Re: Aspiring Pen-Tester Seeking Advice

["Joel Jose" <joeljose420 () gmail com>]

hello rajat,

Frankly even i was in ur groove when i started out...trust me.. this
and many mailing list have seen a flood of my questions..and people
got so bored answering.. pheww.....

but let me give u a little tip.... 1) the people who reply to u in
this mailin list are pretty much experienced..so take thier word for
it.
2) U need a really broad idea of the big picture.... i mean.. hacker's
mindset is a good place to start....but as u go up...(in a 1st or 2nd
pen-test)..u must be able to switch between a hacker's and a
Management's and a sysadmin's Mindset... its easier said than
done.....
3) technical knowledge of CONCEPTS and the tip above (2) is very very
important especially when u write a high quality pen-testing report.(
its the report that counts and makes the difference between the money
they spend on u and money they spend on burgers)

4)tools are good... for starters tools are god-like...... dont
worry... with experience u will become a tool-independent pen-tester.

5)the holy grail of hacking is getting "root"...but holy grail of
pen-testing is ANALYSING the 'HOW' of getting root. Also we need to
give cure

joel


On 8/10/07, rajat swarup <rajats () gmail com> wrote:
> On 8/8/07, Ryan <phaleproof () gmail com> wrote:
> > Hello all - long-time lurker, first-time poster,
> >
> > I'm about 2 quarters away from finishing my education (majoring in
> > network security and systems administration), and I'm currently
> > interning at a company, doing monitoring IDS and SOX compliance.
> >
> > I've always been interested in security, and now that I've got some
> > spare time I would really like to start getting prepared for a potential
> > position doing penetration testing.
> >
> > My school offers a few courses in security, however I've always been of
> > the mind-set that it's better to explore it yourself than try to have
> > someone teach it to you.
> >
> > That being said, I was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to give
> > a novice some helpful pointers on how to get started.
> >
> > I've downloaded VMware and I've got a Windows XP, Ubuntu, and shortly a
> > Fedora Core 7 VM - I also plan on downloaded Windows Server 2003 with my
> > MSDNAA license. I've downloaded a copy of BackTrack2 and I'm in the
> > process of trying to turn that into a VM as well.
> >
> > I installed nmap on both systems, as well as nessus, and soon
> > metasploit. I've played around with the former a little bit at work (I
> > must say, it's the most amazing tool I've used - not that I have much
> > experience).
> >
> > I'm really interested in getting into the 'hacker' mindset and walking
> > through the steps they use to find, conduct, and cover-up their attacks.
> > Surely, it's not all point and chick, and I'm having a little difficulty
> > getting into the groove.
> >
> > I was also hoping the more experienced users might suggest a few tools
> > to check out first (I've already bookmarked the sectools.org list but
> > there is just so many).
> >
> > Additionally, can anyone suggest a bunch of good books to read
> > pertaining to penetration testing? Someone recommended Counter-Hack, and
> > another person said Hacking Exposed, as well as a few others.
> >
> > All that being said, are there some limitations of VM that I should be
> > aware of when conducting my research? I would be very interested in
> > seeing if there's a way to get router and network-like functionality
> > from a VM since it would seem like currently VMware is essentially
> > acting like a hub and a lot of the attacks (ARP spoofing, etc) don't
> > seem possible the way I've currently got it implemented.
> >
> > I know there is a "Basics" mailing list, however since I am interested
> > specifically in pen testing, I figured it was probably more appropriate
> > to post to this list. If I am incorrect, then I apologize. If not, then
> > thanks in advance for tolerating my noobiness and for helping out an
> > aspiring pen-tester!
> >
> > Best Regards,
> > Ryan
>
> i liked reading http://www.phrack.org/ when I started off.
> also check out http://sectools.org/
>
> --
> Rajat Swarup
>
> http://rajatswarup.blogspot.com/
>
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-- 
As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an
evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil
that they set out to destroy.
                      - Christopher Dawson, The Judgment of Nations

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