Summary

In this chapter, we had a journey into different goal-based penetration testing methodologies that help organizations to test themselves against real-time attacks. We saw how penetration testers can use Kali in multiple different platforms to assess the security of data systems and networks. We have taken a dive into installing Kali on different virtualized platforms and have looked at how quickly we can run a Linux operating system on the Windows platform using Docker.

We built our own verification lab, set up Active Directory Domain Services, and also set up two different virtual machines on the same network. Most importantly, you learned how to customize Kali to increase the security of our tools and the data that they collect. We are working to achieve the goal of making tools support our process, instead of the other way around!

In the next chapter, you will learn how to effectively master Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) to identify the vulnerable attack surfaces of our target and create customized username-password lists to facilitate more focused attacks and other exploits.