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2. Perform Foot Printing and Reconnaissance

In this practical, we will perform foot printing and reconnaissance using various tools and techniques.

Step 1: Using Search Engines (Google Dorks)​

  1. Open your web browser and go to Google.
  2. In the search bar, type in a Google Dork query. For example, "site:example.com filetype:pdf" to find PDF files on a specific website.
  3. Analyze the search results for any useful information.

Step 2: Using Web Services and Social Networking Sites, Email Footprinting​

  1. Use tools like Netcraft and theHarvester to gather information about a target from web services and social networking sites.
  2. Use the TOR Browser to anonymize your activities.
  3. Use sherlock to find usernames across social networks.

Step 3: Website Footprinting​

  1. Use the ping command to determine the IP address of a target website.
  2. Use Web Site Copier to download a website for offline analysis.
  3. Use CeWL to generate a wordlist based on a website's content.

Step 4: Whois/DNS Footprinting​

  1. Use the nslookup command to find DNS records for a target domain.
  2. Use DNSRecon for advanced DNS enumeration.

By following these steps, we can gather a significant amount of information about our target, which can be useful in later stages of an ethical hacking operation.