Researching networks

Many people do not understand the true purpose of researching the network of a target prior to launching an attack. Amateur Penetration Testers understand the need to pick a target before they can perform a Penetration Test. After all, a Penetration Tester needs someplace at which to point their arsenal of tools. Many amateurs will run Nmap, ping sweeps, or other noisy tools to determine what targets are available disrupting the environment, which later yields poor results.

Network Reconnaissance is about selecting a target. A seasoned network security professional will tell you good Reconnaissance is about selecting a quality target, spending the majority of their time watching, rather than acting. The first step of every Penetration Test is accurately finding and selecting quality targets.

The following are the best available tools in Kali for web application Reconnaissance.

• HTTrack – clone a website
• ICMP Reconnaissance techniques
• DNS Reconnaissance techniques
• Maltego – Information Gathering graphs
• Nmap (Zenmap)
• FOCA – website metadata Reconnaissance