Insecure coding practices used by application developers can lead to the creation of vulnerabilities in programs. This fact of life lies at the core of all software vulnerabilities. Until secure coding practices are implemented across the board at all organizations and firms, these flaws will continue to perpetuate vulnerabilities to be exploited. Three of the most common and damaging attacks allowed by the potential vulnerabilities are buffer overflows, including stack overflows and heap/BSS/data overflows, and format string attacks.
Stack buffer overflows are very popular among hackers because they are one of the easier exploits to pull off and they offer the best payoff. The vulnerability allows an attacker to input data past the limitation of a variable, which allows it to be written into adjacent locations in memory. Once this data has been written, the attacker triggers a method for calling that memory location and executing the code. The results can range from crashing the application to remotely executing code, which generates a shell back to the attacker.
There are many tools available to attackers that will allow them exploit potential stack buffer overflow vulnerabilities in remote systems, but these can often be fragmented across many platforms and require significant reworking of code to make them functional. Perhaps the best tool available on the internet to centralize the transmission of these exploits, and many others, is the Metasploit Framework. An example of this will be the easyftp_list.rb exploit that targets EasyFTP Server versions 1.7.0.11 and below. “EasyFTP fails to check input size when parsing the 'path' parameter supplied to an HTTP GET request, which leads to a stack based buffer overflow” (Metasplo...
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...he simulated attackers with the source code of the application. While this goes a step further than what a real-world attacker would have access to, it provides a significantly more thorough review of the code.
Works Cited
Abysssec Security Research. (2010 May 8). Past, Present, Future of Windows Exploitation. Retrieved March 8, 2011 from http://www.abysssec.com/blog/2010/05/past-present-future-of-windows-exploitation/
Metasploit. (2010 August 17). EasyFTP Server <= 1.7.0.11 list.html path Stack Buffer Overflow. Retrieved March 14, 2010 from http://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/16771/
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Wichers, Dave. (2010 October 16). OWASP Top 10 – 2010. Retrieved March 8, 2011 from https://owasptop10.googlecode.com/files/OWASP%20Top%2010%20-%202010.pdf
The Operating System (OS) is the heart of computer server and client systems; therefore they are the pivotal components of the Information Technology (IT) architecture. The OS contains the crucial data, information, and applications, which are vulnerable, and can be infiltrated to cripple the entire IT architecture of the organization. Therefore, it becomes mandatory to properly safeguard the OS from an internal or external intrusion (Stallings & Brown, 2012). This critical thinking report will highlight the security concerns that may impact the OS. Further, the security guidelines and best practices for the OS in general, along with the specific fundamentals regarding the Windows and Linux OS are comprehensively illustrated.
Scott Schober is an American businessman, cybersecurity expert, and CEO of Berkeley Vartironics Systems, a company that produces wireless analysis and threat detection systems. As a leading expert in security commonly seen on television and radio news shows, Schober is a frequent target for those he uncovers and defends against: hackers. In Hacked Again, Schober describes the feelings of panic and exposure that he felt after being hacked, imparts security knowledge and tips gained from working in the industry, and describes recent security breaches to help readers stay informed of how their information can be discovered and stolen in sometimes only a few clicks.
William C &, Dennis L &, Michael S (1996), Information Security Handbook, NY: MacMillian Press LTD
Multi-platform computer worms are a tool that computer hackers use to infect computers to gain control access. Computer worms are a dangerous virus because they are self-replicating, meaning that they multiply themselves and spread onto other computer networks seeking a lapse in internet security. Computer worms do not need to attach themselves onto an existing computer program to gain access to the victim computer files. The computer worm was created on accident by a Cornell student named Robert Morris; he was seeking a way of managing the internet in 1988. “Morris had no malicious intent, but a bug in his program caused many of the computers the worm landed on to crash. … but worms had come of age and have since evolved into an effective way of attacking systems connected to the internet” (Barwise). Today, hackers use the Morris worm to infect computers. “Five men believed to be responsible for spreading a notorious computer worm on Facebook and other social networks — and pocketing several million dollars from online schemes — are hiding in plain sight in St. Petersburg, Russia …” (Richmond). Since the good intended creation of the worm it has only been used maliciously as a computer virus by money seeking computer hackers such as the Koobface gang in Russia.
This mindset is actually one major problem with cybersecurity today. One form of attack is a buffer overflow attack. This cyber-attack involves corrupting the memory of a system in order to take control of the system. It was discovered that the stack structure of a computer’s memory can be exploited, but instead of implementing a new system, duct tape measures such as stack guards and canary words were added. As one would guess these obstacles make it harder for the attacker to corrupt memory, but there are still ways around them.
BRANDON, JOHN. "When Cybercriminals ATTACK." Computerworld 45.21 (2011): 26. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 6 Feb. 2014
Information technology is growing rapidly. Along with the rapid advancements, a large number of software security violations are taking place, which are causing an overwhelming impact on the organizations and the individuals. In the past few years many methods have been proposed to identify and prevent weaknesses in software programs. “Fuzzing was first proposed by Miller et.al in the year 1990 to detect software vulnerabilities” (Zhang, Liu, Lei, Kung, Csallner, Nystrom & Wang, 2012, p.102). In the process of detecting vulnerabilities the program inputs are changed to form different inputs to identify the various possible paths present in the program. The run time behavior of the programs are monitored on the different inputs to detect exceptions. If any exceptions are found then it can be said that weaknesses are present in the program and the software program is vulnerable.
Source code is the lifeblood of all high tech software organizations. If it falls into the wrong hands, a company will very likely experience damagingly costly repercussions. As a result, most tech companies invest a relatively large chunk of their revenues into network security.
[15] T. J. Klevinsky, Scott Laliberte, and Ajay Gupta. (2002). Hack I.T.: Security Through Penetration Testing. Addison-Wesley Professional.
Recently C++ has made its way into the Internet community. For over ten years, business’ have used C++ for their Internet needs, for example, sending and receiving important data pertaining to their business across the Internet and allowing it to quickly and safely reach the other end of communication and all in one piece. With the high demands of today’s Internet users, whether it be an online shopper or one that desires to seek information on a certain topic, it is essential that the information can be sent from the user, to the server, and then back again as swiftly as possible and with utmost dependability… all, of course, without the loss of security.
Hettinger, Mike, and Scott Bousum. "Cybersecurity." TechAmerica Cybersecurity Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. .
In fact, according to several studies, more than half of all network attacks are committed internally. To determine the best ways to protect against attacks, we should understand the many types of attacks that can be instigated and the damage that these attacks can cause to data. The most common types of attacks include Denial of Service (DoS), password, and root access attacks.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Harvey, Brian."Computer Hacking and Ethics." Ed. Paul Goodman, P.G. Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. U of California, Berkeley, n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2014.
...he Trojan horse, users should be familiar with all the programs that should normally run on their systems. Once there is an addition or alteration, it is easy to notice and investigate. Another technique that is often used by attackers involves using wrapping programs, that are combining both malicious and original code. Once run on the victim’s computer the program first installs malicious code, and then executes the original code.
Wee, H. (2014). How The Threat of Cyber Crime is Heightened for Mainstreet . CNBC .