Which term describes the phase of hacking that involves running targeted applications after gaining access?

• A. Gaining Access
• B. Executing Applications
• C. Escalating Privileges
• D. Vulnerability Analysis

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is what you do after you’ve already broken in: you run the actual tools and programs designed to achieve your objectives. This is executing applications—the phase where the attacker launches the software, scripts, or payloads they prepared to perform actions like data collection, control, or movement within the target environment. It’s a post-access activity focused on using targeted applications to accomplish goals.

This differs from gaining access, which is about entering the system in the first place; from escalating privileges, which aims to obtain higher-level rights after access is gained; and from vulnerability analysis, which is about finding weaknesses before exploiting them. Executing applications best describes the step of actively running the intended software once access has been obtained.