Computer and Information Security Handbook, 3rd Edition

Chapter 30

Ethical Hacking

Scott R. Ellis     kCura Corporation, Chicago, IL, United States

Abstract

This chapter provides the foundation needed to become skilled at ethical hacking. Ethical hacking or white-hat hacking is differentiated from black- and gray-hat hacking in that an ethical hacker never attacks a system where he or she either is not the owner or does not have express written permission from the owner of the system to perform the testing. Of utmost importance is understanding that some techniques and attacks may cause severe instability in the target system. Attacking a friend's PC with a newly discovered exploit, for example, may have the unintended consequence of permanently debilitating that system—this is illegal and may both damage ...