To get the most of this book

To successfully take advantage of this book, the reader is recommended to have a basic understanding of the following topics:

• Linux OS installation
• Unix/Linux command-line usage
• The HTML language
• PHP web application programming
• Python programming
• A Metasploitable 2 vulnerable machine
• A Metasploitable 3 vulnerable machine
• A Windows 7 x86 client machine
• A Windows 10 client machine
• An Android OS device or a virtual machine

The only hardware necessary is a personal computer, with an operation system capable of running VirtualBox or other virtualization software. As for specifications, the recommended setup is as follows:

• Intel i5, i7, or a similar CPU
• 500 GB on hard drive
• 8 GB on RAM
•  An internet connection

Download the example code files

You can download the example code files for this book from your account at www.packt.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit www.packt.com/support and register to have the files emailed directly to you.

You can download the code files by following these steps:

1. Log in or register at www.packt.com.
2. Select the SUPPORT tab.
3. Click on Code Downloads & Errata.
4. Enter the name of the book in the Search box and follow the onscreen instructions.

Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the latest version of:

• WinRAR/7-Zip for Windows
• Zipeg/iZip/UnRarX for Mac
• 7-Zip/PeaZip for Linux

The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Improving-your-Penetration-Testing-Skills. In case there's an update to the code, it will be updated on the existing GitHub repository.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

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/9781838646073_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: "The msfdb command allows you to manage the Metasploit Framework database, not just initialize the database."

A block of code is set as follows:

print_status psh_exec(script)
print_good 'Finished!'

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

root@kali:~# systemctl start postgresql

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Select the Kali Linux virtual machine and click on Settings."

Warnings or important notes appear like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.