
Metasploit
A Penetration Tester's Guide
No Starch Press
1st Edition
Published on 15. July 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
XXIV, 301 pages
978-1-59327-288-3 (ISBN)
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Description
The Metasploit Framework makes discovering, exploiting, and sharing vulnerabilities quick and relatively painless. But while Metasploit is used by security professionals everywhere, the tool can be hard to grasp for first-time users. Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide fills this gap by teaching you how to harness the Framework and interact with the vibrant community of Metasploit contributors.
Once you've built your foundation for penetration testing, you'll learn the Framework's conventions, interfaces, and module system as you launch simulated attacks. You'll move on to advanced penetration testing techniques, including network reconnaissance and enumeration, client-side attacks, wireless attacks, and targeted social-engineering attacks.
Learn how to:
- Find and exploit unmaintained, misconfigured, and unpatched systems
- Perform reconnaissance and find valuable information about your target
- Bypass antivirus technologies and circumvent security controls
- Integrate Nmap, NeXpose, and Nessus with Metasploit to automate discovery
- Use the Meterpreter shell to launch further attacks from inside the network
- Harness stand-alone Metasploit utilities, third-party tools, and plug-ins
- Learn how to write your own Meterpreter post-exploitation modules and scripts
You'll even touch on exploit discovery for zero-day research, write a fuzzer, port existing exploits into the Framework, and learn how to cover your tracks. Whether your goal is to secure your own networks or to put someone else's to the test, Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide will take you there and beyond.
Once you've built your foundation for penetration testing, you'll learn the Framework's conventions, interfaces, and module system as you launch simulated attacks. You'll move on to advanced penetration testing techniques, including network reconnaissance and enumeration, client-side attacks, wireless attacks, and targeted social-engineering attacks.
Learn how to:
- Find and exploit unmaintained, misconfigured, and unpatched systems
- Perform reconnaissance and find valuable information about your target
- Bypass antivirus technologies and circumvent security controls
- Integrate Nmap, NeXpose, and Nessus with Metasploit to automate discovery
- Use the Meterpreter shell to launch further attacks from inside the network
- Harness stand-alone Metasploit utilities, third-party tools, and plug-ins
- Learn how to write your own Meterpreter post-exploitation modules and scripts
You'll even touch on exploit discovery for zero-day research, write a fuzzer, port existing exploits into the Framework, and learn how to cover your tracks. Whether your goal is to secure your own networks or to put someone else's to the test, Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide will take you there and beyond.
Reviews / Votes
"It's a great book to get people started, has examples to walk through, and includes more advanced topics for experienced users."-Dark Reading
"Perfect for someone who is just starting out in security. This book has the honor of being named "the best guide to the Metasploit framework" by Metasploit founder H.D. Moore himself. Not only does the book provide a great crash course into using the powerful Metasploit framework, but it's also useful for doing vulnerability research."
-Britt Kemp, Bishop Fox Labs
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Heidelberg
Germany
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Security researchers and professionals
- Network and system administrators
- White hat and gray hat hackers
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 233 mm
Width: 179 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
645 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-59327-288-3 (9781593272883)
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions

David Kennedy | Mati Aharoni | Devon Kearns
Metasploit, 2nd Edition
Book
01/2025
2nd Edition
No Starch Press
€56.00
Available immediately
Additional editions

E-Book
07/2011
No Starch Press
€38.99
Available for download
Persons
David Kennedy is Chief Information Security Officer at Diebold Incorporated and creator of the Social-Engineer Toolkit (SET), Fast-Track, and other open source tools. He is on the Back|Track and Exploit-Database development team and is a core member of the Social-Engineer podcast and framework. Kennedy has presented at a number of security conferences including Black Hat, DEF CON, ShmooCon, Security B-Sides, and more.
Jim O'Gorman (Elwood) is a professional penetration tester, an instructor at Offensive Security, and manages Offensive Security's consulting services. Jim has lived online from the times of BBS's, to FidoNet, to when SLIP connections were the new hotness. Jim spends time on network intrusion simulation, digital investigations, and malware analysis. When not working on various security issues, Jim spends his time assisting his children in their attempts to fight Zombie hordes.
Devon Kearns is an instructor at Offensive-Security, a Back|Track Linux developer, and administrator of The Exploit Database. He has contributed a number of Metasploit exploit modules and is the maintainer of the Metasploit Unleashed wiki.
Mati Aharoni is the creator of the Back|Track Linux distribution and founder of Offensive-Security, the industry leader in security training.
Jim O'Gorman (Elwood) is a professional penetration tester, an instructor at Offensive Security, and manages Offensive Security's consulting services. Jim has lived online from the times of BBS's, to FidoNet, to when SLIP connections were the new hotness. Jim spends time on network intrusion simulation, digital investigations, and malware analysis. When not working on various security issues, Jim spends his time assisting his children in their attempts to fight Zombie hordes.
Devon Kearns is an instructor at Offensive-Security, a Back|Track Linux developer, and administrator of The Exploit Database. He has contributed a number of Metasploit exploit modules and is the maintainer of the Metasploit Unleashed wiki.
Mati Aharoni is the creator of the Back|Track Linux distribution and founder of Offensive-Security, the industry leader in security training.
Content
Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgments; Special Thanks; Introduction; Why Do a Penetration Test?; Why Metasploit?; A Brief History of Metasploit; About This Book; What's in the Book?; A Note on Ethics; Chapter 1: The Absolute Basics of Penetration Testing; 1.1 The Phases of the PTES; 1.2 Types of Penetration Tests; 1.3 Vulnerability Scanners; 1.4 Pulling It All Together; Chapter 2: Metasploit Basics; 2.1 Terminology; 2.2 Metasploit Interfaces; 2.3 Metasploit Utilities; 2.4 Metasploit Express and Metasploit Pro; 2.5 Wrapping Up; Chapter 3: Intelligence Gathering; 3.1 Passive Information Gathering; 3.2 Active Information Gathering; 3.3 Targeted Scanning; 3.4 Writing a Custom Scanner; 3.5 Looking Ahead; Chapter 4: Vulnerability Scanning; 4.1 The Basic Vulnerability Scan; 4.2 Scanning with NeXpose; 4.3 Scanning with Nessus; 4.4 Specialty Vulnerability Scanners; 4.5 Using Scan Results for Autopwning; Chapter 5: The Joy of Exploitation; 5.1 Basic Exploitation; 5.2 Exploiting Your First Machine; 5.3 Exploiting an Ubuntu Machine; 5.4 All-Ports Payloads: Brute Forcing Ports; 5.5 Resource Files; 5.6 Wrapping Up; Chapter 6: Meterpreter; 6.1 Compromising a Windows XP Virtual Machine; 6.2 Dumping Usernames and Passwords; 6.3 Pass the Hash; 6.4 Privilege Escalation; 6.5 Token Impersonation; 6.6 Using ps; 6.7 Pivoting onto Other Systems; 6.8 Using Meterpreter Scripts; 6.9 Leveraging Post Exploitation Modules; 6.10 Upgrading Your Command Shell to Meterpreter; 6.11 Manipulating Windows APIs with the Railgun Add-On; 6.12 Wrapping Up; Chapter 7: Avoiding Detection; 7.1 Creating Stand-Alone Binaries with MSFpayload; 7.2 Evading Antivirus Detection; 7.3 Custom Executable Templates; 7.4 Launching a Payload Stealthily; 7.5 Packers; 7.6 A Final Note on Antivirus Software Evasion; Chapter 8: Exploitation Using Client-Side Attacks; 8.1 Browser-Based Exploits; 8.2 Using Immunity Debugger to Decipher NOP Shellcode; 8.3 Exploring the Internet Explorer Aurora Exploit; 8.4 File Format Exploits; 8.5 Sending the Payload; 8.6 Wrapping Up; Chapter 9: Metasploit Auxiliary Modules; 9.1 Auxiliary Modules in Use; 9.2 Anatomy of an Auxiliary Module; 9.3 Going Forward; Chapter 10: The Social-Engineer Toolkit; 10.1 Configuring the Social-Engineer Toolkit; 10.2 Spear-Phishing Attack Vector; 10.3 Web Attack Vectors; 10.4 Infectious Media Generator; 10.5 Teensy USB HID Attack Vector; 10.6 Additional SET Features; 10.7 Looking Ahead; Chapter 11: Fast-Track; 11.1 Microsoft SQL Injection; 11.2 Binary-to-Hex Generator; 11.3 Mass Client-Side Attack; 11.4 A Few Words About Automation; Chapter 12: Karmetasploit; 12.1 Configuration; 12.2 Launching the Attack; 12.3 Credential Harvesting; 12.4 Getting a Shell; 12.5 Wrapping Up; Chapter 13: Building Your Own Module; 13.1 Getting Command Execution on Microsoft SQL; 13.2 Exploring an Existing Metasploit Module; 13.3 Creating a New Module; 13.4 The Power of Code Reuse; Chapter 14: Creating Your Own Exploits; 14.1 The Art of Fuzzing; 14.2 Controlling the Structured Exception Handler; 14.3 Hopping Around SEH Restrictions; 14.4 Getting a Return Address; 14.5 Bad Characters and Remote Code Execution; 14.6 Wrapping Up; Chapter 15: Porting Exploits to the Metasploit Framework; 15.1 Assembly Language Basics; 15.2 Porting a Buffer Overflow; 15.3 SEH Overwrite Exploit; 15.4 Wrapping Up; Chapter 16: Meterpreter Scripting; 16.1 Meterpreter Scripting Basics; 16.2 Meterpreter API; 16.3 Rules for Writing Meterpreter Scripts; 16.4 Creating Your Own Meterpreter Script; 16.5 Wrapping Up; Chapter 17: Simulated Penetration Test; 17.1 Pre-engagement Interactions; 17.2 Intelligence Gathering; 17.3 Threat Modeling; 17.4 Exploitation; 17.5 Customizing MSFconsole; 17.6 Post Exploitation; 17.7 Attacking Apache Tomcat; 17.8 Attacking Obscure Services; 17.9 Covering Your Tracks; 17.10 Wrapping Up; Configuring Your Target Machines; Installing and Setting Up the System; Booting Up the Linux Virtual Machines; Setting Up a Vulnerable Windows XP Installation; Cheat Sheet; MSFconsole Commands; Meterpreter Commands; MSFpayload Commands; MSFencode Commands; MSFcli Commands; MSF, Ninja, Fu; MSFvenom; Meterpreter Post Exploitation Commands; Colophon; Updates;