In Chapter 2, Information Gathering and Scanning, we focused on gathering information about our target, such as the target IP address, open ports, available services, operating system, and so on. One of the biggest assets in the process of information gathering is gaining knowledge about the operating system used by the target server or system. This information can prove to be very helpful in penetrating the target machine, as we can quickly look for exploits and vulnerabilities for the services running on the system. Well, the process is not as straightforward as it sounds, but knowledge about the target operating system and the services it is running can ease our task to a great extent.
Every flavor of an operating system has some bug in it. Once it gets reported, the process of developing exploits for it starts. Licensed operating systems, such as Windows...
