1. OPEN PORT VULNERABILITIES
Samaresh Debbarma , Dhrubajit Das , Tara Kumari Choudhudy
Don Bosco College of Engineering and Technology
Master of Computer Applications, Fourth Semester 2013
Guwahati-17,Azara
Abstract- Internet is facilitating numerous services
while being the most commonly attacked
environment. Hackers attack the vulnerabilities in
the protocols used and there is a serious need to
prevent, detect, mitigate and identify the source of
the attacks. This report help us to understand the
effect of open port vulnerabilities and information
on many software tools that are available to protect
system from threats that may attack open ports and
directly exploit a feature or vulnerability .
Keywords: Networks; Vulnerability; Open port;
Attack;
1. INTRODUCTION
All systems connected to the Internet today can
expect to be repeatedly probed for open ports. It is
simply a fact of life that there will be attempts to
detect and exploit vulnerabilities in hosts on the
network. In order to be useful, a system may
require some ports to be open. Many Internet
applications expect to be able to connect to the
open port associated with a service on a remote
machine. Likewise, in order to manage a system,
you normally need to be able to connect to it.
These open ports can then be an entryway for
attackers. Some threats attack an open port and
then install a virus or trojan that can then act
independently and cause damage. Viruses or
trojans are generically called “malware.
Threats may attack open ports and directly
exploit a feature or vulnerability. E-mail servers
keep port 25 open so that remote systems can
connect and transfer mail messages. An attacker
may connect to an e-mail server that does not
protect against unauthorized relaying and employ
the server for the sending of spam. Valuable
system resources are being diverted to the
purposes of the attacker and may cause damage
to the system, degrade its performance.
2. OPENPORT VULNERABILITIES
A port is the mechanism that allows a computer
to simultaneously support multiple
communication sessions with computers and
programs on the network. A port is basically a
refinement of an IP address; a computer that
receives a packet from the network can further
refine the destination of the packet by using a
unique port number that is determined when the
connection is established. A port is essentially a
way for 2 devices to connect using a specific
protocol. Each device has an IP address, but this
only
identifies the device on the network. The port is
used to tell each device what kind of a
connection will be made.
Vulnerabilities are design flaws or mis-
configurations that make your network (or a
host on the network) susceptible to malicious
attacks from local or remote users.
Vulnerabilities can exist in several areas of your
network, such as in the firewalls, FTP servers,
Web servers, operating systems. Depending on
the level of the security risk, the successful
exploitation of vulnerability can vary from the
disclosure of information about the host to a
complete compromise of the host.
Based on the type of vulnerability identified at
open source distributed application we can
classify themas follows:
information vulnerabilities – due to
inconsistent of source code many
information can be offered to the
attackers;
physical vulnerabilities – defined as
vulnerabilities which can exploit the
main frame in which open source
products are running to gain access to
resources;
processing vulnerabilities – given by the
usage of untested instructions or
processing sequences;
communication vulnerabilities – due to
bad implementation of communication
protocols or to different forgotten
aspects of communication.
3. MITIGATINGTHETHREAT
With increasingly sophisticated attacks on the
rise, the ability to quickly mitigate network
vulnerabilities is imperative. Vulnerabilities if
left undetected pose a serious security threat to

2. enterprise systems and can leave vital corporate
data exposed to attacks by hackers. For
organizations, it means extended system
downtimes and huge loss of revenue and
productivity.
These threats may be mitigated in various ways,
such as: controlling access to the system,
monitoring system activity, creating and
enforcing policies. Many software tools are
available to protect system from threats that may
attack open ports and directly exploit a feature or
vulnerability.
Vulnerability scanners are automated tools used
to identify security flaws affecting a given
systemor application.
Some the software tools that are used for port
scanning and vulnerability are listed below:
Nessus
Nessus is the world’s most popular vulnerability
scanner that is used in over 75,000 organizations
world-wide. The “Nessus” Project was started by
Renaud Deraison in 1998. It is a complete and
very useful network vulnerability scanner which
includes-high speed checks for thousand of the
most commonly updated vulnerabilities ,a wide
variety of scanning options, an easy to –use
interface, and effective reporting. It available in
different version for both Unix and Microsoft
based operating system.Nessus 5.0.2 is the
version used for Windows 7.
Nmap
It stands for “network map”. This open-source
scanner was developed by Fyodor . This is one of
the most popular port scanners that runs on
Unix/Linux machines. While Nmap was once a
Unix-only tool, a Windows version was released
in 2000 and has since become the second most
popular Nmap platform .
Metasploit
Metasploit was originally developed and
conceived by HD Moore while he was employed
by a security firm. When HD realized that he was
spending most of his time validating and
sanitizing public exploit code, he began to create
a flexible and maintainable framework for the
creation and development of exploits. He
released his first edition of the Perl-based
Metasploit in October 2003 with a total of 11
exploits. In this paper i have use Metasploit
software tool for port and vulnerability scanning.
IMPLEMENTATION OF METASPLOIT
Install Metaspoilt.
Then go to Metaspoilt->Framework-
>Armitage.
Connect to the default database of the
Windows.
Scan for IP address range.
Click on the IP address you found and
then scan for the open port and
application with the help of port
scanner embedded within the
Metaspoilt.
Now run NeXpose for vulnerability
scan and generate the reports.
Now go to the Armitage and press on
Attack and then click on Attack find.
Now check for every possible
exploitation.
4. CONCLUSION
Any system that is networked is exposed to risk
of attack. Open ports can increase that risk or
increase the chance of a successful attack.
Vulnerability scanners such as Nessus, Nmap,
and Metasploit may become part of the solution.
Steps taken to become aware of the issues, to
prepare systems for a hostile environment, to
monitor activity and behavior, and to prepare for
the future will all help to mitigate the threat.
Resources are available to further education,
tools are available to help manage the risks, and
the effort expended will pay dividends of
enhanced security for the network. The
techniques in this report will give us the basic
tools i will need to begin discovering
vulnerabilities.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I express our sincere thanks to our teacher,
Assistant Professor Mr. Rupam Ku mar Sharma
for guiding us in critical reviews of demo and the
report .I owe a great deal of thanks for
providing us the necessary information and
correction when needed during the completion
of this report
I would also like to thank the supporting staff of
Computer Science Department, for their help and
cooperation throughout our project .
REFERENCES
[1] Sturat Krivis,port Knocking:Helpful or
Harmful ,An Exploration of Modern Network
Threats.
[2] Sunil vakharia, Nessus Scanning on
Windows Domain
[3] http://metasploit.com/development

3. [4] http://nmap.org/download.html
[5] JON ERICKSON, Hacking,2nd Edition The
Art of Exploitation