Pass 312-50v13 Exam Guide

Once initial access is obtained—especially through weak or default credentials—the CEH system hacking methodology directs the tester to proceed to privilege escalation. The objective is to elevate user-level access to administrative or system-level privileges so the attacker can perform unrestricted actions such as installing tools, modifying configurations, accessing protected files, and pivoting laterally. CEH materials emphasize using privilege escalation vulnerabilities, such as misconfigured services, kernel exploits, unpatched local privilege escalation flaws, weak file permissions, and token impersonation. A denial-of-service attack is counterproductive and does not support post-exploitation goals. XSS is a web application attack vector and unrelated to operating system privilege manipulation. Brute-forcing the root password is noisy, slow, and unnecessary when authenticated access is already established. Therefore, exploiting a known local privilege escalation vulnerability is the appropriate CEH-aligned next step.

This is a classic example of Web Parameter Tampering. This occurs when attackers manipulate parameters exchanged between client and server to exploit vulnerabilities in the application logic. In this case:

Damount and Camount are passed via URL parameters.

The web application is not validating or sanitizing the values.

Altering the values affects the transaction outcome.

This is not an SQL Injection (no SQL code shown), nor is it XSS (no script injection), and it is unrelated to Cookie Tampering (which involves browser-stored cookies).

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From CEH v13 Guide:

Vulnerability identification is the step in the risk assessment process where security flaws or weaknesses are identified in existing systems, policies, or procedures.

CEH v13 Reference:

Module 5: Vulnerability Assessment – Risk Assessment Concepts

“Vulnerability identification is the process of discovering existing flaws and weaknesses in systems or processes that may be exploited.”

=

In an inference-based assessment, scanning starts by building an inventory of the protocols found on the machine. After finding a protocol, the scanning process starts to detect which ports are attached to services, such as an email server, web server, or database server. After finding services, it selects vulnerabilities on each machine and starts to execute only those relevant tests.