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

How to get it right the first time – generating payloads

We’ve all seen some people who get their hands on Metasploit and start pulling the trigger. If you’re in your lab at home and are just watching what happens, that’s fine. If you do that on a professional assessment, you’re likely to get caught, setting off alarms without even getting anywhere. After all, pen testing isn’t about hacking a sitting duck – your client will have defenses that, for the most part, will be pretty solid. If your client isn’t good at prevention, they’ll probably be good at detection, and poorly crafted payloads hitting random IPs is a no-brainer for a defender. With this in mind, we need to learn how to craft our payloads according to the task at hand to maximize our success. The more successful we are, the more value we can bring to our client.

Installing Wine32 and Shellter

Thankfully, Wine32 and Shellter are both included in Kali...