Chapter 3: Gaining Access (Exploitation)

Before we can get our hands dirty with privilege escalation on both Windows and Linux, we need to explore the process of exploitation and the various exploitation techniques that can be leveraged, including how these techniques will affect the privilege escalation process.

Exploitation is a unique phase of the penetration testing life cycle. This is because it involves actively engaging with the target to determine or discover flaws or vulnerabilities that can be exploited in order to gain access.

Exploitation sets the scene for a successful penetration test and validates how far you will be able to get on a target system or network. Choosing the correct attack vector and exploitation framework or exploit is critical for gaining and maintaining access to a target system.

In this chapter, you will learn about the various ways of exploiting both Windows and Linux systems and how to leverage exploitation frameworks such as Metasploit...