Re: Network discovery

From: Byron Sonne (blsonne_at_rogers.com)
Date: 02/03/04

  • Next message: Nagy Gergely: "MBSA 1.2" 
    Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2004 18:59:20 -0500
To: security-basics@securityfocus.com

    > I would like to ask all of you, if you have every used a network discovery
    > tool? I have a network with more than 5000 PC's and more than 70 sites in
    > the country. I would like to create an analysis about the network nodes,
    > line between them, speed of the lines etc. Would it be possible with a tool
    > to discover the whole internal network, with routers, gateways and all the
    > important datas?

    No.

    You could run a number of utilities/programs which will enumerate
    alot/most of the devices on your network and provide quite a bit of
    information.

    It will help you compose a map, but nothing that you can plop on a
    computer and run or plug into your network will give you a truly good
    map unless your network is configured perfectly, uses common hardware,
    has a fairly vanilla config, etc. Even then, I seriously doubt you'll
    get a complete picture. I think bad information is worse than no
    information at all as it can lead you to make false assumptions. Also,
    consider the case that if *you* can get all the information, perhaps a
    *cracker* (which is what most people mean when they abuse and misuse the
    term 'hacker') could too.

    But I digress... there are a number of gotchas you must be aware of.
    Some of these gotchas are:

    (1) devices that only listen; they don't transmit on the network. Not
    just sniffers.
    (2) Filtering or Translating proxies of whatever description.
    (3) NAT (Network Address Translation)
    (4) Firewalls
    (5) Custom hardware/software/protocols
    (6) Encryption
    (7) Temporary power or network outages
    (8) Design deficiencies in standard network protocols

    Some things that can help out alot are:
    (a) Good documentation
    (b) Well labelled cabling and devices
    (c) A sane overall architecture
    (d) Good, knowledgeable people
    (e) Good tools. Good starter link: http://www.insecure.org/tools.html
    (f) Things like Cisco CDP, etc.

    You and your skills are the most important thing of all, so read and
    learn as much as possible.

    Regards,
    Byron Sonne 

    -- 
For Good, return Good. For Evil, return Justice.
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  • Next message: Nagy Gergely: "MBSA 1.2"

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