Question

Explain in your own words the role of a network socket in facilitating network communications, and detail how sockets are used by attackers.

Answer 1

a socket is “one endpoint of a two-way communication link between two programs running on the network. A socket is bound to a port number so that the TCP layer can identify the application that data is destined to be sent to.”

Because sockets are the means by which computers on a network communicate, they open your computer to attack. The simplest possible attack is a denial of service just like a telemarketer that calls you at home incessantly. Another common attack is to exploit a vulnerability in a particular program listening at a port.