Book Image

Mastering Kali Linux for Web Penetration Testing

By : Michael McPhee
Book Image

Mastering Kali Linux for Web Penetration Testing

By: Michael McPhee

Overview of this book

You will start by delving into some common web application architectures in use, both in private and public cloud instances. You will also learn about the most common frameworks for testing, such as OWASP OGT version 4, and how to use them to guide your efforts. In the next section, you will be introduced to web pentesting with core tools and you will also see how to make web applications more secure through rigorous penetration tests using advanced features in open source tools. The book will then show you how to better hone your web pentesting skills in safe environments that can ensure low-risk experimentation with the powerful tools and features in Kali Linux that go beyond a typical script-kiddie approach. After establishing how to test these powerful tools safely, you will understand how to better identify vulnerabilities, position and deploy exploits, compromise authentication and authorization, and test the resilience and exposure applications possess. By the end of this book, you will be well-versed with the web service architecture to identify and evade various protection mechanisms that are used on the Web today. You will leave this book with a greater mastery of essential test techniques needed to verify the secure design, development, and operation of your customers' web applications.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

Seeing is believing

When reporting to a customer on the presence of a web application's vulnerabilities, most test reports will show scans that identify just the possibility a vulnerability exists (identification) but also go a step further and actually demonstrate that an exploit of the vulnerability was successful (confirmation). Arachni, ZAP, Burp Suite, and other vulnerability assessment tools can help with the identification effort. Some of these tools can assist with confirmation, but most testers will confirm using independent XSS-focused tools or methods to mimic the behavior of the exploit when employed by hackers. A quick search of your favorite search engine will see that there are some leading candidates, but we'll talk about the most popularly discussed ones, and then look at how the stalwarts can enable us to put our targets through their paces.

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