System Ethical Hacking

What is the primary goal of system hacking in the context of ethical hacking?

• Gaining unauthorized access to target systems

• Identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in network devices

• Conducting social engineering attacks on system users

• Performing denial-of-service attacks on target networks

What is the purpose of privilege escalation in system hacking?

• Gaining administrative / root privileges on a compromised system

• Disabling security controls on target systems

• Conducting reconnaissance on target systems

• Exploiting vulnerabilities in network protocols

Which type of attack involves tricking a user into running malicious code by disguising it as a legitimate file or application?

• Buffer overflow attack

• Man-in-the-middle attack

• Phishing attack

• Trojan horse attack

What is the purpose of steganography in system hacking?

• Encrypting sensitive data on a compromised system

• Disguising malicious code within innocent-looking files

• Exploiting vulnerabilities in web applications

• Bypassing intrusion detection systems

What is the purpose of a backdoor in system hacking?

• Gaining unauthorized access to a compromised system

• Encrypting sensitive data on target systems

• Conducting social engineering attacks on system users

• Exploiting vulnerabilities in network devices

How can rainbow tables be defeated?

• Password salting

• Use of non-dictionary words 

• All uppercase character passwords

• Lockout accounts under brute force password cracking attempts

Answer explanation

What is password salting? Password salting is a technique to protect passwords stored in databases by adding a string of 32 or more characters and then hashing them. Salting prevents hackers who breach an enterprise environment from reverse-engineering passwords and stealing them from the database.

What is a rainbow table in the context of password security?

• a) A colorful visualization of password patterns

• A type of encryption algorithm used to secure passwords

• A precomputed table of password hashes for efficient password cracking

• A technique for securely storing passwords in a database

Answer explanation

A rainbow table is a precomputed table that contains a large number of password hashes and their corresponding plain text passwords. It is used as a time-memory tradeoff technique to speed up password cracking. Instead of computing the hash for each password attempt, which can be time-consuming, a rainbow table allows an attacker to look up the precomputed hash values and quickly find the corresponding plain text passwords. It is important for system administrators and users to employ strong and unique passwords to mitigate the effectiveness of rainbow table attacks.

Which of the following is a technique used to capture user keystrokes on a compromised system?

• Keylogging

• Brute forcing

• SQL injection

• Phishing

Which of the following is a technique used to prevent a buffer overflow attack?

• Input validation

• Brute force attack

• Man-in-the-middle attack

• Social engineering attack

Least privilege is a security concept that requires that a user is

• limited to those functions required to do the job

• given root or administrative privileges

• trusted to keep all data and access to that data under their sole control

• given privileges equal to everyone else in the department

Answer explanation

Least privilege is the principle of granting users the minimum level of access and permissions necessary to perform their authorized tasks, reducing the risk of potential misuse or unauthorized actions.