Unit 612: Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing

1. Introduction to Ethical Hacking

• Definition and scope of ethical hacking
• Differences between ethical hacking and malicious hacking
• Importance of ethical hacking in modern cybersecurity
• Legal and ethical considerations
• Overview of ethical hacking methodologies and techniques

2. Reconnaissance and Footprinting

• Purpose and importance of reconnaissance
• Passive vs. active reconnaissance
• Footprinting techniques:
  • DNS queries
  • WHOIS lookup
  • Network scanning
• Scanning:
  • Port scanning (e.g., using Nmap)
  • Vulnerability scanning overview
• Enumeration techniques:
  • SNMP enumeration
  • NetBIOS enumeration
  • SMTP enumeration
• Tools commonly used for reconnaissance and footprinting

3. Vulnerability Assessment and Scanning

• Understanding vulnerabilities and their impact
• Types of vulnerability assessments
• Overview of vulnerability scanning tools:
  • Nessus
  • OpenVAS
• Conducting vulnerability scans:
  • Configuration and scope
  • Interpreting scan results
• Prioritizing vulnerabilities for remediation

4. Exploitation and Post-Exploitation

• Exploitation fundamentals
• Using exploits to gain unauthorized access:
  • Buffer overflow attacks
  • SQL injection exploitation
  • Remote code execution
• Post-exploitation techniques:
  • Maintaining access (backdoors, rootkits)
  • Privilege escalation
  • Data extraction and lateral movement
• Ethical considerations and containment

5. Penetration Testing Methodologies

• Overview of penetration testing
• Types of testing:
  • White-box testing
  • Black-box testing
  • Grey-box testing
• Phases of penetration testing:
  • Planning and reconnaissance
  • Scanning and enumeration
  • Exploitation
  • Reporting
• Tools and frameworks supporting penetration testing

6. Social Engineering Attacks

• Understanding social engineering and its impact
• Common social engineering techniques:
  • Phishing
  • Pretexting
  • Tailgating
  • Baiting
• Psychological principles exploited
• Detection and prevention strategies

7. Wireless Network Hacking

• Wireless network fundamentals
• Wireless security protocols:
  • WEP
  • WPA/WPA2
• Common wireless attacks:
  • WEP/WPA cracking
  • Rogue access points
  • Man-in-the-middle attacks
• Tools for wireless network assessment
• Securing wireless networks

8. Web Application Security

• Introduction to web application vulnerabilities
• Common vulnerabilities:
  • SQL Injection
  • Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
  • Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
  • Insecure authentication and session management
• Techniques to identify and exploit vulnerabilities
• Best practices for securing web applications

9. Reporting and Compliance

• Importance of documentation in ethical hacking
• Structure of a professional penetration testing report:
  • Executive summary
  • Technical findings
  • Risk assessment
  • Recommendations
• Adherence to legal and compliance standards (e.g., GDPR, PCI-DSS)
• Ethical guidelines and professional conduct