Book Image

Kali Linux Cookbook

Book Image

Kali Linux Cookbook

Overview of this book

In this age, where online information is at its most vulnerable, knowing how to execute the same attacks that hackers use to break into your system or network helps you plug the loopholes before it's too late and can save you countless hours and money. 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. Discover a variety of popular tools of penetration testing, such as information gathering, vulnerability identification, exploitation, privilege escalation, and covering your tracks. Packed with practical recipes, this useful guide begins by covering the installation of Kali Linux and setting up a virtual environment to perform your tests. You will then learn how to eavesdrop and intercept traffic on wireless networks, bypass intrusion detection systems, and attack web applications, as well as checking for open ports, performing data forensics, and much more. The book follows the logical approach of a penetration test from start to finish with many screenshots and illustrations that help to explain each tool in detail. The Kali Linux Cookbook will serve as an excellent source of information for the security professional and novice alike!
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Kali Linux Cookbook
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Cracking a Windows password using John the Ripper


In this recipe, we will utilize John the Ripper (John) to crack a Windows Security Access Manager (SAM) file. The SAM file stores the usernames and password hashes of users of the target Windows system. For security reasons, the SAM file is protected from unauthorized access by not being able to be opened manually or be copied while the Windows system is in operation.

Getting ready

You will need access to a SAM file.

For this recipe, we will assume that you have gained access to a Windows host machine.

How to do it...

Let's begin the process of cracking a Windows SAM file using John the Ripper. We are assuming that you have accessed the Windows machine via either a remote exploit hack or you have physical access to the computer and are using Kali Linux on a USB or DVD-ROM drive.

  1. Check for the hard drive you wish to mount:

    Fdisk –l
    
  2. Mount the hard drive and set target as its mount point:

    mount /dev/sda1 /target/
    
  3. Change directories to the location...