CCT Ethical Hacking & Penetration Testing Flashcards
6 cards from real CCT practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 CCT Ethical Hacking & Penetration Testing flashcards as text
What document legally authorizes a penetration tester to conduct security testing against a target organization?
Answer: Statement of Authorization (SoA) / Get-Out-of-Jail card
A written authorization document (often called a Statement of Authorization or 'get-out-of-jail' letter) signed by an authorized executive legally permits the tester to perform activities that would otherwise constitute unauthorized access.
Which penetration testing methodology phase involves gathering information about the target without directly interacting with its systems?
Answer: Passive reconnaissance
Passive reconnaissance collects information about a target using publicly available sources (OSINT) such as WHOIS, DNS records, and social media without sending any packets to the target.
What is the primary purpose of the Metasploit Framework in penetration testing?
Answer: Develop, test, and execute exploit code against target systems
Metasploit is an open-source penetration testing framework that provides a library of exploits, payloads, and auxiliary modules to test vulnerabilities in target systems.
What distinguishes a 'white-box' penetration test from a 'black-box' test?
Answer: White-box testers have full knowledge of the target environment, while black-box testers have none
White-box testing provides the tester with full information (source code, architecture diagrams, credentials), simulating an insider threat, while black-box testing mimics an external attacker with no prior knowledge.
Which Nmap scan type is considered a 'stealth scan' because it does not complete the TCP three-way handshake?
Answer: SYN scan (-sS)
The SYN scan (half-open scan) sends a SYN packet and analyzes the response without completing the handshake, making it less likely to be logged by many older systems.
What is privilege escalation in the context of a penetration test?
Answer: Increasing access rights from a lower-privileged account to a higher-privileged one
Privilege escalation involves exploiting vulnerabilities or misconfigurations to gain higher-level permissions (e.g., moving from a standard user account to administrator or root).