Ethical Hacking Fundamentals


🔐 Ethical Hacking Fundamentals – Overview

Ethical Hacking is the authorized practice of bypassing system security to identify potential data breaches and threats in a network.
Ethical hackers help organizations strengthen security by finding and fixing vulnerabilities before malicious hackers exploit them.


🎯 Who Should Learn Ethical Hacking?

Ideal for:

  • IT students
  • Cybersecurity beginners
  • Network admins
  • Developers
  • Anyone preparing for CEH, OSCP, or cybersecurity careers

🧠 Core Concepts in Ethical Hacking

1️⃣ Introduction to Ethical Hacking

  • What is hacking?
  • White hat vs black hat vs grey hat
  • Roles & responsibilities of ethical hackers
  • Legal and ethical considerations

2️⃣ Cybersecurity Fundamentals

  • CIA Triad (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability)
  • Threats vs vulnerabilities vs attacks
  • Common attack vectors
  • Security policies & risk management

3️⃣ Footprinting & Reconnaissance

  • Active vs passive recon
  • OSINT (Open Source Intelligence)
  • WHOIS lookup
  • DNS enumeration
  • Google dorking

4️⃣ Scanning & Enumeration

  • Port scanning (Nmap)
  • Network scanning
  • Service detection
  • Banner grabbing
  • Vulnerability scanning tools

5️⃣ System Hacking Techniques

  • Password cracking
  • Privilege escalation
  • Malware types
  • Backdoors, trojans, rootkits
  • Keyloggers

6️⃣ Network Attacks

  • MITM (Man-in-the-middle)
  • ARP poisoning
  • Session hijacking
  • DoS/DDoS attacks

7️⃣ Web Application Hacking

  • OWASP Top 10
  • SQL injection
  • XSS
  • Directory traversal
  • CSRF
  • Burp Suite basics

8️⃣ Wireless Hacking

  • Wi-Fi security basics
  • WEP/WPA attacks
  • Deauthentication attacks
  • Aircrack-ng suite

9️⃣ Sniffing & Packet Analysis

  • Packet sniffers (Wireshark)
  • Protocol analysis
  • Detecting sniffing attacks

🔟 Tools Used in Ethical Hacking

  • Nmap
  • Metasploit
  • Burp Suite
  • John the Ripper
  • Aircrack-ng
  • Hydra
  • Wireshark
  • Nikto

🏁 Key Principles of Ethical Hackers

  • Work with permission only
  • Maintain confidentiality
  • Report findings responsibly
  • Do no harm
  • Follow a professional code of conduct

💼 Career Opportunities

  • Penetration Tester
  • Cybersecurity Analyst
  • Security Consultant
  • SOC Analyst
  • Vulnerability Assessment Engineer