Chapter 1.5

Question 1

passive scanning

Answer 1

Passive scanning techniques passively test security controls and operates by sniffing network traffic to identify assets communicating on the network, service ports used, and potentially some types of vulnerabilities. Passive scanning is less likely to detect a wide range of vulnerabilities in host systems and can result in false positives.

Question 2

active scanning

Answer 2

Active scanning techniques involve making a connection to the target host. This might mean authenticating and establishing a session with the host or running an agent on a host.

Question 3

pivot point

Answer 3

A pivot point is a system and/or set of privileges that allow the tester to compromise other network systems (lateral spread). The initial exploit might give the tester local administrator privileges and use these to obtain privileges on other machines.