Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) Practice Exam 2025 – Your All-in-One Guide to Exam Success!

The testing method that involves the ethical hacker having zero knowledge of the target is black box testing. In this approach, the tester operates without any prior information about the system, application, or network being tested. This simulates a real-world scenario where an attacker would not have insights into the internal workings or vulnerabilities of the target.

Black box testing helps in identifying vulnerabilities that could potentially be exploited by external attackers, as it focuses solely on the inputs and outputs of the system without considering the underlying code or architecture. This method is particularly useful for assessing how an application behaves from the perspective of an outsider and for validating security measures that are supposed to protect the system from external threats.

In contrast, white box testing involves a comprehensive understanding of the internals of the system, including source code access, while gray box testing is a hybrid that combines both approaches, where the tester has partial knowledge of the system. Network testing, while relevant to assessing network vulnerabilities, is not a formal category of testing like the other three methods.