Footprinting & Reconnaissance
39 practice questions with explanations — 15 free to try
3 of these 39 questions are in the free 15-question taster · the full topic is part of Premium
PassNova has 39 Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) practice questions on Footprinting & Reconnaissance, each with a clear explanation. A 15-question taster is free with no sign-up; the full bank is part of PassNova Premium. Updated for 2026.
Footprinting & Reconnaissance: example questions & answers
3 worked examples with answers and explanations below. Try 15 Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) questions free in the browser; the full 39-question Footprinting & Reconnaissance bank is part of PassNova Premium.
During passive reconnaissance, which technique gathers information about a target WITHOUT sending any packets directly to the target's systems?
- AEnumerating SMB shares with enum4linux against the target's file servers
- BBanner grabbing with Netcat
- CSearching public records, WHOIS, and search engines (OSINT)✓
- DRunning an Nmap SYN scan
Answer: Passive reconnaissance (OSINT) collects publicly available information such as WHOIS records, DNS data, and search-engine results without interacting directly with the target, leaving no trace on the target's systems.
Which DNS record type must be queried to identify the mail servers responsible for a target domain?
- APTR record
- BA record
- CCNAME record
- DMX record✓
Answer: The MX (Mail Exchange) record specifies the mail servers that accept email for a domain, making it the target of DNS footprinting aimed at email infrastructure.
An attacker uses the Google search operator 'site:example.com filetype:pdf' to locate documents. What footprinting technique is this an example of?
- ADNS zone transfer, requesting a full copy of the zone from a name server
- BGoogle hacking (Google dorking)✓
- CTraceroute analysis
- DSocial engineering, manipulating a person into revealing information
Answer: Crafting advanced search-engine queries with operators like site:, filetype:, and inurl: to uncover exposed information is known as Google hacking or Google dorking.