Preface

BackTrack is a penetration testing and security auditing platform with advanced tools to identify, detect, and exploit any vulnerabilities uncovered in the target network environment. Applying appropriate testing methodology with defined business objectives and a scheduled test plan will result in robust penetration testing of your network.

BackTrack 4: Assuring Security by Penetration Testing is a fully focused, structured book providing guidance on developing practical penetration testing skills by demonstrating the cutting-edge hacker tools and techniques in a coherent step-by-step strategy. It offers all the essential lab preparation and testing procedures to reflect real-world attack scenarios from your business perspective in today's digital age.

The authors' experience and expertise enables them to reveal the industry's best approach for logical and systematic penetration testing.

The first and so far only book on BackTrack OS starts with lab preparation and testing procedures, explaining the basic installation and configuration set up, discussing types of penetration testing (black box and white box), uncovering open security testing methodologies, and proposing the BackTrack specific testing process. The authors discuss a number of security assessment tools necessary to conduct penetration testing in their respective categories (target scoping, information gathering, discovery, enumeration, vulnerability mapping, social engineering, exploitation, privilege escalation, maintaining access, and reporting), following the formal testing methodology. Each of these tools is illustrated with real-world examples to highlight their practical usage and proven configuration techniques. The authors also provide extra weaponry treasures and cite key resources that may be crucial to any professional penetration tester.

This book serves as a single professional, practical, and expert guide to develop hardcore penetration testing skills from scratch. You will be trained to make the best use of BackTrack OS either in a commercial environment or an experimental test bed.

A tactical example-driven guide for mastering the penetration testing skills with BackTrack to identify, detect, and exploit vulnerabilities at your digital doorstep.