Network Security

Network Security #

How does the internet work? #

  • Packet Switching
    • Break up internet communications messages into packages, release them onto the network, each node in the network forwards it to the next node until reaching the host which reassembles it into the correct order
  • Two universally used protocols:
    • IP - Internet Protocol
    • BGP - Border Gateway Protocol
    • Internal networks can be different (Comcast uses DOCSYS, AT&T uses LTE and 5G) but the networks themselves talk IP/BGP to each other

Web layers #

Notes:

  • Only 4 layers: OSI Model is irrelevant to how networks work in 2021!
  • Layers “go inside” each other, not top-to-bottom
  • Moves actual data between two systems
  • Only provides for ability to comunicate one hop
  • Link and physical are generally tied together to make things “just work”
  • Example: Ethernet

Internet layer #

  • Provides for addresses that work across the world
  • Can be carried on many different physical layers
  • Is best-effort, no guarantee it will arrive
  • All IP packets arrive in the same “inbox” at destination

IPv4: Can have 2^32 ~= 4bn addresses

  • But we can share IP addresses!
    • Special reserved part of address space (e.g. 192.168.*.*, 10.100.*.*)
    • Router/firewall translates into one public address

IPv6: Can have 2^128 addresses

Transport layer #

  • Provides reliability
  • Allows for multiple services
  • Allows for multiplexing
  • Example: port numbers for different application

Application #

  • Basic language: HTTP
  • Plus stuff on top of it: HTML/CSS/JS/etc

Glue Protocols #

Pull layers together!

Between MAC address (link layer) and IP address (internet layer):

  • DHCP: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
    • Automatically configures where each host should be on an internal network
    • Configures gateway for hosts to get to outside internets
  • ARP: Address Resolution Protocol

Between IP address (internet layer) and application layer (domain name):

  • DNS: Domain Name System
    • Resolves domain names to IP addresses
    • Sometimes: ISP DNS; however, has had issues where ISPs MitM to display ads
    • Often: Google DNS (8.8.8.8) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1)