In the process of active service enumeration, a penetration tester identifies an SMTP daemon running on one of the target company's servers. Which of the following actions would BEST enable the…

The correct answer is D. Check for an open relay configuration. An open relay is an SMTP server misconfiguration that allows any external party to send email through it without authentication. If the target's mail server is an open relay, the penetration tester can use it to send phishing emails that appear to originate from the target…

Vulnerability discovery and analysis

Question

In the process of active service enumeration, a penetration tester identifies an SMTP daemon running on one of the target company's servers. Which of the following actions would BEST enable the tester to perform phishing in a later stage of the assessment?

Options

ATest for RFC-defined protocol conformance.
BAttempt to brute force authentication to the service.
CPerform a reverse DNS query and match to the service banner.
DCheck for an open relay configuration.

How the community answered

(22 responses)

A
18% (4)
B
5% (1)
C
5% (1)
D
73% (16)

Explanation

An open relay is an SMTP server misconfiguration that allows any external party to send email through it without authentication. If the target's mail server is an open relay, the penetration tester can use it to send phishing emails that appear to originate from the target organization's own domain, dramatically increasing the credibility and effectiveness of phishing campaigns. RFC compliance checks, brute force, and reverse DNS lookups provide useful information but do not directly enable the tester to send email as the target organization.

Topics

#SMTP#Open Relay#Phishing#Vulnerability Discovery

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