Hackers Beware

Summary

As you can see, there is a variety of ways an attacker can get into a system. Most of these are not very complicated, but that is the point. It does not take a lot for an attacker to get into a system. On a recent attack I worked on, from initial scanning to root compromise took the attacker 150 seconds. Also, in most cases, after the attacker gains access, he installs backdoors and performs steps to cover his tracks.

There are numerous ways an attacker can break into a system. Most of the time, after an attacker does initial probing, he determines the easiest way to compromise a system and goes after that vulnerability. Based on the type and variety of tools, an attacker can pick an exploit from column A and combine it with an exploit ...