Penetration Test Proposal
Deliverable 3: Gaining Access Plan
Name:
Course Number and Section: CMIT 321
Instructor:
Date: 17 September 2020
Gaining Access
Overview
Following the completion of the reconnaissance and scanning phase and utilizing the
information gathered our penetration team will begin to attempt gaining access to the
target systems. This is will be an active attempt by our team to exploit vulnerabilities
within the systems in order to compromise security.
Vulnerable Resources
With the knowledge obtained in the reconnaissance and scanning phase there
are many vulnerabilities that can be found and are readily available in the public
domain. These vulnerabilities can security flaws that are either hardware or software
and are known and completely legal and acceptable for a would-be hacker to research
and discover. These depositories of information can be hosted by the private sector or
government supported. There are numerous resources that will be utilized by our
penetration testing team and will include, but is not limited to:
National Vulnerability Database
The National Vulnerability Database (NVD) is the U.S. government repository of
standards. It is based on vulnerability management data. (E.C. Council, 2018) This
database is resourced by the National Cyber Security Division of the Department of
homeland security. This resource provides information on known vulnerabilities and
can be used to score their severity based upon the common vulnerability scoring
system (CVSS). All data collected on this database is collected from third party security
research.
Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure (CVE)
CVE is a public domain resource that can be utilized by both security agents and
potential penetration professionals free of charge. It provides baseline for evaluating
the coverage of tools and services to clients. This resource has been industry endorsed
via the CVE Numbering authorities and CVE board.
In addition, the following resources will be utilized:
Vulnerability Research (MSVR) (https://technet.microsoft.com)
https://www.securitymagazine.com)
https://www.securityfocus.com)
https://www.net-security.org
http://www.hackerstorm.co.uk)
https://www.computerworld.com)
http://www.windowsecurity.com)
https://www.exploit-db.com)
https://www.cvedetails.com)
https://securitytracker.com)
https://www.vulnerability-lab.com)
https://www.d-crypt.com)
https://www.trendmicro.com)
https://www.rapid7.com)
https://www.darkreading.com)
Techniques and Software
The Penetration team shall conduct their attempts to breach the client’s system
following strict guidelines and procedures. At no point during any of this activity will
information discovered be provided to outside parties. The team shall attempt to gain
entry using the following methodology of gaining access, maintaining access, and then
attempting to clear logs to cover tracks.
Gaining access will be accomplished by attempting to compromise low-privileged
user accounts first. After this is done the penetration team will attempt to elevate
privileges to administrative levels for further control and wider reach within the client’s
system. Techniques utilized will include brute force attacks, password guessing, and
social engineering. Once access has been gained using low-privilege accounts the
penetration team will attempt to gain administrator privileges in order to perform
protected system operations. Techniques that will be utilized to gain this level of
privilege include network traffic sniffers, and exploiting known system vulnerabilities.
Once administrator rights have been obtained the penetration team would then be able
to install malicious programs such as trojans, backdoors, rootkits, and keyloggers. A
brief description of the programs below is provided for the client’s understanding:
Backdoors: Programs that are designed with the purpose of providing the penetration
team unauthorized access the client system resources.
Crackers: Software that is designed for the purpose of cracking user passwords.
http://www.oxid.it)
https://www.windowspasswordsrecovery.com)
https://www.lostwindowspassword.com)
https://hashcat.net)
Passware Kit Forensic (https://www.passware.co
Keyloggers: Applications installed that allow for the recording of keystrokes entered by
users on the system. This can provide the penetration team with a transcript of what
the legitimate user is typing and can lead to the loss of sensitive and critical information.
https://Keyllama.com)
https://www.detective-store.com)
http://www.keyghost.com)
http://www.keycobra.com)
Spyware: Software which captures screenshots of legitimate users’ activities and sends
them to a specified location for the attacker. This can lead to the compromise of
sensitive information.
o ACTIVTrak (https://activtrak.com)
o Veriato 360 (http://www.veriato.com)
o NetVizor (https://www.netvizor.net)
o Activity Monitor (https://www.softactivity.com)
o SoftActivity TS Monitor (https://www.softactivity.com)
o Veriato Investigator (http://www.veriato.c
References
7 most common application backdoors. (2019, September 09). Retrieved September
21, 2020, from https://resources.infosecinstitute.com/7-most-common-applicationbackdoors/
EC-Council. (05/2018). Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) Version 10 eBook (Volumes 1
through 4), 2nd Edition [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from
vbk://9781635671919