Footprinting and Reconnaissance - Ethical Hacking CEH course

Footprinting, the first step in ethical hacking, refers to the process of collecting information about a target network and its environment. Using footprinting you can find various ways to intrude into the target organization's network system. It is considered "methodological" because critical information is sought based on a previous discovery.

Once you begin the footprinting process in a methodological manner, you will obtain the blueprint of the security profile of the target organization. Here the term "blueprint" is used because of result that you get at the end of footprinting refers to the unique system profile of the target of organization.

There is no single methodology for footprinting as you can trace information in several routes. However, this activity is important as all crucial information need to be gathered before you begin hacking. Hence, you should carry out the footprinting precisely and in an organized manner.

You can collect information about the target organization the means of footprinting in four steps:

1. Collect basic information about the target and its network

2. Determine the operating system used platforms running, web server versions etc.

3. Perform techniques such as Whois, DNS, network and organizational queries

4. Find vulnerabilities and exploits for launching attacks

Furthermore, we will discuss how to collect basic information, determine operating system of target computer, platforms running, and web server versions, various methods of footprinting.

Why Footprinting?

For attackers to build a hacking strategy, they need to gather information about the target organization's network, so that they can find the easiest way to break into the organization's security perimeter. As mentioned previously, footprinting is the easiest way to gather information about the target organization; this plays a vital role in the hacking process.

Footprinting helps to:

- Know Security Posture

Performing footprinting on the target organization in a systematic and methodical manner gives the complete profile of the organization's security posture. You can analyze this report to figure out loopholes in the security posture of your target organization and then you can build your hacking plan accordingly.

- Reduce Attack Area

By using a combination of tools and techniques, attackers can take an unknown entry (for example XYZ Organization) and reduce it to a specific range of domain names, network blocks, and individual IP addresses of system directly connected to the Internet, as well as many other details pertaining to its security posture.

- Build Information Database

A detail footprint provides maximum information about the target organization. Attackers can build their own information database about security weakness of the target organization. The database can then be analyzed to find the easiest way to break into he organization's security perimeter.

- Draw Network Map

Combination footprinting techniques with tools such as Tracert allows the attacker to create network diagrams of the target organization's network presence. This network map represents their understanding of the target's Internet footprint. These network diagrams can guide the attacks. 

Objectives of Footprinting

The major objectives of footprinting include collecting the target's network information, system information, and the organizational information. By carrying out footprinting at various network levels, you can gain information such as: network blocks, network services and applications, system architecture, intrusion detection systems, specific IP address, and access control mechanisms. With footprinting, information such as employee names, phone numbers, contact addresses, designations, and work experience, and so on can also be obtained.