100 Ethical Hacking Quiz Questions & Answers 2026

Ethical Hacking Fundamentals — 25 Questions

1. What is ethical hacking? (Authorized testing of systems to find vulnerabilities before malicious actors)
2. What are the three types of hackers? (White hat — ethical; Black hat — malicious; Gray hat — between)
3. What is penetration testing? (Simulated attack with permission to identify security weaknesses)
4. What are the 5 phases of ethical hacking? (Reconnaissance, Scanning, Gaining Access, Maintaining Access, Covering Tracks)
5. What is reconnaissance? (Information gathering about target — passive and active)
6. What is passive reconnaissance? (Gathering info without interacting with target — OSINT)
7. What is active reconnaissance? (Directly interacting with target — port scanning, ping sweeps)
8. What is OSINT? (Open Source Intelligence — using publicly available information)
9. What is a vulnerability assessment? (Identifying and quantifying security vulnerabilities)
10. What is threat modeling? (Identifying and prioritizing potential threats to a system)
11. What is a scope of engagement? (Agreed boundaries of what a pentester is authorized to test)
12. What is a report in pentesting? (Documentation of findings, risks, and recommendations)
13. What is CVSS? (Common Vulnerability Scoring System — rates vulnerability severity 0-10)
14. What is CVE? (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures — unique IDs for known vulnerabilities)
15. What is a payload? (Code that executes on a target system after exploitation)

Hacking Tools & Techniques — 25 Questions

1. What is Kali Linux? (Penetration testing Linux distribution with pre-installed security tools)
2. What is Metasploit? (Framework for developing, testing, and executing exploits)
3. What is Nmap? (Network scanner for port scanning and host discovery)
4. What is Wireshark? (Network protocol analyzer for capturing and analyzing traffic)
5. What is Burp Suite? (Web security testing platform for finding web app vulnerabilities)
6. What is John the Ripper? (Password cracking tool)
7. What is Hashcat? (Advanced password recovery tool)
8. What is Hydra? (Network login cracker for brute force attacks)
9. What is Aircrack-ng? (WiFi security auditing tools)
10. What is SQLmap? (Automated tool for detecting and exploiting SQL injection)
11. What is a port scan? (Checking which ports are open on a target host)
12. What is a reverse shell? (Compromised system connects back to attacker)
13. What is privilege escalation? (Gaining higher permissions than initially obtained)
14. What is lateral movement? (Moving through a network after initial compromise)
15. What is pivoting? (Using compromised host as gateway to attack internal network)