Network Security

Sample Midterm #2 Answers

Phillip Mak
pmak@nyu.edu

1a. [3 pts] Whats the cheapest attack (name and amount) thats Possible? Install
Trojan onto Host Computer, $200K
1b. [4 pts] Whats the cheapest and most expensive methods (name and amount)
that's Possible to Infect Target with Trojan? Cheapest: Malicious Website,
$100K; Most Expensive: Get Target to Click on Email Link, $120K
1c. [3 pts] Suppose its Possible to Obtain BIOS Password, and the Cost of Attack
for it is $50K. Now, what is the cheapest attack (name and amount) thats
Possible now? Obtain Physical Access to Host, $150K

2. DNS Reconnaissance: Suppose an attacker is performing reconnaissance

on ACME Corporation using only the DNS protocol.
2a. [6pts] What are three methods using only the DNS protocol that an
attacker can use to perform reconnaissance on ACME Corporation? Identify
what type of information can be obtained.
2b. [4pts] What are two mitigation strategies to minimize what an attacker
can obtain from using DNS?
DNS Recon

Possible types of information obtained

Standard DNS
Request

Examples: A (IPv4 Address), AAAA (IPv6 Address), MX

(mail server), NS (name server), et al. Full credit entails
understanding that information like this can be obtained
from DNS

Brute-force
Forward DNS

Trying DNS requests on different URLs, such as ftp.nyu.edu

and see if it works. This can obtain information about
other hosts on the network

DNS Zone
Mitigations
Transfer
Split DNS

If successful, will obtain all the records on DNS server

Description

Turn off zone

transfer

Disable the ability for host to perform a zone transfer

Split the DNS Servers into an internal DNS server and

external server. Requests from outside the network can
only obtain info on servers accessible from the outside the
network

3. DNS Exploits: Remember that DNS queries are usually recursive,

as shown in this diagram: Suppose an attacker wants to perform
DNS cache poisoning so the domain name acmecorporation.com is
diverted it to a malicious website.

3a. [3 pts] Identify the step number(s) in the diagram in which the attacker
can insert traffic to poison the DNS cache. Explain your answer.
Steps 3, 5, 7, and 8. The attacker can potentially insert or modify
any response to a DNS request.
3b. [6 pts] What are three issues that the attacker needs to overcome in
order to successfully poison the DNS cache?
1. Timing: the DNS response must be before the actual server
responds.
2. Transaction ID (sequence number): the DNS transaction ID must
match with the one in the request
3. Spoof IP Address of Server: the source IP address must be from
the DNS server
3c. [3 pts] Explain the main difficulty with using ingress filtering to prevent
IP spoofing. Ingress filtering is only allowing subnets at the router that are
supposed to be connected to the router.
The difficulty is that ingress filtering must be implemented at all
levels of the network as IP spoofing can always occur at a subnetwork.

4. [6 pts] Using the standard nmap TCP SYN scan, how does nmap
decide if a port is open, closed, or filtered?
TCP SYN Scan

nmap

target
SYN (port
X)

CK
: SYN/A
n
e
p
o
K
If
RST/AC
:
d
e
s
>
If clo
othing
n
<
:
d
e
If filter

The nmap TCP SYN Scan is the default scan type if nmap as root/admin
rights. nmap will send a TCP packet to the target with the SYN flag set,
with the destination port set to X. nmap will repeat this for each port.
Open: If the port is open, the target will respond with a SYN/ACK,
meaning that host is trying to establish a connection
Closed: If the port is closed, the target will respond with a RST/ACK
Filtered: If the port is filtered, then the target will respond with nothing

5. [10 pts] This diagram represents the covert_tcp (TCP ACK Method)
of transferring data from one host to another.
5a. [4 pts] Details of communications
for label A.
The Sender sends a packet with the IP
source spoofed as the Receiver, and
Destination to be the Bounce Server.
The TCP SYN flag is set, with a ISN set
to (ASCII# - 1).

Describe the method by which the

covert_tcp Sender can send a
message to covert_tcp Receiver
using the Bounce Server. Include
necessary details on the IP or TCP
headers in order to explain your
answer.

5b. [6pts] Details of communications

for label B.
The Bounce Server will receive the
packet, and will reply to the Receiver
because the source address was
spoofed. There are two possible
responses:
1. SYN/ACK(ASCII# - 1 + 1)
2. RST/ACK(ASCII# - 1 + 1)
In either case, the ASCII# is
successfully transmitted to the
Receiver.

6. Suppose an attacker has installed HackerDefender on a target

machine and has hidden itself and netcat on the host. Netcat on the
host is configured to listen on port 1234 and upon an incoming
connection will send the file password.txt, and then exit.
6a. [4 pts] Write the netcat command for the attacker to run in order
to retrieve the fileThis
and question
save the is
file
to the
based
oncurrent directory.
Lab 4, which will not be on
the midterm.
nc [host] 1234 > password.txt
6b. [4 pts] With the netcat process and port hidden on the target
machine, can the port that netcat is using be found using a network
scanning tool (such as nmap) from another host on the network?
Explain.
Yes. Although HackerDefender can hide the ports from being
displayed when using the netstat a command, it has nothing to do
with the ports as can be seen from outside the host; port 1234 from
part 6a can always been seen from outside the host.

7. Vignere
7a. [4] Using the standard Vignere (Vigenere) (Poly-alphabetic Encryption) table, decrypt
the message HEFF using the key CAB.

The table was not given, but its trivial to recreate the table yourself.
Decrypt H: Lookup Row C / Cell H => Column F
Decrypt E: Lookup Row A / Cell E => Column E
Decrypt F: Lookup Row B / Cell F => Column E
Decrypt F: Lookup Row C / Cell F => Column D
Answer: FEED
7b. [2] Does the table in Vignere need to be kept secret for this cryptographic scheme to
work? Two possible answers, depending on explanation: Either the key (CAB) or
the table must be kept secret. Typically, its the key (CAB) that is kept
secret.
No. The table in this case is the encryption engine. As long as the key CAB is kept secret,
then the table does not need to be kept secret.
- or Yes. The table is the key used to decrypt the message. If the table is kept secret, then
the encryption engine CAB does not need to be secret.

6 mod 33 = 6
Modular Math
Work
6 mod 33
2

2 mod 11 = 2
22 mod 11
=((2 mod 11)(2 mod 11)) mod
11
=((2)(2)) mod 11 = 4 mod 11 =
4
24 mod 11
=((22 mod 11)(22 mod 11)) mod
11
=((4)(4)) mod 11 = 16 mod 11
=5
28 mod 11
=((24 mod 11)(24 mod 11)) mod
11
=((5)(5)) mod 11 = 25 mod 11
=3

= ((6 mod 33) (6 mod 33)) mod

33
= ((6)(6)) mod 33 = 36 mod 33
=3
63 mod 33
= ((6 mod 33) (62 mod 33)) mod
33
= ((6)(3)) mod 33 = 18 mod 33
= 18
5 mod 11 = 5
52 mod 11 = 5*5 mod 11 = 25-22=3
54 mod 11 = 3*3 mod 11 = 9
58 mod 11 = 81 mod 11 = 81-77 = 4
59 mod 11 = 4*5 mod 11 = 20-11 =
9
6 mod 11 = 6
62 mod 11 = 36 mod 11 = 36-33 = 3
64 mod 11 = 9 mod 11 = 9

8. Perform RSA key generation with p=3 and q=11. Note: you must show
work for any modular mathematics.
8a. [2 pts] Compute n and
n = pq = 3 * 11 = 33
= (p-1)(q-1) = (3-1)(11-1) = (2)(10) = 20
8b. [2 pts] Choose the smallest possible public (encryption) exponent
e
Find e such that:
1 < e < n;
GCD(e, )=1
Not possible e: 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18
Possible e: 3, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17, 19
Choose e=3

8c. [4 pts] Choose a private (decryption) exponent d

ed mod = 1 or (ed 1) mod = 0
e = 3; = 20
3d mod 20 = 1
Try d=1 => 3(1) mod 20 ?= 1 ... NO
d=2 => 3(2) mod 20 ?= 1 ... NO
d=3 => 3(3) mod 20 ?= 1 ... NO
d=4 => 3(4) mod 20 ?= 1 ... NO
d=5 => 3(5) mod 20 ?= 1 ... NO
d=6 => 3(6) mod 20 ?= 1 ... NO
d=7 => 3(7) mod 20 ?= 1 ... YES
Choose d=7
8d. [4 pts] Encrypt the plaintext message m=6 with the public key
c = me mod n = (6)3 mod 33 = 18
Check your work: m = cd mod n = 187 mod 33 = 6
(required if you made a math mistake)
8e: [2 pts] Is RSA the preferred or non-preferred choice for encrypting large messages? Explain
why.
RSA is not preferred for encrypting large messages using RSA to encrypt messages
is excruciatingly slow. Generating RSA key pairs is also very slow (~5 seconds).

9. Perform Diffie-Hellman shared key generation with g=2, n=11, Alice

selects a=9 as her secret, Bob selects b=4 as his secret. Note: you must
show work for any modular mathematics.
9a. [3 pts] calculate Alices public key A
A = ga mod n = 29 mod 11 = 6
9b. [2 pts] calculate Bobs public key B
B = gb mod n = 24 mod 11 = 5
9c. [4 pts] calculate the shared key K
KA = Ba mod n = 59 mod 11 = 9
KB = Ab mod n = 64 mod 11 = 9
9d. [3 pts] What values are publically shared between Alice and Bob?
A, g, n, B (everything except for a, b)

10. Block
Input
0000
0001
0010
0011
0100
0101
0110
0111

Cipher Mode of
OutputInput
0111 1000
0110 1001
0101 1010
0100 1011
0011 1100
0010 1101
0001 1110
0000 1111

Operations
Output
1111
1110
1101
1100
1011
1010
1001
1000

10a. [3 pts] If Trudy intercepted Ciphertext 001110110011 from Alice to

Bob and knows that CBC is used, can she easily figure out that blocks are
repeating? No, since CBC is used, Trudy cannot easily see if there
are repeating blocks.
10b. [3 pts] Decrypt Ciphertext 001110110011 without using any mode
dec(0011) = 0100
dec(1011) = 1100
dec(0011) = 0100

10c. [6 pts] Decrypt Ciphertext 001110110011 using PCBC and

IV=1010
0011

1011

0011

0100

1100
1101

0100

1010
1010
1110

0001

1010
1110

Based on following the diagram, we can figure out the formulas for
decryption:
PT 1 = dec(CT 1) IV = dec(0011) 1010 = 0100 1010 = 1110
PT 2 = dec(CT 2) CT 1 PT 1 = dec(1011) 0011 1110 = 1100 0011
1110 = 0001
PT 3 = dec(CT 3) CT 2 PT 2 = dec(0011) 1011 0001 = 0100 1011
0001 = 1110