IT-related security is a topic that increases in importance each and every day, and newly uncovered flaws routinely make the evening news. Sometimes there are weaknesses discovered in software that can be exploited and allow a miscreant to access information they should never even know exists. Other times, social engineering can be misused to trick individuals into divulging information they should not.

In this world of weaknesses, the role of the ethical hacker is central: Someone needs to identify the vulnerabilities before the miscreants do. A number of certifications have cropped up in recent years to authenticate this knowledge and identify a core set of skills.

What follows is a self-test of 25 questions based on ethical hacking principles but not centered around any one certification. The answers appear at the end of the questions. In all cases, pick the best answer(s) to each question. Good luck!

1. The systematic probing of a target system with the intent of identifying protocols in use, finding user lists, and seeing routing tables is considered the last step before you attempt to gain access to the system. What is this step known as?
A. discovery
B. footprinting
C. enumeration
D. exhumation

2. You are working old-school and manually reading through syslog files. Each entry contains information about a facility, a severity, and then a message. Which of the following facilities identifies the entry as being generated by a system daemon?
A. 0
B. 1
C. 2
D. 3

3. Within the syslog entries referenced in the previous question, which priority is associated with error conditions?
A. 5
B. 4
C. 3
D. 2

4. You are adding a network-based sensor to our network to collect information and report its findings. Which of the following terms is used to identify the placement of the sensor(s) with in the network?
A. vantage
B. domain
C. perception
D. outlook

5. During the TCP three-way handshake, which packet is sent by a host to request the establishment of a connection with a remote host?
A. RST
B. SYN
C. ACK
D. URG

6. Which of the following is the process in which one connects to a host and then sends a request to a port that is associated with a particular service for the intent of examining the banner?
A. Line nicking
B. Title stealing
C. Header capture
D. Banner grabbing

7. You need to add an intrusion detection system (IDS) to your network and want to hire someone to manage it thus you want something well known and well used. Which of the following is the most commonly used IDS?
A. sharkattack
B. tcpdump
C. snort
D. LemonLime

8. You suspect a server still has NetBIOS open and this could be exploited by someone to gain information on file shares, printer sharing and related data. What port should you look for to verify your suspicion?
A. 139
B. 256
C. 1865
D. 10256

9. A sensor on your network can take one of three basic actions. Which of the following is NOT one of the three basic actions?
A. Control
B. Dominate
C. Event
D. Report

10. Which of the following Linux commands enumerates information related to the RPC protocol?
A. rpc scan
B. rpccheck
C. rpcshow
D. rpcinfo

11. Which set of ports, by default, is associated with BitTorrent?
A. 6881-6889
B. 6346-6348
C. 4660-4662
D. 137-139

12. Which command line switch should be used with whois to specify a lookup server?
A. -e
B. -h
C. -n
D. -t
E. -v
F. -z

13. Which Linux-based command can be used to list the shared directories on a given system?
A. showmount
B. info
C. listall
D. finger

14. Which of the following is a means of adding ��randomness�� to make sequences more difficult to detect?
A. Augmenting
B. Salting
C. Swelling
D. Appending

15. The default Time-To-Live (TTL) value for IP packets differs based on operating system. What is the default TTL value in Linux?
A. 255
B. 128
C. 64
D. 32

Please visit GoCertify to attempt the remaining 10 questions of this quiz.





ANSWERS

1. C
2. D
3. C
4. A
5. B
6. D
7. C
8. A
9. B
10. D
11. A
12. B
13. A
14. B
15. C