Process of Hacking

Introduction of Process of Hacking

Ethical hacking has several different phases. It allows hackers to make an organized hacking attack. Various security training manuals describe ethical hacking in several ways, but the whole process can be grouped into the following six stages. To sum it all up, this approach is used by an attacker to break the network, while the ethical hacker uses it to protect it.

Ethical Hacking Process

The ethical hacking process is given as follows:

• Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance also called the preparatory phase is the process in which the attacker obtains information about a target. NMAP, Maltego, Google Dorks, Hoping, etc. are the tools that are commonly used in this process.

There are two types of reconnaissance

1. Active reconnaissance: To interact with the target to collect information about the target. For example, using the Nmap tool to scan the target
2. Passive reconnaissance: gathering data about the target without accessing the target directly. This includes collecting social media data, public websites, etc.

Dumpster diving is one of the first steps of reconnaissance. The hacker unearths beneficial records at some point of this stage, like, names of essential employees, old passwords, and plays active tracking to recognize how the employer operates. The hacker completes a procedure referred to as footprinting to accumulate safety posture information as a subsequent step, decreases the point of interest region such as figuring out precise ip addresses, detects vulnerabilities in the intended device, and in the end draws a network map to know precisely how the community infrastructure operates to without problems smash into it. Vital information like domain names, tcp and udp services, tool names, and passwords is given via footprinting. There are other methods to do footprinting as nicely. It involves imitating a internet site by way of mirroring it the use of engines like google to acquire organizational information, and additionally the use of modern-day employee records for imitations.

• Scanning

The attacker starts actively testing a target computer or network in this process for vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Nessus, NMAP, and Nexposeare the tools used in this process.

There are three types of scanning involved in this process.

1. Port Scanning: It includes scanning the target for data such as open ports, services running on the host, live networks, etc.
2. Vulnerability Scanning: To check the target for exploitable bugs or vulnerabilities. It involves using automated software.
3. Network mapping: Find the network topology, firewall servers, routers, and host information and draw a network diagram with the information available.

• Gaining Access

The vulnerability is found in this step and the hacker tries to exploit it to get into the system. Metasploit is the main tool used in this process. To track the devices connected to the system, the hacker gains access to the network, device, and software and expands their user privileges.

• Maintaining Access

This is the process in which the hacker has already obtained access to a computer. The hacker activates some backdoors after obtaining access to penetrate the device when he wants to access in the future in this proprietary system. The preferred method in this phase is Metasploit.

• Clearing Tracks

This phase is an unethical operation.No robber wants to be caught. An excellent hacker always removes all traces so that no one will find any evidence leading to him in the later stage of time. This includes corrupting, modifying, or deleting log values, Removing the cookies and cache, uninstalling all of the applications that he used, closing all the open ports, modifying the registry values, modifying the log files, and deleting all of the folders that he made. This can be done with the help of various ways which are given as follows

1. Reverse HTTP Shells
2. ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) Tunnels
3. Shredding or clearing Command History
4. Build an agile framework for lateral movement
5. To stop responders or analysts from keeping up with what is happening, speed up the pace
6. Creating a VPN for C2 communication will make it easier to bypass any level of network monitoring
7. The number of hosts infected should not be too high and should be updated continuously.
8. The ideal cover for internal hop-points is provided by busy servers
9. For data staging areas, busy file servers

In a nutshell, it is the removal of logs of all the activities occur during the process of hacking.

• Reporting

The last step in completing the ethical hacking process is reporting. In this process, Ethical Hacker gathers a report with his results and the work that has been performed, such as the instruments used the rate of performance, vulnerabilities identified, and the processes of exploitation.