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The Problem of Security Tools and Advisories Essay

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The Problem of Security Tools and Advisories

Introduction

Whether the intent be malicious or merely curiosity, people will always try to circumvent barriers. Physical locks have bread lock picks, and so digital barriers have bread hackers. In the new ethereal world of the wired, this common problem has developed a new dimension. Whereas physical security measures for business, banks, and the like is at a more sophisticated level than for home users, the digital security is similar at just about any level. And, because everyone is connected, and its difficult to know what is behind a given IP address, everyone is a target.

Clearly there is a problem, and something needs to be done to make sure the "bad guys" can't get into …show more content…

The vulnerabilities exploited are typically well known, and typically patches are already available, or are available before the virus has become a massive threat.

This past summer, the Blaster and Nachi worms spread quickly using a bug in Microsoft's RPC service. A tool was written that could be used to detect if a system was vulnerable to the attack method the worm was using. I implemented an automatic testing method for all campus computers coming onto campus in September's to protect our network from the flood of traffic generated by these worms. Any unpatched systems had to be patched before being granted network access.

The system proved itself to work very effectively, and now is being expanded. Rather than simply test for specific problems, it will be testing computers against a large list of known exploits. Any unpatched systems, whether infected or not, will not be allowed full network access. The hope is to raise diligence in patching software, and prevent future virus outbreaks. The implementation of these anti-attack measures requires the use of port scanning and traffic sniffing tools, and for tools to be effective in detecting a remote vulnerability, a decently large amount of detail regarding the vulnerability much be available.

I have also been involved in less noble uses of security tools. My freshman year, I used a port scanner to look for computers with open FTP

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