# 2 - Exploitation The exploitation phase in a penetration test focuses on exploiting the vulnerabilities that have been discovered in the previous stage to establish unauthorised access to a system or resource. This can be done by exploiting weak passwords, out-of-date services, services misconfiguration, incorrect input sanitation... Once a system is successfully compromised, it is often possible to penetrate more systems because you now have access to more potential targets that were not available before (Post-Exploitation). Finally, an exploit should be performed only when you are confident that triggering the vulnerability will be successful. Otherwise, you could lead the machine to an inconsistent state, leading to a DoS, corrupting data and getting detected. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://the-pentesting-guide.marmeus.com/2-exploitation.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.