Book Image

The Ultimate Kali Linux Book - Second Edition

By : Glen D. Singh
5 (1)
Book Image

The Ultimate Kali Linux Book - Second Edition

5 (1)
By: Glen D. Singh

Overview of this book

Kali Linux is the most popular and advanced penetration testing Linux distribution within the cybersecurity industry. Using Kali Linux, a cybersecurity professional will be able to discover and exploit various vulnerabilities and perform advanced penetration testing on both enterprise wired and wireless networks. This book is a comprehensive guide for those who are new to Kali Linux and penetration testing that will have you up to speed in no time. Using real-world scenarios, you’ll understand how to set up a lab and explore core penetration testing concepts. Throughout this book, you’ll focus on information gathering and even discover different vulnerability assessment tools bundled in Kali Linux. You’ll learn to discover target systems on a network, identify security flaws on devices, exploit security weaknesses and gain access to networks, set up Command and Control (C2) operations, and perform web application penetration testing. In this updated second edition, you’ll be able to compromise Active Directory and exploit enterprise networks. Finally, this book covers best practices for performing complex web penetration testing techniques in a highly secured environment. By the end of this Kali Linux book, you’ll have gained the skills to perform advanced penetration testing on enterprise networks using Kali Linux.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
1
Section 1: Getting Started with Penetration Testing
5
Section 2: Reconnaissance and Network Penetration Testing
11
Section 3: Red Teaming Techniques
17
Section 4: Social Engineering and Web Application Attacks

Chapter 5: Exploring Active Information Gathering

The more information that's known about a target, the more penetration testers are prepared to simulate real-world cyberattacks with a higher rate of success of compromising the organization's assets. While passive information gathering techniques are very cool and awesome, we need to dig even deeper to gather specific information about the target, though this is not always made publicly available.

Active information gathering can be used to provide very useful results during the reconnaissance phase of a penetration test. With this active approach, the penetration tester makes direct contact with the actual target to gather specific details that Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is unable to provide. Using active information gathering techniques, the penetration tester can create a very detailed profile of the target, gathering information such as the type of operating system, architecture, web applications, and even running...