Unit-2: Tools and Methods Used in Cybercrimes
Unit-2: Tools and Methods Used in Cybercrimes
Unit-2: Tools and Methods Used in Cybercrimes
Password is like a key to get an entry into computerized systems like a lock.
Password cracking is a process of recovering passwords from data that have
been stored in or transmitted by a computer system.
Usually, an attacker follows a common approach- repeatedly making guesses
for the password.
The purpose of password cracking is as follows:
To recover a forgotten password
As a preventive measure by system administrator to check for easily crackable passwords.
To gain unauthorized access to a system.
Manual password cracking is to attempt to logon with different passwords. The
attacker follows the following steps:
Find a valid user account such as an administrator or guest
Create a list of possible passwords
Rank the passwords from high to low probability.
Key-in each password
Try again until a successful password is found
Passwords can be guessed sometimes with knowledge
of users personal information. Examples of guessable
passwords include:
Blank
The words like “password”, “passcode” and “admin”
Series of letters from the “QWERTY” key board.
Users name or login name
Name of users friend/relative/pet
Users birth place or date of birth, or relative’s or friend’s.
User’s vehicle number; office number, residence number or
mobile number;
Name of the celebrity who is considered to be an idol(actors,
spiritual gurus) by the user.
Simple modifications of one of the preceding, such as suffixing
a digit, particularly1, or reversing the order of letters.
An attacker can also create a script file (i.e. automated program) which will be
executed to try each password in a list.
Password cracking attacks can be classified under three categories as follows:
Online attacks;
Offline attacks;
Non-electronic attacks (e.g., social engineering, shoulder surfing and dumpster diving )
Online attacks
Mostly offline attacks are performed from a location other than the target (i.e.,
either a computer system or while on the network) where these passwords
reside or are used.
Offline attacks usually require physical access to the computer and copying
the password file from the system onto removable media. Different types of
offline password attacks are Dictionary attack, Hybrid attack, Brute force
attack.
Types of password cracking methods
Type of Attack Description Example of password
Dictionary Attack Attempt to match all Administrator
the words from the
dictionary to get the
password.
Hybrid attack Substitutes numbers Adm1n1stator
and symbols to get the
password
Brute force attack Attempt all possible Adm!n@09
permutations –
combinations of
letters numbers and
special charecters.
Strong, Weak and Random
Passwords
A weak password is one , which could be easily guessed, short, common and
a system default password that could be easily found by executing brute
force attack and by using a subset of all possible passwords, such as words
in the dictionary, proper names and words based on the username or
common variations on these themes.
Examples of “weak Passwords”:
Susan: Common personal names;
Aaaa: repeated letters, can be guessed;
Rover: common name for a pet, also a dictionary word;
Abc123: can be easily guessed;
Admin: can be easily guessed;
1234: can be easily guessed;
QWERTY: a sequence of adjacent letters on many keyboards;
12/3/35: date, possibly of personal importance;
Nbusr123: probably a username, and if so, can be very easily
guessed;
p@$$\/\/0rd: simple letter substitutions are preprogrammed into
password cracking tools.
Password: used very often-trivially guessed
December12:using date
A strong password is long enough, random or otherwise difficult to guess –
producible only by the user who choose it
Some examples of strong passwords:
Convert_$100 to Euros!
382460943aH
4pRet@13
MoOoOfln2356
T3wasno23436@
Random Passwords
Password is stronger if it includes a mix of upper and lower case
letters, numbers and other symbols, when allowed , for the same
number of characters.
The difficulty in remembering such a password increases the
chance that the user will write down the password, which makes
it more vulnerable to a different attack.
Forcing the users to use system created random passwords
ensures that the password will have no connection with that user
and should not be found in any dictionary.
Several OSs have included such a feature. Almost all the OSs also
include password aging; the users are required to choose new
passwords regularly, usually after 30 or 45 days.
The general guidelines applicable to the password policies, which
can be implemented organization-wide, are as follows:
Passwords and user logon identities(IDs) should be unique to each authorized user.
Passwords should consists of a minimum of eight alphanumeric characters.
These should be computer-controlled lists of prescribed password rules and periodic testing to
identify any password weaknesses.
Passwords should be kept private, that is , not shared with friends, colleagues, etc. they shall not
be coded into programs or noted down anywhere.
Passwords shall be changed every 30/45 days or less. Most operating systems can enforce a
password with an automatic expiration and prevent repeated or reused passwords.
User accounts should be frozen after five failed logon attempts. All erroneous password entries
should be recorded in an audit log for later inspection and action, as necessary.
Sessions should be suspended after 15 mins of inactivity and require the passwords to be re-
entered.
Successful logons should display the date and time of the last logon and logoff.
Logon IDs and passwords should be suspended after a specified period of non-use.
Similarly,netzens should practice password guidelines to avoid being victim of
getting their personal E-Mail accounts hacked/attcked by the attackers.
passwords used for business E-Mail accounts, personal E-Mail accounts(Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail)
and banking/Financial user accounts (eg.,online banking/securities trading accounts) should
be kept separate.
Passwords should be of minimum eight alphanumeric characters (common names or phrases
should be phrased).
Passwords should be changed every 30/45 days.
Passwords should not be shard with relatives and/or friends.
Password used previously should not be used while renewing the password.
Passwords of personal E-Mail accounts (Yahoo/ Hotmail/Gmail and banking /Financial user
accounts (eg.,online banking/securities trading accounts) should be changed from a secured
system, within couple of days, if these E-Mail accounts has been accessed from public internet
facilities such as cybercafes/hotels/libraries.
Passwords should not be stored under mobile phones, PDA'sas these devices are also prone to
cyber-attacks
In the case of receipt of an E-mail from banking/financial institutions, instructing to change the
passwords, before clicking the web links displayed in the E-Mail, legitimacy of the E-Mail
should be ensured to avoid being a victim of phishing attacks
Similarly, in case of receipt of SMS from banking/financial institutions, instructing to change the
Passwords, legitimacy of the E-Mail should be ensured to avoid being a victim of Smishing
attacks
In case E-Mail accounts/user accounts have been hacked, respective agencies/institutes should
be contacted immediately.
KEYLOGGERS and SPYWARES
Keystroke logging, often called keylogging, is the practice of noting (or
logging) the key struck on a keyboard, typically in a covert manner so that
the person using the keyboard is unaware that such actions are being
monitored
keystroke or keylogger is quicker and easier way of capturing the passwords
and monitoring the victim's IT savvy behaviour.
it can be classified as software keylogger or hardware keylogger.
SOFTWARE KEYLOGGERS:
Software keyloggers are software programs installed on the
computer systems which usually are located between the
OS and the keyboard hardware, and every keystroke is
recorded. Software keyloggers are installed on a computer
system by Trojans or viruses without the knowledge of the
user.
Cybercriminals always install such tools on the insecure
computer systems available in public places and can obtain
the required information about the victim very easily.
A Keylogger usually consists of two files that are installed in
the same directory: a dynamic link library(DLL)file and an
EXEcutable(EXE)file that installs the DLL file and triggers it
so work. DLL does all the recording of keystrokes.
website Brief Description
http://www.soft-central.net SC-Keylog PRO:
It allows to secretly record computer
user activities such as E-Mails, chat
conversions, visited websites,
clipboard usage. etc
http://kgb-spy- KGB Spy:
software.es.softonic.com 1. Widely used by both regular users
and IT security specialists.
2. It records all typed data/all
keyboard activity.
3. It can be used to monitor
children’s activity at home .
4. Ensure employees do not use
company’s computers
inappropriately.
website Brief Description
http://www.spy- Spy Buddy:
guide.net/spybuddy-spy- This, along with keylogger, has the following
software.html features:
1. Internet conversation logging
2. Disk activity logging
3. Window activity logging
4. Application activity logging
5. Clipboard activity logging
6. Internet explorer history
7. Printed documents logging
8. Websites activity logging
9. Screenshot capturing
Antikeylogger is a tool that can detect the keylogger installed on the computer
system and also can remove the tool.
4. It records key strokes that a user types on a computer’s keyboard and captures screenshots.
5. It sends all gathered data to a predefined E-Mail address, uploads it to a predetermined FTP
server or transfers it through a background Internet Connection to a remote host.
6. It infects files, corrupts installed applications and damages the entire systems.
7. It distributes infected files to remote computers with
certain security vulnerabilities and performs attacks
against hacker-defined remote hosts.
8. It installs hidden FTP server that can be used by
malicious persons for various illegal purposes.
9. It degrades internet connection speed and overall
system performance, decreases system security and
causes software instability.
10. It provides no uninstall feature, and hides processes,
files and other objects to complicate its removal as
much as possible.
Following are a few examples of backdoor Trojans:
1. Back Orifice: for remote system administration. Enables user to
control a computer running the MS Windows OS from a remote
location.
2. Bifrost: can infect Windows 95 trough vista. Server- client.
3. SAP backdoors – SAP is an Enterprising Resource Planning
(ERP) system.
4. Onapsis Bizploit : it is the open source ERP penetration testing
frame work. developed by the onapsis labs. Bizploit assist
security professionals in the discovery, vulnerability
assessment and exploitation phases of ERP penetration tests..
In this type of criminal act, the attacker floods the bandwidth of the victims’s
network or fills his E-Mail box with Spam mail depriving him of the services
he is entitled to access or provide.
The attackers typically target sites or services hosted on high-profile web
servers such as banks, credit card payments gateways, mobile phone
networks and even root name servers.
The united states computer Emergency Response Team defines symptoms of
DoS attacks to include:
Unusually slow network performance
Unavailability of a particular website
Inability to access any website
Dramatic increase in the number of Spam E-Mails received
The goal of DoS is not to gain unauthorized access to systems or data, but to
prevent intended users of a service from using it. A DoS attack may do the
following:
Flood a network with traffic, thereby preventing legitimate network traffic
Disrupt connections between two systems, there by preventing access to a service.
Prevent a particular individual from accessing a service
Disrupt service to a specific system or person.
Classification of DoS Attacks
Bandwidth attacks
The attacker consume all the bandwidth, thus, the site becomes
out of service.
Logic attacks
These kind of attacks can exploit vulnerabilities in network
software such as webserver or TCP/IP stack.
Protocol attacks
Exploit a specific feature or implementation bug of some
protocol installed at the victim’s system to consume excess
amounts of its resources.
Unintentional DoS attack
Simply due to a sudden enormous spike in popularity.
Types or Levels of DoS Attacks
It is based on an attacker simply sending the victim overwhelming number of ping packets,
usually by using the “ping” command, which result into more traffic than the victim can handle.
This requires the attacker to have a faster network connection than the victim. It is very simple to
launch, but to prevent it completely is the most difficult.
▶ Ping of death attack
▶ The ping attack sends oversized Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packets, and it is
one of the core protocols of the IP suite.
▶ It is mainly used by networked computers OS’s to send error messages indicating datagrams
to the victim.
SYN attack:
It is also termed as TCP SYN Flooding.
In the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), handshaking of network connections is done with
SYN and ACK messages.
An attacker initiates a TCP connection to the server with an SYN.
The server replies with an SYN-ACK. The client then does not send back an ACK, causing the
server to allocate memory for the pending connection and wait.
This fills up the buffer space for SYN message on the target system, preventing other systems on
the network from communicating with the target system.
Teardrop attack:
The teardrop attack is an attack where fragmented
packets are forged to overlap each other when the
receiving host tries to reassemble them.
IP’s packet fragmentation algorithm is used to send
corruption packets to confuse the victim and may hang
the system.
This attack can crash various OSs due to a bug in their
TCP/IP fragmentation reassembly code.
Windows 3.1x, Windows95 and Windows NT OSs as
well as versions of Linux are vulnerable to this attack.
Smurf attack:
It is a way of generating significant computer network traffic on a victim network.
This is a type of DoS attack that floods a target system via spoofed broadcast ping messages.
This attack consists of a host sending an ICMP echo request (ping) to a network broadcast
address.
Every host on the network receives the ICMP echo request and sends back and ICMP echo
response inundating the initiator with network traffic.
On a multi-access broadcast network, hundreds of machines might reply to each packet. This
creates a magnified DoS attack of ping replies, flooding he primary victim.
Nuke:
Nuke is an old DoS attack against computer networks consisting of
fragmented or otherwise invalid ICMP packets sent to the target.
It is achieved by using a modified ping utility to repeatedly send this corrupt
data, thus slowing down the affected computer until it comes to a complete
stop.
A specific example of a nuke attack that gained some prominence is the
WinNuke, which exploited the vulnerability in the NetBIOS handler in
Windows 95.
Tools Used to Launch DoS Attack
Phishing is the use of social engineering tactics to trick users into revealing
confidential information.
Phishing
Topics to be covered:
Methods of phishing
Phishing techniques
Spear phishing
Types of phishing scams
Phishing toolkits and spy phishing
Phishing countermeasures
Phishing
Wikipedia:
It is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as
usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an
electronic communications.
Webopedia:
It is an act of sending an E-Mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate
enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be
used for ID theft.
TechEncyclopedia:
It is a scam to steal valuable information such as credit card and social security numbers, user
IDs and passwords.
An official-looking E-Mail is sent to petential victims pretending to be from their bank or retail
establishment.
E-Mails can be sent to people on selected lists or any list, expecting that some percentage of
recipients will actually have an account with the organization.
Phishing is a type of deception designed to steal your identity.
In phishing schemes, the phisher tries to get the user to disclose valuable
personal data-such as credit card numbers, passwords, account data or
other information- by convincing the user to provide it under false
pretenses.
E-Mail is the popular medium used in the phishing attacks and such E-Mails
are also called as Spams.
Two such E-Mails:
Spam E-Mails
Hoax E-Mails
Spam E-Mails:
Also known as “junk E-Mails” they involve nearly identical messages sent to
numerous recipients.
Types of spam E-mails are as follows:
Unsolicited bulk E-Mail(UBE): unsolicited E-Mail sent in large quantities.
Unsolicited commercial E-Mail(UCE):are sent in large quantities from
commercial perspective(ads).
Spam E-mails proved to be a popular medium for phishers to scam users to
enter personal information on false websites using E-Mailing forged to look
like as if it is from a bank or other organizations such as:
HSBC, Standarder, Common Wealth Bank
eBay
Amazon
Facebook
The phisher might employ any or all of the following tactics:
Names of legitimate organizations
From a real employee
URLs that “look right”
Urgent messages
Here are a few examples of phrases used to entice the user to take the action:
Verify your account
You have won the lottery
If you don’t respond within 48 hours, your account will be closed.
Let us understand the ways to reduce the amount of
Spam E-Mails we receive:
Share personal E-Mail address with limited people and/or on
public websites- the more it is exposed to the public, the more
Spam E-Mails will be received.
Never reply or open any spam E-Mails.( Existance, validity).
Disguise the E-Mail address on public website or groups by
spelling out the sign “@” and the DOT(.);
Ex : munwarATgmailDOTcom
Use alternate E-Mail address to register for any personal or
shopping website. Never use business E-mail address for
these sites but rather use E-Mail addresses that are free from
Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail.
Do not forward any E-Mails from unknown recipients.
Make a habit to preview an E-Mail before opening it before opening it.
Never use E-Mail address as the screen name in chat groups or rooms.
Never respond to a Spam E-Mail asking to remove your E-Mail address from
the mailing distribution list. More often it confirms to the phishers that your
E-Mail address is active.
Hoax E-Mails
These are deliberate attempt to deceive or trick a user into believing or accepting that something
is real, when the hoaxer knows it is false.
Hoax E-Mails may or may not be spam E-Mails.
It is difficult to identify wherher an E-Mail is a “spam or a hoax”.
Methods of phishing
Frequent methods used by the phishers.
Dragnet:
This method involves the use of spammed E-Mails, bearing falsified corporate identification
(corporate names, logos, and trademark) in websites or pop-up windows with similar falsified
identification.
Clicking on links in the body of the E-Mail to take the victims to the website or pop-up windows
where they are requested to enter bank or credit card account data or other personal data.
Dragnet phishers do not identify specific prospective victims in advance.
Rod-and-reel:
In this method, phishers identify specific prospective victims in advance, and convey false
information to them to prompt their disclosure of personal and financial data.
Ex: on the phony web page, availability of similar item for better price.
Lobsterpot:
This method focuses upon use of spoofed websites.
It consists of creating of bogus websites similar to legitimate corporate ones, targeting a narrowly
defined class of victims, which is likely to seek out.
The phisher places a web link into an E-Mail message to make it look more legitimate.
Gillnet:
Phishers introduce Malicious Code into E-Mails and websites.
By opening a particular E-Mail or Browsing a particular website, netizens may have a Trozan
Horse/virus/keyloggers
Phishing Techniques
Website forgery:
In this technique the phisher directs the netizens to the website designed and developed by him,
to login into website, by altering the browser address bar through JavaScript commands.
Flash phishing:
Anti-Phishing toolbars are installed/enabled to help checking the web page content for signs of
phishing, but have limitations that they do not analyze flash objects at all.
Phishers use it to emulate the legitimate website.
Netizens believe that the website is clean and is a real website because anti-Phishing toolbar is
unable to detect it.
Phone Phishing:
Phisher can use a fake caller ID data to make it appear that the call is received from a trusted
organization to entice the users to reveal their personal information such as account numbers
and passwords.
Social Phishing:
It works in a systematic manner.
Phisher sends a mail as if it is sent by a bank asking to call them back because there was a
security breach.
The victim calls the bank on the phone numbers displayed in the mail.
The phone number provided in the mail is a false number and the victim gets redirected to the
phisher.
Phisher speaks with the victim in the similar fashion/style as a bank employee, asking to verify
that the victim is the customer of the bank.
Spear Phishing
Topics to be covered:
Personally identifiable Information (PII)
Types of Identity Theft
Techniques of ID theft
Identity Theft: Countermeasures
How to Efface your Online Identity
Personally identifiable Information
PII has four common variants based on personal,
personally, identifiable and identifying.
The fraudsters attempts to steal the elements mentioned
below, which can express the purpose of
distinguishing individual identity:
Full name
National identification numbers
Telephone number and mobile phone number.
Drivers license number
Credit card numbers
Digital identity
DOB
Birth place
Face and fingerprints.
The information can be further classified as
Non-classified and classified
Non – classified information
Public information
Information that is a matter of public record or knowledge
Personal information
Information belongs to a private individual but the individual commonly may
share this information with others for personal or business
reasons.(address,ph, email)
Routine business information
Business information that do not require any special protection and may be
routinely shared with anyone inside or out side of the business.
Private information
Information that can be private if associated with an individual and individual
can object in case of disclosure. (credit card and financial)
Confidential business information
Information which, if disclosed, may harm the business.
(marketing plans, new product plans)
Classified information
Confidential
Information that requires protection and unauthorized disclosure
could damage national security.(strength of armed forces, info
about weapons)
Secret
Information that requires substantial protection and authorized
disclosure could seriously damage national security.(national
security policy, military plans and intelligence operations)
Top secret
information that requires the highest degree of protection and
unauthorized disclosure could severely damage national
security. (vital defense plans , cryptologic intelligence
systems.)
Types of Identity Theft
Includes bank fraud, credit card fraud, tax refund fraud, mail fraud..etc
For example: the fraudster fraudulently can open a new credit card account in
the victims name and the card charges up, payment neglected, leaving the
victim with bad credit history.
The process of recovering from the crime is often expensive, time-consuming
and psychologically painful.
Criminal Identity Theft
It involves taking over someone else’s identity to commit a crime such as enter
into a country, get special permits, hide one’s own identity or commit acts of
terrorism, these criminal activities can include:
Computer and cybercrimes
Organized crime
Drug trafficking
Alien smuggling
Money laundering
Individuals who commit ID theft are not always out to steal the victim’s money or ruin victim’s
credit.
Identity Cloning
Medical ID theft can be dangerous not only from financial perspective but also
from a medical perspective.
If the fraudster has successfully stolen the victims identity and received
treatment, the record can become part of a victim’s permanent record.
Synthetic Identity Theft
The fraudster will take parts of informational from many victims and combine
them.
The new identity is not any specific person, but all the victims can be affected
when it is used.
Child Identity Theft
Parents might sometimes steal their children’s identity to open credit card
accounts, utility accounts, bank accounts and even to take out loans or
secure leases because their own credit history is insufficient or too
damaged to open such accounts.
Techniques of ID Theft
Thank you