Mitnick Attack Lab
SEED Lab: A Hands-on Lab for Security Education
Overview
Kevin Mitnick was probably one of the most famous hackers in the history. In 1994, he successfully launched an attack on Shimomura's computer, by exploiting the vulnerabilities in the TCP protocol and the trusted relationship between two of Shimomura's computers. The attack triggered a dramatic showdown between the two people, and it eventually led to the arrest of Kevin Mitnick. The showdown was turned into books and Hollywood movies later. The attack is now known as the Mitnick attack, which is a special type of TCP session hijacking attack.
The objective of this lab is to recreate the classic Mitnick attack, so students can gain the first-hand experience on such an attack. We will emulate the settings that was originally on Shimomura's computers, and then launch the Mitnick attack to create a forged TCP session between two of Shimomura's computers. If the attack is successful, we should be able to run any command on Shimomura's computer.
Lab Tasks
- VM version: This lab has been tested on our pre-built SEEDUbuntu16.04 VM.
Recommended Time
- Supervised situation (e.g. a closely-guided lab session):
- Unsupervised situation (e.g. take-home project):
Videos (New)
- This topic is covered in my Udemy course: Internet Security: A Hands-on Approach.
- If you are in Mainland China, you can access the same course from the NetEase platform.
Suggested Reading
- SEED Book by Wenliang Du
(Book website)
(Chinese version)