Book Image

Web Penetration Testing with Kali Linux - Third Edition

By : Gilberto Najera-Gutierrez, Juned Ahmed Ansari
Book Image

Web Penetration Testing with Kali Linux - Third Edition

By: Gilberto Najera-Gutierrez, Juned Ahmed Ansari

Overview of this book

Web Penetration Testing with Kali Linux - Third Edition shows you how to set up a lab, helps you understand the nature and mechanics of attacking websites, and explains classical attacks in great depth. This edition is heavily updated for the latest Kali Linux changes and the most recent attacks. Kali Linux shines when it comes to client-side attacks and fuzzing in particular. From the start of the book, you'll be given a thorough grounding in the concepts of hacking and penetration testing, and you'll see the tools used in Kali Linux that relate to web application hacking. You'll gain a deep understanding of classicalSQL, command-injection flaws, and the many ways to exploit these flaws. Web penetration testing also needs a general overview of client-side attacks, which is rounded out by a long discussion of scripting and input validation flaws. There is also an important chapter on cryptographic implementation flaws, where we discuss the most recent problems with cryptographic layers in the networking stack. The importance of these attacks cannot be overstated, and defending against them is relevant to most internet users and, of course, penetration testers. At the end of the book, you'll use an automated technique called fuzzing to identify flaws in a web application. Finally, you'll gain an understanding of web application vulnerabilities and the ways they can be exploited using the tools in Kali Linux.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Dedication
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

Reconnaissance


Reconnaissance is a term used by defense forces, and it means obtaining information about the enemy in a way that does not alert them. The same concept is applied by attackers and penetration testers to obtain information related to the target. Information gathering is the main goal of reconnaissance. Any information gathered at this initial stage is considered important. The attacker working with malicious content builds on the information learned during the reconnaissance stage and gradually moves ahead with the exploitation. A small bit of information that appears innocuous may help you in highlighting a severe flaw in the later stages of the test. A valuable skill for a penetration tester is to be able to chain together vulnerabilities that may be low risk by themselves, but that represent a high impact if assembled.

The aim of reconnaissance in a penetration test includes the following tasks:

  • Identifying the IP address, domains, subdomains, and related information using...