Ethical Hacking — Tools Index

A Map of Content for the ethical hacking toolset, organized by phase of the penetration testing lifecycle.

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Phase 1 — Reconnaissance

Passive information gathering before touching the target.

Tool	Type	Notes
WHOIS	Passive	Domain/IP registration lookups
Maltego	Passive/OSINT	Visual link analysis and relationship mapping
Google-Dorking	Passive	Advanced search operators to surface exposed data

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Phase 2 — Scanning

Active discovery of hosts, ports, services, and vulnerabilities.

Tool	Type	Notes
Nmap	Active	Port/service/OS discovery — the core scanner
Nessus	Active	Commercial deep vulnerability assessment
OpenVAS	Active	Open-source vulnerability scanner (Greenbone)

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Phase 3 — Gaining Access

Exploitation of discovered vulnerabilities to get a foothold.

Tool	Type	Notes
Metasploit	Exploitation	Framework with exploits, payloads, and post-ex modules
Hydra	Credential	Fast online password brute-forcing across protocols
SQLmap	Web	Automated SQL injection detection and exploitation

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Phase 4 — Maintaining Access

Keeping access to the compromised system.

Tool	Type	Notes
Meterpreter	Post-exploitation	In-memory Metasploit payload; full feature shell
Netcat	Networking	Lightweight reverse/bind shells and file transfer

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Phase 5 — Privilege Escalation

Elevating from low-privileged user to root/SYSTEM.

Tool	Platform	Notes
LinPEAS	Linux/macOS	Automated privesc enumeration for Unix systems
WinPEAS	Windows	Automated privesc enumeration for Windows

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Phase 6 — Reporting

Documenting findings and generating client deliverables.

Tool	Type	Notes
Dradis	Reporting	Structured finding management + Word/HTML report generation
Faraday	Aggregation	Real-time multi-tool aggregation + dashboard + reports

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Quick Reference — Attack Chain

Target Identified
  └── Recon: WHOIS → Maltego → Google Dorking
        └── Scanning: Nmap → Nessus / OpenVAS
              └── Gaining Access: Metasploit / Hydra / SQLmap
                    └── Shell: Meterpreter / Netcat
                          └── Privesc: LinPEAS / WinPEAS
                                └── Report: Dradis / Faraday

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Tags

#ethical-hacking #pentest #index #moc