After exploiting a system, the attacker should usually ensure that they are able to gain access to the victim's system at any time as long as the system is online. This is done by creating backdoor access on the target and setting up a persistence reverse or bind connection between the attacker's machines and the victim's system.

The objectives of maintaining access are as follows:

• Lateral movement
• Exfiltration of data
• Creating backdoor and persistent connections

Maintaining access is important to ensure that you, the penetration tester, always have access to the target system or network. Once the technical aspect of the penetration test is completed, it's time to clean up on the network.