CompTIA Sec+ | Microsoft MTA Security: Certification Cram Guide & Study Notes

• Remember that access control refers to the ability to protect the confidentiality of information through controlling a user’s access to that information. Remember the three types of authentication factors:
  • Type 1: What you know: Information, like passwords
  • Type 2: What you have: Items, like lock-and-key or cards
  • Type 3: What you are (Most secure): Biometrics, like fingerprints
• Accountability refers to the idea that a user should be accountable to actions performed under his/her name. Non-repudiation is the idea that a user should not be able to repudiate that he/she is responsible for something (for example, a file may say to have been edited by John, but how do we know John actually edited it?)
• Make sure you understand Kerberos.  Here is a condensed sequence of events: Client sends login information to KDC (Key Distribution Center), which verifies a client’s credentials and sends a request to TGS (Ticket Granting Server). The TGS sends a TGT (Ticket Granting Ticket) to the client.
• Make sure you understand and can recognize each of these attacks, as you will be tested on at least two of these on the exam:
  • SYN Flood: Sending TCP packets to deny availability
  • ICMP Flood: Sending ICMP (usually ping) packets to deny availability
  • UDP Flood: Sending UDP packets to deny availability
  • Smurf: A special ICMP Flood attack that broadcasts ICMP requests
  • Buffer Overflow: Sending a malformed packet that overflows a memory address to deny availability and possibly gain privileges (destroy confidentiality/integrity)
  • Backdoor: Gain access through a secret program (Trojan horse)
  • Sniffing: Read information off the network
  • Spoofing: Hiding or disguising an address to make it appear that the requests come from another source
  • Man-in-the-Middle: Intercepting packets and changing the contents (denies confidentiality and integrity)
  • Replay: Session key sniffed and then used
  • Birthday attack: Probability-based
  • Social engineering: Low-tech attack on people who don’t understand security
  • Virus: Propagates through user action (usually email)
  • Worm: Self-propagating and uses exploits

• S/MIME, MOSS, PEM, PGP all email security programs. PGP is popular and uses IDEA
• Applets are programs that run in a browser: Some include C#, VB.Net, Java, and ActiveX
• S-HTTP is connectionless while SSL is connection-oriented; SSL 3.0 is known as TLS
• Cookies simply store information for websites to use (they are not inherently malicious)
• S-FTP is FTP over SSH; TFTP offers no authentication or encryption
• Active Directory is Microsoft’s implementation of LDAP
• Disk spanning allows a file system to be spread over multiple physical drives
• WTLS is WAP’s built-in security system and operates over TLS
• 802.11 is the standard for wireless, and includes sub-standards a, b, g, and n
• SSID is the name of a network based in infrastructure mode
• WEP is weak security system for wireless LAN’s; WEP operates on Layers 1 and 2 (Physical and Data link)
• 802.1x is a key management protocol that uses EAP

• The exam tests heavily on the security zone designs or topologies:
  • Screening router: One router between the trusted and un-trusted
  • Dual-homed gateway: A bastion host and router between trusted and un-trusted
  • Screened host gateway: A bastion host that can examine traffic between trusted and un-trusted
  • Screened-subnet: A bastion host (and DMZ zone) between two routers
• It’s important to understand the distinctions of IDS systems:
  • Active: Finds and attempts to circumvent threats (more susceptible to attacks)
  • Passive: Finds threats and alerts administrator
  • Network-based: Operates as independent network node
  • Host-based: Requires that special software be installed on each node
  • Knowledge-based: Works using signatures and known attacks
  • Behavior-based: Works by analyzing baseline v. real-time network traffic
• Relaying refers to the behavior of SMTP servers that will send a message from any source (should be disabled)
• Patches fix security issues from vendors
• Anonymous services allow access without authentication

• AES is a symmetric algorithm based on Rijndael Block Cipher
• Block ciphers encrypt clear text “block-by-block” while stream ciphers encrypt text in “real time”
• Symmetric algorithms include: DES, 3DES, AES, IDEA
• Asymmetric algorithms include: Diffie-Hellman, RSA, El Gamal
• Hashes do not allow for the decryption of cipher text. Think of a hash as a special type of cryptographic “one-way,” one-to-one function
• Here is a brief overview of how asymmetric or public-key cryptography works:
  • Billy wants to send Sue information. Billy encrypts the information with Sue’s public key, which everyone knows
  • Sue receives the information Bill sent and decrypts it with her private key, which only Sue knows
  • Sue sends Bill information back, encrypting it with his public key
  • Bill decrypts the information using his private key

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