Expert Social Engineering Interview Questions and Answers Guide

Introduction

Social engineering is essential in cybersecurity as it exploits human psychology rather than technical vulnerabilities. By manipulating people into performing actions or divulging sensitive information, attackers gain unauthorized access to systems. 

Today, we'll explore social engineering meaning and some must-know social engineering interview questions and answers that will help you understand human behavior and tendencies and defend against such attacks. These social engineering questions address technical aspects and human factors to help you prepare for your cybersecurity interview.

Most asked Social Engineering Questions and Answers

Q1: What Is Social Engineering?

A: In social engineering individuals are manipulated into providing sensitive and confidential information, it also includes performing actions that compromise a company’s network security.

Social engineering consists of various deceptive tactics that are used to exploit human psychology for malicious purposes. These attacks typically occur in multiple stages.

Q2: What Is Active Spoofing?

A: Active spoofing includes attacks like caller ID spoofing or phishing campaigns. Its main aim is to deceive recipients and make them believe that the spoofing entity is legitimate, it involves falsifying identity or communication to act as a trusted source.

Q3: What Is Cyber Calling?

A: In Cybercalling a caller acts as a professional representative that has a plausible reason to contact a victim so that the individuals disclose their personal or confidential information. Subsequently, they exploit this false sense of security to extract sensitive data like one-time passwords (OTPs) or credit/debit card numbers, leading to financial or identity theft.

Q4: Can You Explain The Risks Associated With Social Engineering Attacks?

A: Social engineering attacks pose several risks, including:

• Financial losses: Successful attacks can lead to significant financial losses, with companies potentially losing millions in stolen assets, funds, or fraudulent transactions.

• Reputation damage: Such attacks can tarnish a company's reputation, eroding trust among customers and stakeholders resulting in decreased business and revenue.

• Data breaches: Social engineering is often employed to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data, such as customer information or trade secrets, potentially leading to costly data breaches.

• Compliance violations: These attacks may also result in breaches of regulatory requirements, like data privacy laws, leading to fines and legal penalties.

Most companies that go through social engineering break experience a 3.9rease in stock value. According to IBM's 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average data breach cost in the United States was $8.19 million.These figures underscore the importance of addressing social engineering threats through robust security measures.

Q5: How Do You Analyze The Results Of A Social Engineering Test?

A: Analyzing your test results is an important part for providing actionable insight if you are a social engineering penetration tester. Here's how I approach it:

• Gather performance metrics: Collect and analyze data on attack success rates, preferred methods, and timeframe.

• Identify vulnerabilities: Pinpoint human and technological weaknesses that facilitated successful attacks.

• Provide actionable recommendations: Develop practical suggestions, such as ongoing employee training and security tool upgrades.

• Measure recommendation effectiveness: Conduct follow-up tests to assess security posture improvements and adjust strategies accordingly.

Organizations can gain comprehensive metrics, analysis and recommendations through this systematic approach which can help them in enhancing their defenses against threats like social engineering.

Q6: What are the types of social engineering?

A: Social engineering includes various tactics like:

• Phishing: Emails or messages that are designed to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information.

• Vishing and Smishing: Voice or SMS-based scams to extract personal data or money from individuals.

• Pretexting: Fabricating a scenario to gain someone's trust and extract information or access.

• Baiting: Luring victims with promises of rewards or incentives to compel them to disclose sensitive details.

• Tailgating and Piggybacking: Gaining unauthorized access to secure areas by following someone who has legitimate access.

• Quid Pro Quo: Offering a benefit or service in exchange for confidential information.

• Cyber Threats Beyond Social Engineering: Additional digital threats that exploit vulnerabilities in systems or networks.

Q7: What Are The Three Standard Methods Of Social Engineering?

Ans: Social engineering tactics commonly involve:

• Online and Phone: Phishing scams and smishing (SMS/text messages) deceive users into revealing sensitive information or making financial transactions.

• Human Interaction: Exploiting human psychology or trust to manipulate individuals into compromising security.

• Passive Attacks: Covertly gathering information without direct interaction, often through observation or data mining.

Q8. What Are Common Warning Signs Of Social Engineering?

Ans: Warning signs of social engineering attacks include:

• Unexpected Messages: Receiving communications out of the blue, especially from unknown or unverified sources.

• Unusual Requests: Requests for unusual information or actions, mainly involving sensitive data or financial transactions.

• Potentially Harmful Actions: Requests to perform actions that could compromise security or privacy.

• Unusual Attachments or Links: Suspicious files or URLs are included in messages that could lead to malware or phishing sites.

• Sense of Urgency: Messages urging immediate action or creating a false sense of urgency to prompt hasty decisions

Advanced Social Engineering Interview Questions and Answers

Q9: What Are Some Common Examples Of Phishing Techniques?

A: Phishing is a popular tactic for Red Teamers which uses fear, urgency, and enticing offers like fake emails about fraudulent purchases, hacked accounts, or tax fraud. Corporate employees are now becoming more aware about such attacks as now only 1 in 10 basic phishing attempt is being reported. Monitoring these attacks allows Red Teams to gauge a company's response and adapt their strategies accordingly.

Q10: What Is Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) In Windows?

A: Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) is a protocol Windows offers for transferring data between applications which sends messages between applications that share data and utilizes shared memory to exchange information. With DDE, applications can engage in both one-time data transfers and continuous exchanges, allowing them to send updates to each other as new data becomes available

Q11: How Can Code Be Executed On Servers Remotely?

A: To execute code remotely on servers, start with setting up a replica network with Jenkins for testing purposes. After understanding how code execution requests function, employ JavaScript and WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) for the attack. Initially, you'll require a victim within an organization to visit a public website you control or a page hosting your stored XSS payload. 

JavaScript will trigger in the victim's browser upon visitation to execute your malicious payload. This payload exploits a "feature" in Chrome/Firefox, allowing WebRTC to expose the victim's internal IP. With this information, determine the victim's corporate IP ranges, enabling you to target every IP in their network with a specially crafted Jenkins exploit over port 8080

Q12: What Payload Do We Use For Executing Code On Servers Remotely?

A: To address the challenge of reliably deploying complex PowerShell payloads through the Jenkins Console shell, a solution was developed for THP3, known as "generateJenkinsExploit.py." This tool encrypts any binary file and constructs a malicious JavaScript page for the attack. 

When a victim accesses your malicious webpage, it captures their internal IP and distributes your exploit across all servers in the /24 range. Upon discovering a vulnerable Jenkins server, the attack dispatches a Groovy script payload to retrieve the encrypted binary from the internet. It then decrypts the binary to a file at C:\Users\Public\RT.exe and executes the Meterpreter binary (RT.exe).

Q13: What Does The EmbededInHTM Tool Do?

A: EmbededInHTM is a tool designed to encrypt any file and embed it into an HTML file as a resource. It also includes an automatic download routine that mimics a user clicking on the embedded resource. 

When a user accesses the HTML file, the embedded file is decrypted in real time, saved in a temporary folder, and then presented to the user as if it were being downloaded from a remote site. Depending on the user's browser and the file type, the browser may automatically open it.

Q14: What Does The Demiguise Tool Do?

A: The demiguise tool generates .html files containing an encrypted HTA (HTML Application) file. Its purpose is to dynamically decrypt the HTA within the browser when a target visits the page, bypassing content and file-type inspections implemented by certain security appliances. 

It's not aimed at creating sophisticated HTA content but rather at facilitating the delivery of HTA into an environment and avoiding sandboxing if environmental keying is utilized. This tool focuses on the delivery aspect rather than HTA content creation.

Q15: What Features Does VBad Offer For Obfuscating Payloads Within MS Office Documents?

A: VBad is a tool designed to heavily obfuscate payloads within MS Office documents. It employs encryption, includes fake keys to confuse incident response (IR) teams, and can destroy the encryption key after the first successful run, essentially making it a one-time use malware. 

Additionally, VBad can eliminate references to the module containing the effective payload, rendering it invisible from the VBA Developer Tool. These features make reverse engineering challenging and hinder analysis and debugging efforts by removing keys when comparing executed Word documents to their original versions.

Q16: How Can I Clone Web Application Authentication Pages Effectively?

A: One effective tool for quickly cloning authentication pages is the Social Engineering Toolkit (SET) by TrustedSec. It's widely used in campaigns prioritizing credential acquisition. You can download SET from https://github.com/trustedsec/social-engineer-toolkit. To set up SET:

• Configure it to use Apache instead of the default Python by modifying the config file.

• Start SET from the terminal.

• Choose "Website Attack Vectors," then "Site Cloner."

• Input your attacker server's IP and the site you want to clone.

• Test the cloned site by visiting your attacker server's address in a browser.

Best practices for cloning pages include:

• Running your Apache server over SSL.

• It stores all images and resources locally rather than calling from the cloned site.

• Securely store recorded passwords, perhaps with a public PGP key, to prevent recovery without the private key. PHP functions like gnupg_encrypt and gnupg_decrypt can implement this.

Q17: How does ReelPhish facilitate bypassing two-factor authentication (2FA)?

A: ReelPhish, developed by FireEye, streamlines bypassing 2FA for Red Teams. 

Here's how it works:

• Clone the victim's site that requires 2FA authentication.

• On your Attacker Box, capture the traffic needed to log into the genuine site using tools like Burp Suite.

• Modify the cloned site to integrate ReelPhish, ensuring it includes all necessary authentication parameters.

• When the victim authenticates on the cloned site, their credentials are sent to the attacker.

• ReelPhish automatically triggers authentication on the site, prompting the victim to receive a 2FA code or push notification.

• Believing they failed the initial login attempt, the victim is redirected to the actual site to log in again, unaware of the intrusion
  
  

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Conclusion

JanBask Training's cybersecurity courses help learners understand social engineering tactics, which can help them identify and avoid attacks. JanBask's practical approach also helps individuals prepare for cybersecurity interviews with their comprehensive training, helping them gain insights into the intricate world of cybersecurity and mastering techniques to fortify organizational resilience.