“Physical access to a computer or router usually gives a sophisticated user complete control over the device. Software security measures can often be circumvented when access to the hardware is not controlled.” — Cisco Systems, Inc. Recovering the passwords for most Cisco devices via the console port is very simple. However, Cisco has purchased so …
A proxy server is one that receives requests intended for another server and that acts on the behalf of the client (as the client proxy) to obtain the requested service. It is often used when the client and the server are incompatible for direct connection. For example, the client may be unable to meet the …
Zyxel is a manufacturer of firewalls, switches, routers, and other devices that are used in wireless networking. Specifically, Zyxel routers can be found in both residential and commercial environments, causing it to be the most popular device that Zyxel sells. Zyxel routers are often equipped with dual antennas, WPA encryption, and up to four Ethernet …
A MySQL password can be reset in 5 easy steps: Stop the mysqld daemon process. Start the mysqld daemon process with the –skip-grant-tables option. Start the mysql client with the -u root option. Execute the UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD(‘password’) WHERE User=’root’; Execute the FLUSH PRIVILEGES; command. These steps reset the password for the “root” account …
Symmetric Cryptographic Algorithms DES (Data Encryption Standard) is perhaps the most widely used cryptographic algorithm. DES is based upon IBM’s Lucifer algorithm. The NBS (National Bureau of Standards) and the NSA (National Security Agency) adopted DES as a federal standard in 1977. DES is a symmetric cipher with an effective key length of 56 bits. …
Virtually every computer in the world has some form of adult pornography stored somewhere on its hard drive. This can be due to personal use, viruses, or the fact that pornography seems to be included with every downloaded file, opened webpage, and email attachment. Pornography can also be a concern when many people have access …
A browser cookie is a small piece of information sent by a web server to a web browser to be stored for future use. The data in the browser cookie will be sent back to the web server whenever the browser reconnects to the web site. Cookies are commonly used to store user preference information, …
Browser hijackers are malicious programs that redirect computer users to websites that the hacker wants and deploy the computer malware. The hijacker may change a computer’s default homepage or redirect computer users trying to visit legitimate websites such as their bank or Google to a maliciously crafted copy of the site to deploy computer malware …
If ‘service password-encryption’ is not configured on the Cisco device, simply read the plain text passwords from the configuration file. If ‘service password-encryption’ is configured on the Cisco device, most of the passwords are encrypted with a weak encryption algorithm (Type 7) that is easy to decrypt. Once there is access to the Cisco configuration …
A chosen plaintext attack is an attack where the cryptanalyst is able to define his own plaintext, feed it into the cipher, and analyze the resulting ciphertext. Mounting a chosen plaintext attack requires the cryptanalyst to be able to send data of his choice into the device which is doing the encryption, and it requires …