Practical Approach for Securing Windows Environment : Attack Vectors and Countermeasures

摘要

Today, with the advancement of information technology, companies need to use many technologies,platforms, systems and applications to effectively maintain their daily operations. This technologydependence has created a serious complexity in the business network which increases the attack surfaceand attracts cyber criminal’s attention. As a result, the number of cyber-attacks targeting corporateenvironment is dramatically increased. To identify security holes in a network, penetration tests areperformed by internal sources (employees) and external sources (outsource companies or third parties).Microsoft domain penetration testing,is one of the most important scopes of penetration testing, whichaims to expose the weaknesses in Microsoft domain environment. If the domain environment is notstructured securely, it can be abused by attackers and causes serious damage to the organization. In thisstudy, we present a penetration methodology for Windows domain environment called MSDEPTMproviding key metrics for Microsoft domain penetration testing. More specifically, the fundamental steps ofthe attack vectors from the hacker point of view, root causes of these attacks, and countermeasures againstthe attacks are discussed.