How To Hack A Firewall?
What is a firewall?
(GigMocha does not condone hacking. Terms here are used for educational and entertainment purposes only. Hacking by all purposes should be done after explicit permission.)
We all know what a firewall does, it protects an internal network from external threats. Actually, that’s not quite accurate.
It does protect against external attacks but the real job of the firewall is to control access between an internal network and its outside connections. Of course, hackers are constantly looking for new ways to overcome these obstacles so firewalls must be updated frequently with new information on how to detect and respond to new threats including viruses, worms, Trojans etc. If this doesn’t happen then the firewall becomes ineffective allowing viruses to enter the system. Not only do you have your files being corrupted but other systems could be affected as well which can cause your computer to crash.
Working
Firewalls work by inspecting incoming and outgoing traffic between your network and the Internet with a set of rules that filter packets based on their origin, destination, port number etc. If the firewall detects an attack then it will attempt to block it or log it for further analysis.
You can configure your firewall service so that only authorized users are allowed access to certain programs and system requests. The first firewalls were built into routers but as time went on people realized they needed a single device that could handle all traffic both internal and external. This is because today’s networks don’t just consist of 1 or 10 computers but hundreds or even thousands of systems requiring high speed connections to each other as well as the outside world thus creating a much more complicated network.
Firewalls are available as hardware, software and as a service (firewall as a service). Hardware firewalls consist of an appliance that contains one or more CPUs and knowledge of the firewall rules built-in. The rules can change depending on what you want to allow or block thus controlling traffic through your company’s computer systems. Most companies purchase appliances from their internet service providers who may also manage and update them for you too. Software firewalls run on dedicated computers with no other task than protecting your network from unapproved access. Many operating systems such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X include firewall software but these devices aren’t very powerful because they’re actually designed to be used by only 1 application at a time. Service providers such as BTGuard and Torguard allow customers to subscribe to their services for a monthly fee of $5+ which include powerful firewalls or even dedicated servers for hosting.
There are 5 types of firewalls
Packet filter –
This is the most basic type of firewall. It uses rules that define what traffic is allowed into or out of your network. This type of firewall inspects each packet and compares it to a pre-configured list of authorized applications. If the application isn’t included in the list then access is denied. Most routers, cable modems and DSL devices use this method because it is faster than deep packet inspection but less secure since hackers can modify packets to make them look like legitimate data which will let them slip through undetected thus rendering the whole point of using a firewall useless!
Application Gateway (ASG) –
These types of firewalls allow certain applications to talk directly to other devices on your internal network without having to create a hole in the firewall. This allows users to work with files on your network or share their internet connection while not compromising the security of other systems on your home router.
Stateful Inspection (SI) –
This type of firewalls examines packets and then tracks them as they travel across a network plus it keeps a record of all previous communications sessions thus creating a state which is known as an application layer firewall. These firewalls are very good at detecting both external and internal attacks because every packet contains this information so it knows who sent it, where it’s from and what port number it’s using etc. The main issue with SI firewalls is that if you want to allow new applications through then you have to add new rules instead of just clicking a button to add a new app.
Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) –
This type of firewall is generally used in large enterprise networks to control what services are allowed into or out of the network from the internet. By inspecting each packet that comes into or leaves your network it can keep track of how data transmitted through your network so if someone was using a P2P client to download pirated movies then they’d be blocked because DPI firewalls don’t just scan ports but also identify types of traffic and compare them with pre-defined behavior profiles thus scanning the content too!
Application Layer Gateway (ALG) –
These firewalls sit between applications and packets on a particular port to check what type of data it’s receiving and allows/blocks traffic based on that. ALG firewalls are used to protect protocols such as FTP, SIP and H323 plus if you have multiple service providers using these types of applications then the firewall can automatically adjust its settings for each one independently since it’s not aware of what they do or how they work!
How to hack a Firewall:
1. Port Scanning- the hacker scans the ports on the firewall for any open ones
2. Banner Grabbing– gives information about what it thinks you are using to run your application (TELNET, FTP, etc)
3. IDS– Intrusion Detection Systems catch port scanning and banner grabbing
4. Password Guessing– guessing passwords until access is gained or a vulnerability is found
5. Spoofing– making themselves seem like something else within the network (a virus could pretend to be an antivirus program)
6. Social Engineering– tricking someone into doing something they shouldn’t do (an email telling them their account needs to be updated so click this link where you’ll be taken to a fake website)
7. Virus – viruses can be used to do pretty much all of the above
8. DOS– Denial Of Service attack where people try to make your network resource unavailable by flooding it with requests until its broken
9. MITM– man in the middle attack could be used for banner grabbing or password guessing etc
10. Malicious Code – codes embedded into software to destroy or damage data
11. Data Encryption – using an encrypted connection hackers can’t access what’s going on and it will make port scanning and banner grabbing much harder
12. Password Brute Force– trying every possible password until you get in (generally one tries all combinations of numbers and letters)
Once they’ve gained access to the firewall, they’ll open a port and create a tunnel. Depending on what level of security there is it will be easier or harder to get past so if you try changing your password it might work but if not then you’ll probably have to use another method.
How do I hack into my own firewall?
This is also possible since most firewalls are just computers at their core having all the same vulnerabilities as any other computer out there (viruses etc). If someone accidentally opens up ports without realizing then you could try logging in and seeing if it works.
How do I hack into my office firewall?
This can be done remotely since most firewalls are connected to the internet. You’d need to know the network address of the actual firewall itself along with various other pieces of information but once you gain access it’s possible to see all the traffic that goes in and out of the network.
Conclusion
Firewalls are used to protect networks whether they be private or public and while some hackers might try to work around them, on an individual basis it can’t really stop someone determined enough from breaching your network privacy. There are very few things that can actually fully prevent this sort of attack but most breaches come about due to human error. That’s how you see all the media attention given to celebrities whose accounts get hacked into (social engineering is usually involved). If you want better security then perhaps use DPI since it’s harder to hack but make sure both computers on either end speak the same language, otherwise it won’t know what type of data is being transferred.
