Practical Ethical Hacking Course - Part 1

Jun 28, 2024

Practical Ethical Hacking Course - Part 1

Introduction

  • Instructor: Heath Adams, CEO of TCM Security
  • Company: Cybersecurity consulting and educational firm focusing on ethical hacking
  • Part 1 Duration: 7+ hours; split due to YouTube's 12-hour video limit
  • Course Goal: Teach ethical hacking, covering network, web application, wireless, mobile apps, thick client apps, physical pen testing
  • Diverse Backgrounds: No formal IT background needed; basic computer and networking knowledge is sufficient
  • Certifications and Social Media: Listed personal certifications and social media for following
  • Course Extension: Part of 25-hour TCM Security Academy curriculum
  • Certification: Leads to PMPT (Practical Network Penetration Testing)
  • Content Update: Updated for 2023 methodologies

A Day in the Life of an Ethical Hacker

  • Daily Activities: Performing assessments, report writing, debriefings
  • Assessment Types: External network, internal network, web application, wireless, physical pen testing, social engineering

Assessment Types

External Network Pen Test

  • Focus: Security from the outside, heavily on open-source intelligence
  • Common Reasons: Required by compliance organizations, cost-effective
  • Duration: 32-40 hours (8-16 hours for report writing)

Internal Network Pen Test

  • Focus: Security inside the network, active directory attacks
  • Commonality: 95-99% of Fortune 500 companies use active directory
  • Duration: 32-40 hours (8-16 hours for report writing)

Web Application Pen Test

  • Focus: Web-based attacks using OWASP guidelines
  • Commonality: Higher due to more websites than networks
  • Duration: 32-40 hours (8-16 hours for report writing)

Wireless Pen Test

  • Focus: Assessing wireless network security based on type
  • Duration: 4-8 hours per SSID (2-4 hours for report writing)

Physical Pen Test / Social Engineering

  • Focus: Physical security, social engineering methods like phishing and smishing
  • Duration: 16-40 hours (4-8 hours for report writing)

Specialized Assessments

  • Examples: Mobile pen testing, IoT pen testing, red team engagements, purple team engagements

Reporting and Debriefing

  • Process: Deliver report within a week, executive summaries, recommendations for remediation
  • Importance: High-level and technical detail, effective communication
  • Debriefing: Walk clients through findings, opportunity for questions and clarifications

Effective Note-Keeping

  • Importance: Essential for success in the course and career
  • Tools: KeepNote, CherryTree, OneNote, Joplin
  • Demonstration: Example of a well-organized notebook

Introduction to Networking

  • IP Addresses: Overview of IPv4 (32-bit) and IPv6 (128-bit); limitations due to address space
  • Understanding Subnets: Private vs. public IP addresses, Network Address Translation (NAT), classes of IP addresses (A, B, C)
  • Network Devices: Roles of routers (Layer 3), switches (Layer 2), MAC addresses, connected over Layer 2
  • Common Ports and Protocols: TCP vs. UDP, common ports (21, 22, 25, 53, 80, 443, 139, 445), DNS, DHCP, SNMP
  • OSI Model: Seven layers (physical, data, network, transport, session, presentation, application), mnemonic for memory
  • Subnetting: Simplified method to determine subnets, hosts, subnet masks
  • Practical Examples: Calculating subnets and hosts

Virtual Machines Setup

  • VMWare Workstation Player and VirtualBox: Installation, configuration, and usage
  • Kali Linux: Installation and configuration

Linux Terminal Basics

  • Essential Commands: Navigation, listing, creating, removing files and directories
  • Permissions: Read, write, execute permissions, changing file permissions, ownership
  • Networking Commands: IP address configuration, ARP cache, routing table, ping
  • Note-taking Tools: KeepNote, Greenshot for screenshots
  • User and Privileges: Adding users, Sudo commands, understanding sudoers file
  • Scripting with Bash: Creating scripts, loops, conditional statements, one-liners for automation

Python Basics

  • Introduction to Python: Basic scripting, strings, math functions
  • Variables and Methods: Manipulating strings and variables
  • Looping and Conditional Statements: For loops, while loops, if-else statements
  • Advanced Topics: Importing modules, socket programming, file handling, classes and objects
  • Projects: Building tools (e.g., port scanner) to tie concepts together

Ethical Hacking Methodology

  • Five Stages: Reconnaissance, scanning and enumeration, gaining access, maintaining access, covering tracks
  • Information Gathering: Passive reconnaissance techniques, importance of data breaches
  • Practical Examples: Utilizing tools for subdomain discovery, fingerprinting, and data breach analysis
  • Email OSINT: Hunter.io, Phonebook.cz, Clearbit, email verification tools
  • Password OSINT: Searching through breach databases (e.g., Dhash, hashes.org), tying data together for investigations

Conclusion

  • Completion of Part 1: Link to Part 2 provided for continuation