Core penetration testing vocabulary tested on the CompTIA PenTest+ exam.
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- What is a penetration test?
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An authorized simulated attack on a system to identify security vulnerabilities before malicious actors can exploit them.- How does black box testing differ from white box testing?
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Black box: attacker has no prior knowledge of the system. White box: attacker has full knowledge of the system design and code.- What is gray box testing?
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Testing with partial knowledge of the system, simulating an insider or someone with limited system access.- Define rules of engagement in a penetration test.
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Written guidelines that specify what systems can be tested, what methods are allowed, testing windows, and escalation procedures.- What is the purpose of a Statement of Work (SOW)?
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A formal document that outlines the scope, objectives, timeline, deliverables, and cost of a penetration test.- What is reconnaissance in penetration testing?
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The initial phase of gathering information about a target system without exploiting it.- Define passive reconnaissance.
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Gathering information about a target using only publicly available data without directly interacting with the target.- Define active reconnaissance.
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Gathering information by directly interacting with the target system, such as port scanning or sending probes.- What is footprinting?
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The process of gathering basic information about a target organization, such as IP ranges, employee names, and domains.- What is social engineering?
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Manipulating people into divulging confidential information or performing actions that compromise security.- Define phishing.
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A social engineering attack that uses deceptive emails or messages to trick users into revealing credentials or downloading malware.- What is privilege escalation?
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The process of exploiting a vulnerability to gain higher levels of access than initially granted.- Define lateral movement.
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The technique of moving from one compromised system to another on the same network to expand access.- What is persistence?
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The ability of an attacker to maintain access to a system even after the initial exploit or across reboots.- What is data exfiltration?
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The unauthorized extraction and transmission of sensitive data from a target system.
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