Week 4

This week, we moved deeper into the reconnaissance phase of ethical hacking by focusing on target discovery and enumeration. Once initial information is gathered, the next step is to actively identify live systems, open ports, and services running on a target network.

What is Target Discovery?

Target discovery is the process of finding which systems within a network are active and reachable. It’s the first active step where tools begin interacting with the target — which also increases the chances of being detected, so stealth is key.

We looked at how Kali Linux provides built-in tools to perform this task efficiently and safely.

Tools and Techniques Covered

We explored several core concepts and tools:

  • OS Fingerprinting – Techniques used to determine the target machine's operating system by analyzing how it responds to certain network traffic.

  • TCP/IP and UDP Characteristics – Understanding how these protocols behave is crucial for crafting effective scans and interpreting responses correctly.

  • Port and Network Scanning – This includes scanning for open ports, services, and understanding which systems are responding and which are not.

Tools like nmap help perform these tasks by sending packets and analyzing responses.

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