Re: Medium Scale Scanning Best Practices

From: miguel.dilajat_private
Date: Tue Jan 15 2002 - 08:43:59 PST

  • Next message: Erlend J. Leiknes: "Re: Medium Scale Scanning Best Practices"

    Hello Steve
    
    IMHO, your phrase "For example, the next IIS vulnerability hits.  I'd like
    to have a quick answer to the question, ..." is not compatible with "
    Periodic - weekly/monthly <--------- me".
    
    Perhaps you have to consider Nessus (www.nessus.org) for this task,
    activating only the needed plugins each time (i.e. new IIS vulnerability ->
    Windows and Web attack plugins only).
    Nessus is smart enough to NOT test unusable scripts (i.e. it won't launch a
    web attack plugin if there's no webserver on the target host).
    You'll also benefit from excellent reports.
    Nessus needs a Linux/UNIX box, but you'll need only 1 box for the Nessus
    server, you can even use a Windows client to use it.
    It could be that somebody else has a better answer. I'm ready to learn.
    
    OTOH, you can consider using some kind of NIDS (for example Snort, from
    www.snort.org), so new attacks can be detected/stopped by the NIDS, of
    course you've to worry for having the latest and greatest Snort signatures
    on place, but then you'll have extra time to do the detailed Nessus scans.
    Snort is available for Linux/UNIX/Windows.
    
    Both tools are free and readily available, and have several updates/week
    (sometimes).
    Cheers,
    
    Miguel Dilaj
    
    
    
    
    
    swlodinat_private@iquest.net on 15/01/2002 09:16:07
    
    Please respond to swlodinat_private
    
    To:   PEN-TESTat_private
    cc:
    Subject:  Medium Scale Scanning Best Practices
    
    
    Good day,
    
    I'm looking for advice into best practices for periodic scanning of a
    network
    on a medium scale.  Here are my definitions:
    
    Frequency
    ---------
    Continuous - near real-time
    Periodic - weekly/monthly <--------- me
    One time - duh
    
    Scale
    -----
    Small - a few hosts or maybe a /24 network or two
    Medium - many networks, up to /16 types <----------- me
    Large - global Internet or many /8 types
    
    Testing Activity **
    -------------------
    Footprinting
    Scanning <----------- me
    Enumeration
    Penetration
    
    ** Taken from Hacking Exposed by the Foundstone guys
    
    I have a global network of many /16 through /26 networks.  I'd like to
    develop
    an inventory of, primarily, machine/OS/Services.  I'd prefer to have this
    relatively
    up-to-date, but not manually performed.  Ultimately, I'd like to have a
    resource
    that could help me identify vulnerable devices given the discovery of a new
    vulnerability rather than having to scan the entire network each time.
    
    For example, the next IIS vulnerability hits.  I'd like to have a quick
    answer
    to the question, "what devices are vulnerable".  It doesn't matter if the
    answer
    is the result of "list all Windows OS devices with port 80 or 443 open".
    
    What are the best practices in this area?  I have a cobbled-together
    solution
    using nmap that I'm ready to test, but if there is a better low-cost
    solution
    I am interested.  I've seen ndiff (nmap diff), but I'm not sure that it
    would
    be easy
    to modify that to suit my requirements.  How are you dealing with
    this situation?
    
    Thanks!
    
    Steve
    
    
    
    
    
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