Reconnaissance and footprint think the various pieces of hacking include reconnaissance, scanning,
gaining access, maintaining access and clearing tracks.
The reconnaissance phase is the most important phase of a penetration test.
So this is when the ethical hacker or penetration tester conducts extensive research into gathering
as much information about the target as possible.
Furthermore, foot printing will help create a profile of the target gathering profile information such
as running services, open ports and operating systems.
We will now look at both reconnaissance and food printing in more detail.
From a military perspective, reconnaissance is the observation and research of an enemy target in cybersecurity.
As a penetration tester, we use various tools and techniques to gather detailed information about the
target organization and its underlying infrastructure.
Reconnaissance is a vital in the field of penetration testing.
As a penetration tester, we definitely need to know about our target as well as its vulnerabilities
and operating systems before we attempt to gain access via exploitation.
The information gathered during the reconnaissance phase will help us to choose the right tools and
techniques to successfully exploit the target.
Reconnaissance can be divided into two main categories passive and active.
Passive means users and indirect approach, and does not engage the target.
Active here means directly engages the target to gather specific details.
Next, we will dive into understanding of food printing in ethical hacking.
Footprint thing.
Footprint thing is a procedure whereby as much information as possible is gathered in relation to a
target.
In food printing.
The objective is to obtain specific details about a target such as its operating systems and the service
versions of running applications.
The information that's collected can be used in various ways to gain access to the target system's network
or an organization footprint.
Think allows a penetration tester to understand the security posture of the target infrastructure,
quickly identify security vulnerabilities on the target systems and networks.
And we will it will also help to create a network map of the organization and reduce the layer of focus
to the specific IP addresses, domain names and the types of devices regarding which information is
required.
Food printing is a part of the reconnaissance pace.
However, science foot printing is able to provide more specific details about the target.
We can consider a foot printing to be a subset of a reconnaissance phase.
So there is a diagram.
This shows a visual overview of how reconnaissance and food printing sit together.
So we will also maintain objectives of food printing, where you will learn collecting network information
such as domain names, IP addressing schemes and network protocols.
You will also learn the collecting system information, which is user and group names or routing tables,
system names and types.
You will also learn collecting organization information which is employed, detail company director
and location details.
So to success, fully obtain an information about the target.
I would recommend using the some food printing methodologies.
For example, checking a search engine such as Yahoo Being and Google performing Google hacking techniques,
information gathering through social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.
You can also use network food printing techniques, social engineering, perform the dense food printing
use the WHO is command.
You will also perform the email food printing techniques so you are not able to differentiate between
reconnaissance and food printing.
So both reconnaissance and food printing are required during a penetration testing as each provides
a vital information about the target.
In the next section, we will take a deep dive into a passive information gathering.