Microsoft Questionaire

For anyone who wants to help a clueless student out, please read on. For those who don't then don't bother.

I know that Microsoft is an extremly vulnerable system. The question I have though is how. I'm actually doing a research project asking "How hackers break into Microsoft networks." If anyone has got an extra fifteen minutes please answer the questionairre. Thank you so much in advance.

1. Why are Microsoft systems and networks vulnerable?

2. What does Microsoft do to prevent vulnerabilities?

3. Which Microsoft network operating system is the most secure?

4. Which Microsoft network operating system is the most vulnerable?

5. Which group is the most common group to successfully break into Microsoft Networks?
a. Script Kiddies
b. White Hat Hackers
c. Black Hat Hackers
d. Disgruntled Employees
e. Other(Not listed)

6. Which group is the most common group to unsuccessfully break into Microsoft Networks?
f. Script Kiddies
g. White Hat Hackers
h. Black Hat Hackers
i. Disgruntled Employees
j. Other(Not listed)


7. What different resources do hackers use to break into Microsoft Networks?

8. Will adding third party software and hardware help prevent hackers from breaking into a Microsoft network?

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1. Why are Microsoft systems and networks vulnerable?

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Same reason why any system is vulnerable: nothing is safe. Add to that a built-in trojan (netBIOS), flaws and holes in their software coding, and long lasting time in between fixing those flaws/holes, you got a pretty vulnerable system. (There are other reasons, but those are the key).

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2. What does Microsoft do to prevent vulnerabilities?

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Heh, it seems like nothing at times. But they "try" to make patches and updates available as soon as possible.

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3. Which Microsoft network operating system is the most secure?

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Most people will probably say Windows 2000 and I'd have to agree. It's the most stable, reliable, OS (if your going to use a Windows OS as a network server, like you asked..) out there.

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4. Which Microsoft network operating system is the most vulnerable?

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Most people will (IMO) say Windows Millenium Edition (Windows ME).

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5. Which group is the most common group to successfully break into Microsoft Networks?
a. Script Kiddies
b. White Hat Hackers
c. Black Hat Hackers
d. Disgruntled Employees
e. Other(Not listed)

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I'm pissed there's not an "All of the Above" option, because that's the case..

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6. Which group is the most common group to unsuccessfully break into Microsoft Networks?
f. Script Kiddies
g. White Hat Hackers
h. Black Hat Hackers
i. Disgruntled Employees
j. Other(Not listed)

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Err, in my opinion: Anyone can. If you leave netBIOS turned on (file and print sharing) then virtually anyone can. Check up on RiOtEr's netBIOS tutorial for more information.

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7. What different resources do hackers use to break into Microsoft Networks?

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Tons. It's mostly a matter of exploiting vulnerable software/code. Hacker's find exploit's on Microsoft's software because most of it is full of flaws and holes. And if not that, there's always way's such as social engineering, trojan applications, etc.

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8. Will adding third party software and hardware help prevent hackers from breaking into a Microsoft network?

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Depend's. If the software is reliable, can be updated/etc easily and frequently and has very few/to no holes then sure. As for hardware, again.. it depends.

I really think you should consult pooh sun tzu (or maybe he should post in this) as he know's alot about Microsoft Window's System's and the like. He can provide you with alot of useful information.

hi

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Most people will (IMO) say Windows Millenium Edition (Windows ME).

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Windows ME is as vulnerable as windows 98 is or can be as secure as other windows OS's can be............There is a difference between being vulnerable and being de-stable IMHO..........Yes ME sucks due to the problem of Memory Leak .......due to that up time of windoes ME is mabe between 24 to 36 hours at most...........after that you have to restart of the memory leak will make it de-stable..........but vulnerable NO........not a bit more or less that any other M$ OS can be made .

sunflowergirl13 > No OS is Secure ...........Windows is the most popular so it is targated more ........the user makes the OS secure or vulnerable .........I would have answered your questioner but Spyder beat me to it:).

--Good Luck--

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the user makes the OS secure or vulnerable

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Hmm, that simple line right there answer's the general amount of her questions too :D. Anyways, yeah I was thinking of Memory Leak at the time because my WinMe machine just restarted.

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but vulnerable NO........not a bit more or less that any other M$ OS can be made .

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Very true.

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1. Why are Microsoft systems and networks vulnerable?

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For the same reason OpenBSD can be vunerable, or SunOS for that matter. Windows systems are not, persay, more or less insecure than a nix system, but have more of a history of being insecure. Mind you, this is not exactally the fault of the Microsoft products, but the morons using the Operating System. In short any OS is vunerable usually upon 3 primary reasons:

1. 3rd party programs, exploitable on their own because insecure source code, improper configuration, and other vunerabilities

2. OS specific programs, exploitable on their own because insecure source code, improper configuration, and other vunerabilities

3. Protocol exploitation, in which the protocol used the the OS/programs has insecure source code, improper configuration, and other vunerabilities.


Now, following those three things you can see how certain programs (UPnP) and protocol services (NetBIOS) can make the system insecure, but you also need to know that properly configured and used that they can also be made secure. Microsoft in less secure by default because they have to sacrafice some levels of security for usability (because their user base has a collective IQ of 5). This does not mean that it can not be made secure. Any OS can be locked down tightly as long as you know how to do it.

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2. What does Microsoft do to prevent vulnerabilities?

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Bug/error reporting is encouraged, but far too few people participate in it. The more bugs that are reported, the faster things can get solved. Patches are released late sometimes, and sometimes even patches for the patches, but patches are released eventually. If a patch is not ready within a reasonable amount of time, the microsoft website/support center usually has a workaround solution that will solve the insecurity until another more permenate solution/patch is avaliable to the general public. Like any other OS, Windows has patches, patches for patches, upgrades, and errors. If you want to know indepth about what a patch does (SP2 especially) read the official whitepapers. Then you will see how kernel stack protection, memory stack protection, memory handling, etc etc is all implimented into the Windows kernel (similar to SELinux or grsecurity).

They take steps, you just have to read documentation rather than a news group.

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3. Which Microsoft network operating system is the most secure?

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95 alpha is as secure as Longhorn Alpha. Defalt security means nothing in this field, because it's about what the OS can do, not what you refuse to make it do. I can make an XP pro box have more uptime and remain as secure as my OpenBSD 3.2 box.. it's all in what you know, how much you are willing to learn, and patience.

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4. Which Microsoft network operating system is the most vulnerable?

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ME because of core system errors. They could be fixed and prevented, but there were kernel level configuration errors that allowed buffer overflows (lack of proper memory checking/handling) out the yinyang. As I said, patches fixed some of this and security measures could still be put into place to safeguard the OS. But as far as core security, ME took a nosedive.

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5. Which group is the most common group to successfully break into Microsoft Networks?
a. Script Kiddies
b. White Hat Hackers
c. Black Hat Hackers
d. Disgruntled Employees
e. Other(Not listed)

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Everyone. Name doesn't matter so much as avalaiblity and motive. Windows products are more avalaible, and there is more blind hate (OMFTG WINEDERSZ SUCKXZ0R) torwards Windows than any other OS product (save SCO unix now?)

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6. Which group is the most common group to unsuccessfully break into Microsoft Networks?
f. Script Kiddies
g. White Hat Hackers
h. Black Hat Hackers
i. Disgruntled Employees
j. Other(Not listed)

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I would have to say script kiddies. Because more and more additions/patches are being made to the Windows Operating system, that typical and simple exploits can very rarely be scripted anymore. Sure, the option exists, but if that little 4k script doesn't work for whatever reason, the script kiddie is up a creek without a paddle, or a boat for that matter.

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7. What different resources do hackers use to break into Microsoft Networks?

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See the tutorial section. Also look under the definition of "research"

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8. Will adding third party software and hardware help prevent hackers from breaking into a Microsoft network?

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As long as the 3rd party software is secure, and properly configured as well as not interfering with security measures already in place by the OS.

OK, here is my 0.02$

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1. Why are Microsoft systems and networks vulnerable?

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As has already been mentioned a lot of it is up to the admins of the machines, you would be surprised at how many people are 'quite good at Windows at home' so they end up setting up the computers at work. I know numerous people that are in that situation, if they haven't had the training, or someone to learn from at work how will they know how to secure the boxes? Windows familiar (to most people anyway) point and click type interface makes it quite easy for someone to just get it working without really understanding what they are doing, after that if it works the bosses don't care if it is secure (untill the first virus outbreak anyway).

Microsofts code does have holes, as do all others, some people would argue that a lot of the problems with Windows come from the fact that it is bascially a stand-alone system with networking tacked on because people wanted it rather than a truely network oriented system like *nix (although I do not have sufficient knowledge to argue either way on this pojnt).

The undoubtable get targeted by worms virii nore because of their market share, if you were a bad guy what system would you go for, especially considering the points I have already made above.

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2. What does Microsoft do to prevent vulnerabilities?

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Produces patches, its trustworthy computing scheme started a couple of years ago you may want to look into that http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/innovation/twc/

also they seem to be indicating they will be making full use of the fritz chip or whatever intel are calling it these days, see the Trusted Security Group website and another site that has faq's that explain most things quite nicely I think

https://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html

basically it seems to be about the hardware keeping an eye on what the software is doing, it gives the OS a protected memory area to run the kernel in... the list is huge, better just to read it ;)

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3. Which Microsoft network operating system is the most secure?

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After XP SP2, hopefully Windows XP will be, because I have deployed XP quite widely ;) and according to MS that is the way it will be. here is a very simple overview of some of the stuff it will do http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08..._stop_moaning/

I suppose it depends how you look at it though, I mean local or remotely vulnerable ? I mean a Win 98 box on the net with no anti-virus no firewall and in its default state will last a while , in fact most script kiddies wouldn't even notice it and if they did they try and find a nice 2000 box with no password instead. How many virii/wors can even infect 98 anymore? it doesn't even know about RPC so thats blaster and many other worms out of the window. On the other hand XP on the net with no firewall or AV, I managed to get msblaster in about 2 mins (don't try this at home kids) when I was testing it. However locally 98 doesn't even have file permissions or any real concept of users, thats not very secure either, but in a different way.

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4. Which Microsoft network operating system is the most vulnerable?

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Kind of answered that above depends what you are talking about really, its a bit of a vague question really.

local I would say most 9x machines are pretty insecure, although I have to agree that ME has the most bugs memory leaks and generally crashed more than any other OS I have tried in the work EVER.

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5. Which group is the most common group to successfully break into Microsoft Networks?

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I would say beware the insiders, the have access to parts of the network already, they have a logon, they have a desk and if they have a grudge they can be hard to stop. Also considering a lot of places only have a firewall between them and the outisde world and not between the users and the servers.. well you can guess the rest ;)

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6. Which group is the most common group to unsuccessfully break into Microsoft
Networks?

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Definately the kiddies, if you have no idea what you are doing and run a script and it doesn't work, what do you do... thats right next machine.

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7. What different resources do hackers use to break into Microsoft Networks?

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Well if you are talking about Hackers they would probably not break in, they would probably let the admin know there was a hole and help him to plug it. However I am going to assume that in this context we are talking about script kiddies/crackers, (due to the nature of the other questions).

In that case:

Numerous really, list could go on for pages with all the knowledge of people on here, basically a lot of the time they use the tools that admins use to check their networks are secure.

nmap http://www.insecure.org/nmap/

languard http://www.gfi.com/languard/

n stealth http://www.nstalker.com/nstealth/

once they find a hole they just google for a script to exploit it, thats it, in they go. Or maybe they just try a dictionary attack against a share using a script, or even try a few manually.

crackers as a pose to skiddies may be able to find some new hole and exploit it by writing a program etc. They might also exploit flaws in configureation on even use some sort of social engineering attack (its amazing how many people give out their passwords to anyone who phone s up and says they are from IT). Also apparently more than 70% of people stopped in a street was give up their computer password for a chocolate bar http://www.chocolate.org/choclove/tradepass.html , now how do you protect against that sort of attack ? ;)

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8. Will adding third party software and hardware help prevent hackers from breaking into a Microsoft network?

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As long as the person using it knows how to configure it properly then sure to an extent,but nothing is 100% ;)

wow that was a bit more than 0.02$ , more like $1 ;)

uknetsec

Thank you so much everyone!!! I have a world of information now!!! After I'm done with the report I'll post it on the forum.