ethical hacking - assignment 1

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School

George Brown College Canada *

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CYBER

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Information Systems

Date

Dec 6, 2023

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pdf

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6

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ACTIVITY 1 GROUP – MOSSAD NAME – LAKSH GUPTA ID: 101431341 TASK 1: LANMAN ALGORITHM AND ITS SECURITY FLAWS: Lanman Hash algorithm aka LM Hash was typically utilized in the older versions of the windows operating systems. It was used for storing passwords and authenticating them. Five security flaws are: 1. CASE INSENSITIVITY - No sensitivity for upper and lower case LM hash is case insensitive, meaning it converts every password or text into uppercase before encrypting it. This can tremendously reduce the security of the password by reducing the level of complexity. For example, in LM Hash the passwords EthiCAL HacKiNG and ethical hacking are the same for the algorithm since they would be ultimately converted into ETHICAL HACKING before encryption process begins.
2. PASSWORD PADDING - Fixed length of password padding. As shown in the slide above, if the password length is 15 characters, the padding would be done up to 14 characters. If the padding is done up to a fixed length, it is predictable and makes it easier for attackers to crack the password. The fixed length requirement reduces the complexity of the password and limits the user to create a strong password. 3. DES & CONSTANT KEY – LM Hash uses DES with fixed constant for every password. Data encryption Standard or DES is already an outdated algorithm plus a weak one. It is highly susceptible to attacks given the newer technologies and computing power. Using it with a fixed constant ("KGS!@#$%") makes the attack a lot easier if these are pre-computed. Even if the password is broken into two chunks, it still uses the same constant and then the clear text is used to encrypt it. This makes it highly unsafe to be used. 4. NO SALTING – Weak padding. Salting is a technique in cryptography which enhances the security of a password with the help of hashing and encryption. It adds a random value to the password for padding which is called as salt. Since it is random, adding it to the password before hashing increases the complexity of a password. In LM Hash, identical passwords can produce the same hash (which refers also to the case insensitivity of the algorithm), hence making it super easy for attackers. The lack of salting also gives an edge to the attackers, in the sense that they can use pre-computed tables also known as rainbow tables to look up all the pre-computed hash and guess the plain text. 5. INSUFFICIENT DIVISION – Division of cleartext into two blocks only. Since the algorithm divides the password into two blocks and then uses the same constant in the encryption process, it makes it very easy to attack each block separately and decrypt the password. Rainbow tables can be used to decrypt each block and then combine the result to easily retrieve the password. CONCLUSION: These are significant security flaws relating to the encryption algorithm, choice of encryption constants and conversion to uppercase letters only. It is often recommended to use a password that is long and has combination of symbols, numbers and letters with the use of both uppercase and lowercase letters. Using LM Hash algorithm can lead to security breaches due to insufficient cryptographic methods.
TASK 2: RESEARCH ON MOVEIT 0-DAY VULNERABILITIES: Moveit is a secured file manager transfer application developed by Progress Software. It encrypts data both in motion and at rest to provide IT Security controls for business data which is extremely sensitive. Zero day vulnerability clearly translates to the fact that there are no defenses or protection for the attack that is being carried out, and the breached system can be actively exploited. What is it? How can it be used? The Moveit 0-Day Vulnerability is a security vulnerability in the Moveit Transfer. If it is carried out it can pose a threat to sensitive business data as the attackers can access the data and make the data public [1]. Fig 1. Move it exploit pathway The figure above explains how the hackers exploited the Move it platform.
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