1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,800 In this lesson, we're going to discuss 2 00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:03,719 identifying vulnerabilities. 3 00:00:03,719 --> 00:00:06,330 Identifying vulnerabilities is a systematic practice 4 00:00:06,330 --> 00:00:09,300 of spotting and categorizing weaknesses in a system, 5 00:00:09,300 --> 00:00:12,660 network, or application that could potentially be exploited. 6 00:00:12,660 --> 00:00:15,150 Identifying the vulnerabilities in your systems is critical 7 00:00:15,150 --> 00:00:17,490 so that we can increase the security of our systems, 8 00:00:17,490 --> 00:00:18,840 prevent unauthorized access, 9 00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:19,920 and maintain the integrity 10 00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:22,350 of our organization's systems and data. 11 00:00:22,350 --> 00:00:23,580 There are many methods used 12 00:00:23,580 --> 00:00:25,980 to identify vulnerabilities including vulnerability 13 00:00:25,980 --> 00:00:28,290 scanning, application security techniques, 14 00:00:28,290 --> 00:00:31,500 penetration testing, and security and processing auditing. 15 00:00:31,500 --> 00:00:33,810 Now first we have vulnerability scanning. 16 00:00:33,810 --> 00:00:36,060 Vulnerability scanning is an automated method 17 00:00:36,060 --> 00:00:37,710 of probing networks, systems 18 00:00:37,710 --> 00:00:40,860 and applications to discover potential vulnerabilities. 19 00:00:40,860 --> 00:00:42,750 Vulnerability scans play a vital role 20 00:00:42,750 --> 00:00:44,520 in strengthening the security of your network 21 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:46,920 by discovering any known vulnerabilities in your devices 22 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:48,240 or applications. 23 00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:49,590 There are many different tools available 24 00:00:49,590 --> 00:00:51,510 to help you conduct a vulnerability scan, 25 00:00:51,510 --> 00:00:54,180 including things like Nessus and OpenVAS. 26 00:00:54,180 --> 00:00:56,550 Now, these tools can analyze your system's current state 27 00:00:56,550 --> 00:00:58,560 against a database of known vulnerabilities, 28 00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:00,990 and then generate a detailed report listing out all 29 00:01:00,990 --> 00:01:03,540 of your vulnerabilities and their criticality level. 30 00:01:03,540 --> 00:01:06,240 Then your responsibility as a cybersecurity professional 31 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:08,700 becomes one of prioritizing those vulnerabilities, 32 00:01:08,700 --> 00:01:11,190 patching your systems, and mitigating those vulnerabilities 33 00:01:11,190 --> 00:01:13,590 so that an attacker cannot exploit them. 34 00:01:13,590 --> 00:01:16,110 Now, second, we have application security. 35 00:01:16,110 --> 00:01:17,760 Application security is used 36 00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:19,230 to safeguard our software from being 37 00:01:19,230 --> 00:01:21,150 manipulated during its lifecycle. 38 00:01:21,150 --> 00:01:23,910 At its core application security techniques are going to be 39 00:01:23,910 --> 00:01:25,710 used to ensure that any custom software 40 00:01:25,710 --> 00:01:27,600 that our organization develops is going to be 41 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:29,760 free of vulnerabilities within its code base. 42 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:32,970 To do this, we perform static analysis, dynamic analysis, 43 00:01:32,970 --> 00:01:35,940 and package monitoring of our custom applications. 44 00:01:35,940 --> 00:01:37,860 Now, a static analysis is going to be used 45 00:01:37,860 --> 00:01:40,620 to analyze an application source code without actually 46 00:01:40,620 --> 00:01:42,840 running or executing that source code. 47 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:44,640 Static analysis techniques are used 48 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:47,250 to spot potential vulnerabilities inside of your code base, 49 00:01:47,250 --> 00:01:49,380 and this can be performed using a manual review 50 00:01:49,380 --> 00:01:51,330 where you read each and every line of the source code, 51 00:01:51,330 --> 00:01:53,070 and then look for potential vulnerabilities. 52 00:01:53,070 --> 00:01:55,560 Or you can do this by using automated tools 53 00:01:55,560 --> 00:01:57,330 to automatically analyze the source code 54 00:01:57,330 --> 00:02:00,240 or a compiled binary to identify any insecure coding 55 00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:03,210 practices that may have been used by your developers. 56 00:02:03,210 --> 00:02:05,130 Now, a dynamic analysis on the other hand, 57 00:02:05,130 --> 00:02:07,920 is going to evaluate an application as it's being run 58 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:09,900 to determine if there are any vulnerabilities inside 59 00:02:09,900 --> 00:02:11,070 of that application. 60 00:02:11,070 --> 00:02:14,130 Dynamic analysis tools like the OWASP ZAP, Burp Suite, 61 00:02:14,130 --> 00:02:15,990 or the Peach Fuzzing tools can be used 62 00:02:15,990 --> 00:02:18,120 to interact with the application in real time 63 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:20,310 by emulating a potential attack vector against 64 00:02:20,310 --> 00:02:22,320 the application and then determining if it would be 65 00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:24,720 vulnerable to that specific type of attack. 66 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:26,610 Now, the final technique we need to talk about 67 00:02:26,610 --> 00:02:28,080 that's used in application security 68 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:29,940 is known as package monitoring. 69 00:02:29,940 --> 00:02:31,950 Package monitoring ensures that the libraries 70 00:02:31,950 --> 00:02:34,110 and components that your application depends on 71 00:02:34,110 --> 00:02:35,760 are secure and up to date. 72 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:37,020 Now there are many tools available 73 00:02:37,020 --> 00:02:39,507 to conduct package monitoring, including things like Snyk 74 00:02:39,507 --> 00:02:42,180 and Dependabot, which are used to continuously scan 75 00:02:42,180 --> 00:02:44,340 your application's dependencies and then alert 76 00:02:44,340 --> 00:02:46,290 your developers to any known vulnerabilities 77 00:02:46,290 --> 00:02:48,420 that may exist inside of those dependencies 78 00:02:48,420 --> 00:02:49,650 so they'll be able to mitigate those 79 00:02:49,650 --> 00:02:52,650 before an attacker discovers them and exploits them. 80 00:02:52,650 --> 00:02:54,990 Third, we have penetration testing. 81 00:02:54,990 --> 00:02:57,660 Now, penetration testing, also known as pen testing, 82 00:02:57,660 --> 00:03:00,270 is used to simulate a real world attack on a system 83 00:03:00,270 --> 00:03:02,310 to evaluate its security posture. 84 00:03:02,310 --> 00:03:04,140 When you examine your pen test results, 85 00:03:04,140 --> 00:03:05,940 you're going to be looking through the report to understand 86 00:03:05,940 --> 00:03:08,310 how the penetration testers were able to infiltrate 87 00:03:08,310 --> 00:03:11,370 or exploit your systems because an attacker is likely to use 88 00:03:11,370 --> 00:03:14,310 similar attack vectors and exploitation techniques too. 89 00:03:14,310 --> 00:03:17,250 Then as a cybersecurity professional, your role is going to be 90 00:03:17,250 --> 00:03:19,200 to mitigate these issues that were identified 91 00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:21,570 during the penetration test as part of that report, 92 00:03:21,570 --> 00:03:23,190 so that way penetration testers 93 00:03:23,190 --> 00:03:25,950 and future potential attackers will be unable to exploit 94 00:03:25,950 --> 00:03:29,040 your systems using those same methods again in the future. 95 00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:31,500 Fourth, we have system and process audits. 96 00:03:31,500 --> 00:03:33,600 Now, system and process audits are a process 97 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:35,580 that involves conducting a comprehensive review 98 00:03:35,580 --> 00:03:37,110 of your information systems, 99 00:03:37,110 --> 00:03:39,270 security policies and procedures. 100 00:03:39,270 --> 00:03:41,880 These audits help to ensure that your organization adheres 101 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:43,410 to the security best practices 102 00:03:43,410 --> 00:03:45,330 and relevant industry standards. 103 00:03:45,330 --> 00:03:47,280 When it comes to identifying vulnerabilities, 104 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:50,430 you should usually use a four step process of planning, 105 00:03:50,430 --> 00:03:52,830 testing, implementing, and auditing. 106 00:03:52,830 --> 00:03:55,530 During your first step, we need to conduct planning. 107 00:03:55,530 --> 00:03:58,320 Now, planning entails laying down your policies, procedures, 108 00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:00,390 and mechanisms to systematically track 109 00:04:00,390 --> 00:04:03,120 and evaluate vulnerabilities inside of your systems. 110 00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:05,040 Effective planning will include determining 111 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:08,100 how you're going to test and deploy fixes on your systems too. 112 00:04:08,100 --> 00:04:10,920 During your second step, we need to conduct testing. 113 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:12,840 Now, testing involves evaluating patches 114 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:14,550 and updates in a controlled environment 115 00:04:14,550 --> 00:04:16,290 before you conduct a broad deployment 116 00:04:16,290 --> 00:04:18,480 across the entire enterprise network. 117 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:20,970 By conducting testing, we can ensure that the solutions 118 00:04:20,970 --> 00:04:22,590 we're using to mitigate vulnerabilities 119 00:04:22,590 --> 00:04:24,750 are not creating any new vulnerabilities, issues, 120 00:04:24,750 --> 00:04:26,820 or problems for our systems. 121 00:04:26,820 --> 00:04:29,970 During our third step, we need to conduct implementation. 122 00:04:29,970 --> 00:04:32,220 Now, implementation involves deploying these patches 123 00:04:32,220 --> 00:04:34,950 across the necessary devices and applications. 124 00:04:34,950 --> 00:04:37,200 Whether it's a small network with a few devices 125 00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:39,900 or a large enterprise network of thousands of endpoints, 126 00:04:39,900 --> 00:04:42,060 implementing the updates is going to be a crucial step 127 00:04:42,060 --> 00:04:43,860 for you that you have to perform in order 128 00:04:43,860 --> 00:04:46,170 to mitigate the vulnerabilities that you identified 129 00:04:46,170 --> 00:04:48,720 during your scans and your auditing process. 130 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:50,310 And then we go into our fourth step, 131 00:04:50,310 --> 00:04:52,320 and this is where we need to conduct auditing. 132 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:54,360 Now, auditing ensures that the security patches 133 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:56,460 and configuration changes needed to mitigate 134 00:04:56,460 --> 00:04:58,500 those identified vulnerabilities have actually 135 00:04:58,500 --> 00:04:59,910 been implemented effectively, 136 00:04:59,910 --> 00:05:01,800 and you can verify that there are no issues 137 00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:03,750 that have been identified after you completed 138 00:05:03,750 --> 00:05:05,340 your implementation step. 139 00:05:05,340 --> 00:05:08,430 So remember, identifying vulnerabilities is the systematic 140 00:05:08,430 --> 00:05:10,680 practice of spotting and categorizing weaknesses 141 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:12,900 in a system, network, or application 142 00:05:12,900 --> 00:05:14,700 that could potentially be exploited. 143 00:05:14,700 --> 00:05:17,310 Identifying the vulnerabilities in your systems is critical 144 00:05:17,310 --> 00:05:19,350 so that we can increase the security of our systems 145 00:05:19,350 --> 00:05:20,940 to prevent unauthorized access 146 00:05:20,940 --> 00:05:21,930 and maintain the integrity 147 00:05:21,930 --> 00:05:24,330 of our organization's systems and data. 148 00:05:24,330 --> 00:05:26,850 There are many methods used to identify vulnerabilities, 149 00:05:26,850 --> 00:05:28,380 including vulnerability scanning, 150 00:05:28,380 --> 00:05:31,020 application security techniques, penetration testing 151 00:05:31,020 --> 00:05:33,180 and security and process auditing. 152 00:05:33,180 --> 00:05:34,470 By identifying vulnerabilities 153 00:05:34,470 --> 00:05:36,450 and mitigating them, we can increase the level 154 00:05:36,450 --> 00:05:38,940 of security in our organization, maintain higher levels 155 00:05:38,940 --> 00:05:40,080 of uptime, and ensure 156 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:42,210 that the organization stays resilient in the face 157 00:05:42,210 --> 00:05:43,623 of potential cyber threats.