there is no difference between them just one thing , if you want to gather some information about a clearnet website without getting hands dirty you can use Shodan or Censys but in the other side for the darknet websites you can't. you have just to deal with it like any penetration test operation .
Darknet recon uses Tor for anonymous info gathering on hidden sites. It differs from clearnet pentesting by requiring stronger anonymity and handling slower, .onion-based networks.
recon what? recon is what spies do, they map enemy solider locations and weapon positions.
there's no difference between clearweb and darkweb pentesting, do you even know what a website is or how it works? if you trying to hack something, then you're starting from wrong place.
in order to do math, you must first learn numbers.
in order to read/write, you must first learn letters and then language.
you can't expect to jump into hacking without understand anything about computers. the fact alone that you ask about pentesting between dark/clear web, is strong sign that you have no idea what you even asking.
website is a website, only difference is how it connects to internet. that's all.
Cool down man. I have 6 years expreince in programming.
As you said website is a website and you're right. But for clear net I can use many resources to know what's running on a website and it is first time checking a website on darknet ( also its a black box operation) so I just wanted to make sure.
Yeah, recon is what spies do, and guess what pentesters are? Attackers. Recon is step one in every real-world engagement, darknet or clearnet. You're clinging to textbook definitions while people are building modern offensive toolchains and mapping targets across Tor.
You say there's no difference? That’s ignorance. Darknet sites are hosted differently, behave differently under load, and are often intentionally misconfigured. An OPSEC slip on Tor is game over. If you don't know how to maintain anonymity or test under latency and traffic obfuscation, you're not ready to even scan those targets.
And sure, I know how websites work, but if you think that makes you a hacker, congrats on being stuck in 2005. Hacking is about adapting to the environment, not quoting basic protocol theory like it’s some sort of badge. Don’t mistake noise for wisdom.