Hacking For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 9. Network Infrastructure

In This Chapter

• Selecting tools

• Scanning network hosts

• Assessing security with a network analyzer

• Preventing denial-of-service and infrastructure vulnerabilities

Your computer systems and applications require one of the most fundamental communications systems in your organization — your network. Your network consists of such devices as routers, firewalls, and even generic hosts (including servers and workstations) that you must assess as part of the ethical hacking process.

There are thousands of possible network vulnerabilities, equally as many tools, and even more testing techniques. You probably don't have the time or resources available to test your network infrastructure systems for all possible vulnerabilities, using every tool and technique imaginable. Instead, you need to focus on tests that will produce a good overall assessment of your network — and the tests I describe in this chapter will do exactly that.

You can eliminate many well-known, network-related vulnerabilities by simply patching your network hosts with the latest vendor software and firmware patches. Since most network infrastructure hosts are not publicly accessible, odds are that your network hosts will not be attacked from the outside and even if they are, the results are not likely to be detrimental. You can eliminate many other vulnerabilities by following some solid security practices on your network, as described in this chapter as well as in the book Network Security ...