Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgments

My Wife

My Girls

My Family

Dave Kennedy

Jared DeMott

To the Syngress Team

About the Author

Introduction

What is New in This Edition?

Who is the Intended Audience for This Book?

How is This Book Different from Book ‘x’?

Why Should I Buy This Book?

What Do I Need to Follow Along?

Chapter 1. What is Penetration Testing?

Information in This Chapter:

Introduction

Setting the Stage

Introduction to Kali and Backtrack Linux: Tools. Lots of Tools

Working with Your Attack Machine: Starting the Engine

The Use and Creation of a Hacking Lab

Phases of a Penetration Test

Where Do I Go from Here?

Summary

Chapter 2. Reconnaissance

Information in This Chapter:

Introduction

HTTrack: Website Copier

Google Directives: Practicing Your Google-Fu

The Harvester: Discovering and Leveraging E-mail Addresses

Whois

Netcraft

Host

Extracting Information from DNS

nslookup

Dig

Fierce: What to Do When Zone Transfers Fail

Extracting Information from E-mail Servers

MetaGooFil

ThreatAgent: Attack of the Drones

Social Engineering

Sifting Through the Intel to Find Attackable Targets

How Do I Practice This Step?

Where Do I Go from Here?

Summary

Chapter 3. Scanning

Information in This Chapter:

Introduction

Pings and Ping Sweeps

Port Scanning

The Three-Way Handshake

Using Nmap to Perform a TCP Connect Scan

Using Nmap to Perform an SYN Scan

Using Nmap to Perform UDP Scans

Using Nmap to Perform an Xmas Scan

Using Nmap to Perform Null Scans

The Nmap Scripting Engine: From Caterpillar to Butterfly

Port Scanning Wrap Up

Vulnerability Scanning

How Do I Practice This Step?

Where Do I Go from Here?

Summary

Chapter 4. Exploitation

Information in This Chapter:

Introduction

Medusa: Gaining Access to Remote Services

Metasploit: Hacking, Hugh Jackman Style!

JtR: King of the Password Crackers

Local Password Cracking

Remote Password Cracking

Linux Password Cracking and a Quick Example of Privilege Escalation

Password Resetting: The Building and the Wrecking Ball

Wireshark: Sniffing Network Traffic

Macof: Making Chicken Salad Out of Chicken Sht

Armitage: Introducing Doug Flutie of Hacking

Why Learn Five Tools When One Works Just as Well?

How Do I Practice This Step?

Where Do I Go from Here?

Summary

Chapter 5. Social Engineering

Information in This Chapter:

Introduction

The Basics of SET

Website Attack Vectors

The Credential Harvester

Other Options Within SET

Summary

Chapter 6. Web-Based Exploitation

Information in This Chapter:

Introduction

The Basics of Web Hacking

Nikto: Interrogating Web Servers

w3af: More than Just a Pretty Face

Spidering: Crawling Your Target’s Website

Intercepting Requests with Webscarab

Code Injection Attacks

Cross-Site Scripting: Browsers that Trust Sites

ZED Attack Proxy: Bringing It All Together Under One Roof

Intercepting in ZAP

Spidering in ZAP

Scanning in ZAP

How Do I Practice This Step?

Where Do I Go from Here?

Additional Resources

Summary

Chapter 7. Post Exploitation and Maintaining Access with Backdoors, Rootkits, and Meterpreter

Information in This Chapter:

Introduction

Netcat: The Swiss Army Knife

Netcat’s Cryptic Cousin: Cryptcat

Rootkits

Hacker Defender: It is Not What You Think

Detecting and Defending Against Rootkits

Meterpreter: The Hammer that Turns Everything into a Nail

How Do I Practice This Step?

Where Do I Go from Here?

Summary

Chapter 8. Wrapping Up the Penetration Test

Information in This Chapter:

Introduction

Writing the Penetration Testing Report

Executive Summary

Detailed Report

Raw Output

You Do Not Have to Go Home but You Cannot Stay Here

Where Do I Go from Here?

Wrap Up

The Circle of Life

Summary

Index