Enumeration in cyber security

I have just started studying for CEH exam v8 and I am trying to get the core of so called hacking phases. I could not totally understand the practical difference between the first two phases. In recon a pentester should get all available info from the target. As far as I can see it would be expected he uses tools like nmap in order to do that. For example, he could use nmap to discover how many machines are in the network. On the other hand if he is using nmap to understand the network would not he be scanning it? I know it is a silly question and is just about a matter of definition, but I really want to have a systematic understanding of pen testing. By the way, I am using "CEH all-in-one" by Matt Walker as a main resource. • Active Recon -- doesn't matter if touching or not touching any infrastructure -- the important part is the recon comes first in order to determine the target(s) which normally consist of company and partner names, employee names, identification of technology vendors in use, identification of public IP ranges, primary top-level domain names, email address structure, et al (think mindmaps or scratch pads) • Enumeration -- this is the second stage that produces a narrowed-down list of specific IP addresses, port numbers, hostnames, bulk lists of email addresses, etc to be used in later stages (think structured ASCII lists or relational databases) • Scanning -- the last stage automates against the enumerations to get further information. It is typically...

Enumeration is the process of gathering information about a target system or network in order to identify potential vulnerabilities and weaknesses that an attacker could exploit. In cybersecurity, enumeration is a crucial step in the process of penetration testing, where a tester simulates an attack on a network or system to identify and remediate security weaknesses. During the enumeration phase, a tester or attacker can use a variety of techniques to gather information about the target system or network, including: • Port scanning: This involves scanning a range of ports on the target system or network to determine which ports are open and which services are running. • Banner grabbing: This involves connecting to open ports and capturing the banners or messages that are returned, which can provide valuable information about the software and operating system versions running on the target system. • DNS enumeration: This involves querying the target domain name server (DNS) to gather information about the network’s domain name, IP addresses, and other related information. • User and group enumeration: This involves gathering information about the users and groups that exist on the target system or network, including their usernames, passwords, and privileges. • Network mapping: This involves creating a map of the target system or network to identify the relationships between different devices, servers, and applications. • Vulnerability scanning: This involves scanning the ...

Enumeration and its Types Enumeration is defined as the process of extracting user names, machine names, network resources, shares and services from a system. In this phase, the attacker creates an active connection to the system and performs directed queries to gain more information about the target. The gathered information is used to identify the vulnerabilities or weak points in system security and tries to exploit in the System gaining phase. Types of information enumerated by intruders: • Network Resource and shares • Users and Groups • Routing tables • Auditing and Service settings • Machine names • Applications and banners • SNMP and DNS details Techniques for Enumeration • Extracting user names using email ID’s • Extract information using the default password • Brute Force Active Directory • Extract user names using SNMP • Extract user groups from Windows • Extract information using DNS Zone transfer Services and Port to Enumerate • TCP 53: DNS Zone transfer • TCP 135: Microsoft RPC Endpoint Mapper • TCP 137: NetBIOS Name Service • TCP 139: NetBIOS session Service (SMB over NetBIOS) • TCP 445: SMB over TCP (Direct Host) • UDP 161: SNMP • TCP/UDP 389: LDAP • TCP/UDP 3368: Global Catalog Service • TCP 25: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Disclaimer PMI®, PMBOK®, PMP® and PMI-ACP® are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc. The Swirl logo™ is a trade mark of AXELOS Limited. ITIL® is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permissi...

Secure information systems depend on reliable, cost-effective Software Asset Management practices that support security assessment. IT managers need highly reliable and automatable software inventory processes that provide accurate, up-to-the-minute details about the operating systems, software applications and hardware devices that are installed and available for use. Once armed with this data, IT managers can identify risks and vulnerabilities, and make timely decisions about what to install, patch or disable. Specification languages exist such as What these languages all have in common is a need to refer to IT products and platforms in a standardized way that is suitable for machine interpretation and processing. Common Platform Enumeration (CPE™) was developed to satisfy that need. CPE provides: • A standard machine-readable format for encoding names of IT products and platforms. • A set of procedures for comparing names. • A language for constructing "applicability statements" that combine CPE names with simple logical operators. • A standard notion of a CPE Dictionary. CPE in the Enterprise An authoritative In addition, CPE is one of the existing open standards used by NIST in its

This article discusses the importance of What is Enumeration in Cybersecurity? Often termed the second phase of penetration testing, an enumeration technique is used to gather the information that helps cybersecurity teams to Before the exploitation phase, penetration testing often involves reconnaissance and enumeration to discover potential attack vectors within network resources. During the second enumeration phase, penetration testers establish an active connection to a remote machine in the network to gather information such as valid usernames, routing tables, TCP ports, machine names, etc. Enumeration is considered a crucial part of the Some techniques used to discover security flaws include: • Using default passwords to test the robustness of the authentication protocol • Comprehensive authentication validation to prevent exploits of the authentication process • Using email IDs to determine valid and invalid username entries • Using Windows Active Directory to extract client workgroup information • Leveraging IP tables and DNS entries to access information on domain structure, tool web links, device type, anonymous connections, and file shares across the network Enumeration also helps penetration testers obtain detailed end-to-end information on what is to be tested in target hosts, allowing for a holistic assessment of the attack surface. Significance of Enumeration in Penetration Testing Enumeration is considered one of the most powerful techniques in Compliance a...

What is an Enumeration attack? During an enumeration attack, hackers verify records stored in a web server using brute-force methods. These attacks occur on web pages that interact with web server databases after a user submits a form. The two most commonly targeted web app pages in enumeration attacks are login pages and password reset pages.

Enumeration is basically counting. A hacker establishes an active connection to the target host. The vulnerabilities are then counted and assessed. It is done mainly to search for attacks and threats to the target system. Enumeration is used to collect usernames, hostnames, IP addresses, passwords, configurations, etc. Enumeration is of mainly eight types. They are: Windows Enumeration Windows operating systems are enumerated using this type of enumeration. The attacker uses tools from Sysinternals to achieve this. This is the most basic enumeration happening, and the hackers attack desktop workstations. This means that the confidentiality of the files is no longer maintained. Any file can be accessed and altered. In some cases, hackers may also change the configuration of the desktop or operating system. It can be prevented by using Windows firewall, etc. A firewall is a very basic application that acts as a scanner and blocks any foreign signals trying to establish connection with the system. NetBIOS Enumeration Developed by IBM and Sytek, NetBIOS stands for Network Basic Input Output System. It was initially developed as an application to give access to LAN resources by the client's software to a third party. The software runs on port 139 of the Windows Operating System. Hackers mainly use this to collect passwords and perform read/write operations on the target system. Configuration and access rights of a system are enumerated here. It can be prevented by limiting file...

In this article Typically, cyberattacks are launched against any accessible entity, such as a low-privileged user, and then quickly move laterally until the attacker gains access to valuable assets. Valuable assets can be sensitive accounts, domain administrators, or highly sensitive data. Microsoft Defender for Identity identifies these advanced threats at the source throughout the entire attack kill chain and classifies them into the following phases: • Reconnaissance and discovery • • • • To learn more about how to understand the structure, and common components of all Defender for Identity security alerts, see True positive (TP), Benign true positive (B-TP), and False positive (FP), see The following security alerts help you identify and remediate Reconnaissance and discovery phase suspicious activities detected by Defender for Identity in your network. Reconnaissance and discovery consist of techniques an adversary may use to gain knowledge about the system and internal network. These techniques help adversaries observe the environment and orient themselves before deciding how to act. They also allow adversaries to explore what they can control and what’s around their entry point to discover how it could benefit their current objective. Native operating system tools are often used toward this post-compromise information-gathering objective. In Microsoft Defender for Identity, these alerts usually involve internal account enumeration with different techniques. Account ...

Enumeration and its Types Enumeration is defined as the process of extracting user names, machine names, network resources, shares and services from a system. In this phase, the attacker creates an active connection to the system and performs directed queries to gain more information about the target. The gathered information is used to identify the vulnerabilities or weak points in system security and tries to exploit in the System gaining phase. Types of information enumerated by intruders: • Network Resource and shares • Users and Groups • Routing tables • Auditing and Service settings • Machine names • Applications and banners • SNMP and DNS details Techniques for Enumeration • Extracting user names using email ID’s • Extract information using the default password • Brute Force Active Directory • Extract user names using SNMP • Extract user groups from Windows • Extract information using DNS Zone transfer Services and Port to Enumerate • TCP 53: DNS Zone transfer • TCP 135: Microsoft RPC Endpoint Mapper • TCP 137: NetBIOS Name Service • TCP 139: NetBIOS session Service (SMB over NetBIOS) • TCP 445: SMB over TCP (Direct Host) • UDP 161: SNMP • TCP/UDP 389: LDAP • TCP/UDP 3368: Global Catalog Service • TCP 25: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Disclaimer PMI®, PMBOK®, PMP® and PMI-ACP® are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc. The Swirl logo™ is a trade mark of AXELOS Limited. ITIL® is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permissi...

This article discusses the importance of What is Enumeration in Cybersecurity? Often termed the second phase of penetration testing, an enumeration technique is used to gather the information that helps cybersecurity teams to Before the exploitation phase, penetration testing often involves reconnaissance and enumeration to discover potential attack vectors within network resources. During the second enumeration phase, penetration testers establish an active connection to a remote machine in the network to gather information such as valid usernames, routing tables, TCP ports, machine names, etc. Enumeration is considered a crucial part of the Some techniques used to discover security flaws include: • Using default passwords to test the robustness of the authentication protocol • Comprehensive authentication validation to prevent exploits of the authentication process • Using email IDs to determine valid and invalid username entries • Using Windows Active Directory to extract client workgroup information • Leveraging IP tables and DNS entries to access information on domain structure, tool web links, device type, anonymous connections, and file shares across the network Enumeration also helps penetration testers obtain detailed end-to-end information on what is to be tested in target hosts, allowing for a holistic assessment of the attack surface. Significance of Enumeration in Penetration Testing Enumeration is considered one of the most powerful techniques in Compliance a...