vpn types, vulnerabilities & solutions

VPN Types, Vulnerabilities &

Solutions

2/20/2014Research Methods 1 Presentation Poster1

Why should organizations implement VPN Solution

over WAN? And what are the components, Types

and suggested solutions for vulnerabilities in VPN?

By : Tareq Hanaysha

Master Information Systems Security Management

Concordia University College Of Alberta

Introduction and Objectives


VPN : Communicating using public network

infrastructure while maintaining privacy and

security through securing and encrypting all data

being transferred while communicating .

Research Objectives


In this research we are trying to prove that:

VPN networks are not mature yet and there are still updates and development needed

can be done on VPNs.

VPN networks are more secure and reliable than WAN

networks

Why VPNs to Enterprises

Organizations over WAN ???


Shared facilities may be cheaper—especially in capital expenditure than traditional routed networks over dedicated facilities.

Can rapidly link enterprise offices, as well as small-and-home-office and mobile workers.

Allow customization of security and quality of service as needed for specific applications.

Can scale to meet sudden demands, especially when provider-provisioned on shared infrastructure.

Can reduce operational expenditure by outsourcing support and facilities.

How does VPN work?


A remote computer with a VPN client software use the telecommunication infrastructure available ( WAN , phone , wireless network )

and a tunnel protocol that has other properties like encryption and authentication to securely access the internet and intranet through the corporate VPN server which is normally located at the perimeter network .

Types of Virtual Private Network

SITE-TO-SITE VPN SITE-TO-SITE VPN


Method


Risk analysis tools like NS auditor and Microsoft

Risk Analyser will be used to conduct this

research and collect numerical data, vulnerability

scan will result in numbers and statistics, and it

will be a quantitative research method the will be

used to test this research hypothesis, all results

will be collected and analysis, then compared to

prove the fact the VPN are way more secure and

better to use than WAN

Participants


The participants in the research will be me using

Personnel Computers with different operating

systems like windows server 2008, windows vista,

and LINUX installed on them, these operating

systems will be equipped with an up to date virus

and firewall software and will be patched and

updated operating systems, then routers and

VPN client software available to use on the

systems too, all of this will be tested at my house,

or at our class laboratory.

Design and Procedures


This study is designed to be done simply by

installing the necessary software equipped with

the policies necessary for specific scans and

analysis, screen shoots will be provided to show

the procedure for conducting the research and

after the scan is done on both network, results

analysis will be done, and comparison for the

results will be represented in a graph format.

SPSS software might be used for statistical

analysis and for graph representation.

Materials


Materials used in the research would consist of my laptop and other personal computers at home, D-link and Motorola router for connections to other networks, software like Nessus and Ns auditor and a board to write down some notes of the report results on it, RJ-45 M Ethernet cables and wireless technology will be used for connecting computers to the network, different tunnelling protocols that can be used to create VPN or VPN-like connections. The most common are:

Point to Point Tunnelling Protocol (PPTP).

Layer 2 Tunnelling Protocol (L2TP).

Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) tunnel mode.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

Results


VPN has addressed most of these attacks expect

the listed below which we are concerned about so

as to get VPN network more and more secure :

VPN FINGERPRINTING

MAN-IN-THE-MIDDLE ATTACKS

DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACKS

OFFLINE PASSWORD CRACKING

Discussion


I will compare the results of my scans and risk

assessment to what I expect and the questions of my

argument, if the results and statistics prove the

hypothesis, it would mean the use of VPN is

preferable and is more secure and better over WAN, it

will provide us with the benefits I mentioned before

and it will support the idea that WAN has limitations

for use , in further research I need to mention the

limitation of both communication methods , and the

and how to overcome these limitation , how to solve

these attacks and problems I found in my initial scans

and assessments .

References


http://www.highbeam.com/Database+and+Network+Journal/publications.aspx

SSL VPN : Understanding, evaluating and planning secure, web-based remote access Joseph Steinberg, Tim Speed

Firewall Policies and VPN Configurations: Henmi, Anne(ed.) ; Lucas, Mark; Singh, Abhishek; Cantrell, Chris

Know your network:, Network Security Assessment ;second edition by Chris McNab

http://www.usit.uio.no/it/hjemmekontor/english/vpn.html ; VPN - installation guides and downloads

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/cisintwk/ito_doc/vpn.htm#wp1020549

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-6350_11-5902589.html

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci213324,00.html

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20050330-vpn3k.shtml

http://www.nta-monitor.com/posts/2005/01/VPN-Flaws-Whitepaper.pdf

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