Network Security

Dangers of Ping?

Ping (and ICMP in general) can be used for a variety of types of network attacks. The first of which is the ping flood attack. This functions by effectively overwhelming a targets bandwidth by flooding it with ICMP requests. This prevents legitimate traffic from reaching the endpoint. 

The next type of attack is what is called a “Smurf Attack”. These function by spoofing a senders address then flooding a broadcast address. Then everything on the network would respond to the “source” or victim in this situation and overwhelm them. This type of attack is considered addressed now and rarely occurs in the wild. 

Finally, there is the Ping of Death attack. In this attack, a malformed ICMP packet would be sent to a host and overload the RAM on the machine, potentially causing a full system crash. Modern hosts are designed to detect and prevent these types of attacks. (Sheldon, 2023)

Phishing

Phishing is the act of crafting fraudulent emails appearing to be from legitimate organizations to get victims to release personal information like passwords or credit card numbers. These emails can be detected by searching for specific red flags such as poorly typed emails or sender domain not matching the alleged domain (or DKIM failures). 

Falling victim to a phishing attack can result in organization compromise or release of critical data to an attacker. 

To prevent this type of attack from succeeding several things can be done. 

First, setup external tags on incoming email so that users can see what is and isn’t external or internal. Next, have users undergo security training to teach them how to notice and report phishing emails (I recommend KnowBe4). Finally, setup strong anti-phishing rules and quarantine any emails that fail DKIM checks. (KnowBe, n.d.)

Social Engineering

Social engineering is the manipulation of the human factor to gain access to sensitive data. 

Social engineering can utilize other attack vectors as well such as phishing. Emails from “friends” asking for money or information to remedy an “urgent situation” can be tip offs of social engineering for instance. Alternatively, a new coworker that seems overly friendly but forgot their ID badge to get into the building can be a social engineering scenario where the goal is to gain access to the building by tricking employees into letting the attacker in. 

These scenarios can cost businesses valuables or even sensitive data. They can also result in malware infections. 

Proper security training can help prevent this. Beware of downloads and don’t click strange links in emails. Slow down and check the facts of a scenario before acting on anything that is claimed to be urgent. (What Is Social Engineering? Examples And, n.d.)

References

 

KnowBe. (n.d.). Phishing | What is phishing? https://www.phishing.org/what-is-phishing

Sheldon, K. (2023, November 9). ICMP attacks: Everything you need to know - SolidWP. SolidWP. https://solidwp.com/blog/icmp-attacks-everything-you-need-to-know/#h-3-main-types-of-icmp-attacks

Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. (2019). Computing technology for all. zyBooks.

What is Social Engineering? Examples and. (n.d.). © Copyright 2004 - 2024 Webroot Inc. All Rights Reserved. https://www.webroot.com/us/en/resources/tips-articles/what-is-social-engineering