Routing - Administrative Distance

Most routing protocols have metric structure that are not comparable with each other, in case multiple protocols are being used in a network. For eg. RIP uses hop count and OSPF uses cost for best path selection to a particular route. In order to have a common parameter which can be used for computing the best path, the concept of Administrative Distance (AD) was introduced. AD is simply a number which helps identity a particular route learned from a particular protocol. For eg, if the route is learned from Routing Information Protocol (RIP), then it would have a default AD value of 120 (unless it has been explicitly modified). Similary, a route learned from OSPF would have the AD value of 110.

Rule: A route with lower Administrative Distance (AD) value would always be preferred over the one with higher AD value.

In the above scenario, if the route is being learned from both RIP as well as OSPF, then the route learned via OSPF would be preferred since OSPF has a lower AD value of 110 than RIP (which has an AD value of 120)

The list of protocols with their administrative distances can be found here.

Comments

MITRE ATT&CK - Kerberos Vulnerabilities and Security

From the previous post, the summary of Kerberos authentication process is as below: For the initial authentication, the user’s client machine sends a request to the KDC Authentication Service (AS) . The request includes details like the user’s username, and the date and time. All information except the username is encrypted using the hash of the user’s password. The KDC AS uses the username to look up its copy of the user’s password hash and uses it to decrypt the rest of the request. If the decryption is successful, that means the client used the correct password hash and the user has successfully authenticated. Once the user is authenticated, the KDC AS sends the user’s client a ticket granting ticket (TGT) . The TGT includes a unique session key and a timestamp that specifies how long that session is valid (normally 8 or 10 hours). Importantly, before sending the TGT, the KDC encrypts it using the password hash for a special account, the KRBTGT account. ...

Checkpoint - Exporting Objects in CSV format

Be it a Network Operations Manager, Security Architect or a Security Auditor, the people up the hierarchy always harangue the Security Engineers to compile the list of firewall objects or rules or policies or the traffic statistics and so on.. This can turn out to be quite hectic especially if there are no built in features to systematically provide the output in a "layman-readable" format. Come, Checkpoint's "Object Explorer..." which not only provides the output in the "layman-readable" format, but also provides in-built filtering mechanisms, thereby ensuring that the Security Engineer doesn't have to rely on Google for building his scarce Microsoft Excel data filtering skills. The following screenshots will show how easy it is, with Checkpoint R80.10 to generate the firewall configuration inventory. On the SmartConsole Unified Portal, navigate to Menu >> Open Object Explorer... Select the Categories you wish to see in your output: Click o...

MITRE ATT&CK - Understanding Kerberos (for Golden Ticket Attack)

Kerberos = Network Authentication Protocol used by AD environments Provides authentication by issuing tickets to authenticate users and allow them access to the services Tickets are distibuted by KDC (Key Distribution Center), which is typically a Domain Controller (DC) During initial authentication, a TGT (Ticket Granting Ticket) is a ticket asigned to a user by KDC. TGT is later used to authenticate the user to the KDC in order to request a service ticket from TGS (Ticket Granting Service). Service tickets are granted for authentication against services. List of steps / negotiations for Kerberos authentication (of the user with the service): The user requests (AS-REQ) a TGT from the KDC and the KDC verifies and validates the credentials and user information. This request if often done automatically at login. After authenticating the user, the KDC sends an encrypted TGT back to the requester (AS-REP) . The user presents the TGT to the DC and requests a TGS (TGS-...

Tejas Jain

Search This Blog