Ethical hacking is one the fastest growing in cyber security. They perform hacking in a professional manner based on the directions given by the person.

In the growing IT industry, agencies and many other companies store their valuable data. Cybercriminals try to hack their system but in today’s world, you require more measures to save your data and update your security daily. Hackers can steal your data even if you have antivirus and protective software on your pc.

Ethical hackers/white hat hackers offer you a better approach towards safety by performing some test through which you can see your data in the way the hackers do without facing any threat. Each company now requires more ethical hackers to protect data from terrorists and prevent the data lost and misused by malicious attackers. Black hackers are the hackers who have malicious intent. Gray hat hackers lie between these two hackers. They do not break into the system with malicious intent and will inform the company if something went wrong.

There are different types of ethical hacking :

• Web application hacking
• Social engineering
• System hacking
• Hacking wireless networks
• Web server hacking

Top 25 Ethical Hacking Interview Questions and Answers (2022)

Some of the important questions asked by the interviewer on ethical hacking :

1. What is a network sniffer?

Answer:  It monitors the data flow over the computer network. It helps to identify network problems . it can be used to both steal information from a network and for legitimate network management.

2. What is the difference between an IP address and a Mac address?

Answer: IP address- it is like a postal address assigned to every device so that the device can be located on the network.

Mac(Machine Access Control) address – it is a unique number assigned to every network interface on every device.

3. What is footprinting in ethical hacking? What are the techniques used for footprinting?

Answer: Footprinting refers to accumulating and uncovering as much information about network targets before accessing the network.

The techniques used:

1. Open source footprinting: it looks for the information of the administrators that will be required for guessing the password in social engineering.
2. Network Enumeration: the hacker has to identify the domain name and the network blocks of the target.
3. Scanning: after the network is known, now the IP address needs to be identified.
4. Stack Fingerprinting: once the hosts and ports are mapped, final footprinting takes place.

4. Explain what is ARP Spoofing or ARP poisoning? How can you avoid or prevent ARP poisoning?

Answer: ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) is a type of attack in which an attacker changes the MAC address and attacks an Internet LAN by changing the target computer’s ARP cache.

It be prevented by :

1. Avoid trust relationships : organizations should develop protocols that don’t depend on trust relationships.
2. Packet filtering: it filters and blocks the packets which have conflicting source address information.
3. Use cryptographic network protocols: by using protocols such as TLS,SSH,HTTP that prevents ARP spoofing attacks.
4. Use ARP spoofing detection software : The programs that inspects and certifies data before it is been transmitted and blocks data which is spoofed

5. Explain what is Pharming and Defacement? 

Answer: In Pharming: the attacker comprises DNS (Domain Name  System) servers so that traffic is directed to malicious sites.

In Defacement: the attacker replaces the organization website with a  different page that may contain undesired messages or information.

6. What is network security, and what are its types?

Answer: Network security is a set of rules which are formulated in such a way to protect computer networks and data  with the help of software and hardware technologies.

The types are :

1. Network access control: these are some policies that prevent attackers and infiltrations in the network.
2. Antivirus and antimalware software: they continuously scan and protect the device from viruses.
3. Firewall protection: firewall acts as a barrier between the trusted internal networks and untrusted external network
4. Virtual Private Networks(VPNs) : from a connection to the network from another endpoint or site. the data between two points is encrypted.

7.   Explain the various stages of hacking

Answer: there are five stages in hacking :

1. Reconnaissance: it is also known as footprinting where the hacker collects all the information about the target.
2. Scanning: it takes all the data and examines the network
3. Gaining access: here, the attacker enters the network using  various techniques
4. Maintaining access: once the hacker  enters the network, he tries to maintain access by for future attacks by using trojan and other harmful files
5. Covering tracks: they try to cover tracks by modifying /deleting the value of logs and removing the traces.

8. Explain the term MIB

Answer: Management Information Base(MIB)  is a virtual database of network objects. It contains all the information of the network which is being monitored by the network management system. It is used as a reference to complete information on an entity.

9. What are the tools sued for ethical hacking?

Answer: there are several tools used :

1. NMAP – NMAP stands for Network plotter. It’s an associate degree open-source tool that’s used for network discovery and security auditing.
2. Metasploit – Metasploit is a powerful exploit tool to conduct basic penetration tests.
3. Burp Suite – it is used for playing security testing of internet applications.
4. Angry IP Scanner – Angry information processing scanner is a cross-platform information processing address and port scanner.
5. Cain & Abel – Cain & Abel is a password recovery tool for Microsoft operational Systems.
6. Ettercap – Ettercap stands for local area network Capture. It is used for a Man-in-the-Middle attack using a network security tool

10. What is coWPAtty?

Answer: it is a c- based tool to run an offline dictionary attack against Wi-Fi protected access (WPA/WPA2) and audit pre-shared WPA keys using Pre-Shared Key (PSK)-based authentication. It is difficult to use, as it is a command-line utility.

11. What is sniffing?  What are the types of sniffing?

Answer: it is a process that monitors and captures data packets passing through a given network. It is used to troubleshoot network traffic. It allows you to see all sorts of traffic. Through this, you can get all the network information.

There are two types of sniffing :

1. Active sniffing: in this, an attacker directly connects with the target machine by sending packets and receiving them. It is carried out through a switch. Eg: Mac flooding
2. Passive sniffing: in this,  the attacker does not directly connect with the target machine. They simply control the network and capture and send the packets. It is done using a hub.

12. What is Burp Suite? What are the tools it contains?

Answer: it is an integrated application used to control and attack net applications.it contains all the tools  required by a hacker which are as follows:

1. Scanner
2. Proxy
3. Spider
4. Repeater
5. Intruder
6. Decoder
7. Comparer
8. Sequencer

13. What is Ethical Hacking?

Answer: ethical hacking is a type of hacking done with the permission of the organization to find out the weakness in the system.

14. What are the advantages of ethical hacking?

Answer:

1. Helps in fighting against cyber crimes
2. Prevents security breaches
3. Prevents hackers from gaining access
4. Offers security to  banking and financial management
5. Helps to identify the problems in the network and fix them.

15. What are the disadvantages of ethical hacking?

Answer:

1. This can harm someone’s privacy
2. It will also increase costs to the company
3. May corrupt files or data of an organization
4. Hampers system operation
5. It is an illegal technique

16. Explain SQL injection and its types

Answer: it allows an attacker to interfere with the queries that an application makes to its database. They take sensitive data such as passwords, and credit/debit card details. It results in reputational damage and fines.

The types of SQL injection are :

• Error-based SQL injection
• Blind SQL injection
• Time-based SQL injection

17. Explain DOS attack and its types

Answer: Denial of Service, it is a malicious attack done by flooding the network with useless traffic. It may cause website owners a great deal of money and time.

Its types are :

• Buffer Overflow Attacks
• SYN Attack
• Teardrop Attack
• Smurf Attack
• Viruses

18. Explain SNMP

Answer: SNMP(Simple Network Management Protocol) is a simple Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) used for remote monitoring and managing other devices on the network.

19. What is a DDoS attack?

Answer: it is an attempt to disrupt the client by sending fake client requests to disrupt the traffic and to keep the server busy, thereby denying useful client requests.

20. What are the types of password cracking techniques?

Answer: the techniques are :

1. Dictionary attack:  in this, the hacker uses simple words found in the dictionary which the user can use to keep it as a password or in any security detail and tries them frequently with numbers before or after words against the user accounts.
2. Man in the middle attack: in this, the attacker’s program is constantly been monitored and the hackers interpret in the middle by impersonating the application or website. It steals sensitive information.
3. Traffic interception: the hacker uses packet sniffers and monitors the network traffic.
4. Brute force attacks: These are similar to dictionary attacks, but instead of using simple words, hackers detect the non-dictionary words by using all possible alphanumeric combinations from aaa1 to zzz10.
5. Keylogger attack: the hacker installs software to track users’ keystrokes and collects all the information and passwords.

21. What is social engineering?

Answer: in this, the users are manipulated into revealing confidential information that can be used  to gain unauthorized access to a computer system.

The types of social engineering are :

1. Online scams
2. Phishing
3. Baiting

22. What is a cross-site scripting attack?

Answer: it is the attack that occurs on the client side. The hacker injects a malicious piece of code and script to an original  web application  that leads to disclosure of various cookies.

23. Why is python more used for hacking?

Answer: Python has many useful libraries which are pre-assembled and provide very easy-to-use functions that are valuable to hackers.

24. What is network enumeration?

Answer: in this, the information is gathered using internet protocols like Internal Control Message Protocol which offers a better view of data. It takes all the information of the hosts, usernames, and other related information.

25. What is spoofing?

Answer: it is a type of practice in which the communication is sent from an unauthorized source as a trusted source to the user. It enables hackers to gain all personal information. It can be done by sending emails, attachments, and links.

The number of questions goes endless, but these are some important questions that are asked frequently.