NetKuang: a multi-host configuration vulnerability checker
Dan Zerkle, Karl Levitt · 1996
NetKuang is an extension to Baldwin's SU-Kuang. It runs on networks of computers using Unix and can find vulnerabilities created by poor system configuration. Vulnerabilities are discovered using a backwards goal-based search that is breadth-first on individual hosts and parallel when multiple hosts are checked. An implementation in C++ found real vulnerabilities on production systems. Tests show reasonably fast performance on an LAN. 1 Introduction The security of modern networked computer systems is dependent on more than just the integrity of the software and protection mechanisms their operating systems use; it is also dependent on the proper configuration and use of that software. Unix computers have a wide variety of security mechanisms such as file permissions, passwords, trusted hosts, and so forth. In practice, such mechanisms can quickly grow very complex. A simple configuration error can lead to users gaining unintended access. The problem has grown worse with the popularit...