We have tried to write this book with many kinds of readers in mind. Firstly, computer science students, developers, and systems administrators who want to take their information security knowledge one step further or want to pursue a career in the field will find some very easy-to-follow recipes here that will allow them to perform their first penetration test in their own testing laboratory, and will also give them the basis and tools to continue practicing and learning.
Application developers and systems administrators will also learn how attackers behave in the real world, what steps can be followed to build more secure applications and systems, and how to detect malicious behavior.
Finally, seasoned security professionals will find some intermediate and advanced exploitation techniques, and ideas on how to combine two or more vulnerabilities in order to perform a more sophisticated attack.