[CEH] Footprinting

Ethical Hacking
Module II
Footprinting
Scenario
Adam is furious. He had applied for the network engineer job at targetcompany.com He believes that he was rejected unfairly. He has a good track record, but the economic slowdown has seen many layoffs including his. He is frustrated – he needs a job and feels he has been wronged. Late in the evening he decides that he will prove his mettle.
What do you think Adam would do?
Where would he start and how would he go about it?
Are there any tools that can help him in his effort?
Can he cause harm to targetcompany.com?
As a security professional, where can you lay checkpoints and how can you deploy countermeasures?
Module Objectives
Overview of the Reconnaissance Phase
Introducing Footprinting
Understanding the information gathering methodology of hackers
Comprehending the Implications
Learning some of the tools used for reconnaissance phase
Deploying countermeasures


Revisiting Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance refers to the preparatory phase where an attacker seeks to gather as much information as possible about a target of evaluation prior to launching an attack.
It involves network scanning either external or internal without authorization.

Defining Footprinting
Footprinting is the blueprinting of the security profile of an organization, undertaken in a methodological manner.
Footprinting is one of the three pre-attack phases. The others are scanning and enumeration.
Footprinting results in a unique organization profile with respect to networks (Internet / Intranet / Extranet / Wireless) and systems involved.
Information Gathering Methodology
Unearth initial information
Locate the network range
Ascertain active machines
Discover open ports / access points
Detect operating systems
Uncover services on ports
Map the Network

Unearthing Initial Information
Commonly includes:
Domain name lookup
Locations
Contacts (Telephone / mail)
Information Sources:
Open source
Whois
Nslookup
Hacking Tool:
Sam Spade
Whois
Nslookup
Nslookup is a program to query Internet domain name servers. Displays information that can be used to diagnose Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure.
Helps find additional IP addresses if authoritative DNS is known from whois.
MX record reveals the IP of the mail server.
Both Unix and Windows come with a Nslookup client.
Third party clients are also available – E.g. Sam Spade
Scenario (contd.)
Adam knows that targetcompany is based at NJ. However, he decides to check it up. He runs a whois from an online whois client and notes the domain information. He takes down the email ids and phone numbers. He also discerns the domain server IPs and does an interactive Nslookup.
Ideally. what extent of information should be revealed to Adam during this quest?
Are there any other means of gaining information? Can he use the information at hand in order to obtain critical information?
What are the implications for the target company? Can he cause harm to targetcompany at this stage?

Locate the Network Range
Commonly includes:
Finding the range of IP addresses
Discerning the subnet mask
Information Sources:
ARIN (American Registry of Internet Numbers)
Traceroute
Hacking Tool:
NeoTrace
Visual Route
ARIN
ARIN allows search on the whois database to locate information on networks autonomous system numbers (ASNs), network-related handles and other related point of contact (POC).
ARIN whois allows querying the IP address to help find information on the strategy used for subnet addressing.

Screenshot: ARIN Whois Output
Traceroute
Traceroute works by exploiting a feature of the Internet Protocol called TTL, or Time To Live.
Traceroute reveals the path IP packets travel between two systems by sending out consecutive UDP packets with ever-increasing TTLs .
As each router processes a IP packet, it decrements the TTL. When the TTL reaches zero, it sends back a "TTL exceeded" message (using ICMP) to the originator.
Routers with DNS entries reveal the name of routers, network affiliation and geographic location.
Tool: NeoTrace (Now McAfee Visual Trace)
Tool: VisualRoute Trace
Tool: SmartWhois
Scenario (contd.)
Adam makes a few searches and gets some internal contact information. He calls the receptionist and informs her that the HR had asked him to get in touch with a specific IT division personnel. It’s lunch hour, and he says he’ d rather mail to the person concerned than disturb him. He checks up the mail id on newsgroups and stumbles on an IP recording. He traces the IP destination.
What preventive measures can you suggest to check the availability of sensitive information?
What are the implications for the target company? Can he cause harm to targetcompany at this stage?
What do you think he can do with the information he has obtained?

Tool: VisualLookout
VisualLookout provides high level views as well as detailed and historical views that provide traffic information in real-time or on a historical basis.
In addition the user can request a "connections" window for any server, which provides a real-time view of all the active network connections showing
who is connected,
what service is being used, 
whether the connection is inbound or outbound, and
how many connections are active and how long they have been connected.
Tool: VisualRoute Mail Tracker
Screenshot: VisualRoute Mail Tracker
Tool: eMailTrackerPro
Tool: Mail Tracking (mailtracking.com)
Summary
Information gathering phase can be categorized broadly into seven phases.
Footprinting renders a unique security profile of a target system.
Whois, ARIN can reveal public information of a domain that can be leveraged further.
Traceroute and mail tracking can be used to target specific IP and later for IP spoofing.
Nslookup can reveal specific users and zone transfers can compromise DNS security.