Chapter 13 - Vulnerability Assessment And Data Security

Question 1

Vulnerability assessment

Answer 1

A systematic and methodical evaluation of the security posture of the enterprise.

Question 2

5 parts of vulnerability assessment

Answer 2

1) asset identification
2) threat evaluation
3) vulnerability appraisal
4) risk assessment
5) risk mitigation

Question 3

Asset identification

Answer 3

Inventory the assets.

Determine the assets relative value.

Question 4

Threat evaluation

Answer 4

Classify threats by category.

Design attack tree.

Question 5

Vulnerability appraisal

Answer 5

Determine current weaknesses in protecting assets.

Use vulnerability assessment tools.

Question 6

Risk assessment

Answer 6

Estimate impact of vulnerability on organization.

Calculate risk likelihood and impact of the risk.

Question 7

Risk mitigation

Answer 7

Decide what to do with the risk.

Question 8

Protocol analyzer

Answer 8

Hardware or software that captures packets to decode and analyze their contents. Ex. Wireshark

Question 9

Vulnerability scanner

Answer 9

Generic term for a range of products that look for vulnerabilities in networks or systems.

Question 10

Active scanner

Answer 10

A vulnerability scanner that sends “probes” to network devices and examines the responses received back to evaluate whether a specific device needs remediation.

Question 11

Passive scanner

Answer 11

A vulnerability scanner that can identify the current software operating systems and applications being used on the network, and indicate which devices might have a vulnerability.

Question 12

Honeypot

Answer 12

A computer typically located in an area with limited security and loaded with software and data files that appear to be authentic, but are actually imitations of real data files, to trick attackers into revealing their attack techniques.

Question 13

Honeynet

Answer 13

A network set up with intentional vulnerabilities to invite attacks and reveal attackers’ methods.

Question 14

Banner grabbing

Answer 14

Gathering information from messages that a service transmits when another program connects to it.

Question 15

Wireless cracker

Answer 15

Hardware or software that tests the security of a wireless LAN system by attempting to break its protections of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) or WPA2

Question 16

Password cracker

Answer 16

Software intended to break the digest of a password to determine its strength.

Question 17

Nmap (network mapper)

Answer 17

A security vulnerability scanner that can determine which devices are connected to the network and the services they are running.

Question 18

Netcat

Answer 18

A command-line alternative to Nmap with additional features scanning for vulnerabilities.

Question 19

Vulnerability scan

Answer 19

An automated software search through a system for any known security weaknesses that creates a report of those potential exposures.

Question 20

Intrusive vulnerability scan

Answer 20

A scan that attempts to penetrate the system in order to perform a simulated attack.

Question 21

Non-intrusive vulnerability scan

Answer 21

A scan that uses only available for information to hypothesize the status of the vulnerability.

Question 22

Credentialed vulnerability scan

Answer 22

A scan that provides credentials (user name and password) to the scanner so that tests for additional internal vulnerabilities can be performed.

Question 23

Penetration testing

Answer 23

A test (pentest) by an outsider that attempts to actually exploit any weaknesses in systems that are vulnerable.

Question 24

Black box test

Answer 24

A penetration test in which the tester has no prior knowledge of the network infrastructure that is being tested.

Question 25

White box test

Answer 25

A penetration test where the tester has an in-depth knowledge of the network and systems being tested, including network diagrams, IP addresses, and even the source code of custom applications.

Question 26

Gray box test

Answer 26

A penetration test where some limited information has been provided to the tester.

Question 27

Active reconnaissance

Answer 27

Actively proving a system like an attacker would do to find information.

Question 28

Passive reconnaissance

Answer 28

Using searches online for publicly accessible information that can reveal valuable insight about a system.