Let us start with new section information gathering, this is the first phase of hacking in this lecture.
We are going to study what is information gathering as well as objectives and importance of information
gathering.
There is a saying that goes the more information you have about the target, the more is the chance
of successful exploitation.
Information gathering is the first phase of hacking.
In this phase, we gather as much information as possible regarding the targets online presence, but
in turn reveal useful information about the target itself.
The required information will depend on whether we are doing a network or a web application when this
information is power.
And in most scenarios it's true.
Having critical information at the right time and especially knowing how to use it can be a great source
of power in the cybersecurity world.
The security data about any target which can the person company domain name also is something that is
coveted by all the parties on all fronts, including red teams and blue teams.
Therefore, mastering the information gathering process is one of the ultimate goals of any cybersecurity
researcher than any black head or white hat.
Hacker needs to gain as much information as possible about the target.
The first step he does is the information gathering, but it's a fun activity for some researchers.
Information gathering is also one of the most time consuming tasks during the Interlaken process.
And that is why time management is very important in information gathering process.
In general, all the information gathering techniques can be classified into two main categories active
information gathering and passu information gathering in Act two information gathering, which would
directly engage with the target.
For example, gathering information about what ports are open on a particular target, what services
they are running and what operating system they are using.
However, the techniques involving active information gathering would be very noisy at the other end
as they are easily detected by the ideas APIs and the firewalls and under the log of the presence and
hence not recommended sometimes in better information gathering.
We do not directly engage with the target.
Instead, we use search engines, social media and other websites to gather information about the target.
This method is recommended since it does not generate any log of the presence on the target system.
A common example would be to use LinkedIn, Facebook and other social networks to gather information
about employees and their interests.
This would be very useful when you perform phishing, key logging, browser exploitation and other landside
attacks on the employees.
So what are the objectives of information gathering in cyber security?
Any basic cyber security information gathering process often includes these two types of data collection
goals.
First is the collecting network data network data says public, private and associated domain names,
network hosts, public and private IP blocks, routing tables, DCB and europese, attending services,
SSL certificates, open ports and many more.
And second is collecting system related information.
This includes user numeration system groups always host names, operating system type that is probably
fingerprinting of the operating system system banners that is moneygrubbing and many more.
Now let us look at the top methods used to gather information about any targets.
The first is social engineering.
This includes in-person chat, phone conversations and email spoofing attacks.
What all these methods have in common is the psychology of human weakness that is needed to get maximum
data about the targeted search engines.
The products can be used to get information about anything, and this includes companies, persons,
services and even real hacks.
Social networks, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and other social networks are a great source
of information to build a profile, especially when we are targeting particular individuals domain names.
These are registered by the organizations, governments, public and private agencies and people.
Therefore, they are a great starting point when you want to investigate someone.
Personal information, associated domains, products, services and technologies can be found by inspecting
domain name information.
Internet service authority to DNS servers are a great source of information.
They often include every single surface point exposed to the Internet, which means a direct link to
religious services such as the EDP email and many more.
Even the job sites are a great source of information if a particular individual posts his job requirement
on a particular job site, and if a hacker sees that like X, Y, Z person posts, you want a job as
a software engineer and he sees that the hacker will have a vision call to that person and viewed him
with a hefty package like he will say, I will give you a one like dollar package, and for that you
need to pay ten thousand dollars in advance.
And this is the main source that hacker gathers.
So this is all you need to get your information gathering during any protest, so the first is get proper
authorization.
We need to get the proper authorization and define the scope of the assessment, define the scope of
the assessment.
We need to dive deep into a target, like what is the profile of the target and what the target do.
And all next is both on footprinting.
Two previously mentioned sources, footprinting search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc..
I used to gather target organizations information such as impeller details, login pages, Internet
portals, operating systems, used financial information that helps in performing social engineering
and other types of 11 system attacks.
Next is to gather computer intelligence.
Basically, what is competitive intelligence?
Competitive intelligence information is the most vital information for any hacker.
This information can lead to complete information gathering and complete dive deep into the target.
Next is the Who is Look-Up?
We need to perform who is footprinting using tools such as who is Look-Up Smart, who is bad?
I began and many more to create a detailed map of organization network gather personal information that
assists in performing social engineering and gather other information like network orders and many more.
Next, we need to perform DNS footprinting using tools such as DNS stuff, MIGHTINESS tools and many
more Grinderman kiosks in the network and perform social engineering attacks.
On network footprinting, using tools such as but analyze a pro visual route duo, Spider, to create
a map of Target's network, implement social engineering techniques such as eavesdropping, shoulder
surfing, dumpster diving and fishing that may help to gather more critical information about the target.
And at the end of pretesting, document all the findings.
In the next lecture, we will start with information regarding practicals, the first spectacle will
be multicore.