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

The evil upgrade – attacking software update mechanisms


We saw how we could manipulate packets to replace a downloaded executable with our own naughty payload. Now, we'll look at a nifty variation on this idea: intercepting the HTTP traffic initiated by an application as part of an update check; forging a reply that says yes, your maker has an update for you, tell the user to download it; and then injecting an executable of our choice into the requested download back to the application. 

The update check we're looking at is familiar to most users: when you start up a certain program and, after a few seconds, a window automatically pops up to let you know an update is available. Behind the scenes, the application phones home to do a quick check. It's not much different from the previous injection attack, except this time the application is initiating the communication without user input. But, if it's essentially a variation on the same attack, what makes it special? It's a simple matter of...