Week 3: Scanning, Enumeration, and Exploitation Fundamentals
Week of Sun, Sep 6 · week closes Sat, Sep 12
This week's items
- Weekly Quiz 3points in Canvas
- Discussion Board 3points in Canvas
- Lab 3points in Canvas
Exact due times are in Canvas. Late assignments are NOT accepted. Complete all assignments before the due date.
Read this week
- TestOut Ethical Hacker Pro — Ch 7–9 — Commercial text; named here for reference.
- Nmap Reference Guide — Free — official Nmap documentation covering scan types and output interpretation.
- Metasploit Documentation — Free — official documentation for authorized lab use.
Know these cold
- Network mapping builds a topology diagram from scan data — it identifies hosts, services, and operating systems to define the full attack surface.
- Enumeration extracts detailed information from open services after connection: usernames, shares, group policies, routing tables.
- OS fingerprinting determines the target's OS by analyzing TCP/IP stack differences: TTL values, window sizes, and response behavior.
- Vulnerability scanning (Nessus, OpenVAS) compares discovered services against a CVE database to identify known weaknesses — it identifies, it does not confirm exploitability.
- Kali Linux is the standard ethical hacking distribution, shipping 600+ pre-installed security testing tools, maintained by Offensive Security.
- Metasploit Framework automates delivery and execution of exploit code against targets in the defined scope for authorized lab environments.
- CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) rates vulnerabilities 0.0–10.0; scores drive remediation prioritization in penetration test reports.
- Standards: Maryland Blueprint Pillar 3 · CEH v12 Domain 4 (Enumeration) + Domain 5 (Vulnerability Analysis) · PGCC Outcomes 3, 4.
Meerk's quiz — open the Week 3 gate
10 questions, no time limit. 85% on your first attempt in a 24-hour window opens the gate. Retakes inside the window are practice — they help you learn, they don't count. Work alone; the point is to know it, not to have seen it.
Dinner Table Question
Ask at home: Your scan finds a host running SMBv1. What is the security risk and what does a defender do next?
En español: Tu escaneo encuentra un host con SMBv1. ¿Cuál es el riesgo y qué hace un defensor?