Network Reconnaissance

Open Port / Service Identification:

In cybersecurity, the term open port refers to a TCP or UDP port number configured to accept packets. In contrast, a port that denies a connection or ignores all packets is a closed port. Port is an integral part of the Internet communication model. All communication over the Internet is exchanged over the port. Each IP address contains two types of ports, a UDP port, and a TCP port, with a specific IP address having up to 65,535 ports each. Internet-dependent services (web browsers, websites, file transfer services, etc.) depend on specific ports to send and receive information. Developers use File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or SSH to run encrypted tunnels between computers and exchange information between hosts.

Once a service runs on a particular port, you cannot run other services on that port. For example, if you start Apache after starting Nginx on port 80, the operation will fail because the port is already in use. Open ports can be compromised if the vulnerability exploits legitimate services or malware or social engineering introduces malicious services into the system. Cybercriminals can use these services with open ports to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data. Closing unused ports reduce the number of attack vectors exposed to your organization and reduce your security risk.

Service identification and system identification:

Service identification and system identification are the third and fourth modules listed in the Information Technology Security Testing section of OSSTMM, respectively. The purpose of these two sections is to list the services running on the TCP or UDP ports that responded in the previous module and identify the target's underlying operating system.

Banner/ version check:

The SMTP banner issued by the mail server did not include the resolved hostname in the server's IP address. The email server responds to connections on port 25 with a text string called an SMTP banner. This string aims to inform the server and the administrator of the information they want to convey to the world. It's good to include the server's name in the SMTP banner to know who the person connecting to using the IP address is talking to. This warning is displayed if the name you provide is not in the same domain as the hostname you get when performing a PTR lookup of the IP address.

For some time, many servers "masked" SMTP banners by replacing letters with asterisks for people outside the network. The logic behind this was often that they didn't want to send information over the network to outsiders for fear of providing them with information that would help them attack the server. The benefits are minimal, and many servers perform banner scans as part of anti-spam, which has a negative cost. If the banner is masked, the tool will display a warning.

Some incoming mail servers may use mismatched or masked banners to indicate potential spam sources in your rating system, but in most cases, it is the only thing that rejects incoming mail. There is no. If you do not have a PTR record, or if the record does not match your hostname, we recommend that you contact your ISP and ask them to set up a reverse (PTR) record that matches your mail server's hostname.

Traffic probe:

In telecommunications, a probe is typically an action or object used to learn the state of a network. For example, send an empty message to see if the target exists. Ping is a standard utility for sending such probes. A probe is a program or other device inserted into a critical point on your network to monitor or collect data about network activity. From the perspective of computer security on the network, probes are attempts to access a computer and its files through known or possible vulnerabilities in the computer system.

Understanding Port and Services tools:

Datapipe - Datapipe has established partnerships with technology companies. Datapipe provides application management, hosting, professional, and security services for medium to large enterprises.

Fpipe - FPipe natively implements port redirection technology on Windows. It also supports User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which Datapipe does not have. FPipe does not require support DLLs or privileged user access. However, it only runs on NT, 2000, and XP platforms.

WinRelay - WinRelay is another Windows-based port redirection tool. It and FPipe share the same functionality, including the ability to define static source ports for redirected traffic. Therefore, it can be used compatible with FPipe on any Windows platform.

Network Reconnaissance:

Network reconnaissance is a term used to test for potential vulnerabilities in computer networks. This may be a legitimate activity by the network owner/operator trying to protect it or apply its terms of use. It can also be a precursor to external attacks on your network.

Nmap - Nmap is a network scanner developed by Gordon Lyon. Nmap is used to discover hosts and services on your computer network by sending packets and analyzing the response. Nmap provides many features for inspecting your computer networks, such as host discovery and service and operating system discovery.

THC-Amap - Amap is an excellent tool for determining which applications listen on a particular port. Their database isn't as extensive as Nmap uses for version detection, but it's worth it if you get a second opinion or Nmap isn't discovering the service. Amap also knows how to parse the Nmap output file. This is another valuable tool from the great people of THC.

Network Sniffers and Injection tools:

A network sniffer is a tool for monitoring the flow of data packets on your computer network. They are also known as packet sniffing, network analyzer, packet analyzer, gossip, or network probe. Network sniffing can also be performed on a hardware device or another software program. It is primarily used to evaluate network traffic and data packets.

· TCPdump - tcpdump is a computer program for data network packet analysis that runs on the command-line interface. This allows users to view TCP / IP and other packets sent and received over the computer's network. tcpdump is distributed under the BSD license and is free software.

· Windump - WinDump is the Windows version of tcpdump, a command-line network analyzer for UNIX. WinDump is fully compatible with tcpdump and can be used to monitor, diagnose, and dump network traffic to disk according to various complex rules. It can be run on Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, and Vista. WinDump captures using the WinPcap library and drivers that you can download for free from the WinPcap.org website. WinDump supports 802.11b / g wireless capture and troubleshooting via the Riverbed AirPcap adapter. WinDump is free and released under the BSD-style license.

· Wireshark - Wireshark is a free open-source packet analyzer. It is used for network troubleshooting, analysis, software and communication protocol development, and training. Originally called Ethereal, the project was renamed Wireshark in May 2006 due to brand issues.

· Ettercap - Ettercap is a free open source network security tool for man-in-the-middle attacks on your LAN. It can be used for computer network log analysis and security audits. It works on various Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, Mac OS X, BSD, Solaris, and Microsoft Windows.

· Hping - Hping is an open-supply packet generator and analyzer for the TCP/IP protocol created with the aid of using Salvatore Sanfilippo (additionally called Antirez). It is one of the not unusual place gear used for safety auditing and checking out of firewalls and networks, and become used to take advantage of the idle test scanning technique (additionally invented with the aid of using the hping author), and now carried out with inside the Nmap Security Scanner. The new edition of hping, hping3, is scriptable using the Tcl language and implements an engine for a string-based, human-readable description of TCP/IP packets so that the programmer can write scripts associated with low stage TCP/IP packet manipulation and evaluation in a brief time.

· Kismet - Kismet is a community detector, packet sniffer, and intrusion detection gadget for 802.11 Wi-Fi LANs. Kismet will paintings with any Wi-Fi card, which helps uncooked tracking mode, and may sniff 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n traffic. The application runs below Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and Mac OS X. The customer can also run on Microsoft Windows, although, other than outside drones (see below), the simplest one supported Wi-Fi hardware to be had as packet supply. Distributed below the GNU General Public License, Kismet has unfastened software.

Injection Tools:

This is a list of the best and most popular SQL injection tools:

· SQLMap - Automatic SQL Injection And Database Takeover Tool

· jSQL Injection - Java Tool for Automatic SQL Database Injection

· BBQSQL - A Blind SQL Injection Exploitation Tool

· NoSQLMap - Automated NoSQL Database Pwnage

· Whitewidow - SQL Vulnerability Scanner

· DSSS - Damn Small SQLi Scanner

· explo - Human and Machine Readable Web Vulnerability Testing Format

· Blind-Sql-Bitshifting - Blind SQL Injection via Bitshifting

· Leviathan - Wide Range Mass Audit Toolkit

· Blisqy - Exploit Time-based blind-SQL injection in HTTP-Headers(MySQL/MariaDB)

Vulnerability scanning

What is a vulnerability scan?

A vulnerability scan assesses the vulnerabilities of computers, internal and external networks, and communication devices that cybercriminals can exploit. This automated activity scans infrastructure targets such as IP addresses for known vulnerabilities and misconfigurations. The outcome Vulnerability Assessment Report helps you quickly identify security vulnerabilities that need to be repaired.

What is the vulnerability scan used for?

Vulnerability testing is an essential part of mitigating an organization's security risks. Using a vulnerability scanner to identify system vulnerabilities can reduce the attack surface that criminals can exploit and focus your security measures on the most likely target areas. The vulnerability Scan also helps to periodically scan the IP address range to determine if unauthorized services are exposed or if redundant IP addresses are being used.

How does the vulnerability test work?

There are two main types of vulnerability scans.

Unauthenticated scans detect security perimeter vulnerabilities. Authenticated scans use privileged credentials to further find security vulnerabilities in the internal network. Regardless of which type you choose, the vulnerability scanning tool uses a database of known vulnerabilities, bugs, anomalies, configuration errors, and potential routes to corporate networks that an attacker could exploit. These databases are continuously updated.

Why is vulnerability scanning necessary?

Vulnerabilities are common to organizations of all sizes. New ones are constantly being discovered or may be introduced due to system changes. Criminal hackers use automated tools to identify and exploit known vulnerabilities to access unsecured systems, networks, or data. It's easy to exploit the vulnerability with automated tools. Attacks are cheap, easy to carry out, and indiscriminate, putting all organizations connected to the Internet at risk. An attacker needs only one vulnerability to access the network. This is why it is essential to patch to address these vulnerabilities. Suppose you do not update your software, firmware, and operating system to the latest version immediately after release. In that case, your system's vulnerabilities will continue to be exploited, and your business will remain vulnerable. Worse, most intruders aren't found until it's too late.

What does the Vulnerability Scan test?

The automated vulnerability scanning tool scans open ports for standard services running on those ports. Identify configuration issues and other vulnerabilities in these services and ensure that you follow best practices: Use TLSv1.2 or later and strong encryption. Next, a vulnerability scan report is generated to highlight the identified item.

Who will perform the vulnerability scan?

IT departments typically perform vulnerability scans if they have the expertise and software. Alternatively, you may want to use an external security service provider such as IT Governance. IT governance scans are performed against targets for which the client has the required permissions for the scan, and users of the service must ensure that they have these permissions. The vulnerability scan is also performed by an attacker who scans the Internet to find entry points to the system or network.

Vulnerability Probe:

Vulnerability probes use scanning technology to scan your organization's network for signs of potential breach risk. However, not all probes are created the same. Doing so can expose your business to cyber risks. There are three ways to conduct vulnerability investigations that continuously discover hidden cyber risks.

1. Show your network like a hacker.

2. Use vulnerability assessment tools that highlight the most imminent risks.

3. Use a continuous vulnerability probe.

Vulnerability examples:

When your pc is attached to an unsecured community, your software program protection may be compromised without positive protocols in place. Forgetting updates, weak product points, and unresolved developer troubles leave your customers extensive open to pc protection vulnerabilities. Here is a listing of numerous vulnerabilities that compromise the integrity, availability, and confidentiality of your customers` products.

Critical mistakes to your customers` pc software program can depart statistics with inside the entire community liable to some malicious threats, including:

· Malware

· Phishing

· Proxies

· Spyware

· Adware

· Botnets

· Spam

Cyber attackers, hackers, and malware can take over your customers` software program, disable it and thieve statistics.

The most common software vulnerabilities are:

· Lack of data encryption

· OS command injection

· SQL injection

· Buffer overflow

· No authentication for important features

· Lack of permission

· Unlimited uploads of dangerous file types

· Rely on untrusted input when making security decisions

· Cross-site scripting and counterfeiting

· Download the code without consistency check

· Use of broken algorithms

· URL redirect to an untrusted website

· Path crossing

· error

· Weak password

· Software that is already infected with a virus

The list grows longer each year as new ways of stealing and corrupting data are discovered.

How to prevent computer vulnerabilities?

· Stay on top of bandwidth usage by sending alerts when your device crosses thresholds.

· Block users from accessing suspicious, confirmed, and insecure websites.

· Set unlock and blocklists to override category-based filters.

· Apply web bandwidth check.

· Filter web activity by tags, categories, and URLs to reveal trends, spikes, and irregularities.

· Conclude with a detailed reporting tool that can analyze browsing activity and demonstrate the effectiveness of web security.

· Identify the risk with iScan online software, show where it is, and rate the risk in dollars

OpenVAS (Open Vulnerability Assessment Scanner):

OpenVAS is a full-featured vulnerability scanner. Its features are powerful for implementing uncertified and certified tests, various high and low-level internet and industry protocols, significant scan performance optimization, and vulnerability testing. Scanners have a long history and get vulnerability detection tests from updated feeds. OpenVAS has been developed and promoted by Greenbone Networks since 2006. As part of the Greenbone Enterprise Appliance, a family of commercial vulnerability management products, scanners, and other open-source modules, form Greenbone Vulnerability Management.

Metasploit:

Metasploit is the world's leading open-source intrusion framework used by security engineers as a development platform for building penetration testing systems and security tools and exploits. This framework makes it easy for both attackers and defenders to hack. Metasploit's various tools, libraries, user interfaces, and modules allow users to configure exploit modules, connect to payloads, point to targets, and launch on target systems. Metasploit's extensive database contains hundreds of exploits and multiple payload options.

Metasploit Penetration Testing begins with the Intelligence Gathering Phase. During this phase, Metasploit integrates with various reconnaissance tools such as Nmap, SNMP scans, Windows patch enumeration, and Nessus to find system vulnerabilities. Once the vulnerability is identified, select the exploit and payload to penetrate the crack in the armor. If the exploit is successful, the payload runs on the target, and the user is given a shell to interact with the payload. One of the most common payloads for attacking Windows systems is Meterpreter. This is an interactive shell that is stored only in memory. Metasploit provides various exploit tools for privilege escalation, packet sniffing, pass-the-hash, keylogger, screen capture, and pivot tools when you access the target computer. The user can also set a permanent backdoor when the target computer restarts.

Networks Vulnerability Scanning:

Network vulnerability scanning identifies vulnerabilities in computers, networks, or other IT resources that are potential targets for exploitation by threat actors. Scan your environment for vulnerabilities to find out about your current risk situation, the effectiveness of your security measures, and the opportunity to improve your defenses by fixing vulnerabilities. Obtaining and deploying the Network Vulnerability Scanner is often the first step in creating a more proactive security program. Building high walls and waiting for a siege is no longer enough to counter modern attackers. Modern security programs need to identify and seal vulnerabilities that can be exploited before attackers can exploit them. The Network Vulnerability Scanner provides a good barometer of your security team's overall success and progress by quickly scanning your network for these vulnerabilities, prioritizing and fixing them.

Network vulnerability scanners should be designed to scan the entire IT infrastructure and identify potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited. To do this, the scanner needs (at least) the following features:

· Scan scheduling that does not affect network availability or performance

· Comprehensive scan based on the most comprehensive list of known vulnerabilities and misconfigurations

· Adaptability and scalability to unique network architectures-this also applies to cloud-based containerized assets

· Identify the greatest and most serious threat to the environment

· Prioritization and risk analysis to better inform vulnerability remediation strategies and report progress

NetCat vs. SoCat:

Netcat and Socat allow you to send simple messages between computers over your network interactively. The following settings allow the client and the server to send data to the other party. It works like a simple ad hoc chat program. Socat can communicate with Netcat, and Netcat can communicate with Socat. Netcat is a network utility that reads and writes data over a network connection. Socat is a relay for bidirectional data transmission between two independent data channels.