What is System Hacking in Ethical Hacking? Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025 Comments Improve Suggest changes 10 Likes Like Report System hacking is the process of exploiting vulnerabilities in electronic systems for the purpose of gaining unauthorized access to those systems. Hackers use a variety of techniques and methods to access electronic systems, including phishing, social engineering, and password guessing. Purpose of System Hacking:Generally, the motive of the hackers behind System Hacking is gaining access to the personal data of an individual or sensitive information belonging to an organization in order to misuse the information and leak it which may cause a negative image of the organization in the minds of people, Privilege Escalation, Executing malicious applications to constantly monitor the system. How this is carried out?This type of hacking is generally done by a Hacker who has a lot of information regarding the System security, network, software, and how the system communicates with others in the network, often called Footprinting and Reconnaissance. Then these hackers try numerous ways to carry out the attack but the common ways are: By deploying Viruses, Worms, Malware, TrojansUsing phishing techniquesSocial EngineeringIdentifying and exploiting VulnerabilitySteps:1. Reconnaissance: The first step in this type of Hacking is collecting information regarding the System's infrastructure, working, system's network. This step is very important as after this step the Hacker knows what attack to perform and how to gain access without leaving a trace. 2. Scanning: This step involves scanning the target System, which includes: Vulnerability Scanning: Checking vulnerabilities in the targeted system that can be exploited to gain access.Mapping of Network: Finding the working of the network, firewalls, routers, and systems connected to it.Port Scanning: Scanning the open ports, and services running over the System/Server.3. Gaining Access: This is the phase in which the hacker breaks into the system and gains unauthorized access to the System/Network and then elevates his privileges to that of Administrator or SuperUser so he can play with the System files that a normal/Guest user is unable to access. 4. Maintaining the Access: After the Hacker enters the System he tries to maintain the connection with it in the background until he accomplishes the goal with which he entered it. To know more about the phases of hacking please refer to the article 5 Phases of Hacking. Prevention from Hacking:Using Firewall.Installing Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware packages.Keeping the system up-to-date as security patches updates comes regularly.Be Aware of various phishing techniques.To know more about prevention please refer How to Protect Yourself From Cyber Attacks article. Comment H harshmaster07705 Follow 10 Improve H harshmaster07705 Follow 10 Improve Article Tags : Ethical Hacking Ethical Hacking - System Hacking Explore Ethical Hacking Tutorial 13 min read Introduction to Ethical HackingWhat is Hacktivism ? 11 min read The Hackers Methodology 4 min read Remote Access in Ethical Hacking 5 min read Information Gathering Tools for Kali Linux 5 min read ARIN in Ethical Hacking 3 min read Characteristics of Computer Networks 5 min read Foot Printing and ReconnaissanceWhat is DNS Footprinting? 6 min read Footprinting Through Search Engines 5 min read What is Whois Footprinting? 4 min read Footprinting Using Social Engineering Method 4 min read Scanning NetworksWhat is Credentialed Vulnerability Scan? 4 min read What are Scanning Attacks? 7 min read Malware Scan in Ethical Hacking 5 min read What is Running of a Malware Scan? 5 min read WAScan - web application security scanner in Kali Linux 2 min read What is TCP-ACK Scanning? 2 min read Port Scanning Techniques By Using Nmap 5 min read What is SYN Scanning? 3 min read What is UDP Scanning? 2 min read EnumerationCyber Security - Types of Enumeration 13 min read What is DNS Enumeration? 3 min read SMTP Enumeration 2 min read LDAP Enumeration 6 min read What is NTP Enumeration? 4 min read What is IPsec Enumeration? 4 min read What is NetBIOS Enumeration? 5 min read SNMP Enumeration 7 min read What is Security Testing in Enumeration? 4 min read System HackingWhat is System Hacking in Ethical Hacking? 2 min read What is Windows Hacking ? 6 min read Importance of Physical Security in Ethical Hacking 3 min read What is Non-Electronic Password Attack on a System? 3 min read Password Guessing Attack 5 min read Credential Stuffing in Ethical Hacking 2 min read Reverse Brute Force Attack in System Hacking 4 min read Brute Force Attack 2 min read What is a Default Password Attack Threat? 3 min read USB Drop Attack in System Hacking 5 min read What is Sniffing Attack in System Hacking? 4 min read How to Prevent Man In the Middle Attack? 5 min read How To Generate Rainbow Table Using WinRTGen? 4 min read What is Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery? 4 min read pwdump7 in System Hacking 3 min read FGDUMP in System Hacking 5 min read Password Auditing With L0phtcrack 7 Tool 5 min read What is Salted Password Hashing? 4 min read How to Defend Against Password Cracking of Systems? 6 min read How to Defend Against Wi-Fi Pineapple? 6 min read What is DLL Hijacking? 8 min read How to Prevent Privilege Escalation? 4 min read Malware AnalysisMost Popular Methods Used By Hackers to Spread Ransomware 3 min read What is Malvertising? 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