OPEN PORT VULNERABILITIES

Samaresh Debbarma , Dhrubajit Das , Tara Kumari Choudhudy

Don Bosco College of Engineering and Technology

Master of Computer Applications, Fourth Semester 2013

Guwahati-17,Azara

Abstract- Internet is facilitating numerous services

while being the most commonly attacked

environment. Hackers attack the vulnerabilities in

the protocols used and there is a serious need to

prevent, detect, mitigate and identify the source of

the attacks. This report help us to understand the

effect of open port vulnerabilities and information

on many software tools that are available to protect

system from threats that may attack open ports and

directly exploit a feature or vulnerability .

Keywords: Networks; Vulnerability; Open port;

Attack;

1. INTRODUCTION

All systems connected to the Internet today can

expect to be repeatedly probed for open ports. It is

simply a fact of life that there will be attempts to

detect and explo it vulnerabilities in hosts on the

network. In order to be useful, a system may

require some ports to be open. Many Internet

applications expect to be able to connect to the

open port associated with a service on a remote

machine. Likewise, in order to manage a system,

you normally need to be able to connect to it.

These open ports can then be an entryway for

attackers. Some threats attack an open port and

then install a virus or trojan that can then act

independently and cause damage. Viruses or

trojans are generically called “malware.

Threats may attack open ports and directly

exploit a feature or vulnerability. E-mail servers

keep port 25 open so that remote systems can

connect and transfer mail messages. An attacker

may connect to an e-mail server that does not

protect against unauthorized relaying and employ

the server for the sending of spam. Valuable

system resources are being diverted to the

purposes of the attacker and may cause damage

to the system, degrade its performance.

2. OPEN PORT VULNERABILITIES

A port is the mechanism that allows a computer

to simultaneously support multiple

communicat ion sessions with computers and

programs on the network. A port is basically a

refinement of an IP address; a computer that

receives a packet from the network can further

refine the destination of the packet by using a

unique port number that is determined when the

connection is established. A port is essentially a

way for 2 devices to connect using a specific

protocol. Each device has an IP address, but this

only

identifies the device on the network. The port is

used to tell each device what kind of a

connection will be made.

Vulnerabilities are design flaws or mis-

configurations that make your network (or a host on the network) susceptible to malicious

attacks from local or remote users.

Vulnerabilities can exist in several areas of your

network, such as in the firewalls, FTP servers,

Web servers, operating systems. Depending on

the level of the security risk, the successful

exploitation of vulnerab ility can vary from the

disclosure of information about the host to a

complete compromise of the host. Based on the type of vulnerability identified at

open source distributed application we can

classify them as follows:

informat ion vulnerabilit ies – due to

inconsistent of source code many

informat ion can be offered to the

attackers;

physical vulnerabilities – defined as

vulnerabilities which can exp loit the

main frame in which open source

products are running to gain access to

resources;

processing vulnerabilit ies – given by the

usage of untested instructions or

processing sequences;

communicat ion vulnerabilit ies – due to

bad implementation of communication

protocols or to different forgotten

aspects of communication.

3. MITIGATING THE THREAT

With increasingly sophisticated attacks on the

rise, the ability to quickly mitigate network

vulnerabilities is imperat ive. Vulnerabilit ies if

left undetected pose a serious security threat to

enterprise systems and can leave vital corporate

data exposed to attacks by hackers. For

organizations, it means extended system

downtimes and huge loss of revenue and

productivity.

These threats may be mitigated in various ways,

such as: controlling access to the system,

monitoring system activity, creating and

enforcing policies. Many software tools are

available to protect system from threats that may

attack open ports and directly exploit a feature or

vulnerability.

Vulnerability scanners are automated tools used

to identify security flaws affect ing a given

system or application.

Some the software tools that are used for port

scanning and vulnerability are listed below:

Nessus

Nessus is the world’s most popular vulnerability

scanner that is used in over 75,000 organizat ions

world -wide. The “Nessus” Project was started by

Renaud Deraison in 1998. It is a complete and

very useful network vulnerability scanner which

includes-high speed checks for thousand of the

most commonly updated vulnerabilit ies ,a wide

variety of scanning options, an easy to –use

interface, and effective reporting. It available in

different version for both Unix and Microsoft

based operating system.Nessus 5.0.2 is the

version used for Windows 7.

Nmap

It stands for “network map”. Th is open-source

scanner was developed by Fyodor . Th is is one of

the most popular port scanners that runs on

Unix/Linux machines. While Nmap was once a

Unix-only tool, a Windows version was released

in 2000 and has since become the second most

popular Nmap platfo rm .

Metasploit

Metasploit was orig inally developed and

conceived by HD Moore while he was employed

by a security firm. When HD realized that he was

spending most of his time validating and

sanitizing public exploit code, he began to create

a flexible and maintainable fra mework for the

creation and development of exp loits. He

released his first edition of the Perl-based

Metasploit in October 2003 with a total of 11

exploits. In this paper i have use Metasploit

software tool for port and vulnerability scanning.

IMPLEMENTATION OF METASPLOIT

Install Metaspoilt.

Then go to Metaspoilt->Framework-

>Armitage.

Connect to the default database of the

Windows.

Scan for IP address range.

Click on the IP address you found and

then scan for the open port and

application with the help of port

scanner embedded within the

Metaspoilt.

Now run NeXpose for vulnerability

scan and generate the reports.

Now go to the Armitage and press on

Attack and then click on Attack find.

Now check for every possible

exploitation.

4. CONCLUSION

Any system that is networked is exposed to risk

of attack. Open ports can increase that risk or

increase the chance of a successful attack.

Vulnerability scanners such as Nessus, Nmap,

and Metasploit may become part of the solution.

Steps taken to become aware of the issues, to

prepare systems for a hostile environment, to

monitor act ivity and behavior, and to prepare for

the future will all help to mitigate the threat.

Resources are available to further education,

tools are available to help manage the risks, and

the effort expended will pay dividends of

enhanced security for the network. The

techniques in this report will give us the basic

tools i will need to begin discovering

vulnerabilities.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I express our sincere thanks to our teacher,

Assistant Professor Mr. Rupam Ku mar Sharma

for guiding us in critical reviews of demo and the

report .I owe a great deal of thanks for

providing us the necessary informat ion and

correction when needed during the completion

of this report

I would also like to thank the supporting staff of

Computer Science Department, for their help and

cooperation throughout our project .

REFERENCES

[1] Sturat Krivis,port Knocking:Helpfu l or

Harmful ,An Exploration of Modern Network

Threats.

[2] Sunil vakharia, Nessus Scanning on

Windows Domain

[3] http://metasploit.com/development

[4] http://nmap.org/download.html

[5] JON ERICKSON, Hacking,2nd Edit ion The

Art of Exploitation