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Operating Systems and Networks
2,000 words
Security of Operating Systems and Networks
This individual assignment for the Operating Systems and Networks module focuses on the security of operating systems and computer networks within a business environment. The assessment requires students to produce a professional technical report of approximately 2,000 words, supported by appropriate images demonstrating practical steps and testing activities. The assignment assesses students' knowledge and understanding of operating system and network security threats, vulnerabilities, testing approaches and practical security solutions. It also addresses the ability to develop and write complex scripts to solve problems relating to operating systems and computer networks. The assignment is based on a business scenario involving Net-Tech, a small and medium-sized technology-services enterprise. The organisation is developing a web server to provide its website to customers and is concerned about the security of the proposed system. Key concerns include operating system attacks such as buffer overflow attacks, as well as network threats involving hackers and phishing. Students are required to investigate, design and experiment with the features and functions of a web server and assess the security landscape so that appropriate security requirements can be identified. As part of the practical work, students must create a prototype Net-Tech network test rig. This involves creating two users, including a superuser and a standard user, applying appropriate baseline security, installing relevant software and security tools, conducting security tests and writing scripts to automate repetitive tasks. Students must document assumptions and parameters used in their implementation and may also make recommendations for further security measures and database-driven website functionality. The report covers several stages of the security assessment. The introduction establishes the business scenario, assumptions, aims, objectives, deliverables, available skills and resources, constraints and project scope. The background research examines common vulnerabilities, security threats, risk models, testing approaches and attack or testing tools, together with relevant legal, organisational, ethical, social and professional considerations. The pre-engagement stage focuses on setting up a suitable Linux or Kali Linux testing environment and developing a justified test plan. The engagement stage requires practical investigation of operating-system and network security. Areas include user authentication, file and directory permissions, protection against stack overflow attacks, network weaknesses, operating-system discovery, firewall configuration, listening ports, network statistics, denial-of-service prevention and script-based automation. The final post-engagement section requires students to summarise their work, identify deductions and limitations, propose mitigation measures and recommendations, and provide a self-reflection. The assessment is aligned with learning outcomes relating to understanding network security threats and developing software or scripts to solve problems in operating systems and computer networks. Students are expected to use relevant sources, reference them appropriately and include a bibliography. Practical tools such as Wireshark are specifically identified in the assignment brief, and the work should demonstrate appropriate testing methodology and security practices.
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Business Simulation – Cyber Security
2,500 words
L7 Business Simulation – Cyber Security: Ethical Hacking and Vulnerability Assessment
This assessment is an individual cybersecurity portfolio based on a simulated business environment involving a fictional client, VulnTech Inc. Students take the role of a junior cybersecurity analyst and investigate vulnerabilities within a server deployed for the organisation’s legacy systems. The practical activities use the TryHackMe platform to simulate the web server environment and require students to apply ethical hacking techniques within an authorised scenario. The assessment focuses on the first three phases of ethical hacking: footprinting, scanning and enumeration, and gaining access. Students are required to gather information about the VulnTech server, including relevant details about its domain, IP range, network infrastructure, operating system, name servers, open ports and other technical information. They must provide evidence of the tools used, justify their selection, critically evaluate the methodology adopted and recommend appropriate mitigation strategies. The second task involves scanning and enumerating the server using information obtained during the footprinting stage. Students must identify potential vulnerabilities and provide evidence of the tools and methods used. The assessment requires students to critically evaluate their available options, explain the reasoning behind their decisions and recommend suitable strategies for mitigating identified risks. The third task requires students to gain access to the VulnTech server by exploiting one of the vulnerabilities identified during scanning and enumeration. Evidence of the tools and methodology must be provided, together with a critical evaluation of the approach, justification of decisions and recommendations for addressing the identified vulnerabilities. Students must also provide evidence of completing at least four different TryHackMe rooms or modules undertaken during the semester. The final component is a 1,500-word summary report reflecting on the key insights gained throughout the tasks. This report should consolidate the student's learning, discuss the main challenges and vulnerabilities identified, evaluate mitigation recommendations and critically examine the legal and ethical considerations associated with cybersecurity and ethical hacking practices. The assessment is designed to develop students' ability to analyse business and cybersecurity environments, identify organisational issues, evaluate alternative approaches, make informed management decisions and justify resource allocation. It also requires consideration of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) implications and the potential effect of cybersecurity practices on organisational perception and performance. The portfolio uses Harvard referencing, with appropriate academic and external sources cited throughout.
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Security of Connected Systems
4,500 words
CW: Security Evaluation
This assignment is an individual technical report focused on the security evaluation and strategic development of a rapidly expanding Internet of Things (IoT) systems developer based in Coventry. The client specialises in innovative IoT devices and systems for residential and commercial applications, particularly smart energy monitoring, and is planning to scale its operations and expand into new markets. The report is designed to provide practical and strategic guidance on how the organisation can achieve this growth while maintaining strong cybersecurity. The assignment requires students to act as an external IoT Security and Scaling Strategist and critically evaluate the organisation’s current and future security needs. The report covers four principal areas: organisational change strategy, secure design and development strategy, security audit strategy, and security recommendations. The organisational change section considers internal and external factors influencing growth, the development and implementation of an organisational strategy, monitoring against objectives, and approaches to leading and managing strategic change using relevant change management theories and models. The secure design and development section requires an overview and evaluation of possible secure design processes for IoT systems, including their strengths and weaknesses, followed by a recommendation for an appropriate process. The security audit section examines methods such as PTES and OWASP and develops a guide for conducting a security audit, including the testing methodology, rationale for each stage, and evaluation of different approaches. The security recommendations section requires a case study of an IoT security vulnerability, examination of where the security flaw was introduced, assessment of weaknesses in the secure design or audit process, consideration of the resulting security impact, and recommendations for improvement. The report should be written for a technical audience, particularly the client’s software development team, and should use appropriate structure, technical language, diagrams where useful, and APA referencing. The organisational strategy and strategic change proposal should be included in appendices and referenced within the main report. The assessment is worth 30 credits and has a maximum word count of 4,500 words, with the main sections weighted across organisational change, secure design, security auditing, security recommendations, and report structure.
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Cyber Security / Penetration Testing
Web Application Penetration Testing and Security Vulnerability Assessment Portfolio
This postgraduate cyber security portfolio requires students to conduct a structured penetration test of a controlled web application and document the technical findings in a professional security-testing format. The assessment develops practical competence in identifying, validating and communicating security vulnerabilities while maintaining appropriate legal, ethical and professional boundaries. Assessment Brief CMP-L021 (PG) … Students begin by performing network and service enumeration, identifying open ports and the services running on the target host. They are expected to interpret the security implications of the findings and provide appropriate recommendations to a hypothetical client. The assessment then progresses into web-application vulnerability testing using tools such as a web browser, Burp Suite Community, Nmap and student-developed scripts. Assessment Brief CMP-L021 (PG) … A major part of the portfolio examines common web-security weaknesses including SQL Injection and Cross-Site Scripting. Students must demonstrate how they tested the application, capture relevant requests and responses, and explain the evidence supporting their conclusions. Additional tasks involve application and server reconnaissance, including identification of technologies, server versions, publicly exposed files and other information that may create security risks. Assessment Brief CMP-L021 (PG) … The higher-level reporting component requires students to document significant vulnerabilities using the conventions of a professional penetration-test report. This includes assigning CVSS scores, relating identified weaknesses to the OWASP Top 10 and NIST classifications, and supporting findings with appropriate technical evidence. Assessment Brief CMP-L021 (PG) … Students must also produce an executive summary for a non-technical audience, considering security, privacy, regulatory exposure and budget implications. A vulnerability table linking technical weaknesses with relevant regulatory concerns is also required. Overall, the assessment integrates technical penetration testing with risk communication, vulnerability classification, evidence collection and professional security reporting. Assessment Brief CMP-L021 (PG) … Overview word count: approximately 320 words. AI-use note: AI can be used in this assessment, but any use must be acknowledged and AI-generated outputs must be appropriately cited. Assessment Brief CMP-L021 (PG) …
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Cyber Security / Ethical Hacking / Penetration Testing
4,000 words
Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing: Vulnerability Exploitation, Privilege Escalation and Mitigation
This Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing coursework requires students to conduct a practical CTF-style penetration test against a set of authorised target machines and produce a professional technical report documenting the compromise of one selected target. The assessment evaluates practical exploitation skills alongside the ability to analyse risk, explain attack vectors and recommend effective security controls. 8598ba8d8fff5a38af8d427a4ce8f84… The practical element requires students to identify vulnerabilities in multiple target systems, exploit those weaknesses to gain low-privileged access and then perform privilege escalation to obtain root-level access. Successful completion of each stage produces flags, with separate user and root flags contributing directly to the practical marks. Brief descriptions of the attack vectors and payloads used must also be recorded. 8598ba8d8fff5a38af8d427a4ce8f84… The written report focuses in detail on one compromised machine. Students must explain the reconnaissance and vulnerability-identification process, including the techniques used to discover services, web content and potential attack surfaces. The marking criteria specifically recognise appropriate reconnaissance tools such as Nmap and FFUF and reward clear justification of methods and links between reconnaissance results and identified threats. 8598ba8d8fff5a38af8d427a4ce8f84… 8598ba8d8fff5a38af8d427a4ce8f84… A further component requires a formal risk rating for the discovered vulnerabilities. Students should use a recognised risk-classification approach, such as OWASP or SANS, justify the assigned severity and discuss relevant social, legal and ethical considerations. Higher-performing work is expected to connect those considerations directly to the specific vulnerabilities identified. 8598ba8d8fff5a38af8d427a4ce8f84… The exploit section should explain the technical cause of the vulnerability, describe the exploitation process and present relevant example payloads. Mitigation recommendations must then be linked directly to the vulnerabilities discovered, with clear explanations of where the weakness occurs and how it can be remediated. 8598ba8d8fff5a38af8d427a4ce8f84… Overall, the coursework integrates reconnaissance, vulnerability analysis, exploitation, privilege escalation, risk assessment, ethical and legal considerations, technical reporting and defensive mitigation within an authorised penetration-testing environment. Important: this brief states that it is for Coventry University Group students' own use and must not be passed to third parties or posted publicly. 8598ba8d8fff5a38af8d427a4ce8f84… So for your public Reference Library, use an original summary like the one above rather than uploading the assessment brief itself.
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Operating Systems and Networks
2,000 words
Security of Operating Systems and Networks – Individual Assignment
This individual assignment focuses on the security of operating systems and computer networks. Students are required to produce a professional technical report of approximately 2,000 words demonstrating a deep and systematic understanding of operating-system security, networking functions, security threats, vulnerabilities and practical security testing. The assessment carries 50% and forms 100% of the module assessment. Students are expected to support their work with appropriate technical evidence, images showing practical steps and relevant sources. The assignment uses a business scenario involving Net-Tech, a small and medium-sized technology-services enterprise. The organisation is concerned about the security of its proposed system, including operating-system attacks such as buffer overflow and network threats such as hacking and phishing. Students are required to investigate, design and experiment with the features and functions of a web server used to serve the company's website, while assessing the security landscape and presenting findings that can support appropriate organisational security decisions. As part of the practical work, students must create a prototype Net-Tech network test rig. This includes creating two users, with one configured as a superuser and another as a standard user, applying appropriate baseline security measures, installing suitable software and identifying vulnerabilities, using appropriate tools to conduct security tests, and writing scripts to automate repetitive tasks. Students must document assumptions and parameters used within the project, including further security implementations and recommendations such as the use of a suitable database for a database-driven website. The report is structured around introduction, background research, pre-engagement, engagement and post-engagement activities. The introduction should explain the business scenario, assumptions, aims, objectives, deliverables, available skills and resources, constraints and project plan. The background research should address common vulnerabilities, threats, risk models, security-testing approaches, relevant attack and testing tools, legal and organisational requirements, and ethical, social, professional and sustainability considerations. The pre-engagement section covers the test-rig setup and testing strategy. The engagement section requires practical comparison and demonstration of operating-system and network security, including user authentication, file and directory permissions, protection against stack-overflow attacks, network weaknesses, operating-system discovery, firewalls, listening ports, network statistics, prevention of denial-of-service attacks and scripting for automation. The post-engagement section requires a summary of the work, deductions and limitations, mitigation measures and recommendations, and personal reflection. The assessment requires students to use relevant sources, provide a bibliography and demonstrate appropriate analysis, evaluation and reflection. The assignment is designed to assess learning outcomes relating to knowledge of network security threats and the development of complex software and scripts relevant to operating systems and computer networks.
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Security of Emerging Connected Systems
2,000 words
Security Evaluation – Secure Design, Security Audit and IoT Security Recommendations
This individual coursework for the Security of Emerging Connected Systems module requires students to prepare a 2,000-word technical report evaluating secure design, security auditing and security recommendations for an organisation developing Internet of Things (IoT) devices and systems for home and workplace environments. The assessment is worth 10 credits and requires students to provide practical and evidence-based guidance to the client’s software development team. The report is assessed across secure design and development methodology, security audit methodology, security recommendations and overall report structure. The first major section addresses Secure Design and Development Methodology. The client wants to incorporate secure design principles into its software development workflow and therefore requires an overview of possible secure design processes relevant to IoT. Students must evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches and provide a justified recommendation for a process that would be appropriate for the client. The emphasis is on integrating security into the design and development of systems rather than treating security as a separate activity after development. The second section focuses on Security Audit Methodology. The client wants to complement its secure design process with a security audit of the final developed system. Students must provide a practical guide explaining how a security audit could be performed, including the overall testing methodology and the purpose of each stage. The brief identifies methodologies such as PTES and OWASP as examples. Students are also expected to discuss different approaches and evaluate their respective strengths and weaknesses. The third section concerns Security Recommendations and requires students to demonstrate the implications of strong secure design and auditing through an IoT security case study. Students must research a security vulnerability affecting an IoT device, explain the vulnerability and identify where the security flaw was introduced. The report must then examine which parts of the secure design and audit processes were not implemented correctly and evaluate the resulting impact on the security of the product. The report is intended for a technical audience, specifically the client's software development team. Students are expected to use an appropriate technical structure and language, support their arguments and analysis with references, and use APA referencing. The assessment also encourages appropriate diagrams to support the written content. The report structure component accounts for 10% of the assessment, while Secure Design and Development Methodology, Security Audit Methodology and Security Recommendations each account for 30%. The coursework assesses learning outcomes relating to defence-in-depth solutions for technical internet security vulnerabilities, secure private networks for IoT and BYOD, and current research and technological advances in network security. These outcomes connect the assignment to practical IoT security engineering, secure development, security auditing and emerging network-security practices.
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Ethical Hacking
2,500 words
Ethical Hacking – Professional Penetration Testing Report
This resit coursework for the Ethical Hacking module at Coventry University requires students to conduct a professional penetration testing examination of a small office environment represented by a number of virtual machines. The purpose of the assessment is to evaluate the security of the target environment, identify vulnerabilities, demonstrate appropriate exploitation techniques within the authorised assessment environment, and produce professional recommendations for improving the security of the systems. The assignment carries 15 credits and requires a report of approximately 2,000 words, with a permitted variation of ±10%. The report should follow a structured penetration-testing approach. The first section covers reconnaissance and target analysis, requiring students to investigate the target environment and identify its structure, services and potential attack surfaces. The marking criteria emphasise the use of appropriate tools to identify network structure and services and the identification of vulnerabilities during the scanning process. Students are expected to analyse the results rather than simply reproduce the output of scanning tools. The second section focuses on exploitation. Students must describe in detail the steps taken and the tools used to exploit relevant vulnerabilities identified during the assessment. The marking criteria distinguish between compromising the desktop and gaining access to the server, with higher achievement involving multiple relevant vulnerabilities and successful access through more than one vulnerability. The report should provide appropriate screenshots and sample sessions to support the findings. The third section addresses post-exploitation activities. Students are required to document and analyse activities carried out after gaining access to the target systems. Examples identified in the marking criteria include dumping password hashes and creating a persistent backdoor. For server assessment, the criteria also consider activities such as obtaining root access or establishing a persistent connection. The report should explain the significance of the activities rather than merely listing technical actions. The fourth section provides recommendations for securing the target machines. Recommendations must address all vulnerabilities identified during the assessment, not only vulnerabilities that were successfully exploited. Security issues should be discussed using an established risk-rating approach such as OWASP, and proposed countermeasures should be relevant to the specific vulnerabilities discovered. The report should also analyse how vulnerabilities relate to one another and fit within the wider security context. The final section presents the conclusions, including an evaluation of the penetration-testing work and alternative approaches that could have been taken. The overall learning outcomes require students to critically discuss the legal, technical and ethical scope of ethical hacking, evaluate penetration-testing methodologies and security assessment tools, analyse vulnerabilities, and professionally report penetration-test outcomes with suitable countermeasures.
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Cyber Security / Penetration Testing
2,400 words
Grey-Box Penetration Testing: Vulnerability Assessment, Exploitation and Mitigation
This technical cyber-security project presents an authorised grey-box penetration test conducted within a controlled virtual laboratory environment. The objective is to assess the security posture of a deliberately vulnerable target system, identify weaknesses in exposed network services, demonstrate how those weaknesses could be exploited, evaluate their security and organisational impact, and recommend appropriate mitigation measures. The assessment follows a practical penetration-testing workflow supported by technical evidence, screenshots, activity records and academic research. The project begins with laboratory configuration, network discovery, service enumeration and vulnerability analysis. Tools including Kali Linux, Metasploitable, VMware, Nmap, Netcat and Metasploit are used across the testing lifecycle. Identified services are mapped to known vulnerabilities before controlled exploitation is undertaken and the resulting access is documented. The activity log records the progression from environment setup and network scanning through vulnerability identification, exploitation, evidence collection and final reporting. Five principal attack vectors are examined. These include the vsftpd 2.3.4 FTP backdoor, Samba username-map-script exploitation, an UnrealIRCd backdoor, insecure Java Remote Method Invocation and a misconfigured DistCC service. The practical demonstrations show how vulnerable or incorrectly configured services can permit unauthorised command execution and, in several cases, privileged shell access. For each vulnerability, the report explains the weakness, exploitation process, observed result, security impact and proposed mitigation. Recommended controls include patching or upgrading obsolete services, disabling unnecessary services, implementing firewall restrictions, strengthening authentication and input validation, restricting access to authorised systems, applying least privilege and monitoring suspicious activity. The project also incorporates group management and reflective practice. Team members perform specialised roles covering laboratory configuration, reconnaissance, vulnerability analysis, exploitation and documentation. Individual reflection considers technical performance, teamwork, evidence management and future skills development, demonstrating how structured collaboration contributes to an effective penetration-testing engagement. Important: unlike the earlier assignment briefs, these uploads appear to be completed student/project materials rather than the official 7COM1068 assessment brief. Therefore I would not invent the university, academic level or academic year. If you upload the actual 7COM1068 assignment guideline, I can fill those fields exactly.
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