Top 10 Ethical Hacking Interview Questions and Answers

Whether a government agency or a private company, almost all operations nowadays have some internet presence, making them vulnerable to security breaches, data loss, financial losses, and other damages. Corporations use ethical hacking to detect potential threats like malware, viruses, and ransomware on a computer or network to prevent further damage and improve security.

You may have all of the necessary knowledge and skills in the domain of Ethical Hacking, but you must pass the interview to get that dream job. To assist you, our Ethical Hacking specialists have compiled a list of the top ten ethical hacking interview questions and answers ranging from simple to complex. These questions are intended for new and seasoned professionals aiming to further their careers. Let's get started!

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Here is a list of the Top 10 Ethical Hacking Interview Questions –

1. What is Ethical Hacking?
2. What is footprinting in ethical hacking? What are the techniques used for footprinting?
3. What is DOS (Denial of service) attack?
4. What are the types of computer-based social engineering attacks? Explain what Phishing is.
5. What is Cross-site scripting and what are the types of Cross-site scripting?
6. Explain how you can stop your website from getting hacked.
7. What is CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery)? How can you prevent this?
8. What is MIB?
9. What is NTP?
10. What is Pharming and Defacement?

These are the top 10 Ethical Hacking Interview Questions. Continue reading to find the answers to all these questions.

Ethical Hacking Interview Questions and Answers

Here are the answer to the top 10 Ethical Hacking Interview Questions.

Question - What is Ethical Hacking?

Answer - Bypassing security protocols to discover vulnerabilities and risks inside a network is known as "ethical hacking." System or network owners often permit Cyber Security experts to conduct such tests as part of a comprehensive security audit. In contrast to illegal hacking, this method is deliberate, sanctioned, and ethical. Look at it as the old saying, "In order to catch a thief, you have to think like one."

Question - What is footprinting in ethical hacking? What are the techniques used for footprinting?

Answer - Footprinting is the method of collecting information or data about a target system or organization before making an effort to breach it. Footprinting is done to gather as much information as possible about the target to get a knowledge of the target's weaknesses and limitations.

Some of the techniques used for footprinting include:

• Whois Lookup: Determining the ownership and registration information of a domain.
• DNS Enumeration: Gathering information about the domain name servers and associated records.
• Network Scanning: Discovering active hosts and open ports on a network.
• Google Hacking: Using Google to search for sensitive information about the target.
• Social Engineering: Gaining information through human interaction.
• Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Gathering: Collect publicly available information about the target.

Question - What is DOS (Denial of service) attack? What are the common forms of DOS attack?

Answer - A denial of service attack, also known as a DoS attack, is a type of cyber attack in which the target system or network is bombarded with an excessive amount of traffic in an effort to make it inaccessible to the users for whom it was designed.

The following are some common forms of DoS attacks:

• Flooding: Overloading a network or system with a large amount of traffic, causing it to become unavailable.
• Ping of Death: Sending a maliciously large ping request to a target system, causing it to crash.
• SYN Flood: Overloading a target system with incomplete connection requests, causing it to become unavailable.
• Application Layer DoS: Targeting specific applications or services to make them unavailable, such as an HTTP flood attack targeting a web server.
• Botnets: A group of compromised devices that a hacker controls to launch coordinated DoS attacks.

Question - What are the types of computer-based social engineering attacks? Explain what Phishing is.

Answer - Computer-based social engineering attacks are frequent tactics used by cybercriminals to deceive users into releasing critical information, spreading malware, or obtaining unauthorized access to computer systems. At the same time, the victim is unaware of the danger. Various encounters, both online and in person, might serve as vectors for attacks.

Basic types of computer-based social engineering attacks are:

• Phishing: It is the process of sending fake emails or messages that appear to be from a trustworthy source, such as a bank or a government agency, to trick the victim into sharing sensitive information.
• Baiting: Scammers entice victims to share personal information in exchange for something victims want. One typical example is leaving a tempting item, such as a USB drive, in a public place and waiting for someone to take it and use it, which can then infect their device with malware.
• Pretexting: creating a fake identity or scenario to convince someone to reveal confidential information.
• Tailgating: following someone into a secure area without proper authorization by pretending to be with someone who has the authorization.
• Vishing and Smishing: using voice calls or answering machine messages to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information. Smishing is a social engineering method in which attackers use SMS texts to mislead people into disclosing personal information and install malware into the system.

Question - What is Cross-site scripting and what are the types of Cross-site scripting?

Answer - Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) refers to a security weakness that enables a hacker to insert malicious code into a website that other users view. This malicious code can execute in the victim's browser, compromising their security and potentially exposing sensitive information. XSS attacks can be launched through various vectors, including malicious links, form submissions, and even seemingly harmless user input fields.

There are 3 types of Cross-site scripting:

1. Stored XSS: A stored XSS vulnerability occurs when the malicious code is permanently stored on the vulnerable website, such as in a database, and is executed every time any user loads the affected page.
2. Reflected XSS: A reflected XSS vulnerability occurs when the malicious code is injected into a website through user input and is immediately reflected back to the user without being permanently stored on the server.
3. DOM-based XSS: It is a type of Cross-Site Scripting vulnerability where the malicious code is executed as a result of modifying the Document Object Model (DOM) of a web page. Unlike other forms of XSS, the payload is not reflected back to the server but executes directly in the client-side code. DOM-based XSS can be particularly dangerous as it bypasses filters that are designed to protect against traditional XSS attacks.

Question - Explain how you can stop your website getting hacked.

Answer - Website security refers to all of the precautions that have been taken to safeguard a website from intrusion by hackers and other online criminals. To prevent your website from being hacked, you can follow these best practices:

• Keep software up-to-date: Regularly update all software and plugins used on your website, including your web server software, content management system, and any other third-party tools.
• Use strong passwords and authentication: Use strong, unique passwords for all user accounts and enforce two-factor authentication for added security.
• Limit file uploads: If your website allows file uploads, limit the types of files that can be uploaded and use file validation to ensure that only safe files are allowed.
• Sanitize user input: Validate and sanitize any user input, such as form submissions, to prevent malicious code from being executed on your website.
• Use a web application firewall (WAF): By analyzing incoming traffic and preventing malicious requests, a WAF may protect against typical web-based threats.
• Regularly back up your data: Regularly back up your website data, including databases and files, so that you can quickly recover from an attack or data loss.
• Monitor your website: Regularly monitor your website for signs of an attack, such as unusual traffic patterns, changes to files, or error messages.
• Educate your users: Train your users on how to recognize and avoid phishing attacks and other common tactics used by hackers.

Question - What is CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery)? How can you prevent this?

Answer - In CSRF, an authenticated user is tricked into doing an unauthorized activity on the website that originally authenticated them, making it one of several cyber vulnerabilities. Users are verified as legitimate before being granted access to the website's features and resources through login and password protection. This establishes credibility between the user and the website.

Hackers use this trust factor in a CSRF attack to get access to the website. Hostile linking, sea surfing, session riding, a single-click assault, and so on are also other names for CSRF.

To prevent CSRF attacks, you can use several methods:

• CSRF Tokens: Including a random ID in the HTTP Request is the first line of defense against CSRF attacks. Per-request CSRF tokens help prevent intrusion attempts.
• Double Submit Cookies: A cookie is sent with the request, and a value is included in the request body. The server verifies that the value in the cookie and request body match.
• Captcha: A challenge-response test determines if a human or a bot made the request.

Question - What is MIB?

Answer - Management Information Base, commonly referred to as MIB, is a database used to manage computer networks. It is a hierarchical tree-like structure that defines all the objects that can be managed on a device, such as system information, performance statistics, and configuration parameters.

Question - What is NTP?

Answer - NTP stands for Network Time Protocol. It is used to synchronize the clocks of computers in a network. The goal of NTP is to provide a highly accurate and consistent time source for all devices in the network, allowing them to function together in a coordinated manner.

Question - What is Pharming and Defacement?

Answer - Pharming is a kind of cyber-attack in which the goal is to secretly take a user away from a website that is known to be trustworthy and drive them to a website that is fraudulent or dangerous without the user's knowledge. The attacker achieves this by modifying the user's DNS settings or exploiting vulnerabilities in the user's computer or network. The fake website can then steal sensitive information.

Defacement, on the other hand, is a type of cyber-attack that involves altering the appearance of a website without affecting its functionality. The attacker can modify the website’s content, images, or layout to display their chosen message, image, or other content. This attack is usually carried out to make a political or social statement, defame the website owner or its users, or cause disruption.

These are the top 10 Ethical Hacking Interview Questions and Answers compiled by our experts to help you prepare for your Ethical Hacking interview. We hope this detailed article on Ethical Hacking interview questions and answers was able to assist you in your interview preparation.

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