Chapter 2

THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND

ATTACKS

Getting to know about threats, vulnerabilities, and

attacks
Learning Objectives

At the end of this chapter, students will:

▪ Gives an overview about TCP/ IP

▪ Learn the difference between threats, vulnerabilities, and attacks.

▪ Have a better understanding about different types of threats in the

network security

▪ Know the different categories of attacks and how they work.

Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS

TCP/IP Overview
What is Protocol
❑ It is a set of formal rules or standards that are widely used as a basis for
communication.
❑ It is also intended to facilitate communications.
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS

TCP/IP Overview
The OSI Reference Model
❑OSI stands for Open Systems
Interconnection
❑Been developed by ISO or International
Organization of Standardization in the year
1984.
❑It consists of 7-layer architecture with each
layer having a specific function to perform.
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS
TCP/IP Overview
The OSI Reference Model

• Application Layer- It sometimes called human-computer interaction layer,

where applications can access the network services.
• Presentation Layer- Ensures that data is in a usable format and is where
data encryption, decryption occurs.
• Session Layer- This layer is responsible for establishment and maintaining
connections and authentication.
• Transport Layer- It is an end-to-end layer used to transmit messages to a
host. It is called as an end-to-end layer because it provides a point-to-point
connection between the source host and destination host to deliver the
services reliably.
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS
TCP/IP Overview (Continuation)
The OSI Reference Model

• Network Layer- This layer provides data routing paths where data will take
for network communication.
• Data Link- It facilitates data transfer between two devices on the SAME
network and defines the format on the network.
• Physical Layer- OSI layer that includes the physical equipment involved in
the data transfer, such as the ethernet cables and network switches.
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS

Difference between Threat, Vulnerabilities and Attack

Threat
▪ is anything that can interrupt the operation, functioning, integrity, or
availability of a network or system.
▪ This can take any form and can be malicious, accidental, or simply an
act of nature.
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS

Difference between Threat, Vulnerabilities and Attack

Vulnerabilities
▪ is an integral weakness or bug in the design, configuration,
implementation, or management of a network or a system that
renders it vulnerable to a threat.
▪ Vulnerabilities are what make networks prone to information loss
and downtime. Every network and system have some kind of
vulnerability.
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS

Difference between Threat, Vulnerabilities and Attack

Attack
▪ is an act that exploits a vulnerability or enacts a threat.
▪ Sending malicious input to an application or flooding a network in an
attempt to deny service is an example of attack and there are two
general categories of attacks, passive and active.
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS

Difference between Threat, Vulnerabilities and Attack

Attack
▪ is an act that exploits a vulnerability or enacts a threat.
▪ Sending malicious input to an application or flooding a network in an
attempt to deny service is an example of attack and there are two
general categories of attacks, passive and active.
1. Passive attacks- are very difficult to detect, because there is no obvious
activity that can be monitored or detected. They are usually active for
gathering information that can be used for future in active attacks.
2. Active attacks- employ more obvious actions on the network or system.
As a result, they can be easier to detect, but at the same time they can be
much more disturbing to a network.
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS

COMMON NETWORK SECURITY THREATS

Malware
▪ Sometimes called malicious software, is any program or file that is
harmful to a computer user.
▪ It is software that intentionally designed to compromise or cause
damage to a computer, server, client, or computer network.
▪ There are different types of malicious software; Virus, worm, trojan
horses, adware, spyware and ransomware.
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS
COMMON NETWORK SECURITY THREATS
Types of Malware

▪ Virus- It is a form of malware that is capable of copying or replicating

itself and spreading to other computers.
▪ Worms- They typically cause harm to their host networks by consuming
bandwidth and overloading web servers.
▪ Trojan horse- It is designed to appear as a legitimate program in order
to gain access to a network or system.
▪ Spyware- Type of malware that functions by spying on user activities
without their knowledge.
▪ Adware- It is a type of malware that automatically delivers
advertisements to users.
▪ Ransomware- basically holds a computer system captive while
demanding for a ransom
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS

COMMON TYPES OF NETWORK SECURITY ATTACKS

SOCIAL ENGINEERING
▪ Social engineering is the process of using social skills to encourage
people to disclose access credentials or other important information
to the attacker.
▪ They are tricking an employee into conceding security through social
contact like a phone call or e-mail messages
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS
COMMON TYPES OF NETWORK SECURITY ATTACKS
SOCIAL ENGINEERING ATTACKS

1. Impersonation- The utmost popular situations for social

engineering attacks is when the hacker mimics another employee
in the company.
▪ Hacker impersonates an administrator
▪ Hacker impersonates a user
▪ Hacker impersonates a management
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS
COMMON TYPES OF NETWORK SECURITY ATTACKS
SOCIAL ENGINEERING ATTACKS

2. Phishing- is an exercise of sending emails that look to be from

trusted sources with the goal of gaining personal information
Hacker impersonates an administrator.

3. Spam- Or Junk emails are any unsolicited and unwanted e-mail.

4. Tailgating- It occurs when the hacker walks through a secured

area by following someone who have an access and unlocked the
doors for themselves
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS
COMMON TYPES OF NETWORK SECURITY ATTACKS
NETWORK ATTACKS

1. DoS and DDoS Attacks

▪ Denial of Service - It overwhelms a system’s resources and
attacker sends a large number of connection or information
requests to a target. Since there are so many requests made,
the target system becomes overloaded and cannot respond
to legitimate requests for service.
▪ A DDoS or Distributed Denial of Service attack is also an
attack on system’s resources, but it is launched from a large
number of other host machines that are infected by any
malicious software controlled by the attacker
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS
COMMON TYPES OF NETWORK SECURITY ATTACKS
NETWORK ATTACKS
2. Man-in-the-middle attack- It is sometimes called TCP hijacking
attack. This attack occurs when a hacker inserts itself between
the communications of a client and a server
3. IP Spoofing- is a technique used to gain unauthorized access to
computers, wherein the intruder sends messages with a source
IP address that has been forged to indicate that the messages are
coming from a trusted host.
4. Sniffer- is a program or device that can monitor and can be used
for capturing data being transmitted over a network and analyzes
network traffic where it can detect bottlenecks and problems on
the network.
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS
COMMON TYPES OF NETWORK SECURITY ATTACKS
PASSWORD ATTACKS
1. Dictionary Attack- It involves the hacker using a program or
software that has a list of most commonly used usernames in one
text file or a list of words in a language dictionary that are to be
tried using as a password in another file

2. Brute-Force Attack- This attack uses any password-cracking

software to mathematically calculate every possible password.

3. Hybrid Attack- is another type of password attack that involves

both password-cracking software using a dictionary file .
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS
COMMON TYPES OF NETWORK SECURITY ATTACKS
APPLICATION ATTACKS
1. SQL Injection- SQL stands for Structured Query Language and it is
commonly use to manipulate database by a programmers or
developers. It is a type of an injection attack that makes it
possible to insert and execute malicious SQL statements.
2. Buffer Overflow- It is the most attack used in an application. A
buffer is an area of memory used to store information that were
sent to an application. This attack happens when the attacker or
hacker sends too much information to the application causing it
to buff and overflow.
Chapter 2. THREATS, VULNERABILITIES, AND ATTACKS

End of Module