Firewall Wizards: Re: VPNmadness gets more support;

["Kevin Sheldrake" <kev () electriccat co uk>]

That article reads like a lot of FUD IMHO.

According to the NTA Monitor article, the attacks centred around username  
enumeration, password hash capturing through use of Aggressive Mode and  
off-line password cracking.
I don't doubt that a badly configured VPN is insecure (use of the Null  
encryption algorithm springs to mind) and that statistics can claim how  
many are probably insecure, but I do think that the focus is incorrectly  
directed at the VPN technology and not at the  
users/admins/consultants/whoever.
Use certificates.  Don't use Aggressive Mode.  Patch the software.  Don't  
spread FUD unless you have too. ;)
Kev

> We asked about a year and a half ago <maybe two years ago even...>  a
> number of folks on and off this list if our prediction that the use of
> VPN's resulted in our suspected hypothoses that 75% or more of all the  
> VPN
> solutions in place actually did little or nothing to protect assests for
> those employing them, well, the precentage we claimed at the time should
> perhaps be boosted to 90%+ now eh:
>
>
> February 01, vnunet.com - Virtual private networks (VPNs) are often the
> weakest security link, study says. A three-year research project by
> securityfirm NTA Monitor has concluded that nine out of 10 virtual  
> private
> networks(VPNs) have exploitable vulnerabilities. Most of the companies  
> that
> had their VPNs tested as part of the project thought that they were
> invulnerableto hackers, but researchers found the same types of flaw
> repeated across the whole product range. The report stated that, in some
> cases, VPNs were actually the weakest security link in an organization.
> The most widespread flaw involved the hacking of user names. Other
> vulnerabilities center around password cracking.
> Report: http://www.nta-monitor.com/news/vpn-flaws/index.htm
> Source: http://www.vnunet.com/news/1160912
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> Ron DuFresne


--
Kevin Sheldrake MEng MIEE CEng CISSP
Electric Cat (Cheltenham) Ltd

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