Pass the ECCouncil CEH v13 312-50v13 Questions and answers with Dumpstech

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

VCloud-based (also known as Cloud-based or Cloud-assisted) antivirus leverages cloud computing to:

Offload detection and analysis to powerful remote servers

Provide real-time updates and threat intelligence

Aggregate data from multiple endpoints to improve detection

This method is efficient, especially for zero-day threats and large-scale protection.

From CEH v13 Courseware:

Module 6: Malware Threats → Modern Antivirus Technologies

In CEH v13 Module 11: Hacking Wireless Networks, WPA3-Personal is discussed as the latest wireless encryption standard designed to address the weaknesses of WPA2, particularly PSK brute-force vulnerabilities.

Key Features of WPA3-Personal:

Replaces the pre-shared key (PSK) with Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE), also known as the Dragonfly Key Exchange.

SAE performs a zero-knowledge proof which makes it resistant to offline dictionary attacks.

Even if attackers capture the handshake, they cannot use it to brute-force passwords offline.

Option Clarification:

A. WPA3-Personal: Correct – uses SAE instead of PSK.

B. WPA2-Enterprise: Uses 802.1X, not related to SAE.

C. Bluetooth: Wireless protocol but unrelated to SAE or WPA.

D. ZigBee: IoT protocol; unrelated to Wi-Fi security protocols.

While perimeter defenses like firewalls and IPS provide a layer of protection, internal systems (such as network elements) must also be hardened. This includes:

Enforcing strong authentication

Applying regular patches and updates

Conducting vulnerability assessments and security audits

Security should be layered (defense in depth), and reliance on perimeter defense alone is insufficient.

Reference – CEH v13 Official Study Guide:

Module 3: Scanning Networks / Module 18: Incident Response

Quote:

“Internal systems must be hardened with secure configurations and tested regularly. A layered security approach is required even in protected environments.”

Incorrect Options:

B & C. Relying only on perimeter or physical security is not sufficient

D. While backup sites are part of DR, they don’t replace proactive protection

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A Boot Sector Virus infects the master boot record (MBR) of the system. When a system boots, it first loads the MBR into memory. A Boot Sector Virus takes advantage of this by moving the original MBR to a different location on the hard disk and writing itself to the original MBR location. This ensures that it is executed first during system startup.

As per CEH v13 course material:

“A boot sector virus infects the master boot record of a hard disk. It moves the original boot sector to a different location on the hard disk and replaces it with its own malicious code. When the computer is booted, the virus loads first and then hands control to the original boot sector code.”

Reference – CEH v13 Study Guide:

Module 06: Malware Threats, Section: “Types of Malware”, Subsection: “Boot Sector Viruses”

Incorrect Options Explained:

A: Describes directory virus behavior, not boot sector.

B: The virus moves MBR on the hard disk, not RAM.

D: Some viruses overwrite MBR, but most preserve the original and move it to another disk location to maintain system operability.

In active session hijacking, after identifying a valid session, the attacker must desynchronize the legitimate communication between the client and the server. To do this, Bob should:

Knock one of the parties offline (typically the client).

Then spoof the session by injecting crafted packets using the guessed sequence number.

From CEH v13 Courseware:

Module 11: Session Hijacking

CEH v13 Study Guide states:

“After identifying a session and predicting its sequence number, the attacker forces the original user offline, allowing them to assume control over the connection using spoofed packets.”

Incorrect Options:

A: Taking over the session is the ultimate goal, but the necessary step before that is disconnecting the original participant.

B: Sequence prediction is already done.

C: Sequence number has already been guessed.

Appropriately controlling admittance to web content is significant for running a safe web worker. Index crossing or Path Traversal is a HTTP assault which permits aggressors to get to limited catalogs and execute orders outside of the web worker’s root registry.

Web workers give two primary degrees of security instruments

Access Control Lists (ACLs)

Root index

An Access Control List is utilized in the approval cycle. It is a rundown which the web worker’s manager uses to show which clients or gatherings can get to, change or execute specific records on the worker, just as other access rights.

The root registry is a particular index on the worker record framework in which the clients are kept. Clients can’t get to anything over this root.

For instance: the default root registry of IIS on Windows is C:\Inetpub\wwwroot and with this arrangement, a client doesn’t approach C:\Windows yet approaches C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\news and some other indexes and documents under the root catalog (given that the client is confirmed by means of the ACLs).

The root index keeps clients from getting to any documents on the worker, for example, C:\WINDOWS/system32/win.ini on Windows stages and the/and so on/passwd record on Linux/UNIX stages.

This weakness can exist either in the web worker programming itself or in the web application code.

To play out a registry crossing assault, all an assailant requires is an internet browser and some information on where to aimlessly discover any default documents and registries on the framework.

What an assailant can do if your site is defenseless

With a framework defenseless against index crossing, an aggressor can utilize this weakness to venture out of the root catalog and access different pieces of the record framework. This may enable the assailant to see confined documents, which could give the aggressor more data needed to additional trade off the framework.

Contingent upon how the site access is set up, the aggressor will execute orders by mimicking himself as the client which is related with “the site”. Along these lines everything relies upon what the site client has been offered admittance to in the framework.

Illustration of a Directory Traversal assault by means of web application code

In web applications with dynamic pages, input is generally gotten from programs through GET or POST solicitation techniques. Here is an illustration of a HTTP GET demand URL

GET http://test.webarticles.com/show.asp?view=oldarchive.html HTTP/1.1

Host: test.webarticles.com

With this URL, the browser requests the dynamic page show.asp from the server and with it also sends the parameter view with the value of oldarchive.html. When this request is executed on the web server, show.asp retrieves the file oldarchive.html from the server’s file system, renders it and then sends it back to the browser which displays it to the user. The attacker would assume that show.asp can retrieve files from the file system and sends the following custom URL.

GET http://test.webarticles.com/show.asp?view=../../../../../Windows/system.ini HTTP/1.1

Host: test.webarticles.com

This will cause the dynamic page to retrieve the file system.ini from the file system and display it to the user. The expression ../ instructs the system to go one directory up which is commonly used as an operating system directive. The attacker has to guess how many directories he has to go up to find the Windows folder on the system, but this is easily done by trial and error.

Example of a Directory Traversal attack via web server

Apart from vulnerabilities in the code, even the web server itself can be open to directory traversal attacks. The problem can either be incorporated into the web server software or inside some sample script files left available on the server.

The vulnerability has been fixed in the latest versions of web server software, but there are web servers online which are still using older versions of IIS and Apache which might be open to directory traversal attacks. Even though you might be using a web server software version that has fixed this vulnerability, you might still have some sensitive default script directories exposed which are well known to hackers.

For example, a URL request which makes use of the scripts directory of IIS to traverse directories and execute a command can be

GET http://server.com/scripts/..%5c../Windows/System32/cmd.exe?/c+dir+c:\ HTTP/1.1

Host: server.com

The request would return to the user a list of all files in the C:\ directory by executing the cmd.exe command shell file and run the command dir c:\ in the shell. The %5c expression that is in the URL request is a web server escape code which is used to represent normal characters. In this case %5c represents the character \.

Newer versions of modern web server software check for these escape codes and do not let them through. Some older versions however, do not filter out these codes in the root directory enforcer and will let the attackers execute such commands.

In a Windows system, a Security Identifier (SID) uniquely identifies each user and group. The SID format is:

S-1-5-21--

The Relative Identifier (RID) is the last component in the SID string.

According to Microsoft and CEH v13:

RID 500 → Built-in Administrator account

RID 501 → Guest account

RIDs > 1000 → Regular user accounts

In the given image, the SID:

s-1-5-21-1125394485-807628933-54978560-500chang

has a RID of 500, indicating the built-in administrator account.

From CEH v13:

Module 4: Enumeration

Topic: SID Enumeration

CEH v13 States:

“When enumerating Windows systems, the account with RID 500 is always the default Administrator account, unless renamed. Attackers often target this account due to its elevated privileges.”

Incorrect Options:

All others have RIDs not equal to 500 (e.g., 100, 652, 412, etc.)

Spear-phishing is a targeted form of phishing that uses personalized and context-rich information to increase credibility. CEH emphasizes that referencing specific internal projects, financial data, or organizational events significantly raises the success rate when attacking high-value targets such as executives. This tailored approach avoids suspicion and exploits trust more effectively than broad or generic phishing attempts.

Passive sniffing refers to listening to or capturing network traffic without sending any packets or altering the communication stream. The attacker’s system operates in "promiscuous mode" to monitor all traffic flowing through the network segment. This technique is mostly used in environments like hub-based or unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, where traffic is visible to all systems.

According to the CEH v13 Official Courseware, Module 08: Sniffing, under the subsection "Passive Sniffing", the following capabilities are associated with passive sniffing:

Capturing unencrypted credentials (usernames and passwords)

Identifying protocols, services, IP addresses, and hostnames

Monitoring HTTP sessions, cookies, and other clear-text traffic

Gathering detailed information for fingerprinting and enumeration

Exporting traffic to PCAPs for forensic and offline analysis

However, passive sniffing does not involve any active interference with the traffic. Therefore, actions like “modifying and replaying” packets require an attacker to craft and inject packets into the network — this is considered active sniffing or traffic manipulation, which is out of scope for passive techniques.

Thus:

Option A: Valid for passive sniffing (host discovery via captured traffic)

Option B: Invalid for passive sniffing (requires active traffic manipulation)

Option C: Valid (if data is unencrypted)

Option D: Valid (captures traffic for offline review)

Reference – CEH v13 Official Courseware:

Module 08: Sniffing

Section: “Passive Sniffing vs Active Sniffing”

Study Guide Pages: Usually found under “Types of Sniffing Techniques”

CEH iLabs/Engage Scenarios: Packet capture and Wireshark lab modules

To start the Computer Management Console from command line just type compmgmt.msc /computer:computername in your run box or at the command line and it should automatically open the Computer Management console.

A Protocol Analyzer is the correct tool used to examine the contents of packet data (often stored in .pcap files) to determine if a particular sequence of traffic is suspicious, malformed, or part of a known exploit.

In CEH v13:

Module 3: Scanning Networks

Module 4: Enumeration

Module 5: Vulnerability Analysis

Related Lab: Packet Analysis using Wireshark

The CEH v13 Study Guide states:

“A protocol analyzer (e.g., Wireshark) captures and decodes packets to display their contents and help analysts understand communication flows and anomalies. It is used to manually inspect packet contents and behavior, which helps distinguish legitimate traffic from attacks.”

PCAP (Packet Capture) files are typically analyzed using tools like Wireshark. These tools decode protocol layers and show payloads, making it easier for analysts to identify if IDS alerts were accurate or false positives.

Incorrect Options:

B. Network sniffer: General term; protocol analyzer is the specific functional tool used.

C. IPS: Prevents or blocks malicious traffic, but does not analyze existing packet captures.

D. Vulnerability scanner: Identifies vulnerabilities on systems/services; not used for packet capture review.

The scenario describes a hybrid encryption solution based on the OpenPGP standard that uses both symmetric and asymmetric encryption. The key phrase in the question is “a free implementation of the OpenPGP standard,” which directly refers to GPG.

GPG (GNU Privacy Guard) is a free, open-source implementation of the OpenPGP standard.

It combines symmetric encryption for data encryption (fast and efficient) and asymmetric encryption for secure key exchange (using public/private key pairs).

GPG is widely used to secure emails, files, and messages, often in conjunction with tools like Thunderbird or command-line utilities.

Incorrect Options:

A. PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is the original proprietary implementation of OpenPGP, not free/open-source by default.

B. S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) is another email encryption standard but does not implement OpenPGP.

C. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a mail transport protocol, not an encryption method.

Reference – CEH v13 Official Courseware:

Module 20: Cryptography

Section: “Hybrid Encryption and Email Encryption Tools”

Subsection: “GPG and OpenPGP-Based Encryption”

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This phase having the hacker uses different techniques and tools to realize maximum data from the system. they’re –

• Password cracking – Methods like Bruteforce, dictionary attack, rule-based attack, rainbow table are used. Bruteforce is trying all combinations of the password. Dictionary attack is trying an inventory of meaningful words until the password matches. Rainbow table takes the hash value of the password and compares with pre-computed hash values until a match is discovered.

• Password attacks – Passive attacks like wire sniffing, replay attack. Active online attack like Trojans, keyloggers, hash injection, phishing. Offline attacks like pre-computed hash, distributed network and rainbow. Non electronic attack like shoulder surfing, social engineering and dumpster diving.

Employing a tool like Sublist3r, which is designed to enumerate the subdomains of websites using OSINT, would be the most effective method to accomplish this goal. This option works as follows:

Sublist3r is a python tool designed to enumerate subdomains of websites using OSINT (Open Source Intelligence). It helps penetration testers and bug hunters collect and gather subdomains for the domain they are targeting. Sublist3r enumerates subdomains using many search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, Baidu, and Ask. Sublist3r also enumerates subdomains using Netcraft, Virustotal, ThreatCrowd, DNSdumpster, and ReverseDNS. Subbrute was integrated with Sublist3r to increase the possibility of finding more subdomains using bruteforce with an improved wordlist1.

By using Sublist3r, the tester can quickly and efficiently discover the subdomains of the target organization’s website, which can provide valuable information about the network structure, the services offered, the potential vulnerabilities, and the attack surface. Sublist3r can also be used to perform passive reconnaissance, which does not send any packets to the target domain, and thus avoids detection by the target organization12.

The other options are not as effective as option A for the following reasons:

B. Analyzing Linkedin profiles to find employees of the target company and their job titles: This option is not relevant because it does not address the subdomain enumeration task, but the social engineering task. Linkedin is a social networking platform that allows users to create and share their professional profiles, which may include their name, job title, company, skills, education, and contacts. By analyzing Linkedin profiles, the tester may be able to find employees of the target company and their job titles, which can be useful for crafting phishing emails, impersonating employees, or exploiting human weaknesses. However, this option does not help to discover the subdomains of the target organization’s website, which is the goal of this scenario3.

C. Utilizing the Harvester tool to extract email addresses related to the target domain using a search engine like Google or Bing: This option is not sufficient because it does not provide a comprehensive list of subdomains, but only a partial list based on email addresses. The Harvester is a tool that can extract email addresses, subdomains, hosts, employee names, open ports, and banners from different public sources, such as search engines, PGP key servers, and SHODAN computer database. By using the Harvester, the tester may be able to extract some email addresses related to the target domain, which can reveal some subdomains, such as mail.target.com or support.target.com. However, this option does not guarantee to find all the subdomains of the target organization’s website, as some subdomains may not have any email addresses associated with them, or may not be indexed by the search engines4.

D. Using a people search service, such as Spokeo or Intelius, to gather information about the employees of the target organization: This option is not applicable because it does not address the subdomain enumeration task, but the personal information gathering task. Spokeo and Intelius are people search services that can provide various information about individuals, such as their name, address, phone number, email, social media, criminal records, and financial history. By using these services, the tester may be able to gather information about the employees of the target organization, which can be useful for performing background checks, identity theft, or blackmail. However, this option does not help to discover the subdomains of the target organization’s website, which is the goal of this scenario56.

LAN Manager (LM) hashes use the DES (Data Encryption Standard) algorithm to hash passwords. Here's how LM hashing works:

The password is converted to uppercase and padded/truncated to 14 characters.

Split into two 7-character halves.

Each half is used as a DES key to encrypt a constant string ("KGS!@#$%")—resulting in a 16-byte LM hash.

From CEH v13 Courseware:

Module 6: Malware Threats

Topic: Windows Password Storage & Cracking

CEH v13 Study Guide states:

“LM hashes use the DES encryption algorithm to create password hashes. Due to this method, they are highly vulnerable to brute-force attacks, particularly because they split the password into two 7-character blocks.”

Incorrect Options:

A: MD4 is used in NTLM hashes.

C: SHA is not used in LM.

D: SSL is a transport security protocol, not a hashing algorithm.

The longer an adversary has this level of access, the greater the impact. Defenders must detect this stage as quickly as possible and deploy tools which can enable them to gather forensic evidence. One example would come with network packet captures, for damage assessment. Only now, after progressing through the primary six phases, can intruders take actions to realize their original objectives. Typically, the target of knowledge exfiltration involves collecting, encrypting and extracting information from the victim(s) environment; violations of knowledge integrity or availability are potential objectives also . Alternatively, and most ordinarily , the intruder may only desire access to the initial victim box to be used as a hop point to compromise additional systems and move laterally inside the network. Once this stage is identified within an environment, the implementation of prepared reaction plans must be initiated. At a minimum, the plan should include a comprehensive communication plan, detailed evidence must be elevated to the very best ranking official or board , the deployment of end-point security tools to dam data loss and preparation for briefing a CIRT Team. Having these resources well established beforehand may be a “MUST” in today’s quickly evolving landscape of cybersecurity threats

https://support.riverbed.com/content/support/software/steelcentral-npm/airpcap.html

Since this question refers specifically to analyzing a wireless network, it is obvious that we need an option with AirPcap (Riverbed AirPcap USB-based adapters capture 802.11 wireless traffic for analysis). Since it works with two traffic analyzers SteelCentral Packet Analyzer (Cascade Pilot) or Wireshark, the correct option would be "Wireshark with Airpcap."

NOTE: AirPcap adapters no longer available for sale effective January 1, 2018, but a question on this topic may occur on your exam.

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The technique that the hacker would consider next to obtain useful information about the underlying database is to utilize a blind injection technique that uses time delays or error signatures to extract information. A blind injection technique is a type of SQL injection technique that is used when the web application does not return any detailed error messages or data from the database, but only indicates whether the query was executed successfully or not. A blind injection technique relies on sending specially crafted SQL queries that cause a noticeable change in the behavior or response of the web application, such as a time delay or an error signature, which can then be used to infer information about the database. For example, the hacker could use the following methods12:

Time-based blind injection: This method involves injecting a SQL query that contains a time delay function, such as SLEEP() or WAITFOR DELAY, which pauses the execution of the query for a specified amount of time. The hacker can then measure the time difference between the normal and the delayed responses, and use it to determine whether the injected query was true or false. By using this method, the hacker can perform a binary search to guess the values of the data in the database, one bit at a time.

Error-based blind injection: This method involves injecting a SQL query that contains a deliberate error, such as a division by zero, a type mismatch, or an invalid conversion, which causes the database to generate an error message. The hacker can then analyze the error message, which may contain useful information about the database, such as the version, the name, the structure, or the data. By using this method, the hacker can exploit the error handling mechanism of the database to extract information.

The other options are not as suitable as option D for the following reasons:

A. Use the UNION operator to combine the result sets of two or more SELECT statements: This option is not feasible because it requires the web application to return data from the database, which is not the case in this scenario. The UNION operator is a SQL operator that allows the hacker to append the results of another SELECT statement to the original query, and display them as part of the web page. This way, the hacker can retrieve data from other tables or columns that are not intended to be shown by the web application. However, this option does not work when the web application does not return any data or error messages from the database, as in this scenario3.

B. Attempt to compromise the system through OS-level command shell execution: This option is not relevant because it is not a SQL injection technique, but a post-exploitation technique. OS-level command shell execution is a method of gaining access to the underlying operating system of the web server, by injecting a SQL query that contains a system command, such as xp_cmdshell, exec, or shell_exec, which executes the command on the server. This way, the hacker can perform various actions on the server, such as uploading files, downloading files, or running programs. However, this option does not help to obtain information about the database, which is the goal of this scenario4.

C. Try to insert a string value where a number is expected in the input field: This option is not effective because it is a basic SQL injection technique that is used to detect SQL injection vulnerabilities, not to exploit them. Inserting a string value where a number is expected in the input field is a method of triggering a syntax error in the SQL query, which may reveal the structure or the content of the query in the error message. This way, the hacker can identify the vulnerable parameters and the type of the database. However, this option does not work when the web application does not return any detailed error messages from the database, as in this scenario5.

In a Windows network, nongovernmental organization (New Technology) local area network Manager (NTLM) could be a suite of Microsoft security protocols supposed to produce authentication, integrity, and confidentiality to users.NTLM is that the successor to the authentication protocol in Microsoft local area network Manager (LANMAN), Associate in Nursing older Microsoft product. The NTLM protocol suite is enforced in an exceedingly Security Support supplier, which mixes the local area network Manager authentication protocol, NTLMv1, NTLMv2 and NTLM2 Session protocols in an exceedingly single package. whether or not these protocols area unit used or will be used on a system is ruled by cluster Policy settings, that totally different|completely different} versions of Windows have different default settings. NTLM passwords area unit thought-about weak as a result of they will be brute-forced very simply with fashionable hardware.

NTLM could be a challenge-response authentication protocol that uses 3 messages to authenticate a consumer in an exceedingly affiliation orientating setting (connectionless is similar), and a fourth extra message if integrity is desired.

First, the consumer establishes a network path to the server and sends a NEGOTIATE_MESSAGE advertising its capabilities.

Next, the server responds with CHALLENGE_MESSAGE that is employed to determine the identity of the consumer.

Finally, the consumer responds to the challenge with Associate in Nursing AUTHENTICATE_MESSAGE.

The NTLM protocol uses one or each of 2 hashed word values, each of that are keep on the server (or domain controller), and that through a scarcity of seasoning area unit word equivalent, that means that if you grab the hash price from the server, you’ll evidence while not knowing the particular word. the 2 area unit the lm Hash (a DES-based operate applied to the primary fourteen chars of the word born-again to the standard eight bit laptop charset for the language), and also the nt Hash (MD4 of the insufficient endian UTF-16 Unicode password). each hash values area unit sixteen bytes (128 bits) every.

The NTLM protocol additionally uses one among 2 a method functions, looking on the NTLM version. National Trust LanMan and NTLM version one use the DES primarily based LanMan a method operate (LMOWF), whereas National TrustLMv2 uses the NT MD4 primarily based a method operate (NTOWF).

TCP Maimon scan

This scan technique is very similar to NULL, FIN, and Xmas scan, but the probe used here is

FIN/ACK. In most cases, to determine if the port is open or closed, the RST packet should be generated as a response to a probe request. However, in many BSD systems, the port is open if the packet gets dropped in response to a probe.

https://nmap.org/book/scan-methods-maimon-scan.html

How Nmap interprets responses to a Maimon scan probe

Probe Response Assigned State

No response received (even after retransmissions) open|filtered

TCP RST packet closed

ICMP unreachable error (type 3, code 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, or 13) filtered