Ethical Hacking: Techniques, Tools, and Countermeasures, 4th Edition

Backdoors

Many attackers gain access to their target system through a backdoor. The owner of a system compromised in this way may have no indication that someone else is even using the system.

Typically, a backdoor will achieve one or more of three key goals:

• Provide the ability to access a system regardless of security measures that an administrator may implement to prevent such access.

• Provide the ability to gain access to a system while keeping a low profile. This would allow an attacker to access a system and circumvent logging and other detective methods.

• Provide the ability to access a system with minimal effort in the minimum amount of time. Under the right conditions, a backdoor will allow the attacker to gain access to a system ...