312-50v13 Exam Dumps - ECCouncil CEH v13 Questions and Answers

The scenario describes a cryptographic attack where the attacker (in this case, the student) uses a predefined list of commonly used passwords to try and unlock a secured PDF document. This technique is known as a Dictionary Attack.

According to the CEH v13 Official Courseware:

A Dictionary Attack is defined as “a method of breaking passwords by trying out a predefined list of words (dictionary) commonly used as passwords.”

Unlike a brute-force attack, which tries every possible character combination, a dictionary attack relies on known or likely password choices, which makes it faster but less exhaustive.

Dictionary attacks are commonly used against encrypted or password-protected files, login forms, and even hashes.

Relevant distinctions from other options:

A. Man-in-the-middle attack involves intercepting communication between two parties and is unrelated to offline password cracking.

B. Brute-force attack tries all possible character combinations, not just a list of known or common passwords.

D. Session hijacking involves taking over a user session and is unrelated to document password cracking.

Reference – CEH v13 Official Study Materials:

Module 20: Cryptography

Section: "Cryptanalysis Techniques"

Subsection: "Dictionary Attack vs. Brute-force Attack"

CEH v13 eBook or Study Guide — look for Table: “Types of Password Attacks” under “Cryptography Attack Vectors”

This exact technique is illustrated in CEH v13 labs involving John the Ripper, Hydra, and password recovery tools.

Launching Fileless Malware through Phishing Attackers commonly use social engineering techniques such as phishing to spread fileless malware to the target systems. Fileless malware exploits vulnerabilities in system tools to load and run malicious payloads on the victim’s machine to compromise the sensitive information stored in the process memory. (P.978/962)

Weaponization

The adversary analyzes the data collected in the previous stage to identify the

vulnerabilities and techniques that can exploit and gain unauthorized access to the

target organization. Based on the vulnerabilities identified during analysis, the adversary

selects or creates a tailored deliverable malicious payload (remote-access malware

weapon) using an exploit and a backdoor to send it to the victim. An adversary may

target specific network devices, operating systems, endpoint devices, or even

individuals within the organization to carry out their attack. For example, the adversary

may send a phishing email to an employee of the target organization, which may include a malicious attachment such as a virus or worm that, when downloaded, installs a backdoor on the system that allows remote access to the adversary. The following are the activities of the adversary: o Identifying appropriate malware payload based on the analysis o Creating a new malware payload or selecting, reusing, modifying the available malware payloads based on the identified vulnerability

o Creating a phishing email campaign o Leveraging exploit kits and botnets

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_chain

The Cyber Kill Chain consists of 7 steps: Reconnaissance, weaponization, delivery, exploitation, installation, command and control, and finally, actions on objectives. Below you can find detailed information on each.

1. Reconnaissance: In this step, the attacker/intruder chooses their target. Then they conduct in-depth research on this target to identify its vulnerabilities that can be exploited.

2. Weaponization: In this step, the intruder creates a malware weapon like a virus, worm, or such to exploit the target's vulnerabilities. Depending on the target and the purpose of the attacker, this malware can exploit new, undetected vulnerabilities (also known as the zero-day exploits) or focus on a combination of different vulnerabilities.

3. Delivery: This step involves transmitting the weapon to the target. The intruder/attacker can employ different USB drives, e-mail attachments, and websites for this purpose.

4. Exploitation: In this step, the malware starts the action. The program code of the malware is triggered to exploit the target’s vulnerability/vulnerabilities.

5. Installation: In this step, the malware installs an access point for the intruder/attacker. This access point is also known as the backdoor.

6. Command and Control: The malware gives the intruder/attacker access to the network/system.

7. Actions on Objective: Once the attacker/intruder gains persistent access, they finally take action to fulfill their purposes, such as encryption for ransom, data exfiltration, or even data destruction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kismet_(software)

Kismet is a network detector, packet sniffer, and intrusion detection system for 802.11 wireless LANs. Kismet will work with any wireless card which supports raw monitoring mode, and can sniff 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n traffic.

The most probable subsequent action from the attacker based on the Cyber Kill Chain Methodology is to exploit the malicious payload delivered to the target organization and establish a foothold. This option works as follows:

The Cyber Kill Chain Methodology is a framework that describes the stages of a cyberattack from the perspective of the attacker. It helps defenders to understand the attacker’s objectives, tactics, and techniques, and to design effective countermeasures. The Cyber Kill Chain Methodology consists of seven stages: reconnaissance, weaponization, delivery, exploitation, installation, command and control, and actions on objectives12.

The delivery stage is the third stage in the Cyber Kill Chain Methodology, and it involves sending or transmitting the weaponized payload to the target system. The delivery stage can use various methods, such as email attachments, web links, removable media, or network protocols. The delivery stage aims to reach the target system and bypass any security controls, such as firewalls, antivirus, or email filters12.

The exploitation stage is the fourth stage in the Cyber Kill Chain Methodology, and it involves executing the malicious payload on the target system. The exploitation stage can use various techniques, such as buffer overflows, code injection, or privilege escalation. The exploitation stage aims to exploit a vulnerability or a weakness in the target system and gain access to its resources, such as files, processes, or memory12.

The installation stage is the fifth stage in the Cyber Kill Chain Methodology, and it involves installing a backdoor or a malware on the target system. The installation stage can use various tools, such as rootkits, trojans, or ransomware. The installation stage aims to establish a foothold on the target system and maintain persistence, which means to survive reboots, updates, or scans12.

Therefore, the most probable subsequent action from the attacker based on the Cyber Kill Chain Methodology is to exploit the malicious payload delivered to the target organization and establish a foothold, because:

This action follows the logical sequence of the Cyber Kill Chain Methodology, as it is the next stage after the delivery stage.

This action is consistent with the attacker’s goal, as it allows the attacker to gain access and control over the target system and prepare for further actions.

This action is feasible, as the attacker has already delivered the malicious payload to the target system and may have bypassed some security controls.

The other options are not as probable as option B for the following reasons:

A. The attacker will attempt to escalate privileges to gain complete control of the compromised system: This option is possible, but not the most probable, because it is not the next stage in the Cyber Kill Chain Methodology, but rather a technique that can be used in the exploitation stage or the installation stage. Privilege escalation is a method of increasing the level of access or permissions on a system, such as from a normal user to an administrator. Privilege escalation can help the attacker to gain complete control of the compromised system, but it is not a mandatory step, as the attacker may already have sufficient privileges or may use other techniques to achieve the same goal12.

C. The attacker will initiate an active connection to the target system to gather more data: This option is possible, but not the most probable, because it is not the next stage in the Cyber Kill Chain Methodology, but rather a technique that can be used in the command and control stage or the actions on objectives stage. An active connection is a communication channel that allows the attacker to send commands or receive data from the target system, such as a remote shell or a botnet. An active connection can help the attacker to gather more data from the target system, but it is not a necessary step, as the attacker may already have enough data or may use other techniques to obtain more data12.

D. The attacker will start reconnaissance to gather as much information as possible about the target: This option is not probable, because it is not the next stage in the Cyber Kill Chain Methodology, but rather the first stage. Reconnaissance is the process of collecting information about the target, such as its IP address, domain name, network structure, services, vulnerabilities, or employees. Reconnaissance is usually done before the delivery stage, as it helps the attacker to identify the target and plan the attack. Reconnaissance can be done again after the delivery stage, but it is not the most likely action, as the attacker may already have enough information or may focus on other actions12.

If SNMP access is restricted to specific IP addresses (e.g., 192.168.1.0/24), you can bypass access controls by:

Spoofing the source IP to fall within that allowed range.

Using a SNMP set request to instruct the device (e.g., to copy its configuration to a TFTP server).

This is a classic SNMP spoofing attack.

From CEH v13 Courseware:

Module 4: Enumeration → SNMP Enumeration Attacks

CEH v13 explains that WPA2-Enterprise replaces the static, shared password model of WPA2-Personal with a centralized authentication system that relies on the 802.1X framework. The essential component of this architecture is RADIUS integrated with EAP, which manages user authentication, device identity verification, and dynamic session key generation. RADIUS acts as the backend authentication server, while EAP provides a flexible authentication framework supporting certificates, smartcards, or credentials. This combination allows organizations to enforce per-user access control policies, revoke individual users without changing network-wide passwords, and generate unique Pairwise Master Keys (PMKs) for every authenticated session. CEH highlights that one of the major advantages of WPA2-Enterprise is its ability to produce unique encryption keys for each client, preventing key reuse and mitigating lateral movement if one device is compromised. Certificate-based EAP types such as EAP-TLS introduce mutual authentication, ensuring both client and server validate each other’s identity before allowing network access. This significantly increases security posture compared to PSK networks, which cannot scale securely for large enterprise deployments.

Cloud-based DDoS mitigation services provide upstream traffic scrubbing, detecting and filtering high-volume attacks such as DNS amplification and HTTP floods before the traffic reaches the victim’s network. These services use distributed infrastructures capable of handling multi-vector attacks that surpass the capacity of traditional on-premises firewalls and IDS. Traffic scrubbing centers distinguish legitimate traffic from malicious traffic, allowing normal operations to continue without service disruption.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) systems aggregate logs and alerts from across the network—servers, routers, firewalls, IDS/IPS, and applications—and correlate that data to identify suspicious or malicious activity.

They provide:

Real-time alerting

Long-term log storage

Compliance reporting

Incident response facilitation

From CEH v13 Courseware:

Module 12: Evading IDS, Firewalls, and Honeypots → SIEM Tools

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation:

The code shown in the image is indicative of a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attack, where malicious JavaScript is injected into a web page via user input. In this case, the attacker includes:

%3Cscript%20src=...%3E — URL-encoded JavaScript tag to load a malicious script from an external source.

If the web application echoes this input back without sanitization, the script will execute in the context of the victim’s browser.

This allows the attacker to:

Steal cookies/session tokens

Perform actions on behalf of the victim

Redirect the victim to malicious websites

From CEH v13 Courseware:

Module 10: Web Application Hacking → Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

Before implementing auditing, it is crucial to assess how enabling this feature will impact system resources, performance, and storage. Auditing can generate significant logs and place additional load on systems, especially in environments handling sensitive data such as banking.

Understanding the impact helps determine if the current infrastructure can handle the overhead or if optimizations or upgrades are needed beforehand.

Reference – CEH v13 Official Study Guide:

Module 5: System Hacking

Section: Enabling Auditing and Logging

Quote:

“Before enabling auditing, organizations must assess the performance and storage impact. Improper implementation can result in performance degradation or missed logs.”

Incorrect Options Explained:

A. Vulnerability scanning is important but not directly related to audit implementation.

C. Cost-benefit analysis comes after understanding operational impact.

D. Staffing is a planning step, not the first technical action.

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YARA rules are a powerful way to detect and classify malware based on patterns, signatures, and behaviors. They can be used to complement Snort rules, which are mainly focused on network traffic analysis. However, writing YARA rules manually can be time-consuming and error-prone, especially when dealing with large and diverse malware samples. Therefore, using a tool that can automate or assist the generation of YARA rules can be very helpful for ethical hackers.

Among the four options, yarGen is the best choice for this purpose, because it generates YARA rules from strings identified in malware files while removing strings that also appear in goodware files. This way, yarGen can reduce the false positives and increase the accuracy of the YARA rules. yarGen also supports various features, such as whitelisting, scoring, wildcards, and regular expressions, to improve the quality and efficiency of the YARA rules.

The other options are not as suitable as yarGen for this purpose. AutoYara is a tool that automates the generation of YARA rules from a set of malicious and benign files, but it does not perform any filtering or optimization of the strings, which may result in noisy and ineffective YARA rules. YaraRET is a tool that helps in reverse engineering Trojans to generate YARA rules, but it is limited to a specific type of malware and requires manual intervention and analysis. koodous is a platform that combines social networking with antivirus signatures and YARA rules to detect malware, but it is not a tool for generating YARA rules, rather it is a tool for sharing and collaborating on YARA rules. References:

yarGen - A Tool to Generate YARA Rules

YARA Rules: The Basics

Why master YARA: from routine to extreme threat hunting cases

In CEH v13 Module 17: Mobile and IoT Security, Advanced SMS Phishing (also known as SMiShing) is described as a technique where attackers impersonate trusted entities via SMS to:

Trick users into entering authentication codes or PINs.

Deliver malicious payloads or alter device configurations.

Simulate OTA (Over-the-Air) provisioning messages.

In this case:

The attacker sends a fake OTA setup message asking for a PIN.

Once Ben enters the PIN, the device's configuration is hijacked.

Why Others Are Incorrect:

B. Bypass SSL pinning: Relates to mobile app reverse engineering and traffic interception.

C. Phishing: General term; SMS-specific variant is more accurate here.

D. Tap ‘n ghost: A touch screen manipulation attack, unrelated to messaging.

Correct answer is A. Advanced SMS phishing.

ARP Spoofing Attack ARP packets can be forged to send data to the attacker’s machine.Attackers flood a target computer’s ARP cache with forged entries, which is also known as poisoning. (P.1143/1127)

This technique is known as Boolean-Based Blind SQL Injection, as defined in CEH v13 Web Application Hacking. When applications suppress database errors and return generic responses, attackers use conditional statements to infer database behavior.

By comparing responses to true (1=1) and false (1=2) conditions, the attacker deduces whether injected SQL is being executed successfully.

CEH v13 distinguishes this from:

Error-based SQLi (visible DB errors)

UNION-based SQLi (data extraction)

Time-based SQLi (response delays)

Boolean-based blind SQL injection relies solely on content differences, making option C correct.

MAC flooding is a Layer 2 attack described in CEH v13 Network and Perimeter Hacking, where attackers overwhelm a switch’s CAM table with fake MAC addresses. Once the table is full, the switch behaves like a hub, forwarding traffic to all ports.

The most definitive indicator of MAC flooding is numerous MAC addresses learned on a single switch port, which is abnormal behavior in a properly segmented network. CEH v13 identifies this condition as a key forensic indicator of CAM table exhaustion.

ARP anomalies may occur, but they are more commonly associated with ARP spoofing attacks. IP-to-MAC inconsistencies indicate MITM attacks, not MAC flooding.

Thus, option C is the clearest confirmation.

White Hat Hacking is defined in CEH v13 as ethical hacking performed with explicit authorization to identify and remediate vulnerabilities. White hat hackers operate within legal frameworks and contractual agreements.

Grey hats act without permission but without malicious intent. Black hats conduct illegal attacks. Blue hats are external testers invited to find bugs before product release.

Thus, Option C is correct.

When partial root access exists, preventing further privilege abuse is the immediate priority. CEH v13 explains that Mobile Application Management (MAM) enforces granular access control, application isolation, and permission enforcement—even on compromised devices.

Secure coding (Option A) and testing (Option C) are preventative measures but do not contain an active compromise. Certificate pinning (Option B) protects communications, not application control.

MAM solutions allow administrators to revoke access, enforce policies, and isolate apps, limiting attacker capabilities post-compromise. Therefore, Option D is correct.

A digital certificate, issued by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA), binds a public key to the identity of an entity (e.g., user, organization). This provides a means to validate ownership of the public key.

CEH v13 Reference:

Module 17: Cryptography

"A digital certificate ensures the authenticity of the public key through a trusted third party known as a Certificate Authority."

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Static Network Address Translation (Static NAT) allows a single private IP address to be mapped to a single public IP address. This one-to-one mapping ensures that the same internal machine is always reachable through the same external IP address, which is crucial for "server publishing" — making internal servers (e.g., web servers, FTP servers) accessible from the internet.

From CEH v13 Courseware:

Module 03: Scanning Networks

Topic: Network Address Translation

Section: Types of NAT

CEH v13 Study Guide states:

“Static NAT provides a fixed translation of a private IP address to a public IP address. It is commonly used when an internal server must always be accessible from the Internet using a consistent IP address — this is known as server publishing.”

Incorrect Options:

A. Overloading PAT: Multiple private IPs share a single public IP using port numbers — not suited for static mappings.

B. Dynamic PAT: Similar to overloading; used for outbound traffic only.

C. Dynamic NAT: Assigns a public IP from a pool; the mapping can change, not suitable for server publishing.