Understanding network security requires you to understand the following terms: threat, vulnerability, attack surface, exploit, and risk. Risk management is the process that balances the operational costs of providing protective measures with the gains achieved by protecting the asset. Four common ways to manage risk are risk acceptance, risk avoidance, risk reduction, and risk transfer. Hacker is a term used to describe a threat actor. White hat hackers are ethical hackers using their skills for good, ethical, and legal purposes. Grey hat hackers are individuals who commit crimes and do unethical things, but not for personal gain or to cause damage. Black hat hackers are criminals who violate computer and network security for personal gain, or for malicious reasons, such as attacking networks. Threat actors include script kiddies, vulnerability brokers, hacktivists, cybercriminals, and state-sponsored hackers. Many network attacks can be prevented by sharing information about indicators of compromise (IOC). Many governments are promoting cybersecurity. CISA and NCSA are examples of such organizations.
| Categories of Tools | Description |
|---|---|
| password crackers | Passwords are the most vulnerable security threat. Password cracking tools are often referred to as password recovery tools and can be used to crack or recover the password. This is accomplished either by removing the original password, after bypassing the data encryption, or by outright discovery of the password. Password crackers repeatedly make guesses in order to crack the password and access the system. Examples of password cracking tools include John the Ripper, Ophcrack, L0phtCrack, THC Hydra, RainbowCrack, and Medusa. |
| wireless hacking tools | Wireless networks are more susceptible to network security threats. Wireless hacking tools are used to intentionally hack into a wireless network to detect security vulnerabilities. Examples of wireless hacking tools include Aircrack-ng, Kismet, InSSIDer, KisMAC, Firesheep, and NetStumbler. |
| network scanning and hacking tools | Network scanning tools are used to probe network devices, servers, and hosts for open TCP or UDP ports. Examples of scanning tools include Nmap, SuperScan, Angry IP Scanner, and NetScanTools. |
| packet crafting tools | Packet crafting tools are used to probe and test a firewall’s robustness using specially crafted forged packets. Examples of such tools include Hping, Scapy, Socat, Yersinia, Netcat, Nping, and Nemesis. |
| packet sniffers | Packet sniffers tools are used to capture and analyze packets within traditional Ethernet LANs or WLANs. Tools include Wireshark, Tcpdump, Ettercap, Dsniff, EtherApe, Paros, Fiddler, Ratproxy, and SSLstrip. |
| rootkit detectors | A rootkit detector is a directory and file integrity checker used by white hats to detect installed root kits. Example tools include AIDE, Netfilter, and PF: OpenBSD Packet Filter. |
| fuzzers to search vulnerabilities | Fuzzers are tools used by threat actors when attempting to discover a computer system’s security vulnerabilities. Examples of fuzzers include Skipfish, Wapiti, and W3af. |
| forensic tools | White hat hackers use forensic tools to sniff out any trace of evidence existing in a particular computer system. Example of tools include Sleuth Kit, Helix, Maltego, and Encase. |
| debuggers | Debugger tools are used by black hats to reverse engineer binary files when writing exploits. They are also used by white hats when analyzing malware. Debugging tools include GDB, WinDbg, IDA Pro, and Immunity Debugger. |
| hacking operating systems | Hacking operating systems are specially designed operating systems preloaded with tools and technologies optimized for hacking. Examples of specially designed hacking operating systems include Kali Linux, SELinux, Knoppix, Parrot OS, and BackBox Linux. |
| encryption tools | These tools safeguard the contents of an organization’s data when it is stored or transmitted. Encryption tools use algorithm schemes to encode the data to prevent unauthorized access to the data. Examples of these tools include VeraCrypt, CipherShed, Open SSH, OpenSSL, OpenVPN, and Stunnel. |
| vulnerability exploitation tools | These tools identify whether a remote host is vulnerable to a security attack. Examples of vulnerability exploitation tools include Metasploit, Core Impact, Sqlmap, Social Engineer Tool Kit, and Netsparker. |
| vulnerability scanners | These tools scan a network or system to identify open ports. They can also be used to scan for known vulnerabilities and scan VMs, BYOD devices, and client databases. Examples of these tools include Nipper, Securia PSI, Core Impact, Nessus, SAINT, and Open VAS. |
Note: There are many tools available on the internet to create ARP MiTM attacks including dsniff, Cain & Abel, ettercap, Yersinia, and others.