Ethical Hacking System Hacking 3

Question 1

What is the purpose of steganography when used as a technique in system hacking and data exfiltration?

Accepted Answer

Hiding malicious data or messages within innocent-looking carrier files such as images or audio

Answer

Encrypting sensitive data with a strong key to prevent unauthorized decryption

Answer

Scanning file systems for hidden partitions containing sensitive information

Answer

Cracking encrypted archives to recover concealed configuration files

Question 2

Which Windows command is used to enumerate all scheduled tasks configured on a system, a common persistence mechanism abused by attackers?

Accepted Answer

schtasks /query /fo LIST

Answer

tasklist /v /fo LIST

Answer

net user /domain

Answer

wmic process list full

Question 3

What is process hollowing, and how does it differ from standard DLL injection?

Accepted Answer

Creating a legitimate process in a suspended state and replacing its entire memory image with malicious code

Answer

Terminating a running process and immediately restarting it with a different executable

Answer

Injecting shellcode into a process's heap to overflow adjacent memory regions

Answer

Monitoring a running process's memory for credentials or sensitive data in plaintext

Question 4

What does an NTLM relay attack exploit to authenticate to target services without cracking the hash?

Accepted Answer

The ability to intercept and forward NTLM authentication challenges to another target service

Answer

Weak NTLM hash encryption to recover plaintext passwords offline

Answer

A buffer overflow vulnerability in Windows NTLM authentication libraries

Answer

Plaintext NTLM credentials inadvertently transmitted over unencrypted network protocols

Question 5

Which commercial post-exploitation and adversary simulation platform, widely used by red teams and frequently associated with advanced threat actors, uses 'Beacon' as its primary payload?

Accepted Answer

Cobalt Strike

Answer

Metasploit Framework

Answer

PowerShell Empire

Answer

BeEF (Browser Exploitation Framework)

Question 6

What is Windows token impersonation, and why is it valuable in privilege escalation?

Accepted Answer

Stealing a higher-privileged user's access token from a running process to execute commands with their privileges

Answer

Creating a forged Kerberos ticket to bypass authentication controls

Answer

Generating a new SYSTEM token by exploiting a kernel vulnerability in token management

Answer

Encrypting an existing access token to prevent security tools from revoking it

Question 7

Which persistence mechanism involves adding registry entries under Windows Run keys to execute malicious code automatically each time the system starts?

Accepted Answer

Registry Run key persistence (e.g., HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run)

Answer

DLL search order hijacking via PATH manipulation

Answer

Scheduled task creation via schtasks.exe

Answer

Windows service creation pointing to a malicious binary