Information Security Assignment: Session Hacking and Mitigation

This assignment delves into the critical domain of information security, focusing on session hacking techniques and cryptographic solutions. It begins by dissecting session hacking, detailing methods such as IP spoofing, man-in-the-middle attacks, and cross-site scripting, emphasizing the vulnerabilities these attacks exploit. The assignment then pivots to mitigation strategies, highlighting the importance of network and application-level security measures, including the use of encryption protocols like IPSEC, SSH, and SSL/TLS. Furthermore, it provides a practical demonstration of cryptographic tools, specifically utilizing the gpg package to generate keys, encrypt files, and exchange keys between users to ensure secure communication and data privacy. The assignment also underscores the vital role of cryptography in safeguarding individual privacy, particularly in protecting sensitive information from unauthorized access. Overall, the assignment offers a comprehensive overview of session hacking attacks, security protocols, and cryptographic applications, offering insights into protecting information and ensuring secure communications.

INFORMATION SECURITY

Question 1
Session Hacking
TCP session hacking is of the security attack in a protected network of the user. The
common session hacking methods is called as IP spoofing. Here the attacker uses the source
routed IP packets which is used to insert the commands in the communication between two
nodes in a network. The IP distinguishes itself as an authenticated user. This attack is mainly due
to the lack of authentication. Because the authentication is done only one time at the starting of
the TCP session (Asif & Tripathi, 2012). Man in the middle attack is another type of session
hacking in which the attacker uses a sniffer to observe the communication between two devices
and collects the transmitted data.
Performance of the attack
Session hacking can be done in different ways.
 By using packet sniffers
 Cross site scripting
 Spoofing of IP
 Blind attack
By using packet sniffers
Here the attacker captures the victim's session ID and access the server through the packer sniffer
(Bharti, 2013).
1

Cross site scripting
Here the attacker captures the session ID of the victim through the XSS attack. Java script
is used in the XSS attack. Then the crafted link with malicious script is send to the attacker,
when the victim clicks the java script will run and complete the instructions which is given in the
malicious code by the attacker (D, 2017).
Spoofing of IP
This spoofing technique is unauthorized one which is used to access the IP address of the
computer from the through the trusted host. When this technique is implemented the attacker will
access the IP address of the client and it will be injected to the spoofed packets and it is used in
the TCP session to fool the server and it will communicate with the victim (Guides, Tools & X,
2017).
Blind attack
If the attacker can’t sniff the packets then he will guess the sequence number which is
expected by the server. Hence the brute force combination will be tried for the sequence number.
2

Mitigation
To defend the network from session hacking, the network administrator needs to
implement the security measures in the network and application level. These network level
attacks can be prevented by ciphering the packets. Hence the attacker cannot decipher the packet
to get the confidential information (KumarBharti & Chaudhary, 2013). The packets can be
encrypted by the protocols like IPSEC, SSH and SSL. The IPSEC protocol have the ability to
encrypt the packet with some shared key between the two members. This IPsec can be run in two
modes, Transport and tunnel. In transport mode the data’s are sent in an encrypted packet file. In
tunnel mode the header and data’s of the packet is encrypted and it is more restrictive. This
session hacking is one of the serious threat which mainly focus the web application and
networks.
To prevent the session Hijacking by follows the below steps.
 The web applications can be use the TLS/SSL to transfer the sensitive data.
 The SSL/TLS encrypting the data so it difficult for hacker.
 Must be use the very long random numbers as session key.
 Web applications also use secondary checks to increase the security.
 Users must be log out the web applications.
3

Question 2
To install the gpa package, enter the command in the below screenshot.
4

5

To generate a key, enter the following command in the below terminal window.
6

Then choose the RSA key.
7

Public key is generated and it is shown below.
Create another user account using the user add command in the below window (Lin, 2017).
8

Then set the user mod for the new user account.
In the new user account create a new user as student 2 and generate the public key.
9

Public key is generated and the screenshot is shown below ("Session Hijacking -
GeeksforGeeks", 2017).
To encrypt the text file, enter the below command in the terminal window.
gpg –sb test.txt
10

The encrypted text file is shown below.
11