SNMP Enumeration
Your assignment this week write a 3 page Minimum 800 word Minimum (not including the cites) with Two Cites Minimum on Enumeration from one or more the following categories.
Enumeration Concepts
NetBIOS Enumeration
SNMP Enumeration
LDAP Enumeration
NTP Enumeration
SMTP and DNS Enumeration
Other Enumeration Techniques
Enumeration Countermeasures
Enumeration Pen Testing
SNMP Enumeration
Enumeration Concepts
Ethical hacking is one of the most desired achievements for IT security personnel. Such professionals can detect, identify, prevent, and intervene in attacks such as data theft or intrusions. Enumeration is the concept of extracting network resources, machine names, user names, services and shares from a system. Attackers use this technique to gain access to the network and proceed to query the connection to gain more information. With the gathered information, an attacker can determine the weaknesses of the target. There are various enumeration types, including SMB, SNMP, RPC, LDAP, NetBIOS, etc. In the wrong hands, SNMP enumeration skills can be used to gain leverage over users and organizations like any other cyber-attack. The SNMP enumeration is a common type where attackers sniff the network to extract information from the nodes. Understanding more about SNMP enumeration can lead users to find the most appropriate SNMP enumeration tool to aid with a countermeasure for the system.
SNMP Enumeration
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) enumeration is the action of retrieving information from network devices and user accounts using SNMP. This type of enumeration creates a list of network devices and user accounts on a SNMP enabled (Shrinath, 2020). The protocol is known to rely on the UDP protocol to oversee network devices such as hubs, routers, and switches. It is found on the application layer and is common among operating systems such as UNIX & LINUX, and the windows server.
SNMP is composed of three components: the Network Management System (NMS), Agent, and Managed Device (Shrinath, 2020). The NMS are software applications used to monitor devices on the network. The managed devices are the hosts or nodes on the network that have enabled the SNMP service. An agent is the software on the managed devices that converts data into a form that is compatible with SNMP protocol. The SNMP agent and the NMS are software components in charge of communication. Since the agent is located within the nodes, the NMS is usually responsible for relaying communication.
Two passwords are used by SNMP to access and configure the agent. These passwords are the read community string and read/write community string. Attackers use these strings to retrieve information from network devices and users. The read community string is publicly accessible. It allows users to view the configured information of the device while the read/write string is a private action that allows changing or editing of the configuration settings. Attackers often find it easy to hack into a node when administrators fail to change default settings of the community strings. If not changes, attackers will be able to view and change the passwords at their own will. When an SNMP enumeration takes place, attackers can extract information about shares, devices, hosts, and routers. Routing tables, traffic statistics, device-specific, and ARP tables also qualify as information extracted during an SNMP enumeration.
The SNMP protocol has a Management Information Base (MIB) that holds a formal description of all network objects listed in the object identifier. MIB happens to be a virtual database that is hierarchically organized with a vast repository of values and settings. A manager is involved and is responsible for querying the database for various information. Managed objects within the MIB are Scalar objects and tabular objects. Scalar objects define single object instances while tabular objects define several object instances that are related. The object identifier includes this information on object types and then translates it into a human-readable format (Shrinath, 2020). OpUtils is the most common SNMP enumeration tool as it can scan an IP address to monitor network nodes.
SNMP Enumeration Countermeasures
SNMPv3 is a version of SNMP that is said to hold better capabilities at preventing attackers from accessing network device information. It should be the only version of SNMP as it can encrypt and authenticate payloads (CISA, 2017). Earlier versions such as SNMPv1 and SNMPv2 have been proven as easy to sniff. Attackers are, therefore, able to gain access to the network and determine community strings. Man-in-the-middle attacks are easy on these SNMP versions hence making it hard to protect the network from an enumeration. While SNMPv2 uses clear text password sharing, SNMPv3 employs securely encoded parameters. Unfortunately, using SNMPv3 only is not strong enough to act as a countermeasure. Other techniques involve restricting access to specific IP addresses and disabling agents on hosts. Also, blocking port 161 at perimeter nodes may serve as a solution.
Conclusion
Overall, SNMP enumeration is a process that extracting information from user accounts and devices on a target connection that is SNMP enabled. Understanding how SNMP enumeration works could help IT security professionals identify, detect, and mitigate intrusions. Attackers are also aware of the SNMP protocol processes, hence the need for IT professionals to speed up. Actions as simple as forgetting to change default passwords could make the work of attackers easy if they need to sniff the network for vulnerabilities. It is also vital for IT security acquire an enumeration tool that can help scan the IP address and monitor network nodes. Countermeasures are also essential to protect the network from SNMP enumeration. Adopting the SNMPv3 has been recommended as a solution, among others. White hat hackers need this type of knowledge if they are to protect their organizations from system attacks.
References
CISA. (2017). Reducing the Risk of SNMP Abuse. Retrieved from https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/alerts/TA17-156A
Shrinath. (2020). What is SNMP Enumeration? Retrieved from https://exploitbyte.com/what-is-snmp-enumeration/
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