Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) Study Guide

Chapter 5. Attacking a System

Ever heard of noodling? It’s a really fun and exciting way to fish—if you’re borderline insane; have no fear of losing a finger, hand, or (in some cases) your life; and feel that the best way to even things up in the hunt is to actually get in the water with your prey. Noodling has been around for a long time and involves catching catfish—sometimes giant, triple-digit-pound catfish—with your bare hands.

The idea is pretty simple. The noodler slowly crawls along the riverbed close to the bank and searches for holes. These holes can be up in the clay siding of the river, inside a hollow tree trunk, or under rocks; catfish use them during daylight hours to rest and prepare for the evening hunt for food. Once the noodler finds a hole, they reach in with their hand, arm, or (depending on the depth of the hole) leg, hoping that a fish hiding in the hole bites onto the hand, arm, or leg so that the noodler can then drag it out of its hiding place. Of course, occasionally there’s something else in the hole, like a snake, alligator, beaver, turtle, or other animal capable of lopping off a digit or three, but hey—what’s life without a few risks?

Sometimes the hole is so deep the noodler has to go completely underwater to battle their prey. And sometimes it even leads to a giant underwater lair, with multiple escape routes for the catfish. In this case, a team of noodlers is needed to cover up every exit hole from the catfish lair. Of course, to block the exit ...