BackTrack Linux

Free Enterprise Network Security Tools

admin — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:59:48 +0000

osProtection appears to be headed in the right direction. The security industry needs innovators like this company that puts out the innovative products that they do. You can read their press release below and I will will meet back up with you after the jump.

New York, NY (PRWEB) January 23, 2012

osProtection is the brainchild of Tom Nianios, a highly experienced security architect at Clone Systems with a desire to give something back to the industry.

The first phase of osProtection consists of three enterprise level deliverables: osDiscover – vulnerability scanning | osProtect – IDS & IPS | and osCollect – SIEM log monitoring. “osDiscover was recently launched at the SC World Congress in NYC and the feedback was phenomenal,” explains Clone Systems’ VP of Marketing, Sally Wigham. According to the team present at the osProtection project launch, the general feedback included comments such as: “This is the best GUI I’ve seen on any network security tool” and “I can’t believe there is no cost to use this. Thank you. This will save us thousands of dollars each year.”

“I’ve been constantly asked the same question – Why are you doing this as a free service and how will it benefit Clone Systems? And my answer is simple – Clone wants to give back to the community and deliver value to the marketplace. Our hope is that the Open Source community will continue to embrace this exciting initiative and keep working with us to make the internet safer, which will help businesses grow and make people lives easier. Clone also envisions that through working with the Open Source community we can learn from the breadth of talent out there and really start to create new solutions that are cutting edge in technology, first class in look and feel, and up to date with what the industry needs today. We’re constantly frustrated by the lapse in time between what the marketplace place demands and when the industry can deliver, and so we see this initiative as an excellent forum to close that gap and deliver more value to our customers and we remain excited and committed to Properly Secure Every Business Network. Clone Systems would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Open Source community for all their input so far, which has already been way beyond our expectation, and to invite them to continue to work on these and other upcoming projects as we progress. Your internet needs you! So let’s keep working together to create some really cool stuff,” says Clone Systems’ COO, Richard Daw.

About Clone Systems, Inc.

Clone Systems is a pure play global managed security provider, currently protecting more than 1,200 clients world-wide, actively monitoring over 3,500 network nodes, and conducting 40,000,000+ vulnerability tests every day. Clone Systems’ headquarters are in North America and European operations are based in the United Kingdom. http://www.clone-systems.com.

A solid press release that has put them on my radar to watch them in the network security realm. This article ins’t abotu BackTrack Linux but the same idea that some of our viewers may find as a great resource.

Penetration Testing

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:25:57 +0000

Penetration Testing, also called pentest, is a methodology of testing the vulnerability of a network or system infrastructure by simulating real time outside attacks. These attacks are performed as thoroughly as possible to try to create a true sense of the security, or lack of, surrounding a system. There are a variety of testing software, hardware, and mediums to which penetration testing can be performed. Pen Testing should be routinely performed on all system regards of perceived security risks. Obviously the financial, medical, and governmental agencies and corporations lay out the most intrusive penetration testing requirements as their data tends to be much more sensitive than most. However in recent memory both e-commerce and educational sectors have done a great deal of catching up in terms of placing self-standards in the area of penetration testing and network security.

Backtrack Linux itself is a self-contained penetration testing tool encompassing tools for brute forcing, wifi cracking and much, much more.

Backtrack for the Beginner

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:24:18 +0000

Backtrack Linux will be different than any linux flavor you have used before. Why? you ask. Well simply because it has more industry expertise, specific application, and intended purpose than any other linux flavor. Backtrack was made by the security engineer for the security engineer, through addition and refinement backtrack has become an irreplaceable security auditing tool.

If you are interested a great book to order and read as you go along is
The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing: Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Made Easy

About the Book:
The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing serves as an introduction to the steps required to complete a penetration test or perform an ethical hack. You learn how to properly utilize and interpret the results of modern day hacking tools; which are required to complete a penetration test. Tool coverage will include, Backtrack Linux, Google, Whois, Nmap, Nessus, Metasploit, Netcat, Netbus, and more. A simple and clean explanation of how to utilize these tools will allow you#xA0; to gain a solid understanding of each of the four phases and prepare them to take on more in-depth texts and topics. This book includes the use of a single example (pen test target) all the way through the book which allows you to clearly see how the tools and phases relate. Each chapter contains hands-on examples teach you how to interpret the results and utilize those results in later phases Written by an author who has practical experience as a Penetration Tester and who has taught “Introduction to Penetration Testing” for 5 years Utilizes Backtrack Linux distribution and the “core” tools required to complete a penetration test

Backtrack Linux Commands

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:14:05 +0000

Although Backtrack Linux is distinctly different that any other flavor of linux you will use the kernel and core commands are the same as most.

Command	Example	Description
cat		Sends file contents to standard output. This is a way to list the contents of short files to the screen. It works well with piping.
	cat .bashrc	Sends the contents of the “.bashrc” file to the screen.
cd		Change directory
	cd /home	Change the current working directory to /home. The ‘/’ indicates relative to root, and no matter what directory you are in when you execute this command, the directory will be changed to “/home”.
	cd httpd	Change the current working directory to httpd, relative to the current location which is “/home”. The full path of the new working directory is “/home/httpd”.
	cd ..	Move to the parent directory of the current directory. This command will make the current working directory “/home.
	cd ~	Move to the user’s home directory which is “/home/username”. The ‘~’ indicates the users home directory.
cp		Copy files
	cp myfile yourfile	Copy the files “myfile” to the file “yourfile” in the current working directory. This command will create the file “yourfile” if it doesn’t exist. It will normally overwrite it without warning if it exists.
	cp -i myfile yourfile	With the “-i” option, if the file “yourfile” exists, you will be prompted before it is overwritten.
	cp -i /data/myfile .	Copy the file “/data/myfile” to the current working directory and name it “myfile”. Prompt before overwriting the file.
	cp -dpr srcdir destdir	Copy all files from the directory “srcdir” to the directory “destdir” preserving links (-p option), file attributes (-p option), and copy recursively (-r option). With these options, a directory and all it contents can be copied to another directory.
dd	dd if=/dev/hdb1 of=/backup/	Disk duplicate. The man page says this command is to “Convert and copy a file”, but although used by more advanced users, it can be a very handy command. The “if” means input file, “of” means output file.
df		Show the amount of disk space used on each mounted filesystem.
less	less textfile	Similar to the more command, but the user can page up and down through the file. The example displays the contents of textfile.
ln		Creates a symbolic link to a file.
	ln -s test symlink	Creates a symbolic link named symlink that points to the file test Typing “ls -i test symlink” will show the two files are different with different inodes. Typing “ls -l test symlink” will show that symlink points to the file test.
locate		A fast database driven file locator.
	slocate -u	This command builds the slocate database. It will take several minutes to complete this command. This command must be used before searching for files, however cron runs this command periodically on most systems.
	locate whereis	Lists all files whose names contain the string “whereis”.
logout		Logs the current user off the system.
ls		List files
	ls	List files in the current working directory except those starting with . and only show the file name.
	ls -al	List all files in the current working directory in long listing format showing permissions, ownership, size, and time and date stamp
more		Allows file contents or piped output to be sent to the screen one page at a time.
	more /etc/profile	Lists the contents of the “/etc/profile” file to the screen one page at a time.
	ls -al \|more	Performs a directory listing of all files and pipes the output of the listing through more. If the directory listing is longer than a page, it will be listed one page at a time.
mv		Move or rename files
	mv -i myfile yourfile	Move the file from “myfile” to “yourfile”. This effectively changes the name of “myfile” to “yourfile”.
	mv -i /data/myfile .	Move the file from “myfile” from the directory “/data” to the current working directory.
pwd		Show the name of the current working directory
	more /etc/profile	Lists the contents of the “/etc/profile” file to the screen one page at a time.
shutdown		Shuts the system down.
	shutdown -h now	Shuts the system down to halt immediately.
	shutdown -r now	Shuts the system down immediately and the system reboots.
whereis		Show where the binary, source and manual page files are for a command
	whereis ls	Locates binaries and manual pages for the ls command.