Use Kali Linux like a hacker with Red Team Tactics

Download and install Kali Linux in VirtualBox, run the graphical installer, configure language and hostname, create the user, partition the disk, install grub, then boot into Kali.

Explore the Linux directory structure from the root / through key directories such as /bin, /usr, /etc, /proc, /var, /home and /root, and learn their roles.

Explore basic Linux commands in Kali Linux, mastering navigation and file operations with ls, cd, pwd, mkdir, and man, plus search tools like which, locate, and find.

Manage Kali Linux services with systemctl, starting, stopping, and enabling ssh and apache, verify status and ports 22 and 80 using netstat and ss, in red team tactics.

Learn to manage Kali Linux packages with apt: update, upgrade, install, search, and remove, using sudo, install Metasploitable framework, and purge or remove via dpkg for Debian packages.

Observe how environment variables initialize with each bash session and control settings like path, user, and home. Learn to create and export variables for subprocesses and view them with env.

Explore the bash history command to view and reuse commands, run the last or a specific entry with shift, and search with ctrl r for items like echo and pwd.

Master piping and redirection in the command line, directing standard input, output, and errors through pipes and files. Explore using ls, cat, and wc, and suppress errors with dev/null.

Explore text searching with grep, using regular expression and -i for case-insensitive matches, then manipulate text with sed, cut, and awk, and preview results with hit and tail.

Learn to edit files from the command line using nano and Vim, create and save text, and exit with :w, :q, :wq, or :q!.

Compare files using cp, diff, and vimdiff in Kali Linux, then view line-level differences between test.txt and test_cp.txt and exit with vim.

Manage foreground and background processes with bg and fg, and use control c or control z and the jobs command. Run background tasks with & and terminate with kill -9.

Master file and command monitoring with tail (dash five, dash F), curl, and watch to observe access logs and detect real-time, suspicious activity on local servers.

Download files using git and curl, saving content as index.html and renaming it as needed, including pdfs and debian packages. Consult the git and curl manuals for more details.

Customize the bash environment in Kali Linux by creating and persisting aliases in .bashrc, such as ll for ls -l. Make them permanent by editing .bashrc and reloading the shell.

Netcat, a Swiss army knife of network testing, reads and writes data across tcp or udp, listens on ports, and enables a reverse shell for red team practice.

Learn how wireshark functions as a network protocol analyzer, enabling live capture, offline analysis, and decryption across hundreds of protocols on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Explore the open systems interconnection (osi) model, a seven-layer framework for interoperable networking, detailing the physical, data link, network, transport, session, presentation, and application layers.

Install and set up Wireshark across Windows, Mac, and Linux, including Kali, Alpine, and Ubuntu, by following simple download and installation steps from wireshark.org.

Select the correct interface in Kali Linux and start Wireshark to capture packets, observe traffic such as TCP packets, and restart captures to filter later by IP protocol.

Apply filters for source and destination IPs, using and/or logic to capture conversations between two addresses.

Set filters to display http and dns protocols and observe traffic flow with curl demonstrations, distinguishing http, https, and tls in real traffic.

Filter tcp packets by a specific source or destination port to observe traffic; for example, test port 80 for http and port 888 to check availability.

Explore how to display TCP packets containing a specific term by filtering for GET requests and HTTP traffic, identifying hosts like google.com and distinguishing requests from responses.

Use Kali Linux to filter all http get and post requests with curl, choosing the method and uri to capture traffic live.

Learn to filter out specific protocols in Kali Linux by using not and or operators to exclude dns and arp, with case sensitivity and verification via http capture.

Demonstrates how Netcat captures insecure connections, using a listening port and Wireshark to reveal passwords in plaintext, and explains why Netcat should not be used for secure communication.

Demonstrate how ftp, a plain text protocol, exposes passwords to man-in-the-middle attacks and how to capture them, then advocate replacing ftp with sftp or ssh.

Learn to extract files from ftp using wireshark by capturing, following tcp stream, and retrieving file dot txt from a directory listing, demonstrating that ftp transmits plain text.

Show how passwords are captured over http, making clear why this is dangerous and how credentials appear in plain text when a form submits via http instead of https.

Learn to capture images and other files from HTTP traffic using file export object, stop and save them, and understand why plain text HTTP poses serious security risks for logins.

Create and run your first bash script by writing a shebang, adding a hello there message with echo, saving the file, making it executable, and executing it from the desktop.

Learn to declare and print bash variables, assign string values, store command output via command substitution, and use script arguments like $1 and $2, plus read user input.

Explore bash scripting with if, elif, and else constructs, using test operators for numeric and string comparisons, and learn syntax essentials like brackets, spaces, and finishing with fi.

Explore bash loops by writing for and while constructs, iterate over sequences and file content, print results, and generate IP ranges using simple counters and arithmetic.

Master bash script functions: define a named function with parentheses and braces, call it by name, and return values to build simple, reusable code.

Learn to use whois to enumerate domain information, including name servers, registrar, creation date, and organization, as a passive information gathering technique.

Google hacking harnesses search engines to uncover information, vulnerabilities, and misconfigured sites by using domain-limiting searches with site: and filetype filters like pdf, plus google docs filters to refine results.

Explore Netcraft's free web portal to passively gather information, discover domains and subdomains, and access a rich suite of tools and research resources for information discovery.

Explore Shodan, a search engine that crawls internet-connected devices, including servers, routers, and IoT devices, and learn how to use login-based search filters.

Use the security headers tool to analyze http response headers and assess a site's security posture by entering a URL and reviewing results like status codes and server information.

Learn to use the harvester email harvesting tool to gather domain information from sources like google, revealing accounts and assets to support red-team information gathering and target profiling.

Discover information gathering frameworks like Osint framework to centralize tools and sites for collecting data such as public records and usernames; learn about Maltego, a powerful data mining tool.

Explore practical dns enumeration using host, dns recon, and dns enum tools on kali linux, perform subdomain brute force, zone transfer tests, and build automation with bash scripts.

Explore port scanning essentials in Kali Linux for red team tactics, covering TCP and UDP ports, and techniques like SYN half-open, TCP connect, UDP, and stealth scans.

Explore how Nmap serves as a network scanner for port scanning, host discovery, and vulnerability scanning, using IP packet analysis to detect remote hosts, operating systems, and services.

Prepare a safe testing environment by installing VirtualBox and Kali Linux, then set up Metasploitable as a target to practice Nmap port scans and vulnerability checks.

Perform a basic nmap scan on metasploitable from Kali Linux to discover open ports such as FTP and Telnet. Avoid scanning live targets and prefer local machines for practice.

Perform an Nmap ping scan to detect hosts on a subnet such as 8.0/24 by sending ICMP packets and identifying up machines like Kali Linux, Metasploitable, and a router.

Learn to scan all ports by default with Nmap. Target specific ranges using -p, such as 1-65535 or 80,443,112, and identify open or closed ports.

Perform a hands-on scan of multiple IP addresses with Kali Linux, comparing port states on a Metasploitable target and Kali host. The host is up, with ports open or closed.

Run the scan using the top boards option, set the board count (for example 102), and target the Metasploitable IP to see results grow from top 100 to top 1000.

Create a text list of IP addresses and domains, then run nmap with -iL list.txt to scan those hosts and ports, illustrating use of test targets over live targets.

Save your nmap scan results to a file by using the -o option, choosing plain text or XML formats, for example output.txt or output.xml, and view the results with cat.

disable the dns name resolution using nmap -n to speed up scanning of a specified ip address within the network.

Demonstrate a hands-on scan for os and version detection with fast execution using the t4 option, applied to a metasploitable target to reveal ftp details.

Run nmap with version detection (-sV -vv) against a target IP to reveal the state, service, and version of each detected daemon.

Learn to perform tcp and udp port scans with nmap by specifying an IP address and using -sT for tcp and -sU for udp, noting root access may be required.

Perform hands-on CVE detection with nmap using -Pn and NSE scripts to scan for vulnerabilities on a Metasploitable 2 host, revealing an FTP backdoor.

Demonstrate launching a denial-of-service test with Nmap scripting engine, using Slowloris to exhaust a web server, configuring dash-p, --script, and max parallelism on a Metasploitable host to highlight hardening insights.

Hands-on lecture shows using nmap's brute force script against an FTP server by port 21, and the IP address, noting brute force is slow and not a modern approach.

Detect malware infections on remote hosts using nmap with the http-malware-host script and Google malware detection, then verify services with nmap -sV.

Use dirb, a web content scanner, to discover directories and pages with a wordlist by issuing requests to a server, using -R for non-recursive and -Z for ten millisecond delay.

learn to use burp suite as a powerful proxy for web app security testing, configure the browser proxy, and import burp's certificate authority to inspect traffic.

Learn Nectar, a configurable open source web server scanner for web application assessment that tests for dangerous files and programs, using dash host and max time flags in practical labs.