Enhance Your CEH Skills with Module 5: Vulnerability Analysis

CEH Module 5: Vulnerability Analysis begins with an introduction to vulnerability assessment concepts, delving into aspects such as vulnerability scoring systems, databases, and the life cycle of vulnerability management. It further explores different strategies and tools for conducting vulnerability assessments. This knowledge is crucial for understanding attackers’ tools and techniques for quality vulnerability analysis. This module ends with learning how to review vulnerability assessment reports. These reports are crucial for ethical hackers to fix the security weaknesses they have found.

What is Vulnerability?

Imagine your house with all its doors and windows. A vulnerability in cybersecurity is like a window left unlocked or a door that doesn’t quite close right. It’s a weak spot where a burglar — in this case, a hacker — could get in to steal things or cause trouble. Just like you’d fix a faulty lock to protect your home, fixing a vulnerability in a computer system helps keep digital information safe from people who aren’t supposed to access it.

Common reasons behind the existence of vulnerability

• Incorrect configurations of hardware or software.
• Networks and applications that are designed without adequate security measures.
• Fundamental weaknesses that are an intrinsic part of the technology.
• Negligent behavior by the users of the system.

Examples of Vulnerabilities

Technological Vulnerabilities

• TCP/IP protocol vulnerabilities: Protocols like HTTP, FTP, ICMP, SNMP, and SMTP have built-in security weaknesses.
• Operating System vulnerabilities: An Operating System (OS) may be prone to attacks if it’s fundamentally insecure or not regularly updated with patches.
• Network Device Vulnerabilities: Network devices such as routers, firewalls, and switches are susceptible to attacks due to unprotected passwords, lack of authentication, insecure routing protocols, and firewall weaknesses.

Configuration Vulnerabilities

• User account vulnerabilities: These occur due to the unsecured transmission of login details, like usernames and passwords, across the network.
• System account vulnerabilities: Weak passwords for system accounts can lead to vulnerabilities.
• Internet service misconfiguration: Incorrect settings in internet services, such as enabling JavaScript or misconfiguring IIS, Apache, FTP, and Terminal services, can introduce security gaps in the network.
• Default password and settings: Network devices are at risk when they retain their factory default passwords and settings.
• Network device misconfiguration: Incorrect configuration of network devices can lead to security vulnerabilities.

Vulnerability Research

Vulnerability Research is like checking a house’s doors, windows, and walls to find any weak spots using which a thief or attacker might break in. Similarly, computer systems have vulnerabilities ranging from minor problems to major security gaps. Some security gaps might let a hacker enter just one computer, while others could allow access to the entire network anywhere. Vulnerabilities are categorized by their severity (low, medium, or high) and the scope of potential exploitation (local or remote). Administrators perform vulnerability research for the following reasons:

• To collect data on security trends, potential threats, attack surfaces, and the methods employed in attacks.
• To identify weaknesses within the operating system and applications, allowing network administrators to be pre-warned before any network attacks occur.
• To acquire knowledge that supports the prevention of security breaches.
• To understand the necessary steps to recover from a network intrusion.

Vulnerability Analysis or Vulnerability Assessment

A vulnerability assessment is like a thorough health check-up for a computer system or app to see how well it can protect itself against hackers. It’s like figuring out where the weak spots are and how serious they might be, whether in the system itself, its network, or how people send messages to each other.

When you do a vulnerability assessment, you’re looking to:

• Spot any weak points that a hacker might take advantage of.
• Guess how well new safety steps protect the system’s information from cyber-attacks.

And when you use a unique tool to check for these weak spots, you’ll find out things like:

• Where the system might be open to attack.
• If any ‘doors’ or ‘windows’ are left open (like unused computer ports or services that shouldn’t be running).
• Are there any issues with the apps and services that might let a hacker in?
• Mistakes made in setting up these apps and services could lead to trouble.

When looking for security vulnerabilities in a network, there are two types of scanning which is used for vulnerability assessment:

• Active Scanning is like knocking on every door and window to see if any of them are weak or will open easily, which might let a burglar in. It’s a hands-on approach where you’re actively trying to find weak spots by simulating what a hacker might do.
• Passive Scanning is more like sitting back and watching a building to see what doors people use, what security guards do, and noticing if a window is left open now and then. You’re not touching anything; you’re just observing to find out what could be a weak spot without alerting anyone inside that you’re checking.

To be continued….

Vulnerability Scoring Systems and Database

CEH with InfosecTrain

Ethical hacking is a complex and multi-phase process that requires deep knowledge and security certifications. Professionals can improve their security assessment and network architecture skills through ethical hacking courses, such as the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH v12) training provided by InfosecTrain. This training provides individuals with the essential skills and methods needed to perform sanctioned hacking into organizations.

TRAINING CALENDAR of Upcoming Batches For CEH v13

AUTHOR
Pooja Rawat ( )

“ My name is Pooja Rawat. I have done my B.tech in Instrumentation engineering. My hobbies are reading novels and gardening. I like to learn new things and challenges. Currently I am working as a Cyber security Research analyst in Infosectrain. “