CPTR 541

This page provides hints, insights and direction for the graduate class in Network Security.

Research Resources

• PTES - Penetration Testing Execution Standard (Our book loosely follows this)

• List of online databases available at Southern

• Scholar on Google is always a good resource

When doing research it helps to know where to look. Dr. Gu does a nice job of rating security conferences that you might want to research from. IEEE S & P and ACM's Conference on Computer and Communications Security top the list and are good candidates to watch.

Research Assignment

You will be required to find and present two peer-reviewed papers in this class. The first must introduce a new attack or attack technique. The second paper must deal with privacy issues inside the US. A third presentation presentation will be of your own research. You might implement a method of attach to provide new proof of concept code, or research specific activities related to personal privacy compromised by companies or governments that may be illegal in other countries or protected by the US constitution.

Homework Assignments

1. Research:
   1. Use peer reviewed articles in ACM/IEEE etc., to find the conditions necessary to "more easily" attack the RSA algorithm. What known attacks exist against RSA?
   2. Determine if there exists known attacks against AES. Do we consider AES to be secure?
   3. What attacks exist against hash algorithms? What algorithms are not considered secure?
2. Install Backtrack on your system. Let me know if you need a virtual machine for this. Write a planning and scope document that covers the issues from Chapter 1. Make sure to cover all your bases for this document. You may collaborate to write this document as a class.
3. Use the techniques covered in Chapter 2 to
   1. RECON both cs.southern.edu and scotnpatti.com - make sure you follow the ROE agreed upon in the previous assignment.
   2. Find a willing personal target and profile that person to discover what you can about them online.
4. Using the enumeration techniques from Chapter 3
   1. Enumerate the machine targets available for exploitation and any information collected.
   2. Enumerate separately any network hardware available for exploitation.
   3. Be ready to discuss enumeration avoidance techniques
5. Exploit something from the allowed target list in our pentest plan and bring proof of your exploit. What remediation is needed.

6. Your goal this week is to attack OwnCloud - successfully if possible. I will specify a server for you to attack.

7. Think of an tool to solve a common problem, something that would be useful to an administrator and write a vulnerable tool. Show how to exploit it using one of the automated techniques from the chapter.
8. Write a report for your client on what you found. I will ask what tools you used for reporting, and proof that you were able to break into systems. If you have questions, I will give you time to ask in class.
9. To date you should have been able to find some sort of way into the cs domain and perhaps created your own administrator account, stolen files, or changed web pages. You must now fix what you broke, changed or pilfered, and then try to Cover your tracks.

10. Give a detailed penetration test report of vulnerabilities found, exploits performed, proof of exploits and remediation recommendations etc.

Common Vocabulary and Acronyms

• ROE = Rules of Engagement

Entertaining Links

• Buffer Overflow example

• Nice discussion of Salting