DNS Configuration

If you are a student enrolled in the Internet Engineering I graduate course, check the Lecture 6 update.

I will be covering all about DNS configuration files. For the hands-on exercise section, we will be using nslookup commands to snoop at all relevant records of remote Web domains.

Use nslookup/? to access the options helper
Use nslookup followed by ? in a different line to access the commands helper
To quit nslookup, press ctrl C or either type quit or exit.

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Migrating from IPv4 to IPv6: The Next Nightmare?

Two weeks ago, venerable Vinton Cerf urged the Internet community to migrate from IPv4 to IPv6. According to Cerf, co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols, IPv4 will run out of addresses next year or in early-2011.

However, there is a problem.

Back in March, it was reported of an allegued Fatal Flaw for IPv6: it’s Not Backwards Compatible

Both news are equally intriguing.

IPv6 migration: Your Next Nightmare?

Internet Engineering I: Course Lectures

The following are the lecture and exercise topics covered in the PUPR.edu core graduate course Internet Engineering, Part I. Students enrolled in the course might want to revisit this post as it will be updated.

Lecture 0

History of the Internet & Search Engines

Internet Basics

Lecture 1

RFCs (Request for Comments)

Network Types

IP (Internet Protocol)

Exercise 1 – RFCs, Network types, IP calculations

Lecture 2

OSI Reference Model

ARP

ICMP

Exercise 2 – IP-MAC Mapping, Prompt Commands (arp, ipconfig, nslookup)

Lecture 3

Man-in-the-Middle ARP Attacks

IGMP

IP Packets

Exercise 3 – Broadcast & Multicast IPs, Prompt Commands (netstat, ping, tracert, ipconfig, arp, nslookup)

Lecture 4

Fragmentation Offset

FO Overlapping Attacks

FO Gap Attacks

Tiny FO Attacks

TCP Protocol & Buffers

Exercise 4 – TCP buffers, Congestion Windows, Advertised Windows

Lecture 5

PING

PING of Death

Smurfing

TRACEROUTE-based Intelligence

Exercise 5 – Prompt Commands (arp, ipconfig, nslookup, netstat, ping, tracert)

Lecture 6

BIND & WINDOWS DNS (Domain Name Server)

Internet backbone root servers

Configuration Files

DNS Configuration Errors

Forward Lookup (Zone) Files

Reverse Lookup Files

Exercise 6 – Prompt Commands (interactive/non-interactive nslookup modes)

Lecture 7

SMTP

POP3

IMAP

Email Headers

Exercise 7 – Email Intelligence.

Lecture 8

DNS Intelligence

Using DNS records to understand Virus & Worm Attacks

Network Topology Intelligence from DNS records

Exercise 8 – DNS Intelligence

Lecture 9

General Review

Practice Test

Lecture 10

Final Exam, Oct 27

Course Grading System

8 out of 9 hands-on exercises count (worse exercise grade dropped)
1st partial exam = average of first best 4 exercise grades
2nd partial exam = average of last best 4 exercise grades
The average of these two is the same as adding up best 8 grades and dividing by 8. This result amounts to 75% of total grade (course letter grade score).

Final Exam amounts to 25 % of total grade.

After that, course letter grade is curved as shown below.

A (100-89%)
B (88-77%)
C (76-60%)
D (59-50%)
F (49-0%)

where

course letter grade score = (sum of best 8 exercise grades/8)*(0.75) + (final exam grade)*(0.25)

2009-9-IRW: TCP/IP Practice Exam

The current issue of IR Watch is out.  Sorry it was a bit delayed. The featuring article is a practice exam on TCP/IP that I’m giving to students enrolled in my Internet Engineering I graduate course.

The test was designed to review what students have learned during the first five lectures. Students need to describe about 10 TCP/IP-related vulnerability/hacking practices. So the test also is a great jump start for those interested in such weaknesses.

I have included an Excel gooddie for making IP conversions (IPv4/hexadecimal/decimal equivalent/binary) as well as some material from Tim Berners-Lee 1989 WWW proposal.

Enjoy it.

New Graduate Courses

As PUPR students know by now, the AIRWeb and Internet Engineering courses have been consolidated into a single course called Internet Engineering I (IE-I), which is on Tuesday’s.

This was a decision made strictly by the administration. 12 graduate students are enrolled –a big number for a grad course. We are now in the fourth week of IE-I and I can tell that is a lot of fun.

This coming Winter semester I’m scheduled to teach a new grad course called Advanced Search Engine Architecture (ASEA). Both, IE-I and ASEA are hands-on. This means students need to get their hands and feet wet, not just learning the theory.

What we are trying to accomplish in IE-I is to understand how hackers and spammers use Internet architectures at the level of TCP/IP and Search Engines to game the system. I’ll open a special blog category for it during the week.

First lecture (Lecture 1) was briefly summarized in the August 2009 issue of IR Watch. BTW. Tonight’s lecture (Lecture 4) covers the following:

IP Protocol (MAC and IP Mapping)

ICMP Protocol

ARP Hacking Attacks

ICMP Hacking Attacks

Firewall’s Fragmentation Offset  Attacks

Meanwhile, ASEA is an expanded version of the previous Search Engine Architecture (SEA) course I’ve taught before. Students interested in registering, can search this blog for the SEA category and check what we have covered in the past. This will give them an idea of what to expect from the Advanced SEA course. One thing I’m planning to do different is to build an inverted index from scratch using AJAX. The most recent version of Terrier will also be used for testing/benchmarking experimentals.

Last but not least, September Issue of IRW will be a bit delayed.