Everything starts with a goal. In this chapter, we will discuss the importance of goal-based penetration testing with a set of objectives and discuss misconceptions and how a typical vulnerability scan, penetration testing, and red teaming exercise can fail without the importance of a goal. This chapter also provides an overview of security testing and setting up a verification lab and focuses on customizing Kali to support some advanced aspects of penetration testing. By the end of this chapter, you'll have learned the following:
- An overview of security testing
- Misconceptions of vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and red teaming exercises
- History and purpose of Kali Linux
- Updating and organizing Kali
- Setting up defined targets
- Building a verification lab
