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

Nessus – finding network vulnerabilities


Nessus allows us to attack a wide range of vulnerabilities depending on our feed, and we will confine our list of assessing the vulnerabilities of our target to those specific to the type of information we seek to gain from the assessment. In this recipe, we will configure Nessus to find network vulnerabilities on our targets. These are vulnerabilities specific to the machines or protocols on our network.

Getting ready

To complete this recipe, you will need a virtual machine(s) to test against:

  • Windows XP

  • Windows 7

  • Metasploitable 2.0

  • A network firewall or router

  • Any other flavor of Linux

How to do it...

Let's begin the process of finding network vulnerabilities with Nessus by opening the Mozilla Firefox web browser:

  1. Log in to Nessus at https://127.0.0.1:8834.

  2. Go to Policies.

  3. Click on Add Policy.

  4. On the General tab, perform the following tasks:

    1. Enter a name for your scan. We chose Internal Network Scan, but you can choose any name you wish.

    2. Visibility has two options...