Learn
Hacking Techniques and Methodologies
The vocabulary of offensive and assessment work, taught with the defender's view of how each idea is recognized and limited.
- Describe assessment phases from reconnaissance through reporting
- Explain common web and identity attacks in plain language
- Connect each idea to a defensive control
Assessment phases
- Enumeration
Asking in-scope systems for details such as users, shares, or services.
- Exploitation
Using a weakness, inside a written scope, to prove an unintended effect.
- Footprinting
Mapping the names, addresses, and technologies an organization exposes.
- OSINT
Information gathered from sources that are already public.
- Penetration Testing
An authorized exercise that demonstrates impact and reports the fixes.
- Port Scanning
Probing an authorized host to see which ports respond.
- Reconnaissance
Gathering information before an authorized assessment goes further.
- Vulnerability Assessment
A systematic search for known weaknesses on systems in scope.
Post-access
- Lateral Movement
Moving from one internal system to another after an initial foothold.
- Persistence
Keeping unauthorized access across a reboot or a password change.
- Privilege Escalation
Gaining more access than an account or process was supposed to have.
Human layer
- Phishing
A deceptive message that impersonates a trusted party to steal a secret or prompt a click.
- Social Engineering
Manipulating a person into revealing information or taking an unsafe action.
Identity attacks
- Brute-Force Attack
Trying secrets exhaustively until one works or the possibilities run out.
- Dictionary Attack
Trying likely words and leaked passwords from a list.
- Password Attack
An attempt to learn or bypass a password by guessing or testing a hash.
Web
- Cross-Site Request Forgery
A malicious site that reuses your existing login to submit a request.
- Cross-Site Scripting
Untrusted content that a browser can be tricked into treating as code.
- SQL Injection
Untrusted input that changes the meaning of a database query.
Network attacks
- Denial of Service
A condition that keeps legitimate users from reaching a service.
- Man-in-the-Middle
An on-path attacker who can read or change unprotected traffic.
Method
- Threat Modeling
A structured way to ask what can go wrong before you build or change a system.
Frameworks
- CVE
A public identifier for one known vulnerability.
- CVSS
A 0.0 to 10.0 standard score for the severity of a vulnerability.
- MITRE ATT&CK
A public matrix of adversary tactics and techniques used as shared vocabulary.
Ethics
- Rules of Engagement
The written permission that defines scope, timing, and emergency contacts.