Communication Encryption

Communication Encryption

The use of VPN technology, or application level encryption, reduces the
scope of gathering useful information by sniffing the network, however
the implementation of those technologies may still provide an attacker
with the opportunity to capture information.
Consider network VPNs that are often implemented in a point to point
fashion, e.g. Firewall to Firewall or border Router to border Router
rather than client to server. If the sniffer is placed within one of the
secure domains connected by the VPN rather than attempting to
compromise the VPN traffic between those domains, then the traffic
viewed is no longer in encrypted form.
In the example of application level security, proprietary encoding or
encryption is often not of a high enough standard to repel a sustained
attack, PC Anywhere’s password security is acknowledged by the
vendor to be a relatively weak encoding algorithm, able to withstand
only a cursory attack.

L0pht Crack

Similarly, the LANMAN password hashes password with the NT
password hashes used in NT authentication have been proven to be
weak, and susceptible to a sustained brute force attack. The security
group L0pht Heavy Industries have produced a widely used tool L0pht
Crack capable of brute forcing LANMAN hashes gathered either from
the registry or disk of a compromised machine, or by sniffing
authentication exchanges on the network.