RE: Class on Security Tools

["Todd Towles" <toddtowles () brookshires com>]

Hey Dan,

Kismet was not covered in your first class? 

I don't understand how much Kismet is overlooked and NetStumbler is
shown. NetStumbler is great but it is limited, it open shows open
networks. Close/Cloaked networks are growing and Kismet is one of the
few software tools that will see you them along with many many other
features.

Depends on what area you mainly want to focus on, but attack tool range
is pretty wide.  Hydra, for example. I would also hit on the new trend
of Google hacking. Google is used by hackers and pen-tester alike to
gather huge amount of information about a target. There is even a book
being released soon, Google hacking for Pen-Testers - I believe. Wikto
is a Windows Nikto-like tool with Google hack features. Of course, on
the network side you have ettercap, packet sniffers like Ethereal and
Dsniff. It all depends on where you want to focus. There are various
wireless attack tools that shouldn't be overlooked.

I would include the EBCD in the remediation/protection tool class
instead of the attack class. Snort, Tripwire and the MBSA are good tools
as well. The greatest protection measure you can have is knowledge.
Knowing what services are running and why, what version they are and if
there are updates for them. It takes time to watch the internet for news
and alerts and active exploit, but you will learn where and when to
focus your software measures to optimize your security.

BTW, Helix is a great LiveCD for Windows Server Forensics Analysis. 

Of course, this is all just my 2 cents and open for discussion. =)

-Todd

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan Tesch [mailto:dan.tesch () comcast net] 
> Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 7:18 AM
> To: Pen Test
> Subject: Re: Class on Security Tools
>
> Certainly Nessus should be covered, you could touch on NeWT.
> www.nessus.org
> http://www.tenablesecurity.com/
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
> I am helping teach a class to the ISSA of Northwest Ohio, 
> here in Toledo. The next class will be the second part of a 
> series on security tools. Last class we went over scanning 
> tools such as nmap, NetStumbler, nikto, and a couple others.
>
> This next class will be focused on attack tools. We were 
> planning on presenting Metasploit, EBCD for password changes, 
> and a couple other tools. My question is - what (free) tools 
> should we give a brief overview of? The class is technical, 
> mostly comprised of IT directors and the like. Most are not 
> dedicated security staffers, but rather have that as part of 
> their job responsibility. We don't have to go in depth, but 
> we are demonstrating on a network we have built for this purpose.
>
> Next month we will be doing remediation/protection tools. I 
> was thinking about showing Snort, Tripwire, Microsoft 
> Baseline Security Analyzer, and a couple others. Any ideas on that?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Joe Traband
> jtraband () itscomputersolutions com