CEH Exam Overview

The Certified Ethical Hacker exam is a basic level exam that is "a mile wide and an inch deep" in information exposure.  The basic overview of the exam is as follows:

This 4 hour exam provides the basics of information security information that those who are entrenched in the technology field already know.  Out of 125 questions, a 70 percent is needed to pass, which is 88 questions.

There are 20 total modules within the CEH area of coverage.  I will review all 20 of them individually as I track my progress through studying for this certification.  For your awareness, I have purchased the training from EC-Council and will be using that to study for the exam. The modules are listed below.

01: Introduction to Ethical Hacking
02: Footprinting and Reconnaissance
03: Scanning Networks
04: Enumeration
05: Vulnerability Analysis
06: System Hacking
07: Malware Threats
08: Sniffing
09: Social Engineering
10: Denial of Service
11: Session Hijacking
12: Evading IDS, Firewalls, and Honeypots
13: Hacking Web Servers
14: Hacking Web Applications
15: SQL Injection
16: Hacking Wireless Networks
17: Hacking Mobile Platforms
18: IoT and OT Hacking
19: Cloud Computing
20: Cryptography

 

What I will do is cover the basics according to EC-Council’s CEH Exam Blueprint version 4.0. These are the list of topics that are covered within each Domain and the breakdown of sub-sections within each Sub-Domain. My purpose of this is two-fold: first, it will allow me to share what I’m learning with others out there; and second, sharing this will help me learn the material as I prepare for the exam later this year.

Below is a list of the entire CEH Exam Blueprint from the EC-Council website:

Domain	Sub Domain	Description	Number of Questions	Weightage (%)
1. Information Security and Ethical Hacking Overview	Introduction to Ethical Hacking	·        Information Security Overview ·        Cyber Kill Chain Concepts ·        Hacking Concepts ·        Information Security Controls ·        Information Security Laws and Standards	8	6%
2. Reconnaissance Techniques	Footprinting and Reconnaissance	·        Footprinting Concepts ·        Footprinting Methodology ·        Footprinting through Search Engines ·        Footprinting through Web Services ·        Footprinting through Social Networking Sites ·        Website Footprinting ·        Email Footprinting ·        Whois Footprinting ·        DNS Footprinting ·        Network Footprinting ·        Footprinting through Social Engineering ·        Footprinting Tools ·        Footprinting Countermeasures	10	21%
	Scanning Networks	·        Network Scanning Concepts ·        Scanning Tools ·        Host Discovery ·        Port and Service Discovery ·        OS Discovery (Banner Grabbing/OS Fingerprinting) ·        Scanning Beyond IDS and Firewall ·        Draw Network Diagrams	10
	Enumeration	·        Enumeration Concepts ·        NetBIOS Enumeration ·        SNMP Enumeration ·        LDAP Enumeration ·        NTP and NFS Enumeration ·        SMTP and DNS Enumeration ·        Other Enumeration Techniques (IPsec, VoIP, RPC, Unix/Linux, Telnet, FTP, TFTP, SMB, IPv6, and BGP enumeration) ·        Enumeration Countermeasures	6
3. System Hacking Phases and Attack Techniques	Vulnerability Analysis	·        Vulnerability Assessment Concepts ·        Vulnerability Classification and Assessment Types ·        Vulnerability Assessment Solutions and Tools ·        Vulnerability Assessment Reports	9	17%
	System Hacking	·        System Hacking Concepts ·        Gaining Access ·        Cracking Passwords ·        Vulnerability Exploitation ·        Escalation Privileges ·        Maintaining Access ·        Executing Applications ·        Hiding Files ·        Clearing Logs	6
	Malware Threats	·        Malware Concepts ·        APT Concepts ·        Trojan Concepts ·        Virus and Worm Concepts ·        File-less Malware Concepts ·        Malware Analysis ·        Malware Countermeasures ·        Anti-Malware Software	6
4. Network and Perimeter Hacking	Sniffing	·        Sniffing Concepts ·        Sniffing Technique: MAC Attacks ·        Sniffing Technique: DHCP Attacks ·        Sniffing Technique: ARP Poisoning ·        Sniffing Technique: DNS Poisoning ·        Sniffing Tools ·        Sniffing Countermeasures ·        Sniffing Detection Techniques	3	14%
	Social Engineering	·        Social Engineering Concepts ·        Social Engineering Techniques ·        Insider Threats ·        Impersonation on Social ·        Networking Sites ·        Identity Theft ·        Social Engineering Countermeasures	5
	Denial-of-Service	·        DoS/DDoS Concepts ·        DoS/DDoS Attack Techniques ·        Botnets ·        DDoS ·        Case Study ·        DoS/DDoS Attack Tools ·        DoS/DDoS Countermeasures ·        DoS/DDoS Protection Tools	2
	Session Hijacking	·        Session Hijacking Concepts ·        Application-Level Session Hijacking ·        Network Level Session Hijacking ·        Session Hijacking Tools ·        Session Hijacking Countermeasures	3
	Evading IDS, Firewalls, and Honeypots	·        IDS, IPS, Firewall, and Honeypot Concepts ·        IDS, IPS, Firewall, and Honeypot Solutions ·        Evading IDS ·        Evading Firewalls ·        IDS/Firewall Evading Tools ·        Detecting Honeypots ·        IDS/Firewall Evasion Countermeasures	5
5. Web Application Hacking	Hacking Web Servers	·        Web Server Concepts ·        Web Server Attacks ·        Web Server Attack Methodology ·        Web Server Attack Tools ·        Web Server Countermeasures ·        Patch Management ·        Web Server Security Tools	8	16%
	Hacking Web Applications	·        Web App Concepts ·        Web App Threats ·        Web App Hacking Methodology ·        Footprint Web Infrastructure ·        Analyze Web Applications ·        Bypass Client-Side Controls ·        Attack Authentication Mechanism ·        Attack Authorization Schemes ·        Attack Access Controls ·        Attack Session Management Mechanism ·        Perform Injection Attacks ·        Attack Application Logic Flaws ·        Attack Shared Environments ·        Attack Database Connectivity ·        Attack Web App Client ·        Attack Web Services ·        Web API, Webhooks and Web Shell ·        Web App Security	8
	SQL Injection	·        SQL Injection Concepts ·        Types of SQL Injection ·        SQL Injection Methodology ·        SQL Injection Tools ·        Evasion Techniques ·        SQL Injection Countermeasures	4
6. Wireless Network Hacking	Hacking Wireless Networks	·        Wireless Concepts ·        Wireless Encryption ·        Wireless Threats ·        Wireless Hacking Methodology ·        Wireless Hacking Tools ·        Bluetooth Hacking ·        Wireless Countermeasures ·        Wireless Security Tools	8	6%
7. Mobile Platform, IoT, and OT Hacking	Hacking Mobile Platforms	·        Mobile Platform Attack Vectors ·        Hacking Adroid OS ·        Hacking iOS ·        Mobile Devices Management ·        Mobile Security Guidelines and Tools	4	8%
	IoT and OT Hacking	·        IoT Concepts ·        IoT Attacks ·        IoT Hacking Methodology ·        IoT Hacking Tools ·        IoT Countermeasures ·        OT Concepts ·        OT Attacks ·        OT Hacking Methodology ·        OT Hacking Tools ·        OT Countermeasures	6
8. Cloud Computing	Cloud Computing	·        Cloud Computing Concepts ·        Container Technology ·        Serverless Computing ·        Cloud Computing Threats ·        Cloud Hacking ·        Cloud Security	7	6%
9. Cryptography	Cryptography	·        Cryptography Concepts ·        Encryption Algorithms ·        Cryptography Tools ·        Public Key Infrastructure ·        Email Encryption ·        Disk Encryption ·        Cryptanalysis ·        Countermeasures	7	6%

 I look forward to sharing my educational journey with all reading this!