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Assessment 3: Data Gathering, Footprinting, and Tools to Explore Domain Information
Sydney Berglund
IT-FPX4071 - Cyber Attack & Ethical Hacking
Capella University
Professor Kuhlman
March 2024
Table of Contents
Concepts.….…..……………………………………………………………………..3
Common Tools……………...……………………………………………………….3
Pre Attack Planning...……………..…………………………………………………4
Nslookup vs WHOis….……………………………………………………..….……4
Mitigation Tactics…………………………………………………………… ….…..5
References.…………………………………...……………………………………... 6
Concepts
Footprinting is an ethical hacking technique that is used to gather as much data as possible about a specific targeted computer system, the infrastructure, and networks. This is used
to identify opportunities and vulnerabilities that can be used to penetrate them. The process of footprinting involves profiling organizations and collecting data about the network, host, employees, and third-party partners. According to Zola (2021), “This information includes the OS used by the organization, firewalls, network maps, IP addresses, domain name system information, security configurations of the target machine, URLs, virtual private networks, staff IDs, email addresses and phone numbers”. There are two different types of footprinting and they are active and passive footprinting. Active foot printing involves using tools and techniques such as the traceroute and ping sweeps to collect data. However, these types of techniques can trigger an intrusion detection system of the target website. Passive footprinting is a less conspicuous approach to gathering data. This can be done through Google searches, researching employees through Google or their social medial platforms, or you can use the tool like WhoIs. The steps for footprinting include identifying tagets, gathering information, analyzing the results, and planning attacks. Common Tools
There are many tools available to both ethical and malicious hackers to complete footprinting. One of the most widely known tools is WhoIs. This tool gives basic information such as the registrar, expiration date, and other registrant information. Another tool is the NSlookup. This is a command line tool that is used to find the IP address or domain name system
record for a specific host name. There are two modes to the NSlookup. They are interactive and
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non-interactive. According to Sentika (2024), “Interactive mode lets users enter additional parameters, allowing them to query namservers for multiple information about domains or hosts”. The non-interactive mode only gives a single piece of information. Another tool is Sam Spade which we also used in our lab this week. Sam Spade is a program that runs on Windows and makes footprinting quicker and easier. According to Panhalkar (2019), “this software integrates the capabilities found in ping, traceroute, time, whois, nslookup, finger, DIG, a packet sniffer, a port scanner, a scripting language, and more”. Pre Attack Planning
Ethical hackers need to do pre attack planning to make sure they discover vulnerabilities before malicious hackers find and exploit those vulnerabilities. According to Menacherry (2023),
“Ethical hacking is vital to modern cybersecurity, as it helps organizations identify and address security threats before attackers exploit them”. Once the vulnerabilities are found organizations can use the information to make decisions on how to improve the cybersecurity posture. Ethical hackers will use the following techniques. Scanning ports to find vulnerabilities. This is usually done with Nmap, Nessus, and Wireshark. They also scrutinize the patch installation process. This is to be sure that the patches to software do not cause any new vulnerabilities. They may also attempt to evade intrusion detection systems (IDS) as well as testing methods for SQL Injection detection. This way malicious hackers cannot introduce security exploits information contained in SQL-based databases. Nslookup vs WHOis
The biggest difference between NSlookup and WhoIs, is the data which you receive by using them. One will query the DNS server and the other queries the WhoIs servers. The
NSlookup tool is a command line tool that is used to discover the IP Address, or the DNS record associated with a specific domain name. It can also be used to perform a reverse DNS lookup which allows you to find the domain attached to an IP address. The NSlookup also allows you to troubleshoot DNS-related problems, check if a host server is reachable by pinging it, and look up
domain namservers and other resource records. WhoIs is another command line tool but this gives you the domain registration data. This does include information about the domain owner. This command line queries a central database for a domain or IP to find out who owns it. It can also give information about administrative contacts and other relevant details. Mitigation Tactics
With the information gathered through the NSlookup and WhoIs an ethical hacker may be able to find misconfigurations. They may find DNS setting or domain registrations errors that can create network connectivity problems. Connectivity issues may arise from out-of-date contact details, expired domain registrations, or erroneous DNS entries. With this information ethical hackers are also able to provide organizations with steps to take to be able to remedy any misconfigurations or other vulnerabilities that are found. They can provide an organization with security measures to help mitigate illegal access or domain hijacking. Such as access controls and password management policies. updating DNS records, renewing domain registrations, and fixing configuration errors. The ethical hacker can also offer suggestions to the organization for enhancing their network infrastructure security and DNS in general. These steps can help future connectivity problems and possible security breaches. All of these steps are used to maintain network stability and security for the organization. With black hat hackers becoming more
prevalent. The need for ethical hackers has grown immensely, in order to maintain cybersecurity for not only organizations as a whole, but also for individuals.
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References
Menacherry, R. (2023, March 19). A Complete guide on how to learn 5 Phases of Ethical Hacking & Techniques, Tools used in each phase.
Medium. https://reggiemenacherry.medium.com/a-complete-guide-on-how-to-learn-5-phases-of-
ethical-hacking-techniques-tools-used-in-each-phase-5b5d6ec34742#:~:text=Ethical
%20hackingis%20vital%20to%20modern%20cybersecurity%2C%20as%20it
Panhalkar, T. (2019, November 12). Foot printing tools
. Infosavvy Security and IT Management Training. https://info-savvy.com/footprinting-and-scanning-tools/
Sentika, A. (2024, February 20). What Is nslookup Command and How to Use It
. Hostinger Tutorials. https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/what-is-nslookup#:~:text=nslookup%20is
%20a%20command-line%20tool%20to%20discover%20the
Zola, A. (2021, November). What is footprinting in ethical hacking?
SearchSecurity. https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/footprinting