Foot printing and Reconnaissance

The very first phase of pentesting is Foot printing and reconnaissance. The idea is to develop a picture of our client before performing a test. Generally speaking foot printing and reconnaissance is only done for black box pentesting. But even if we are performing white or gray box testing, we’ll plot an idea about where to start and how to start the test. Specifically in white box testing, if we need some clarification with a few of the points given by the clients then, definitely we ask for them to clear it for us. In black box testing we identify whether any information is leaked to internet unknowingly by the client. Hence black box testing is the best way for security assessment, since it gives full picture about what information is disclosed. For a malicious hacker any information that is readily available on internet is useful to him. Before we jump into the technical we need to know a few basic terms used in information gathering. These terms helps to understand the concept and structure of foot printing.

Passive information gathering

Open source or passive information gathering is the simplest way to collect information about the target organization. It simply refers to the process of gathering information from the open sources or publicly available sources like newspapers, television, social networking sites, blogs, etc. This never requires no direct contact with the target organization, thus reducing the risk of alerting the target, that they have been watched. Using these, you can gather information such as network boundaries, IP address reachable via the Internet, operating systems, web server software used by the target network, TCP and UDP services in each system, access control mechanisms, system architecture, intrusion detection systems, and so on.

Active information gathering.

In the process of active information gathering, attackers focus will only be on the employees of the target organization. Attackers try to extract information from the employees by conducting social engineering, on-site visits, interviews, questionnaires, dumpster diving or even bribing disgruntled employees etc.

Anonymous foot printing

In simple words, it is the process of gathering information passively or actively without disclosing the identity to anyone.

Pseudonymous foot printing

Pseudonymous foot printing is a process of collecting information from the sources which have been published on the Internet or any other media, but not using the original authors name or directly linking to the author. The information may be published under a different name or the author may have a well-established pen name, or sometimes author may be a corporate or government official and may be prohibited from posting under his original name. Whatever the reason for hiding the author’s name, collecting information from such resources is technically called as pseudonymous foot printing.

Organizational or private foot printing

Private foot printing means collecting information from an organization's privately owned services like, web-based blog, calendar email services etc.

 Internet Foot printing

Internet foot printing is the process, of collecting information of the target's connections to the Internet.

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 http://pentesterblogs.blogspot.in/2016/07/phases-of-hacking.html