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 5: Assessing Network Security

We’ve had a lot of fun poking around the network in the first few chapters. There has been an emphasis on man-in-the-middle attacks, and it’s easy to see why – they’re particularly devastating when performed properly. However, your focus when educating your clients should be on the fact that these are fairly old attacks, and yet, they still often work.

One reason is that we still rely on very old technology in our networks, and man-in-the-middle attacks generally exploit inherent design vulnerabilities at the protocol level. Consider the internet protocol suite, underlying the internet as we know it today – the original research that ultimately led to TCP/IP dates back to the 1960s, with official activation and adoption gaining traction in the early 1980s. Old doesn’t necessarily imply insecure, but the issue here is the context in which these protocols were designed – there weren...