This chapter highlighted common ways to crack the perimeter against specific services that are exposed. However, we did not cover the most common method of cracking the perimeter, which is phishing. Phishing, a type of social engineering, is an art unto itself and could take several chapters to describe, but you should know that real attackers used to phish if they could not find an easy method to get into the environment. Today, malicious actors typically start with phishing because it is easy to lure victims.
After these entry vectors, assessors and malicious actors watch for newly patched zero-days, such as Shellshock and Heartbleed, which were identified in 2014. Examples like these are often exploitable even months after a new patch is provided, but what if you think you have found a vulnerability in an exposed service for which there is no exploit available, or you have discovered a potential zero-day? Though rarely, penetration testers can be granted the opportunity to test...