It is time we slowly start getting into penetration testing process for now.
We didn't yet perform any hacking, but we are getting there.
It is important we get the basics first and that we know why we do everything.
And trust me, later in the course, we will be doing some serious stuff and everything will make sense
because we covered all the basics first and we didn't just jump into something without any preparation.
So in this video, what will be briefly talking about stages of penetration test, how does it go?
In which order do we perform the steps and which steps are crucial for now?
We've got our virtual lab setup.
We installed clinics and all the tools that hackers use are now available for us in our machine.
We also performed some configuration to it to get it full screen as well as performed set up for Internet
connection.
From now, the basic steps that we are going to do is we will use our clinics machine to scan and attack
different machines, networks, websites and accounts.
But how are we going to do that?
Do we just magically attack it?
And do we just install virus on their machines somehow?
And if so, how do we do that?
What about Trojans password cracking or phishing?
Is that what we do?
Well, that is just a small portion of a penetration test.
First thing and most important thing before we even start the penetration test on target is to figure
out do we have permission to attack this target?
This is very important, since you don't want to be attacking machines or target networks that you do
not have permission to attack.
It could be that client told me to only test one machine on the network and not the entire network.
Therefore, I'm only allowed to test that one machine.
Or it could be that our client has multiple networks and they only allowed us to test one of them.
That means you should not go around and try to hack different machines on a different network.
Now, these are only some of the examples.
But what's important to get out of this is that all of us have permission to perform a penetration test.
Trying to hack or hacking something that you are not allowed to hack could potentially get you into
some serious trouble if you get caught.
Now that we got that out of the way, let us finally talk about different stages of penetration testing.
We already know that there are five of them, and the first one is reconnaissance or information gathering.
Now, reconnaissance is the act of gathering information about your target to better plan out your attack,
and this type of penetration testing is the only one that you can perform on any website or target that
you want.
Since gathering information about something is not illegal, there are two ways that we can go about
doing information gathering actively by directly interacting with our target, or it can be done passively
without interacting with the target.
A simple example of this would be, let's say you want to gather information for Facebook and you would
do it actively by visiting Facebook page and getting all the information that you can from the Facebook
page itself.
While passively it would be if you went to some other website that talks about Facebook and you get
information about Facebook from that other website.
This would mean you never interact with Facebook.
Therefore, you performed a passive information gathering.
After the step comes scanning.
Here is where you can start getting in trouble if you do it without permission.
Scanning is a deeper form of information gathering, using technical tools to find openings in the target
and in the systems that you're attacking, these openings can be gateways, open ports, operating systems
that target runs and so on and so on.
In this step, we also perform vulnerability scanning, which is just searching for vulnerable software
in the target system or network that could possibly be exploited.
After information gathering and scanning comes third step, which is gaining access or so-called exploitation,
and this is the step where we actually hack the target, we use information that we gathered in phase
one and phase to take control of any number of target devices.
Gaining access of target devices allows us to steal data from their system or to use those devices to
attack other devices on the same network.
Usually after this step, you can consider penetration tests to be successful since you managed to gain
access to a target system.
However, this is not the last step of a penetration test after exploitation comes maintaining access.
This step with the fifth step is sometimes option.
You might not need to always perform last steps, since client might only care whether their system
is penetrable, therefore you prove them.
It is after the third step if there was a vulnerability, of course.
However, maintaining access is also important step, and it is commonly done by installing back doors
and planting fruit kits.
But a back door and road kits are simply programs that will allow us to gain access to that target whenever
we want without the need to exploit it again.
We just connect to the back door that we planted in the target system.
And there it is.
We are again on their machine.
And last step of penetration test is covering tracks.
Covering tracks is simply removing all evidence that an attack ever took place.
This can involve deleting or hiding files, editing logs, or basically reverting any changes that you
did to the system while the attack took place.
OK, so these five steps are entire process of a penetration test and we're going to cover them in great
detail throughout our course.
Keep in mind that these steps should be performed in order.
And one more important thing is, in case you're a beginner, you might think that third step, which
is exploitation or gaining access, is the most important step of the process, even though it is very
important and crucial.
The most important steps are actually information gathering and scanning.
It is in these two steps that we gather information about the target and discover vulnerabilities.
So if you're not that good in gathering information, you might miss some things that could be used
to gain access to the machine, therefore preventing you to find an actual vulnerability.
So just keep that in mind that information gathering is 70 percent of work.
OK, good.
So we talked a little about these phases, but before we get to perform each one of these steps, we
must first get a little familiar with our Kleenex machine.
In the next few lectures, we're going to get into details about terminal and some of the commands we
can run and execute with it.
See you there.