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

Offensive PowerShell – introducing the Empire framework


The fact that we can sit down at a Windows box and use PowerShell to interact with the OS so intimately is certainly a Windows administrator's dream come true. As attackers, we see the parts for a precision guided missile and we only need the time to construct it. In a pen test, we just don't have the time to write the perfect PowerShell script on the fly, so the average pen tester has a candy bag full of homegrown scripts for certain tasks. One of the scripts I used most heavily did nothing more than poke around for open ports and dump the IP addresses into text files inside folders named after the open port. Things like that sound mundane and borderline pointless—until you're out in the field and realize you've literally saved dozens of hours.

The advanced security professional sees tools like Metasploit in this light: a framework for organized, efficient, and tidy delivery of our own tools for when the built-in set doesn't cut it...