Ethical Hacking and CIA Triad

• The presentation will cover cyber security, ethical hacking, software development best practices, and learning resources.
• The goal is to encourage everyone to become an ethical hacker to reveal cyber security vulnerabilities.
• This will increase awareness of shared data and how to protect oneself and the company.

Cyber Security

• The focus is on reviewing basic cyber security information.
• CIA in cybersecurity represents Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability.
• These are key objectives in defense and known as Blue team operations.
• Confidentiality involves access controls, encryption, and secure authentication to protect data from unauthorized access.
• Integrity means preventing unauthorized modification of information to ensure data remains authentic and reliable.
• Availability includes maintaining system uptime, preventing service disruptions, and ensuring quick recovery from incidents.
• Data security involves thinking how to implement confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Cyber Security Threats

• The DAD triad represents Disclosure, Alteration, and Denial.
• They represent hacking threats and Red team operations.
• Disclosure compromises confidentiality through data breaches, insider threats, or intercepted communications.
• Alteration occurs through malicious code, unauthorized system changes, or man-in-the-middle attacks.
• Denial includes Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, system failures, or ransomware blocking access to critical resources.
• The goal of a hacker is to gain access to confidential data and disrupt normal operations.
• Hackers trick users into clicking malicious links, potentially locking up their computers.

Ethical Hacking

• Learning how systems are exploited helps avoid vulnerabilities, become familiar with exploits, and experiment with hacking tools.
• One course is the Practical Ethical Hacking course from TMC Security Academy.
• A 3-phase approach to ethical hacking involves passive research, active research/scanning and discovery, and executing the hack.

Passive Reconnaissance

• Reviewing satellite images and social media posts reveals employee information.
• Hackers may join employee groups in break areas to blend in.
• Photos may reveal employee usernames, badge numbers, and operating systems.
• This data is critical in hacking and presents a security concern.
• Tools like hunter.io and emailhippo discover and verify email addresses.
• Hackers can send phishing attacks and discover logon credentials using email addresses.
• Dehashed.com and haveibeenpwned.com search for data from previous hacks or data breaches of personal credentials.
• Dehashed.com is a subscription tool to discover usernames and passwords used.
• Google can discover information to exploit vulnerabilities.
• site:someSite.com -www finds subdomains.
• site:someSite.com filetype:pdf finds files of a specific type.

Scanning and Investigating

• A home lab can be created with Kali Linux to hack into a vulnerable machine.
• VMWare is used to install virtual machines, with VMware Player for Windows and VMware Fusion Pro for Mac.
• Kali Linux, built with cyber security routines, can be downloaded for VMWare.
• Vulnhub offers virtual machines for practicing ethical hacking skills.
• Kioptrix virtual machine is designed for practicing hacking within a local network.
• Kioprtix and Kali should run on the same network (NAT, not Bridged).
• Finding the IP of Kioptrix, scanning open ports, investigating ports for exploits, and discovering potential vulnerabilities are useful techniques to start with.
• Search for IP addresses on the network to discover other devices.
• Nmap scans for open ports to show services running and develop an exploitation plan.
• Possible ports to exploit includes:
  • Port 22 (SSH or remote access)
  • Ports 80 and 443 (web hosting)
  • Port 139 (file share with Samba)
• Metasploit identifies the version of Samba for a specific exploit.
• Use the auxiliary library in Metasploit to get the required information.
• SMB scans in Metasploit can be used for smb service discovery, looking for #16 smb_version.
• Running the SMB version scan from metasploit establishes a reverse shell.
• Google can be used to search for exploits, for example, for samba 2.2.1a, the trans2open exploit.

Exploitation

• Exploitation involves taking advantage of vulnerabilities, weaknesses, or flaws in systems, networks, or applications for unauthorized access or control.
• The final steps are to set a payload (set of instructions/scripts) to establish a remote connection to the target machine using a reverse shell gaining root access
• Root access will give full access to data and services.
• After getting root access on the Kioptrix machine, reading a congratulatory message in the mail app will be possible

Overcoming Feeling Overwhelmed

• Consider if your company is vulnerable to an attack.
• Decide to become an ethical hacker to fix vulnerabilities before getting hacked.

Types of Exploits

• Software Exploits Target vulnerabilities in applications or operating systems
• Hardware Exploits Focus on weaknesses in physical devices or components
• Network Exploits Attack vulnerabilities in network protocols or configurations
• Social Engineering Exploit human psychology rather than technical vulnerabilities
• Inspect your systems and determine vulnerabilities.

Zero-Day Exploits

• These are cyber-attacks that target previously unknown vulnerabilities before developers can patch them.
• The vulnerability is unknown to the software vendor.
• There is no available patch or fix at the time of exploitation.
• Attackers have the advantage of time.

Fuzzing

• Key aspects of fuzzing:
  • Automated input generation: Creates millions of test cases rapidly
  • Mutation-based: Modifies known valid inputs to create test cases
  • Generation-based: Creates new inputs from scratch based on input format
  • Coverage-guided: Uses program behavior to guide input generation
• Fuzzing involves feeding randomized or unusual inputs into software to see where it breaks in order to catch exceptional cases and vulnerabilities.
• AI is making fuzzing more powerful, testing thousands/millions inputs predicting where weaknesses might occur.

Next Steps

• It's essential evaluate how personal or company data is accessible and how to improve security.

Mistakes

• 95% of successful hacks are due to a person making a mistake.

Best Practices

• Enforce Team Training and Security Culture
• Establish Regular security awareness training
• Foster a security-first mindset
• Encourage reporting of security concerns
• Recognize and reward security-conscious behavior
• Cyber security training and implementation should develop a security culture that prioritizes security

Resources

• Integrate cybersecurity into planning, design, and testing.
• Work with a cyber security professional specializing in the types of software being developed.
• Shore up existing software and integrate security into each step of the software development cycle.
• Resources include:
  • Cyber Crime Magazine
  • The 20 biggest data breaches in history
  • Cybersecurity Trends for 2025 and Beyond
• Training Platforms: KnowBe4, Pluralsight, TCM Security, Hack The Box, TryHackMe, SecureFlag, Security Journey
• Documentation and Guidelines: OWASP Secure Coding Practices Guide, NIST Secure Software Development Framework (SSDF), Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL)

This lesson explores the relationship between ethical hacking and software development, focusing on how ethical hacking promotes secure software. It covers the CIA triad (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability) and its application in data security, including scenarios involving data breaches and encryption.