Planning and Performing Attacks

Planning and Performing Attacks
Hacking styles vary widely:
Some hackers prepare far in advance of a large attack. They gather
small bits of information and methodically carry out their hacks, as I
outline in Chapter 4. These hackers are more difficult to track.
Other hackers — usually, the inexperienced script kiddies — act
before they think things through. For example, such hackers may try to
telnet directly into an organization’s router without hiding their identities.
Other hackers may try to launch a DoS attack against a Microsoft
Exchange e-mail server without first determining what version of
Exchange is running or what patches are installed.
These are the guys who usually get caught.
Although the hacker underground is a community, many of the hackers —
especially the elite hackers — don’t share information with the crowd. Most
hackers do much of their work independently from other hackers. Hackers
who network with one another use private bulletin board systems (BBSs),
anonymous e-mail addresses, hacker Web sites, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
You can log on to many of these sites to see what hackers are doing.
Whatever approach they take, most malicious hackers prey on ignorance.
They know the following aspects of real-world security:
The majority of systems that hackers want to attack aren’t managed
properly. The computer systems aren’t properly patched, hardened, and
monitored as they should be. Hackers often can attack by flying below
the average radar of the firewalls, IDSs, and authentication systems.
26 Part I: Building the Foundation for Ethical Hacking
Hacking in the name of liberty
Many hackers exhibit behaviors that contradict
what they’re fighting for — that is, they fight for
civil liberties and want to be left alone, and at the
same time, they love prying into other people’s
business. Many hackers claim to be civil libertarians
supporting the principles of personal privacy
and freedom. However, they act in an
entirely different way by intruding on the privacy
and property of others. They often steal the
property and rights of others, yet are willing to
go to great lengths to get their own rights back
from anyone who tries to take them away.
The case against copyrighted materials and
the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) is a classic example. Hackers have gone
to great lengths to prove a point, from defacing
the Web sites of organizations that support copyrights
to illegally sharing music by using otherwise
legal mediums such as Kazaa, Gnutella,
and Morpheus.
Most network and security administrators simply can’t keep up with the
deluge of new vulnerabilities.
Information systems grow more complex every year. This is yet another
reason why overburdened administrators find it difficult to know what’s
happening across the wire and on the hard drives of their systems.
Time is a hacker’s friend — and it always seems to be on the hacker’s side. By
attacking through computers rather than in person, hackers have more control
over when they can carry out their attacks.
Hack attacks can be carried out slowly, making them hard to detect.
They’re frequently carried out after typical business hours — often, in
the middle of the night. Defenses are often weaker at night — with less
physical security and less intrusion monitoring — when the typical network
administrator (or security guard) is sleeping.
If you want detailed information on how some hackers work or want to keep
up with the latest hacker methods, several magazines are worth checking out:
2600 — The Hacker Quarterly magazine (www.2600.com). I’ve found gobs
of great information in 2600.
PHRACK (www.phrack.org).
Computer Underground Digest (www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest).
Also, check out Lance Spitzner’s Web site www.tracking-hackers.com for
some great information on using honeypots to track hacker behavior.
Hackers learn from their hacking mistakes. Every mistake moves them one
step closer to breaking into someone’s system. They use this wisdom when
carrying out future attacks.