L'art De séduire

T

o have secure operating systems and applications, you need a secure

network. Devices such as routers, firewalls, and even generic hosts

(including servers and workstations) must be assessed as part of the ethical

hacking process.

There are thousands of possible network vulnerabilities, equally as many

tools, and even more testing techniques. You probably don’t have the time or

resources available to test your network infrastructure systems for all possible

vulnerabilities, using every tool and method imaginable. Instead, you

need to focus on tests that will produce a good overall assessment of your

network — and the tests I describe in this chapter produce exactly that.

You can eliminate many well-known, network-related vulnerabilities by simply

patching your network hosts with the latest vendor software and firmware

updates. Because most network infrastructure systems aren’t publicly accessible,

odds are good that your network hosts will not be attacked from the outside.

Even when they are, the results aren’t likely to be detrimental. You can

eliminate many other vulnerabilities by following some solid security practices

on your network, as described in this chapter. The tests, tools, and techniques

outlined in this chapter offer the most bang for your ethical hacking buck.

The better you understand network protocols, the easier network vulnerability

testing is because network protocols are the foundation for most information

security concepts. If you’re a little fuzzy on how networks work, I highly

encourage you to read TCP/IP For Dummies, 6th Edition, by Candace Leiden

and Marshall Wilensky. TCP/IP For Dummies is one of the original books that

helped me develop my foundation of networking concepts early on. The

Request for Comments (RFCs) list on the Official Internet Protocol Standards

page, www.rfc-editor.org/rfcxx00.html, is a good reference as well.

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