Book Image

Mastering Python for Networking and Security - Second Edition

By : José Ortega
Book Image

Mastering Python for Networking and Security - Second Edition

By: José Ortega

Overview of this book

It’s now more apparent than ever that security is a critical aspect of IT infrastructure, and that devastating data breaches can occur from simple network line hacks. As shown in this book, combining the latest version of Python with an increased focus on network security can help you to level up your defenses against cyber attacks and cyber threats. Python is being used for increasingly advanced tasks, with the latest update introducing new libraries and packages featured in the Python 3.7.4 recommended version. Moreover, most scripts are compatible with the latest versions of Python and can also be executed in a virtual environment. This book will guide you through using these updated packages to build a secure network with the help of Python scripting. You’ll cover a range of topics, from building a network to the procedures you need to follow to secure it. Starting by exploring different packages and libraries, you’ll learn about various ways to build a network and connect with the Tor network through Python scripting. You will also learn how to assess a network's vulnerabilities using Python security scripting. Later, you’ll learn how to achieve endpoint protection by leveraging Python packages, along with writing forensic scripts. By the end of this Python book, you’ll be able to use Python to build secure apps using cryptography and steganography techniques.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
1
Section 1: The Python Environment and System Programming Tools
4
Section 2: Network Scripting and Extracting Information from the Tor Network with Python
8
Section 3: Server Scripting and Port Scanning with Python
12
Section 4: Server Vulnerabilities and Security in Python Modules
16
Section 5: Python Forensics

Introducing port scanning with Nmap

Let's begin by reviewing the Nmap tool for port scanning and the main scanning types that it supports. In this first section, we will learn about Nmap as a port scanner that allows us to analyze the ports and services that run on a specific host.

Once you have identified different hosts within our network, the next step is to perform a port scan over each host identified. Computers that support communication protocols use ports to make connections between them. To support different communications with multiple applications, ports are used to distinguish various communications in the same host or server.

For example, web servers can use Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to provide access to a web page that uses TCP port number 80 by default. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) use ports 21 and 25 respectively.

For each unique IP address, a protocol port number is identified by a 16-bit number, commonly...