Ethical hacking introduction to ethical hacking
- 1. Introduction to Hacking Ethical Hacking
- 2. Today we are going to learn: Learning intentions What are the five stages of hacking? What is hacking? What makes Ethical Hacking Different to normal hacking?
- 3. What is hacking? Hacking is the process of identifying and exploiting weakness in a system or a network to gain unauthorized access to data and system resources. It can also be defined as an unauthorised intrusion into the information systems/networks by an attacker by compromising the security. Example of Hacking: Exploiting the weakness of default password to gain access to the data stored inside the system.
- 5. What is Ethical hacking? Ethical Hacking sometimes called as Penetration Testing is an act of intruding/penetrating into system or networks to find out threats, vulnerabilities in systems where attackers may be interested in. The purpose of ethical hacking is to improve the security of the network or systems by fixing the vulnerabilities found during testing. Ethical hackers may use the same methods and tools used by the malicious hackers but with the permission from the company or person, for the purpose of improving the security and defending the systems from attacks.
- 7. Stages of Hacking Stage 1 Reconnaissance Stage 2 Scanning Stage 3 Gaining Access Stage 4 Maintaining Access Stage 5 Clearing Track
- 8. Stage 1 - Reconnaissance This is the first step of Hacking. It is also called information gathering Phase. This is the phase where we collect as much information as possible about the target. We usually collect information about three groups, • Network • Host • People involved There are two types of information gathering: • Active: Directly interacting with the target to gather information about the target. Eg Using Nmap tool to scan the target • Passive: Trying to collect the information about the target without directly accessing the target. This involves collecting information from social media, public websites etc.
- 9. Stage 2 - Scanning Three types of scanning are involved: • Port scanning: This phase involves scanning the target for the information like open ports, Live systems, various services running on the host. • Vulnerability Scanning: Checking the target for weaknesses or vulnerabilities which can be exploited. Usually done with help of automated tools • Network Mapping: Finding out which computer is linked to what part of the network and where it is physically located is a very important piece of information.
- 10. Stage 3 – Gaining Access This phase is where an attacker breaks into the system/network using various tools or methods. After entering a system, they must increase their privilege to administrator level so they can install an application they needs or modify data or hide data.
- 11. Stage 4 – Maintaining Access Hacker may just hack the system to show it was vulnerable or he can be so mischievous that he wants to maintain or persist the connection in the background without the knowledge of the user. This can be done using Trojans, Rootkits or other malicious files. The aim is to maintain the access to the target until he finishes the tasks he planned to accomplish in that target.
- 12. Stage 5 – Clearing Tracks No thief wants to get caught. An intelligent hacker always clears all evidence so that in the later point of time, no one will find any traces leading to them. This involves modifying/corrupting/deleting the values of Logs, modifying registry values and uninstalling all applications they used and deleting all folders they created.