Mastering Windows Network Forensics and Investigation, 2nd Edition

The Exploitation of a Network

There are many ways in which a network can be compromised from the outside. Most times a vulnerable Internet-facing device is the gateway that an attacker will use to successfully gain unauthorized access to the network. These vulnerabilities can be the result of things such as unpatched operating systems, bad firewall policies, weak passwords, and default passwords on security devices, to name just a few. Regardless of the vulnerability that is exploited, the result is that someone from outside the network gets unauthorized access to internal resources.

In terms of operating system vulnerabilities, nary a week that goes by that a new vulnerability isn’t discovered in the Windows environment. While oftentimes Microsoft ...