A book thread please.

[imported_vvpalin]

The last thread i looked at was out of date, granted some things dont change but allot do.

So i was wondering what do you guys recommend for someone thats somewhat new to the penetration world, but at the same time learns quickly and knows "most" of the basics.

I have both of these on my list and im thinking about the third but my funds are very limited and i cant be buying something that isnt packed full of knowledge or is hard to follow as i get bored quickly.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593271492

http://www.amazon.com/Gray-Hat-Hacki.../dp/0072257091

http://www.amazon.com/Penetration-Te.../dp/1597492132

Im also thinking about grabbing something on nessus and or snort, but i havent decided what scanning tool i want to use yet and might go with something else so that would be rather pointless.

"dont worry thorn yours should be in the mail already"

[Mr. Flibble]

It is hard to recommend something if you don't say where your skills are lacking. Basically, find your weaknesses and fix them!

As the old saying goes: "You don't learn to hack, you hack to learn".

Many of the "old" books here that are recommended are good.

Here is a good list that helped me out a great deal:

http://www.nmrc.org/contrib/amazon.html

[lupin]

You need to get a better idea of what you're interested in. The field is far too wide to give good advice otherwise.

That being said, here are some of the "Pen Testing" books that I have which I would recommend.

Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition
http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Art-Ex...2600526&sr=8-1

Hacking Exposed Windows: Microsoft Windows Security Secrets and Solutions, Third Edition
http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Expose...2600567&sr=8-4

Hacking Exposed Web Applications, 2nd Ed. (Hacking Exposed)
http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Expose...2600567&sr=8-5

The Shellcoder's Handbook: Discovering and Exploiting Security Holes
http://www.amazon.com/Shellcoders-Ha...2600657&sr=8-2


Edit: I checked my bookshelf last night to see if there were any more Pen Testing books to recommend...

Counter Hack Reloaded (Ed Skoudis is the man)
http://www.amazon.com/Counter-Hack-R...2686367&sr=8-1

Silence on the Wire: A Field Guide to Passive Reconnaissance and Indirect Attacks (very cool)
http://www.amazon.com/Silence-Wire-P...2686423&sr=8-1

[imported_vvpalin]

I firmly agree with the hack to learn statement as thats basically what im doing.

The problem however is that im still fairly green and for the most part have concentrated on wifi as i have a few routers and can set up various lap tests. Im obviously looking to branch out and there is so much i still dont know.

I havent ever used metasploit, im not exactly great with wireshark, i know the absolute basics when it comes to bash and linux. Those are all areas that i would like to expand upon but not because i need to know them, simply because they interest me. I guess i could go on peddling around and trying to grasp everything on my own but im having allot of fun and im more or less looking for a cram session as i sadly cant afford to go to school, nor do i have a tech job.

There are im sure things that ive not even heard of or attacks i know nothing about. Thats also why im looking to get a book, so it not only brushes me up on what i would like to know, but also introduces me to things i didn't know existed.

[Mr. Flibble]

Don't concentrate so much on the attacks. Those are unimportant. An attack that might work today may not work tomorrow. It is more important to understand how the systems you are working on or trying to attack work than it is to know attacks X,Y and Z.

If you don't have good experience with Linux, then work on that. You will learn more about pentesting from knowing Unix inside and out than you will from just running someone elses program.

As an example, a long time ago I was reading: http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrate.../dp/0201633469

And I noticed that modems were designed to shut off with a very specific sequence of bytes piped to them. The solution to this was to flip all bits coming into the modem so if that sequence came down the pipe, everything was backwards and a modem would not disconnect. Of course, I realized that if you sent the bits that were reversed ALREADY then the modem would flip them back to normal, and read them as an order to disconnect!

I thought about turning this into an exploit, and as soon as I looked it up on Alta-Vista I realized it had been around for a long time. It was not new. But in my learning about TCP/IP I stumbled across an exploit by knowing the design of the system.

I bet you have seen this link before, but I provide it here just the same: http://catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

Get your hacking basics down, and you will have those skills for life. Learn about an exploit that works today, and you will find it is soon patched, and you will dwell on how cool "winnuke" is for years.

[purehate]

Purehate's Favorite books


http://www.amazon.com/Fuzzing-Brute-...2608877&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Web-Applicatio...2608922&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Nmap-Network-S...2608954&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b?...d+book&x=0&y=0

http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Art-Ex...2609035&sr=1-3

http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Art-Ex...2609035&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Command-...2609076&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Google-Hacking...2609134&sr=1-1

[Archangel-Amael]

We have a thread on just the subject.
There are a ton of good books in there.
Well maybe there are two tons but you get the point.

I might even try to update this thread again with more.
Of course another good one is the Penetrations Tester's Open Source Toolkit, which covers tools used in BT.