Book Image

Kali Linux Cookbook - Second Edition

By : Corey P. Schultz, Bob Perciaccante
Book Image

Kali Linux Cookbook - Second Edition

By: Corey P. Schultz, Bob Perciaccante

Overview of this book

Kali Linux is a Linux distribution designed for penetration testing and security auditing. It is the successor to BackTrack, the world’s most popular penetration testing distribution. Kali Linux is the most widely used platform and toolkit for penetration testing. Security is currently the hottest field in technology with a projected need for millions of security professionals. This book focuses on enhancing your knowledge in Kali Linux for security by expanding your skills with toolkits and frameworks that can increase your value as a security professional. Kali Linux Cookbook, Second Edition starts by helping you install Kali Linux on different options available. You will also be able to understand the lab architecture and install a Windows host for use in the lab. Next, you will understand the concept of vulnerability analysis and look at the different types of exploits. The book will introduce you to the concept and psychology of Social Engineering and password cracking. You will then be able to use these skills to expand the scope of any breaches you create. Finally, the book will guide you in exploiting specific technologies and gaining access to other systems in the environment. By the end of this book, you will have gained the core knowledge and concepts of the penetration testing process.
Table of Contents (11 chapters)

Identifying network hosts

There are various methods we can use to scan for hosts on internal or external networks. We will explore some of these in detail. We will use nmap for several examples in this section. TCP port scans are default within nmap as most of our well-known servers running using TCP. However, from a penetration standpoint, there are some very useful UDP ports that might be open that could provide us with attack vectors such as SNMP.

Getting ready

Let's ensure the following prerequisites:

  • Kali Linux is running and you are logged in as root
  • Bring up your other test machines (Metasploitable and Windows)
  • Validate network connectivity to the network you plan on scanning
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