CompTIA Security+ Question L-86

Which of the following attacks allows access to contact lists on cellular phones?

A. War chalking
B. Blue jacking
C. Packet sniffing
D. Bluesnarfing

Answer: D

Explanation:
Bluesnarfing is the theft of information from a wireless device through a Bluetooth connection. Bluetooth is a high-speed but very short-range wireless technology for exchanging data between desktop and mobile computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other devices. By exploiting a vulnerability in the way Bluetooth is implemented on a mobile phone, an attacker can access information — such as the user’s calendar, contact list and e-mail and text messages -­without leaving any evidence of the attack. Other devices that use Bluetooth, such as laptop computers, may also be vulnerable, although to a lesser extent, by virtue of their more complex systems. Operating in invisible mode protects some devices, but others are vulnerable as long as Bluetooth is enabled.

CompTIA Security+ Question L-82

Which of the following BEST describes the type of attack that is occurring?

A. Smurf Attack
B. Man in the middle
C. Backdoor
D. Replay
E. Spear Phishing
F. Xmas Attack
G. Blue Jacking
H. Ping of Death

Answer: A

Explanation:
The exhibit shows that all the computers on the network are being ‘pinged’. This indicates that the ping request was sent to the network broadcast address. We can also see that all the replies were received by one (probably with a spoofed address) host on the network. This is typical of a smurf attack.

A smurf attack is a type of network security breach in which a network connected to the Internet is swamped with replies to ICMP echo (PING) requests. A smurf attacker sends PING requests to an Internet broadcast address. These are special addresses that broadcast all received messages to the hosts connected to the subnet. Each broadcast address can support up to 255 hosts, so a single PING request can be multiplied 255 times. The return address of the request itself is spoofed to be the address of the attacker’s victim. All the hosts receiving the PING request reply to this victim’s address instead of the real sender’s address. A single attacker sending hundreds or thousands of these PING messages per second can fill the victim’s T-1 (or even T-3) line with ping replies, bring the entire Internet service to its knees. Smurfing falls under the general category of Denial of Service attacks — security attacks that don’t try to steal information, but instead attempt to disable a computer or network.

CompTIA Security+ Question K-7

Which of the following is characterized by an attack against a mobile device?

A. Evil twin
B. Header manipulation
C. Blue jacking
D. Rogue AP

Answer: C

Explanation:
A bluejacking attack is where unsolicited messages are sent to mobile devices using Bluetooth. Bluejacking is the sending of unsolicited messages over Bluetooth to Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones, PDAs or laptop computers, sending a vCard which typically contains a message in the name field (i.e., for bluedating or bluechat) to another Bluetooth-enabled device via the OBEX protocol. Bluetooth has a very limited range, usually around 10 metres (32.8 ft) on mobile phones, but laptops can reach up to 100 metres (328 ft) with powerful (Class 1) transmitters. Bluejacking is usually harmless, but because bluejacked people generally don’t know what has happened, they may think that their phone is malfunctioning. Usually, a bluejacker will only send a text message, but with modern phones it’s possible to send images or sounds as well. Bluejacking has been used in guerrilla marketing campaigns to promote advergames.

CompTIA Security+ Question C-65

Emily, a security administrator, is noticing a slow down in the wireless network response. Emily launches a wireless sniffer and sees a large number of ARP packets being sent to the AP. Which of the following type of attacks is underway?

A. IV attack
B. Interference
C. Blue jacking
D. Packet sniffing

Answer: A

Explanation:
In this question, it’s likely that someone it trying to crack the wireless network security. An initialization vector is a random number used in combination with a secret key as a means to encrypt data. This number is sometimes referred to as a nonce, or “number occurring once,” as an encryption program uses it only once per session. An initialization vector is used to avoid repetition during the data encryption process, making it impossible for hackers who use dictionary attack to decrypt the exchanged encrypted message by discovering a pattern. This is known as an IV attack. A particular binary sequence may be repeated more than once in a message, and the more it appears, the more the encryption method is discoverable. For example if a one-letter word exists in a message, it may be either “a” or “I” but it can’t be “e” because the word “e” is non-sensical in English, while “a” has a meaning and “I” has a meaning. Repeating the words and letters makes it possible for software to apply a dictionary and discover the binary sequence corresponding to each letter. Using an initialization vector changes the binary sequence corresponding to each letter, enabling the letter “a” to be represented by a particular sequence in the first instance, and then represented by a completely different binary sequence in the second instance.

WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy) is vulnerable to an IV attack. Because RC4 is a stream cipher, the same traffic key must never be used twice. The purpose of an IV, which is transmitted as plain text, is to prevent any repetition, but a 24-bit IV is not long enough to ensure this on a busy network. The way the IV was used also opened WEP to a related key attack. For a 24-bit IV, there is a 50% probability the same IV will repeat after 5000 packets.

CompTIA Security+ Simulation 13

Which of the following BEST describes the type of attack that is occurring?
A. Smurf Attack
B. Man in the middle
C. Backdoor
D. Replay
E. Spear Phishing
F. Xmas Attack
G. Blue Jacking
H. Ping of Death



Correct Answer: A

The exhibit shows that all the computers on the network are being ‘pinged’. This indicates that the ping request was sent to the network broadcast address. We can also see that all the replies were received by one (probably with a spoofed address) host on the network. This is typical of a smurf attack.

A smurf attack is a type of network security breach in which a network connected to the Internet is swamped with replies to ICMP echo (PING) requests. A smurf attacker sends PING requests to an Internet broadcast address. These are special addresses that broadcast all received messages to the hosts connected to the subnet. Each broadcast address can support up to 255 hosts, so a single PING request can be multiplied 255 times. The return address of the request itself is spoofed to be the address of the attacker’s victim. All the hosts receiving the PING request reply to this victim’s address instead of the real sender’s address. A single attacker sending hundreds or thousands of these PING messages per second can fill the victim’s T-1 (or even T-3) line with ping replies, bring the entire Internet service to its knees.

Smurfing falls under the general category of Denial of Service attacks — security attacks that don’t try to steal information, but instead attempt to disable a computer or network.