login over a network is typically accomplished using Secure Shell (SSH).
Single Sign-On (SSO)
Single Sign-On (SSO): system allows the user to authenticate once to a local device and be authenticated to compatible
application servers without having to enter credentials again. In Windows, SSO is provided by the Kerberos framework.
Kerberos Authentication
Kerberos: is a single sign-on network authentication and authorization protocol used on many networks, notably as
implemented by Microsoft's Active Directory (AD) service.
Password Attacks
Plaintext/Unencrypted Attacks: These protocols must not be used PAP, basic HTTP/FTP authentication, and Telnet.
Online Attacks: threat actor interacts with the authentication service directly a web login form or VPN gateway.
Offline Attack: means that the attacker has managed to obtain a database of password hashes.
Hybrid Attack
Hybrid Password Attack: uses a combination of attack methods when trying to crack a password. Like dictionary and brute
force attacks.
Password Crackers
There are some Windows tools, including the infamous Cain and L0phtcrack (l0phtcrack.com) tools, most password
crackers run primarily on Linux. For example, a tool such as Hashcat.
7.3- Summarize Biometrics Authentication Concepts
Biometric Authentication
The first step in setting up biometric authentication is enrollment.
The chosen biometric information is scanned by a biometric reader and converted to binary information.
Fingerprint Recognition
Physiologic biometric features represent a something you are factor.
Facial Recognition
Facial recognition: records multiple indicators about the size and shape of the face, like the distance between each eye, or
the width and length of the nose.
Retinal Scan: one of the most accurate forms of biometrics.
Iris Scanning: is the technology most likely to be rolled out for high-volume applications, such as airport security.
Behavioral Technologies
Voice Recognition: voice is also subject to impersonation.
Gait Analysis: produces a template from human movement (locomotion).
Signature Recognition.
Typing.
08- Implementing Identity and Account Management Controls
8.1- Implement Identity and Account Types
Identity Management Controls
background check: determines that a person is who they say they are and are not concealing criminal activity, bankruptcy,
or connections that would make them unsuitable or risky.
Onboarding: IT and HR function will combine to create an account for the user to access the computer system, assign the
appropriate privileges.
NonDisclosure Agreement (NDA): when an employee signs an NDA, they are asserting that they will not share confidential
information with a third party.
Offboarding Policies
Offboarding: process of ensuring that an employee leaves a company gracefully, disable the user account and privileges,
retrieve mobile devices, keys, smart cards, USB media, wipe employee-owned devices of corporate data and application.
Administrator/Root Accounts
In Windows, this account is called Administrator; in Linux, it is called root. This type of account is also referred to as a
superuser.
Service Accounts
Service Accounts: are used by scheduled processes and application server software, such as databases.
Windows has several default service account types.
These do not accept user interactive logons but can be used to run processes and background services:
- System: has the most privileges of any Windows account, The local system account creates the host processes that start
Windows before the user logs on, Any process created using the system account will have full privileges over the local
computer.
- Local Service: has the same privileges as the standard user account, It can only access network resources as an
anonymous user.
- Network Service: has the same privileges as the standard user account but can present the computer's account
credentials when accessing network resources.
8.2- Implement Account Policies
Account Attributes and Access Policies
Security Identifier (SID): each User Account defined as SID and each account is associated with a profile.
Access Policies: determine the right to log on for users
Group Policy Objects (GPOs): configured access policies rights for user/group/role accounts such as on a Windows Active
Directory.
Account Restrictions
Location-Based Policies: A user or device can have a logical network location, identified by an IP address, subnet,
virtual LAN (VLAN), or organizational unit (OU).
Geofencing: Refers to accepting or rejecting access requests based on location.
ACCOUNT AUDITS
Accounting and auditing processes: are used to detect whether an account has been compromised or is being misused
Network Appliances
Switches.
Wireless access points.
Routers.
Firewalls.
Load balancers.
Route Security
Routes between networks and subnets can be configured manually, but most routers automatically discover routes by
communicating with each other. It is important that this traffic be separated from channels used for other types of
data.
Jamming Attacks
Jamming Attacks: disrupted by interference from other radio sources.
9.4- Implement Load Balancers
Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDOS)
Most denial of service (DOS) attacks against websites and gateways are distributed DOS (DDoS).
This means that the attack is launched from multiple hosts simultaneously.
Load Balancing
Load Balancer: distributes client requests across available server nodes in a farm or pool. It can provide mitigation against DDoS
attacks. And also provides fault tolerance
There are two main types of load balancers:
- Layer 4 load balancer: basic load balancers make forwarding decisions on IP address and TCP/UDP port values.
- Layer 7 load balancer (content switch): as web applications have become more complex, modern load balancers need to be
able to make forwarding decisions based on application level data, such as a request for a particular URL or data types like
video or audio streaming, this requires more complex logic, but the processing power of modern appliances is sufficient to deal
with this
10- Implementing Network Security Appliances
10.1- Implement Firewalls and Proxy Servers
Packet Filtering Firewalls
Access Control Lists (ACLs): A packet filtering firewall is configured by specifying a group of rules.
A packet filtering firewall can inspect the headers of IP packets.
Rules can be based on the information found in those headers:
- IP filtering: accepting or denying traffic on the basis of its source and/or destination IP address.
- Protocol ID/type: (TCP, UDP, ICMP, routing protocols, and so on).
- Port filtering/security: accepting or denying a packet on the basis of source and destination port numbers.
Ability to block some types of ICMP (ping) traffic but not others, or the ability to filter by hardware (MAC) address.
Stateless Operation: A basic packet filtering firewall. means that it does not preserve information about network sessions.
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Stateful Inspection Firewalls
Stateful inspection firewall: tracking information about the session established between two hosts, or blocking malicious
attempts to start a bogus session.
Session data is stored in a state table.
Firewall Implementation
Firewall Appliances: is a stand-alone hardware firewall deployed to monitor traffic.
Firewall appliance can be deployed in two ways:
- Routed (layer 3)
- Bridged (layer 2)
Virtual Firewalls
Virtual firewall can be implemented in three different ways:
- Hypervisor-based: this means that filtering functionality is built into the hypervisor or cloud provisioning tool, You can use
the cloud's web app or application programming interface (API) to write access control lists (ACLs) for traffic arriving or
leaving a virtual host or virtual network.
- Virtual appliance: this refers to deploying a vendor firewall appliance instance using virtualization, in the same way you
might deploy a Windows or Linux guest OS.
- Multiple context: this refers to multiple virtual firewall instances running on a hardware firewall appliance, Each context
has a separate interface and can perform a distinct filtering role.
10.2- Implement Network Security Monitoring
Network-Based Intrusion Detection Systems
Intrusion Detection System (IDS): provide real-time analysis of either network traffic or system and application logs.
Network-based IDS (NIDS): captures traffic and analyzes the packets to identify malicious traffic and displays alerts.
A NIDS, such as Snort (snort.org), Suricata (suricata-ids.org), or Zeek/Bro (zeek.org) performs passive detection.
Signature-Based Detection
Signature-based detection (or pattern-matching): means that the engine is loaded with a database of attack patterns or
signatures. If traffic matches a pattern, then the engine generates an incident. The signatures and rules (often called plug-
ins or feeds).
Next-Generation Firewalls
Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW): combined application-aware filtering with user account-based filtering and the ability to
act as an intrusion prevention system (IPS).
DNS Security
DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC): Help to mitigate against spoofing and poisoning attacks by providing a validation process for
DNS responses.
Remote Desktop
Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) can be used to access a physical machine on a one-to-one basis.
Secure Shell
Secure Shell (SSH) is the principal means of obtaining secure remote access to a command line terminal.
The main uses of SSH are for remote administration and secure file transfer (SFTP).
12- Implementing Host Security Solutions
12.1- Implement Endpoint Security
Hardening
Hardening: process of putting an operating system or application in a secure configuration.
Patch Management
Automated vulnerability scanners can be effective at discovering missing patches for the operating system, plus a wide
range of third-party software apps and devices.
Endpoint Protection
Antivirus (A-V)/Anti-Malware.
Host-Based Intrusion Detection/Prevention (HIDS/HIPS).
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP): is a single agent performing multiple security tasks, including malware/intrusion
detection and prevention. (say one for A-V, one for HIDS, another for host-based firewall, and so on).
Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Many EPPs include a data loss prevention (DLP) agent.
This is configured with policies to identify privileged files and strings that should be kept private or confidential, such as
credit card numbers.
The agent enforces the policy to prevent data from being copied or attached to a message
without authorization.
13- Implementing Secure Mobile Solutions
13.1- Implement Mobile Device Management
Mobile Device Deployment Models
Bring your own device (BYOD): The mobile will have to meet whatever profile is required by the company and the employee
will have to agree on the installation of corporate apps and to some level of oversight and auditing.
Corporate owned, business only (COBO): property of the company and may only be used for company business.
Corporate owned, personally-enabled (COPE): The employee may use it to access personal email and social media accounts.
Choose your own device (CYOD): Much the same as COPE but the employee is given a choice of device from a list.
Location Services
Geolocation: is the use of network attributes to identify (or estimate) the physical position of a device.
Location services can make use of two systems:
- Global Positioning System (GPS): a means of determining the device's latitude and longitude based on information
received from satellites via a GPS sensor.
- Indoor Positioning System (IPS): works out a device's location by triangulating its proximity to other radio sources, such as
cell towers, Wi-Fi access points, and Bluetooth/RFID beacons.
Application Attacks
Application attack targets a vulnerability in OS or application software.
Privilege Escalation.
Error Handling.
Improper Input Handling.
Overflow Vulnerabilities
Overflow Attack: the threat actor submits input that is too large to be stored in a variable assigned by the application.
Buffer Overflow: the attacker passes data that deliberately overfills the buffer.
Buffer: is an area of memory that the application reserves to store expected data.
One of the most common vulnerabilities is a stack overflow.
Stack: is an area of memory used by a program subroutine.
DLL Injection
Dynamic link library (DLL): is a binary package that implements some sort of standard functionality, such as establishing a
network connection or performing cryptography.
DLL injection: is a vulnerability in the way the operating system allows one process to attach to another.
Replay Attacks
Token: The server normally gives it to the client.
Cookie: new version of token, it created when the server sends an HTTP response header with the cookie data.
Replay Attack: works by sniffing or guessing the token value and then submitting it to re-establish the session illegitimately.
Session Hijacking
Attackers can sniff network traffic to obtain session cookies sent over an unsecured network.
Container
Container: new version of virtualization that have same idea of a hypervisor and but without need to install all resource of
operating system.
One of the best-known container virtualization products is Docker (docker.com).
High Availability
One of the benefits of the cloud is the potential for providing services that are resilient to failures at different levels, such as
component, server, local network, site, data center, and wide area network.
High Availability (HA): refers to storage provisioned with a guarantee of 99.99% uptime or better.
Data Classifications
Data Classification: schema is a decision tree for applying one or more tags or labels to each data asset.
Many data classification schemas are based on the degree of confidentiality required:
- Public (unclassified): there are no restrictions on viewing the data.
- Confidential (secret): the information is highly sensitive, for viewing only by approved persons within the owner.
- Critical (top secret): the information is too valuable to allow any risk of its capture, Viewing is severely restricted.
Another type of classification schema identifies the kind of information asset:
- Proprietary: information created and owned by the company.
- Private/personal data: information that relates to an individual identity.
- Sensitive: Privacy-sensitive information about a person could harm them if made public.
Data Types
Personally Identifiable Information (PII): is data that can be used to identify, contact, or locate an individual.
Social Security Number (SSN): is a good example of PII, date of birth, email address, telephone number
Personal health information (PHI): refers to medical and insurance, plus associated hospital and laboratory test results.
Financial Information: refers to data bank and investment accounts, plus information such as payroll and tax returns.
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS): defines the safe handling and storage of this information
Government Data.
Data Exfiltration
Data exfiltration: attackers retrieve valuable data, such as personally identifiable information (PII) or payment information.
SIME Dashboards
SIEM dashboard provides a console to work from for day-to-day incident response
Logging Platforms
Syslog: provides an open format, protocol, and server software for logging event messages.
Journalctl: In Linux, text-based log files of the sort managed by syslog can be viewed using commands.
NXlog: is an open-source log normalization tool.
2- Segmentation-based
- DMZ.
- Subnet.
E-Discovery
E-discovery: is a means of filtering the relevant evidence produced from all the data gathered by a forensic examination
and storing it in a database in a format such that it can be used as evidence in a trial.
Risk Types
External: such as fire.
Internal: such as assets and workflows that are owned and managed by your organization.
Multiparty: such as supplier relationships.
Intellectual Property (IP) Theft
Software Compliance/Licensing
Legacy Systems
There are methods to performing risk analysis to evaluate likelihood and impact: quantitative and qualitative
Disasters
Disaster: is an event that could threaten mission essential functions.
Power Redundancy
All types of computer systems require a stable power supply to operate.
Network Redundancy
Network Interface Card (NIC) Teaming or adapter teaming: means that the server is installed with multiple NICs, or NICs
with multiple ports, or both.
Load Balancers: A load balancing switch distributes workloads between available servers.
Disk Redundancy
When a storage system is configured as a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID), many disks can act as backups for
each other to increase reliability and fault tolerance.
Backup Types
Full: full back up.
Incremental: backup only includes files changed during the full back up.
Differential: backup includes all files changed since the last full backup.
21- Explaining Physical Security
21.1- Explain The Importance of Physical Site Security Controls
Physical Security Controls
Physical Access Controls: are security measures that restrict and monitor access to specific physical areas or assets.
Alarm Systems
Circuit alarm
Motion detection alarm
Noise detection alarm