To get the most out of this book

You should have a good working knowledge of computer networks and vulnerability scanning so you can understand the terminologies and methodologies used in this book.

In order to follow the recipes, you will need to be running Windows or Kali Linux, and will require Metasploitable 2 by Rapid7 with the latest versions of Nmap and Nessus. For some of the recipes, such as those to do with configuration audits, you will need to have a Nessus professional license.

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781789346480_ColorImages.pdf.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Install the downloaded .msi file by following the instructions."

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

nmap -sS -sV -PN -T4 -oA testsmtp -p T:25 -v -r 192.168.1.*

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see on screen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Select Quick scan from the Profile drop-down list."

Warnings or important notes appear like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.