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 1. Python with Penetration Testing and Networking

Penetration (pen) tester and hacker are similar terms. The difference is that penetration testers work for an organization to prevent hacking attempts, while hackers hack for any purpose such as fame, selling vulnerability for money, or to exploit vulnerability for personal enmity.

Lots of well-trained hackers have got jobs in the information security field by hacking into a system and then informing the victim of the security bug(s) so that they might be fixed.

A hacker is called a penetration tester when they work for an organization or company to secure its system. A pentester performs hacking attempts to break the network after getting legal approval from the client and then presents a report of their findings. To become an expert in pentesting, a person should have deep knowledge of the concepts of their technology. In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • The scope of pentesting
  • The need for pentesting
  • Components to be tested
  • Qualities of a good pentester
  • Approaches of pentesting
  • Understanding the tests and tools you'll need
  • Network sockets
  • Server socket methods
  • Client socket methods
  • General socket methods
  • Practical examples of sockets
  • Socket exceptions
  • Useful socket methods

Introducing the scope of pentesting

In simple words, penetration testing is to test the information security measures of a company. Information security measures entail a company's network, database, website, public-facing servers, security policies, and everything else specified by the client. At the end of the day, a pentester must present a detailed report of their findings such as weakness, vulnerability in the company's infrastructure, and the risk level of particular vulnerability, and provide solutions if possible.

The need for pentesting

There are several points that describe the significance of pentesting:

  • Pentesting identifies the threats that might expose the confidentiality of an organization
  • Expert pentesting provides assurance to the organization with a complete and detailed assessment of organizational security
  • Pentesting assesses the network's efficiency by producing huge amount of traffic and scrutinizes the security of devices such as firewalls, routers, and switches
  • Changing or upgrading the existing infrastructure of software, hardware, or network design might lead to vulnerabilities that can be detected by pentesting
  • In today's world, potential threats are increasing significantly; pentesting is a proactive exercise to minimize the chance of being exploited
  • Pentesting ensures whether suitable security policies are being followed or not

Consider an example of a well-reputed e-commerce company that makes money from online business. A hacker or group of black hat hackers find a vulnerability in the company's website and hack it. The amount of loss the company will have to bear will be tremendous.

Components to be tested

An organization should conduct a risk assessment operation before pentesting; this will help identify the main threats such as misconfiguration or vulnerability in:

  • Routers, switches, or gateways
  • Public-facing systems; websites, DMZ, e-mail servers, and remote systems
  • DNS, firewalls, proxy servers, FTP, and web servers

Testing should be performed on all hardware and software components of a network security system.

Qualities of a good pentester

The following points describe the qualities of good pentester. They should:

  • Choose a suitable set of tests and tools that balance cost and benefits
  • Follow suitable procedures with proper planning and documentation
  • Establish the scope for each penetration test, such as objectives, limitations, and the justification of procedures
  • Be ready to show how to exploit the vulnerabilities
  • State the potential risks and findings clearly in the final report and provide methods to mitigate the risk if possible
  • Keep themselves updated at all times because technology is advancing rapidly

A pentester tests the network using manual techniques or the relevant tools. There are lots of tools available in the market. Some of them are open source and some of them are highly expensive. With the help of programming, a programmer can make his own tools. By creating your own tools, you can clear your concepts and also perform more R&D. If you are interested in pentesting and want to make your own tools, then the Python programming language is the best, as extensive and freely available pentesting packages are available in Python, in addition to its ease of programming. This simplicity, along with the third-party libraries such as scapy and mechanize, reduces code size. In Python, to make a program, you don't need to define big classes such as Java. It's more productive to write code in Python than in C, and high-level libraries are easily available for virtually any imaginable task.

If you know some programming in Python and are interested in pentesting this module is ideal for you.

Defining the scope of pentesting

Before we get into pentesting, the scope of pentesting should be defined. The following points should be taken into account while defining the scope:

  • You should develop the scope of the project in consultation with the client. For example, if Bob (the client) wants to test the entire network infrastructure of the organization, then pentester Alice would define the scope of pentesting by taking this network into account. Alice will consult Bob on whether any sensitive or restricted areas should be included or not.
  • You should take into account time, people, and money.
  • You should profile the test boundaries on the basis of an agreement signed by the pentester and the client.
  • Changes in business practice might affect the scope. For example, the addition of a subnet, new system component installations, the addition or modification of a web server, and so on, might change the scope of pentesting.

The scope of pentesting is defined in two types of tests:

  • A non-destructive test: This test is limited to finding and carrying out the tests without any potential risks. It performs the following actions:
    • Scans and identifies the remote system for potential vulnerabilities
    • Investigates and verifies the findings
    • Maps the vulnerabilities with proper exploits
    • Exploits the remote system with proper care to avoid disruption
    • Provides a proof of concept
    • Does not attempt a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack
  • A destructive test: This test can produce risks. It performs the following actions:
    • Attempts DoS and buffer overflow attacks, which have the potential to bring down the system