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 6: Performing Vulnerability Assessments

As you have learned so far, the information-gathering phase is vital for later phases of penetration testing as a cybersecurity professional. Discovering security vulnerabilities means having to focus on understanding the attack surface of your target. The attack surface is defined as all the points of entry into a system or network that a threat actor, such as a hacker, can exploit and compromise the system based on the number of security vulnerabilities that exist. As an aspiring ethical hacker and penetration tester, understanding the number of security flaws and their level of severity can help you understand which systems are easier to compromise on a network than others.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use Kali Linux with various popular tools to perform a vulnerability assessment on a network. You will start by learning how to install, perform, and analyze scan results using Nessus, one of the most popular and industry...