🔐 Certified Expert Ethical Hacker (CEEH)

This chapter provides a foundational understanding of ethical hacking, its importance in cybersecurity, and how it differs from malicious hacking. It introduces key concepts like white-hat hackers, black-hat hackers, and gray-hat hackers. Readers will learn about the role of ethical hackers in identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities to protect digital assets. The chapter also highlights the legal and professional responsibilities of ethical hackers and outlines the skills and mindset required to succeed in this field.

This chapter explores the powerful role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in both defending and attacking within the cybersecurity landscape. It explains how AI is used to detect threats, analyze vulnerabilities, automate responses, and enhance ethical hacking techniques. The chapter also covers AI-driven tools like machine learning algorithms for anomaly detection, predictive threat intelligence, and smart malware analysis. Additionally, it introduces how hackers misuse AI for social engineering, automated exploits, and bypassing security systems — emphasizing the dual-edged nature of AI in cyber warfare.

This chapter introduces the basics of Windows Batch programming, a scripting language used to automate tasks in the Windows operating system. It covers key concepts such as creating .bat files, using commands like echo, if, for, goto, and implementing logic flows. Readers will learn how to write scripts for file handling, system information gathering, and simple automation tasks useful in ethical hacking. The chapter focuses on real-world examples to help learners understand how batch scripts can be used for reconnaissance, payload execution, and administrative tasks in a cybersecurity context.

This chapter dives into USB Rubber Ducky, a powerful penetration testing tool that looks like a regular USB drive but acts as a keyboard to execute pre-programmed keystroke injection attacks. Readers will learn how to write Ducky Script — the simple scripting language used to automate keystrokes — and deploy payloads for tasks such as credential harvesting, backdoor creation, and privilege escalation. The chapter includes real-world examples, ethical use cases, and countermeasures, helping learners understand both offensive and defensive aspects of USB-based attacks in cybersecurity.

This chapter covers the techniques used to hack into Windows systems and the essential methods to secure them. It explores common vulnerabilities in Windows environments, such as weak passwords, outdated software, and misconfigured services. Readers will learn about privilege escalation, password dumping tools (like Mimikatz), remote desktop exploits, and bypassing User Account Control (UAC). The chapter also focuses on defense strategies, including hardening the OS, using Group Policies, enabling logging and auditing, and applying regular security patches — giving learners a balanced view of both attack and defense in Windows systems.

This chapter introduces the world of hardware hacking, where physical devices are manipulated to uncover vulnerabilities, extract data, or gain unauthorized access. It covers essential tools and platforms like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and USB debugging devices. Learners will explore techniques such as firmware extraction, serial communication analysis, chip-off forensics, and exploiting IoT devices. The chapter emphasizes ethical hacking practices, showing how hardware hacking is used in penetration testing, security research, and developing more secure systems. It also discusses countermeasures to protect against physical-level attacks.

This chapter delves into advanced footprinting techniques used to gather detailed information about targets during the reconnaissance phase of ethical hacking. It covers both passive and active methods, including DNS interrogation, WHOIS lookups, Google hacking (dorking), social media mining, and metadata extraction. Readers will also learn how to use specialized tools like Maltego, Shodan, and theHarvester to map digital footprints, identify potential attack surfaces, and build a complete profile of the target. The chapter emphasizes stealth, strategy, and legality in the information-gathering process.

This chapter focuses on Google Dorking, a powerful technique used to uncover sensitive information indexed by search engines. It teaches how to craft advanced Google search queries to find exposed files, login pages, error messages, cameras, and even vulnerable web applications. Readers will learn commonly used operators like intitle:, inurl:, filetype:, and site: to narrow down search results for ethical hacking purposes. The chapter also includes real-world use cases, automation tools, and defensive strategies to protect systems from being exposed through search engine indexing.

This chapter explores how misconfigurations in systems and applications create critical security vulnerabilities. Readers will learn to identify and exploit common misconfigurations in services like FTP, SMB, RDP, web servers, databases, and cloud platforms. The chapter demonstrates how attackers take advantage of default credentials, open ports, overly permissive access, and unpatched software. It also guides learners on how to detect and fix these issues through proper system hardening, secure configurations, and regular audits — highlighting the importance of proactive defense in preventing breaches.

This chapter covers Scanning and Enumeration, the crucial phases in ethical hacking where attackers identify live hosts, open ports, services, and gather detailed information about the target systems. Readers will learn how to use tools like Nmap, Netcat, and Enum4linux to perform network discovery, service fingerprinting, OS detection, and user/group enumeration. The chapter explains TCP/UDP scanning techniques and how to interpret scan results effectively. It also emphasizes stealth scanning methods and teaches how to defend against reconnaissance attempts by monitoring traffic and hardening exposed services.

In this chapter, you will learn how to identify and assess security weaknesses in systems using professional vulnerability scanning tools. We’ll cover tools like Nessus, OpenVAS, and Nmap, guiding you through scanning techniques, interpreting results, and prioritizing vulnerabilities for remediation. This hands-on module is essential for ethical hackers, SOC analysts, and penetration testers aiming to strengthen system defenses.

This chapter focuses on creating clear, professional, and actionable cybersecurity reports after assessments or penetration tests. You'll learn how to document vulnerabilities, explain technical findings in simple language, include risk ratings, and provide remediation steps. Proper report writing is crucial for communicating with clients, management, or legal teams and is a key skill for ethical hackers and security professionals.

This chapter explores the human side of hacking—social engineering. You'll learn how attackers manipulate people to reveal confidential information or perform actions that compromise security. We cover common techniques like phishing, pretexting, baiting, and tailgating, along with real-world case studies and defense strategies. Understanding social engineering is essential for recognizing and preventing non-technical attacks in cybersecurity.

In this chapter, you'll learn how attackers intercept and take over active user sessions to gain unauthorized access to systems or data. We cover techniques like packet sniffing, session token theft, and man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, using tools like Wireshark, Ettercap, and Burp Suite. You'll also explore prevention methods such as encryption, secure cookies, and HTTPS. This knowledge is critical for securing web applications and networks.

This chapter introduces steganography, the art of hiding data within other files such as images, audio, or video. You'll learn how attackers use steganography to conceal malicious code or sensitive information, making it invisible to traditional security tools. We cover both manual and tool-based methods for embedding and extracting hidden data, along with detection techniques. Understanding steganography is essential for forensic investigators and cybersecurity professionals.

This chapter covers the fundamentals of cryptography, the science of securing data through encryption. You’ll learn about key concepts like symmetric and asymmetric encryption, hashing, digital signatures, and common algorithms such as AES, RSA, and SHA. Real-world applications like SSL/TLS, secure email, and data protection are also discussed. Mastering cryptography is essential for safeguarding information in modern cybersecurity systems.

In this chapter, you’ll learn how attackers bypass security defenses like Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), firewalls, and honeypots to avoid detection during an attack. We cover evasion techniques such as packet fragmentation, IP spoofing, tunneling, and obfuscation, along with practical demonstrations using tools like Nmap, Hping3, and Metasploit. Understanding these methods is vital for ethical hackers to test and improve network defenses.

This chapter focuses on identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in web servers, the backbone of online services. You’ll learn how attackers target misconfigurations, outdated software, and weak access controls to gain unauthorized access or control. Topics include directory traversal, buffer overflow, web shell uploading, and the use of tools like Nikto, Burp Suite, and Metasploit. This knowledge helps ethical hackers assess and secure web server environments effectively.

This chapter dives into the exploitation of web application vulnerabilities such as SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF), and File Inclusion. You'll learn how attackers manipulate web inputs to bypass security controls and access sensitive data. Practical demonstrations using tools like Burp Suite, OWASP ZAP, and SQLmap are included. Understanding these attacks is crucial for ethical hackers to test and secure modern web applications.

This chapter focuses on SQL Injection (SQLi), one of the most dangerous and common web application vulnerabilities. You'll learn how attackers exploit insecure SQL queries to access, modify, or delete data from a database. The chapter covers types of SQLi—classic, blind, and error-based—along with hands-on exploitation using tools like SQLmap and Burp Suite. You’ll also learn effective prevention techniques such as input validation and prepared statements to secure applications against SQL injection attacks.

This chapter explains Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, which aim to overwhelm systems, networks, or servers and make them unavailable to users. You’ll learn about different attack techniques like SYN flood, UDP flood, and botnet-based DDoS, as well as tools like LOIC, HOIC, and Hping3. The chapter also covers detection and mitigation strategies, making it essential for understanding how to protect against service disruption threats.

This chapter explores the most up-to-date techniques used by attackers to compromise websites. You'll learn about zero-day exploits, advanced injection attacks, authentication bypass, API abuse, and JavaScript-based attacks. Using tools like Burp Suite, OWASP ZAP, and custom scripts, this chapter demonstrates real-world methods and how to ethically test and secure modern websites against evolving threats.

In this chapter, you'll learn how to use Perl scripting to automate the process of discovering hidden or unsecured admin panels on websites. The chapter covers crafting custom URL brute-force scripts, handling HTTP requests, and parsing server responses to identify administrative login pages. This technique is useful for ethical hackers during reconnaissance and vulnerability assessment phases.

This chapter explains how attackers implant backdoors in websites to gain persistent, unauthorized access. You'll learn common techniques such as web shell uploads, PHP backdoors, and obfuscated code injection, along with tools like C99 shell and Weevely. The chapter also covers detection and removal methods, helping ethical hackers and defenders understand how to identify, prevent, and respond to web-based backdoor threats.

This chapter introduces the concept of HX (Hexadecimal) encoding and URL encoding, both of which are used to safely transmit data over the web. You’ll learn how attackers use encoding techniques to obfuscate payloads, bypass filters, and manipulate URLs during attacks like SQL injection and XSS. The chapter also demonstrates how to decode and analyze encoded URLs and payloads, making it essential for understanding web application security and input validation.

This chapter provides a clear understanding of injection points—the locations in a web application where user input is processed and can potentially be exploited. You'll learn how to identify vulnerable input fields, headers, cookies, and parameters that may be exposed to attacks like SQL Injection, Command Injection, and XSS. The chapter also covers techniques for discovering and testing injection points using tools like Burp Suite, Postman, and browser developer tools. Mastering this concept is crucial for effective vulnerability assessment and secure coding.

This chapter explains the concept of parameters in web applications—key-value pairs used to pass data between the client and server via URLs, forms, cookies, and headers. You'll learn how parameters are used in GET, POST, and URL queries, and why they are critical targets for attacks like SQL Injection, XSS, and IDOR. The chapter also covers how to analyze, test, and secure parameters using tools like Burp Suite and browser dev tools, helping you better understand data flow and attack surfaces in web applications.

This chapter explains the concept of parameters in web applications—key-value pairs used to pass data between the client and server via URLs, forms, cookies, and headers. You'll learn how parameters are used in GET, POST, and URL queries, and why they are critical targets for attacks like SQL Injection, XSS, and IDOR. The chapter also covers how to analyze, test, and secure parameters using tools like Burp Suite and browser dev tools, helping you better understand data flow and attack surfaces in web applications.

This chapter explores how Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities can be combined with DIOS (Dump-In-One-Shot) techniques to extract database information from vulnerable web applications. You’ll learn how attackers inject malicious scripts to execute within a victim’s browser and use those scripts to steal cookies, session tokens, or trigger automated database dumps. The chapter also covers how to craft DIOS payloads, bypass filters, and protect against such advanced attacks by implementing proper input sanitization and output encoding.

This chapter explains the process of website defacement, where attackers alter the appearance or content of a website, usually to spread a message or showcase a breach. You'll learn how defacements are carried out through vulnerabilities like file upload flaws, admin panel access, or backdoors. The chapter also covers how attackers submit defaced sites to platforms like Zone-H for public recognition. While this is a common tactic used by black-hat hackers, the chapter emphasizes understanding these methods strictly for defensive and ethical hacking purposes, so you can secure web applications against such attacks.

This chapter demonstrates how attackers target vulnerable websites using manual exploitation techniques—without automated tools. You'll learn how to identify and test for weaknesses like SQL Injection, admin panel exposure, insecure file uploads, and XSS through manual inspection of forms, URLs, and responses. The goal is to help ethical hackers understand the step-by-step logic behind attacks, improve vulnerability detection skills, and apply defensive measures to protect real-world websites.

This chapter explores how Base64 encoding is used in SQL-based attacks to obfuscate malicious payloads and bypass input filters or firewalls. You’ll learn how attackers encode SQL injection strings in Base64 to hide their intent, and how to decode and analyze such payloads during vulnerability assessments. The chapter also demonstrates real-world examples of Base64 SQL attacks and how to defend against them using proper input validation, parameterized queries, and security monitoring.

This chapter explains the use of the GROUP BY clause in SQL, which is used to group rows that have the same values in specified columns and perform aggregate functions like COUNT(), SUM(), AVG(), etc., on each group. You’ll learn the syntax, practical examples, and how it can be used during SQL injection attacks to manipulate and retrieve structured data. Understanding GROUP BY is essential for both legitimate database queries and recognizing advanced exploitation techniques

This chapter covers techniques used to bypass IP-based restrictions, such as firewalls or security filters that block specific IP addresses. You'll learn how attackers use methods like proxy servers, VPNs, TOR, CDN abuse, IP spoofing, and header manipulation (X-Forwarded-For, Client-IP) to disguise their real IP and access restricted resources. The chapter also includes ethical use cases for testing security controls and provides guidance on defending against IP evasion tactics in web applications and networks.

This chapter focuses on Local Variable Injection, a lesser-known but dangerous vulnerability where attackers manipulate variables defined in the application's local scope to alter program behavior. You’ll learn how these variables can be exploited—especially in insecurely coded PHP or scripting environments—to perform tasks like unauthorized access, privilege escalation, or code execution. Real-world examples and manual testing techniques are included to help ethical hackers detect and secure against this type of injection vulnerability.

This chapter provides a comprehensive introduction to Microsoft SQL Server (MS SQL), one of the most widely used relational database management systems. You’ll learn how to interact with MS SQL using T-SQL (Transact-SQL) for tasks like querying data, managing users, and executing stored procedures. The chapter also explores common vulnerabilities in MS SQL, such as SQL injection, xp_cmdshell exploitation, and privilege escalation techniques. Ideal for ethical hackers and penetration testers, this guide helps you understand both the structure and security of MS SQL environments.

This chapter offers a complete guide to routing queries—techniques used to control the flow of data between networks, devices, or application components. You’ll learn how routing works in networking and how routing queries are used in web applications, APIs, and database systems to determine how data is processed and delivered. The chapter also covers URL routing in web frameworks, query string manipulation, and routing logic in SQL and server-side code. Understanding routing queries is essential for both ethical hacking and secure application development.

This chapter explains the concept and usage of symlinks (symbolic links) in Linux and Windows environments. You'll learn how symlinks are used to create pointers to files or directories, and how attackers can exploit them for privilege escalation, bypassing file restrictions, or accessing sensitive system paths. The chapter includes practical examples of creating and abusing symlinks using commands like ln -s in Linux and mklink in Windows, along with security best practices to prevent symlink-related vulnerabilities.

This chapter introduces essential network tools used for anonymity, privacy, and redirection in cybersecurity. You'll learn the differences and use cases for:

• Proxy Servers – Route traffic through intermediary servers to hide IP or bypass filters.

• VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) – Encrypt and tunnel all traffic for privacy and location masking.

• SOCKS Proxies – Low-level proxies useful for routing any kind of traffic, including TCP connections.

• VPS (Virtual Private Servers) – Remote servers often used to host tools, launch scans, or mask origin.

The chapter covers how ethical hackers use these tools for secure testing and how defenders can detect and mitigate misuse.

This chapter explores Evilginx Pro, an advanced phishing and man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attack framework used to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) and capture credentials, session cookies, and tokens in real time. You’ll learn how attackers set up phishing proxies that mimic real login pages, tricking users into providing their credentials. The chapter also explains domain configuration, TLS setup, and bypassing modern browser defenses. For ethical hackers and red teamers, understanding Evilginx Pro is essential for simulating real-world phishing threats and training organizations to defend against them.

This chapter delves into the workings of RATs (Remote Access Trojans) and botnet attacks, two of the most dangerous tools used in cyber warfare. You'll learn how attackers use RATs to gain full control over a victim's device—enabling actions like spying, data theft, and remote command execution. The chapter also covers how botnets—networks of compromised machines—are built and controlled to launch large-scale attacks like DDoS, spam campaigns, and credential stuffing. Detection techniques, real-world case studies, and prevention strategies are included to help ethical hackers and defenders understand and counter these threats.

This chapter explains Silent Exploit Attacks, where attackers exploit vulnerabilities without triggering obvious signs or alerts. These attacks are designed to be stealthy, avoiding detection by antivirus, firewalls, or intrusion detection systems (IDS). You'll learn how silent exploits are crafted using techniques like fully undetectable (FUD) payloads, zero-day vulnerabilities, obfuscation, and code injection. The chapter also includes demonstrations using tools like Metasploit, Veil, and custom scripts, along with defensive strategies to detect and block stealthy intrusion attempts.

This chapter focuses on AMSI (Antimalware Scan Interface) and Antivirus Bypass Attacks, where attackers evade detection by modern security systems during exploitation or payload execution. You’ll learn how AMSI works in Windows to scan and block malicious scripts in PowerShell and other interpreters, and how attackers use techniques like string obfuscation, reflection, custom encoding, and memory injection to bypass it. The chapter also covers common bypass tools like Obfuscation frameworks, PowerShell Empire, and custom C# loaders, providing insight into both red-team strategies and blue-team defenses.