With cyber-terrorism and corporate espionage threatening the fiber of our world, the need for trained network security professionals continues to grow. This book describes the tools and penetration testing methodologies used by ethical hackers to better understand how to protect computer networks.

Cyber-terrorism and corporate espionage are increasingly common and devastating threats, making trained network security professionals more important than ever. This timely text helps you gain the knowledge and skills to protect networks using the tools and techniques of an ethical hacker. The authors begin by exploring the concept of ethical hacking and its practitioners, explaining their importance in protecting corporate and government data from cyber attacks. The text then provides an in-depth guide to performing security testing against computer networks, covering current tools and penetration testing methodologies. Updated for today’s cyber security environment, the Third Edition of this trusted text features new computer security resources, coverage of emerging vulnerabilities and innovative methods to protect networks, a new discussion of mobile security, and information on current federal and state computer crime laws, including penalties for illegal computer hacking. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

A hands-on guide to hacking computer systems from the ground up, from capturing traffic to crafting sneaky, successful trojans. A crash course in modern hacking techniques, Ethical Hacking is already being used to prepare the next generation of offensive security experts. In its many hands-on labs, you’ll explore crucial skills for any aspiring penetration tester, security researcher, or malware analyst. You’ll begin with the basics: capturing a victim’s network traffic with an ARP spoofing attack and then viewing it in Wireshark. From there, you’ll deploy reverse shells that let you remotely run commands on a victim’s computer, encrypt files by writing your own ransomware in Python, and fake emails like the ones used in phishing attacks. In advanced chapters, you’ll learn how to fuzz for new vulnerabilities, craft trojans and rootkits, exploit websites with SQL injection, and escalate your privileges to extract credentials, which you’ll use to traverse a private network. You’ll work with a wide range of professional penetration testing tools—and learn to write your own tools in Python—as you practice tasks like: • Deploying the Metasploit framework’s reverse shells and embedding them in innocent-seeming files • Capturing passwords in a corporate Windows network using Mimikatz • Scanning (almost) every device on the internet to find potential victims • Installing Linux rootkits that modify a victim’s operating system • Performing advanced Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks that execute sophisticated JavaScript payloads Along the way, you’ll gain a foundation in the relevant computing technologies. Discover how advanced fuzzers work behind the scenes, learn how internet traffic gets encrypted, explore the inner mechanisms of nation-state malware like Drovorub, and much more. Developed with feedback from cybersecurity students, Ethical Hacking addresses contemporary issues in the field not often covered in other books and will prepare you for a career in penetration testing. Most importantly, you’ll be able to think like an ethical hacker⁠: someone who can carefully analyze systems and creatively gain access to them.

Penetration testers simulate cyber attacks to find security weaknesses in networks, operating systems, and applications. Information security experts worldwide use penetration techniques to evaluate enterprise defenses. In Penetration Testing, security expert, researcher, and trainer Georgia Weidman introduces you to the core skills and techniques that every pentester needs. Using a virtual machine–based lab that includes Kali Linux and vulnerable operating systems, you’ll run through a series of practical lessons with tools like Wireshark, Nmap, and Burp Suite. As you follow along with the labs and launch attacks, you’ll experience the key stages of an actual assessment—including information gathering, finding exploitable vulnerabilities, gaining access to systems, post exploitation, and more. Learn how to: –Crack passwords and wireless network keys with brute-forcing and wordlists –Test web applications for vulnerabilities –Use the Metasploit Framework to launch exploits and write your own Metasploit modules –Automate social-engineering attacks –Bypass antivirus software –Turn access to one machine into total control of the enterprise in the post exploitation phase You’ll even explore writing your own exploits. Then it’s on to mobile hacking—Weidman’s particular area of research—with her tool, the Smartphone Pentest Framework. With its collection of hands-on lessons that cover key tools and strategies, Penetration Testing is the introduction that every aspiring hacker needs.