Hack the Stack

Hack the Stack

by Stephen Watkins, George Mays, Ronald M. Bandes, Brandon Franklin, Michael Gregg, Chris Ries
Released November 2006
Publisher(s): Syngress
ISBN: 9780080507743

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Book description

This book looks at network security in a new and refreshing way. It guides readers step-by-step through the "stack" -- the seven layers of a network. Each chapter focuses on one layer of the stack along with the attacks, vulnerabilities, and exploits that can be found at that layer. The book even includes a chapter on the mythical eighth layer: The people layer.

This book is designed to offer readers a deeper understanding of many common vulnerabilities and the ways in which attacker’s exploit, manipulate, misuse, and abuse protocols and applications. The authors guide the readers through this process by using tools such as Ethereal (sniffer) and Snort (IDS). The sniffer is used to help readers understand how the protocols should work and what the various attacks are doing to break them. IDS is used to demonstrate the format of specific signatures and provide the reader with the skills needed to recognize and detect attacks when they occur.

What makes this book unique is that it presents the material in a layer by layer approach which offers the readers a way to learn about exploits in a manner similar to which they most likely originally learned networking. This methodology makes this book a useful tool to not only security professionals but also for networking professionals, application programmers, and others. All of the primary protocols such as IP, ICMP, TCP are discussed but each from a security perspective. The authors convey the mindset of the attacker by examining how seemingly small flaws are often the catalyst of potential threats. The book considers the general kinds of things that may be monitored that would have alerted users of an attack.

* Remember being a child and wanting to take something apart, like a phone, to see how it worked? This book is for you then as it details how specific hacker tools and techniques accomplish the things they do.

* This book will not only give you knowledge of security tools but will provide you the ability to design more robust security solutions

* Anyone can tell you what a tool does but this book shows you how the tool works

Table of contents

  1. Cover image
  2. Title page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Copyright page
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Lead Author
  7. Contributing Authors
  8. Technical Editor
  9. Foreword
  10. Chapter 1: Extending OSI to Network Security
    1. Introduction
    2. Our Approach to This Book
    3. Common Stack Attacks
    4. Mapping OSI to TCP/IP
    5. The Current State of IT Security
    6. Using the Information in This Book
    7. Summary
    8. Solutions Fast Track
    9. Frequently Asked Questions
  11. Chapter 2: Layer 1: The Physical Layer
    1. Introduction
    2. Defending the Physical Layer
    3. Attacking the Physical Layer
    4. Layer 1 Security Project
    5. Summary
    6. Solutions Fast Track
    7. Frequently Asked Questions
  12. Chapter 3: Layer 2: The Data Link Layer
    1. Introduction
    2. Ethernet and the Data Link Layer
    3. Understanding PPP and SLIP
    4. Working with a Protocol Analyzer
    5. Understanding How ARP Works
    6. Attacking the Data Link Layer
    7. Defending the Data Link Layer
    8. Securing Your Network from Sniffers
    9. Employing Detection Techniques
    10. Data Link Layer Security Project
    11. Using the Auditor Security Collection to Crack WEP
    12. Summary
    13. Solutions Fast Track
    14. Frequently Asked Questions
  13. Chapter 4: Layer 3: The Network Layer
    1. Introduction
    2. The IP Packet Structure
    3. The ICMP Packet Structure
    4. Attacking the Network Layer
    5. Defending the Network Layer
    6. Network Layer Security Project
    7. Summary
    8. Solutions Fast Track
    9. Frequently Asked Questions
  14. Chapter 5: Layer 4: The Transport Layer
    1. Introduction
    2. Connection-Oriented versus Connectionless Protocols
    3. Protocols at the Transport Layer
    4. The Hacker’s Perspective
    5. Scanning the Network
    6. Operating System Fingerprinting
    7. Detecting Scans on Your Network
    8. Defending the Transport Layer
    9. Transport Layer Project — Setting Up Snort
    10. Summary
    11. Solutions Fast Track
    12. Frequently Asked Questions
  15. Chapter 6: Layer 5: The Session Layer
    1. Introduction
    2. Attacking the Session Layer
    3. Defending the Session Layer
    4. Session Layer Security Project
    5. Summary
    6. Solutions Fast Track
    7. Frequently Asked Questions
  16. Chapter 7: Layer 6: The Presentation Layer
    1. Introduction
    2. The Structure of NetBIOS and SMB
    3. Attacking the Presentation Layer
    4. Defending the Presentation Layer
    5. Presentation Layer Security Project
    6. Summary
    7. Solutions Fast Track
    8. Frequently Asked Questions
  17. Chapter 8: Layer 7: The Application Layer
    1. Introduction
    2. The Structure of FTP
    3. Analyzing Domain Name System and Its Weaknesses
    4. Other Insecure Application Layer Protocols
    5. Attacking the Application Layer
    6. Defending the Application Layer
    7. Nessus
    8. Application-Layer Security Project: Using Nessus to Secure the Stack
    9. Summary
    10. Solutions Fast Track
    11. Frequently Asked Questions
  18. Chapter 9: Layer 8: The People Layer
    1. Introduction
    2. Attacking the People Layer
    3. Defending the People Layer
    4. Making the Case for Stronger Security
    5. People Layer Security Project
    6. Summary
    7. Solutions Fast Track
    8. Frequently Asked Questions
  19. Appendix A: Risk Mitigation: Securing the Stack
    1. Introduction
    2. Physical
    3. Data Link
    4. Network
    5. Transport
    6. Session
    7. Presentation
    8. Application
    9. People
    10. Summary
  20. Index

Product information

  • Title: Hack the Stack
  • Author(s): Stephen Watkins, George Mays, Ronald M. Bandes, Brandon Franklin, Michael Gregg, Chris Ries
  • Release date: November 2006
  • Publisher(s): Syngress
  • ISBN: 9780080507743