Types Of Website Vulnerabilities

SQL Injection Vulnerabilities (SQLi)

Structured Query Language (SQL) is now so commonly used to manage and direct information on applications that hackers have come up with ways to slip their own SQL commands into the database. These commands may change, steal or delete data, and they may also allow the hacker access to the root system. SQL (officially pronounced ess-cue-el, but commonly pronounced “sequel”) stands for structured query language; it’s a programming language used to communicate with databases. Many of the servers that store critical data for websites and services use SQL to manage the data in their databases.

SQL injection vulnerabilities refer to areas in website code where direct user input is passed to a database. Bad actors utilize these forms to inject malicious code, sometimes called payloads, into a website’s database. This allows the cybercriminal to access the website in a variety of ways, including:

• Injecting malicious/spam posts into a site
• Stealing customer information
• Bypassing authentication to gain full control of the website

Due to its versatility, SQL injection is one of the most commonly exploited website vulnerabilities. It is frequently used to gain access to open source content management system (CMS) applications, such as Joomla!, WordPress and Drupal. SQL injection attacks, for example, have even been linked to a breach of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and a popular video game forum for Grand Theft Auto, resulting in exposed user credentials.

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

In an SQL injection attack, an attacker goes after a vulnerable website to target its stored data, such as user credentials or sensitive financial data. But if the attacker would rather directly target a website’s users, they may opt for a cross-site scripting attack. Similar to an SQL injection attack, this attack also involves injecting malicious code into a website or web-based app. However, in this case the malicious code the attacker has injected only runs in the user’s browser when they visit the attacked website, and it goes after the visitor directly.

This often means attackers are injecting JavaScript on the website, so that the script is executed in the visitor’s browser. Browsers are unable to discern whether or not the script is intended to be part of the website, resulting in malicious actions, including:

• Session hijacking
• Spam content being distributed to unsuspecting visitors
• Stealing session data

Some of the largest scale attacks against WordPress have been from cross site-scripting vulnerabilities. However, XSS is not limited only to open source applications. Recently, a cross-site scripting vulnerability was found in gaming giant Steam’s system that potentially exposed login credentials to attackers.

Command Injection

Command injection vulnerabilities allow attackers to remotely pass and execute code on the website’s hosting server. This is done when user input that is passed to the server, such as header information, is not properly validated, allowing attackers to include shell commands with the user information. Command injection attacks are particularly critical because they can allow bad actors to initiate the following:

• Hijack an entire site
• Hijack an entire hosting server
• Utilize the hijacked server in botnet attacks

One of the most dangerous and widespread command injection vulnerabilities was the Shellshock vulnerability that impacted most Linux distributions.

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

A Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attack is when a victim is forced to perform an unintended action on a web application they are logged into. The web application will have already deemed the victim and their browser trustworthy, and so executes an action intended by the hacker when the victim is tricked into submitting a malicious request to the application. This has been used for everything from harmless pranks on users to illicit money transfers.

As a result, attackers may be able to take the following actions using valid user input:

• Change order values and product prices
• Transfer funds from one account to another
• Change user passwords to hijack accounts

These types of attacks are particularly vexing for ecommerce and banking sites where attackers can gain access to sensitive financial information. A CSRF attack was recently used to seize all control of a Brazilian bank’s DNS settings for over five hours.

File Inclusion (LFI/RFI)

Remote file inclusion (RFI) attacks use the include functions in server-side web application languages like PHP to execute code from a remotely stored file. Attackers host malicious files and then take advantage of improperly sanitized user input to inject or modify an include function into the victim site’s PHP code. This inclusion can then be used to initiate the following:

• Deliver malicious payloads that can be used to include attack and phishing pages in a visitors’ browsers
• Include malicious shell files on publicly available websites
• Take control of a website admin panel or host server

Local File Inclusion (LFI), like remote file inclusion, can occur when user input is able to modify the full or absolute path to included files. Attackers can then use this vector to gain, read or write access to sensitive local files— for example, configuration files containing database credentials. The attacker could also perform a directory traversal attack, amending an included file path to review the back end and host server files, exposing sensitive data. A local file inclusion attack has to potential to become a remote file inclusion attack if, for example, the attacker is able to include log files that were previously seeded with malicious code by the attacker through public interaction.

These types of vulnerabilities are frequently used to launch other attacks, such as DDoS and cross-site scripting attacks. They have also been used to expose and steal sensitive financial information, such as when Starbucks fell victim to an inclusion attack leading to a compromise of customer credit card data.

Mitigating and Preventing Vulnerabilities

There are easy steps you can take to mitigate and prevent vulnerabilities from allowing hackers to gain unauthorized access to your website.

Update your applications – The first critical step in securing your website is to ensure all applications and their associated plugins are up to date. Vendors frequently release imperative security patches for their applications and it is important to perform these updates in a timely manner. Malicious actors stay in the loop on open source application news, and are known to use update notices as a blueprint for finding vulnerable websites. Subscribing to automatic application updates and email notifications on critical patches will help you stay one step ahead of the attackers.

Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) – Web application firewalls are the first line of defense against those probing your website for vulnerabilities. Web application firewalls filter out bad traffic from ever accessing your website. This includes blocking bots, known spam or attack IP addresses, automated scanners, and attack based user input.

Use a malware scanner – Your last line of defense is the use of a reputable automated malware scanner. It is recommended you find one that can automatically identify and vulnerabilities and remove known malware.

>>>>>More advanced programmers may opt to manually review their code and implement PHP filters to sanitize user input. This includes methodologies such as limiting image upload forms to only .jpg or .gif files, and whitelisting form submissions to only allow expected input.

Understanding the types of vulnerabilities that hackers may attempt to use to exploit your web applications is an important first step to securing your website. Vulnerabilities can have dire consequences for not only your website and server, but for your customers’ data as well.

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Creating Wireless Signals with Ethernet Cable to Steal Data from Air-Gapped Systems

 A newly discovered data exfiltration mechanism employs Ethernet cables as a “transmitting antenna” to stealthily siphon highly-sensitive data from air-gapped systems, according to the latest research.

Dubbed “LANtenna Attack,” the novel technique enables malicious code in air-gapped computers to amass sensitive data and then encode it over radio waves emanating from Ethernet cables just as if they are antennas. The transmitted signals can then be intercepted by a nearby software-defined radio (SDR) receiver wirelessly, the data decoded, and sent to an attacker who is in an adjacent room.

“Notably, the malicious code can run in an ordinary user-mode process and successfully operate from within a virtual machine,” the researchers noted in an accompanying paper titled “LANTENNA: Exfiltrating Data from Air-Gapped Networks via Ethernet Cables.”

Air-gapped networks are designed as a network security measure to minimize the risk of information leakage and other cyber threats by ensuring that one or more computers are physically isolated from other networks, such as the internet or a local area network. They are usually wired since machines that are part of such networks have their wireless network interfaces permanently disabled or physically removed.

This is far from the first time Dr. Guri has demonstrated unconventional ways to leak sensitive data from air-gapped computers. In February 2020, the security researcher devised a method that employs small changes in LCD screen brightness, which remain invisible to the naked eye, to modulate binary information in morse-code-like patterns covertly.

Then in May 2020, Dr. Guri showed how malware could exploit a computer’s power supply unit (PSU) to play sounds and use it as an out-of-band, secondary speaker to leak data in an attack called “POWER-SUPPLaY.” Lastly, in December 2020, the researcher showed off “AIR-FI,” an attack that leverages Wi-Fi signals as a covert channel to exfiltrate confidential information without even requiring the presence of dedicated Wi-Fi hardware on the targeted systems.

The LANtenna attack is no different in that it works by using the malware in the air-gapped workstation to induce the Ethernet cable to generate electromagnetic emissions in the frequency bands of 125 MHz that are then modulated and intercepted by a nearby radio receiver. In a proof-of-concept demo, data transmitted from an air-gapped computer through its Ethernet cable was received at a distance of 200 cm apart.

Like other data leakage attacks of this kind, triggering the infection requires the deployment of the malware on the target network via any one of different infection vectors that range from supply chain attacks or contaminated USB drives to social engineering techniques, stolen credentials, or by using malicious insiders. As countermeasures, the researchers propose prohibiting the use of radio receivers in and around air-gapped networks and monitoring the network interface card link layer activity for any covert channel, as well as jamming the signals, and using metal shielding to limit electromagnetic fields from interfering with or emanating from the shielded wires.

“This paper shows that attackers can exploit the Ethernet cables to exfiltrate data from air-gapped networks,” the researchers said in the paper. “Malware installed in a secured workstation, laptop, or embedded device can invoke various network activities that generate electromagnetic emissions from Ethernet cables.” “Dedicated and expensive antennas yield better distance and could reach tens of meters with some cables,” Dr. Guri added.

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What is Computer Network? Why the Networking Skills is Important for Hackers?

 Today you can see in all over the world their are almost all devices are connected to one and another. Internet is also a computer network in which billions of computers and devices are connecting together.

Example

If their is a Router in your house and your computer, television and others devices are connecting with the router to share information.

So this is an example of internal network. And if your house devices are connected to the router and your router is connecting to the ISP and your ISP is connecting to the other large network then a big network is produced. So this network is called external network/internet. ISP means Internet Service Provider which can provide you internet.

Now we can discuss about why the networking skills is important for hackers:

If you become a professional hacker you must be know about the network and how a network work. You know about the network models, IP address and network protocols etc.

Networking skills is very important in the field of hacking. Almost all devices are connected to the network. Supposed if a hacker access to victim network. So he/she can do anything thing with the victim computers. Ethical hacker can also know about the knowledge of networking. So he/she can solved the problems if any bad hacker can attack on the network

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Why Programming is important for Hackers?

 

How Programming helps hackers?

From web application security to network application security, anything and everything is about coding. In addition, having an expert programming hand gives you an advantage and makes you independent to design your attack accordingly. Hackers work anonymously and this is their greatest strength.

Having a good knowledge of creating malicious applications can help you destabilize entire platforms with a little help from hacking tools. Many hacking tools available for free on the Internet to help you a little on your adventures, but you can also buy hacking tools for specific target operations.

Why programming is the most important skill for hackers?

Mastering a programming language allows you to be self-dependent and gives you the knowledge of working of programs to exploit them easily. Even though exploit development is mainly done in the assembly language in debuggers, learning the functioning of a program could be very useful.

It’ll help you to write your own exploits in C/C++ and ditch the frameworks like Metasploit. Learning programming also gives you the power to create your own custom malware, making it difficult for an antivirus software to detect.

Most of the hacking tools are freely available and open source. So, if you’ve mastered the art of programming, using hacking tools and making them better is an easy task.

So, before you start with the basics of hacking, learn to code and create a solid foundation.

What programming languages are typically used by hackers?

There are no set programming languages that can be used when hacking computers, but there are some ones that are more common than others:

• Python: This is the most popular all around language for anything related to cybersecurity. It’s a security professionals programming language of choice and a good one to start with.
• PHP: This language isn’t as popular as it once was but there are still many applications and scripts that are written in PHP. Therefore, it’s still very useful to be familiar with it. One big example of this wordpress, wordpress is written in PHP and supports millions of websites on the internet. Approximately 40% of all websites run on wordpress, which means they run on a PHP application.
• Javascript: This language has become extremely popular for anything to do with web design and animations. Therefore, for anything to do with web application or website hacking it’s useful to know javascript. Also, it’s the language primarily used in cross site scripting attacks (XSS).
• C/C++: This language is very popular for memory based attacks such as a buffer overflow attack. C doesn’t have the same built in controls that other languages have, which means you can use it to perform some unique attacks. A buffer overflow takes advantage of the fact that the language doesn’t have built in memory control and purposely overwrites certain parts of memory in order to perform an attack.

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What is a Penetration Test and Why Do Hacker Need It?

 

What Is Penetration Testing?

Organizations can define penetration testing by what it is meant to assess. That includes all networks, applications, devices, and physical security components. It mimics the actions of malicious actors. Experienced cybersecurity experts leverage penetration testing to improve a company’s security posture and remove any vulnerabilities that leave it open to attack.

When appropriately done, penetration testing goes beyond merely stopping criminals from unauthorized access to a company’s systems. It creates real-world scenarios that show businesses how well their current defenses would fare when confronted with a full-scale cyber attack.

The five main types of penetration testing are targeted testing, internal testing, external testing, blind testing, and double-blind testing. Each type of testing gives an attacker a different level of access to an organization’s system and applications.

Here are two examples of penetration tests:

• Providing a team of pen testers with an organization’s office address and telling them to attempt to enter their systems. The different techniques the team could use to break into the system include social engineering (asking a lower-level staffer to conduct safety checks) and complex application-specific attacks.
• A pen tester could be granted access to a version of a web application that has not yet been utilized and then try to break in and launch an attack.

When an organization performs penetration testing depends on multiple factors, including:

• Online presence size
• Company budget
• Regulation and compliance
• Whether or not an organization’s IT infrastructure is in the cloud

Why Do I Need a Penetration Test?

Penetration tests let companies evaluate the overall security of their IT infrastructure. A company may have robust security protocols in one area but be lacking in another. The high cost of a successful cyber attack means no company should wait for a real-world scenario to play out before going on offense. Using penetration testing tools to expose holes in a business’s security layer allows security experts and Pen Testers to address any shortcomings before they become critical liabilities.

• Test Security Controls — Gain insights into the overall health of your application, network, and physical security layers.
• Find Real-World Vulnerabilities — Expose endpoints in your computer systems most susceptible to attacks from adversaries.
• Ensure Compliance — Companies can maintain information security compliance with industry standards for penetration testing.
• Reinforce Security Posture — Penetration testing assists businesses in prioritizing and addressing their vulnerability with a security program.

What Are the Different Types of Penetration Testing?

Network vulnerabilities typically fall into three categories: hardware, software, and human. Let’s look at different testing types to understand more about what a pen test consists of and what types of potential vulnerabilities your business is facing;

Web Application Pen Testing

Web App Penetration tests search out places in an application open to exploitation by a hacker. Installing a new third-party component that allows viewing sensitive data on a company website could provide an opening into company systems. Security consultants carry out attack simulations designed to:

• Find application security flaws.
• Summarize the risks they present to a company.
• Provide insights into how to address the flaws.

Strategies to address web application vulnerabilities like:

Cross-Site Request Forgery

• Injection Flaws (Sql Injection,Html Injection,etc.)
• Weak Session Management
• Cross-Site Scripting
• Insecure Direct Object References

Network Security Pen Testing

When it comes to network security, experts use network penetration tests to find places a hacker might exploit in various systems, networks, network devices (think routers, switches), and hosts. They look for ways a hacker might find real-world opportunities to compromise a company, gain access, or unauthorized access to sensitive data. Many also try to take over the company’s systems for malicious purposes

Focused network infrastructure penetration testing to identify system-level and network flaws like:

• Misconfigurations
• Product-specific Vulnerabilities
• Wireless Network Vulnerabilities
• Rogue Services
• Weak Passwords
• Inadequate, Inconsistent or Non-Existent Password Protocols

Physical Penetration Testing

Physical penetration testing measures the strength of a company’s existing security controls. It looks for any weaknesses vulnerable to discovery and manipulation by hackers. They may compromise physical barriers like sensors, cameras, and locks to gain physical access to sensitive business areas. That could lead to data breaches through compromising systems and networks.

Some of the industries most concerned about these kinds of attacks include:

• Casinos
• Banking Institutions
• Technology Firms
• Healthcare Institutions
• Government Services
• Hospitality Services
• Retail Services
• Armored Transport Services

Leveraging physical penetration testing helps organizations stop unauthorized access into secure environments. It also provides invaluable insights into remedial guidance and ways to correct critical issues.

Cryptocurrency Penetration Testing

Cryptocurrency pen tests look for weaknesses in software, applications, systems, hosts, and devices used in cryptocurrency transactions and storage protocols. They should also check the social engineering aspect, like phishing attempts on company employees, vendors, and other stakeholders to gain passwords or other essential data to hack cryptocurrency networks.

cryptocurrency pen testing scenarios mimicking physical attacks on cryptocurrency facilities like:

• Bitcoin ATMs
• Hardware Storage Facilities
• Private Residents

Cloud Security Penetration Testing

Cloud security pen tests are essential in helping companies invested in cloud technology protect vulnerable assets. The flexibility and autonomy offered by solutions like Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) technology also expose organizations to new security threats.

potential exposures from an organization’s application, network, and configuration in a business’s cloud set up that could give hackers access to:

• Company Credentials
• Internal Systems
• Sensitive Data

IoT Security Penetration Testing

IoT security pen tests focus on exposing any hardware and software flaws that could allow bad actors to access a business’s sensitive data or take over company systems. They examine the different components in IoT devices for vulnerabilities like:

• Weak Passwords
• Insecure Protocols
• Insecure APIs
• Insecure Communication Channels
• Misconfigurations
• Product-specific Vulnerabilities

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Terminologies In Hacking

 

Following Is List Of Important Terms Used Within The Field Of Hacking :-

Adware — Adware is software designed to pressure pre-chosen advertisements to show on your system.

Attack —An assault is an action that is carried out on a machine to get its access and extract sensitive information.

Backdoor – A back door, or entice door, is a hidden access to a computing device or software program that bypasses security measures, which include logins and password protections.

Bot – A bot is a software that automates an action so that it could be performed again and again at a far higher charge for a more sustained period than a human operator should do it. For example, sending HTTP, FTP or Telnet at a higher rate or calling script to create gadgets at a higher fee.

Botnet — A botnet, also known as zombie army, is a set of computers controlled without their owners’ information. Botnets are used to send unsolicited mail or make denial of carrier assaults.

Brute force attack — A brute pressure attack is an automated and the most effective type of technique to benefit access to a machine or website. It attempts different aggregate of usernames and passwords, time and again again, until it gets in.

Buffer Overflow — Buffer Overflow is a flaw that happens when more statistics is written to a block of reminiscence, or buffer, than the buffer is allotted to hold.

Clone phishing — Clone phishing is the amendment of an existing, legitimate e-mail with a false link to trick the recipient into offering private records.

Cracker – A cracker is person who modifies the software program to get admission to the functions that are considered undesirable via the person cracking the software, especially replica protection functions.

Denial of service assault (DoS) — A denial of service (DoS) assault is a malicious try to make a server or a network aid unavailable to customers, typically by quickly interrupting or postponing the offerings of a host connected to the Internet.

DDoS – Distributed denial of service assault.

Exploit Kit – An exploit kit is software gadget designed to run on internet servers, with the reason of figuring out software program vulnerabilities in purchaser machines speaking with it and exploiting located vulnerabilities to upload and execute malicious code on the client.

Exploit — Exploit is a bit of software program, a chunk of facts, or a series of instructions that takes advantage of a bug or vulnerability to compromise the security of a pc or community system.

Firewall —A firewall is a filter designed to hold undesirable intruders out of doors a pc machine or community while allowing safe verbal exchange between systems and users on the internal of the firewall.

Keystroke logging — Keystroke logging is the method of monitoring the keys which might be pressed on a computer (and which touchscreen points are used). It is virtually the map of a pc/human interface. It is utilized by grey and black hat hackers to report login IDs and passwords. Keyloggers are typically secreted onto a device the usage of a Trojan introduced through a phishing email.

Logic bomb — A virus secreted into a device that triggers a malicious action when sure situations are met. The most common version is the time bomb.

Malware — Malware is an umbrella term used to refer to a range of sorts of hostile or intrusive software program, including pc viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, scareware, and other malicious programs.

Master Program — A master program is the program a black hat hacker makes use of to remotely transmit instructions to infected zombie drones, normally to carry out Denial of Service assaults or unsolicited mail attacks.

Phishing — Phishing is an electronic mail fraud approach in which the culprit sends out valid-looking emails, in an try to gather non-public and financial statistics from recipients.

Phreaker – Phreakers are taken into consideration the original laptop hackers and they’re folks that smash into the telephone network illegally, normally to make free longdistance phone calls or to tap cellphone lines.

Rootkit — Rootkit is a stealthy sort of software, usually malicious, designed to hide the lifestyles of positive approaches or applications from regular methods of detection and enable persisted privileged get right of entry to a computer.

Shrink Wrap code – A Shrink Wrap code assault is an act of exploiting holes in unpatched or poorly configured software.

Social engineering — Social engineering implies deceiving someone with the purpose of acquiring sensitive and nonpublic information, like credit score card info or consumer names and passwords.

Spam — A Spam is genuinely an unsolicited e mail, also called junk electronic mail, despatched to a massive number of recipients without their consent.

Spoofing – Spoofing is a technique used to benefit unauthorized access to computers, whereby the intruder sends messages to a computer with an IP deal with indicating that the message is coming from a relied on host.

Spyware — Spyware is software program that aims to acquire facts about a person or agency with out their understanding and that can ship such facts to another entity without the consumer’s consent, or that asserts manipulate over a computer without the consumer’s understanding.

SQL Injection – SQL injection is an SQL code injection technique, used to assault information-pushed applications, in which malicious SQL statements are inserted into an entry subject for execution (e.G. To dump the database contents to the attacker).

Threat – A chance is a likely threat that can exploit an existing bug or vulnerability to compromise the safety of a pc or network machine.

Trojan — A Trojan, or Trojan Horse, is a malicious program disguised to seem like a valid application, making it tough to differentiate from packages which can be supposed to be there designed with an goal to destroy documents, alter statistics, thieve passwords or different information.

Virus — A virus is a worm or a bit of code which is able to copying itself and usually has a detrimental effect, which include corrupting the device or destroying statistics.

Vulnerability —A vulnerability is a weak spot which allows a hacker to compromise the safety of a laptop or network machine.

Worms – A worm is a self-replicating virus that doesn’t alter files but is living in active memory and duplicates itself.

Cross-site Scripting – Cross-website scripting (XSS) is a sort of computer safety vulnerability generally discovered in net applications. XSS allows attackers to inject purchaser-facet script into net pages considered through different customers.

Zombie Drone – A Zombie Drone is defined as a hi-jacked laptop this is getting used anonymously as a soldier or ‘drone’ for malicious activity, for example, distributing undesirable unsolicited mail e-mails.

Encryption – is a process of encoding a message or information to make it unreadable and secretive. This ensures that the concerned information is concealed only to the authorized parties. Often, encryption is employed by hackers to extort money by unleashing ransomware on computer systems, thus locking out victims and encrypting their files. The decryption key is provided only when a certain ransom is paid.

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The Essential Skills to Become A Ethical Hacker

 

1 – Computer Skills

Computer skills are knowledge and ability which allow one to use computers and related technology. Typically, basic computer skills include data processing, managing computer files, and creating presentations. Advanced computer skills include managing databases, programming, and running calculations in spreadsheets. Some of the most essential computer skills are MS Office, Spreadsheets, Email, Database Management, Social Media, Web, Enterprise systems, etc. An ethical hacker needs to be a computer systems expert.

2 – Networking Skills

One of the most important skills to become an ethical hacker is networking skills. The computer network is nothing but the interconnection of multiple devices, generally termed as Hosts connected using multiple paths to send/receive data or media.

You need to understand the basics of networking, such as the following.

• DHCP
• NAT
• Subnetting
• IPv4
• IPv6 Public v Private IP
• DNS
• Routers and switches
• VLANs
• OSI model
• MAC addressing
• ARP

As we are often exploiting these technologies, the better you understand how they work, the more successful you will be.

3 – Linux Skills

Linux is a community of open-source Unix like operating systems that are based on the Linux Kernel. It is a free and open-source operating system and the source code can be modified and distributed to anyone commercially or non commercially under the GNU General Public License. The main reason to learn Linux for an ethical hacker is, in terms of security, Linux is more secure than any other operating system. It does not mean that Linux is 100 percent secure it has some malware for it but is less vulnerable than any other operating system. So, it does not require any anti-virus software.

4 – Security Concepts & Technologies

A good hacker understands security concepts and technologies. The only way to overcome the roadblocks established by the security admins is to be familiar with them. The hacker must understand such things as PKI (public key infrastructure), SSL (secure sockets layer), IDS (intrusion detection system), firewalls, etc.

5 – Scripting & Programming Skills

Without scripting skills, the hacker will be relegated to using other hackers’ tools. This limits your effectiveness. Every day a new tool is in existence loses effectiveness as security admins come up with defenses.

To develop your own unique tools, you will need to become proficient at least in one of the scripting languages including the BASH shell.

Another most important skill to become an ethical hacker is Programming Skills. So what does the word programming in the computer world actually means? It means, “The act of writing code understood by a computational device to perform various instructions.” So, to get better at programming, one will be writing a lot of code! Before one writes code he/she must choose the best programming language for his/her programming.

6 – Database Skills

If you want to be able to proficiently hack databases, you will need to understand databases and how they work. This includes the SQL language. I would also recommend the mastery of one of the major DBMS’s such SQL Server, Oracle, or MySQL.

7 – Basic Hardware Knoweledge

Computer hardware comprises the physical parts of a computer, like the central processing unit (CPU), monitor, mouse, keyboard, computer data storage, graphics card, sound card, speakers and motherboard, etc. By contrast, the software is the set of instructions that can be stored and run by hardware. For example, suppose one wants to hack a machine that is controlled by a computer. First, he needs to know about the machine or how it works. Last, he has to get access to the computer that controls the machine. Now, the machine will have a very good software security system; however, hackers don’t care about hardware security, so he can play with the hardware if he can access it. If one doesn’t know about hardware, then how will he/she know how the motherboard works, how USBs to transfer data, or how CMOS or BIOS work together, etc.? So one must have basic hardware knowledge also to become an ethical hacker.

8 – Web Applications

Web applications are probably the most fertile ground for hackers in recent years. The more you understand about how web applications work and the databases behind them, the more successful you will be. In addition, you will likely need to build your own website for phishing and other nefarious purposes.

9 – Reverse Engineering

Reverse Engineering is a process of recovering the design, requirement specifications, and functions of a product from an analysis of its code. It builds a program database and generates information from this. The objective of reverse engineering is to expedite the maintenance work by improving the understandability of a system and to produce the necessary documents for a legacy system. In software security, reverse engineering is widely used to ensure that the system lacks any major security flaws or vulnerabilities. It helps to make a system robust, thereby protecting it from hackers and spyware. Some developers even go as far as hacking their system to identify vulnerabilities – a system referred to as ethical hacking.

10 – Forensics

To become good hacker, you must not be caught! You can’t become a pro hacker sitting in a prison cell for 5 years. The more you know about digital forensics, the better you can become at avoiding and evading detection.

11 – Cryptography Skills

Cryptography is the study and application of techniques for reliable communication in the presence of third parties called adversaries. It deals with developing and analyzing protocols that prevent malicious third parties from retrieving information being shared between two entities thereby following the various aspects of information security. Cryptography deals with converting a normal text/message known as plain text to a non-readable form known as ciphertext during the transmission to make it incomprehensible to hackers. An ethical hacker must assure that communication between different people within the organization does not leak.

12 – Problem-solving Skills

Problem-solving skills help one to determine the source of a problem and find an effective solution. Apart from the technical skills pointed above, an ethical hacker also must be a critical thinker and dynamic problem solver. They must be wanting to learn new ways and ensure all security breaches are thoroughly checked. This requires tons of testing and an ingenious penchant to device new ways of problem-solving.

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