Hands-On Penetration Testing with Kali NetHunter focuses on penetration testing using a mobile platform to simulate real-world attacks. The Kali NetHunter platform was designed to run on Android-based devices such as smartphones and tablets. Its portability makes this an interesting topic and opens the door for many possible applications in cyber security.
This book is designed for people who are beginning a career in penetration testing and people who are already in the cyber security field and would like to further their knowledge and understanding of penetration testing using a mobile platform. Readers should have some fundamental knowledge of penetration testing or cyber security prior to starting this book.
Chapter 1, Introduction to Kali NetHunter, introduces Kali NetHunter and describes some of the tools within its mobile platform. You'll learn about the Android platform and its security model, and finally you'll learn how to install the Kali NetHunter platform on an Android device.
Chapter 2, Understanding the Phases of the Pentesting Process, covers the importance and need for penetration testing in the digital world. You'll learn about the different types of threat actors and cyber security teams within an organization. Furthermore, you'll learn the basics of penetration testing by learning about the phases and various frameworks.
Chapter 3, Intelligence Gathering Tools, explores the various methods and resources a penetration tester can use to obtain information about a target.
Chapter 4, Scanning and Enumeration Tools, covers an overview of scanning and enumeration. You'll learn about various scanning techniques and tools in order to better profile a target. Additionally, using numerous techniques and tools, you'll be able to extraction information from the target using the process of enumeration.
Chapter 5, Penetrating the Target, covers some top tips for successfully exploiting a system and gaining access. By the end of this chapter, you'll be able to use various techniques to gain access to a target.
Chapter 6, Clearing Tracks and Removing Evidence from a Target, covers the importance of clearing your tracks as a penetration tester. You'll learn about various types of logs and their locations, a number of utilities and tools to assist in clearing log data, and removing files from both Windows and Linux systems.
Chapter 7, Packet Sniffing and Traffic Analysis, explores various packet sniffing techniques, tools, and devices. At the end of the chapter, you will be able to perform packet sniffing using a number of native tools within Kali NetHunter. Additionally, you'll learn how to analyze data using some very well-known tools.
Chapter 8, Targeting Wireless Devices and Networks, covers the types of wireless networks, standards, and topologies. You'll learn about a wide array of threats and attacks that occur on wireless networks and will be able to perform these attacks yourself.
Chapter 9, Avoiding Detection, covers the fundamentals a penetration tester needs to know and understand in order to be stealthy using various techniques during a penetration test.
Chapter 10, Hardening Techniques and Countermeasures, covers commonly-found threats in the digital world and explains how to secure network appliances, client and server operating systems, and mobile devices.
Chapter 11, Building a Lab, covers the requirements and process of setting up a personal penetration testing lab environment, as well as how to assemble it.
Chapter 12, Selecting A Kali Device and Hardware, helps you choose a suitable device for Kali NetHunter.
Before beginning this book, it is recommended that you have at least a fundamental knowledge of cyber security. You should have an understanding of cybersecurity concepts and threats in the cybersecurity landscape. For the practical aspects of this book, we used both Kali Linux and Kali NetHunter on an Android smart device. The first chapter covers the installation of Kali NetHunter on Android.
We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781788995177_ColorImages.pdf.
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "I usually specify the filename as an HTML file, such as test.html."
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
apt-get install metagoofilBold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Go to Settings | Developer options and enable both the Advanced reboot and AndroidDebugging options."
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The information within this book is intended to be used only in an ethical manner. Do not use any information from the book if you do not have written permission from the owner of the equipment. If you perform illegal actions, you are likely to be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Packt Publishing does not take any responsibility if you misuse any of the information contained within the book. The information herein must only be used while testing environments with proper written authorizations from appropriate persons responsible.