Chapter 26: Hackerz Love Honey

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Overview

No matter how strongly the farmer might protect the hen house, the cunning fox will find a hole and catch the fattest hen. It is impossible to close all holes. However, it is possible to lure the fox into the trap by offering a generous enticement, and shoot it point-blank. The situation with computers is similar. Software is vulnerable. Installing patches in a timely manner stops only the least qualified hackers using ready-to-use tools for their attack and not using their brains . Professionals that look for new holes on their own cannot be stopped with patches.

There is a popular rumor about the gentleman who purchased a sophisticated safe and then boasted of the wonder of engineering genius for a long time. Burglars burst into his house, burnt a large hole in that safe using some acid, and didn't find anything in it! Money and precious jewels were stored in a different location.

The same tactic is widely used for detecting attacks on computer systems. A knowingly vulnerable server is installed in a noticeable network location, reliably isolated from all other hosts and tracing all attempts at unauthorized access in the real-time mode. As a rule, detected IP addresses of attackers are reported to law-enforcement agencies. Even if hackers try to hide behind anonymous proxies, Big Brother is watching them.

As a rule, a server that plays the role of bait is called a honeypot , and the network made up of such servers is called the honeynet. If someone leaves a honeypot in the open , bees would gather to it, and if someone installs a honeypot server, this certainly would attract hackers. Hackers love honey and are readily lured by it.

It is difficult to counteract and withstand a honeypot. At first glance, honeypots are no different from normal services; in reality, however, these are well-hidden traps. It is enough to make a single erroneous step ” no one would be able to help the hacker who is at fault. However, rumors circulate that a clever fox can eat the bait without being caught in the trap. The same is true for hackers.

The strong point of honeypots is that they are relatively new and insufficiently studied. Hackers haven't developed adequate methods of withstanding honeypots yet; however, it isn't expedient to hope that this state of affairs will be preserved in the future. The architecture of honeypots isn't mature yet; therefore, it is vulnerable. Experienced hackers bypass them even now. In the future, every kid that has installed UNIX and, having disdained the mouse, resorts to the command line will be capable of doing this.



Shellcoder's Programming Uncovered
Shellcoders Programming Uncovered (Uncovered series)
ISBN: 193176946X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 164

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