What is Ethical Hacking

The Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH) credentialing and provided by EC-Council is a respected and trusted ethical hacking course in the industry. Since the inception of Certified Ethical Hacker in 2003, the credential has become one of the best options for industries and companies across the world. The C|EH exam is ANSI 17024 compliant, adding value and credibility to credential members. It is also listed as a baseline certification in the US Department of Defense (DoD) Directive 8570 and is a NSCS Certified Training.

Today, you can find Certified Ethical Hackers working with some of the finest and largest companies across industries like healthcare, financial, government, energy and much more!

An Ethical Hacker Answers the Following Questions:

• What kind of vulnerabilities does an attacker see?

• What information or system would a hacker most want access?

• What can an attacker do with the information?

• How many people notice the attempted hack?

• What is the best way to fix the vulnerability?

Ethical hackers learn and perform hacking in a professional manner, based on the direction of the client, and later, present a maturity scorecard highlighting their overall risk and vulnerabilities and suggestions to improve.

Importance of Ethical Hacking?

In the dawn of international conflicts, terrorist organizations funding cybercriminals to breach security systems, either to compromise national security features or to extort huge amounts by injecting malware and denying access. Resulting in the steady rise of cybercrime. Organizations face the challenge of updating hack-preventing tactics, installing several technologies to protect the system before falling victim to the hacker.

New worms, malware, viruses, and ransomware are primary benefit are multiplying every day and is creating a need for ethical hacking services to safeguard the networks of businesses, government agencies or defense.

Benefits of Ethical Hacking?

The primary benefit of ethical hacking is to prevent data from being stolen and misused by malicious attackers, as well as:

• Discovering vulnerabilities from an attacker’s POV so that weak points can be fixed.

• Implementing a secure network that prevents security breaches.

• Defending national security by protecting data from terrorists.

• Gaining the trust of customers and investors by ensuring the security of their products and data.

• Helping protect networks with real-world assessments.

Types of Ethical Hacking?

It is no big secret that any system, process, website, device, etc., can be hacked. In order to understand how the hack might happen and what the damage could be, ethical hackers must know how to think like malicious hackers and know the tools and techniques they are likely to use.

Types of Hacking/Hackers

Hackers are of different types and are named based on their intent of the hacking system. Broadly, there are two main types in hacking/hacker – White-Hat hacker and Black-Hat hacker. The names are derived from old Spaghetti Westerns, where the good guy wears a white hat and the bad guy wears a black hat.

Phases of Ethical Hacking

Ethical hacking is a process of detecting vulnerabilities in an application, system, or organization’s infrastructure that an attacker can use to exploit an individual or organization. They use this process to prevent cyberattacks and security breaches by lawfully hacking into the systems and looking for weak points. An ethical hacker follows the steps and thought process of a malicious attacker to gain authorized access and test the organization’s strategies and network.

An attacker or an ethical hacker follows the same five-step hacking process to breach the network or system. The ethical hacking process begins with looking for various ways to hack into the system, exploiting vulnerabilities, maintaining steady access to the system, and lastly, clearing one’s tracks.

The five phases of ethical hacking are:

1. Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance is the first step in ethical hacking. It’s often referred to as footprinting. Here, a hacker tries collecting various kinds of data, such as employee information, IP addresses, network topology, and domain names, using active and passive approaches. The purpose is to create a diagram of the target’s digital and physical assets.

Active Reconnaissance: This method involves direct interaction with the target system, which may warn the target about possible scans.

Passive Reconnaissance: This implies collecting data without direct contact with the target, making it untraceable.

Popular Tools Used are:

• Nmap

• Whois

• Maltego

Reconnaissance Techniques Commonly Used:

• Google Dorking: Utilizing sophisticated search operators to find sensitive information online.

• Whois Lookup: Collecting information on who owns the domain, IP addresses, etc.

• Social Engineering: Mupulating people into revealing private information regarding targets; this can be done through phishing messages, for instance.

• DNS Enumeration: To create a topology of the target’s infrastructure by finding all DNS entries linked with the domain name concerned.

• Network Scanning: One can learn about active systems and running services using tools like Nmap.

2. Scanning

At that point, the hacker goes to the scanning stage after having enough information. Scanning recognizes open ports, active devices, and services in the targeted network. It also helps to identify areas of vulnerability that can be targeted. Scanning is usually divided into three categories:

• Port Scanning: Finding open ports or services with Nmap or Angry IP Scanner.

• Vulnerability Scanning: Detecting known weaknesses in systems and applications using Nessus.

• Network Mapping: Creating a blueprint of network topology with tools such as SolarWinds.

Popular Tools Used:

• Nessus

• OpenVAS

• Angry IP Scanner

Commonly used techniques for Scanning

• Port Scanning: Using tools like Nmap or Angry IP Scanner to find open ports or services.

• Vulnerability Scanning: Using tools like Nessus to detect known weaknesses in systems and applications.

• Network Mapping: Generating a visual map that shows the network topology with applications like SolarWinds.

• Banner Grabbing: This involves collecting software version information from open services to help determine any weaknesses.

• Ping Sweeps: This entails sending ICMP requests to identify active hosts on a particular network.

3. Gaining Access

During this crucial stage, the intruder utilizes the weaknesses identified during scanning for unauthorized entry into the target system. This may involve leveraging applications, operating systems, or network flaws. The objective is establishing access at different privilege levels, from user accounts to administrative control. Exploitation Methods comprise buffer overflows, SQL injection, and cross-site scripting (XSS).

Popular Tools Used:

• Metasploit

• SQLmap

• Hydra

Commonly used techniques for Gaining Access:

• Password Cracking: Using brute force and dictionary attacks or to crack passwords, rainbow tables are used.

• Exploration of Vulnerabilities: Unauthorized access can be obtained by exploiting known vulnerabilities such as SQL Injection or buffer overflows.

• Privilege Escalation: Higher-level privileges are acquired within a system through exploitation or misconfiguration.

• Session Hijacking: Taking over a valid session between a user and a system gives entrance without permission.

• Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) Attacks: By intercepting communication between two parties, sensitive data can be accessed, violating confidentiality principles.

4. Maintaining Access

Once inside, the intruder must maintain a presence on the target machine for further actions such as gathering or monitoring sensitive data. Therefore, backdoors, rootkits, or Trojan horses can be installed at this point to ensure continued access to the device even after it has been rebooted or patched. Persistence Techniques: Employing malicious programs, establishing concealed user accounts, or exploiting cron jobs.

Tools Used:

• Netcat

• Ngrok

• Empire

Standard Methods of Maintaining Access:

• Installing Backdoors: Creating permanent ways of accessing the system later, like backdoors or rootkits.

• Creating Hidden User Accounts: Adding unauthorized users with administrative privileges that are hard to discover.

• Tunneling: Employing strategies such as SSH tunneling for secure communication with an infected machine.

• Keystroke Logging: Capturing user’s keystroke entries to acquire confidential details such as passwords or private information.

• Trojan Horses: Integrating applications that look real but permit unlawful entry.

5. Clearing Track

The finale of ethical hacking revolves around ensuring the hacker remains under the radar. This implies wiping logs, concealing files, and manipulating timestamps to eliminate evidence or proof of any attack. The intention is to ensure that attackers can never be detected or traced via their attack methodology.

Tools Used:

• CCleaner

• Stealth Rootkit

• Timestomp

Standard Methods For Covering Tracks:

• Log Tampering: Deleting or modifying logs to erase evidence of hacking activities.

• Steganography: Hiding malicious files or data within legitimate files to avoid detection.

• File Timestamp Alteration: Changing the timestamps of modified files to mislead investigators.

• Clearing Command Histories: Deleting or altering shell command histories to prevent detection.

• Encryption: Encrypting communication and files to obscure activities makes forensic analysis more difficult.

These are the five steps of the CEH hacking methodology that ethical hackers or penetration testers can use to detect and identify vulnerabilities, find potential open doors for cyberattacks and mitigate security breaches to secure the organizations. To learn more about analyzing and improving security policies, network infrastructure, you can opt for an ethical hacking certification. The Certified Ethical Hacking (CEH v13) provided by EC-Council trains an individual to understand and use hacking tools and technologies to hack into an organization legally.