Kali Linux Penetration Testing Bible

CHAPTER 17Programming with Python

Python is the language of choice for hackers; it’s simple and compelling. This fantastic programming language provides an excellent development platform to build your offensive tools. And guess what? You can use it on any platform, Windows, Mac, or Linux. That’s awesome!

In this chapter, you will learn the following concepts in Python:

• How to install and use a Python debugger on Kali
• Basics of Python scripting
• Variable types
• How to declare a function
• How to handle loops
• How to use conditions
• How to implement error handling
• How to create class objects

Basics of Python

You might be asking yourself, why choose Python? This section can help you make that decision. Let’s make some comparisons first. When you want to compare choices, it’s better to use some sort of grouping. Let’s say you like burgers, but your friend John likes pizza; well, both options fall under the fast‐food category, and if you want to eat Greek salad, that’s the salad category. How is this related to what we’re doing? Programming language choices also have categories.

For example, if you want to develop a business web application, it’s better to use programming languages like C# or Java (and sometimes PHP). For developing web applications, you’ll need to know about JavaScript (on the front end) as well. Take note that I’m choosing those programming languages based on common patterns that I witnessed in organizations; there are always exceptions (so pick the programming ...