Book Image

Windows and Linux Penetration Testing from Scratch - Second Edition

By : Phil Bramwell
Book Image

Windows and Linux Penetration Testing from Scratch - Second Edition

By: Phil Bramwell

Overview of this book

Let’s be honest—security testing can get repetitive. If you’re ready to break out of the routine and embrace the art of penetration testing, this book will help you to distinguish yourself to your clients. This pen testing book is your guide to learning advanced techniques to attack Windows and Linux environments from the indispensable platform, Kali Linux. You'll work through core network hacking concepts and advanced exploitation techniques that leverage both technical and human factors to maximize success. You’ll also explore how to leverage public resources to learn more about your target, discover potential targets, analyze them, and gain a foothold using a variety of exploitation techniques while dodging defenses like antivirus and firewalls. The book focuses on leveraging target resources, such as PowerShell, to execute powerful and difficult-to-detect attacks. Along the way, you’ll enjoy reading about how these methods work so that you walk away with the necessary knowledge to explain your findings to clients from all backgrounds. Wrapping up with post-exploitation strategies, you’ll be able to go deeper and keep your access. By the end of this book, you'll be well-versed in identifying vulnerabilities within your clients’ environments and providing the necessary insight for proper remediation.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
1
Part 1: Recon and Exploitation
9
Part 2: Vulnerability Fundamentals
17
Part 3: Post-Exploitation

Chapter 12: Shellcoding – Evading Antivirus

Ever since the Creeper worm made its rounds among PDP-10 mainframe computers on the ARPANET in 1971, the sophistication of malware has increased radically. Without knowledge of what the future had in store, few people fully understood the potential of this newborn beast. One of the pioneers who did understand the potential of malware is Fred Cohen, the computer scientist who first defined what a computer virus is and also invented the first methodology for combating computer viruses. In his seminal 1987 paper Computer Viruses – Theory and Experiments, Cohen showed that the absolute and precise detection of computer viruses is an undecidable problem – that is, a problem that requires a yes or no judgment, but no system can possibly always give the right answer (or any answer at all). He showed the simple relationship between intersystem sharing ability and the potential for viral spread. In the years since, the sharing...