David Dodd

Intrusion detection tools that use the libpcap C/ C++ library [1] for network traffic capture (such as Snort [2] and Tcpdump [1]) can output packet capture information to a file for later reference. The format of this capture file is known as pcap. By capturing packet data to a file, an investigator can return later to study the history of an intrusion attempt – or to turn up other important clues about clandestine activity on the network. Of course, the traffic history data stored in a pcap file is much too vast to study by just viewing the file manually. Security experts use specialized filtering tools to search through the file for pertinent information. One way to look for clues in a pcap file is to use the Wireshark protocol analysis tool [3] and its accompanying command-line utility tshark. Wireshark is included by default on many Linux distros, and if not, it i... (more)

Planning, Scoping and Recon Techniques

The purpose of this article is to describe some tools and techniques in performing the planning, scoping, and recon portion of a penetration test. In covering these tools and techniques the reader will learn how to use them to find vulnerabilities in their organization and help improve security posture. Some other names for this first phase of penetration testing are; OSINT (Open Source Intelligence), Footprinting, Discovery, and Cyberstalking. Introduction During reconnaissance we'll gather information from public sources to learn about the target and try to find what is importan... (more)

RDP Exploitation Using Cain

The Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) provides remote display and input capabilities over network connections for Windows-based applications running on a server.  RDP is designed to support different types of network topologies and multiple LAN protocols.  Remote Desktop Services formerly know as Terminal Services on Windows 2000 Server allow a server to host multiple, simultaneous client sessions.  Remote Desktop uses Remote Desktop Services technology to allow a single session to run remotely.  Thus a user can connect to a Remote Desktop Session Host server by using Remot... (more)

Tutorial: OpenSSL Command

The OpenSSL is based on SSLeay library developed by Eric A. Young and Tim J. Hudson and licensed under an Apache-style license. OpenSSL has lots of features but I will cover encoding, checksums, encryption, passwords and pass phrases. Many Linux distributions have OpenSSL as part of the bundled packages and is most likely located in /usr/bin. To find it on your system type: $ which openssl /usr/bin/openssl $ openssl version OpenSSL 1.0.0a 1 Jun 2010 Versions may vary and currently openssl-1.0.0d Feb 8 is the current version. Most of the examples that are found in this document sh... (more)

Post Exploitation Using Metasploit Pivot and Port Forward

The Metasploit Framework is a penetration testing toolkit, exploit development platform, and research tool. The framework includes hundreds of working remote exploits for a variety of platforms. Payloads, encoders, and nop slide generators can be mixed and matched with exploit modules to solve almost any exploit-related task. A very nice feature in Metasploit is the ability to pivot through a Meterpreter session to the network on the other side. This tutorial walks you through how this is done once you have a Meterpreter session on a foreign box. We begin right after a client sid... (more)