Penetration Testing with the Bash shell

Make the most of the Bash shell and Kali Linux’s command-line-based security assessment tools

Overview

• Utilize the command line to create, run, and execute tests
• Learn useful command line based information processing utilities and unlock the problem solving power of a Linux terminal
• Practical demonstrations using in-depth explanations and screenshots to help you use the Linux Bash terminal to tackle a collection of common security-related problems.

In Detail

This book teaches you to take your problem solving capabilities to the next level with the Bash shell, to assess network and application level security by leveraging the power of the command-line tools available with Kali Linux.

The book begins by introducing some of the fundamental bash scripting and information processing tools. Building on this, the next few chapters focus on detailing ways to customize your Bash shell using functionalities such as tab completion and rich text formatting. After the fundamental customization techniques and general purpose tools have been discussed, the book breaks into topics such as the command-line-based security tools in the Kali Linux operating system. The general approach in discussing these tools is to involve general purpose tools discussed in previous chapters to integrate security assessment tools. This is a one stop solution to learn Bash and solve information security problems.

What you will learn from this book

• Perform network enumeration techniques with Dig, whois, dnsenum, dnsmap, and others
• Learn how to fuzz and reverse engineer using the Kali Linux command line tools
• Exploit common web application vulnerabilities using skipfish, arcachi, and sqlmap
• Accomplish man-in-the-middle attacks straight from your command line
• Assess SSL security using sslyze and openssl
• Carry out network traffic analysis using tcpdump

Approach

An easy-to-understand, step-by-step practical guide that shows you how to use the Linux Bash terminal tools to solve information security problems.

Who this book is written for

If you are a penetration tester, system administrator, or developer who would like an enriching and practical introduction to the Bash shell and Kali Linux command-line-based tools, this is the book for you.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Getting to Know Bash
Chapter 2: Customizing Your Shell
Chapter 3: Network Reconnaissance
Chapter 4: Exploitation and Reverse Engineering
Chapter 5: Network Exploitation and Monitoring