Book Image

Practical Network Scanning

By : Ajay Singh Chauhan
Book Image

Practical Network Scanning

By: Ajay Singh Chauhan

Overview of this book

Network scanning is the process of assessing a network to identify an active host network; same methods can be used by an attacker or network administrator for security assessment. This procedure plays a vital role in risk assessment programs or while preparing a security plan for your organization. Practical Network Scanning starts with the concept of network scanning and how organizations can benefit from it. Then, going forward, we delve into the different scanning steps, such as service detection, firewall detection, TCP/IP port detection, and OS detection. We also implement these concepts using a few of the most prominent tools on the market, such as Nessus and Nmap. In the concluding chapters, we prepare a complete vulnerability assessment plan for your organization. By the end of this book, you will have hands-on experience in performing network scanning using different tools and in choosing the best tools for your system.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Title Page
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

OSI model versus TCP/IP model


Before discussing how a firewall works, we must first understand how the different layers of a network interact. Network communication is based on a seven-layer model, and each layer has its own set of responsibilities in order to make the communication happen. Firewalls can operate on different layers in order to use different criteria to block or permit the traffic.

In general, a firewall is going to have to operate at the network layer (L3) and transport layer (L4). The upper layers are more like scanning for viruses in data payloads and doing deep packet inspection. The Layer-1 physical layer is basically just  a network connectivity requirement.

TCP/IP, also known as the internet model developed by the Department of Defense (DoD), is a simplified and practical version of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model (1984), which is based on a theoretical concept.

The OSI model is based on server layers and its specific function. The following diagram shows...