Penetration Testing

Chapter 6. Finding Vulnerabilities

Before we start slinging exploits, we need to do some more research and analysis. When identifying vulnerabilities, we actively search for issues that will lead to compromise in the exploitation phase. Although some security firms will just run an automated exploitation tool and hope for the best, careful study of the vulnerabilities by a skilled pentester will garner better results than any tool on its own.

We’ll examine several vulnerability analysis methods in this chapter, including automated scanning, targeted analysis, and manual research.

From Nmap Version Scan to Potential Vulnerability

Now that we have some information about our target and the attack surface, we can develop scenarios to reach our pentest ...