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

Escalation with WMIC and PS Empire


Let's get the basic definitions out of the way. WMIC is the name of a tool and it stands for Windows Management Instrumentation Command. The command part refers to a command line interface; presumably, WMICLI was deemed too long. The tool allows us to perform WMI operations. WMI is the Windows infrastructure for operations and management data. In addition to providing management data to other parts of Windows and other products altogether, it's possible to automate administrative tasks both locally and remotely with WMI scripts and applications. Often, administrators access this interface through PowerShell. Like all the other topics in this book, a proper treatment of all the power available to you via WMIC is out of scope for this discussion. There are great resources online and in bookstores for the curious reader.

 

 

For now, we're interested in this remote administration stuff I just mentioned. There are a couple important facts for us to consider as...