Chapter 12. Final Preparation

The first 11 chapters of this book cover the technologies, protocols, design concepts, and considerations required for your preparation in passing the EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) Version 10 exam. These chapters cover the information that is necessary to pass the exam. However, most people need more preparation than simply reading the first 11 chapters of this book. This chapter, along with the Introduction of the book, suggests hands-on activities and a study plan that will help you complete your preparation for the exam.

Hands-on Activities

As mentioned, you should not expect to pass the CEH exam by just reading this book. The CEH exam requires hands-on experience with many of the tools and techniques discussed in this book. These include tools such as Wireshark, Nmap, Hping, and others. A good place to start is with Kali Linux, which includes many tools that are valuable to the ethical hacker. The Kali tool listing can be found here: http://tools.kali.org/tools-listing. If you have not installed Kali, you should highly consider doing so. Although building your own test lab is beyond the scope of this book, you might want to check out http://h4cker.org/lab. It will guide you through building your own lab and using many of these tools. Building your own lab, breaking it, and fixing it is the most effective way to learn the skills necessary to pass the exam.

When we teach ethical hacking classes, the lecture is only about 40 percent of the class time. The other 60 percent consists of hands-on labs. Anyone who tells you that you can become an ethical hacker and be proficient with the requisite skills without hands-on practice is not being truthful. While foremost, we want everyone who is reading this book to pass the CEH exam, we also hope that we can help each of you become a successful ethical hacker or security professional. Therefore, we strongly encourage you to experiment as much as possible with the tools discussed in this book. Another option is to use some of the capture-the-flag sites that are available for legal ethical hacking. WeChall has one such list at www.wechall.net/. Another good site is https://ctf365.com. Consider taking the time to build a test lab, experiment with the tools, use Kali Linux, and practice ethical hacking techniques on a network you control and have permission to use to target. Consider other Pearson Ethical Hacking video courses, such as the Hacking Web Applications (The Art of Hacking Series) LiveLessons (ISBN: 978-0-13-526140-8), from http://www.informit.com/store/hacking-web-applications-the-art-of-hacking-series-9780135261408.

Suggested Plan for Final Review and Study

This section lists a suggested study plan from the point at which you finish reading this book through Chapter 11 until you take the EC-Council CEH exam. You can ignore this five-step plan, use it as is, or modify it to better meet your needs:

Step 1. Review key topics: You can use the table at the end of each chapter that lists the key topics in each chapter or just flip the pages looking for key topics.

Step 2. Review testable content: EC Council maintains a list of testable content known as the CEH Exam Blueprint. Review it and make sure you are familiar with every item that is listed. You can download a copy at https://www.eccouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/CEH-Exam-Blueprint-v2.0.pdf.

Step 3. Download Kali Linux: Again, nothing can replace hands-on experience with the tools. If you understand how a tool such as Wireshark works, you will be able to answer any questions regarding it. You can download Kali at https://www.kali.org/downloads/.

Step 4. Practice with the tools: With Kali installed, practice with the tools so you understand how they work. A good starting point is this list of top 10 Kali tools: http://www.networkworld.com/article/2291215/security/security-139872-top-10-security-tools-in-kali-linux-1-0-6.html. I recommend that you check out each one. Make sure you are comfortable with many of the tools listed throughout the book, such as Hping, Nmap, Netcat, ZAP, Burp Proxy, Cain, LCP, Metasploit, Wireshark, Snort rules, TCPdump, John the Ripper, and so on.

Step 5. Complete memory tables: Open Appendix B, “Memory Tables,” from the companion website and print the entire appendix. Then complete the tables.

Step 6. Study “Review Questions” sections: Go through the review questions at the end of each chapter to identify areas in which you need more study.

Step 7. Use the Pearson Test Prep practice test software to practice: The Pearson Test Prep practice test software provides a bank of unique exam-realistic questions available only with this book.

The introduction of this book contains the detailed instructions on how to access the Pearson Test Prep practice test software. This database of questions was created specifically for this book and is available to you either online or as an offline Windows application. As covered in the Introduction, you can choose to take the exams in one of three modes: Study Mode, Practice Exam Mode, or Flash Card Mode.

Summary

The tools and suggestions listed in this chapter have been designed with one goal in mind: to help you develop the skills required to pass the EC-Council CEH exam and gain the skills of an ethical hacker. This book has been developed from the beginning both to present you with a collection of facts and to help you learn how to apply those facts. Regardless of your experience level before reading this book, it is our hope that the broad range of preparation tools, and even the structure of the book, will help you pass the exam with ease. We wish you success in your exam and hope that our paths cross again as you continue to grow in your IT security career.

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