Re: vulnerability scanners not effective? or just a false-positive?

["Kyle Maxwell" <krmaxwell () gmail com>]

On 3/29/06, Joel Jose <joeljose420 () bonbon net> wrote:
> But i think it is a very "huge" vulnerability. and nessus didnt
> even give a hinch!!

Well, Nessus is primarily focused on operating system vulnerabilities
and problems with common services. I'm not sure how you're "accessing"
the directories -- if it's via Windows sharing, you have multiple
problems here that should be addressed immediately. If it's via some
web application, then it's not surprising Nessus didn't pick it up,
though you still have things the client should fix.

> and one more quest. How many of you think that the existance of the default
> banners in services(eg apache default error pages) are a security threat, if
> not high, atleast medium?. I do.

First of all, such existence is a *vulnerability*, not a *threat*.
Lots of people frequently misuse these terms and we should be clear in
our terminology. Second, the proper way to do this is to define
criteria for each severity level. For example you might say that
"high" vulnerabilities allow code execution or access to restricted
data, "medium" vulnerabilities violate best practices but don't
necessarily allow code execution or data loss, and "low"
vulnerabilities provide configuration information that shouldn't be
disclosed but isn't a protected secret like a password. Those criteria
should typically be more specific and take into account the overall
risk environment of the client organization (industry, company policy,
etc.)

But in the general sense... I never classify default banners as a high
vulnerability as it seems kind of "Chicken Little" to me. I recommend
they be turned off (or changed to something else if the client is a
little twisted) but it would be incorrect to give your client a false
impression of the risk stemming from that decision.

--
Kyle Maxwell
http://caffeinatedsecurity.com
[krmaxwell () gmail com]

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