What is ethical-hacking-methodology?

A guide to ethical hacking, where authorized security testers inspect systems, look for weaknesses, and safely demonstrate attacks.

Use it to prepare security assessments, gather target information, test authorized systems, record evidence, and write technical and executive reports.

It gives a structured path from permission and reconnaissance through scanning, exploitation, and reporting.

ethical-hacking-methodology — Skill for Claude Code and Codex by zebbern: A guide to ethical hacking, where authorized security testers…

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods

npx agentmods add skills/zebbern/claude-code-guide/ethical-hacking-methodology

Any agent

npx skills add zebbern/claude-code-guide --skill ethical-hacking-methodology

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zebbern/claude-code-guide

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/zebbern/claude-code-guide/ethical-hacking-methodology.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/zebbern/claude-code-guide/ethical-hacking-methodology)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/zebbern/claude-code-guide/ethical-hacking-methodology"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/zebbern/claude-code-guide/ethical-hacking-methodology.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Per session 58 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.

When invoked 2,705 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.

Security scan B 2 findings. Scan, not verified.

Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.

Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5	$0.00058	$0.02705
Opus 5	$0.00029	$0.01352
Sonnet 5	$0.00012	$0.00541
Haiku 4.5	$0.00006	$0.00270

Measured 3d ago against content hash e2e10d57dda3, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

ethical-hacking-methodology scanned grade B with 2 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 3d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Asks for rootlowPrivilege escalation

A mod that escalates privileges can change anything on the machine, not only the project.

# Check sudo permissions

Downgraded: this mod is about security review, or the phrase is quoted, so it is likely naming the pattern rather than instructing it.

Reaches for credential filesmediumPrivilege escalation

SSH keys, cloud credentials, git-credentials, .npmrc, /etc/shadow: reading these is how a config file becomes a credential leak.

# Add attacker's public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Downgraded: this mod is about security review, or the phrase is quoted, so it is likely naming the pattern rather than instructing it.

skills/ethical-hacking-methodology/SKILL.md · 467 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 467 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Ethical Hacking Methodology

Purpose

Master the complete penetration testing lifecycle from reconnaissance through reporting. This skill covers the five stages of ethical hacking methodology, essential tools, attack techniques, and professional reporting for authorized security assessments.

Prerequisites

Required Environment

Kali Linux installed (persistent or live)
Network access to authorized targets
Written authorization from system owner

Required Knowledge

Basic networking concepts
Linux command-line proficiency
Understanding of web technologies
Familiarity with security concepts

Outputs and Deliverables

Reconnaissance Report - Target information gathered
Vulnerability Assessment - Identified weaknesses
Exploitation Evidence - Proof of concept attacks
Final Report - Executive and technical findings

Core Workflow

Phase 1: Understanding Hacker Types

Classification of security professionals:

White Hat Hackers (Ethical Hackers)

Authorized security professionals
Conduct penetration testing with permission
Goal: Identify and fix vulnerabilities
Also known as: penetration testers, security consultants

Black Hat Hackers (Malicious)

Unauthorized system intrusions
Motivated by profit, revenge, or notoriety
Goal: Steal data, cause damage
Also known as: crackers, criminal hackers

Grey Hat Hackers (Hybrid)

May cross ethical boundaries
Not malicious but may break rules
Often disclose vulnerabilities publicly
Mixed motivations

Other Classifications

Script Kiddies: Use pre-made tools without understanding
Hacktivists: Politically or socially motivated
Nation State: Government-sponsored operatives
Coders: Develop tools and exploits

Phase 2: Reconnaissance

Gather information without direct system interaction:

Passive Reconnaissance

# WHOIS lookup
whois target.com

# DNS enumeration
nslookup target.com
dig target.com ANY
dig target.com MX
dig target.com NS

# Subdomain discovery
dnsrecon -d target.com

# Email harvesting
theHarvester -d target.com -b all

Read the full file on GitHub · 467 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

3d ago First seen · 467 lines · 58 tokens per session scan B e2e10d57dda3

Subscribe to this mod's changes

ethical-hacking-methodology is a skill published in the GitHub repository zebbern/claude-code-guide (4,599 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 58 tokens to every session and 2,705 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it B with 2 findings (asks for root, reaches for credential files). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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ethical-hacking-methodology