Book Image

Hands-On Penetration Testing on Windows

By : Phil Bramwell
Book Image

Hands-On Penetration Testing on Windows

By: Phil Bramwell

Overview of this book

Windows has always been the go-to platform for users around the globe to perform administration and ad hoc tasks, in settings that range from small offices to global enterprises, and this massive footprint makes securing Windows a unique challenge. This book will enable you to distinguish yourself to your clients. In this book, you'll learn advanced techniques to attack Windows environments from the indispensable toolkit that is Kali Linux. We'll work through core network hacking concepts and advanced Windows exploitation techniques, such as stack and heap overflows, precision heap spraying, and kernel exploitation, using coding principles that allow you to leverage powerful Python scripts and shellcode. We'll wrap up with post-exploitation strategies that enable you to go deeper and keep your access. Finally, we'll introduce kernel hacking fundamentals and fuzzing testing, so you can discover vulnerabilities and write custom exploits. By the end of this book, you'll be well-versed in identifying vulnerabilities within the Windows OS and developing the desired solutions for them.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
Title Page
Dedication
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

Summary


In this chapter, we introduced fuzzing as a testing methodology as well as an exploit research tool. We started out with mutation fuzzing over the network to test an FTP server's handling of mutated authentication requests. With the information learned, we moved on to developing Python scripts that automate the fuzzing process. While we were exploring Python fuzzing, we built a fuzzing server to provide input to a vulnerable FTP client. With both pieces of software, the goal was to crash them and learn what input from the fuzzer caused the crash. We wrapped up by looking at these crashes from a low-level register memory perspective. This was accomplished by attaching WinDbg to the vulnerable processes and examining memory after the crash. With Metasploit's offset discovery tools, we demonstrated how to use debugging and fuzzing to write precise exploits.

In the next chapter, we will take a deeper look into the post-exploitation phase of a penetration, so we can learn how hackers turn...