Preface

Kali Linux is a Linux distribution widely used by security professionals. It comes bundled with many tools to effectively perform a security assessment. It has tools categorized based on the different phases of a penetration test such as information gathering, vulnerability analysis, and exploitation phase to name a few. The latest version, Kali 2.0, was released at Black Hat USA 2015. Besides tools used in a network penetration test, Kali Linux also includes tools to perform web application security and database assessment.

Web applications have become an integral part of any network and they need special attention when performing a security assessment. Web penetration testing with Kali Linux is designed to be a guide for network penetration testers who want to explore web application hacking. Our goal in this book is to gain an understanding about the different security flaws that exist in web application and then use selected tools from Kali Linux to identify the vulnerabilities and exploit them.

The chapters in this book are divided based on the steps that are performed during a real-world penetration test. The book starts with describing the different building blocks of a penetration test and then moves on to setting up the lab with Kali 2.0. In subsequent chapters, we follow the steps of a professional penetration tester and identify security flaws using the tools in Kali 2.0.