Reconnaissance: Information Gathering for the Ethical Hacker
This chapter includes questions from the following topics:
• Defining footprinting
• Describing information-gathering methodology
• Understanding the use of whois, ARIN, and nslookup
• Describing DNS record types
• Defining and describing Google hacking
• Using Google hacking
A friend of mine invited me to go “offshore” kayak fishing with him a couple weeks back. By offshore, he meant launching from the beach right down the road from my house and paddling out less than a mile. Some great fishing can be found right off the reef out there, and I almost immediately said yes. However, considering this was in the middle of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel and I had just watched a guy get torn in half by a giant great white, I thought I’d do some research first.
I looked into news reports online referencing any shark attacks in my local area. I then checked the local fishing magazines for anything shark and kayak related. I even went around asking other fishermen about it, and from all sources I got almost all positive remarks. I then spent time researching baits, fishing methods, and protective measures right outside the surf zone. Sure, I read the story of a spear-fisherman who had seen what appeared to be a great white a few dozen miles south of here, and the story about the bonito being ripped from the kayaker’s hand by a larger blacktip, but all my reconnaissance in preparing to attack the reef for larger fish told me it was a relatively safe trip. And once I get the courage to actually go do it, I’ll let you know how it goes.
In the meantime, this chapter is also all about reconnaissance and footprinting—the methods and tools for gathering information about your targets before you even try to attack them.
STUDY TIPS Tons of questions come from this particular segment of hacking, mainly because it’s so important to gather good intelligence before starting to attack. Make sure you spend lots of time getting very familiar with DNS, and by all means start practicing your Google hacking right now—you’ll definitely need it. Most Google hacking questions require you to know exact syntax, so be very careful in your study and practice.
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