A Framework for Network Security
By Brian Pereira
Security consultants advise IT managers to do penetration and vulnerability testing as part of security audits. Ethical ‘hackers’ examine a system for known vulnerabilities or weaknesses and help patch these. Every self-respecting ethical hacker has heard about the Metasploit Project and the Metasploit Framework (MSF). The former provides information or guidelines for detecting security vulnerabilities and for penetration testing; the latter provides the means to achieve this—a tool for developing exploit code that’s used for attacking a target machine. MSF version 3.0 was launched at the end of 2006 and has some radical changes over the previous version: it is written in the Ruby programming language (no longer in Perl) and it introduces fuzzing tools to discover software vulnerabilities in the first instance, rather than merely writing exploits for currently public bugs.
 Security experts opine that it will revolutionize the entire approach to information security testing. MSF 3.0 is not just an exploit platform, but it is in fact a security tool development platform. According to cgisecurity.com, version 3.0 contains 177 exploits, 104 payloads, 17 encoders, and 3 nop modules.
Additionally, 30 auxiliary modules are included that perform a wide range of tasks including host discovery protocol fuzzing and denial of service testing. The current stable version of the Metasploit Framework is v3.2.
This book introduces the reader to the main features of the Metasploit tool, its installation, using it to run exploits, and advanced usage to automate exploits and run custom payloads and commands on exploited systems.
Metasploit Toolkit is written by an ensemble of security consultants and researchers: Kevin Beaver (Technical Editor), David Maynor, K. K. Mookhey, Jacopo Cervini, Fairuzan Roslan, Efrain Torres, and Thomas Wilhelm. Collectively they have several years of experience behind them and impressive credentials.
The book begins by introducing Metasploit, runs through its evolution, tells what you can do with it, and mentions some commercially available alternatives. It then updates us about the new inclusions and enhancements in version 3.0. It reviews the new architecture and delves into the framework. Then it shows how to leverage Metasploit on penetration tests.
In the next chapter, we learn how to install and configure the MSF and are introduced to Soft Architecture. The third chapter delves deeper into the configuration aspects and it also talks about the global and module datastore.
Two chapters are devoted to payloads—pieces of code that get executed on the target system as part of an exploit attempt. The chapters take an in-depth look at the Meterpreter, PassiveX, and Virtual Network Computing (VNC) dynamic link library (DLL) injection payloads. One chapter looks at the Auxiliary module system, which enables fingerprinting, vulnerability scanning, and other reconnaissance activities to be carried out from within the framework. The objective being to link up the results of these scans, and feed them into the exploitation stage, so that more targeted exploits can be executed with a greater probability of success.
Once you master all the skills required for penetration testing, you’d be anxious for some target practice. The temptation to practice on Internet sites may be strong, albeit illegal; hackers (who just wanted to practice) have gone to jail for this. So it is best to build your own self-contained environment to practice all your skills and abide with the law too. The book shows you how to build and conduct a lab for penetration testing. It helps you make hardware and software choices, advises on documentation, and even offers tips on how to manage a team.
The inclusion of case studies adds tremendous value to this book as it helps one understand vulnerabilities in different scenarios. However, the case studies are based on previous versions of Metasploit— not version 3.0. We think the coverage for version 3.0 could have been more extensive to justify the high cost of this book. That makes us want to wait for the next edition.
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