Ethical Hacking Series from Novice to Industry Expert

Set up your ethical hacking lab by configuring Windows 10, Windows Server 2008, and Linux as the attacking machine in virtual environments with VMware or VirtualBox, using preinstalled images.

Download a Kali Linux VMware image or ISO, import the VMX, configure 120 GB disk, two processors, and bridged networking with NitroMed adapters, boot Kali, and run updates with apt.

Install and configure Metasploitable 2 as a portable Linux practice VM, set it to bridged networking, and prepare Windows 10 and Windows Server VMs for hands-on exploitation and testing.

Identify internal network systems, ports, and services using active and passive scans, noting that active scans reveal more but leave traces, using Nmap and Wireshark.

Perform active scanning to map networks, detect services and versions, identify open ports, and collect information for a thorough information gathering report used in subsequent assessment and exploitation steps.

Explore the basics of data communication, TCP and UDP on the transport layer, and the three-way handshake and flags; apply these concepts to identify internal network vulnerabilities.

Perform a basic ping scan to identify live hosts on a /24 subnet and reveal their IP and MAC addresses, without port or border scanning.

Perform a SYN scan using a half-open approach by sending the initial SYN and resetting to reveal an open port, and observe open, closed, and filtered ports.

Master advanced port scanning by identifying open ports and services, detecting version numbers, and probing for vulnerabilities across port ranges and specific ports using practical commands.

Identify services and their versions on open ports by scanning the top 100 ports. Detect operating systems and document findings to guide vulnerability research and report results for future scanning.

Examine how to view scan results, generate scan files and an XML output with IP address and discovery options, and map vulnerability results for future analysis.

Explore script-driven scanning to perform vulnerability and brute-force assessments, check for malware, and uncover exploits, then locate and run targeted scripts from the scripts directory.

Learn vulnerability scanning to identify system and network weaknesses, perform banner and version detection, protocol discovery, and configuration analysis using Nessus on Kali Linux, including activation setup and plugins.

Scan Windows machines for vulnerabilities using Scan Warrior, configure targets, plugins, and credentials, then review results by severity, with one medium vulnerability found and reports forthcoming.

Conduct a Nessus vulnerability scan on a Linux machine, identify critical, high, and medium vulnerabilities, generate a report, and set up exploitation in the next section.

Generate vulnerability reports from internal network scans in pdf, html, or vfp, with executive summary for leadership or a detailed custom report for the technical team.

Demonstrate exploitation using a bind shell by identifying backdoor risk: a remote port with no authentication, and gaining shell access for vulnerability testing.

Explore exploitation of CVE-2008-0166 by examining Exploit DB Python scripts, running a brute-force attack with dictionary keys, and testing a target on port 22 for indicators.

Explore exploiting a VNC default password to gain remote access, verify a critical error via authentication, and review Exploit DB details before learning how to sniff the internal network.

Explore internal network sniffing and man-in-the-middle concepts, focusing on poisoning and spoofing attacks, and learn to analyze packets with Wireshark.

Learn how Wireshark, a network analyzer, captures and filters packets to analyze traffic, understand http packets, ip addresses, and how it supports man-in-the-middle assessments.

Analyze a university login form with Wireshark to capture and inspect packets, revealing credentials like email, password, and verification code in traffic, and hinting at future man-in-the-middle content.

Explains ARP poisoning, showing how an attacker intercepts traffic by spoofing IP-to-MAC mappings due to lack of verification, creating a man-in-the-middle between devices, the access point, and the router.

demonstrates a practical arp poisoning attack and a man in the middle workflow to intercept traffic and reveal post data, usernames, and passwords with Wireshark.

Learn how to perform arp poisoning with mitmf, install and configure the tool, run a mitmf attack to spoof the gateway, and analyze captured data with wireshark.

Use mitmf to perform a screen capture attack by installing the twisted library (version 15.5.0.4) and running a command with target and gateway IPs to capture screenshots every 10 seconds.

Discover how to gather web application information, including IP address, server details, technologies used, and subdomains. Understand site history and how development versus production environments shape penetration testing.

Explore basic web server information, perform whois lookups, verify IP and hosting details, assess DNS information and WordPress usage, and identify vulnerabilities for ethical penetration testing.

Discover how to uncover sensitive web server information, including IPs, DNS data, subdomains, and WordPress versions. Understand why securing sibling sites on the same server prevents collateral compromises.

Practice active information gathering on a permitted localhost environment, using Dirk for brute-force discovery of sensitive files and folders, including passwords, while emphasizing legal authorization.

Set up Burp Suite as a proxy, enable intercept, configure the browser to route traffic through 127.0.0.1:88, and inspect requests to test and exploit a file upload vulnerability.

Generate a payload with Whibley by specifying keyword, password, and output directory, name the payload, and remember the password to access the server shell; then upload via file upload vulnerability.

Demonstrate how a vulnerable file upload allows uploading any file, bypassing extension restrictions, and gaining shell access. Explore securing practices to prevent such breaches and implement secure coding.

secure file uploads by restricting allowed types, blocking executables, validating extensions and mime types, and renaming files before storing to prevent server vulnerabilities.

Demonstrate brute-force attacks on web applications using Hydra to crack login forms and authentication services, including configuring login names, password lists, and target services across WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Magento.