Penetration Testing: RE: Honeypot detection and countermeasures

["Brass, Phil (ISS Atlanta)" <PBrass () iss net>]

I think most pentest clients are more concerned with the safety of their
production systems - why pay somebody to attack a decoy?  To see how
effective the decoy is?  I haven't seen that level of paranoia in any of
my clients.  

Pointing a pentester at a honeypot could easily result in them spending
all their time breaking into the honeypot network.  Since many clients
expect to see if their production systems are at risk during a pentest,
this would be counterproductive.

Phil

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Larry Colen [mailto:lrcrypto () red4est com] 
> Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 6:03 PM
> To: pen-test () securityfocus com
> Subject: Honeypot detection and countermeasures
>
>
> I'm doing some research on honeypot detection, and preventing 
> honeypots from being detected. I'd greatly appreciate some 
> feedback from pen-testers on the following issues:
>
> Do you worry about being detected by honeypots?
>
> When you do a pen-test, do you already know of the existence 
> of honeypots, and their location, so that it is an easy 
> matter to avoid them?
>
> If you are concerned about honeypots, how do you test to see 
> if the system under attack is a honeypot or a production machine?
>
> Thanks,
>   Larry
>
>
>
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Attend the Black Hat Briefings & Training, July 28 - 31 in Las Vegas, the
world's premier technical IT security event! 10 tracks, 15 training sessions,
1,800 delegates from 30 nations including all of the top experts, from CSO's to
"underground" security specialists.  See for yourself what the buzz is about!
Early-bird registration ends July 3.  This event will sell out. www.blackhat.com
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