Lecture Notes and Projects (Spring 2008 Revision) by Sam Bowne

Catalog Description:
Students learn how hackers attack computers and networks, and how to protect systems from such attacks, using both Windows and Linux systems. Students will learn legal restrictions and ethical guidelines, and will be required to obey them. Students will perform many hands-on labs, both attacking and defending, using port scans, footprinting, exploiting Windows and Linux vulnerabilities, buffer overflow exploits, SQL injection, privilege escalation, Trojans, and backdoors.

Prerequisites:
CNIT 106 and 120 or equivalent familiarity with the fundamentals of networking and security.
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
Explain what an ethical hacker can and can not do legally, and explain the credentials and roles of penetration testers.
Define the types of malicious software found in modern networks.
Explain the threats and countermeasures for physical security and social engineering.
Perform footprinting to learn about a company and its network.
Perform port scans to locate potential entry points to servers and networks.
Perform enumeration (finding resources, accounts, and passwords) on Microsoft, Netware, and Unix/Linux targets.
Perform very simple programming in C, HTML, and Perl, specifically oriented towards the needs of network security professionals.
Learn how to identify Microsoft Windows vulnerabilities and to harden systems.
Learn how to identify Linux vulnerabilities and to protect servers.
Describe how to take control of Web Servers, and how to protect them.
Locate and hack into wireless networks, and protect them.
Explain how cryptography and hashing work, and perform attacks against them such as password cracking and man-in-the-middle attacks.
Describe and deploy security devices, including routers, firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems, and honeypots.