Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

1. Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition Chapter 2 Systems Threats and Risks

2. Objectives • Describe the different types of software-based attacks • List types of hardware attacks • Define virtualization and explain how attackers are targeting virtual systems Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

3. Software-Based Attacks • Malicious software, or malware • Software that enters a computer system without the owner’s knowledge or consent • Malware is a general term that refers to a wide variety of damaging or annoying software • The three primary objectives of malware • To infect a computer system • Conceal the malware’s malicious actions • Bring profit from the actions that it performs Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

4. Infecting Malware • Viruses • Programs that secretly attach to another document or program and execute when that document or program is opened • Once a virus infects a computer, it performs two separate tasks • Replicates itself by spreading to other computers • Activates its malicious payload • Cause problems ranging from displaying an annoying message to erasing files from a hard drive or causing a computer to crash repeatedly Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

5. Infecting Malware (continued) Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

6. Infecting Malware (continued) • Types of computer viruses • File infector virus • Resident virus • Boot virus • Companion virus • Macro virus • Metamorphic viruses • Avoid detection by altering how they appear • Polymorphic viruses • Also encrypt their content differently each time Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

7. Infecting Malware (continued) • Worm • Program designed to take advantage of a vulnerability in an application or an operating system in order to enter a system • Worms are different from viruses in two regards: • A worm can travel by itself • A worm does not require any user action to begin its execution • Actions that worms have performed: deleting files on the computer; allowing the computer to be remote-controlled by an attacker Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

8. Concealing Malware • Trojan Horse (or just Trojan) • Program advertised as performing one activity that but actually does something else • Trojan horse programs are typically executable programs that contain hidden code that attack the computer system • Rootkit • A set of software tools used by an intruder to break into a computer, obtain special privileges to perform unauthorized functions, and then hide all traces of its existence Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

9. Concealing Malware (continued) • Rootkit (continued) • The rootkit’s goal is to hide the presence of other types of malicious software • Rootkits function by replacing operating system commands with modified versions • That are specifically designed to ignore malicious activity so it can escape detection • Detecting a rootkit can be difficult • Removing a rootkit from an infected computer is extremely difficult • You need to reformat the hard drive and reinstall the operating system Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

10. RootKit Analyzers Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

11. Concealing Malware (continued) • Logic bomb • A computer program or a part of a program that lies dormant until it is triggered by a specific logical event • Once triggered, the program can perform any number of malicious activities • Logic bombs are extremely difficult to detect before they are triggered • Privilege escalation • Exploiting a vulnerability in software to gain access to resources that the user would normally be restricted from obtaining Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

12. Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

13. Concealing Malware (continued) • Types of privilege escalation • When a user with a lower privilege uses privilege escalation to access functions reserved for higher privilege users • When a user with restricted privileges accesses the different restricted functions of a similar user Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

14. Malware for Profit • Spam • Unsolicited e-mail • Sending spam is a lucrative business • Costs involved for spamming: • E-mail addresses • Equipment and Internet connection • Text-based spam messages can easily by trapped by special filters • Image spam uses graphical images of text in order to circumvent text-based filters Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

15. Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

16. Malware for Profit (continued) • Other techniques used by spammers include: • GIF layering • Word splitting • Geometric variance Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

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18. Malware for Profit (continued) Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

19. Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

20. Malware for Profit (continued) • Image spam cannot be easily filtered based on the content of the message • To detect image spam, one approach is to examine the context of the message and create a profile, asking questions such as: • Who sent the message? • What is known about the sender? • Where does the user go if she responds to this e-mail? • What is the nature of the message content? • How is the message technically constructed? Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

21. Malware for Profit (continued) • Spyware • A general term used for describing software that imposes upon a user’s privacy or security • Antispyware Coalition defines spyware as: • Technologies that are deployed without the user’s consent and impair the user’s control over: • Use of their system resources, including what programs are installed on their computers • Collection, use, and distribution of their personal or other sensitive information • Material changes that affect their user experience, privacy, or system security Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

22. Malware for Profit (continued) • Spyware has two characteristics that make it very dangerous • Spyware creators are motivated by profit • Spyware is often more intrusive than viruses, harder to detect, and more difficult to remove • Spyware is not always easy to identify • Spyware is very widespread • Although attackers use several different spyware tools • The two most common are adware and keyloggers Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals

23. Spyware Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH-5kcx_J3A Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

24. Malware for Profit (continued) Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

25. Malware for Profit (continued) • Adware • A software program that delivers advertising content in a manner that is unexpected and unwanted by the user • Adware can be a security risk • Many adware programs perform a tracking function • Monitors and tracks a user’s activities • Sends a log of these activities to third parties without the user’s authorization or knowledge Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

26. Malware for Profit (continued) • Keylogger • A small hardware device or a program that monitors each keystroke a user types on the computer’s keyboard • As the user types, the keystrokes are collected and saved as text • As a hardware device, a keylogger is a small device inserted between the keyboard connector and computer keyboard port Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

27. Malware for Profit (continued) Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

28. Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

29. Malware for Profit (continued) • Software keyloggers • Programs that silently capture all keystrokes, including passwords and sensitive information • Hide themselves so that they cannot be easily detected even if a user is searching for them Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

30. Keylogger Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

31. Malware for Profit (continued) Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

32. Malware for Profit (continued) • Botnets • When hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of zombie computers are under the control of an attacker • Zombie • An infected computer with a program that will allow the attacker to remotely control it • Attackers use Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to remotely control the zombies • Attacker is knows as a bot herder Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

33. http://www.identitytheftblog.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/botnets2.jpghttp://www.identitytheftblog.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/botnets2.jpg Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

34. Malware for Profit (continued) Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

35. 10 Most Destructive Viruseshttp://www.crn.com/security/190300322;jsessionid=3QXLZZJOA5GQ3QE1GHPCKHWATMY32JVN?pgno=3 • CIH (Chernobyl)(1998) – 20 – 80 mil. Dollars damage – file infector virus – Win 95,98, and ME executables. Overwrites BIOS. Distributed in Freeware games. • Melissa (1999) – 300 – 600 million. Macro virus. • ILOVEYOU (2000) 10 – 15 billion dollars. Worm. VisualBasic script. Similar to Melissa in execution. Also overwrote music and image files. • Code Red (2001) 2.6 billion. Worm. Exploited hole in IIS (there was a patch for it that most folks hadn’t downloaded). Infected web servers and sites and then find other servers to infect. After 20 days, launched a DOS attack on McAfee and White House.

36. 10 Most Destructive Viruses SQL Slammer (2003) – Worm. 500,000 servers world wide, shut down S. Korea’s online capacity for 12 hours. Spread by searching randomly generated IP addresses running unpatched M/S SQL Blaster (2003) 2 – 10 billion dollars. Worm. Exploited vulnerability in Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Also had code that triggered DOS on Windowsupdate.com. Sobig (2003) Worm. 5 – 10 billion dollars. Generated 1 million copies of itself in 24 hours. Created email attachments like application.pif and thank_you.pif. When activated, sent out to eamil addresses. Microsoft announced a 250K bounty for the writer, who has yet to be caught. Bagle (2004) – Worm, email, with 60 – 100 variants when it infects a PC. Opens backdoor to TCP port that can be used by remote users to access data on the user’s infected PC. Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

37. 10 Most Destructive Viruses MyDoom (2004) – worm. At its peak, slowed global Internet performance by 10 percent and Web load times by up to 50 percent. Transmitted via email addresses in address book. Security experts have speculated that one in every 10 e-mail messages sent during the first hours of infection contained the virus. Sasser (2004) – worm. Tens of millions of dollars. Sasser was not transmitted via e-mail and required no user interaction to spread. Caused systems to crash. Written by 17-year old German high school student. Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

38. Hardware-Based Attacks • Hardware that often is the target of attacks includes the BIOS, USB devices, network attached storage, and even cell phones Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

39. BIOS • Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) • A coded program embedded on the processor chip that recognizes and controls different devices on the computer system • Executed when the computer system is first turned on and provides low-level access to the hard disk, video, and keyboard • On older computer systems the BIOS was a Read Only Memory (ROM) chip • Today’s computer systems have a PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory) chip Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

40. BIOS (continued) • Because it can be flashed, the BIOS can be the object of attacks • One virus overwrites the contents of the BIOS and the first part of the hard disk drive, rendering the computer completely dead • An attacker could infect a computer with a virus and then flash the BIOS to install a rootkit on the BIOS Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

41. USB Devices • USB devices use flash memory • Flash memory is a type of EEPROM, nonvolatile computer memory that can be electrically erased and rewritten repeatedly • USB devices are widely used to spread malware • Also, USB devices allow spies or disgruntled employees to copy and steal sensitive corporate data • In addition, data stored on USB devices can be lost or fall into the wrong hands Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

42. USB Devices (continued) • To reduce the risk introduced by USB devices: • Disable the USB in hardware • Disable the USB through the operating system • Use third-party software Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

43. Disabling USB in Registry

44. Network Attached Storage (NAS) • Storage Area Network (SAN) • Specialized high-speed network for attaching servers to storage devices • SAN can be shared between servers and can be local or extended over geographical distances • Network Attached Storage (NAS) • Another type of network storage • Single, dedicated hard disk-based file storage device that provides centralized and consolidated disk storage available to LAN users through a standard network connection Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

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46. Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

47. Network Attached Storage (NAS) (continued) • Advantages to using NAS devices on a network • Offer the ability to easily expand storage requirements • Allow for the consolidation of storage • The operating system on NAS devices can be either a standard operating system, a proprietary operating system, or a “stripped-down” operating system with many of the standard features omitted • NAS security is implemented through the standard operating system security features Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

48. Cell Phones • Cellular telephones (cell phones) • Portable communication devices that function in a manner that is unlike wired telephones • Two keys to cellular telephone networks • Coverage area is divided into smaller individual sections called cells • All of the transmitters and cell phones operate at a low power level Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

49. Cell Phones (continued) • Almost all cell phones today have the ability to send and receive text messages and connect to the Internet • Types of attacks • Lure users to malicious Web sites • Infect a cell phone • Launch attacks on other cell phones • Access account information • Abuse the cell phone service Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition

50. Attacks on Virtualized Systems • Just as attacks can be software-based or hardware-based, attacks can also target software that is emulating hardware • This type of software, known as virtualization, is becoming one of the prime targets of attackers Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, Third Edition