so , as mentioned at the beginning of this website black hat hacking is an illegal activity which is not supported or encouraged by the government , if a person hacks computers without the permission of the govt officials or the company owners, he/she will be punished or imprisoned. so by this reason the website provides you a legal way of hacking that is knowledge of ethical hacking . in this type of hacking you will learn how to penetrate the computers , so for that you will have to learn about what is penetration testing .? penetration testing is an ethical way of hacking attack . basically it aims to test the security and defenses of a computer network and tries to find the loop holes that hackers could find and exploit.so in this case we the white hat hackers try to penetrate the system, it means we find the loop holes or vulnerabilities in a computer network or a system  and patch them  . so once when the ethical hacker finds (here the term "ethical hacker and white hat hacker means the same)the weakness they will submit their findings and recommendations to the administrator / owner . penetration is basically done for cyber-security purposes in an attempt to find the ways to enter the network . as an ethical hacker you have to always get permissions from the person or company you are targeting .  

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                     types of penetration testing 

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* grey box testing :- here you will get a partial information about the website you are going to hack . 

the information which is provided to you would be like architectural diagrams , credentials , etc

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* white box testing:- in this case you will be given a wide range of information ti test including systems like source codes , ip addresses to perform an attack from an internal source..

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* black box testing:- this is when the tester is completely in the dark and dose not know what he is doing . here the hacker needs to gain information about the victim individually and he has to penetrate the computer network.this type of hack is done by the black hat hackers.

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             so now lets come to the concept how to

                        perform a penetration test

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just like your school assignment or project hacking requires you to create and execute plans. while performing a test , you need to analyze , investigate and solve the problems.so to do that you have to follow the mentioned steps-

 

 

*  1) Reconnaissance :- Reconnaissance can be described as the pre-attack phase and is a systematic attempt to locate, gather, identify, and record information about the target. The Hacker seeks to find out as much information as possible about the target or the phase of gathering information on the source by contacting the machines in the network and attempting to possibly extract information .

 

*  2) Scanning :- Scanning and enumeration is considered the second pre-attack phase. This phase involves taking the information discovered during reconnaissance and using it to examine the network. Scanning involves steps such as intelligent system port scanning which is used to determine open ports and vulnerable services. In this stage the attacker can use different automated tools to discover system vulnerabilities.

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*   3) Gaining Access:- This is the phase where the real hacking takes place. Vulnerabilities discovered during the reconnaissance and scanning phase are now exploited to gain access. The method of connection the Hacker uses for an exploit can be a local area network, local access to a PC, the Internet, or offline. Gaining access is known in the Hacker world as owning the system. During a real security breach it would be this stage where the Hacker can utilize simple techniques to cause irreparable damage to the target system.

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*   4) Maintaining Access :-once the hacker has gained access to the network he has to maintain persistence to the network so that he could re connect to the network when ever the penetrator wants. The attacker can use automated scripts and automated tools for hiding attack evidence and also to create backdoors for further attack.

 

*   5) Clearing Tracks:-In this phase, once Hackers have been able to gain and maintain access, they cover their tracks to avoid detection by security personnel, to continue to use the owned system, to remove evidence of hacking, or to avoid legal action. At present, many successful security breaches are made but never detected. This includes cases where firewalls and vigilant log checking were in place.

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*   6) your schedule for performing penetration :-

this point plays an important role in hacking filed.

you have to choose your timing like would you like to perform the attack while the target is busy. or do you like to perform the test at night so that the target wont be effected financially.

 

*   7)  exploit launching :- after these vulnerabilities have been identified it is time to test the exploits that are most likely going to give an intruder access to the system leading to a serious breach.

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*   8) document everything :- after finishing your penetration test document each systems loop hole and result them i mean document them in an order .

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*  9)submit:- once you are done with the following above steps  you have to submit these details to your clients.

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