Counter Hack

This easy-to-use, step-by-step guide will empower network and system administrators to defend their information and computing assets — whether or not they have security experience. In Counter Hack, leading network security expert Edward Skoudis presents comprehensive, insider's explanations of today's most destructive hacker tools and tactics-and specific, proven countermeasures for both UNIX and Windows environments. Skoudis covers all this and more:

• Know your adversary: from script kiddies to elite attackers
• A hacker's view of networks, TCP/IP protocols, and their vulnerabilities
• Five phases of hacking: reconnaissance, scanning, gaining access, maintaining access, and preventing detection
• The most dangerous and widespread attack scenarios — explained in depth
• Key hacker tools: port scanners, firewall scanners, sniffers, session hijackers, RootKits, and more
• How hackers build elegant attacks from simple building blocks
• Detecting and preventing IP spoofing, covert channels, denial of service attacks, and other key attacks
• How hackers cover their tracks—and how you can uncover their handiwork
• A preview of tomorrow's hacker tools, attacks, and countermeasures

Whatever your role in protecting network infrastructure and data, Counter Hack delivers proven solutions you can implement right now — and long-term strategies that will improve security for years to come.

1. Introduction
• The Computer World and the Golden Age of Hacking
• Why This Book?
• Why Cover These Specific Tools and Techniques?
• How This Book Differs
• The Threat: Never Underestimate Your Adversary
• Attacker Skill Levels From Script Kiddies to the Elite
• A Note on Terminology and Iconography
• Hackers, Crackers, and Hats of Many Colors: Let's Just Use "Attackers"
• Pictures and Scenarios
• Naming Names
• Caveat — These Tools Could Hurt You
• Setting Up a Lab for Experimentation
• Additional Concerns
• Organization of the Rest of This Book
• Getting up to Speed with the Technology
• Common Phases of the Attack
• Future Predictions, Conclusions, and References
• Summary
2. Networking Overview: Pretty Much Everything You Need to Know about TCP/IP to Follow the Rest of This Book, in 55 Pages or Less
• The OSI Reference Model and Protocol Layering
• So How Does TCP/IP Fit In?
• Understanding TCP/IP
• The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
• TCP Port Numbers
• TCP Control Bits, the Three-Way Handshake, and Sequence Numbers
• Other Fields in the TCP Header
• The User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
• Is UDP Less Secure Than TCP?
• The Internet Protocol (IP) and the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
• IP: Drop That Acronym and Put Your Hands in the Air!
• Local Area Networks and Routers
• IP Addresses
• Netmasks
• Packet Fragmentation in IP
• Other Components of the IP Header
• Security or (Lack Thereof) in Traditional IP
• ICMP
• Other Network-Level Issues
• Routing Packets
• Network Address Translation
• Firewalls: Network Traffic Cops and Soccer Goalies
• Getting Personal with Firewalls
• Don't Forget about the Data Link and Physical Layers!
• Ethernet, the King of Connectivity
• ARP ARP ARP!
• Hubs and Switches
• Security Solutions for Networks
• Application-Layer Security
• The Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
• Security at the IP Level — IPSec
• Conclusions
• Summary
3. UNIX Overview: Pretty Much Everything You Need to Know about UNIX to Follow the Rest of This Book, in 30 Pages or Less
• Introduction
• Learning about UNIX
• Architecture
• UNIX File System Structure
• The Kernel and Processes
• Automatically Starting up Processes — Init, Inetd, and Cron
• Manually Starting Processes
• Interacting with Processes
• Accounts and Groups
• The /etc/passwd File
• The /etc/group File
• Root: It's a Bird… It' a Plane… No, it's Super-User!
• Privilege Control — UNIX Permissions
• SetUID Programs
• UNIX Trust
• Logs and Auditing
• Common UNIX Network Services
• Telnet: Command-Line Remote Access
• FTP: The File Transfer Protocol
• TFTP: The Trivial File Transfer Protocol
• Web Servers: HTTP
• Electronic Mail
• r-Commands
• Domain Name Services
• The Network File System (NFS)
• X Window System
• Conclusion
• Summary
4. Windows NT/2000 Overview: Pretty Much Everything You Need to Know about Windows to Follow the Rest of This Book, in 40 Pages or Less
• Introduction
• A Brief History of Time
• Fundamental NT Concepts
• Domains — Grouping Machines Together
• Shares — Accessing Resources across the Network
• Service Packs and Hot Fixes
• Architecture
• User Mode
• How Windows NT Password Representations Are Derived
• Kernel Mode
• Accounts and Groups
• Accounts
• Groups
• Privilege Control
• Policies
• Account Policy
• User Properties Settings
• Trust
• Auditing
• Object Access Control and Permissions
• Ownership
• NTFS and NTFS Permissions
• Share Permissions
• Local Access
• Weak Default Permissions and Hardening Guides
• Network Security
• Limitations in Basic Network Protocols and APIs
• The Remote Access Service (RAS)
• Windows 2000: Welcome to the New Millennium
• What Windows 2000 Offers
• Security Considerations in Windows 2000
• Architecture: Some Refinements over Windows NT
• Accounts and Groups
• Privilege Control
• Windows 2000 Trust
• Auditing
• Object Access Control
• Network Security
• Conclusion
• Summary
5. Phase 1: Reconnaissance
• Low-Technology Reconnaissance: Social Engineering, Physical Break-in, and Dumpster Diving
• Social Engineering
• Physical Break-In
• Dumpster Diving
• Search the Fine Web (STFW)
• Searching an Organization's Own Web Site
• The Fine Art of Using Search Engines
• Listening in at the Virtual Watering Hole: Usenet
• Defenses against Web-Based Reconnaissance
• Who is Databases: Treasure Chests of Information
• Researching .com, .net, and .org Domain Names
• Researching Domain Names Other than .com, .net, and .org
• We've Got the Registrar, Now What?
• IP Address Assignments through ARIN
• Defenses against Who is Searches
• The Domain Name System
• Interrogating DNS Servers
• Defenses from DNS-Based Reconnaissance
• General Purpose Reconnaissance Tools
• Sam Spade, a General-Purpose Reconnaissance Client Tool
• Web-Based Reconnaissance Tools: Research and Attack Portals
• Conclusion
• Summary
6. Phase 2: Scanning
• War Dialing
• War Dialer vs. Demon Dialer
• A Toxic Recipe: Modems, Remote Access Products, and Clueless Users
• SysAdmins and Insecure Modems
• More Free Phone Calls, Please
• Finding Telephone Numbers to Feed into a War Dialer
• A Brief History of War-Dialing Tools
• THC-Scan 2.0
• L0pht's TBA War-Dialing Tool
• The War Dialer Provides a List of Lines with Modems: Now What?
• Defenses against War Dialing
• Network Mapping
• Sweeping: Finding Live Hosts
• Traceroute: What Are the Hops?
• Cheops: A Nifty Network Mapper and General-Purpose Management Tool
• Defenses against Network Mapping
• Determining Open Ports Using Port Scanners
• Nmap: A Full-Featured Port Scanning Tool
• Defenses against Port Scanning
• Determining Firewall Filter Rules with Firewalk
• Vulnerability Scanning Tools
• A Whole Bunch of Vulnerability Scanners
• Nessus
• Vulnerability Scanning Defenses
• Intrusion Detection System Evasion
• How Network-Based Intrusion Detection Systems Work
• How Attackers Can Evade Network-Based Intrusion Detection Systems
• IDS Evasion Defenses
• Conclusion
• Summary
7. Phase 3: Gaining Access Using Application and Operating System Attacks
• Script Kiddie Exploit Trolling
• Pragmatism for More Sophisticated Attackers
• Stack-Based Buffer Overflow Attacks
• What Is a Stack?
• What is a Stack-Based Buffer Overflow?
• Exploiting Stack-Based Buffer Overflows
• Finding Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities
• The Make up of a Buffer Overflow
• Intrusion Detection Systems and Stack-Based Buffer Overflows
• Application Layer IDS Evasion for Buffer Overflows
• Once the Stack Is Smashed: Now What?
• Beyond Buffer Overflows
• Stack-Based Buffer Overflow and Related Attack Defenses
• Password Attacks
• Guessing Default Passwords
• Password Guessing through Login Scripting
• The Art and Science of Password Cracking
• Let's Crack Those Passwords!
• Cracking Windows NT/2000 Passwords Using L0phtCrack
• Cracking UNIX (and Other) Passwords Using John the Ripper
• Defenses against Password-Cracking Attacks
• Web Application Attacks
• Account Harvesting
• Undermining Web Application Session Tracking
• SQL Piggybacking
• Defenses against Piggybacking SQL Commands
• Conclusions
• Summary
8. Phase 3: Gaining Access Using Network Attacks
• Sniffing
• Sniffing through a Hub: Passive Sniffing
• Active Sniffing: Sniffing through a Switch and Other Cool Goodies
• Dsniff, A Sniffing Cornucopia
• Sniffing Defenses
• IP Address Spoofing
• IP Address Spoofing Flavor 1: Simple Spoofing: Simply Changing the IP Address
• IP Address Spoofing Flavor 2: Undermining UNIX r-Commands
• IP Address Spoofing Flavor 3: Spoofing with Source Routing
• IP Spoofing Defenses
• Session Hijacking
• Session Hijacking with Hunt
• Session-Hijacking Defenses
• Netcat: A General Purpose Network Tool
• Netcat for File Transfer
• Netcat for Port Scanning
• Netcat for Making Connections to Open Ports
• Netcat for Vulnerability Scanning
• Using Netcat to Create a Passive Backdoor Command Shell
• Using Netcat to Actively Push a Backdoor Command Shell
• Relaying Traffic with Netcat
• Netcat Defenses
• Conclusions
• Summary
9. Phase 3: Denial-of-Service Attacks
• Stopping Local Services
• Defenses from Locally Stopping Services
• Locally Exhausting Resources
• Defenses from Locally Exhausting Resources
• Remotely Stopping Services
• Defenses from Remotely Stopping Services
• Remotely Exhausting Resources
• SYN Flood
• Smurf Attacks
• Distributed Denial-of-Service Attacks
• Conclusions
• Summary
10. Phase 4: Maintaining Access: Trojans, Backdoors, and RootKits… Oh My!
• Trojan Horses
• Backdoors
• Netcat as a Backdoor on UNIX Systems
• The Devious Duo: Backdoors Melded into Trojan Horses
• Nasty: Application-Level Trojan Horse Backdoor Tools
• Let's Check out Back Orifice 2000 (BO2K)
• Defenses against Application-Level Trojan Horse Backdoors
• Bare Minimum: Use Antivirus Tools
• Don't Use Single-Purpose BO2K Checkers
• Know Your Software
• User Education Is Also Critical
• Even Nastier: Traditional RootKits
• What Do Traditional RootKits Do?
• The Centerpiece of Traditional RootKits on UNIX: /bin/login Replacement
• Traditional RootKits: Sniff Some Passwords
• Traditional RootKits: Hide that Sniffer!
• Traditional RootKits: Hide Everything Else!
• Traditional RootKits: Covering the Tracks
• Some Particular Examples of Traditional RootKits
• Defending against Traditional RootKits
• Don't Let Them Get Root in the First Place!
• Looking for Changes in the File System
• Host-Based Security Scanners
• The Best Defense: File Integrity Checkers
• Uh-oh: They RootKitted Me
• How Do I Recover?
• Nastiest: Kernel-Level RootKits
• The Power of Execution Redirection
• File Hiding with Kernel-Level RootKits
• Process Hiding with Kernel-Level RootKits
• Network Hiding with Kernel-Level RootKits
• How to Implement Kernel-Level RootKits: Loadable Kernel Modules
• Some Particular Examples of Kernel-Level RootKits
• Defending against Kernel-Level RootKits
• Fighting Fire with Fire: Don't Do It!
• Don't Let Them Get Root in the First Place!
• Looking for Traces of Kernel-Level RootKits
• Automated RootKit Checkers
• The Best Answer: Kernels without LKM Support
• Conclusion
• Summary
11. Phase 5: Covering Tracks and Hiding
• Hiding Evidence by Altering Event Logs
• Attacking Event Logs in Windows NT/2000
• Attacking System Logs and Accounting Files in UNIX
• Altering UNIX Shell History Files
• Defenses against Log and Accounting File Attacks
• Activate Logging, Please
• Set Proper Permissions
• Use a Separate Logging Server
• Encrypt Your Log Files
• Making Log Files Append Only
• Protecting Log Files with Write-Once Media
• Creating Difficult-to-Find Files and Directories
• Creating Hidden Files and Directories in UNIX
• Creating Hidden Files in Windows NT/2000
• Defenses from Hidden Files
• Hiding Evidence on the Network: Covert Channels
• Tunneling
• More Covert Channels: Using the TCP and IP Headers to Carry Data
• Defenses against Covert Channels
• Conclusion
• Summary
12. Putting It All Together: Anatomy of an Attack
• Scenario 1: Dial "M" for Modem
• Scenario 2: Death of a Telecommuter
• Scenario 3: The Manchurian Contractor
• Conclusion
• Summary
13. The Future, Resources, and Conclusions
• Where Are We Heading?
• Scenario 1: Yikes!
• Scenario 2: A Secure Future
• Scenario 1, Then Scenario 2
• Keeping up to Speed
• Web Sites
• Mailing Lists
• Conferences
• Final Thoughts… Live Long and Prosper
• Summary

This has an emphasis on hack. Tells us how to use the hackers knowledge to investigate and defend ourselves. It's OK, even if some ethical considerations may come into play.