JUMPSTART YOUR NEW AND EXCITING CAREER AS A PENETRATION TESTER The Pentester BluePrint: Your Guide to Being a Pentester offers readers a chance to delve deeply into the world of the ethical, or "white-hat" hacker. Accomplished pentester and author Phillip L. Wylie and cybersecurity researcher Kim Crawley walk you through the basic and advanced topics necessary to understand how to make a career out of finding vulnerabilities in systems, networks, and applications. You'll learn about the role of a penetration tester, what a pentest involves, and the prerequisite knowledge you'll need to start the educational journey of becoming a pentester. Discover how to develop a plan by assessing your current skillset and finding a starting place to begin growing your knowledge and skills. Finally, find out how to become employed as a pentester by using social media, networking strategies, and community involvement. Perfect for IT workers and entry-level information security professionals, The Pentester BluePrint also belongs on the bookshelves of anyone seeking to transition to the exciting and in-demand field of penetration testing. Written in a highly approachable and accessible style, The Pentester BluePrint avoids unnecessarily technical lingo in favor of concrete advice and practical strategies to help you get your start in pentesting. This book will teach you: The foundations of pentesting, including basic IT skills like operating systems, networking, and security systems The development of hacking skills and a hacker mindset Where to find educational options, including college and university classes, security training providers, volunteer work, and self-study Which certifications and degrees are most useful for gaining employment as a pentester How to get experience in the pentesting field, including labs, CTFs, and bug bounties

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.

The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing, Second Edition, serves as an introduction to the steps required to complete a penetration test or perform an ethical hack from beginning to end. The book teaches students how to properly utilize and interpret the results of the modern-day hacking tools required to complete a penetration test. It provides a simple and clean explanation of how to effectively utilize these tools, along with a four-step methodology for conducting a penetration test or hack, thus equipping students with the know-how required to jump start their careers and gain a better understanding of offensive security. Each chapter contains hands-on examples and exercises that are designed to teach learners how to interpret results and utilize those results in later phases. Tool coverage includes: Backtrack Linux, Google reconnaissance, MetaGooFil, dig, Nmap, Nessus, Metasploit, Fast Track Autopwn, Netcat, and Hacker Defender rootkit. This is complemented by PowerPoint slides for use in class. This book is an ideal resource for security consultants, beginning InfoSec professionals, and students. Each chapter contains hands-on examples and exercises that are designed to teach you how to interpret the results and utilize those results in later phases Written by an author who works in the field as a Penetration Tester and who teaches Offensive Security, Penetration Testing, and Ethical Hacking, and Exploitation classes at Dakota State University Utilizes the Kali Linux distribution and focuses on the seminal tools required to complete a penetration test

Just as a professional athlete doesn't show up without a solid game plan, ethical hackers, IT professionals, and security researchers should not be unprepared, either. The Hacker Playbook provides them their own game plans. Written by a longtime security professional and CEO of Secure Planet, LLC, this step-by-step guide to the "game" of penetration hacking features hands-on examples and helpful advice from the top of the field. Through a series of football-style "plays," this straightforward guide gets to the root of many of the roadblocks people may face while penetration testing-including attacking different types of networks, pivoting through security controls, privilege escalation, and evading antivirus software. From "Pregame" research to "The Drive" and "The Lateral Pass," the practical plays listed can be read in order or referenced as needed. Either way, the valuable advice within will put you in the mindset of a penetration tester of a Fortune 500 company, regardless of your career or level of experience. This second version of The Hacker Playbook takes all the best "plays" from the original book and incorporates the latest attacks, tools, and lessons learned. Double the content compared to its predecessor, this guide further outlines building a lab, walks through test cases for attacks, and provides more customized code. Whether you're downing energy drinks while desperately looking for an exploit, or preparing for an exciting new job in IT security, this guide is an essential part of any ethical hacker's library-so there's no reason not to get in the game.

Over 100 recipes for penetration testing using Metasploit and virtual machines Key Features Special focus on the latest operating systems, exploits, and penetration testing techniques Learn new anti-virus evasion techniques and use Metasploit to evade countermeasures Automate post exploitation with AutoRunScript Exploit Android devices, record audio and video, send and read SMS, read call logs, and much more Build and analyze Metasploit modules in Ruby Integrate Metasploit with other penetration testing tools Book Description Metasploit is the world's leading penetration testing tool and helps security and IT professionals find, exploit, and validate vulnerabilities. Metasploit allows penetration testing automation, password auditing, web application scanning, social engineering, post exploitation, evidence collection, and reporting. Metasploit's integration with InsightVM (or Nexpose), Nessus, OpenVas, and other vulnerability scanners provides a validation solution that simplifies vulnerability prioritization and remediation reporting. Teams can collaborate in Metasploit and present their findings in consolidated reports. In this book, you will go through great recipes that will allow you to start using Metasploit effectively. With an ever increasing level of complexity, and covering everything from the fundamentals to more advanced features in Metasploit, this book is not just for beginners but also for professionals keen to master this awesome tool. You will begin by building your lab environment, setting up Metasploit, and learning how to perform intelligence gathering, threat modeling, vulnerability analysis, exploitation, and post exploitation—all inside Metasploit. You will learn how to create and customize payloads to evade anti-virus software and bypass an organization's defenses, exploit server vulnerabilities, attack client systems, compromise mobile phones, automate post exploitation, install backdoors, run keyloggers, highjack webcams, port public exploits to the framework, create your own modules, and much more. What you will learn Set up a complete penetration testing environment using Metasploit and virtual machines Master the world's leading penetration testing tool and use it in professional penetration testing Make the most of Metasploit with PostgreSQL, importing scan results, using workspaces, hosts, loot, notes, services, vulnerabilities, and exploit results Use Metasploit with the Penetration Testing Execution Standard methodology Use MSFvenom efficiently to generate payloads and backdoor files, and create shellcode Leverage Metasploit's advanced options, upgrade sessions, use proxies, use Meterpreter sleep control, and change timeouts to be stealthy Who this book is for If you are a Security professional or pentester and want to get into vulnerability exploitation and make the most of the Metasploit framework, then this book is for you. Some prior understanding of penetration testing and Metasploit is required.

Learn how to hack systems like black hat hackers and secure them like security experts Key Features Understand how computer systems work and their vulnerabilities Exploit weaknesses and hack into machines to test their security Learn how to secure systems from hackers Book Description This book starts with the basics of ethical hacking, how to practice hacking safely and legally, and how to install and interact with Kali Linux and the Linux terminal. You will explore network hacking, where you will see how to test the security of wired and wireless networks. You’ll also learn how to crack the password for any Wi-Fi network (whether it uses WEP, WPA, or WPA2) and spy on the connected devices. Moving on, you will discover how to gain access to remote computer systems using client-side and server-side attacks. You will also get the hang of post-exploitation techniques, including remotely controlling and interacting with the systems that you compromised. Towards the end of the book, you will be able to pick up web application hacking techniques. You'll see how to discover, exploit, and prevent a number of website vulnerabilities, such as XSS and SQL injections. The attacks covered are practical techniques that work against real systems and are purely for educational purposes. At the end of each section, you will learn how to detect, prevent, and secure systems from these attacks. What you will learn Understand ethical hacking and the different fields and types of hackers Set up a penetration testing lab to practice safe and legal hacking Explore Linux basics, commands, and how to interact with the terminal Access password-protected networks and spy on connected clients Use server and client-side attacks to hack and control remote computers Control a hacked system remotely and use it to hack other systems Discover, exploit, and prevent a number of web application vulnerabilities such as XSS and SQL injections Who this book is for Learning Ethical Hacking from Scratch is for anyone interested in learning how to hack and test the security of systems like professional hackers and security experts.

Harden the human firewall against the most current threats Social Engineering: The Science of Human Hacking reveals the craftier side of the hacker’s repertoire—why hack into something when you could just ask for access? Undetectable by firewalls and antivirus software, social engineering relies on human fault to gain access to sensitive spaces; in this book, renowned expert Christopher Hadnagy explains the most commonly-used techniques that fool even the most robust security personnel, and shows you how these techniques have been used in the past. The way that we make decisions as humans affects everything from our emotions to our security. Hackers, since the beginning of time, have figured out ways to exploit that decision making process and get you to take an action not in your best interest. This new Second Edition has been updated with the most current methods used by sharing stories, examples, and scientific study behind how those decisions are exploited. Networks and systems can be hacked, but they can also be protected; when the “system” in question is a human being, there is no software to fall back on, no hardware upgrade, no code that can lock information down indefinitely. Human nature and emotion is the secret weapon of the malicious social engineering, and this book shows you how to recognize, predict, and prevent this type of manipulation by taking you inside the social engineer’s bag of tricks. Examine the most common social engineering tricks used to gain access Discover which popular techniques generally don’t work in the real world Examine how our understanding of the science behind emotions and decisions can be used by social engineers Learn how social engineering factors into some of the biggest recent headlines Learn how to use these skills as a professional social engineer and secure your company Adopt effective counter-measures to keep hackers at bay By working from the social engineer’s playbook, you gain the advantage of foresight that can help you protect yourself and others from even their best efforts. Social Engineering gives you the inside information you need to mount an unshakeable defense.