Exploring hacking phases

Since penetration testers are the white hats, the good guys and girls within the industry, it's important to understand the phases of hacking as it's also associated with penetration testing. During any penetration test training, you will encounter the five phases of hacking. These phases are as follows:

Figure 1.3 – Hacking phases

As shown in the preceding diagram, before a threat actor attacks a target, information gathering is needed to better understand various details about the target. In the following sections, you will gain a better understanding of each phase and how it relates to penetration testing.

Reconnaissance or information gathering

The reconnaissance or information gathering phase is where the threat actor focuses on acquiring meaningful information about their target. This is the most important phase in hacking: the more details known about the target, the easier it is to compromise a weakness and exploit it.

The following are techniques used in the reconnaissance phase:

• Using search engines to gather information
• Using social networking platforms
• Performing Google hacking/dorking
• Performing Domain Name System (DNS) interrogation
• Using social engineering

In this phase, the objective is to gather as much information as possible about the target. Next, we will discuss using a more directed approach, and engage the target to get more specific and detailed information.

Scanning and enumeration

The second phase of hacking is scanning. Scanning involves using a direct approach in engaging the target to obtain information that is not accessible via the reconnaissance phase. This phase involves profiling the target organization, its systems, and network infrastructure.

The following are techniques used in the scanning phase:

• Checking for any live systems
• Checking for firewalls and their rules
• Checking for open network ports
• Checking for running services
• Checking for security vulnerabilities
• Creating a network topology of the target network

This phase is very important as it helps us to improve the profile of the target. The information found in this phase will help us to move on to performing exploitation on the target system or network.

Gaining access

This phase can sometimes be the most challenging phase of them all. In this phase, the threat actor uses the information obtained from the previous phases to exploit the target. Upon successful exploitation of vulnerabilities, the threat actor can then remotely execute malicious code on the target and gain remote access to the target system.

The following can occur once access is gained:

• Password cracking
• Exploiting vulnerabilities
• Escalating privileges
• Hiding files

The gaining access (exploitation) phase can at times be difficult as exploits may work on one system and not on another. Once an exploit is successful and system access is acquired, the next phase is to ensure that you have a persistent connection back to the target.

Maintaining access

After exploiting a system, the threat actor should usually ensure that they are able to gain access to the victim's system at any time as long as the system is online. This is done by creating backdoor access to the target and setting up multiple persistence connections between the attacker's machines and the victim's system.

The objectives of maintaining access are as follows:

• Lateral movement
• Exfiltration of data
• Creating backdoor and persistent connections

Maintaining access is important to ensure that you, the penetration tester, always have access to the target system or network. Once the technical aspect of the penetration test is completed, it's time to clean up the network.

Covering your tracks

The last phase is to cover your tracks. This ensures that you do not leave any traces of your presence on a compromised system or network. As penetration testers, we would like to be as undetectable as possible on a target's network, not triggering any alerts on security sensors and appliances while we remove any residual traces of the actions performed during the penetration test. Covering your tracks ensures that you don't leave any trace of your presence on the network, as a penetration test is designed to be stealthy and simulate real-world attacks on an organization.

Having completed this section, you have gained the knowledge to describe the phases of hacking that are commonly used by threat actors. In the next section, you will discover the Cyber Kill Chain framework and we are going to combine it into the training and exercises throughout this book.