1. Ethical Hacking
Introduction
The explosive growth of the Internet has brought many good things such as E-commerce-banking, E-
mail, Cloud Computing, but there is also a Dark side such as Hacking, Backdoors etc. Hacking is the
first big problem faced by Governments, companies, and private citizens around the world. Hacking
includes reading others e-mails, steal their credit card numbers from an on-line shopping site,
secretly transmitting secrets to the open Internet. An Ethical Hacker can help the people who are
suffered by this Hacking.
Ethical Hacking can be defined as a legal access of an Internet geek or group in any organization’s
online property after their official permission.
History
1960’s
The original mean of the word “HACK” started at MIT; meant ELEGANT.
1970’s
John Draper discovers a toy whistle can access AT&T’s long distance switching system.
Steve Wozniak the future of Apple Computer, make and sell blue boxes.
1983
Kids’ Games Movie “THE WAR GAMES” introduces public to hacking.
1989
German Hackers arrested for breaking into US Computer; sold information to Soviet.
1999
E-Commerce Company attacked; blackmail treats followed by 8 million Credit Card numbers
stolen.
2009
In ICICI bank hackers done withdrawal of money.
In London hackers hacked 1 Crore e-accounts of Hotmail.
Ethical Hackers and Hacking
Ethical Hackers
An ethical hacker is a computer and network expert who attacks a security system on behalf of its
owners, seeking vulnerabilities that a malicious hacker could exploit.
An ethical hacker is sometimes called a white hat, a term that comes from old Western movies,
where the "good guy" wore a white hat and the "bad guy" wore a black hat.
Ethical Hacking
2. Ethical hacking is also known as penetration testing, intrusion testing and red teaming. It is also
known as detecting, reporting, exploiting, security vulnerabilities.
In order for hacking to be deemed ethical, the hacker must obey the below rules.
1. You have permission to probe the network and attempt to identify potential security risks. It
is recommended that if you are the person performing the tests that you get written
consent.
2. You respect the individual's or company's privacy and only go looking for security issues.
3. You report all security vulnerabilities you detect to the company, not leaving anything open
for you or someone else to come in at a later time.
4. You let the software developer or hardware manufacturer know of any security
vulnerabilities you locate in their software or hardware if not already known by the company
Why do Hackers Attack?
There are many reasons why a hacker might attack a system. Some possibilities may include:
Obtain a company’s secrets or insider information.
Use the system’s hard drive for storage, often for pornography or stolen software.
Steal credit card numbers.
Steal passwords to other systems.
Use the computer in an attack on another computer or system.
To steal programs or files.
Read others’ email.
Stalking.
A challenge, or "to see if I can".
To impress other hackers.
Just something to do (boredom)
Clues and Signs of Hacking
Some signs that your computer or user account may have been hacked include:
Files disappear or are modified unexpectedly.
Strange files appear or grow in size unexpectedly.
Hard disk space shrinks without reason.
The computer slows considerably, or problems appear suddenly
Strange messages or dialog boxes appear on the screen.
The computer starts crashing frequently.
Programs stop working as expected.
Your internet connection slows dramatically for an extended period.
You notice your internet connection is in use, but you are not using it.
You get a phone call, letter, or email from your Internet service provider or administrator
noting strange activity.
Overview of Hacking Techniques
The depth and variety of techniques employed by hackers to illegally enter a computer system are
vast, for this reason I intend to provide a brief overview of some of the more common techniques
3. involved, without going into much detail on any particular technique.
Hacking a system is a two-step process, Gathering Information and Launching an Attack.
1. Gathering Information
A dedicated hacker may spend several months gathering information on the intended target
before launching an attack armed with this new information, but there are also more
remote methods available to the hacker.
Port Scanning: A port scanner is a program that automatically detects security
weaknesses in a remote system. Scanners are TCP port scanners, that attack TCP/IP
ports and services (Telnet or FTP, for example), and record the response from the
target. In this way, they learn valuable information about the targeted system such
as if whether or not the remote system will allow an anonymous user to log in, or
indeed if the system is protected by a firewall.
Many hackers simply type large amounts of IP addresses into a port-scanning
program and launch random attacks on many users simultaneously, hoping to strike
it lucky with that one system that shows a serious weakness.
Packet Sniffing: A sniffer is a piece of software that grabs information 'packets' that
travel along a network. That network could be running a protocol, such as Ethernet,
TCP/IP, IPX or others. The purpose of the sniffer is to place the network interface
into 'promiscuous' mode and by doing so, capture all network traffic. Looking into
packets can reveal valuable information like usernames, passwords, addresses or
the contents of e-mails.
2. Launching Attacks
There are many attacks employed by hackers. Here is an overview of just some of the more
common:
Denial of Service (DOS): A denial of service attack is basically an act of sabotage
against a service running on a port on a targeted system. The aim is to disable the
service, for example a web server, in order to prevent people from being able to
access that service remotely.
A typical denial of service attack would involve sending hundreds or even thousands
of connection requests to a single machine at any one time, causing the machine to
crash under the strain. A more advanced approach is to send corrupt connection
requests that exploit a flaw in the service software which fails to recognize the
malformed data when it attempts to process it, resulting in a system crash.
Password Cracking: A password cracker is a program that attempts to decrypt or
otherwise disable password protection. Often simulation tools are used to simulate
the same algorithm as the original password program. Through a comparative
analysis, these tools try to match encrypted versions of the password to the original.
Many password crackers are simply brute-force engines that try word after word
from a dictionary, often at very high speeds.
Packet Sequence Attacks: In packet sequence attacks, the hacker tries to guess the
random sequence number of TCP packets so that he/she can insert their own
4. packets into a connection stream. In this way the hacker can supply new corrupt
content between two hosts, while remaining largely anonymous.
Operating System Exploits: All operating systems (Windows NT, Unix, Red hat Linux
etc.) have their own specific vulnerabilities and bugs that need to be resolved by
'patching' the OS in order to keep it up to date. Unfortunately, many system
administrators neglect to do so frequently enough, leaving their systems open to
attack. Hackers, however, are very thorough in keeping abreast of all the possible
vulnerabilities in all operating systems.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Bounce Attacks: The main problem with FTP bounce
attacks is that the hacker can use the PORT command in active FTP mode in order to
establish connections with machines other the original FTP server, effectively
allowing the hacker's connection to 'bounce' off the FTP server to another clients
machine.
FTP Core Dumping: FTP core dumping enables the hacker to bring down the FTP
service. A core dump may be stored on an FTP readable area, where it can then be
retrieved in a following FTP session. The first few lines contain the password file that
can be cracked offline. Once the hacker has the password, they can impersonate a
legitimate user and remove, update or delete files at will.
Safety Tips
Personal Information. Don’t give out personal information. This means you should not share
your last name, home address, school name, or telephone number. Remember, just because
someone asks for information about you does not mean you have to tell them anything about
yourself!
Screen Name. When creating your screen name, do not include personal information like your
last name or date of birth.
Passwords. Don’t share your password with anyone but your parents. When you use a public
computer make sure you logout of the accounts you’ve accessed before leaving the terminal.
Photos. Don’t post photos or videos online/ if u post, make it sure it is visible only to friends.
Online Friends. Don’t agree to meet an online friend. Unfortunately, sometimes people pretend
to be people they aren't. Remember that not everything you read online is true.
Online Ads. Don’t buy anything online without making sure about that is it genuine. Some ads
may try to trick you by offering free things or telling you that you have won something as a way
of collecting your personal information.
Downloading. Attachments sometimes contain viruses. Never open an attachment from
someone you don’t know.
5. Bullying. Don’t send or respond to mean or insulting messages.
Social Networking. Many social networking websites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Second Life and
MySpace) and blog hosting websites have minimum age requirements to signup. These
requirements are there to protect you!
Research. Talk to your librarian, teacher or parent about safe and accurate websites for
research. The public library offers lots of resources. If you use online information in your
projects make sure you explain where you got the information
Statistics
Actual Annual cost of Cyber Crime rose to $114 billion/year in 2012 from $67.2 billion/year in 2007.
The above statistics is when only 9% Indian are using internet whereas in US, 70-85% Americans are
using Internet, and sorry to say this but around 80% persons involved in this are aging between 18-
25 years.
Crime rate is at 300% per year in India.
7. Tips – How to do Ethical Hacking
So first you should be very patient with this and try not to do anything too stupid and get yourself in
trouble.Keep in mind that this does not come instantly, it comes over years of practice
Steps
1. Learn how to code: Learn how to code in C++ is a good start. Find a good C++ website.
2. Learn how to use command prompt: The command prompt is one of the most important
things to become hacker. It will help a lot if you learn this early on.
3. Act like a hacker: Being a hacker doesn’t necessarily make you a computer nerd, so don’t act
like one. Showing off to your friends is nice and all but real about it 24/7 makes you lame
and socially awkward. So don’t make hackers look lame. Just be cool about it.
4. When you learn how to program, the best thing to hack is yourself: Doing so can help you
keep your system safe and help you learn how to hack other systems.
5. Communicate with other hackers:. Doing so may help you get a good reputation amongst
the hackers’ society and if you are lucky they might just teach you a few things while you are
there.
Disclaimer: Persons will be responsible for their act.
Real life Cases – To be discussed in presentation.
Conclusion:
The research paper concludes on a note that good auditing and consideration of security measures
from time to time and vigilance intrusion detecting and good systems administration can be very
effective ways of securing and fortifying the company’s network.