To get the most out of this book

To get the most out of this book, it's recommended to have a solid foundation on networking, such as understanding common network and application protocols of the TCP/IP, IP addressing, routing and switching concepts, and the roles and function of networking devices and security appliances. Knowing virtualization technologies such as hypervisors and their components will be beneficial as most labs are built within a virtualized environment to reduce the need to purchase additional systems.

All labs and exercises are built on a system running Windows 10 Home as the host operating system, a multicore processor with virtualization enabled, 16 GB of RAM, and 300 GB of free storage for the virtual machines. A dedicated GPU will be needed to perform password cracking using a GPU-based tool and two wireless network adapters that support packet injection and operate at 2.4 and 5 GHz.

Oracle VM VirtualBox was the preferred choice when choosing a hypervisor as it provides better virtual networking capabilities as compared to other solutions. However, if you prefer to use another hypervisor product such as VMware, you are free to do so, but please keep in mind the fact that all labs within this book were completed and tested using Oracle VM VirtualBox.

Note

While the content and labs found within this book are based on Kali Linux 2021, the concepts and exercises are applicable to later versions of Kali Linux that will be released in the future.

After completing this book, equipped with your imagination and newfound skills, attempt to create additional lab scenarios and even extend your lab environment by adding additional virtual machines to improve your skillset. This will help you to continue learning and further develop your skills as an aspiring ethical hacker and penetration tester.