Mastering Security Basics

CompTIA Security+
Get Certified Get Ahead
By Darril Gibson

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC

 Introduction
• Understanding core security goals
• Introducing basic risk concepts
• Understanding control types
• Implementing virtualization
• Using command-line tools

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC

Understanding Core Security Goals
• Use Case
– Describes a goal an organization wants to achieve
• Elements

• Actors • Postcondition
• Precondition • Normal flow
• Trigger • Alternate flow

Place order

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC

Understanding Core Security Goals
• Confidentiality
plaintext

– Encryption ciphertext

– Access controls
– Steganography and
Obfuscation I can pass

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC

Understanding Core Security Goals
• Integrity

– Hashing
– Digital signatures
– Certificates
– Non-repudiation

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC

Understanding Core Security Goals
• Availability

– Redundancy
– Fault tolerance
– Patching

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC

 Introducing Basic Risk Concepts
• Threats Threat

• Vulnerabilities Exploits
– Any weakness Vulnerability
Resulting in
• Risk is
Loss
– The likelihood that a threat will
exploit a vulnerability
• Risk mitigation
– Reduces the chances that a threat will exploit a
vulnerability by implementing controls
GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC
 Understanding Control Types
• Technical controls
– Use technology to reduce vulnerabilities

• Examples
– Encryption
– Antivirus software
– IDSs
– Firewalls
– Least privilege

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC

 Understanding Control Types
• Administrative controls
– Use administrative or management methods

• Examples – Awareness and training

– Risk assessments – Configuration and change
– Vulnerability management
assessments – Contingency planning
– Penetration tests – Media protection
– Physical and environmental
protection
GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC
 Physical Security Controls
• Any controls that you can physically touch

• Examples
– Lighting
– Signs
– Fences
– Security guards

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC

 Control Goals
• Preventive controls
– Attempt to prevent an incident from occurring
– Hardening, training, guards, change management,
disabling accounts
• Detective controls
– Attempt to detect incidents after they have
occurred
– Log monitoring, trend analysis, security audit,
video surveillance, motion detection
GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC
Comparing Detection & Prevention
• Detection controls
– Cannot predict when an incident will occur
– Cannot prevent an incident
– Used after an incident

• Prevention controls
– Stop the incident before it occurs

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC

 Control Goals
• Corrective controls
– Attempt to reverse the impact of an incident
– Active IDS, backups, system recovery

• Compensating
– Alternative controls used when a primary control is
not feasible
– TOTP (Time-based One-Time Password) instead of
smart card
GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC
 Control Goals
• Deterrent
• Attempt to discourage individuals from causing an incident
• Cable locks, hardware locks

• Compare to prevention
• Deterrent encourages people to
decide not to take an undesirable action
• Prevention stops them from
taking an undesirable action
• Security guard can be both
GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC
 Implementing Virtualization
• Terminology
– Hypervisor
One host
– Host Five guests
– Guest
– Host elasticity
– Host scalability
Appears as five
systems on a network

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC

 Comparing Hypervisors
• Type I (bare-metal)
– Runs directly on hardware
– No host operating system required

• Type II
– Runs as software
within an
operating system

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC

 Application Cell Virtualization
• Runs services or applications within isolated
application cells (or containers)
• Also called container virtualization

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC

 Using Virtualization
• Snapshots
– Copy of a VM at a moment in time
– Can revert to a snapshot if necessary

• VDI/VDE
– A user’s desktop
– Persistent VDE – keeps user changes
– Non-persistent VDE – doesn’t keep user changes
GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC
Risks Associated with Virtualization
• VMs are files
– Can be copied
• VM escape
– Allows attacker to access host from guest
• VM sprawl
– Uncontrolled VM creation (not managed)
• Loss of confidentiality

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC

 Kali Linux
• Free Linux distribution
– Often used for penetration testing and security
auditing
– Can be installed on Windows system (that supports
Hyper-V)
– Can be used to run Linux commands on a Windows
system
– Free online labs
• Gcgapremium.com/501labs/
• May need to register on site to access labs
GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC
 Command- Line Tools
• Windows

– Launch Command Prompt

– Launch Command Prompt (Admin)

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC

 Command- Line Tools
• Linux

– Launch terminal
in Kali

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC

 Understanding Switches & Case
• Windows switches typically use slash /
– ipconfig /?

• Linux systems typically use dash –

– ifconfig -?

• Windows commands rarely case sensitive

• Linux commands are case sensitive

GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC
 Chapter Summary
• Understanding core security goals
• Introducing basic risk concepts
• Understanding control types
• Implementing virtualization
• Using command-line tools

• Labs http://gcgapremium.com/501labs/
GetCertifiedGetAhead.com © 2017 YCDA, LLC