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

Chapter 4. Advanced Network Attacks

We've had a lot of fun poking around the network in the first few chapters. There has been an emphasis on man-in-the-middle attacks, and it's easy to see why: they're particularly devastating when performed properly. However, your focus when educating your clients should be the fact that these are fairly old attacks, and yet, they still often work.

One reason is the fact that we still rely on very old technology in our networks, and man-in-the-middle attacks generally exploit inherent design vulnerabilities at the protocol level.  Consider the internet protocol suite, underlying the internet as we know it today: the original research that ultimately led to TCP/IP dates back to the 1960s, with official activation and adoption gaining traction in the early 1980s. Old doesn't necessarily imply insecure, but the issue here is the context in which these protocols were designed: there weren't millions upon millions of devices attached to networks of networks...