RE: Internal Servers (noob post)

[Gorgon Beast <gorgonbeast () hotmail com>]

There are many ideas on the subject of methodology.  The main idea I go with is to attack my own systems before someone 
else does.  If an attacker gets in, they have free reign to unsecured systems.  And, since they got in through 
perimeter security, is anyone watching to see if it can be done again?  Or can they come back for weeks and 
weeks,picking apart your systems without anyone knowing.  Then, when they have EVERYTHING they possible want, do they 
destroy your systems?  (Me?  Paranoid?  Yep.)

That said, hardening internal systems is a good thing, you should keep them just on the "usable" side.  This means that 
they perform what they need to and that people can do their work.  Administrators can connect and do everything they 
need to.  Layered security is good for this, but requires a lot of forethought.

Since many attacks happen from the inside anyway, you should protect those machines. If you want to get really granular 
(which a lot of companies are, lately), you can put your servers in an internal DMZ as well, behind a firewall and only 
all authorized workstations to connect to them. This take a lot of work to implement if you are already set up.  

If your company takes credit cards, be aware of all of the PCI rules.  If it is a financial accounting company, look up 
the SOX rules.  Both are similar, neither covers everything, and you will probably see something that you want to 
change to make things better.  If your company participates in a SAS70 audit, consider expanding it every year to cover 
more items.  They are a huge pain, but you will discover many things that need changing.







> Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 05:56:45 -0700
> From: pmaneedham () hotmail com
> To: pen-test () securityfocus com
> Subject: Internal Servers (noob post)
>
>
> I wonder if you could give me some pointers on ways you pen testers would try
> to penetrate / or gain access to an organisations internal server “farm”. I
> have read numerous hardening guides for both UNIX and Windows Servers, which
> we use for our host based Systems, but our IT dept insist perimeter defences
> (firewall etc) are sufficient to protect the internal servers so there is no
> need to invest heavily or put resources into hardening internal servers. Is
> this statement valid or would hardening internal servers also give pen
> testers a hard time gaining access to data, backups or host based apps
> residing on internal servers?
>
> What I am really after (I am no pen tester but am intreged by what
> techniques you guys use) is to get into the mindset of the ways you guys
> would try and gain access to our internal servers and data? If I make some
> assumptions, could someone with experience (be it white hat, black hat, grey
> hat) give me some pointers as to whether my assumptions are correct?
>
> To attack (bring down, steal confidential data etc) one of our internal
> servers would you always try to penetrate the firewall or find some
> vulnerability in the firewall in order to get remote access into our
> internal servers?
>
> Once through the firewall what methods would you guys use to gain access to
> the server? Would you try default accounts that you know exist (I noticed
> the vast majority of hardening guides always say disable or remove
> unnecessary default UNIX / Windows accounts etc)?
>
> Is hardening an internal server much protection if somebody has broken
> through the Firewall or is easy practice to still get data off internal
> servers?
>
> Any pointers most welcome.
>
> Regards,
>
>
> -- 
> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Internal-Servers-%28noob-post%29-tp23832003p23832003.html
> Sent from the Penetration Testing mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
>
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and CEPT certs require a full practical examination in order to become certified.

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