Название: Exploitology: Web Apps Exploits: Exploitation strategies for pentesters
Автор: Mahdi Alemi
Издательство: Leanpub
Год: 2025-05-01
Страниц: 609
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true), epub (true) + Code
Размер: 13.4 MB

"Exploitology: Web Apps Exploits" explores web app security, focusing on vulnerabilities, exploitation methods, and advanced strategies. With practical examples and real-world scenarios, this book helps readers understand, exploit, and defend against web app threats. Whether you're new to security or an experienced pro, it sharpens your penetration testing skills for the evolving cybersecurity world.

Over the years, the field of cybersecurity has witnessed the rapid growth of diverse exploitation methods and vulnerabilities. However, one of the main challenges that security professionals face is the ability to simulate and identify real-world attacks. This book focuses on practical, hands-on approaches and modern techniques in penetration testing, giving you the tools to gain a deeper understanding of the threats present in web applications and systems.

Exploitology explores various common vulnerabilities such as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), SQL Injection, Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF), and many more well-known and emerging vulnerabilities. In addition, it delves into the concepts of attack analysis and how to exploit these vulnerabilities, simulating attacks in controlled environments, and using these exploits to strengthen the defensive capabilities of systems and networks.

This book is not only a comprehensive guide for security professionals but also a valuable resource for those looking to enter the field. Whether you are an experienced security expert looking to master advanced exploitation techniques or a newcomer wanting to learn the fundamentals of web security and penetration testing, this book provides the knowledge and practical insights you need.

Ultimately, the goal of this book is to teach readers how to effectively simulate, analyze, and use vulnerabilities in real-world scenarios. Furthermore, it will help you develop strong defensive strategies to protect against these attacks. Exploitology will accompany you on your journey through the intricate and ever-changing world of cybersecurity.

Prerequisites:
To follow along with this book effectively and to gain the most from the exercises, it’s essential that you have a certain level of background knowledge and tools in place. Here are the key prerequisites that will ensure you’re well-prepared to dive into the content:

Basic Programming Knowledge:
You should be comfortable with the fundamentals of programming. It’s not necessary to be an expert, but familiarity with at least one programming language will be highly beneficial. Ideally, you should know:

• PHP: A widely-used server-side language that is common in web development.
• Python: A versatile language, especially in the realm of cybersecurity and scripting.
• jаvascript/Node.js: Key languages for client-side scripting and backend development with Node.js. Understanding these will be vital, especially when dealing with modern web applications.
While the book will guide you through specific examples, a solid grasp of programming basics will make the process smoother and help you better understand the underlying concepts.

Familiarity with Web Technologies
Understanding how the web works is crucial. You should have a grasp of the following:

• HTTP(S): The communication protocol used for transferring data across the web. Familiarity with how HTTP requests and responses work, including headers and status codes, is essential for security assessments.
• HTML: The standard markup language for creating web pages. You’ll need to understand basic HTML structure and how web pages are built.
• jаvascript: A core technology for client-side interactivity on the web. You’ll need to understand how jаvascript is executed within web browsers and how it can interact with HTML elements.
• Web Browsers and Server Communication: A general understanding of how web browsers send requests to servers and receive responses is important, especially when investigating security issues like XSS, CSRF, and other web-based vulnerabilities.

Experience with the Command Line
In many security and development tasks, you will need to interact with the command line. It’s crucial that you feel comfortable using a terminal to:
• Execute basic commands in Linux or macOS environments.
• Use common tools like curl or wget for interacting with web servers.
• Navigate the file system and manage files through the terminal. If you’re on Windows, you can use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to gain access to a Linux-like environment, which will allow you to follow along with most of the tools and commands used in the book.

Security Tools Setup
To conduct real-world security assessments and practice the concepts covered in the book, you’ll need to have a few essential security tools installed and configured:

• Burp Suite: A popular tool for web application security testing. It comes in two versions: the free Community Edition and the more feature-rich Professional Edition. Either will work for most exercises, but the Professional version offers advanced features.
• cURL: A powerful command-line tool used for making HTTP requests. It will allow you to test various types of requests and see the responses from web servers directly in the terminal.
• Local Lab Environment: Setting up a local environment is critical for practicing securely. This can be done via:

• Docker: For containerized environments that simulate production-like settings.
• Direct installations of web development environments (PHP, Python, Node.js) on your local machine. You’ll be using these tools to set up vulnerable applications, run security tests, and examine potential exploits.

With these prerequisites in place, you’ll be able to fully engage with the exercises and examples presented in this book, gaining valuable hands-on experience with web application security.