Why Do Trojan Horses Use Denial-Of-Service Attacks?

This week’s lab introduces the student to various types of attacks that can be implemented by distributing a Trojan Horse script or by performing a variety of Denial-of-Service attacks (DoS). To begin to understand how these attacks are performed, the student is instilled with the knowledge as well as the use of file-hashes to identify compromised files and also how to generate file-hashes to establish baseline standards, which could benefit a Tripwire type regiment. Then, the lab takes the student through performing the various tasks associated with implementing such attacks by crafting a Trojan horse-like script. Additionally, the student is exposed to various DoS attacks to see how their use affects a computer system. The goal is not only to show how to identify and mitigate these types of attacks, but to also …show more content…
This is because many software purveyors offer file-hashes to help with the identification of modified software, which may contain malicious Trojan horse-like code. File hashing referrers to the act of using message digests and algorithms to generate hash codes that help validate that a downloaded file, or a file on a computer system, to ensure it has not been corrupted, or influenced, in any other way than originally intended. Project 10-1, shows how these file-hashes can be used by having the student download a version of Wireshark from www.wireshark.org. Although, the lab calls for a Windows Vista version of Wireshark to be downloaded, personal preference and necessity, dictated that the source code version to be downloaded instead. Following the instructions provided, the file containing the formatted file-hashes for the Wireshark download (version 2.0.2) was located under the “Verifying Downloads” header on Wireshark’s download web site. This signed file and its contents are shown in Appendix A, figures 1 and