Assessing the Security of Campus Networks: The Case of Seven Universities

• Main Authors: Rui Zheng, Hao Ma, Qiuyun Wang, Jianming Fu, Zhengwei Jiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-01-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: campus network; network assets; threat intelligence; vulnerability detection
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/1/306

The network security situation of campus networks on CERNET (China Education and Research Network) has received great concern. However, most network managers have no complete picture of the network security because of its special management and the rapid growth of network assets. In this investigation, the security of campus networks belonging to seven universities in Wuhan was investigated. A tool called “WebHunt” was designed for campus networks, and with its help, the network security risks were found. Differently from existing tools for network probing, WebHunt can adopt the network scale and special rules of the campus network. According to the characteristics of campus websites, a series of functions were integrated into WebHunt, including reverse resolution of domain names, active network detection and fingerprint identification for software assets. Besides, WebHunt builds its vulnerability intelligence database with a knowledge graph structure and locates the vulnerabilities through matching knowledge graph information. Security assessments of seven universities presents WebHunt’s applicability for campus networks. Besides, it also shows that many security risks are concealed in campus networks, such as non-compliance IP addresses and domain names, system vulnerabilities and so on. The security reports containing risks have been sent to the relevant universities, and positive feedback was received.