Table of Contents for
Python: Penetration Testing for Developers

Version ebook / Retour

Cover image for bash Cookbook, 2nd Edition Python: Penetration Testing for Developers by Dave Mound Published by Packt Publishing, 2016
  1. Cover
  2. Table of Contents
  3. Python: Penetration Testing for Developers
  4. Python: Penetration Testing for Developers
  5. Python: Penetration Testing for Developers
  6. Credits
  7. Preface
  8. What you need for this learning path
  9. Who this learning path is for
  10. Reader feedback
  11. Customer support
  12. 1. Module 1
  13. 1. Understanding the Penetration Testing Methodology
  14. Understanding what penetration testing is not
  15. Assessment methodologies
  16. The penetration testing execution standard
  17. Penetration testing tools
  18. Summary
  19. 2. The Basics of Python Scripting
  20. Python – the good and the bad
  21. A Python interactive interpreter versus a script
  22. Environmental variables and PATH
  23. Understanding dynamically typed languages
  24. The first Python script
  25. Developing scripts and identifying errors
  26. Python formatting
  27. Python variables
  28. Operators
  29. Compound statements
  30. Functions
  31. The Python style guide
  32. Arguments and options
  33. Your first assessor script
  34. Summary
  35. 3. Identifying Targets with Nmap, Scapy, and Python
  36. Understanding Nmap
  37. Nmap libraries for Python
  38. The Scapy library for Python
  39. Summary
  40. 4. Executing Credential Attacks with Python
  41. Identifying the target
  42. Creating targeted usernames
  43. Testing for users using SMTP VRFY
  44. Summary
  45. 5. Exploiting Services with Python
  46. Understanding the chaining of exploits
  47. Automating the exploit train with Python
  48. Summary
  49. 6. Assessing Web Applications with Python
  50. Identifying hidden files and directories with Python
  51. Credential attacks with Burp Suite
  52. Using twill to walk through the source
  53. Understanding when to use Python for web assessments
  54. Summary
  55. 7. Cracking the Perimeter with Python
  56. Understanding the link between accounts and services
  57. Cracking inboxes with Burp Suite
  58. Identifying the attack path
  59. Gaining access through websites
  60. Summary
  61. 8. Exploit Development with Python, Metasploit, and Immunity
  62. Understanding the Windows memory structure
  63. Understanding memory addresses and endianness
  64. Understanding the manipulation of the stack
  65. Understanding immunity
  66. Understanding basic buffer overflow
  67. Writing a basic buffer overflow exploit
  68. Understanding stack adjustments
  69. Understanding the purpose of local exploits
  70. Understanding other exploit scripts
  71. Reversing Metasploit modules
  72. Understanding protection mechanisms
  73. Summary
  74. 9. Automating Reports and Tasks with Python
  75. Understanding how to create a Python class
  76. Summary
  77. 10. Adding Permanency to Python Tools
  78. Understanding the difference between multithreading and multiprocessing
  79. Building industry-standard tools
  80. Summary
  81. 2. Module 2
  82. 1. Python with Penetration Testing and Networking
  83. Approaches to pentesting
  84. Introducing Python scripting
  85. Understanding the tests and tools you'll need
  86. Learning the common testing platforms with Python
  87. Network sockets
  88. Server socket methods
  89. Client socket methods
  90. General socket methods
  91. Moving on to the practical
  92. Summary
  93. 2. Scanning Pentesting
  94. What are the services running on the target machine?
  95. Summary
  96. 3. Sniffing and Penetration Testing
  97. Implementing a network sniffer using Python
  98. Learning about packet crafting
  99. Introducing ARP spoofing and implementing it using Python
  100. Testing the security system using custom packet crafting and injection
  101. Summary
  102. 4. Wireless Pentesting
  103. Wireless attacks
  104. Summary
  105. 5. Foot Printing of a Web Server and a Web Application
  106. Introducing information gathering
  107. Information gathering of a website from SmartWhois by the parser BeautifulSoup
  108. Banner grabbing of a website
  109. Hardening of a web server
  110. Summary
  111. 6. Client-side and DDoS Attacks
  112. Tampering with the client-side parameter with Python
  113. Effects of parameter tampering on business
  114. Introducing DoS and DDoS
  115. Summary
  116. 7. Pentesting of SQLI and XSS
  117. Types of SQL injections
  118. Understanding the SQL injection attack by a Python script
  119. Learning about Cross-Site scripting
  120. Summary
  121. 3. Module 3
  122. 1. Gathering Open Source Intelligence
  123. Gathering information using the Shodan API
  124. Scripting a Google+ API search
  125. Downloading profile pictures using the Google+ API
  126. Harvesting additional results from the Google+ API using pagination
  127. Getting screenshots of websites with QtWebKit
  128. Screenshots based on a port list
  129. Spidering websites
  130. 2. Enumeration
  131. Performing a ping sweep with Scapy
  132. Scanning with Scapy
  133. Checking username validity
  134. Brute forcing usernames
  135. Enumerating files
  136. Brute forcing passwords
  137. Generating e-mail addresses from names
  138. Finding e-mail addresses from web pages
  139. Finding comments in source code
  140. 3. Vulnerability Identification
  141. Automated URL-based Directory Traversal
  142. Automated URL-based Cross-site scripting
  143. Automated parameter-based Cross-site scripting
  144. Automated fuzzing
  145. jQuery checking
  146. Header-based Cross-site scripting
  147. Shellshock checking
  148. 4. SQL Injection
  149. Checking jitter
  150. Identifying URL-based SQLi
  151. Exploiting Boolean SQLi
  152. Exploiting Blind SQL Injection
  153. Encoding payloads
  154. 5. Web Header Manipulation
  155. Testing HTTP methods
  156. Fingerprinting servers through HTTP headers
  157. Testing for insecure headers
  158. Brute forcing login through the Authorization header
  159. Testing for clickjacking vulnerabilities
  160. Identifying alternative sites by spoofing user agents
  161. Testing for insecure cookie flags
  162. Session fixation through a cookie injection
  163. 6. Image Analysis and Manipulation
  164. Hiding a message using LSB steganography
  165. Extracting messages hidden in LSB
  166. Hiding text in images
  167. Extracting text from images
  168. Enabling command and control using steganography
  169. 7. Encryption and Encoding
  170. Generating an MD5 hash
  171. Generating an SHA 1/128/256 hash
  172. Implementing SHA and MD5 hashes together
  173. Implementing SHA in a real-world scenario
  174. Generating a Bcrypt hash
  175. Cracking an MD5 hash
  176. Encoding with Base64
  177. Encoding with ROT13
  178. Cracking a substitution cipher
  179. Cracking the Atbash cipher
  180. Attacking one-time pad reuse
  181. Predicting a linear congruential generator
  182. Identifying hashes
  183. 8. Payloads and Shells
  184. Extracting data through HTTP requests
  185. Creating an HTTP C2
  186. Creating an FTP C2
  187. Creating an Twitter C2
  188. Creating a simple Netcat shell
  189. 9. Reporting
  190. Converting Nmap XML to CSV
  191. Extracting links from a URL to Maltego
  192. Extracting e-mails to Maltego
  193. Parsing Sslscan into CSV
  194. Generating graphs using plot.ly
  195. A. Bibliography
  196. Index

Chapter 5. Exploiting Services with Python

One of the big misconceptions with penetration testing and exploitation of services today, is the prevalence of exploitable Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerabilities. The reality is that, the days of finding hundreds of easily exploitable services that only required an Internet Protocol (IP) address to be plugged into a tool are pretty much gone. You will still find vulnerabilities that can be exploited by overflowing the stack or heap, they are just significantly reduced or more complex. We will explain the reasons why, these are more difficult to exploit in today's software in Chapter 8, Exploit Development with Python, Metasploit, and Immunity, don't worry we will get to that.

So if you are expecting to walk into a network every time and exploit Microsoft Security Bulletins MS08-067, MS03-024, or MS06-40 to get your foothold, you are sorely mistaken. Do not fret, they are still out there, but instead of finding it on every host, there might be one system in the network with it. Worse yet, for us as simulated malicious actors, it may not even provide us access to a box that would allow us to move forward in our engagement. Usually, it turns out to be a legacy system or a vendor product that is not even attached to the Domain with different credential sets. Now, that is not to say, this is always the case.

The number of RCE vulnerabilities that will be found completely depends on the organization's security maturity. This has nothing to do with size or budget, but instead the strategy in which their security program is implemented. Organizations with a weak security strategy and newly founded programs will have more vulnerabilities like these, and organizations with a better strategy will have less. An additional factor many new penetration testers overlook, is the talent; the company may have employed on the defensive side, and this can significantly impact their ability to operate in an environment.

Even if an organization has a weak security strategy, it may still have a pretty tough tactical security posture, if it has hired highly skilled engineers and administrators. At a tactical level, really smart technical staff means, strong controls may be put in place, but if there is no overarching security strategy, devices may be missed and gaps in a relevant strong technical posture could be identified. An additional risk comes from when those skilled members leave the organization, or worse if they go rogue.

Either way, any strong security controls could now be considered compromised at that point, if there are no established processes and procedures in place. Additionally, holistic and validated implementation of controls may not be possible. The reason this is important to you as a penetration tester, is so that you can understand the ebb and flow of an organization's information security program and common causes. The management will be looking to you for answers to some of these questions, and the indicators you see will help you diagnose the problems and identify root causes.

Understanding the new age of service exploitation

Throughout the previous chapters, there has been a preparation to show you a simulated example of new age exploitation. This means, we are taking advantage of misconfigurations, default settings, bad practices, and a lack of security awareness. Instead of control gaps being found in the developed code, it is instead within the implementation in an environment to include training of its people. The specific manner of entering or moving through a network will depend on the network, and attack vectors change, instead of memorizing a specific vector, focus on building a mind-set.

Exploitation today means the identification of already present accesses, and stealing a component of that access, compromising systems with that access level, capturing details on those systems, and moving laterally till you identify critical data or new levels of access. Once you identify access into a system, you are going to try and find details that will allow you to move and access other systems. This means configuration files with usernames and passwords in them, stored username and passwords, or mounted shares. Each of these components will provide you information to gain access to other hosts. The benefit to attacking systems in this manner is that it is much quieter than exploiting RCE's and uploading payloads; you move within the bounds of the requisite protocols, and you do a better job of simulating real malicious actors.

To establish a consistent language, you move from one host to another, at the same privilege level which is called the lateral movement. When you find a higher level of privilege such as Domain Administrator (DA), this is considered as a vertical movement or privilege escalation. When you use access to a host or network area to gain access to the systems that you could not see before, because of access controls or network segregation, this is called pivoting. Now that you understand the concepts and the terms, let us pop some boxes.

Tip

To simulate this example, we are going to use a combination of Windows XP Mode and Metasploitable, both free to use. Details about setting up Metasploitable have already been provided. Details for Windows XP Mode can be found in the following two Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) https://zeltser.com/windows-xp-mode-for-vmware-virtualization/ and https://zeltser.com/how-to-get-a-windows-xp-mode-virtual-machine-on-windows/. Remember to execute as many of these exploits the Windows machine may have, to get its Administrative Shares enabled. In a real Domain, this is common because they are often used to manage remote systems.