Metasploit

Chapter 3. Intelligence Gathering

Intelligence gathering follows the pre-engagement activities as the second step in a penetration test. Your goals during intelligence gathering should be to gain accurate information about your targets without revealing your presence or your intentions, to learn how the organization operates, and to determine the best route of entry. If you don’t do a thorough job of intelligence gathering, you may miss vulnerable systems or viable attack vectors. It takes time and patience to sort through web pages, perform Google hacking, and map systems thoroughly in an attempt to understand the infrastructure of a particular target. Intelligence gathering requires careful planning, research, and, most importantly, the ability ...