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

Gathering goodies – enumeration with post modules

The big happy family of Metasploit modules designed to turn your foothold into total compromise are called post modules. There are a few types of post module, but there are two primary subfamilies – gather and manage. First, let’s draw a distinction between the post manage and post gather modules:

  • The post manage modules are what I like to call compromise management tools. In other words, they allow us to manage the compromise we’ve accomplished, mainly by modifying features of the host.
  • The post gather modules are just what they sound like: they allow us to gather information from the target that will inform further compromise. Pushing past the initial foothold will require more information; a full penetration of the target network is an iterative process. Don’t expect to only do recon and footprinting once at the beginning of the...