Common network protocols and vulnerabilities in Cybersecurity - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Common Network Protocols and Vulnerabilities

📖 Scenario: You are learning about common network protocols used in everyday internet communication and the typical vulnerabilities that can affect them. Understanding these helps you recognize how data travels and where security risks may appear.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple reference dictionary that lists common network protocols with their port numbers and a known vulnerability for each. This will help you remember key facts about network security basics.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a dictionary named protocols with exact protocol names as keys and their port numbers as values

Add a variable named vulnerability_threshold set to the number 22

Create a new dictionary named vulnerable_protocols that includes only protocols with port numbers less than vulnerability_threshold

Add a final dictionary named protocol_vulnerabilities mapping each protocol in vulnerable_protocols to a known vulnerability string

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Network administrators and cybersecurity professionals use knowledge of protocols and their vulnerabilities to secure networks and prevent attacks.

💼 Career

Understanding common network protocols and their weaknesses is essential for roles like network security analyst, system administrator, and cybersecurity engineer.

1

Create the protocols dictionary

Create a dictionary called protocols with these exact entries: 'HTTP': 80, 'HTTPS': 443, 'FTP': 21, 'SSH': 22, and 'Telnet': 23.

Cybersecurity

# Create the protocols dictionary with exact entries
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use curly braces {} to create a dictionary with keys as protocol names and values as port numbers.

2

Add a vulnerability threshold variable

Add a variable named vulnerability_threshold and set it to the number 22.

Cybersecurity

protocols = {'HTTP': 80, 'HTTPS': 443, 'FTP': 21, 'SSH': 22, 'Telnet': 23}
# Add vulnerability_threshold variable
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just assign the number 22 to the variable vulnerability_threshold.

3

Filter protocols below the threshold

Create a new dictionary called vulnerable_protocols that includes only the protocols from protocols whose port numbers are less than vulnerability_threshold. Use a dictionary comprehension with for protocol, port in protocols.items().

Cybersecurity

protocols = {'HTTP': 80, 'HTTPS': 443, 'FTP': 21, 'SSH': 22, 'Telnet': 23}
vulnerability_threshold = 22
# Create vulnerable_protocols dictionary with ports less than vulnerability_threshold
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a dictionary comprehension to select only protocols with port numbers less than 22.

4

Map protocols to vulnerabilities

Create a dictionary called protocol_vulnerabilities that maps each protocol in vulnerable_protocols to a known vulnerability string. Use these exact pairs: 'FTP': 'Unencrypted credentials', 'SSH': 'Brute force attacks', 'Telnet': 'Data interception'. Use a dictionary comprehension iterating over vulnerable_protocols.keys().

Cybersecurity

protocols = {'HTTP': 80, 'HTTPS': 443, 'FTP': 21, 'SSH': 22, 'Telnet': 23}
vulnerability_threshold = 22
vulnerable_protocols = {protocol: port for protocol, port in protocols.items() if port < vulnerability_threshold}
# Create protocol_vulnerabilities dictionary with exact vulnerability descriptions
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a dictionary comprehension to map only the protocols present in vulnerable_protocols to their vulnerabilities.