[EH Wk 4] Module 05: Vulnerability Analysis

Vulnerability

• A weakness in an asset that can be exploited
• Common reasons of include hardware/software misconfigurations, insecure design, inherent technology weaknesses (E.g. HTTP, FTP) and end users’ carelessness.

Vulnerability Research

• Analysis of services, and configurations to discover vulnerabilities in a system.
• Classified based on security level (low, mid, high) and exploit range (local, remote)
• Purpose is to gather information on security trends, discover weaknesses to prevent attacks, and to know how recover from one.
• Tools include databases like cwe.mitre.org, cve.mitre.org and nvd.nist.gov

Vulnerability Assessment

• In-depth examination of the ability of a system to withstand the exploitation.
• Purpose is to identify weaknesses and predict the effectiveness of security measures in protecting resources from attacks.
• Gathers information on network vulnerabilities, application and services’ vulnerabilities and configuration errors.
• Types include:
  1. Active Assessment – Network scanning (hosts, services, vulnerabilities)
  2. Passive Assessment – Network sniffing (discover active systems)
  3. Host-based Assessment – Configuration-level check (directories, file systems)
     • More in the slides.
• Tools include OpenVAS and Nikto

Vulnerability Management Life Cycle

1. Pre-Assessment:
   • Define scope, identify and prioritise assets (business processes, network architecture, etc.)
2. Vulnerability Assessment:
   • Run vulnerability scans, classify vulnerabilities, and assess the risk.
3. Post-Assessment:
   • Risk assessment (categorisation), remediation (patches), verification (rescan and check for fix), and monitoring ( periodic scans, implement procedures like IDS/IPS)

Common Vulnerability Types

• Misconfigurations: Most common vulnerability; caused by human error. E.g. open ports
• Legacy Platforms: Obsolete code; unsupported for patches.
• System Sprawl: Increased number of system/server connections without proper documentations/maintenance.

Vulnerability Assessment Reports

• Discloses risks detected, alerting organisation of possible attacks and countermeasures to fix security flaws