Windows eXPloit - Open Sockets

A detailed Summary of Windows eXPloit - Open Sockets

Microsoft is a major computing corporation that has been creating software for personal and professional computers. Their most infamous software is Windows and just recently, Microsoft released their newest software titled Windows XP. Many people have been talking about Windows XP because of its many advanced features, but over half of the consumers who bought the software do not know how flawed and how dangerous the software is. Because of the infamous Windows program, many have come to trust Microsoft and feel that any program that Microsoft puts out must be top of the line software programming. The fact is that Windows XP Home Edition has many security flaws within its settings ("DDoS" 1). Although it is the premier software to have in an average person's computer, Windows XP Home Edition should not have been set as the standard for computer operating systems because of its lack of personal security and its exploitable features which in turn would lead to the destruction of the Internet.

Since the dawn of Windows 95, Microsoft won the hard drives of many personal computers. Windows then became the best software to have in any computer because of its myriad of features and its awesome compatibility wit

There are numerous ways to attack a computer. One way is infecting the target system with a Trojan virus. A Trojan virus is different from a conventional computer virus because instead of destroying the host system, the virus creates a connection with the Internet and allows a person to remotely control the infected system (Charalabidis 58). Another way, little known to the common person but widely known to intermediate computer users, is flooding. Flooding is sending huge amounts of trash data to a computer to slow down and lag the target system. This type of attack would require a lot of bandwidth, which is the amount of data a line to the Internet can hold. To achieve the massive bandwidth requirement, one would have to employ the work of many computer connected to the Internet. A seasoned hacker will turn to the Trojan virus to do the dirty work. Using a simple command, one person can remotely command hundreds in Trojan infected computers to use up all available bandwidth and attack a system. However, the system that is being attacked can dumb down this attack by configuring a security system that will drop the trash data routed (since the data has to be sent through a monitoring system before reaching the Internet) by certain Internet Service Providers (ISP) before reaching the system. A person can say, "Well, if such an attack can be prevented, what's the problem?" The problem is that Windows XP can fake the identity of the computer it is installed on and be anything it wants to be. Now armed with a fake identity, the trash data is able to pass through the wall sent by an anonymous computer system thus disrupting the target system. Flooding is by far one of the most destructive Internet attacks the world has seen.

Until Windows XP came out, previous versions of Windows never had or needed the full support of raw sockets. Raw sockets do have advantages in system level processing such as NAT routing and IPsec which are ways to network computers ("XP Summary" 1), there was no valid use for full raw sockets for end-users. Common software used by end-users that use raw sockets today are programs that have the ability to attack systems connected on a network or on the Internet. Raw sockets are commonly used for Internet and networking research to improve connectivity within the network ("DDoS" 1), but many programmers of malicious software claim that they make their programs for "research purposes." Ho

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Approximate Word count = 1644
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Technology