The Quest for Root

• In 1969 Ken Thompson, and Denis Ritchie hacked up MULTICS (Multiplexed Information and computing System) and created UNIX
• Early UNIX environments were located in Bell Labs or in a university

Vulnerability Mapping

• Is the process of mapping specific security attributes of a system to an associated vulnerability or potential vulnerability

Methods of Vulnerability Mapping

• Manually map specific system attributes against publicity available sources of vulnerability information
• Use public exploit code posted to various security mailing lists and any number of websites, or develop own code
• Use automated vulnerability scanning tools, such as Nessus to identify true vulnerabilities

Remote Access

• Defined as gaining access via the network or other communication channel.

Local Access

• Defined as having an actual command shell or login to the system
• Also referred to a privilege escalation attacks

Remote Access

• 4 methods to exploit UNIX
  • Exploiting a listening service
  • Routing through a UNIX system that is providing security between two or more networks
  • UI remote access execution attacks
  • Exploiting a process or program that has placed the network interface card into promiscuous mode

ATTACKS and Countermeasures

Brute-force Attacks

• Most basic form of attack
• Most Common types of services attacked
  • telnet
  • FTP
  • Secure Shell
  • POP and IMAP

Brute-force Countermeasures

• Using a operating system that offers a service that strengthens passwords like Solaris 10
  • PASSLENGTH
  • MINWEEK
  • MAXWEEK
  • WARNWEEK
  • ETC

Buffer Overflow Attacks

• Buffer overflow condition
• Occurs when a user or attempts to place more data into a buffer than previously allocated
• Echo “vrfy ‘perl –e ‘print “a” x 1000’ ’ ”

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