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 5. Cryptography and the Penetration Tester

Julius Caesar is known to have used encryption – a method known today asCaesar's cipher. You might think the cipher of one of history's best-known military generals would be a fine example of security, but the method – a simple alphabet shift substitution cipher – is probably the easiest kind of code to break. It's said that it was considered secure in his time because most of the people who might intercept his messages couldn't read. Now that you have a fun tidbit of history, let's be reminded that cryptography has come a very long way since then, and your pen testing clients will not be using Caesar's cipher.

Cryptography is a funny topic in penetration testing: it's such a fundamental part of the entire science of information security, but also often neglected in security testing. We already toyed around with communications that are meant to be protected with encryption when we demonstrated SSL stripping attacks; however, this wasn't an...