Book Image

Hands-On Penetration Testing with Python

By : Furqan Khan
Book Image

Hands-On Penetration Testing with Python

By: Furqan Khan

Overview of this book

With the current technological and infrastructural shift, penetration testing is no longer a process-oriented activity. Modern-day penetration testing demands lots of automation and innovation; the only language that dominates all its peers is Python. Given the huge number of tools written in Python, and its popularity in the penetration testing space, this language has always been the first choice for penetration testers. Hands-On Penetration Testing with Python walks you through advanced Python programming constructs. Once you are familiar with the core concepts, you’ll explore the advanced uses of Python in the domain of penetration testing and optimization. You’ll then move on to understanding how Python, data science, and the cybersecurity ecosystem communicate with one another. In the concluding chapters, you’ll study exploit development, reverse engineering, and cybersecurity use cases that can be automated with Python. By the end of this book, you’ll have acquired adequate skills to leverage Python as a helpful tool to pentest and secure infrastructure, while also creating your own custom exploits.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)

Python operators

An operator in Python is something that can carry out arithmetic or logical operations on an expression. The variable on which the operator operates is called the operand. Let's try to understand the various operators that are available in Python:

  • Arithmetic:
Functions Example
Addition a + b
Subtraction a - b
Negation -a
Multiplication a * b
Division a / b
Modulo a % b
Exponentiation a ** b
Floor Division a // b
  • Assignment:
    • a = 0 evaluates to a=0
    • a +=1 evaluates to a = a + 1
    • a -= 1 evaluates to a = a + 1
    • a *= 2 evaluates to a = a * 2
    • a /= 5 evaluates to a = a / 5
    • a **= 3 evaluates to a = a ** 3
    • a //= 2 evaluates to a= a // 2 (floor division 2)
    • a %= 5 evaluates to a= a % 5
  • Logical operators:
    • and: True: If both the operands are true, then the condition becomes true. For example, (a and b) is true.
    • or: True: If any of the two operands are non-zero, then the condition becomes true. For example, (a or b) is true.
    • not: True: This is used to reverse the logical state of its operand. For example, not (a and b) is false.
  • Bitwise operators:
Functions Example
and a & b
or a | b
xor a ^ b
invert ~ a
Right Shift a >> b
Left Shift a << b