Reconnaissance

Before you start this Metasploit journey, you have to do your homework. After you have gained permission to legally explore a network, you need to gain as much information about that network. This includes information such as DNS, domains, ports, and services. Start a physical or digital folder for this process. It makes life so much easier when you have to create a report. It also works as a great resource when you start expanding your reach deeper into a network. I use Microsoft OneNote because it is so versatile and keeps everything together in a single location.

Reconnaissance is gathering intelligence about an organization and can take two forms: passive and active. Passive reconnaissance is done to gather as much information as possible without any type of active engagement. The information you gather will be used to attempt successful exploitation of targets. The more information you learn, the better crafted the attacks will be. Passive reconnaissance is completely...