Mastering Machine Learning for Penetration Testing

The cyber kill chain

Like many aspects of information security, the cyber kill chain is a military-inspired model to describe the steps used in a cyber attack.

The seven steps of the cyber kill chain are as follows:

• Reconnaissance: Harvesting information, such as email addresses
• Weaponization: Coupling exploits with backdoors into a deliverable payload—in other words, building a deliverable payload using an exploit and a backdoor

• Delivery: Delivering a weaponized bundle to the victim via different means, such as an email or USB
• Exploitation: Exploiting a vulnerability to execute code on the targeted machine
• Installation: Installing a malware
• Command and control (C2): Command channel for remote manipulation of the victim
• Actions and objectives ...