Description

Book Synopsis
Build a better defense against motivated, organized, professional attacks

Advanced Penetration Testing: Hacking the World''s Most Secure Networks takes hacking far beyond Kali linux and Metasploit to provide a more complex attack simulation. Featuring techniques not taught in any certification prep or covered by common defensive scanners, this book integrates social engineering, programming, and vulnerability exploits into a multidisciplinary approach for targeting and compromising high security environments. From discovering and creating attack vectors, and moving unseen through a target enterprise, to establishing command and exfiltrating dataeven from organizations without a direct Internet connectionthis guide contains the crucial techniques that provide a more accurate picture of your system''s defense. Custom coding examples use VBA, Windows Scripting Host, C, Java, JavaScript, Flash, and more, with coverage of standard library applications and the use of scannin

Table of Contents
Foreword xxiii

Introduction xxvii

Chapter 1 Medical Records (In)security 1

An Introduction to Simulating Advanced Persistent Threat 2

Background and Mission Briefi ng 2

Payload Delivery Part 1: Learning How to Use the VBA Macro 5

How NOT to Stage a VBA Attack 6

Examining the VBA Code 11

Avoid Using Shellcode 11

Automatic Code Execution 13

Using a VBA/VBS Dual Stager 13

Keep Code Generic Whenever Possible 14

Code Obfuscation 15

Enticing Users 16

Command and Control Part 1: Basics and Essentials 19

The Attack 23

Bypassing Authentication 23

Summary 27

Exercises 28

Chapter 2 Stealing Research 29

Background and Mission Briefi ng 30

Payload Delivery Part 2: Using the

Java Applet for Payload Delivery 31

Java Code Signing for Fun and Profit 32

Writing a Java Applet Stager 36

Create a Convincing Pretext 39

Signing the Stager 40

Notes on Payload Persistence 41

Microsoft Windows 41

Linux 42

OSX 45

Command and Control Part 2: Advanced Attack Management 45

Adding Stealth and Multiple System Management 45

Implementing a Command Structure 47

Building a Management Interface 48

The Attack 49

Situational Awareness 50

Using AD to Gather Intelligence 50

Analyzing AD Output 51

Attack Against Vulnerable Secondary System 52

Credential Reuse Against Primary Target System 53

Summary 54

Exercises 55

Chapter 3 Twenty-First Century Heist 57

What Might Work? 57

Nothing Is Secure 58

Organizational Politics 58

APT Modeling versus Traditional Penetration Testing 59

Background and Mission Briefi ng 59

Command and Control Part III: Advanced Channels and Data Exfi ltration 60

Notes on Intrusion Detection and the Security Operations Center 64

The SOC Team 65

How the SOC Works 65

SOC Reaction Time and Disruption 66

IDS Evasion 67

False Positives 67

Payload Delivery Part III: Physical Media 68

A Whole New Kind of Social Engineering 68

Target Location Profi ling 69

Gathering Targets 69

The Attack 72

Summary 75

Exercises 75

Chapter 4 Pharma Karma 77

Background and Mission Briefi ng 78

Payload Delivery Part IV: Client-Side Exploits 1 79

The Curse That Is Flash 79

At Least You Can Live Without It 81

Memory Corruption Bugs: Dos and Don’ts 81

Reeling in the Target 83

Command and Control Part IV: Metasploit Integration 86

Metasploit Integration Basics 86

Server Confi guration 86

Black Hats/White Hats 87

What Have I Said About AV? 88

Pivoting 89

The Attack 89

The Hard Disk Firewall Fail 90

Metasploit Demonstration 90

Under the Hood 91

The Benefits of Admin 92

Typical Subnet Cloning 96

Recovering Passwords 96

Making a Shopping List 99

Summary 101

Exercises 101

Chapter 5 Guns and Ammo 103

Background and Mission Briefing 104

Payload Delivery Part V: Simulating a Ransomware Attack 106

What Is Ransomware? 106

Why Simulate a Ransomware Attack? 107

A Model for Ransomware Simulation 107

Asymmetric Cryptography 108

Remote Key Generation 109

Targeting Files 110

Requesting the Ransom 111

Maintaining C2 111

Final Thoughts 112

Command and Control Part V: Creating a Covert C2 Solution 112

Introducing the Onion Router 112

The Torrc File 113

Configuring a C2 Agent to Use the Tor Network 115

Bridges 115

New Strategies in Stealth and Deployment 116

VBA Redux: Alternative Command-Line Attack Vectors 116

PowerShell 117

FTP 117

Windows Scripting Host (WSH) 118

BITSadmin 118

Simple Payload Obfuscation 119

Alternative Strategies in Antivirus Evasion 121

The Attack 125

Gun Design Engineer Answers Your Questions 126

Identifying the Players 127

Smart(er) VBA Document Deployment 128

Email and Saved Passwords 131

Keyloggers and Cookies 132

Bringing It All Together 133

Summary 134

Exercises 135

Chapter 6 Criminal Intelligence 137

Payload Delivery Part VI: Deploying with HTA 138

Malware Detection 140

Privilege Escalation in Microsoft Windows 141

Escalating Privileges with Local Exploits 143

Exploiting Automated OS Installations 147

Exploiting the Task Scheduler 147

Exploiting Vulnerable Services 149

Hijacking DLLs 151

Mining the Windows Registry 154

Command and Control Part VI: The Creeper Box 155

Creeper Box Specifi cation 155

Introducing the Raspberry Pi and Its Components 156

GPIO 157

Choosing an OS 157

Configuring Full-Disk Encryption 158

A Word on Stealth 163

Configuring Out-of-Band Command and Control Using 3G/4G 164

Creating a Transparent Bridge 168

Using a Pi as a Wireless AP to Provision Access by Remote

Keyloggers 169

The Attack 171

Spoofing Caller ID and SMS Messages 172

Summary 174

Exercises 174

Chapter 7 War Games 175

Background and Mission Briefi ng 176

Payload Delivery Part VII: USB Shotgun Attack 178

USB Media 178

A Little Social Engineering 179

Command and Control Part VII: Advanced Autonomous Data Exfiltration 180

What We Mean When We Talk About “Autonomy” 180

Means of Egress 181

The Attack 185

Constructing a Payload to Attack a Classified Network 187

Stealthy 3G/4G Software Install 188

Attacking the Target and Deploying the Payload 189

Efficient “Burst-Rate” Data Exfiltration 190

Summary 191

Exercises 191

Chapter 8 Hack Journalists 193

Briefing 193

Advanced Concepts in Social Engineering 194

Cold Reading 194

C2 Part VIII: Experimental Concepts in Command and Control 199

Scenario 1: C2 Server Guided Agent Management 199

Scenario 2: Semi-Autonomous C2 Agent Management 202

Payload Delivery Part VIII: Miscellaneous Rich Web Content 205

Java Web Start 205

Adobe AIR 206

A Word on HTML5 207

The Attack 207

Summary 211

Exercises 211

Chapter 9 Northern Exposure 213

Overview 214

Operating Systems 214

Red Star Desktop 3.0 215

Red Star Server 3.0 219

North Korean Public IP Space 221

The North Korean Telephone System 224

Approved Mobile Devices 228

The “Walled Garden”: The Kwangmyong Intranet 230

Audio and Video Eavesdropping 231

Summary 233

Exercises 234

Index 235

Advanced Penetration Testing

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    Order before 4pm today for delivery by Mon 22 Jun 2026.

    A Paperback / softback by Wil Allsopp

    2 in stock

      Trusted by thousands of customers. See 2,385+ Customer Reviews

      View other formats and editions of Advanced Penetration Testing by Wil Allsopp

      Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
      Publication Date: 14/04/2017
      ISBN13: 9781119367680, 978-1119367680
      ISBN10: 1119367689

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Build a better defense against motivated, organized, professional attacks

      Advanced Penetration Testing: Hacking the World''s Most Secure Networks takes hacking far beyond Kali linux and Metasploit to provide a more complex attack simulation. Featuring techniques not taught in any certification prep or covered by common defensive scanners, this book integrates social engineering, programming, and vulnerability exploits into a multidisciplinary approach for targeting and compromising high security environments. From discovering and creating attack vectors, and moving unseen through a target enterprise, to establishing command and exfiltrating dataeven from organizations without a direct Internet connectionthis guide contains the crucial techniques that provide a more accurate picture of your system''s defense. Custom coding examples use VBA, Windows Scripting Host, C, Java, JavaScript, Flash, and more, with coverage of standard library applications and the use of scannin

      Table of Contents
      Foreword xxiii

      Introduction xxvii

      Chapter 1 Medical Records (In)security 1

      An Introduction to Simulating Advanced Persistent Threat 2

      Background and Mission Briefi ng 2

      Payload Delivery Part 1: Learning How to Use the VBA Macro 5

      How NOT to Stage a VBA Attack 6

      Examining the VBA Code 11

      Avoid Using Shellcode 11

      Automatic Code Execution 13

      Using a VBA/VBS Dual Stager 13

      Keep Code Generic Whenever Possible 14

      Code Obfuscation 15

      Enticing Users 16

      Command and Control Part 1: Basics and Essentials 19

      The Attack 23

      Bypassing Authentication 23

      Summary 27

      Exercises 28

      Chapter 2 Stealing Research 29

      Background and Mission Briefi ng 30

      Payload Delivery Part 2: Using the

      Java Applet for Payload Delivery 31

      Java Code Signing for Fun and Profit 32

      Writing a Java Applet Stager 36

      Create a Convincing Pretext 39

      Signing the Stager 40

      Notes on Payload Persistence 41

      Microsoft Windows 41

      Linux 42

      OSX 45

      Command and Control Part 2: Advanced Attack Management 45

      Adding Stealth and Multiple System Management 45

      Implementing a Command Structure 47

      Building a Management Interface 48

      The Attack 49

      Situational Awareness 50

      Using AD to Gather Intelligence 50

      Analyzing AD Output 51

      Attack Against Vulnerable Secondary System 52

      Credential Reuse Against Primary Target System 53

      Summary 54

      Exercises 55

      Chapter 3 Twenty-First Century Heist 57

      What Might Work? 57

      Nothing Is Secure 58

      Organizational Politics 58

      APT Modeling versus Traditional Penetration Testing 59

      Background and Mission Briefi ng 59

      Command and Control Part III: Advanced Channels and Data Exfi ltration 60

      Notes on Intrusion Detection and the Security Operations Center 64

      The SOC Team 65

      How the SOC Works 65

      SOC Reaction Time and Disruption 66

      IDS Evasion 67

      False Positives 67

      Payload Delivery Part III: Physical Media 68

      A Whole New Kind of Social Engineering 68

      Target Location Profi ling 69

      Gathering Targets 69

      The Attack 72

      Summary 75

      Exercises 75

      Chapter 4 Pharma Karma 77

      Background and Mission Briefi ng 78

      Payload Delivery Part IV: Client-Side Exploits 1 79

      The Curse That Is Flash 79

      At Least You Can Live Without It 81

      Memory Corruption Bugs: Dos and Don’ts 81

      Reeling in the Target 83

      Command and Control Part IV: Metasploit Integration 86

      Metasploit Integration Basics 86

      Server Confi guration 86

      Black Hats/White Hats 87

      What Have I Said About AV? 88

      Pivoting 89

      The Attack 89

      The Hard Disk Firewall Fail 90

      Metasploit Demonstration 90

      Under the Hood 91

      The Benefits of Admin 92

      Typical Subnet Cloning 96

      Recovering Passwords 96

      Making a Shopping List 99

      Summary 101

      Exercises 101

      Chapter 5 Guns and Ammo 103

      Background and Mission Briefing 104

      Payload Delivery Part V: Simulating a Ransomware Attack 106

      What Is Ransomware? 106

      Why Simulate a Ransomware Attack? 107

      A Model for Ransomware Simulation 107

      Asymmetric Cryptography 108

      Remote Key Generation 109

      Targeting Files 110

      Requesting the Ransom 111

      Maintaining C2 111

      Final Thoughts 112

      Command and Control Part V: Creating a Covert C2 Solution 112

      Introducing the Onion Router 112

      The Torrc File 113

      Configuring a C2 Agent to Use the Tor Network 115

      Bridges 115

      New Strategies in Stealth and Deployment 116

      VBA Redux: Alternative Command-Line Attack Vectors 116

      PowerShell 117

      FTP 117

      Windows Scripting Host (WSH) 118

      BITSadmin 118

      Simple Payload Obfuscation 119

      Alternative Strategies in Antivirus Evasion 121

      The Attack 125

      Gun Design Engineer Answers Your Questions 126

      Identifying the Players 127

      Smart(er) VBA Document Deployment 128

      Email and Saved Passwords 131

      Keyloggers and Cookies 132

      Bringing It All Together 133

      Summary 134

      Exercises 135

      Chapter 6 Criminal Intelligence 137

      Payload Delivery Part VI: Deploying with HTA 138

      Malware Detection 140

      Privilege Escalation in Microsoft Windows 141

      Escalating Privileges with Local Exploits 143

      Exploiting Automated OS Installations 147

      Exploiting the Task Scheduler 147

      Exploiting Vulnerable Services 149

      Hijacking DLLs 151

      Mining the Windows Registry 154

      Command and Control Part VI: The Creeper Box 155

      Creeper Box Specifi cation 155

      Introducing the Raspberry Pi and Its Components 156

      GPIO 157

      Choosing an OS 157

      Configuring Full-Disk Encryption 158

      A Word on Stealth 163

      Configuring Out-of-Band Command and Control Using 3G/4G 164

      Creating a Transparent Bridge 168

      Using a Pi as a Wireless AP to Provision Access by Remote

      Keyloggers 169

      The Attack 171

      Spoofing Caller ID and SMS Messages 172

      Summary 174

      Exercises 174

      Chapter 7 War Games 175

      Background and Mission Briefi ng 176

      Payload Delivery Part VII: USB Shotgun Attack 178

      USB Media 178

      A Little Social Engineering 179

      Command and Control Part VII: Advanced Autonomous Data Exfiltration 180

      What We Mean When We Talk About “Autonomy” 180

      Means of Egress 181

      The Attack 185

      Constructing a Payload to Attack a Classified Network 187

      Stealthy 3G/4G Software Install 188

      Attacking the Target and Deploying the Payload 189

      Efficient “Burst-Rate” Data Exfiltration 190

      Summary 191

      Exercises 191

      Chapter 8 Hack Journalists 193

      Briefing 193

      Advanced Concepts in Social Engineering 194

      Cold Reading 194

      C2 Part VIII: Experimental Concepts in Command and Control 199

      Scenario 1: C2 Server Guided Agent Management 199

      Scenario 2: Semi-Autonomous C2 Agent Management 202

      Payload Delivery Part VIII: Miscellaneous Rich Web Content 205

      Java Web Start 205

      Adobe AIR 206

      A Word on HTML5 207

      The Attack 207

      Summary 211

      Exercises 211

      Chapter 9 Northern Exposure 213

      Overview 214

      Operating Systems 214

      Red Star Desktop 3.0 215

      Red Star Server 3.0 219

      North Korean Public IP Space 221

      The North Korean Telephone System 224

      Approved Mobile Devices 228

      The “Walled Garden”: The Kwangmyong Intranet 230

      Audio and Video Eavesdropping 231

      Summary 233

      Exercises 234

      Index 235

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