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

Post-exploitation with PowerShell


PowerShell is a full Windows administration framework, and it's built into the OS. It can't be completely blocked. When we talk about post-exploitation in Windows environments, consideration of PowerShell is not a nice-to-have; it's a necessity. We'll examine the post phase in more detail in the last two chapters of the book, but for now let's introduce PowerShell's role in bringing our attack to the next stage and one step closer to total compromise.

ICMP enumeration from a pivot point with PowerShell

So, you have your foothold on a Windows 7 box. Setting aside the possibility of uploading our own tools, can we use a plain off-the-shelf copy of Windows 7 to poke around for a potential next stepping stone? With PowerShell, there isn't much we can't do.

Recall from earlier that we can pipe a number range into ForEach. So, if we're on a network with netmask 255.255.255.0, our range could be 1 through 255 piped into a ping command. Let's see it in action:

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