Kali Linux stands as a powerful platform for cybersecurity professionals, ethical hackers, and penetration testers. This tech concept walks through the top 10 ethical hacking techniques and provides ready-to-run bash script snippets for each. These scripts are ideal for information gathering, vulnerability discovery, and penetration test preparation, all within a secure and legal context.

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1. Reconnaissance (Information Gathering)

Reconnaissance is the first step in ethical hacking. Tools like nmap and theHarvester help gather host, subdomain, and email information about a target.

Bash Script for Reconnaissance

#!/bin/bash
read -p "Enter target domain or IP: " target
echo "[*] Running nmap host discovery..."
nmap -sP $target

echo "[*] Harvesting emails and subdomains..."
theHarvester -d $target -b google -l 50

2. Vulnerability Scanning

Scanning for known vulnerabilities helps uncover weak software versions or configurations. Nikto is effective for detecting outdated web servers and misconfigurations.

Bash Script for Web Vulnerability Scanning

#!/bin/bash
read -p "Enter target URL (e.g., http://192.168.0.1): " url
echo "[*] Running Nikto scan..."
nikto -h $url

3. Exploitation Research

Before launching any exploit, it’s important to identify known vulnerabilities in services. searchsploit queries exploit-db for public exploit scripts.

Bash Script for Exploit Discovery

#!/bin/bash
read -p "Enter software/service name (e.g., vsftpd 2.3.4): " software
echo "[*] Searching exploit-db for: $software"
searchsploit "$software"

4. Wireless Network Attacks

Wireless testing is crucial for evaluating Wi-Fi security. Tools like wash identify routers vulnerable to WPS-based attacks.

Bash Script for WPS Discovery

#!/bin/bash
read -p "Enter wireless monitor interface (e.g., wlan0mon): " iface
echo "[*] Scanning for WPS-enabled APs (20 seconds)..."
timeout 20 wash -i $iface

5. Social Engineering Simulations

Social engineering tests human vulnerabilities. Social-Engineer Toolkit (SET) helps simulate phishing and fake login attacks.

Bash for Launching SET

#!/bin/bash
echo "[*] Launching Social Engineering Toolkit..."
sudo setoolkit

Note: SET runs in an interactive menu, making it unsuitable for full automation.

6. Password Attacks

Testing password strength is vital for identifying weak authentication. Hydra performs brute-force or dictionary attacks on login services.

Bash Script for SSH Password Brute-Force

#!/bin/bash
read -p "Enter target IP: " ip
read -p "Enter username: " user
hydra -l $user -P /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt ssh://$ip

7. Web Application Testing

Web applications often contain vulnerabilities like SQL injection. sqlmap helps detect and exploit such flaws automatically.

Bash Script for SQL Injection Testing

#!/bin/bash
read -p "Enter vulnerable URL with parameter (e.g., http://site.com/page.php?id=1): " url
sqlmap -u "$url" --batch --banner

8. Privilege Escalation Checks

Privilege escalation occurs when attackers move from user to root access. The linux-exploit-suggester script identifies such opportunities on Linux systems.

Bash Script for Exploit Suggestions

#!/bin/bash
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mzet-/linux-exploit-suggester/master/linux-exploit-suggester.sh
chmod +x linux-exploit-suggester.sh
./linux-exploit-suggester.sh

9. Network Sniffing and Spoofing

Analyzing network traffic helps identify sensitive data leaks. tcpdump captures real-time packets on a given interface.

Bash Script for Packet Sniffing

#!/bin/bash
read -p "Enter network interface (e.g., eth0 or wlan0): " iface
echo "[*] Capturing packets (Ctrl+C to stop)..."
sudo tcpdump -i $iface -nn

10. Post-Exploitation Access

After gaining access, ethical hackers often establish persistence. Meterpreter, via Metasploit, allows ongoing control and data extraction.

Bash Script to List Meterpreter Sessions

#!/bin/bash
msfconsole -q -x "sessions -i"

My Tech Advice: Each of these bash scripts is designed for authorized use in ethical hacking scenarios, such as penetration testing, red teaming, and vulnerability research. Kali Linux provides a versatile and battle-tested environment to implement these techniques securely and effectively. If you are serious about ethical hacking, consider bundling these into a modular toolkit or integrating them into a reporting workflow using tools like Dradis or Faraday.

Ready to build your own ethical solution ? Try the above tech concept, or contact me for a tech advice!

#AskDushyant

Note: The example and pseudo code is for illustration only. You must modify and experiment with the concept to meet your specific needs.

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