Footprinting
Footprinting is a part of reconnaissance process which is used for gathering possible information about a target computer system or network. Footprinting could be both passive and active. Reviewing a company’s website is an example of passive footprinting, whereas attempting to gain access to sensitive information through social engineering is an example of active information gathering.
Footprinting is basically the first step where hacker gathers as much information as possible to find ways to intrude into a target system or at least decide what type of attacks will be more suitable for the target.
During this phase, a hacker can collect the following information −
- Domain name
- IP Addresses
- Namespaces
- Employee information
- Phone numbers
- E-mails
- Job Information
In the following section, we will discuss how to extract the basic and easily accessible information about any computer system or network that is linked to the Internet.
Domain Name Information
You can use http://www.whois.com/whois website to get detailed information about a domain name information including its owner, its registrar, date of registration, expiry, name server, owner's contact information, etc.
Here is a sample record of www.google.com extracted from WHOIS Lookup −
google.com
Updated 1 hour ago
DOMAIN INFORMATION
Domain:
google.com
Registrar:
MarkMonitor Inc.
Registration Date:
1997-09-15
Expiration Date:
2020-09-13
Updated Date:
2018-02-21
Status:
clientDeleteProhibited
clientTransferProhibited
clientUpdateProhibited
serverDeleteProhibited
serverTransferProhibited
serverUpdateProhibited
clientTransferProhibited
clientUpdateProhibited
serverDeleteProhibited
serverTransferProhibited
serverUpdateProhibited
Name Servers:
ns1.google.com
ns2.google.com
ns3.google.com
ns4.google.com
ns2.google.com
ns3.google.com
ns4.google.com
REGISTRANT CONTACT
Name:
Domain Administrator
Organization:
Google LLC
Street:
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway,
City:
Mountain View
State:
CA
Postal Code:
94043
Country:
US
Phone:
+1.6502530000
Fax:
+1.6502530001
Email:
@google.com
ADMINISTRATIVE CONTACT
Name:
Domain Administrator
Organization:
Google LLC
Street:
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway,
City:
Mountain View
State:
CA
Postal Code:
94043
Country:
US
Phone:
+1.6502530000
Fax:
+1.6502530001
Email:
@google.com
TECHNICAL CONTACT
Name:
Domain Administrator
Organization:
Google LLC
Street:
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway,
City:
Mountain View
State:
CA
Postal Code:
94043
Country:
US
Phone:
+1.6502530000
Fax:
+1.6502530001
Email:
@google.com
RAW WHOIS DATA
Domain Name: google.com Registry Domain ID: 2138514_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.markmonitor.com Registrar URL: http://www.markmonitor.com Updated Date: 2018-02-21T10:45:07-0800 Creation Date: 1997-09-15T00:00:00-0700 Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2020-09-13T21:00:00-0700 Registrar: MarkMonitor, Inc. Registrar IANA ID: 292 Registrar Abuse Contact Email:@markmonitor.com Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.2083895740 Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited (https://www.icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited) Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited (https://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited) Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited (https://www.icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited) Domain Status: serverUpdateProhibited (https://www.icann.org/epp#serverUpdateProhibited) Domain Status: serverTransferProhibited (https://www.icann.org/epp#serverTransferProhibited) Domain Status: serverDeleteProhibited (https://www.icann.org/epp#serverDeleteProhibited) Registry Registrant ID: Registrant Name: Domain Administrator Registrant Organization: Google LLC Registrant Street: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Registrant City: Mountain View Registrant State/Province: CA Registrant Postal Code: 94043 Registrant Country: US Registrant Phone: +1.6502530000 Registrant Phone Ext: Registrant Fax: +1.6502530001 Registrant Fax Ext: Registrant Email:
Punch Line:
Though there are some advantages of keeping your website in an archive database, but if you do not like anybody to see how your website progressed through different stages, then you can request archive.org to delete the history of your website.
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