INTRODUCTION
The phases of hacking are an interesting topic. So there are only 5 phases in the hacking, everyone can understand easily. Mostly these 5 phases are followed by most of the hackers. The 5 phases in the hacking are is explained below:
1. Reconnaissance
2. Scanning
3. Gaining Access
4. Maintaining Access
5. Clearing Tracks
The 5 phases in the hacking are mentioned below along with tools: RECONNAISSANCE” is given more priority in the phases of hacking, it mostly plays a vital role in hacking or for the ethical hackers and penetration testers. Reconnaissance means nothing but information gathering about the target and Reconnaissance is also called Footprinting. There are many tools to do reconnaissance that we can discuss more in the next part. Without doing reconnaissance or without gathering the information we cannot move further next step.
The information gathering is of two types, They are: 1) Active and 2) passive reconnaissance1. ACTIVE RECONNAISSANCE
In this type of reconnaissance, we gather information by direct interaction with the target or system, or server. We can do active reconnaissance with many tools and without the need of tools, we can do this. For example, if your target is a web server means you can simply ping the server to know your target is dead or alive, so without the tools, we can do some work with help of the internet only. If we talk about the tools there are many tools to do information gathering. Some are like Nmap scanning, maltego, etc… are some tools to do the active reconnaissance.2. PASSIVE RECONNAISSANCE
This is another type of Reconnaissance, in this type of reconnaissance we gather information without interaction with the target. In this reconnaissance, we collect information from publicly available data of the target. For example, social media accounts, information about the website that is publically available, etc… mostly this type of reconnaissance is done by black hat hackers so that there is no evidence to find them. Without any evidence, it is difficult to find the theft, This type of reconnaissance is a very hard and time taking process but the advantage is no one can find them, but sometimes it may be possible by doing advanced forensics. TOOLS: Nmap, maltego, whois lookup, etc….. 2. SCANNING Scanning is an important part of the phases of hacking. If the total scanning is successful you achieved 50% of your goal and there are three types of scans that we can do, they are port scanning, network scanning, and vulnerability scanning. Scanning is done by the information we have collected from the reconnaissance. Here is one thing we should think that accurate scanning results come from accurate reconnaissance. TOOLS: The tools we use for the scanning are given below: 1. Nmap, 2. Nikto, 3. SQL map, 4. Nessus etc… these are some scanners mostly used by hackers. Here is one piece of advice NMAP is the most accurate resulting scanner so better to learn in-depth so that is very helpful for the future. 3. GAINING ACCESS Gaining access is an interesting phase in this. After all, information collected and getting accurate scans results means you can gain the access to the system of the owner. In other words, he acts as the administrator for the system or network but gaining access is not a simple thing if you do more research and do aggressive scans only you will get better results if the security of the system or network is very strong means we cannot gain the access easily. To gain access to the system the hackers will create or do it in new ways. They use various types of tools to break the security and enter into the system. TOOLS: Metasploit, session hijacking, MITM(Man in the middle attack), By doing social engineering to employees or to the owner, etc… these are some tools we use in gaining access to the system or network. 4. MAINTAINING ACCESS In this stage, the hacker will maintain access to the system until they want or until they finish his/her work. After gaining the access to the system he/she becomes the administrator of the system and they can do anything with the system like doing scans, exploiting the vulnerabilities, and even they can destroy the whole system. But if they want to maintain access to the system without knowing the user he will install the Trojans, Rootkits, etc… these are some malicious files that give access to the hacker from the backdoor. The hacker can see the user’s activities by maintaining access. So here the hacker’s main objective is that maintain access to the system until he finishes his work. After all his works were completed he left the system. TOOLS: There are so many tools for maintaining access but the most popular tools are TROJANS, ROOTKITS, and some other malicious files, etc… 5. CLEARING TRACKS This is the most important thing to do after entering into any system or network. If a hacker has not cleared any logs in the system or network there is almost a 90% of chance to find him. Because here the logs are played an important role for finding the hackers to the forensics officers. For example, A man successfully robs a bank but throws his wallet into the bank, so by checking his wallet the police get proof of the thief’s address so that they can catch the thief. So the hacker should clear his all logs in the entire system or a network so that there are no chances of finding him. But the hackers will secure themselves with different things like clearing the logs, and many other ways. TOOLS: MAC changer, Ccleaner, etc… These are the 5 phases of hacking explained above. All the hackers will use these methods to hack any system or network or any business organization. Make sure you understand the importance of each step mentioned above so that you can understand what is behind the hacking.We really hope that you’ve found this text interesting and taken something useful away from it. Consider sharing with your colleagues and peers if you wish to see more articles like this on the web. 🙂