Setting Up a Reconnaissance Lab

Learning about various cybersecurity topics is always exciting as there are so many new technologies and content that are quite interesting, especially using various tools and techniques to discover sensitive details on vulnerable systems and applications. However, obtaining sensitive details about systems such as their operating systems, known vulnerabilities, open service ports, and running services requires the ethical hacker to send specially crafted probes to the target. To put it simply, the ethical hacker can create a script or use an automated software-based scanning tool to send probes and analyze the responses to determine whether security vulnerabilities exist on the target. However, scanning is illegal and should not be performed on any system without obtaining legal permission from the necessary authorities.

As an aspiring or seasoned ethical hacker, it’s important to set up your own lab environment as it enables you to perform...