Free Security-Operations-Engineer Exam Questions – 2025

D. This describes the primary goal of a Denial of Service (DoS) attack, which is to exhaust resources and make a service unavailable, not to gain unauthorized access by impersonating a user.

1. Bellovin, S. M. (1989). Security Problems in the TCP/IP Protocol Suite. Computer Communication Review, 19(2), 32–48. In Section 3.2, "Sequence Number Spoofing," the paper details the mechanism of predicting TCP sequence numbers to inject data into an existing connection, which is the basis for TCP session hijacking (supports A).

2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (2014). 6.858 Computer Systems Security, Fall 2014. MIT OpenCourseWare. In Lecture 13, "Web Security," slide 23 discusses "Session Hijacking" where an attacker steals a session cookie to impersonate a user, aligning with the general definition of exploiting a valid session for unauthorized access (supports B). Slide 25 emphasizes that session IDs must be "un-guessable (long, random string)" as a countermeasure (supports C).

3. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP). (2023). Session Management Cheat Sheet. In the "Session ID Properties" section, it is explicitly stated that Session IDs "must be long enough to prevent brute-force attacks" and "must be random to prevent guessing and information leakage." This directly supports the mitigation strategy described in option C.

A. Network rules: These define the traffic relationship (NAT or Route) between different network segments, not the specific application-level permissions for inbound services.

C. Mailbox rules: This is not a valid rule type within the ISA Server 2006 firewall configuration; it relates to mail server or client-side filtering.

D. Access rules: These are primarily used to control outbound traffic, allowing users on an internal, protected network to access resources on an external network.

1. Microsoft TechNet. (2006). Publishing Concepts in ISA Server 2006. "Publishing makes servers on your corporate network available to external users... For example, you can publish a corporate Web server, FTP server, or mail server." This document explicitly states that making a mail server available is accomplished through publishing.

2. Microsoft TechNet. (2006). Mail Server Publishing in ISA Server 2006. This document details the procedure for publishing mail servers, stating, "You can use the New Mail Server Publishing Rule Wizard to create a firewall policy rule that allows external users access to your internal mail servers." The entire process is centered on creating a "Mail Server Publishing Rule."

3. Microsoft TechNet. (2007). Creating a secure mail relay with ISA Server 2006. In the "Creating the SMTP Server Publishing Rule" section, the guide instructs the administrator to "create a Mail Server Publishing Rule" to allow inbound SMTP connections from the Internet to the internal SMTP server.

D. Rule based attack: This attack applies complex transformations (e.g., "l" becomes "1", "e" becomes "3") to dictionary words. The password "apple" does not use any such rules, making this attack type less descriptive of the specific vulnerability.

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1. Weir, M., Aggarwal, S., de Medeiros, B., & Glodek, M. (2009). Password Cracking Using Probabilistic Context-Free Grammars. In 2009 30th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (pp. 391-405). IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/SP.2009.21. This paper discusses password cracking methodologies, defining dictionary attacks for common words, brute-force for short passwords, and rule-based attacks for passwords with predictable transformations, confirming the logic for the selected answers.

2. Cornell University. (2015). CS 5430: System Security, Lecture 10: Passwords. Courseware. Retrieved from https://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs5430/2015sp/lectures/lec10-passwords-sp15.pdf. Slides 18-20 define and differentiate brute-force, dictionary, and hybrid attacks. It describes hybrid attacks as trying dictionary words with simple affixes, and rule-based attacks as applying "mangling rules," which supports the exclusion of option D for the simple password "apple".

3. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). (2017). Special Publication 800-63B: Digital Identity Guidelines. Section 5.1.1.2, "Memorized Secret Verifiers". This publication mandates checking passwords against lists of commonly used passwords, which is the fundamental principle of a dictionary attack, confirming the vulnerability of "apple".

A. TCP FIN: This is a stealth scanning technique that sends only a FIN packet. It is less reliable than a full connect scan and is specifically designed to be less detectable.

B. TCP half-open: Also known as a SYN scan, this method is stealthier than a full connect scan because it never completes the handshake. It is a very popular and reliable method used by attackers, not avoided.

D. Xmas Tree: This is a stealth scan that sends a packet with multiple flags set (FIN, PSH, URG). Like the FIN scan, it is less reliable and designed to evade detection.

1. Nmap Project, Official Documentation: The Nmap Reference Guide describes the TCP Connect Scan (-sT). It states, "Nmap asks the underlying operating system to establish a connection... This is the same high-level system call that web browsers... use to establish a connection... A major downside is that this sort of scan is easy to detect and filter." In contrast, it describes SYN scan (-sS) as "relatively unobtrusive and stealthy, since it never completes TCP connections."

Source: Nmap Reference Guide, Chapter 15, Section: "Port Scanning Techniques". (nmap.org/book/man-port-scanning-techniques.html)

2. University Courseware (UC Berkeley): In the "Lecture 8: Port Scanning" notes for the CS 161 Computer Security course, the TCP Connect Scan is described as the "Easiest to implement & most reliable" but also the "Easiest to detect: shows up in logs". This directly supports the premise that it is accurate but easily detectable.

Source: Patterson, D. (2013). Lecture 8: Port Scanning. CS 161: Computer Security, UC Berkeley. (inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs161/sp13/slides/8-ports.pdf, Slide 13).

3. Peer-Reviewed Academic Publication: A comparative study of scanning techniques notes that the "TCP connect scan is the most reliable scan" because it uses the operating system's network functions to establish a full connection. The paper also highlights its primary drawback: "this scan is easily detectable and also can be blocked by the firewall."

Source: Chowdhury, M. Z., & Islam, M. R. (2017). A comparative study of port scanning techniques. 2017 4th International Conference on Advances in Electrical Engineering (ICAEE), pp. 579-584. DOI: 10.1109/ICAEE.2017.8255411. (Section III.A. TCP Connect Scan).

A. Application layer: Manages user-facing protocols (e.g., HTTP, SMTP) and is not involved in the physical transmission of packets on a local link.

C. Internet layer: Responsible for logical addressing (IP) and routing packets between different networks, not for the direct delivery on a single link.

D. Transport Layer: Provides end-to-end data transfer services (e.g., TCP, UDP) between processes on hosts, not link-level packet movement.

1. Forouzan, B. A. (2010). TCP/IP Protocol Suite (4th ed.). McGraw-Hill.

Page 21, Section 2.3, "Link Layer": "The TCP/IP protocol suite does not define any specific protocol for the link layer. It supports all the standard and proprietary protocols... When the Internet Protocol (IP) datagram is ready to be sent, it is passed to the link layer, which is responsible for sending it to the next computer in the path." This establishes the Link layer's role in handling the actual transmission on a link.

2. Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). (1989). RFC 1122: Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Communication Layers.

Section 1.3.3, "The Link Layer": "The link layer is the lowest layer in the TCP/IP protocol hierarchy... The link layer is responsible for delivering an IP datagram on its particular link. The link layer may be a local area network (e.g., an Ethernet)..." This document explicitly defines the Link layer's function for delivery on a single link.

3. Saltzer, J. H., Kaashoek, M. F. (2009). Principles of Computer System Design: An Introduction. MIT OpenCourseWare.

Chapter 6, Section 6.1.2, "The Network Layer Model": The text distinguishes the network layer (Internet layer) from the link layer, stating the link layer's responsibility is to "transmit a packet from one network interface to another on the same link." This directly supports the answer.

A. Brutus: This is a legacy network authentication brute-force tool that was developed for and runs exclusively on the Windows operating system.

B. Cain and Abel: This is a multi-purpose password recovery, network sniffer, and cracking tool designed to run only on Microsoft Windows operating systems.

C. Ophcrack: While a Linux version exists, Ophcrack is a specialized tool primarily designed for cracking Windows LanManager (LM) and NTLM hashes using rainbow tables.

1. Openwall Project. (n.d.). John the Ripper password cracker. Retrieved from https://www.openwall.com/john/. The official project page states, "John the Ripper is a free and Open Source software, distributed primarily in source code form. ... It is intended for Unix, Windows, DOS, BeOS, and OpenVMS." This confirms its primary role and origin in Unix environments.

2. Carnegie Mellon University, CyLab. (2011). Passwords, Hashes, and Cracking. 18-731 Information Security, Lecture 10, Slide 27. This university courseware slide lists "John the Ripper" as a primary tool for cracking Unix password hashes and "Cain and Abel" as a Windows-specific tool.

3. Mishra, P., & Jaiswal, A. (2012). A Study on Password Cracking Techniques and Tools. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, 2(7), 243-248. In Section IV, "PASSWORD CRACKING TOOLS," the paper describes Cain & Abel as a tool that "runs on Microsoft Windows operating systems" and John the Ripper as a tool that "was originally developed for the Unix operating system."

4. Ophcrack Official Website. (n.d.). Ophcrack. Retrieved from https://ophcrack.sourceforge.io/. The main description on the official site states, "Ophcrack is a free Windows password cracker based on rainbow tables. It is a very efficient implementation of rainbow tables done by the inventors of the method." This highlights its primary focus on Windows passwords.

A. Close port TCP 53: This is incorrect because port 53 is for the Domain Name System (DNS), whereas SNMP agents typically listen on UDP port 161.

D. Install antivirus: This is incorrect as antivirus software is designed to detect and remove malware, not to correct insecure network protocol configurations like weak SNMP community strings.

1. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). (2008). Guide to General Server Security (NIST Special Publication 800-123). Section 5.6.3, "Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)," states: "If SNMP is used, SNMPv3 should be used... If SNMPv1 or SNMPv2 is used, the default community strings (e.g., public, private) should be changed." This directly supports options B and C.

2. Carnegie Mellon University, CERT Coordination Center. (2002). Vulnerability Note VU#107186: SNMP default community names are 'public' and 'private'. The solution section recommends: "Do not use 'public', 'private', or any other default or common community names... We strongly recommend using SNMPv3." This validates both changing community strings and upgrading the version.

3. Cisco Systems, Inc. (2023). Simple Network Management Protocol Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS XE Gibraltar 16.12.x. In the "SNMP Security" section, the documentation emphasizes the security benefits of SNMPv3, stating it provides "authentication, and encryption of packets over the network." For older versions, it advises using access lists and non-default community strings to secure the service. This supports both B and C as valid security measures.

A. Nmap: While Nmap is a powerful scanner that can use ICMP Timestamp/Mask requests for host discovery, the question's specific combination of spoofing with promiscuous listening for replies is the hallmark feature of icmpenum.

B. Zenmap: Zenmap is the official graphical user interface (GUI) for the Nmap scanner. It relies on the underlying Nmap engine and does not offer unique scanning capabilities beyond what Nmap itself provides.

D. Nessus: Nessus is a comprehensive vulnerability assessment tool. While it performs host discovery as a prerequisite for scanning, it is not a specialized tool for ICMP-based network mapping with advanced spoofing techniques.

1. Skoudis, E. (2003). ICMP Usage in Scanning. SANS Institute InfoSec Reading Room. This paper details various ICMP scanning techniques and tools. On page 21, it explicitly describes icmpenum: "The icmpenum tool... can send ICMP Echo, Timestamp, and Address Mask Requests... It also supports spoofing a source address and listening promiscuously for responses." This directly confirms the tool's capabilities as described in the question. (Available via SANS Reading Room archives).

2. Al-shammari, A. A., & Al-attab, A. A. (2017). A Survey of Network Reconnaissance Techniques. International Journal of Network Security & Its Applications (IJNSA), 9(1), 1-16. In Section 3.2, "ICMP Scanning," the paper mentions icmpenum as a tool used for ICMP enumeration, noting its ability to discover hosts even when ping is blocked by using alternative ICMP messages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5121/ijnsa.2017.9101

A. Close port TCP 53.

This is incorrect because port 53 is used for DNS. SNMP primarily uses UDP ports 161 (for agent queries) and 162 (for manager traps).

D. Install antivirus.

This is incorrect because antivirus software is designed to detect and remove malware; it does not address network protocol configuration vulnerabilities like weak SNMP settings.

1. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-41 Rev. 1, Guidelines on Firewalls and Firewall Policy. Section 3.4.1, "Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)," states: "Organizations should use SNMPv3, which provides significant security enhancements over previous versions... If SNMPv1 or SNMPv2 must be used, organizations should at least change the default community strings to difficult-to-guess values." This directly supports both chosen answers.

2. Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) RFC 3414, User-based Security Model (USM) for version 3 of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMPv3). Section 1.2, "Security Services," details the security features of SNMPv3, including data integrity, data origin authentication, and data confidentiality (encryption), which are absent in SNMPv1 and directly counter the vulnerabilities that allow for enumeration.

3. Cisco Systems, Inc., Simple Network Management Protocol Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS XE Release 3S. In the "Securing Simple Network Management Protocol" chapter, the guide explicitly recommends migrating to SNMPv3 for its security features and, as a best practice for older versions, to "change the default community string 'public' to a more obscure, alphanumeric value."

A. Brutus: This is an active online password cracking tool used for brute-force attacks against services, which falls under the "Gaining Access" phase, not initial footprinting.

1. Paulsen, C. (2018). Lecture 10: Reconnaissance. CSE 484: Computer Security, University of Washington. This lecture material explicitly lists whois and traceroute as tools for the reconnaissance (footprinting) phase of an attack. (Slides 11, 13). Retrieved from: https://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse484/18sp/lectures/L10-recon.pdf

2. Kim, D. (2020). Lecture 10: Penetration Testing. CS 4910/5910: Introduction to Cyber Security, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. The lecture slides categorize whois and traceroute under the "Information Gathering" phase, while password crackers (functionally similar to Brutus) are placed in the "Gaining Access" phase. (Slides 11, 16). Retrieved from: https://www.cs.uccs.edu/~cs591/fall20/lectures/L10-PenetrationTesting.pdf

3. Cederberg, D. (2018). A study of the fundamentals of penetration testing [Thesis, University of Skövde]. This academic paper discusses the phases of penetration testing, identifying whois and traceroute as key tools used during the "Information Gathering" (footprinting) stage. (Section 2.2.1, Page 8). Retrieved from: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1217910/FULLTEXT01.pdf

4. Ciampa, M. (2005). Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, 3rd Edition. Course Technology. While a textbook, it is widely used in university curricula. Chapter 11, "Security Assessment and Audits," describes Sam Spade as a tool that "can perform a number of queries, such as whois, DNS, and traceroute" for the purpose of footprinting. (Chapter 11, Section: "Footprinting Tools").

B. You are using WPA2 security scheme.

WPA2 is a robust security protocol. Its use is a recommended security practice, not a cause of a security issue. A weak pre-shared key would be the vulnerability, not the protocol itself.

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1. For option C: He, C., & Mitchell, J. C. (2010). Security Analysis and Improvements for IEEE 802.11i. In N. Meghanathan, S. Boumerdassi, N. Chaki, & D. Nagamalai (Eds.), Recent Trends in Network Security and Applications (pp. 457-468). Springer. In Section 2, "Background on IEEE 802.11i," the paper discusses the 802.11 discovery and association process, where SSIDs are exchanged in unencrypted management frames like Probe Requests and Probe Responses, making SSID cloaking ineffective. (DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-14478-346)

2. For option D: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). (2012). Special Publication 800-153: Guidelines for Securing Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). Section 3.1.1, "WLAN Component Configuration," explicitly states: "Organizations should ensure that all vendor-default settings are changed...This includes default SSIDs, passwords/passphrases, and SNMP community strings."

3. For option A: University of California, Berkeley, Information Security Office. (2023). Minimum Security Standards for Networked Devices. Section 5, "Principle of Least Functionality," advises disabling or restricting unnecessary ports, protocols, and services. While not preventing an initial association, leaving DHCP enabled provides an unnecessary service to an unauthorized device, directly facilitating its ability to function on the network, which is a failure of this principle.

B. Replay attack: This involves capturing and re-submitting a valid data transmission to trick the system. The scenario does not involve capturing or replaying network traffic.

C. Buffer overflow attack: This exploits memory corruption vulnerabilities on the server or in an application, not the execution of a script within a user's web browser.

D. CSRF attack: This attack forges a request from a victim's browser to a web application where they are authenticated. The scenario demonstrates script injection, not a forged state-changing request.

1. OWASP Foundation. (2021). Cross Site Scripting (XSS). OWASP Cheat Sheet Series. Retrieved from OWASP.org. The document explicitly defines XSS as an attack where "malicious scripts are injected into otherwise benign and trusted websites." The use of alert() is provided as a canonical proof-of-concept example.

2. Grossman, J. (2006). Cross-Site Scripting Attacks: XSS Exploits and Defense. Syngress Publishing. In Chapter 2, "Anatomy of an Attack," the book details the exact mechanism described in the question: an attacker enters a script into a form field, the server reflects it back, and the victim's browser executes it.

3. Zeller, A., & Felton, E. (2014). 6.858 Computer Systems Security, Lecture 10: Web Security. MIT OpenCourseWare. In the section "Cross-site scripting (XSS)," the lecture notes describe the vulnerability as a failure to escape user input, providing the example: Search for: ..., which is then rendered and executed by the browser.

4. Vogt, P., Nentwich, F., Jovanovic, N., Kirda, E., Kruegel, C., & Vigna, G. (2007). Cross-Site Scripting Prevention with Dynamic Data Tainting and Static Analysis. In Proceedings of the 14th Annual Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS'07). Section 2, "Background," defines reflected XSS attacks precisely as the scenario where "a malicious script is injected into a request to a web server, which is then reflected back and executed in the user's web browser." (DOI: https://www.ndss-symposium.org/ndss2007/proceedings/paper/Vogt-CrossSiteScripting-final.pdf)

B. Malicious Communications Act (1998): This is legislation from the United Kingdom, not Australia. It addresses the sending of indecent, offensive, or threatening letters and other communications.

C. Anti-Cyber-Stalking law (1999): This is a descriptive term, not the official title of any specific act passed in Australia. No federal or state legislation bears this formal name.

D. Stalking by Electronic Communications Act (2001): This is not the formal title of a specific Australian law. While states continued to refine laws after 1999, no act with this exact name was enacted.

1. Dunn, P. (2000). Stalking: Criminal Responsibility and the De-Essentialisation of the Victim. University of New South Wales Law Journal, 23(1), 23. This article discusses the Crimes (Stalking) Amendment Act 1999 (Vic), highlighting the legislative changes in Australia during that period to address stalking, including through new technologies.

2. Urbas, G. (2000). Cyber-stalking: The new challenge for law enforcement and industry. Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC). Research and Public Policy Series No. 45. On page 21, the report explicitly states, "In 1999, Queensland amended its anti-stalking provision (s 359A of the Criminal Code) to include stalking by means of 'any electronic communication'". This directly supports the 1999 amendment as the key legislation.

3. Australian Government, Australian Institute of Criminology. (2004). Cybercrime in Australia. Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice, No. 287. This report discusses the evolution of Australian laws to combat cybercrime, referencing the state-based anti-stalking laws that were amended to include electronic harassment (p. 3).

A. Replay attack: This involves capturing and resending legitimate network traffic. The scenario describes crafting new, malicious input, not replaying old data.

B. Land attack: This is a network-level Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack that involves sending a spoofed packet and is unrelated to web application authentication.

D. Dictionary attack: This is a brute-force technique that involves systematically trying a list of common words as passwords, not injecting code fragments.

1. OWASP Foundation. (2021). OWASP Top 10:2021. A03:2021-Injection. The document describes SQL injection as a prime example of an injection flaw where "user-supplied data is not validated, filtered, or sanitized by the application," leading to the execution of unintended commands. The scenario is a direct example of this category.

2. Halfond, W. G., Viegas, J., & Orso, A. (2006). A classification of SQL injection attacks and countermeasures. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Secure Software Engineering, 1, 13. In Section 3.1, "Tautologies," the paper explicitly identifies this attack class, stating its goal is to "inject code in one or more conditional statements so that they always evaluate to true." The example ' or '1'='1 is functionally identical to the payload in the question. (https://doi.org/10.1109/ISSSE.2006.241671)

3. Johns Hopkins University. (n.d.). Web Security: SQL Injection. Courseware, EN.605.744.81.FA19. In the "Authentication Bypass" section, the course material demonstrates how an attacker can use a tautology like ' OR 1=1 -- to log in as any user without a password, which is the exact technique described in the question.

A. Nmap is a network and port scanner used to discover hosts, open ports, and running services; it does not search web content.

B. Sam Spade is an outdated network query tool for DNS, Whois, and traceroute lookups, not for searching indexed web files.

C. Whois is a protocol used to query databases for domain name registration information, not for file retrieval from web servers.

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1. University Courseware:

University of California, Berkeley. (2020). CS 161: Computer Security, Lecture 10: Web Security. Slides 51-53 discuss "Search Engine Hacking" and provide examples of using operators like filetype:xls inurl:password to find sensitive information. Available at: https://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs161/fa20/slides/10-web-recon.pdf

2. Academic Publication (related to GIAC GPEN domain):

Sumner, C. (2004). Google Hacking - The Basics. SANS Institute InfoSec Reading Room. This paper details the use of Google as a reconnaissance tool, explaining advanced operators to find specific files and sensitive information. Section "Finding Targets," page 4. Available at: https://www.sans.org/white-papers/1419/

3. Academic Publication:

Kamthan, P. (2005). "Google Hacking and Privacy Issues". In Proceedings of the 6th WSEAS International Conference on Applied Computer Science. This paper formally discusses the technique of using Google's advanced search capabilities to uncover sensitive information not intended for public viewing, defining it as "Google Hacking." (DOI not readily available for this conference proceeding, but it is a widely cited foundational paper on the topic).

C. The password is sent in clear text format to the Web server.

This is incorrect. NTLM is a challenge-response protocol where the cleartext password is never sent over the network. This describes Basic authentication.

D. The password is sent in hashed format to the Web server.

This is an inaccurate description. The client sends a computed response to a server-provided challenge, not the password hash itself.

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1. Microsoft Corporation. (2023). Security Guidance for NTLMv1 and LM Network Authentication. Microsoft Learn.

Reference: In the "Summary" section, the document states, "The LM and NTLMv1 authentication protocols have weaknesses in their design that can allow an attacker to obtain the user's password." It further details how captured sessions can be used in brute-force attacks. This directly supports option A.

2. Microsoft Corporation. (2023). Microsoft NTLM. Microsoft Learn.

Reference: In the "Security of NTLM" section, the document explicitly states, "NTLM is also vulnerable to a variety of malicious attacks, including... brute force attacks." This provides further official vendor confirmation for option A.

3. The Chromium Projects. (n.d.). HTTP authentication.

Reference: In the section "Integrated Authentication," the documentation discusses the implementation of NTLM and Kerberos. It highlights the complexity and platform-specific nature of enabling this feature, stating, "On Windows, the implementation uses the SSPI library... On Mac and Linux, the implementation uses the GSSAPI library." This demonstrates that support outside the native Microsoft/IE environment is not inherent and requires specific libraries and configuration, supporting the interoperability drawback mentioned in option B.

4. Glass, E., & Abgrall, E. (2008). Security analysis of NTLM authentication protocol. In 2008 Third International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (pp. 335-342). IEEE.

Reference: Section III, "Vulnerabilities of NTLM," states: "The main vulnerability of NTLMv1 is that an attacker can perform an offline dictionary attack or a brute force attack on the captured challenge/response to find the NT hash." This academic source confirms the vulnerability to brute-force attacks (Option A). DOI: 10.1109/ARES.2008.159

All the provided options are correct and represent plausible reasons for an incomplete tracert result.

1. Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) RFC 792: This foundational document for the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) describes the messages tracert relies on.

Section "Time Exceeded Message": Explains the ICMP Type 11 message sent by a gateway when a datagram's TTL field reaches zero. This is the primary mechanism tracert uses to identify hops. A firewall blocking this message (Option B) would break the process.

Section "Destination Unreachable Message": Describes the ICMP Type 3 message, which can indicate a routing failure (Option C) or that the destination host is down (Option D). If a router is configured to silently drop packets instead of sending this message, a timeout will occur.

2. Microsoft Corporation, "tracert" Command-Line Reference: Official vendor documentation describes the tool's operation. It states, "This diagnostic tool determines the path taken to a destination by sending Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) Echo Request messages... The path is displayed as a list of the near-side router interfaces... If the packet is dropped by a router, the tracert output will show a timeout ()." This supports that packet loss from an overloaded router (Option A) or other issues will result in an incomplete trace.

3. Feamster, N., & Rexford, J. (2014). CS 4450: Computer Networks Course Materials. Georgia Institute of Technology. University courseware on networking frequently covers traceroute failure modes. Lecture materials explain that asterisks ( ) in the output can be caused by network congestion (supporting Option A), firewalls filtering ICMP messages (supporting Option B), or routers being configured not to generate ICMP replies for security reasons (a factor in Options B and C).

A. Stateful firewalls filter or reset connections; they do not echo null/underscore data once a session is established.

B. A corrupted telnet daemon would refuse or crash after accept; it would not consistently echo dummy characters.

D. Honeypots emulate full banners and command prompts to collect attacker activity, not just blank or underscore output.

1. Venema, W. “TCP WRAPPER: Network Monitoring, Access Control and Booby Traps.” USENIX Security Symposium, 1992, §3.1 “twist” action (pp. 5-6).

2. hostsaccess(5) man page, TCP Wrappers 7.6—“twist” option may replace service with arbitrary output; denied hosts receive only that data.

3. Stevens, W.R., & Wright, G. “TCP/IP Illustrated, Vol 3,” Addison-Wesley, 1996, Ch. 9, pp. 111-112: inetd + tcpd pre-checks before telnetd execution.

4. MIT OpenCourseWare 6.858 “Computer Systems Security,” Lecture 11 notes (2014), slide 18: “TCP Wrappers can fake or shut down services for unauthorized IPs.”

C. The password is sent in clear text format to the Web server.

This is incorrect. NTLM is a challenge-response protocol specifically designed to avoid sending the cleartext password over the network, unlike HTTP Basic authentication.

D. The password is sent in hashed format to the Web server.

This is an inaccurate description. The client computes a response to a server-provided challenge using the password hash; it does not send the stored password hash itself.

1. Microsoft Corporation. (2021). [MS-NLMP]: NT LAN Manager (NTLM) Authentication Protocol. Microsoft Docs. Section 6, "Security Considerations," details the known cryptographic weaknesses of NTLMv1 and NTLMv2, including their susceptibility to offline dictionary and brute-force attacks. It explicitly states, "NTLM has a number of cryptographic weaknesses."

2. Cremers, C., Horvat, M., & van der Merwe, T. (2011). A Comprehensive Formal Security Analysis of NTLM. 2011 IEEE 24th Computer Security Foundations Symposium, 199-213. This academic paper provides a formal analysis of NTLM's security, confirming in Section 1 (Introduction) that "NTLM is known to be vulnerable to a variety of attacks, such as offline dictionary attacks." (DOI: 10.1109/CSF.2011.21)

3. Microsoft Corporation. (2021). Integrated Windows Authentication. Microsoft Docs. This document describes how Integrated Windows Authentication (which uses NTLM as a fallback for Kerberos) works within the Microsoft ecosystem, highlighting its primary design for intranet scenarios with Windows clients. It notes that for other browsers like Firefox, "additional configuration is required," underscoring the interoperability drawback.

A. 32: This is an incorrect bit length. 32-bit keys are cryptographically insignificant for this purpose and were not used by SYSKEY.

B. 64: This is an incorrect bit length. While 64-bit keys were common in older algorithms like DES, SYSKEY utilized a stronger 128-bit key.

C. 512: This is an incorrect bit length. 512-bit keys are associated with algorithms like RSA or SHA-512, not the RC4 implementation used by SYSKEY.

1. Microsoft Corporation. (1997). Windows NT System Key Permits Strong Encryption of the SAM. Microsoft Support, KB143475. In the "MORE INFORMATION" section, it states, "The System Key is a 128-bit cryptographically-strong random key which is used for encrypting the SAM database." (Note: This is an archived historical document but serves as the primary vendor source for the feature).

2. Russinovich, M., Solomon, D. A., & Ionescu, A. (2012). Windows Internals, Part 2 (6th ed.). Microsoft Press. In Chapter 11, "Security," the discussion on SAM encryption details the role of the Syskey, which is a 128-bit key used to encrypt the password hashes.

3. Carvey, H. (2005). Forensic analysis of the Windows registry. Digital Investigation, 2(2), 93-104. In Section 3.2, "SAM," the paper states, "The SAM hive file is protected through the use of a system key, or SYSKEY... The SYSKEY is a 128-bit key that is used to encrypt the password hashes..." DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diin.2005.05.003

A. Ettercap: This is a suite for man-in-the-middle attacks and network protocol dissection, not a dedicated wireless network discovery and mapping tool.

B. Tcpdump: This is a command-line packet analyzer for capturing network traffic; it lacks the specific features of a wireless network stumbler with GPS integration.

C. Kismet: While Kismet is a powerful wireless network detector with GPS support, it is primarily a Linux/Unix-based tool, not a native Windows-based application.

1. Peikari, C., & Fogie, S. (2003). Maximum Wireless Security. Sams Publishing. In Chapter 4, "Stumbling upon Wireless Networks," NetStumbler is detailed as a "Windows-based 802.11b network discovery tool" (p. 86) and its GPS support is described as a key feature for wardriving (p. 91).

2. Geier, J. (2002). Wireless LANs (2nd ed.). Sams Publishing. Chapter 12, "Optimizing Wireless LAN Security," identifies NetStumbler as a popular, free utility for Windows that hackers use to find access points (p. 312).

3. Wright, J. (2003). Detecting Wireless LAN MAC Address Spoofing. SANS Institute InfoSec Reading Room. In the "Tools of the Trade" section, NetStumbler is explicitly identified as a "Windows-based 802.11 discovery tool," while Kismet is noted as its "Linux/BSD counterpart" (p. 5).

4. Potter, B., & Fleck, B. (2003). 802.11 Security. O'Reilly Media, Inc. In Chapter 6, "802.11 Discovery," NetStumbler is presented as "the de facto standard for 802.11 discovery on the Windows platform" and its GPS logging capabilities are highlighted (p. 90).

A. Spoofing is a technique to gain unauthorized access by impersonating another user or device; it is a malicious act, not a standard government practice.

C. Phishing is a social engineering attack to fraudulently obtain sensitive information; it is a criminal activity, not a sanctioned investigative method.

D. SMB signing is a security mechanism in a network protocol to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, not an investigative technique.

1. U.S. Department of Justice. (2020). Justice Manual. Section 9-7.111 - The Wiretap Act. This section details the legal framework (Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968) that governs the interception of wire, oral, and electronic communications by federal law enforcement agencies, establishing it as a recognized governmental practice.

2. Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute (LII). 18 U.S. Code Chapter 119 - WIRE AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS INTERCEPTION AND INTERCEPTION OF ORAL COMMUNICATIONS. This chapter of the U.S. Code provides the statutory authority and strict procedures under which government entities can conduct wiretapping for law enforcement purposes.

3. Microsoft. (2023, September 21). Overview of Server Message Block signing. Microsoft Learn. This official vendor documentation describes SMB signing as a security feature that "helps protect against man-in-the-middle attacks," confirming it is a technical control, not an investigative action.

4. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). (2017). Special Publication 800-63-3: Digital Identity Guidelines. Section 5.1.1.2. This publication defines spoofing as a threat where an attacker "successfully assumes the identity of another." It is categorized as an attack vector that security systems are designed to prevent.

C. A Ping Flood is a generic network-layer Denial of Service (DoS) attack and is not a threat specifically introduced or exacerbated by the WZC service itself.

D. This statement is factually incorrect. The WZC utility in Windows XP allows for the configuration of wireless encryption, including WEP and WPA/WPA2.

1. Microsoft TechNet. (2005). Default Behavior of the Wireless Zero Configuration Service. In the section "Scanning for Wireless Networks," the document states, "For each network in the Preferred Networks list, the Wireless Zero Configuration service sends a series of probe requests... Probe requests contain the SSID of the network for which they are being sent." This supports option B. The automatic connection behavior described in the "Connecting to a Wireless Network" section enables the Evil Twin attack described in option A.

2. Wright, J. (2004). Weaknesses in the WZC. SANS Institute InfoSec Reading Room. This paper explicitly details the vulnerabilities of Windows XP's WZC. On page 5, it describes the "Preferred Network List (PNL) Probing" vulnerability, stating, "An attacker can passively identify the PNL of a victim user by sniffing 802.11 probe request frames," which directly supports option B. On page 6, it details the "Wireless Man-in-the-Middle" attack (Evil Twin), explaining how an attacker can "force a victim client to associate with his rogue AP," which directly supports option A.

3. NIST Special Publication 800-48 Revision 1. (2008). Guide to Securing Legacy IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networks. Section 4.3, "Client-Side Threats," discusses rogue access points and man-in-the-middle attacks. It notes that client devices can be tricked into connecting to malicious APs that mimic legitimate ones, a threat directly applicable to WZC's auto-connect behavior.

B. Rootkit: A rootkit is malicious software designed to gain and maintain privileged access to a system while hiding its own presence on that host, not to anonymize the user's network traffic.

D. War dialer: This is an outdated tool used to scan a range of telephone numbers to find and connect to modems or other computer systems, and it is unrelated to hiding a user's network identity.

1. IPchains: Russell, R. (1999). Linux IPCHAINS-HOWTO, v1.0.8. The Linux Documentation Project. In Section 6, "IP Masquerading," it states, "This is the killer feature of the 2.2.x series kernels for many people... It allows a number of machines on a private network to get to the Internet through a single machine with a single IP address." This describes hiding the identity of internal machines. (Available in Linux kernel source documentation archives).

2. Proxy Server: Kurose, J. F., & Ross, K. W. (2017). Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach (7th ed.). Pearson. In Section 2.6, "Web Caching and the Forward Proxy," the text explains how a proxy can be used for anonymity: "The proxy server can also be used to provide anonymity for the clients. The server in the institutional network will see the requests as coming from the IP address of the proxy server..."

3. Anonymizer: Dingledine, R., Mathewson, N., & Syverson, P. (2004). Tor: The Second-Generation Onion Router. Proceedings of the 13th USENIX Security Symposium. The paper's abstract states its purpose: "We present Tor, a circuit-based low-latency anonymous communication service... This paper describes the design of Tor and discusses how it addresses the traffic analysis problem." This is a prime example of an anonymizer system. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5555/1251496.1251502)

4. Rootkit: Hoglund, G., & Butler, J. (2006). Rootkits: Subverting the Windows Kernel. Addison-Wesley Professional. Chapter 1, "The What and Why of Rootkits," defines a rootkit's purpose as maintaining access and hiding evidence on a compromised machine, distinguishing it from tools that hide network origin.

C. ICMP error message quoting: This is an active technique. Nmap sends ICMP probes that elicit error messages, and different OSes quote different parts of the original packet in their replies.

D. Sending FIN packets to open ports on the remote system: This is a classic active technique. The target's response (or lack thereof) to a FIN packet sent to an open port is a well-documented, OS-specific behavior.

1. Nmap Official Documentation: Lyon, G. (Fyodor). (n.d.). OS Detection (Nmap Reference Guide). Nmap.org. In the "Introduction" section, it states, "Nmap's active OS detection method sends a series of TCP, UDP, and ICMP probes to the remote host and examines the responses." This document further details the specific probes, including the "T4" test which involves sending a FIN packet to an open TCP port, and the "IE" test which involves ICMP probes.

Reference: https://nmap.org/book/osdetect.html, Sections "Introduction" and "TCP/IP Fingerprinting Methods".

2. Academic Publication (Foundational Paper): Fyodor. (1998). Remote OS detection via TCP/IP Stack FingerPrinting. Phrack Magazine, 8(54), Article 9. This seminal paper, which forms the basis of Nmap's OS detection, explicitly describes active techniques.

Test #1 (FIN probe): "We send a FIN packet... to an open port... some operating systems... will send a RST back."

ICMP Message Quoting: The paper discusses analyzing ICMP port unreachable messages, noting, "different stacks quote different amounts of the original IP packet."

3. University Courseware: Handley, M. (2012). Network Security (COMPGA05/COMPM050). University College London, Department of Computer Science. Lecture 5, "Network Reconnaissance," slide 25, distinguishes between active and passive fingerprinting. It lists "Sniffing packets" as a passive method and describes active methods as sending "unusual packets" to observe responses, citing Nmap's techniques as the primary example.

B. Kismet: This is a dedicated wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system. It passively discovers networks and does not perform active port or OS scanning.

C. Sniffer: This is a generic term for a packet capture tool (e.g., Wireshark). It passively listens to network traffic rather than actively probing hosts to discover services or OS details.

D. Nessus: This is a comprehensive vulnerability scanner. While it incorporates network scanning capabilities, its primary function is to identify and report on security vulnerabilities, not just network exploration.

1. Nmap Official Documentation: The official Nmap website directly states its purpose and features, which align perfectly with the question. "Nmap ('Network Mapper') is a free and open source utility for network discovery and security auditing. ... It uses raw IP packets in novel ways to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics."

Source: Nmap.org. (n.d.). About Nmap. Retrieved from https://nmap.org/

2. University Courseware: Stanford University's Computer Science course on security explicitly details Nmap's functionality for network reconnaissance. The lecture notes describe how Nmap is used for port scanning (e.g., TCP SYN scan), version detection (-sV), and OS detection (-O), which are the core activities mentioned in the scenario.

Source: Boneh, D., & Mazières, D. (2018). CS 155: Computer and Network Security, Lecture 10: Network Security II. Stanford University, Slide 11-20. Retrieved from https://crypto.stanford.edu/cs155/lectures/10-network-security-2.pdf

3. University Courseware: MIT OpenCourseWare for Computer Systems Security identifies Nmap as the canonical tool for network scanning. Lecture materials discuss how Nmap is used to discover live hosts, check for open ports, and fingerprint the operating system of a target machine.

Source: Kaashoek, M. F., & Zeldovich, N. (2014). 6.858 Computer Systems Security, Fall 2014, Lecture 12: Network Security. MIT OpenCourseWare. Retrieved from https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-858-computer-systems-security-fall-2014/resources/mit6858f14lec12/

B. A Denial-of-Service attack: The error message indicates a query syntax failure, not a condition where the service is overwhelmed or unavailable.

C. A buffer overflow: This is a memory-related vulnerability. The error originates from a database driver due to a malformed query, not a memory access violation.

D. An XSS attack: Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) involves injecting client-side scripts. The input was a single quote, and the response is a server-side database error.

1. Microsoft Corporation. (2023). SQL Injection. Microsoft Docs. In the "Anatomy of a SQL Injection Attack" section, it is noted that a common test is to enter a single quote into a textbox. The documentation states, "If you enter a single quote in a user name or password field and you get a database error, you are likely looking at a bug." The error 0x80040E14 is a common ODBC error for syntax issues.

2. Zeldovich, N., & Solar-Lezama, A. (2014). Lecture 10: Web Security. MIT OpenCourseWare, 6.858 Computer Systems Security, Fall 2014. The lecture notes describe SQL injection, explaining that inputting a single quote can cause a "syntax error from the database," which is a primary method for detecting this vulnerability.

3. Halfond, W. G. J., Viegas, J., & Orso, A. (2006). A classification of SQL-injection attacks and countermeasures. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Secure Software Engineering, 1, pp. 13-22. This paper classifies SQL injection attacks, noting that tautology-based and illegal/logically incorrect query attacks are detected by observing database errors returned to the application after submitting malformed input, such as a single quote. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ISSSE.2006.2)

B. Port 111 is for RPC Portmapper (sunrpc), and port 222 is unassigned; neither is used for Windows null sessions.

C. Ports 1234 and 300 are not standard ports associated with the SMB protocol or Windows session establishment.

D. Port 130 is unassigned, and port 200 is for FTP data; these are unrelated to SMB or NetBIOS services.

1. Microsoft Corporation. (2023). Service overview and network port requirements for Windows. Microsoft Learn. Retrieved from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/networking/service-overview-and-network-port-requirements.

Reference Details: In the "Ports and protocols" table, this official documentation lists TCP port 139 for "NetBIOS Session Service" and TCP port 445 for "Server Message Block (SMB)," which are the two protocols and ports used to establish sessions, including null sessions.

2. Sumner, C. (2002). Know Your Enemy: The Inner Workings of Windows Null Sessions. SANS Institute InfoSec Reading Room.

Reference Details: Page 3, Section "What is a Null Session?", states, "The null session is an anonymous connection to the IPC$ (Inter-Process Communication) share on a Windows machine. This connection is established by the Session service (TCP 139) or by SMB over TCP/IP (TCP 445)."

3. Carnegie Mellon University. (2000). Microsoft Windows NT is vulnerable to denial-of-service via malformed SMB requests. CERT Coordination Center, Vulnerability Note VU#89795.

Reference Details: The "Technical Details" section discusses vulnerabilities in the Server Message Block (SMB) service, which it notes "is available on TCP ports 139 and 445." This confirms that the SMB service, which facilitates null sessions, operates on these specific ports.

A. ADS is a feature of the Windows NTFS file system, not a native feature of common Linux file systems like ext4 or XFS.

B. Windows 98 primarily used the FAT32 file system, which does not support Alternate Data Streams.

C. The FAT (File Allocation Table) file system family, including FAT16 and FAT32, lacks the capability to create or manage Alternate Data Streams.

1. Microsoft Corporation. (2021). File Streams - Win32 apps. Microsoft Docs. Retrieved from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/file-streams. In the "Remarks" section, it states, "A file stream is a unique set of bytes... All file systems on Windows use file streams, but they use them differently. For example, the NTFS file system uses streams to store file attributes... but you can also create your own streams." This document establishes ADS as a feature available and utilized by NTFS.

2. Carrier, B. (2005). File System Forensic Analysis. Addison-Wesley Professional. In Chapter 10, "NTFS File System," Section "NTFS Attributes," Carrier details the $DATA attribute, explaining that a file can have one unnamed (default) data stream and multiple named data streams. This academic textbook explicitly identifies ADS as a core component of NTFS architecture.

3. Roussev, V., & Richard, G. G. (2004). Hiding data in alternate data streams of the NTFS file system. In Proceedings of the 2004 Annual Research Conference of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists on IT Research in Developing Countries (pp. 22-31). The paper's abstract and introduction state, "The NTFS file system, native to the Windows NT/2000/XP family of operating systems, provides a feature known as alternate data streams (ADS), which allows a single file to have multiple content streams." DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/1028003.1028007.

A. L0phtcrack – Focused on Windows password auditing/cracking; lacks network enumeration and VoIP sniffing functions.

B. John the Ripper – Multi-platform password cracker only; no native Windows enumeration or VoIP capture features.

D. Pass-the-hash toolkit – Enables credential replay for lateral movement; does not crack passwords, enumerate hosts, or sniff VoIP traffic.

1. MITRE ATT&CK, Software S0228 “Cain and Abel”, Description paragraphs 1-3 – details password cracking, Windows credential enumeration, and VoIP recording capabilities.

2. Montoro, M. “Cain & Abel v4.9 User Manual”, sections 4.2 (Sniffer/VoIP), 5.1 (Password Recovery), 6.3 (Network Enumeration).

3. IEEE Proceedings, Khan et al., “Investigation of VoIP Security Tools,” IEEE Xplore, 2013, pp. 112-113 – lists Cain & Abel’s SIP/H.323 capture. DOI:10.1109/ICCSIT.2013.6690016

4. University of South Carolina, CSCE 522 Course Notes “Windows Password Cracking & Enumeration Lab” (Spring 2022), pp. 3-5 – demonstrates Cain & Abel for SAM extraction and NetBIOS/SMB share enumeration.

A. This is a command injection attack, not a buffer overflow, as it does not involve sending excessive data to overwrite memory.

B. A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack requires traffic from many sources; this is a single request from one client.

D. The specific command dir c:\ is for reconnaissance (listing files), not for consuming resources to cause a Denial of Service.

1. Microsoft Security Bulletin MS00-078: This official bulletin directly addresses the "Web Server Folder Traversal" vulnerability. It explains that a "canonicalization error" allows attackers to use "superfluous UTF-8 encoding" (like %c0%af for /) to access files and execute commands outside the web root. This is the exact technique used in the question. (Reference: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS00-078, "Vulnerability," published October 17, 2000).

2. OWASP Testing Guide v4.2: The guide details command injection attacks, explaining how an attacker can pass malicious commands to be executed on the server. The question's payload, cmd.exe?/c+dir+c:\, is a classic example of this attack pattern. (Reference: OWASP Testing Guide v4.2, Section 4.8.13 "Testing for Command Injection (OTG-INPVAL-013)").

3. Stanford University, CS 155 Courseware: Lecture notes on web security explain command injection vulnerabilities where user-supplied input is concatenated into a command string executed by the server. The URL demonstrates this by injecting dir c:\ as an argument to cmd.exe. (Reference: CS 155: Computer and Network Security, Lecture 12: "Web Security Model," Stanford University).

A. Alternate Data Streams is a feature of the Windows NTFS file system, not a native feature of common Linux file systems like ext4 or XFS.

B. Windows 98 used the FAT32 file system by default, which does not support Alternate Data Streams. Native NTFS support began with Windows NT/2000.

C. The FAT (File Allocation Table) file system family, including FAT16 and FAT32, lacks the capability to create or manage Alternate Data Streams.

1. Microsoft Corporation. (2023). File Streams. Microsoft Learn. Retrieved from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/file-streams. The official documentation states, "A file stream is a unique feature of NTFS..." and describes how every file has at least one stream ($DATA), but can have multiple.

2. Solomon, D. A., & Russinovich, M. E. (2005). Microsoft Windows Internals, Fourth Edition: Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000. Microsoft Press. In Chapter 12, "File Systems," the section on NTFS attributes details the concept of multiple data streams associated with a file, a feature not present in the FAT file system.

3. Carrier, B. (2005). File System Forensic Analysis. Addison-Wesley Professional. In Chapter 11, "NTFS Data Structures," Section "NTFS File Attributes," Carrier explains the $DATA attribute and how a file can have multiple, unnamed or named, data attributes (streams), which is a unique design of NTFS.

4. Al-Fedaghi, S., & Al-Azmi, A. (2013). Conceptual Modeling of NTFS Alternate Data Streams. Journal of Software Engineering and Applications, 6(9), 469-477. https://doi.org/10.4236/jsea.2013.69057. This academic paper explicitly states, "Alternate Data Streams (ADS) is a file attribute that is only found in the NTFS file system." (p. 469).

A. IP spoofing involves forging the source IP address in a packet's header to conceal the sender's identity or impersonate another system.

B. Mac flooding overwhelms a network switch's Content Addressable Memory (CAM) table with fake MAC addresses, not IP addresses.

C. Man-in-the-middle is a broad attack category where an attacker intercepts communications; DNS poisoning is one method to achieve this position.

1. Stallings, W. (2019). Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice (8th ed.). Pearson.

Section 21.4, "DNS Attacks," describes DNS cache poisoning as an attack to convince a DNS cache to accept a bogus resource record, which maps a hostname to an incorrect IP address.

2. D. J. Bernstein. (2008). DNS Security Introduction. Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Page 4, Section "Cache Poisoning," explains: "The attacker’s goal in a cache-poisoning attack is to insert a forged DNS record... into the cache of a recursive resolver. The forged record will then be served to all clients of that resolver." This forged record contains the incorrect IP address. (Available via university courseware archives).

3. Kirda, E., & Kruegel, C. (2005). Protecting Users Against Phishing Attacks with a Pishing-Aware DNS Proxy. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on E-Business and Telecommunication Networks.

Section 2, "Background," states: "In a DNS cache poisoning attack, an attacker is able to insert a forged DNS entry into the cache of a name server. As a result, any client that queries this name server for the spoofed host name is provided with a fake IP address." (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4764-21)

4. Boneh, D. (n.d.). CS 155: Computer and Network Security, Lecture 11. Stanford University.

The lecture notes on "DNS Security" detail how DNS cache poisoning works by an attacker sending a forged response to a resolver's query, causing the resolver to cache an incorrect IP address for a given domain.

A. 0xBBD3B435B51504FF is an incorrect value and is not the result of DES-encrypting the magic constant with a null key.

B. 0xAAD3B435B51404FF is an incorrect value; the final byte is FF instead of the correct EE.

C. 0xBBC3C435C51504EF is an incorrect value and is not the result of the standard LM hash algorithm for a null second half.

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1. Schneier, B., & Mudge. (1998). Cryptanalysis of Microsoft's PPTP Authentication (MS-CHAP). In Proceedings of the 5th ACM Conference on Communications and Computer Security (pp. 1-7). The paper explicitly states on page 3, Section 3, "The LM hash of a null password is 0xAAD3B435B51404EE0xAAD3B435B51404EE," confirming the value for one null half.

2. Microsoft Corporation. (2021). [MS-NLMP]: NT LAN Manager (NTLM) Authentication Protocol Specification. Section 3.3.1, "LMOWFv1()". This official document details the algorithm, including the null-padding rule that causes the second half of a short password's hash to be based on a fixed (all-null) key.

3. Stallings, W. (2017). Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practice (7th ed.). Pearson. Chapter 20.4, "Windows Security," describes the LM hash scheme, including the flawed process of splitting the password and the lack of a salt, which leads to this predictable hash value for short passwords.

B. ARP poisoning is a specific technique used to initiate a Man-in-the-Middle attack on a local network; it is the method, not the overarching attack itself.

C. Session hijacking involves taking over an existing authenticated session, whereas the described attack intercepts the entire communication from the start.

D. A Denial of Service (DoS) attack aims to make a service unavailable. The question explicitly states the entities do not notice the interception, meaning service is not disrupted.

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1. Song, D. (2000). dsniff - Tools for network auditing and penetration testing. Official vendor documentation. Retrieved from the official project page at https://www.monkey.org/~dugsong/dsniff/. The documentation describes dsniff as a password sniffer and the suite includes tools like arpspoof and macof which are used to "intercept network traffic normally unavailable to an attacker," a core requirement for a MitM attack.

2. Kurose, J. F., & Ross, K. W. (2021). Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach (8th ed.). Pearson. In Chapter 8, "Security in Computer Networks," Section 8.2.2, the Man-in-the-Middle attack is defined as an attack where the adversary is "in the middle of the communication" and can "read and modify all messages sent between the two parties."

3. MIT OpenCourseWare. (2014). 6.857 Computer and Network Security, Lecture 10: Network Security I. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The lecture notes detail how ARP spoofing enables an attacker to become a man-in-the-middle on a local network, intercepting traffic destined for another host. This clarifies the relationship between the technique (ARP poisoning) and the attack (MitM).