What is Ethical Hacking?
Introduction
Hacking is the process of finding vulnerabilities in a system and using these found vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access into the system to perform malicious activities ranging from deleting system files to stealing sensitive information. Hacking is illegal and can lead to extreme consequences if you are caught in the act.
The ethical side of this would be a company hiring hackers to test their security. Computer experts are often hired by companies to hack into their system to find vulnerabilities and weak endpoints so that they can be fixed.
Ethical hacking is hacking with the permission of the owner of the system and within the constraints of the law. Ethical hackers are also called Pentesters (Penetration Tester) or White hat hackers. Ethical hacking involves the same tools, tricks, and techniques that hackers use, but with one major difference “Ethical hacking is legal”. It is performed with the target’s permission.
Ethical hacking intends to discover vulnerabilities from a hacker’s viewpoint so systems can be better secured. It’s part of an overall information risk management program that allows for ongoing security improvements. Ethical hacking can also ensure that vendors’ claims about the security of their products are legitimate.
Why Ethical Hacking?
- Information is one of the most valuable assets of an organization. Keeping information secure can protect an organization’s image and save an organization a lot of money.
- Hacking can lead to loss of business for organizations that deal with finance. Ethical hacking puts them a step ahead of the cybercriminals who would otherwise lead to loss of business.
Prerequisites
We can use windows for practising ethical hacking. But in the real world, a Hacker must try to be invisible on the internet. The work done by the hacker must not trackback to his original identity.
For this purpose, we can’t use windows. We would need an operating system specifically designed for hacking. Almost all the best ethical hacking operating systems for security experts are based on the Linux kernel. Some are Kali Linux, Black box Linux, Parrot OS, BlackArch Linux, Cyborg Hawk Linux, and others. Among these the most preferred is Kali Linux.
Kali Linux is a Debian-based Linux distribution aimed at advanced Penetration Testing and Security Auditing. Kali contains several hundred tools that are geared towards various information security tasks, such as Penetration Testing, Security research, Computer Forensics, and Reverse Engineering. Kali Linux is developed, funded, and maintained by Offensive Security, a leading information security training company.
Another thing we need is a wifi adapter to hack into wireless networks. Most of our laptops have an inbuilt wifi module but most of these have a small range and do not support monitor mode. Wifi adapters usually work in 2 modes, Managed and Monitor mode. By default, the mode of a wireless device is set to “Managed” which means our wireless device will only capture packets that have our device’s MAC address as the destination MAC. In Monitor mode or RFMON (Radio Frequency Monitor) mode, your card can listen to every packet that is within its range. So we will be needing an external wifi adapter which is recognizable by our Operating system (Driver support for the device).
Phases of Ethical Hacking
Ethical hacking is divided into 6 distinct phases. These phases are not strict rules, but more like a guideline to be followed.
1.Reconnaissance:
This is the first step of Hacking. It is also called the Footprinting and information gathering Phase. This is the preparatory phase where we collect as much information as possible about the target. We usually collect information about the network, host, and the people involved. These also include detecting services, operating systems, packet-hops to reach the system, IP configuration, etc. Various tools like Nmap, Hping, Google Dorks, etc. are used for reconnaissance purposes.
There are two types of Footprinting:
- Active: Directly interacting with the target to gather information about the target. Eg Using Nmap tool to scan the target
- Passive: Trying to collect information about the target without directly accessing the target. This involves collecting information from social media, public websites, etc.
2.Scanning:
In the scanning phase, the hacker begins to actively probe the target machine or network for vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Tools like Nessus, Nexpose, and NMAP are widely used by hackers in this process. Three types of scanning involved are:
- Port scanning: This phase involves scanning the target for the information like open ports, Live systems, various services running on the host.
- Vulnerability Scanning: Checking the target for weaknesses or vulnerabilities which can be exploited. Usually done with the help of automated tools.
- Network Mapping: Finding the topology of network, routers, firewalls servers if any, and host information and drawing a network diagram with the available information. This map may serve as a valuable piece of information throughout the hacking process.
3.Gaining Access:
In this phase, the vulnerabilities found in the scanning phase are exploited using various methods and the hacker tries to enter the target system without raising any alarms. After entering into the system, he has to increase his privilege to administrator level so he can install an application he needs or modify data or hide data. The primary tool that is used in this process is Metasploit. This helps the ethical hacker to find the vulnerabilities in their system.
4. Maintaining Access:
This is one of the most integral phases. In this phase, the hacker installs various backdoors and payloads(activities performed on a system after gaining unauthorized access) onto the target system. This can be done using Trojans, Rootkits, or other malicious files. The aim is to maintain access to the target until he finishes the tasks he planned to accomplish in that target. Backdoors help the hacker gaining quicker access to the target system in the future. This helps the ethical hacker to demonstrate how much damage can be done after a cyber-attack.
5.Clearing Track:
No thief wants to get caught. An intelligent hacker always clears all evidence so that in the latter point of time, no one will find any traces leading to him. This involves modifying/corrupting/ deleting the values of Logs, modifying registry values, and uninstalling all applications he used and deleting all folders he created. This process is an unethical activity. Nonetheless, Ethical Hackers still have to perform this phase to demonstrate how a Black Hat Hacker would go about his activities.
6.Reporting
Reporting is the last step in finishing the ethical hacking process. Here the Ethical Hacker compiles a report with his findings and the job that was done such as the tools used, the success rate, vulnerabilities found, and the exploit processes.
A career in Ethical Hacking
“To beat a hacker, you have to think like one” — Ethical Hacking Council
Ethical hackers are those professionals who use hacking methods to serve a greater purpose in the world with a good intent to benefit others. Ethical Hacking has been a lucrative career option for many, and not without good reason! It’s a challenging job that never gets boring, pays well, and also brings a greater sense of achievement.
Requirements to Become an Ethical Hacker
How your ethical hacking career begins depends on your current field of work. If you’re not in an IT field you should try shifting into one. Even though most jobs require you to have a Bachelor’s degree in computer science or cybersecurity-related field, exceptions are made for people with sound knowledge of operating systems, databases, and networking. Most ethical hackers begin their career as tech support engineers who climb their way up, by earning certifications like CCNA and CISSP before working towards the ultimate CEH certification.
Ethical Hacker Skill Set
A person with an ethical hacking career is expected to be proficient in database handling, networking, and operating systems and also have excellent soft skills as they need to communicate problems regarding security to the rest of the organization. Other than these generalized skillsets, an ethical hacker also has a good grasp on the following skills:
- Network traffic sniffing
- Orchestrate various network attacks
- Exploit buffer overflow vulnerabilities
- SQL injection
- Password guessing and cracking
- Session hijacking and spoofing
- DNS spoofing
Apart from this, an ethical hacker must be a creative thinker because black hat hackers are constantly coming up with ingenious ways to exploit a system and it is an ethical hacker’s job to predict and prevent such breaches.
Roles & Responsibilities of an Ethical Hacker
There seems to be a general misconception that a person with an ethical hacking career is only responsible for penetration testing of systems and applications. This is not true, and an ethical hacker is responsible for much more.
- Scanning open and closed ports using Reconnaissance tools like Nessus and NMAP
- Engaging in social engineering methodologies
- Examining patch releases by performing vigorous vulnerability analysis on them
- An ethical hacker will see if he/she can evade IDS (Intrusion Detection systems), IPS (Intrusion Prevention systems), honeypots, and firewalls
- Ethical hackers can employ other strategies like sniffing networks, bypassing and cracking wireless encryption, and hijacking web servers and web applications
An ethical hacker strives to replicate the working of a black hat hacker by analyzing the defense protocols and social-engineering aspects of an organization. His job is to make sure the organization reacts to these situations well enough if they are already not doing so.
Ethical Hacking Career: Job Profiles
After attaining the much-coveted CEH v10, an ethical hacker can try for the following roles:
- Security Analyst
- Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
- Security Consultant(Computing / Networking / Information Technology)
- Information Security Manager
- Penetration Tester
