💻
Hello, and welcome back, cyber warriors! 🚀
As promised, we’re diving into
Day 3 of our
Ethical Hacking journey! Today’s lesson is all about
Reconnaissance—the first step in ethical hacking, where we gather intel before testing vulnerabilities. 🕵️♂️💡
Let’s get started! 🔥
---
🔍
Day 3: Passive & Active Reconnaissance 🕵️♂️💻
Before ethical hackers begin testing vulnerabilities, they first gather intelligence—a process known as
reconnaissance. Today, we’ll explore how professionals collect information about a system
without directly interacting with it (Passive Reconnaissance) and when they
actively probe for details (Active Reconnaissance). ---
### 🕵️
Passive Reconnaissance – Observing Without Interaction
💡 In this stage, ethical hackers
quietly gather information from public sources
without alerting the target. ✅
Google Dorking – Using advanced search operators to find exposed databases or sensitive files.
✅
WHOIS Lookup – Checking domain registrations to discover owner details and IP addresses.
✅
Shodan Search – Scanning the internet for exposed devices and misconfigured servers.
✅
Social Media Intelligence – Analyzing publicly available information from social networks.
🔗
Example Tools for Passive Reconnaissance: - WHOIS Lookup ([
who.is](
https://who.is))
- Google Dorking Commands (site:example.com "password")
- Shodan ([
shodan.io](
https://www.shodan.io))
---
### ⚡
Active Reconnaissance – Direct Interaction with the Target
💡 Here, ethical hackers
probe and scan the target network, looking for vulnerabilities.
✅
Port Scanning with Nmap – Discovering open ports & running services on a target machine.
✅
Banner Grabbing – Identifying software versions to check for outdated vulnerabilities.
✅
Netcat Scanning – Communicating with open ports to extract more information.
✅
Traceroute & DNS Recon – Mapping the network’s structure.
🔗
Example Tools for Active Reconnaissance: -
Nmap (nmap -sS example.com)
-
Netcat (nc -v example.com 80)
-
Traceroute (traceroute example.com)
---
🔥
Today's Task: 1️⃣ Test
passive reconnaissance using WHOIS Lookup or Shodan.
2️⃣ Try
Nmap scanning in a controlled test environment (DO NOT scan unauthorized networks!).
3️⃣ Share your experience:
What surprised you about the reconnaissance process? ---
🔜
Next Lesson: Social Engineering Attacks! 🎭💡
We’ll uncover how hackers manipulate
human psychology to breach security—don’t miss it! 🚀
#EthicalHacking #CyberSecurity 🔐✨