Summary

This module covers all aspects of a penetration test from start to finish. We work through a simulated External Penetration Test resulting in internal network access and ultimate compromise of the Active Directory environment. This module seeks to tie together all topics taught in the Penetration Tester path and can be thought of as a capstone module for that path, but can also be done standalone.

In this module, we will cover:

Reviewing a letter of engagement and going over rules of engagement and scope
External information gathering
External web and service enumeration and exploitation
Gaining a foothold internally
Post-exploitation and gaining persistence inside the network
Internal information gathering and lateral movement
Active Directory enumeration and compromise
Post-exploitation
Structuring findings and communicating with our client

This module is broken into sections with accompanying hands-on exercises to practice each of the tactics and techniques we cover. The module ends with a practical hands-on skills assessment to gauge your understanding of the various topic areas.

As you work through the module, you will see example commands and command output for the various topics introduced. It is worth reproducing as many of these examples as possible to reinforce further the concepts presented in each section. You can do this in the target host provided in the interactive sections or your virtual machine.

You can start and stop the module at any time and pick up where you left off. There is no time limit or "grading," but you must complete all of the exercises and the skills assessment to receive the maximum number of cubes and have this module marked as complete in any paths you have chosen.

The module is classified as "medium" and assumes a working knowledge of the Linux command line and operating system fundamentals, networking, information security principles, Active Directory, and web applications.

A firm grasp of the following path can be considered a prerequisite for successful completion of this module:

Penetration Tester

Intro to Attacking Enterprise Networks

You've done it! Congratulations, you've reached the end of the Penetration Tester Job Role Path. This is no easy feat, and we know it has been a long journey full of many challenges, but hopefully, you have learned loads (or picked up new skills) along the way. As mentioned in the Penetration Testing Process module, the path was split into 27 modules to present a penetration test against the fictional organization, Inlanefreight, piece by piece, phase by phase, tool by tool. We structured the path based on the most important stages of the penetration testing process. We broke out individual modules based on the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) that we feel are most important to have a firm grasp over to perform penetration testing engagements at an intermediate level while managing or assisting with the entire engagement lifecycle. Through the various modules, we take an in-depth tour through the following stages:

Pre-Engagement
Information Gathering
Vulnerability Assessment
Exploitation
Post-Exploitation
Lateral Movement
Proof of Concept
Post-Engagement

We aimed to keep the path as hands-on as possible while teaching the necessary prerequisite skills that we feel are necessary for an individual to succeed in a consulting environment. Yes, many things can only be learned on the job, but we've done our best to equip you with the mindset and technical know-how to progress in your current role, start a new role, or move from one technical discipline to another. We, of course, cannot guarantee that anyone who completes this path will land their dream job immediately. But, if you've put in the time, worked hard to understand the technical concepts in-depth, can complete all modules skills assessments on your own with a mix of automated and manual approaches, and focused heavily on honing your documentation and reporting skills, you will make sure yourself highly marketable.

Believe it or not, at this point (if you have finished every other module in the path), you have completed seven mini simulated penetration tests, each focusing on a particular area:

All of the elements of a large pentest cut up into the 27 preceding modules
A cross-section of an Active Directory pentest (broken down step-by-step) in the Active Directory Enumeration & Attacks module sections
2 mini/simulated Active Directory pentests in the Active Directory Enumeration & Attacks skills assessments
1 mini/simulated pentest for the Shells & Payloads module skills assessment
1 mini/simulated pentest for the Pivoting, Tunneling, & Port Forwarding module skills assessment
1 mini/simulated internal pentest in the Documentation & Reporting module (a mix of exploratory and guided learning)

Through all module sections, we have attacked over 200 targets (a mix of Windows, Linux, Web, and Active Directory targets).

Until now, we have not seen all of the topics we teach in this path together in a single network (though some combine a few parts, i.e., a web attack to gain a foothold into an AD network). In each module's skills assessment, we had a general idea of the topics and tactics that would be covered. In this lab, we will have to call on ALL of the knowledge we have gained thus far and be able to switch from info gathering to web attacks to network attacks back to info gathering to Active Directory attacks, to privilege escalation, to pillaging and lateral movement, call on our pivoting skills and more. We need to be comfortable whether our target is a web application, a standalone Windows or Linux host, or an Active Directory network. This can seem overwhelming at first, but successful penetration testers must be able to constantly cycle through their Rolodex of skills and quickly adapt on the fly. We never know what we'll face before an engagement starts, and every network is unique but similar in how we should approach things. Every pentester has their own methodology and way of doing things but will always come back to the core stages of the penetration testing process.

This module's purpose is to allow you to practice everything learned so far against a simulated corporate network. This module will take us step-by-step through an External Penetration Test against the Inlanefreight company, leading to internal access and, at that point, turning into a full-scope Internal Penetration Test to find all possible weaknesses. The module will take you through each step from the perspective of a penetration tester, including chasing down "dead ends" and explaining the thought process and each step along the way. This can be considered a simulated "ride-along" pentest with a Penetration Tester working alongside a more experienced tester. The module sections will take you through the target network in a guided fashion, but you must still complete the entire lab yourself and retrieve and submit each flag. To get the most out of this module, we recommend tackling the lab a second time without the walkthrough as the pentester in the driver's seat, taking detailed notes (documenting as we learned in the Documentation and Reporting module), and creating your own walkthrough and even practice creating a commercial-grade report.

Next, we will cover the scope of the engagement and then dig in and get our hands dirty!

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Sections

Intro to Attacking Enterprise Networks PREVIEW
Scenario & Kickoff
External Information Gathering
Service Enumeration & Exploitation
Web Enumeration & Exploitation
Initial Access
Post-Exploitation Persistence
Internal Information Gathering
Exploitation & Privilege Escalation
Lateral Movement
Active Directory Compromise
Post-Exploitation
Engagement Closeout
Beyond this Module

Relevant Paths

This module progresses you towards the following Paths

Penetration Tester

The Penetration Tester Job Role Path is for newcomers to information security who aspire to become professional penetration testers. This path covers core security assessment concepts and provides a deep understanding of the specialized tools, attack tactics, and methodology used during penetration testing. Armed with the necessary theoretical background and multiple practical exercises, students will go through all penetration testing stages, from reconnaissance and enumeration to documentation and reporting. Upon completing this job role path, you will have obtained the practical skills and mindset necessary to perform professional security assessments against enterprise-level infrastructure at an intermediate level. The Information Security Foundations skill path can be considered prerequisite knowledge to be successful while working through this job role path.

Medium

491 Sections

Required: 1970

Reward: +450

28 Modules included

Penetration Testing Process

Fundamental

15 Sections

Reward: +10

This module teaches the penetration testing process broken down into each stage and discussed in detail. We will cover many aspects of the role of a penetration tester during a penetration test, explained and illustrated with detailed examples. The module also covers pre-engagement steps like the criteria for establishing a contract with a client for a penetration testing engagement.

Getting Started

Fundamental

23 Sections

Reward: +10

This module covers the fundamentals of penetration testing and an introduction to Hack The Box.

Network Enumeration with Nmap

Easy

12 Sections

Reward: +10

Nmap is one of the most used networking mapping and discovery tools because of its accurate results and efficiency. The tool is widely used by both offensive and defensive security practitioners. This module covers fundamentals that will be needed to use the Nmap tool for performing effective network enumeration.

Footprinting

Medium

21 Sections

Reward: +20

This module covers techniques for footprinting the most commonly used services in almost all enterprise and business IT infrastructures. Footprinting is an essential phase of any penetration test or security audit to identify and prevent information disclosure. Using this process, we examine the individual services and attempt to obtain as much information from them as possible.

Information Gathering - Web Edition

Easy

19 Sections

Reward: +20

This module equips learners with essential web reconnaissance skills, crucial for ethical hacking and penetration testing. It explores both active and passive techniques, including DNS enumeration, web crawling, analysis of web archives and HTTP headers, and fingerprinting web technologies.

Vulnerability Assessment

Easy

17 Sections

Reward: +10

This module introduces the concept of Vulnerability Assessments. We will review the differences between vulnerability assessments and penetration tests, how to carry out a vulnerability assessment, how to interpret the assessment results, and how to deliver an effective vulnerability assessment report.

File Transfers

Medium

10 Sections

Reward: +10

During an assessment, it is very common for us to transfer files to and from a target system. This module covers file transfer techniques leveraging tools commonly available across all versions of Windows and Linux systems.

Shells & Payloads

Medium

17 Sections

Reward: +10

Gain the knowledge and skills to identify and use shells & payloads to establish a foothold on vulnerable Windows & Linux systems. This module utilizes a fictitious scenario where the learner will place themselves in the perspective of a sysadmin trying out for a position on CAT5 Security's network penetration testing team.

Using the Metasploit Framework

Easy

15 Sections

Reward: +10

The Metasploit Framework is an open-source set of tools used for network enumeration, attacks, testing security vulnerabilities, evading detection, performing privilege escalation attacks, and performing post-exploitation.

Password Attacks

Medium

22 Sections

Reward: +10

Passwords are still the primary method of authentication in corporate networks. If strong password policies are not in place, users will often opt for weak, easy-to-remember passwords that can often be cracked offline and used to further our access. We will encounter passwords in many forms during our assessments. We must understand the various ways they are stored, how they can be retrieved, methods to crack weak passwords, ways to use hashes that cannot be cracked, and hunting for weak/default password usage.

Attacking Common Services

Medium

19 Sections

Reward: +20

Organizations regularly use a standard set of services for different purposes. It is vital to conduct penetration testing activities on each service internally and externally to ensure that they are not introducing security threats. This module will cover how to enumerate each service and test it against known vulnerabilities and exploits with a standard set of tools.

Pivoting, Tunneling, and Port Forwarding

Medium

18 Sections

Reward: +20

Once a foothold is gained during an assessment, it may be in scope to move laterally and vertically within a target network. Using one compromised machine to access another is called pivoting and allows us to access networks and resources that are not directly accessible to us through the compromised host. Port forwarding accepts the traffic on a given IP address and port and redirects it to a different IP address and port combination. Tunneling is a technique that allows us to encapsulate traffic within another protocol so that it looks like a benign traffic stream.

Active Directory Enumeration & Attacks

Medium

36 Sections

Reward: +20

Active Directory (AD) is the leading enterprise domain management suite, providing identity and access management, centralized domain administration, authentication, and much more. Due to the many features and complexity of AD, it presents a large attack surface that is difficult to secure properly. To be successful as infosec professionals, we must understand AD architectures and how to secure our enterprise environments. As Penetration testers, having a firm grasp of what tools, techniques, and procedures are available to us for enumerating and attacking AD environments and commonly seen AD misconfigurations is a must.

Using Web Proxies

Easy

15 Sections

Reward: +20

Web application penetration testing frameworks are an essential part of any web penetration test. This module will teach you two of the best frameworks: Burp Suite and OWASP ZAP.

Attacking Web Applications with Ffuf

Easy

13 Sections

Reward: +10

This module covers the fundamental enumeration skills of web fuzzing and directory brute forcing using the Ffuf tool. The techniques learned in this module will help us in locating hidden pages, directories, and parameters when targeting web applications.

Easy

13 Sections

Reward: +20

The module contains an exploration of brute-forcing techniques, including the use of tools like Hydra and Medusa, and the importance of strong password practices. It covers various attack scenarios, such as targeting SSH, FTP, and web login forms.

SQL Injection Fundamentals

Medium

17 Sections

Reward: +10

Databases are an important part of web application infrastructure and SQL (Structured Query Language) to store, retrieve, and manipulate information stored in them. SQL injection is a code injection technique used to take advantage of coding vulnerabilities and inject SQL queries via an application to bypass authentication, retrieve data from the back-end database, or achieve code execution on the underlying server.

SQLMap Essentials

Easy

11 Sections

Reward: +20

The SQLMap Essentials module will teach you the basics of using SQLMap to discover various types of SQL Injection vulnerabilities, all the way to the advanced enumeration of databases to retrieve all data of interest.

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

Easy

10 Sections

Reward: +20

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities are among the most common web application vulnerabilities. An XSS vulnerability may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary JavaScript code within the target's browser and result in complete web application compromise if chained together with other vulnerabilities. This module will teach you how to identify XSS vulnerabilities and exploit them.

File Inclusion

Medium

11 Sections

Reward: +10

File Inclusion is a common web application vulnerability, which can be easily overlooked as part of a web application's functionality.

File Upload Attacks

Medium

11 Sections

Reward: +20

Arbitrary file uploads are among the most critical web vulnerabilities. These flaws enable attackers to upload malicious files, execute arbitrary commands on the back-end server, and even take control over the entire server and all web applications hosted on it and potentially gain access to sensitive data or cause a service disruption.

Command Injections

Medium

12 Sections

Reward: +20

Command injection vulnerabilities can be leveraged to compromise a hosting server and its entire network. This module will teach you how to identify and exploit command injection vulnerabilities and how to use various filter bypassing techniques to avoid security mitigations.

Web Attacks

Medium

18 Sections

Reward: +20

This module covers three common web vulnerabilities, HTTP Verb Tampering, IDOR, and XXE, each of which can have a significant impact on a company's systems. We will cover how to identify, exploit, and prevent each of them through various methods.

Attacking Common Applications

Medium

33 Sections

Reward: +20

Penetration Testers can come across various applications, such as Content Management Systems, custom web applications, internal portals used by developers and sysadmins, and more. It's common to find the same applications across many different environments. While an application may not be vulnerable in one environment, it may be misconfigured or unpatched in the next. It is important as an assessor to have a firm grasp of enumerating and attacking the common applications discussed in this module. This knowledge will help when encountering other types of applications during assessments.

Linux Privilege Escalation

Easy

28 Sections

Reward: +20

Privilege escalation is a crucial phase during any security assessment. During this phase, we attempt to gain access to additional users, hosts, and resources to move closer to the assessment's overall goal. There are many ways to escalate privileges. This module aims to cover the most common methods emphasizing real-world misconfigurations and flaws that we may encounter in a client environment. The techniques covered in this module are not an exhaustive list of all possibilities and aim to avoid extreme "edge-case" tactics that may be seen in a Capture the Flag (CTF) exercise.

Windows Privilege Escalation

Medium

33 Sections

Reward: +20

After gaining a foothold, elevating our privileges will provide more options for persistence and may reveal information stored locally that can further our access in the environment. Enumeration is the key to privilege escalation. When you gain initial shell access to the host, it is important to gain situational awareness and uncover details relating to the OS version, patch level, any installed software, our current privileges, group memberships, and more. Windows presents an enormous attack surface and, being that most companies run Windows hosts in some way, we will more often than not find ourselves gaining access to Windows machines during our assessments. This covers common methods while emphasizing real-world misconfigurations and flaws that we may encounter during an assessment. There are many additional "edge-case" possibilities not covered in this module. We will cover both modern and legacy Windows Server and Desktop versions that may be present in a client environment.

Documentation & Reporting

Easy

8 Sections

Reward: +20

Proper documentation is paramount during any engagement. The end goal of a technical assessment is the report deliverable which will often be presented to a broad audience within the target organization. We must take detailed notes and be very organized in our documentation, which will help us in the event of an incident during the assessment. This will also help ensure that our reports contain enough detail to illustrate the impact of our findings properly.

Attacking Enterprise Networks

Medium

14 Sections

Reward: +20

We often encounter large and complex networks during our assessments. We must be comfortable approaching an internal or external network, regardless of the size, and be able to work through each phase of the penetration testing process to reach our goal. This module will guide students through a simulated penetration testing engagement, from start to finish, with an emphasis on hands-on testing steps that are directly applicable to real-world engagements.