From Hacking to Report Writing: An Introduction to Security and Penetration Testing

204 Pages·2016·12.377 MB·English

by  Robert Svensson

From Hacking to
Report Writing
An Introduction to Security and
Penetration Testing
—
Robert Svensson
From Hacking to Report

Writing

An Introduction to Security and
Penetration Testing

Robert Svensson
From Hacking to Report Writing: An Introduction to Security and Penetration Testing
Robert Svensson
Berlin
Germany
ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4842-2282-9 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-2283-6
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4842-2283-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957882
Copyright © 2016 by Robert Svensson
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To Tyra - Always
Contents at a Glance
About the Author .....................................................................................................xv
About the Technical Reviewer ...............................................................................xvii
Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................xix
Preface ...................................................................................................................xxi
■ Chapter 1: Introduction .........................................................................................1
■ Chapter 2: Security Testing Basics ......................................................................11
■ Chapter 3: The Security Testing Process .............................................................25
■ Chapter 4: Technical Preparations ......................................................................31
■ Chapter 5: Security Test Execution ......................................................................49
■ Chapter 6: Identifying Vulnerabilities ..................................................................59
■ Chapter 7: Exploiting Vulnerabilities ...................................................................89
■ Chapter 8: Reporting Vulnerabilities .................................................................153
■ Chapter 9: Example Reports ..............................................................................165
■ Chapter 10: Ten Tips to Become a Better Security Tester ..................................181
Index .....................................................................................................................187
v
Contents
About the Author .....................................................................................................xv
About the Technical Reviewer ...............................................................................xvii
Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................xix
Preface ...................................................................................................................xxi
■ Chapter 1: Introduction .........................................................................................1
Why Security Testing Is Important ....................................................................................1
Vulnerabilities Are Everywhere .........................................................................................2
Not Only Hackers Exploit Vulnerabilities ...........................................................................2
What Is a Security Test? ...................................................................................................2
The Inevitable Weakness of Any Security Test .................................................................3
What’s In a Name? ...........................................................................................................3
The World’s First Security Test .........................................................................................3
Who Are These Hackers Anyway? ....................................................................................4
State-Sponsored Actors ..........................................................................................................................4
Computer Criminals ................................................................................................................................5
Hacktivists ..............................................................................................................................................5
Insider .....................................................................................................................................................6
Script Kiddies .........................................................................................................................................7
What Is a Threat? ....................................................................................................................................8
Threats and Threat Agents ......................................................................................................................8
Summary ..........................................................................................................................9
vii
■ CONTENTS
■ Chapter 2: Security Testing Basics ......................................................................11
Types of Security Tests ...................................................................................................11
The Knowledge Factor vs. The Guesswork Factor ................................................................................12
Social Engineering .........................................................................................................14
What Is a Vulnerability? ..................................................................................................14
Uncovering Vulnerabilities ..............................................................................................16
The Vulnerability Wheel and the Heartbleed Bug ...........................................................17
The Vulnerability Wheel by Example .....................................................................................................17
Zero Day Exploits ............................................................................................................18
How Vulnerabilities Are Scored and Rated .....................................................................18
A Real-World Example Using CVSS .......................................................................................................18
Software Development Life Cycle and Security Testing .................................................19
How Security Testing Can Be Applied to the SDLC ...............................................................................20
Security Metrics .............................................................................................................20
What Is Important Data? .................................................................................................21
Client-Side vs. Server-Side Testing ................................................................................22
Summary ........................................................................................................................22
■ Chapter 3: The Security Testing Process .............................................................25
The Process of a Security Test .......................................................................................25
The Initialization Phase ..................................................................................................26
Setting the Scope ...........................................................................................................26
Setting the Scope Using Old Reports ....................................................................................................27
Helping the Client to Set a Good Scope ................................................................................................28
Pre Security Test System Q&A ........................................................................................28
Statement of Work ..........................................................................................................29
Statement of Work Example: Organization XYZ ....................................................................................29
Get Out of Jail Free Card ................................................................................................29
Security Test Execution ..................................................................................................30
viii
■ CONTENTS
Security Test Report .......................................................................................................30
Summary ........................................................................................................................30
■ Chapter 4: Technical Preparations ......................................................................31
Collecting Network Traffi c ..............................................................................................31
Software Based ....................................................................................................................................31
Hardware Based ...................................................................................................................................33
Inform The CSIRT ............................................................................................................33
Keep Track of Things ......................................................................................................33
A Note on Notes ....................................................................................................................................34
Software Versioning and Revision Control Systems .............................................................................34
Use a Jump Server ...............................................................................................................................34
Screen ..................................................................................................................................................35
Know Which System You’re Testing ................................................................................35
The Habit of Saving Complex Commands ......................................................................36
Be Verifi able ...................................................................................................................36
Visually Recording Your Work .........................................................................................36
Tools of the Trade ...........................................................................................................37
The Worst Tools One Can Possibly Imagine ....................................................................37
Bash Lovely Bash ...........................................................................................................38
Keep a Command Log ....................................................................................................38
The Security Tester’s Software Setup ............................................................................39
Virtual Machines for Security Testing .............................................................................39
When to Use Hacker Distributions ..................................................................................39
Metasploit ......................................................................................................................40
Don’t Be Volatile .............................................................................................................40
End-of-the-Day Checklists .............................................................................................41
Keep Secrets Safe ..........................................................................................................41
Keep Your Backups Secure ...................................................................................................................42
Get Liability Insurance ....................................................................................................44
ix
■ CONTENTS
Automated Vulnerability Scanners (and When to Use Them) ..........................................45
The Google Proxy Avoidance Service .............................................................................45
When to Connect Via VPN ...............................................................................................47
Summary ........................................................................................................................48
■ Chapter 5: Security Test Execution ......................................................................49
Security Test Execution ..................................................................................................49
The Technical Security Test Process ..............................................................................49
The Layered Approach ..........................................................................................................................49
The Circular Approach ..........................................................................................................................53
When to Use What Approach ..........................................................................................53
The Layered Approach ..........................................................................................................................54
The Circular Approach ..........................................................................................................................54
Expecting the Unexpected ..............................................................................................54
The Pre-Security Test System Q&A Taken with a Grain of Salt .......................................54
To Test Production Systems or to Not Test Productions
Systems - That Is the Question ......................................................................................55
Production Systems versus Pre-Production Systems ..........................................................................55
The Goal Is to Eventually Fail .........................................................................................56
Legal Considerations ......................................................................................................56
The Report ......................................................................................................................57
Summary ........................................................................................................................57
■ Chapter 6: Identifying Vulnerabilities ..................................................................59
Footprinting ....................................................................................................................59
When to Footprint .................................................................................................................................59
Footprinting Examples ..........................................................................................................................60
Scanning ........................................................................................................................60
What a Network Scanner Is ..................................................................................................................61
A Very Short Brush-Up on Ports .....................................................................................61
Using NMAP ..........................................................................................................................................62
Ping Sweep ...........................................................................................................................................63
x
■ CONTENTS
Scanning for TCP Services....................................................................................................................64
Scanning for UDP Services ...................................................................................................................65
Operating System Detection .................................................................................................................66
Common TCP and UDP-Based Services ................................................................................................67
NMAP Scripting Engine .........................................................................................................................68
Unknown Networks Ports ...............................................................................................69
On the Job: On Poor Documentation ..............................................................................70
DNS Zone Transfers ........................................................................................................71
DNS Brute Forcing ..........................................................................................................71
Server Debug Information ..............................................................................................72
Nslookup ........................................................................................................................74
Looping Nslookup .................................................................................................................................74
Getting Geographical IP Info Using Pollock ....................................................................75
Harvesting E-Mail Addresses with the Harvester ...........................................................77
Enumeration ...................................................................................................................77
Enumeration Example ...........................................................................................................................78
Enumerating Web Presence Using Netcraft....................................................................79
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) .............................................................80
Searching for IP Addresses ............................................................................................82
The Downside of Manual Domain Name and IP Address Searching .....................................................83
Data from Hacked Sites ..................................................................................................83
Where to Find Raw Data from Hacked Websites ..................................................................................84
The Ashley Madison Hack .....................................................................................................................84
Have I Been PWNED .......................................................................................................85
Shodan ...........................................................................................................................86
Checking Password Reset Functionality ........................................................................87
Summary ........................................................................................................................87
■ Chapter 7: Exploiting Vulnerabilities ...................................................................89
System Compromise ......................................................................................................89
Password Attacks ...........................................................................................................90
xi