security Questions

What is the ARP Protocol?

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is a protocol that enables network communications to reach a specific device on the network. ARP translates Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to a Media Access Control (MAC) address, and vice versa. Most commonly, devices use ARP to contact the router or gateway that enables them to connect to the Internet.

What is ARP Spoofing (ARP Poisoning)?

An ARP spoofing, also known as ARP poisoning, is a Man in the Middle (MitM) attack that allows attackers to intercept communication between network devices. The attacker must have access to the network. They scan the network to determine the IP addresses of at least two devices

How to prevent ARP poisoning?

ARP poisoning is a form of network attack that can be mitigated through packet filtering, Avoid trust relationship, Use cryptographic network protocols.

Zero-Day Vulnerability vs Zero-Day Exploit?

A zero-day vulnerability is a vulnerability in a system or device that has been disclosed but is not yet patched. An exploit that attacks a zero-day vulnerability is called a zero-day exploit.

What is Zero-Day Vulnerability?

Zero-day vulnerabilities are software bugs or flaws in a system that developers have zero days to fix because by the time they’re identified, they are already massive security risks that could cause significant damage.

What is Zero-Day Exploit?

A zero-day exploit is when hackers take advantage of a software security flaw to perform a cyberattack. Real-world zero-day exploits include things like trojans, polymorphic worms, and ransomware. Meaning software developers have no clue to its existence and have no patch to fix it.

How to Protect Against Zero-Day Attacks?

One of the best ways to guard against zero-day attacks is to create a secure, resilient network, Update software and security, back up critical systems and Enforce strict software and internet use policies. Keep Firewalls and Anti-virus Software Updated. Install a Network Intrusion & Protection System (IPS)

What is false positive?

False positives occur when a scanning tool incorrectly flag a security vulnerability during software testing. But in actuality there is no bug. 

What is user enumeration?

User enumeration is when a malicious actor can use brute-force techniques to either guess or confirm valid users in a system.  It is a common vulnerability that allows an attacker who has acquired a list of valid usernames, IDs, or email addresses to verify whether or not a user exists in a system.

User enumeration mitigation?

“Don’t inform users the account is invalid” is the common recommendation, however there are some very important guidelines to follow.

What are cookie attributes?

Cookies are pieces of information stored on the client side, which are sent to the server with every request made by the client. Cookies are primarily used for authentication and maintaining sessions. Hence, securing a cookie effectively means securing a user's identity.

What is secure cookie attribute?

The secure attribute is an option that can be set by the application server when sending a new cookie to the user within an HTTP Response. By setting the secure attribute, the browser will prevent the transmission of a cookie over an unencrypted channel.

Explain privilege escalation and types?

Privilege escalation is an attack that involves gaining illicit access of elevated rights, or privileges, beyond what is intended or entitled for a user. There are two types of privilege escalation: horizontal privilege escalation and vertical privilege escalation

Horizontal privilege escalation involves gaining access to the rights of another account—human or machine—with similar privileges.

Vertical privilege escalation, also known as a privilege elevation attack, involves an increase of privileges/privileged access beyond what a user, application, or other asset already has. This entails moving from a low-level of privileged access, to a higher amount of privileged access.

What is Burp used for?

Burp or Burp Suite is a set of tools used for penetration testing of web applications. It's a proxy-based tool sits between client and webserver to evaluate the security of web-based applications and do hands-on testing. It intercepts the requests being sent and responses being received. Burp Suite is the world's most widely used web vulnerability scanner.

What tools does Burp Suite contain?

It contains all the possible tools a hacker would require for attacking an application. Some of these functionalities include, but are not limited to:

• Proxy
• Spider
• Scanner
• Intruder
• Repeater
• Decoder
• Comparer
• Sequencer

Spider functionality in Burp Suite?

It is a web spider/crawler that is used to map the target web application. The objective of the mapping is to get a list of endpoints so that their functionality can be observed and potential vulnerabilities can be found.

Proxy functionality in Burp Suite?

BurpSuite contains an intercepting proxy that lets the user see and modify the contents of requests and responses while they are in transit. It also lets the user send the request/response under monitoring to another relevant tool in BurpSuite, removing the burden of copy-paste.

Intruder functionality in Burp Suite?

This is used to run a set of values through an input point. The values are run and the output is observed for success/failure and content length

Repeater functionality in Burp Suite?

Repeater lets a user send requests repeatedly with manual modifications.

Sequencer functionality in Burp Suite?

The sequencer is an entropy checker that checks for the randomness of tokens generated by the webserver. These tokens are generally used for authentication in sensitive operations: cookies and anti-CSRF tokens are examples of such tokens.

Extender Functionality in Burp Suite?

BurpSuite supports external components to be integrated into the tools suite to enhance its capabilities. These external components are called BApps. These work just like browser extensions. These can be viewed, modified, installed, uninstalled in the Extender window.

Scanner Functionality in Burp Suite?

The scanner is not available in the community edition. It scans the website automatically for many common vulnerabilities and lists them with information on confidence over each finding and their complexity of exploitation. It is updated regularly to include new and less known vulnerabilities.