Book Image

Becoming the Hacker

By : Adrian Pruteanu
Book Image

Becoming the Hacker

By: Adrian Pruteanu

Overview of this book

Becoming the Hacker will teach you how to approach web penetration testing with an attacker's mindset. While testing web applications for performance is common, the ever-changing threat landscape makes security testing much more difficult for the defender. There are many web application tools that claim to provide a complete survey and defense against potential threats, but they must be analyzed in line with the security needs of each web application or service. We must understand how an attacker approaches a web application and the implications of breaching its defenses. Through the first part of the book, Adrian Pruteanu walks you through commonly encountered vulnerabilities and how to take advantage of them to achieve your goal. The latter part of the book shifts gears and puts the newly learned techniques into practice, going over scenarios where the target may be a popular content management system or a containerized application and its network. Becoming the Hacker is a clear guide to web application security from an attacker's point of view, from which both sides can benefit.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Becoming the Hacker
Contributors
Preface
Index

Types of assessments


Depending on the agreement with the client prior to the engagement, you may have some of the information required, a lot of information, or no information whatsoever. White-box testing allows for a thorough examination of the application. In this case, the attackers have essentially the same access as the developer. They not only have authenticated access to the application, but also its source code, any design documents, and anything else they'll need.

White-box testing is typically conducted by internal teams and it is fairly time-consuming. A tester is provided with any information they require to fully assess the application or infrastructure. The benefit of providing testers with this level of knowledge is that they will be able to look at every bit of an application and check for vulnerabilities. This is a luxury that external attackers do not have, but it does make efficient use of limited time and resources during an engagement.

Gray-box scenarios are more common...