Kali Linux Penetration Testing Bible

Gus Khawaja

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781119719083
• eBook ISBN: 9781119719076
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Cyber Security
• Index: Computer Science

Your ultimate guide to pentesting with Kali Linux

Kali is a popular and powerful Linux distribution used by cybersecurity professionals around the world. Penetration testers must master Kali's varied library of tools to be effective at their work. TheKali Linux Penetration Testing Bible isthehands-on and methodology guide for pentesting with Kali.

You'll discover everything you need to know about the tools and techniques hackers use to gain access to systems like yours so you can erect reliable defenses for your virtual assets. Whether you're new to the field or an established pentester, you'll find what you need in this comprehensive guide.

• Build a modern dockerized environment
• Discover the fundamentals of the bash language in Linux
• Use a variety of effective techniques to find vulnerabilities (OSINT, Network Scan, and more)
• Analyze your findings and identify false positives and uncover advanced subjects, like buffer overflow, lateral movement, and privilege escalation
• Apply practical and efficient pentesting workflows
• Learn about Modern Web Application Security Secure SDLC
• Automate your penetration testing with Python

CHAPTER 1
Mastering the Terminal Window

Kali Linux can be summarized in two simple words: terminal window. If you master your terminal window skills, then you will be one of those elite ethical hackers. In this chapter, you will learn all the essentials of the terminal window so you can start using Kali Linux like a boss.

If you already know how to manage the terminal window, please use this chapter as a reference, or maybe go over it quickly in case there is something new that you haven't learned before. The main goal of this chapter is not only to show you the commands of Kali Linux but to help you deeply understand it through practical examples.

Kali Linux is a Debian‐based operating system developed by Offensive Security, so if you're used to Ubuntu, for example, the commands in the terminal window will look the same since Debian and Kali share an equal distribution.

Here's what this chapter covers:

• Kali Linux file system
• Terminal window basics
• Managing users and groups
• Manipulating files and folders
• Handling remote connections
• Kali Linux system management
• Dealing with networking in Kali Linux

Kali Linux File System

Understanding the structure of the file system in Kali Linux is crucial. The directory structure of your Kali OS is based on the Unix Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS), and that's how the directories are structured inside Kali Linux. In Windows, the root directory is C:\ , but in Kali Linux, it's a forward slash ( / ). Do not confuse the term root directory with the root user's home directory, which is /root , because they are two different things; the latter is the home directory for the root user. Speaking about the root user, it's essential to understand that this user is the equivalent to the Administrator user on Windows operating systems. In the Kali 2020.1 release, Offensive Security introduced the nonroot user by default, which means that you'll need to execute the sudo command if you want to run high‐privilege tools.

To get a visual representation of the Kali Linux file system directories, open the terminal window and execute the ls command to list the contents of the root system directory. Take note that by default you will be in the user home directory. To change it, you must execute the cd / command:

 kali@kali:~$ cd / kali@kali:/$ ls bin boot dev etc home initrd.img initrd.img.old lib lib32 lib64 libx32 lost+found media mnt opt proc root run sbin srv sys tmp usr var vmlinuz vmlinuz.old 

• /bin (binaries): This directory holds Linux binaries like the ls command that we executed earlier.
• /sbin (system binaries): This directory contains system binary files that serve as administrative commands (e.g., fdisk ).
• / boot : This directory contains the Linux bootloader files.
• / dev (devices): This directory contains the device configuration files (e.g., /dev/null ).
• / sys : This is similar to /dev , which contains configurations about devices and drivers.
• / etc (etcetera): This directory contains all the administration system files (e.g., /etc/passwd shows all the system users in Kali).
• / lib (libraries): This directory contains the shared libraries for the binaries inside /bin and /sbin .
• / proc (processes): This directory holds the processes and kernel information files.
• / lost+found : As the name says, this directory contains the files that have been recovered.
• / mnt (mount): This directory contains the mounted directories (e.g., a remote file share).
• / media : Thi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• CHAPTER 1: Mastering the Terminal Window
• CHAPTER 2: Bash Scripting
• CHAPTER 3: Network Hosts Scanning
• CHAPTER 4: Internet Information Gathering
• CHAPTER 5: Social Engineering Attacks
• CHAPTER 6: Advanced Enumeration Phase
• CHAPTER 7: Exploitation Phase
• CHAPTER 8: Web Application Vulnerabilities
• CHAPTER 9: Web Penetration Testing and Secure Software Development Lifecycle
• CHAPTER 10: Linux Privilege Escalation
• CHAPTER 11: Windows Privilege Escalation
• CHAPTER 12: Pivoting and Lateral Movement
• CHAPTER 13: Cryptography and Hash Cracking
• CHAPTER 14: Reporting
• CHAPTER 15: Assembly Language and Reverse Engineering
• CHAPTER 16: Buffer/Stack Overflow
• CHAPTER 17: Programming with Python
• CHAPTER 18: Pentest Automation with Python
• APPENDIX A: APPENDIX AKali Linux Desktop at a Glance
• APPENDIX B: APPENDIX BBuilding a Lab Environment Using Docker
• Index
• Title Page
• Copyright
• About the Author
• About the Technical Editor
• Acknowledgments
• End User License Agreement