NTA Monitor

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Will IE6 be the next NT4?

1st October 2009 All penetration testers will remember the long tail of Windows NT 4.0, and how this operating system continued to be used long past the point when security updates stopped at the end of 2004. For many years the presence of an unpatchable NT4 server was a common issue in a penetration test report, and it is only now, almost five years after security support ended, that finding an NT4 system on a network is becoming a rare event. Read More

One in four web applications susceptible to high risk security flaws

7th September 2009 NTA Monitor has reported a 10% increase in the total number of web applications found to have at least one high-risk security issue... Read More

Organisations facing a changing threat landscape

20th July 2009 According to NTA Monitor's 2009 Annual Security Report, the average number of Internet security vulnerabilities is on the rise... Read More

The Return of the Insider Threat

1st July 2009 When NTA started security testing twelve years ago, the main focus was on the insider threat. There were many reports with statistics showing that most security breaches were due to insiders. By contrast there was very little focus on the external threat via Internet and third-party network links. Back then many companies did not even have a firewall. Read More

Annotated tcpdump packet trace on hacker system

# Hacker -< Server:21 TCP Handshake

15:29:27.515279 195.102.196.156.1035 > 194.217.26.147.21: S 2701514772:2701514772(0)
15:29:27.701995 194.217.26.147.21 > 195.102.196.156.1035: S 895641944:895641944(0) ack 2701514773
15:29:27.702015 195.102.196.156.1035 > 194.217.26.147.21: . ack 1

# Server:21 -< Hacker "220 FTP server ready."

15:29:27.871904 194.217.26.147.21 > 195.102.196.156.1035: P 1:24(23) ack 1 15:29:27.871939 195.102.196.156.1035 > 194.217.26.147.21: . ack 24

# Hacker -< Server:21 "USER anonymous"

15:29:40.236820 195.102.196.156.1035 > 194.217.26.147.21: P 1:17(16) ack 24 15:29:40.445613 194.217.26.147.21 > 195.102.196.156.1035: . ack 17

# Server:21 -< Hacker "331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail..."

15:29:40.465603 194.217.26.147.21 > 195.102.196.156.1035: P 24:92(68) ack 17 15:29:40.485595 195.102.196.156.1035 > 194.217.26.147.21: . ack 92

# Hacker -< Server:21 "PASS rsh@"

15:29:47.540744 195.102.196.156.1035 > 194.217.26.147.21: P 17:28(11) ack 92

# Server:21 -< Hacker "230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply"

15:29:47.701986 194.217.26.147.21 > 195.102.196.156.1035: P 92:140(48) ack 28 15:29:47.721976 195.102.196.156.1035 > 194.217.26.147.21: . ack 140

# Hacker -< Server:21 "PORT 195,102,193,28,38,148"

(195.102.193.28:9876) 15:30:13.461336 195.102.196.156.1035 > 194.217.26.147.21: P 28:56(28) ack 140

# Server:21 -< Hacker "200 PORT command successful."

15:30:13.609038 194.217.26.147.21 > 195.102.196.156.1035: P 140:170(30) ack 56 15:30:13.629016 195.102.196.156.1035 > 194.217.26.147.21: . ack 170

# Hacker -< Server:21 "LIST"

15:30:19.304577 195.102.196.156.1035 > 194.217.26.147.21: P 56:62(6) ack 170

# Server:21 -< Hacker "150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for..."

15:30:19.536058 194.217.26.147.21 > 195.102.196.156.1035: P 170:233(63) ack 62 15:30:19.556049 195.102.196.156.1035 > 194.217.26.147.21: . ack 233

# Server:21 -< Hacker "226 Transfer complete."

15:30:19.895884 194.217.26.147.21 > 195.102.196.156.1035: P 233:257(24) ack 62 15:30:19.915869 195.102.196.156.1035 > 194.217.26.147.21: . ack 257

# Hacker -< Server:21 "QUIT"

15:30:25.742806 195.102.196.156.1035 > 194.217.26.147.21: P 62:68(6) ack 257

# Server:21 -< Hacker "221-You have transferred..."

15:30:25.932862 194.217.26.147.21 > 195.102.196.156.1035: P 257:441(184) ack 68

# TCP Connection Shutdown

15:30:25.942866 194.217.26.147.21 > 195.102.196.156.1035: F 441:441(0) ack 68 15:30:25.942890 195.102.196.156.1035 > 194.217.26.147.21: . ack 442 15:30:25.943188 195.102.196.156.1035 > 194.217.26.147.21: F 68:68(0) ack 442 15:30:26.092781 194.217.26.147.21 > 195.102.196.156.1035: . ack 69