Hands-on Web Penetration Testing with Metasploit 4.x

How to understand a hacker’s methodology. Follow an easy six-step guide.

• Methodology chart

• Understand the steps

• Details of the steps

Ethical hacking terms can be con-fusing. A little jargon knowledge!

• Understand cybercrime importance

• Understand the types of hackers

• Understand some common terms

Understand passive information gathering and different possible op-tions.

• Understand open sources for information gathering

• Understand Netcraft tool

• Use Netcraft tool

Understand the usage of Metasploitable. Practice with Metasploitable

• Understand the logic of Metasploitable

• Use it with Kali

• See different modules

Finding open ports in a target ma-chine and Nmap scanning.

• Understand scanning method

• Work with Zenmap

• Understand the Zenmap-Nmap rela-tionship

Finding open ports in a target ma-chine and Nmap scanning.

• Understand what ports are

• Find open ports

• Understand versions

Exploiting vulnerabilities and using Metasploit.

• Understand Metasploit

• Start msfconsole

• Practice with first ex-ploit

Finding alternative to Nmap/scanning with Nessus.

• Understand Nessus

• Find the appropriate Nessus version online

• Download Nessus

Finding alternative to Nmap/scanning with Nessus.

• Installing Nessus with terminal

• Using Nessus on localhost

• Going over Nessus overview

Finding alternative to Nmap/scanning with Nessus.

• Basic network scan with Nessus

• Understanding the options

• Starting first Nessus scan

Having a more detailed scan with Nessus / Using advanced options.

• Nessus advanced op-tions

• Understanding the options

• Starting aggressive scan with Nessus

Understanding the Metasploit framework and going over the filesystem.

• Use terminal to locate Metasploit

• Change directory to Metasploit Frame-work folder

• Analyze Metasploit folder contents

Getting comfortable with Metasploit / Practice with msfconsole.

• Starting msfconsole

• Running commands on msfconsole

• Going over documen-tation

Alternative way to search for exploits / Searching within msfconsole.

• Understanding the rankings

• Searching within msfconsole

• Analyzing results

Getting ready for an exploit / Having proper settings for a payload.

• Choosing an exploit with cross checking through rapid7

• Showing options of an exploit

• Setting options

Exploiting a vulnerability / Running an exploit in msfconsole.

• Running exploit with a different command

• Working within ses-sion

• Closing the session

Exploiting a system without vulnera-bility / Using backdoor.

• Understand the back-door

• Understand back-door versus Trojan

• Understand the rela-tionship between backdoor and Metasploit

Generating a ready to use backdoor / Using Veil.

• Find Veil on GitHub

• Download related repository

• Install downloaded packages

Being comfortable in Using Veil / Practicing in the framework.

• Browsing in Veil Frame-work

• Understanding Veil commands

• Searching for different payloads

Selecting a backdoor to generate / Analyze backdoors and selecting proper settings.

• Selecting programming language to use

• Analyzing the setup and configuration needs

• Finding generated exe file as output

Delivering the generated backdoor to Windows machine / Using Apache server.

• Starting Apache server on Kali Linux

• Placing backdoor inside web server

• Downloading it from Windows

Finding a way to listen for backdoor reverse connection / Using Metasploit framework.

• Using multi handler in Metasploitable

• Setting payload

• Having proper settings

Handling post-connection scenarios properly / Using Meterpreter.

• Understand the post-exploitation part

• Understand Meterpreter tool

• Understand the ad-vantages

Handling post connection scenarios properly / Using Meterpreter.

• Review Meterpreter commands

• Test Meterpreter commands

• Do further research

Accessing target computer files / Us-ing Meterpreter commands.

• Download target’s password files

• Execute a keylogger on the target ma-chine

• Take a screenshot of the target machine

Sustaining the session when target reboots / Using local persistence.

• Use msfconsole with session in background

• Inject a new payload using local persistence

• Listen for incoming connections

Writing a report for penetration test / Following a 3-step methodology.

• Plan the report

• Monitor resources

• Understand the com-ponents of each

Writing the first draft of pen test re-port / Determining the contents.

• Executive summary

• Methodology

• Detailed findings

Finalizing the pen test report / Fol-lowing the last step of the methodol-ogy.

• Having it reviewed by seniors

• Having plain simple language

• Having a strong executive summary