Enumerating using SNMP
What could go wrong? Well, quite a bit. Little things make big things happen.
SNMP has been around for a long time and has gone through several version changes. We'll go through and look at what SNMP is and why administrators enable it. While it makes our lives easier, any time we talk about ease of use, remember the technology triangle. Once we implement heavier in terms of ease of use, or from the GUI perspective, we lose security.
What is SNMP? It stands for Simple Network Management Protocol. It's exactly what it sounds like – a protocol that runs the application layer and allows us to manage different devices. Now, whether they're routers, switches, firewalls, wireless access points, or even servers, they report back to a centralized location so that we can, as its name implies, manage devices:
Figure 5.2 – SNMP clients gather performance intel and report back to a centralized reporting point
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