pt.3

• Hash Collision

  • A situation where a cryptographic hash function produces two different digests for the same data input is referred to as a hash collision.
  • Hash collisions are a concern in cryptography because they can lead to vulnerabilities, especially when the security of a system relies on the uniqueness of hash values.
• Downgrade Attack

  • A type of cryptographic attack that forces a network protocol to revert to its older, less secure version.
  • An attacker manipulates the communication between two parties to make them use a less secure version of a protocol.
  • This can weaken the security of the connection and make it vulnerable to various forms of exploitation.
• Privilege Escalation Attacks

  • System/Application Vulnerability
  • Vulnerabilities in a system or application can be exploited to escalate privileges and gain unauthorized access to higher levels of authority.
• System/Application Misconfiguration

  • Misconfigurations in system or application settings can create security weaknesses that attackers may exploit for privilege escalation.
• Social Engineering Techniques

  • Social engineering can be used to trick individuals with higher privileges into taking actions that enable privilege escalation.
• Cross-site Scripting

  • Exploits the trust a user's web browser has in a website
  • XSS attacks take advantage of the trust that a user's web browser has in a website to execute malicious scripts.
• A malicious script is injected into a trusted website

  • In an XSS attack, the attacker injects a malicious script into a trusted website, often n the form of user-generated content.
• User's browser executes attacker's script

  • Once the malicious script is injected and loaded in the user's browser, it is executed, allowing the attacker to perform various malicious actions on the victim's behalf.
• XSS attacks exploit trust in the user's browser and inject and execute malicious scripts on trusted websites.
• SQL Injection Attack Attempt

  • SELECT * FROM users WHERE userName = 'Alice' AND password = '' OR '1' = '1';
  • In this statement, the presence of '1' = '1' is an attempt to manipulate the SQL query.
  • The attacker is trying to exploit the query to return results, potentially bypassing authentication by making the statement always evaluate to true.
  • It's a common SQL injection technique.
• • DLL (Dynamic Link Library)
  • DLLs contain reusable code and data that multiple applications can access, helping to save memory and improve efficiency.
  • A collection of precompiled functions designed to be used by more than one Microsoft Windows application simultaneously to save system resources.
• DLL Injection

  • Describes an application attack that relies on executing a library of code
  • Involves inserting or running a dynamic link library (DLL) in the address space of a running process.
  • This technique is often used to perform actions within the target process or to exploit vulnerabilities.
• LDAP Injection attack

  • Attempts of this attack often involve manipulating input to exploit vulnerabilities.
  • The two fragments that might indicate an LDAP injection attack attempt are
  • search.aspx?name=userName)(zone=*)
  • administrator)(&))
  • This input looks like an attempt to inject LDAP query manipulation characters such as ')'and '&' which could be used to alter the structure of an LDAP query for malicious purposes.
• • LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
  • It's a protocol used for accessing and managing directory services, typically over a network.
  • LDAP is commonly used for authentication, directory services, and information lookup in various applications and services.
• Indications of an XML injection attack attempt

  • ``... p@$$w0rdattacker ....
  • This input appears to be attempting to manipulate XML data by injecting unexpected content into it, which is a characteristic of an XML injection attack.
• • XML (Extensible Markup Language)
  • It is a versatile and human-readable makeup language used for structuring and encoding data in a format that is both machine and human-readable.
• XML is often used to represent structured information, making it a popular choice for data interchange between different systems and platforms.
• XL documents consist of elements enclosed in tags, much like HTML, but XML allows you to define your own custom tags and structure data in a way that suits your specific needs. This flexibility makes it valuable for various applications, including configuration files, data storage, web services, and more.
• Null-pointer dereference

  • Describes an attempt to read a variable value from an invalid memory address.
  • This occurs when a program tries to access or dereference a memory address that is set to a null or invalid value, which can lead to program crashes or vulnerabilities.
• Directory Traversal Attack

  • also referred to as a dot-dot-slash attack
  • In this type of attack, an attacker attempts to access files and directories outside the intended or restricted directory by using sequences like ../ to navigate up the directory tree.
  • It's a technique used to exploit vulnerabilities in web applications and potentially gain unauthorized access to files and data.
  • http://www.example.com/var/www/../../etc/passwd
  • example of a potential indicator of a directory traversal attack.
• Buffer Overflow Attack

  • An attacker sends more data than a program's buffer can handle, causing the excess data to overflow into adjacent memory areas.
  • This can lead to memory corruption and potentially allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code, leading to unpredictable and often malicious outcomes.
  • A type of exploit that relies on overwriting contents of memory to cause unpredictable results in an application.
  • An application writes data beyond the bounds of a specific memory buffer, causing data to overflow into adjacent memory locations.
• Race condition

  • A malfunction in a preprogrammed sequential access to a shared resource.
  • Occurs when two or more processes or threads access a shared resource in an unpredictable or unintended order, potentially leading to unexpected and erroneous outcomes.
• Memory leak

  • When a program fails to release allocated memory, leading to a gradual increase in memory usage.
• Pointer dereference

  • Attempting to access the data at a memory address pointed to by an invalid or null pointer.
• Mean Time to Failure (MTTF)

  • The average time a system or component is expected to operate before it fails.
• Replay Attack

  • A type of attack where an attacker intercepts and retransmits data to impersonate a legitimate user.
• Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)

  • The average time between one failure of a system or component and the next.
• Time of Check to Time of Use (TOCTOU)

  • A security vulnerability that occurs when a system's state changes between the time a condition is checked and the time the result is used, leading to potential security issues.
  • A vulnerability caused by race conditions.
• Patch Management

  • Updating software to fix security vulnerabilities.
• Input Validation

  • Checking data input to prevent security issues.
• Password Protection

  • Safeguarding passwords with security measures.
• Error and exception handling

  • Managing and handling software errors.
  • Critical in secure application development process.
• Application Whitelisting

  • Allowing only approved applications to run.
• Zero-day vulnerability

  • A security flaw that's exploited by attackers before a fix is available.
• Improper input validation

  • Failing to adequately check and verify user inputs, which can lead to security vulnerabilities.
• Default configuration

  • Using the settings or configurations that come as the initial, often insecure, default options for a system or software.
• Improper error handling

  • Handling errors in a way that may expose sensitive information or create security weaknesses.
• Fuzzing

  • A testing technique that involves sending unexpected or random data to a software application to discover vulnerabilities.
• Input validation

  • Checking and verifying data inputs to ensure they are safe and valid, helping to prevent security issues.
  • Critical in secure application development process.
• Code signing

  • The process of digitally signing software with a certificate to verify its authenticity and integrity.