UGN Security
Posted By: HighLander Stopping Automated Attack Tools - 08/08/05 07:39 AM
Stopping Automated Attack Tools : An analysis of web-based application techniques capable of defending against current and future automated attack tools.

Quote:
An almost infinite array of automated tools exist to spider and mirror application content extract confidential material. brute force guess authentication credentials, discover code injection flaws, fuzz application variables for exploitable overflows, scan for common files or vulnerable CGI's, and generally attack or exploit web-based application flaws. While of great value to security professionals, the use of these tools by attackers represents a clear and present danger to all organisations.

These automated tools have become increasingly popular for attackers seeking to compromise the integrity of online applications, and are used during most phases of an attack. Whilst there are a number of defence techniques which, when incorporated into a web-based application, are capable of stopping even the latest generation of tools, unfortunately most organisations have failed to adopt them.
A good one to read if your into network security
Prime examples of what this article talks about is DoS and DDoS, and perhaps now to a lesser extent Smurfs. It seems now that most security corporations are now focusing on preventing attacks by increasing network security in perhaps a futile effort to eliminate or reduce the possible number of zombies/bots, but still this is a far cry from a full solution as there will allways be vunerable systems, and the ability to saturate lines or exhausting server memory.

Could a possible solution be to limit the frequency of packets under a certain size being sent on OS cleints, similar to flood control on web boards, these days with the size of most peoples lines small packets like that are rarely sent anyway, and most programs use far bigger or more complex packets ussaully. A real solution to DoS attacks is worth millions though.
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