Phase of hacking

Hacking concepts and phases

Hacking refers to the gaining of unauthorized access to a system to disclose data, exploiting vulnerabilities within information system. In this section, we will discuss types of hackers and hacking phases.

Types of hackers

Black hat hackers: These are individuals or groups that use their computer skills to gain access to information using malicious techniques, for various reasons, for example, financial gain.
White hat Hackers: These are information security professionals. Their main role is to protect information systems against black hat hackers.
Gray hat hackers: These work both offensively and defensively.
Script kiddies: Usually, these are unskilled individuals who use tools and scripts, without knowing how they work.
Hacktivists: These are hackers with a political agenda or defenders of a cause.

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Footprinting

Refers to the process of collecting as much as information as possible about the target system to find ways to penetrate into the system. An Ethical hacker has to spend the majority of his time in profiling an organization, gathering information about the host, network and people related to the organization.

Information such as ip address, Whois records, DNS information, an operating system used, employee email id, Phone numbers etc is collected.

Scanning

Scanning is a set of procedures for identifying live hosts, ports, and services, discovering Operating system and architecture of target system, Identifying vulnerabilities and threats in the network. Network scanning is used to create a profile of the target organization.

Scanning refers to collecting more information using complex and aggressive reconnaissance techniques.

Gaining access

At this stage, the attacker already has what they need to launch their attack, including IP range, identified systems, services, user lists, security vulnerabilities, and flows. Now they only need to bypass security controls to gain access to the system, using several techniques such as password cracking, social engineering or privilege escalation, and gaining other user permissions.

Maintaining access

Mostly, the aim of a hacking attack is not only to get information using unauthorized access, but to also maintain that access. Every day, attackers are coming up with new ways to maintain access. The most well-known technique is hiding files from the system owner and users to avoid being caught.

Clearing tracks

The final phase of every successful hacking attack is clearing the tracks. It is very important, after gaining access and misusing the network, that the attacker cover the tracks to avoid being traced and caught. To do this, the attacker clears all kinds of logs and malicious malware related to the attack. During this phase, the attacker will disable auditing and clear and manipulate logs.