Network Scanning for Ethical Hacking
What is Network Scanning?
Network Scanning is the procedure of identifying active hosts, ports and the services used by the target application. Suppose you are an Ethical Hacker and want to find vulnerabilities in the System, you need a point in the System that you can try to attack. Network Scanning for Ethical Hacking is used to find out these points in the system that a Black-hat hacker can use to hack the network and then the security teams work on improving the security of the network.
Types of Network Scanning for Ethical Hacking
Port Scanning
As the name suggests, Port Scanning is a process used to find out active ports on the network. A Port Scanner sends client requests to the range of ports on the target network and then saves the details about the ports that send a response back. This is how active ports are found.
There are different types of Port Scanning. Below is a list of some of the most used ones:
Vulnerability Scanning
Vulnerability Scanning is a type of Network Scanning for Ethical Hacking used to find out weaknesses in the network. This type of scanning identifies vulnerabilities that occur due to poor programming or misconfiguration of the network.
Now that you know what Network Scanning is, I will introduce you to some tools and tell you how to use them for Network Scanning.
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1. Network Scanning using Nmap
Nmap is a free and open source network scanner. You can scan a network with Nmap either by using the IP address of the target or using the hostname.
2. Network Scanning using Nikto
Nikto is a Web Server Scanner that tests for dangerous files and outdated service software. And these details can be exploited and used to hack the network. Nikto is designed to scan the web server in the quickest possible time.
3. Network Scanning using Nessus
Nessus is one of the most powerful vulnerability scanners available. This scanner does not come pre-installed with Kali Linux.
