Bypassing media access control filtering – considerations for the physical assessor
An attacker needs to be aware of methods for remote compromise: attacking the VPN, wireless infiltration from a distance using high-gain antennas, and so on. However, the pen tester can never forget the big picture. This is a field where it is very easy to get caught up in the highly specific technical details and miss the human element of security design.
There is a design flaw concept that pen testers like to call the candy bar model. This simply refers to a network that is tough and crunchy on the outside but gooey on the inside. In other words, it is a model that emphasizes the threats of the outside world when designing the security architecture, while assuming that someone who is physically inside company facilities has been vetted and is therefore trusted. The mindset here dates back many years; in the earliest days of what became the internet, the physical access points to the network...