As I mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, the recon phase can make or break the subsequent phases. The information gathering will feed your cracking and fuzzing operations, narrowing search fields to something significantly more manageable. The work saved in focusing the testing translates into tighter test criteria, more successful testing approaches, less churn and trial and error, and much more salient reports. Customers often learn as much about what we find in this phase as they will in the remaining phases, and this brings up a crucial point. The quality and quantity of information available online about their systems and the people using them can have dramatic consequences in the future. Proactive actions to limit or reduce this exposure improves their security posture and should be both encouraged and coached.
In this chapter, we explored some deeper uses...