Ethical hacking is a way of referring to the act of a person using their computing and security knowledge to perform tests on networks and find vulnerabilities, then report them and take action, without doing harm.
The idea is to have knowledge of which elements within a network are vulnerable and correct it before theft of information occurs, for example.
These tests are called "pen tests" or "penetration tests", where multiple ways are attempted to circumvent the security of the network to steal sensitive information from an organization, and then report it to that organization and improve its security.
Depending on where the intrusion tests are executed, the ethical hacking can be internal or external.
External Ethical Hacking
This type of hacking is done from the Internet on the public network infrastructure of the client; that is to say about those teams of the organization that are exposed to the Internet because they provide a public service. Example of public equipment: Router, Firewall, Web Server, Mail Server, Name Server (DNS) etc.
Internal Ethical Hacking
As its name suggests this type of hacking is executed in the internal network of the client, from the point of view of a employee of the empereza, a consultant or a business associate who has access to the corporate network.
In this type of intrusion tests, security holes are usually found more than in their external counterparts because many system administrators are concerned about protecting the perimeter of their network and underestimate the internal attacker. This last is a mistake since studies show that most successful attacks come from inside the company.
Hacking Modalities
Depending on the modality that the client provides to the consultant, the ethical hacking service can be executed in one of 3 modes: Black-box Hacking, Gray-box Hacking, white-box Hacking. The chosen modality will affect the cost and duration of the intrusion tests, since the less information received the greater the time spent investigating by the auditor.
Black Box Hacking
This mode is applied to external intrusion tests. is called in this way, because the client only provides the name of the company to audit the consultant, so this work blindly, the infrastructure of the organization is a black box for him.
While this type of audit is considered more realistic since usually an external aggressor who chooses a victim X does not have more information at the beginning than the name of the organization to attack, it is also true that it requires a greater investment of time and therefore the Cost included is also superior. additionally it should be noted that the ethical hacker - unlike the Cracker - does not have all the time in the world to perform the intrusion tests, so the preliminary phase of inquiry can not be extended beyond what in practical terms is possible for the client in terms of Cost / Time / Benefit.
Gray Box Hacking
Gray box hacking is often used as a synonym to refer to internal intrusion testing. but some auditors also call them Gray-Box-Hacking an external test to which the client provides limited information about the public equipment to be audited. Example: a list with data such as IP addresses and the Type / Function of the equipment (Router, Firewall, Web-Server, etc.
When the term is applied to internal tests is so named because the consultant receives by the customer access only that would have an employee of the company, ie a network point for the station of audit and local configuration data (IP , Subnet Mask, Gateway and DNS); but it does not disclose additional information such as: User / Password to enter the domain / the existence of attached Subnets etc.
White Box Hacking
White Box Hacking, sometimes called Transparent Hacking. This method is applied to intrusion tests only and is called in this way because the client company gives the auditor complete information about the networks and systems to be audited.
That is, in addition to assigning a network point and configuration information for the audit station, as in gray box hacking the consultant receives extensive information such as network diagrams, detailed list of equipment to be audited including names, types, platforms , main services, IP addresses, information on remote subnetworks, etc ... because the consultant avoids investigating all this information by itself, this type of Hacking usually takes less time to execute and therefore reduces costs as well.
External Ethical Hacking
This type of hacking is done from the Internet on the public network infrastructure of the client; that is to say about those teams of the organization that are exposed to the Internet because they provide a public service. Example of public equipment: Router, Firewall, Web Server, Mail Server, Name Server (DNS) etc.
Internal Ethical Hacking
As its name suggests this type of hacking is executed in the internal network of the client, from the point of view of a employee of the empereza, a consultant or a business associate who has access to the corporate network.
In this type of intrusion tests, security holes are usually found more than in their external counterparts because many system administrators are concerned about protecting the perimeter of their network and underestimate the internal attacker. This last is a mistake since studies show that most successful attacks come from inside the company.
Hacking Modalities
Depending on the modality that the client provides to the consultant, the ethical hacking service can be executed in one of 3 modes: Black-box Hacking, Gray-box Hacking, white-box Hacking. The chosen modality will affect the cost and duration of the intrusion tests, since the less information received the greater the time spent investigating by the auditor.
Black Box Hacking
This mode is applied to external intrusion tests. is called in this way, because the client only provides the name of the company to audit the consultant, so this work blindly, the infrastructure of the organization is a black box for him.
While this type of audit is considered more realistic since usually an external aggressor who chooses a victim X does not have more information at the beginning than the name of the organization to attack, it is also true that it requires a greater investment of time and therefore the Cost included is also superior. additionally it should be noted that the ethical hacker - unlike the Cracker - does not have all the time in the world to perform the intrusion tests, so the preliminary phase of inquiry can not be extended beyond what in practical terms is possible for the client in terms of Cost / Time / Benefit.
Gray Box Hacking
Gray box hacking is often used as a synonym to refer to internal intrusion testing. but some auditors also call them Gray-Box-Hacking an external test to which the client provides limited information about the public equipment to be audited. Example: a list with data such as IP addresses and the Type / Function of the equipment (Router, Firewall, Web-Server, etc.
When the term is applied to internal tests is so named because the consultant receives by the customer access only that would have an employee of the company, ie a network point for the station of audit and local configuration data (IP , Subnet Mask, Gateway and DNS); but it does not disclose additional information such as: User / Password to enter the domain / the existence of attached Subnets etc.
White Box Hacking
White Box Hacking, sometimes called Transparent Hacking. This method is applied to intrusion tests only and is called in this way because the client company gives the auditor complete information about the networks and systems to be audited.
That is, in addition to assigning a network point and configuration information for the audit station, as in gray box hacking the consultant receives extensive information such as network diagrams, detailed list of equipment to be audited including names, types, platforms , main services, IP addresses, information on remote subnetworks, etc ... because the consultant avoids investigating all this information by itself, this type of Hacking usually takes less time to execute and therefore reduces costs as well.