Counter Hack Reloaded: A Step-by-Step Guide to Computer Attacks and Effective Defenses, Second Edition

12 Putting It All Together: Anatomy of an Attack

We’ve discussed a variety of different tools and the ways in which they are utilized to construct attacks. The five steps of an attack discussed throughout this book are useful in understanding how the tools interrelate and seeing how most attacks are organized. However, don’t think that every attacker follows with exactitude this step-by-step approach. It is important to note that attackers, particularly the more sophisticated ones, are very pragmatic. Although many incidents follow the five steps we’ve outlined, pragmatic attackers use whichever step and whichever tool best suits their needs at a given time for a given target.

For example, if attackers have already gained access on a given machine, ...