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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Web applications are a huge point of attack for malicious hackers and a critical area for security professionals and penetration testers to lock down and secure. Kali Linux is a Linux-based penetration testing platform that provides a broad array of testing tools, many of which can be used to execute web penetration testing.
Kali Linux Web Penetration Testing Cookbook gives you the skills you need to cover every stage of a penetration test – from gathering information about the system and application, to identifying vulnerabilities through manual testing. You will also cover the use of vulnerability scanners and look at basic and advanced exploitation techniques that may lead to a full system compromise. You will start by setting up a testing laboratory, exploring the latest features of tools included in Kali Linux and performing a wide range of tasks with OWASP ZAP, Burp Suite and other web proxies and security testing tools.
As you make your way through the book, you will learn how to use automated scanners to find security ?aws in web applications and understand how to bypass basic security controls. In the concluding chapters, you will look at what you have learned in the context of the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) and the top 10 web application vulnerabilities you are most likely to encounter, equipping you with the ability to combat them effectively.
By the end of this book, you will have acquired the skills you need to identify, exploit, and prevent web application vulnerabilities.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Seitenzahl: 316
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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Kali Linux Web Penetration Testing Cookbook Second Edition
Copyright © 2018 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
Commissioning Editor: Gebin GeorgeAcquisition Editor: Rahul NairContent Development Editor: Priyanka DeshpandeTechnical Editor: Komal KarneCopy Editor: Safis EditingProject Coordinator:Drashti PanchalProofreader: Safis EditingIndexer: Tejal Daruwale SoniGraphics: Tom ScariaProduction Coordinator: Arvindkumar Gupta
First published: October 2016 Second edition: August 2018
Production reference: 1310818
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. Livery Place 35 Livery Street Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-78899-151-3
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Contributors
About the author
Gilberto Najera-Gutierrez is an experienced penetration tester currently working for one of the best security testing teams in Australia. He has successfully conducted penetration tests on networks and web applications for top corporations, government agencies, and financial institutions in Mexico and Australia.
Gilberto also holds world-leading professional certifications, such as Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP), GIAC Exploit Researcher, and Advanced Penetration Tester (GXPN).
About the reviewer
Alex Samm has over 10 years' experience in the IT field, holding a BSc in computer science from the University of Hertfordshire. His experience includes EUC support, Linux and UNIX, server and network administration, security, and more.
He currently works at ESP Global Services and lectures at the Computer Forensics and Security Institute on IT security courses, including ethical hacking and penetration testing.
He recently reviewed Digital Forensics with Kali Linux by Shiva Parasram and Advanced Infrastructure Penetration Testing by Chiheb Chebbi published by Packt.
Packt is searching for authors like you
If you're interested in becoming an author for Packt, please visit authors.packtpub.com and apply today. We have worked with thousands of developers and tech professionals, just like you, to help them share their insight with the global tech community. You can make a general application, apply for a specific hot topic that we are recruiting an author for, or submit your own idea.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Kali Linux Web Penetration Testing Cookbook Second Edition
Packt Upsell
Why subscribe?
PacktPub.com
Contributors
About the author
About the reviewer
Packt is searching for authors like you
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Download the color images
Conventions used
Sections
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
See also
Get in touch
Reviews
Disclaimer
Setting Up Kali Linux and the Testing Lab
Introduction
Installing VirtualBox on Windows and Linux
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
See also
Creating a Kali Linux virtual machine
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Updating and upgrading Kali Linux
How to do it...
How it works...
Configuring the web browser for penetration testing
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Creating a client virtual machine
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Configuring virtual machines for correct communication
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Getting to know web applications on a vulnerable virtual machine
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Reconnaissance
Introduction
Passive reconnaissance
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Using Recon-ng to gather information
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Scanning and identifying services with Nmap
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
See also
Identifying web application firewalls
How to do it...
How it works...
Identifying HTTPS encryption parameters
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Using the browser's developer tools to analyze and alter basic behavior
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Obtaining and modifying cookies
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Taking advantage of robots.txt
How to do it...
How it works...
Using Proxies, Crawlers, and Spiders
Introduction
Finding files and folders with DirBuster
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Finding files and folders with ZAP
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Using Burp Suite to view and alter requests
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Using Burp Suite's Intruder to find files and folders
How to do it...
How it works...
Using the ZAP proxy to view and alter requests
How to do it...
How it works...
Using ZAP spider
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more
Using Burp Suite to spider a website
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more
Repeating requests with Burp Suite's repeater
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Using WebScarab
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Identifying relevant files and directories from crawling results
How to do it...
How it works...
Testing Authentication and Session Management
Introduction
Username enumeration
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Dictionary attack on login pages with Burp Suite
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Brute forcing basic authentication with Hydra
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
See also
Attacking Tomcat's passwords with Metasploit
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Manually identifying vulnerabilities in cookies
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Attacking a session fixation vulnerability
How to do it...
How it works...
Evaluating the quality of session identifiers with Burp Sequencer
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Abusing insecure direct object references
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Performing a Cross-Site Request Forgery attack
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Cross-Site Scripting and Client-Side Attacks
Introduction
Bypassing client-side controls using the browser
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Identifying Cross-Site Scripting vulnerabilities
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Obtaining session cookies through XSS
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Exploiting DOM XSS
How to do it...
How it works...
Man-in-the-Browser attack with XSS and BeEF
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Extracting information from web storage
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Testing WebSockets with ZAP
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Using XSS and Metasploit to get a remote shell
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Exploiting Injection Vulnerabilities
Introduction
Looking for file inclusions
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Abusing file inclusions and uploads
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Manually identifying SQL injection
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Step-by-step error-based SQL injections
How to do it...
How it works...
Identifying and exploiting blind SQL injections
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
See also
Finding and exploiting SQL injections with SQLMap
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
See also
Exploiting an XML External Entity injection
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
See also
Detecting and exploiting command injection vulnerabilities
How to do it...
How it works...
Exploiting Platform Vulnerabilities
Introduction
Exploiting Heartbleed vulnerability using Exploit-DB
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
See also
Executing commands by exploiting Shellshock
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Creating and capturing a reverse shell with Metasploit
How to do it...
How it works...
Privilege escalation on Linux
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Privilege escalation on Windows
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
Using Tomcat Manager to execute code
How to do it...
How it works...
Cracking password hashes with John the Ripper by using a dictionary
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Cracking password hashes via Brute Force using Hashcat
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Using Automated Scanners
Introduction
Scanning with Nikto
How to do it...
How it works...
Considerations when doing automated scanning
How to do it...
How it works...
Finding vulnerabilities with Wapiti
How to do it...
How it works...
Using OWASP ZAP to scan for vulnerabilities
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Scanning with Skipfish
How to do it...
How it works...
Finding vulnerabilities in WordPress with WPScan
How to do it...
How it works...
Finding vulnerabilities in Joomla with JoomScan
How to do it...
How it works...
Scanning Drupal with CMSmap
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Bypassing Basic Security Controls
Introduction
Basic input validation bypass in Cross-Site Scripting attacks
How to do it...
How it works...
There's more...
Exploiting Cross-Site Scripting using obfuscated code
How to do it...
How it works...
Bypassing file upload restrictions
How to do it...
How it works...
Avoiding CORS restrictions in web services
Getting ready
How to do it...
How it works...
Using Cross-Site Scripting to bypass CSRF protection and CORS restrictions
How to do it...
How it works...
Exploiting HTTP parameter pollution
How to do it...
How it works...
Exploiting vulnerabilities through HTTP headers
How to do it...
How it works...
Mitigation of OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities
Introduction
A1 – Preventing injection attacks
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
A2 – Building proper authentication and session management
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
A3 – Protecting sensitive data
How to do it...
How it works...
A4 – Using XML external entities securely
How to do it...
How it works...
A5 – Securing access control
How to do it...
How it works...
A6 – Basic security configuration guide
How to do it...
How it works...
A7 – Preventing Cross-Site Scripting
How to do it...
How it works...
See also
A8 – Implementing object serialization and deserialization
How to do it...
How it works...
A9 – Where to look for known vulnerabilities on third-party components
How to do it...
How it works...
A10 – Logging and monitoring for web applications' security
How to do it...
How it works...
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Preface
Nowadays, information security is a hot topic all over the news and the internet. We hear almost every day about web page defacement, data leaks of millions of user accounts and passwords or credit card numbers from websites, and identity theft on social networks. Terms such as cyberattack, cybercrime, hacker, and even cyberwar are becoming part of the daily lexicon in the media.
All this exposure to information security subjects and the very real need to protect both sensitive data and their reputations has made organizations more aware of the need to know where their systems are vulnerable, especially ones that are accessible to the world through the internet, how they could be attacked, and what the consequences would be in terms of information lost or systems being compromised if an attack were successful. Also, much more importantly, how to fix those vulnerabilities and minimize the risks.
The task of detecting vulnerabilities and discovering their impact on organizations can be addressed with penetration testing. A penetration test is an attack, or attacks, made by a trained security professional who uses the same techniques and tools real hackers use, to discover all of the possible weak spots in an organization's systems. Those weak spots are then exploited and the impact is measured. When the test is finished, the penetration tester reports all of their findings and suggests how future damage could be prevented.
In this book, we follow the whole path of a web application penetration test and, in the form of easy-to-follow, step-by-step recipes, show how the vulnerabilities in web applications and web servers can be discovered, exploited, and fixed.
Who this book is for
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.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Setting up Kali Linux and the Testing Lab, takes the reader through the process of configuring and updating the system. The installation of virtualization software is also covered, including the configuration of the virtual machines that will compose our penetration testing lab.
Chapter 2, Reconnaissance, allows the reader to put into practice some information-gathering techniques in order to gain intelligence about the system to be tested, the software installed on it, and how the target web application is built.
Chapter 3, Using Proxies, Crawlers, and Spiders, guides the reader on how to use these tools, which are a must in every analysis of a web application, be it a functional one or a more security-focused one, such as a penetration test.
Chapter 4, Testing Authentication and Session Management, focuses on identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities commonly found in the mechanisms used by web applications to verify the identity of users and the authenticity of their actions.
Chapter 5, Cross-Site Scripting and Client-Side Attacks, introduces the reader to one of the most common and severe security flaws in web applications, Cross-Site Scripting, and other attacks that have other users as targets instead of the application itself.
Chapter 6, Exploiting Injection Vulnerabilities, covers several ways in which applications' functionalities may be abused to execute arbitrary code of different languages and systems, such as SQL and XML, among others, on the server side.
Chapter 7, Exploiting Platform Vulnerabilities, goes one step further in the analysis and exploitation of vulnerabilities by looking into the platform that supports the application. Vulnerabilities in the web server, operating systems, and development frameworks are covered in this chapter.
Chapter 8, Using Automated Scanners, covers a very important aspect of the discovery of vulnerabilities, the use of tools specially designed to automatically find security flaws in web applications: automated vulnerability scanners.
Chapter 9, Bypassing Basic Security Controls, moves on to the advanced topic of evasion and bypassing measures that are not properly implemented by developers when attempting to mitigate or fix vulnerabilities, leaving the application still open to attacks, although more complex ones.
Chapter 10, Mitigation of OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities, covers the topic of organizations hiring penetration testers to attack their servers and applications with the goal of knowing what's wrong in order to know what they should fix and how. The chapter covers that area of penetration testing by giving simple and direct guidelines on what to do to fix and prevent the most critical web application vulnerabilities according to Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP).
To get the most out of this book
To successfully follow all of the recipes in this book, the reader is recommended to have a basic understanding of the following topics:
Linux OS installation
Unix/Linux command-line usage
HTML language
PHP web application programming
The only hardware necessary is a personal computer, preferably with Kali Linux 2.0 installed, although it may have any other operating system capable of running VirtualBox or other virtualization software. As for specifications, the recommended setup is:
Intel i5, i7, or a similar CPU
500 GB on the 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.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files emailed directly to you.
You can download the code files by following these steps:
Log in or register at
www.packtpub.com
.
Select the
SUPPORT
tab.
Click on
Code Downloads & Errata
.
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 athttps://github.com/PacktPublishing/Kali-Linux-Web-Penetration-Testing-Cookbook-Second-Edition. 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 athttps://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/KaliLinuxWebPenetrationTestingCookbookSecondEdition_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: "Let's test the communication; we are going to ping vm_ 1 from our Kali Linux."
A block of code is set as follows:
<html><script>function submit_form(){ document.getElementById('form1').submit();}</script>
When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
<html><script>function submit_form(){
document.getElementById('form1').submit();
}</script>
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
# sudo apt-get update
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 System info from the Administration panel."
Sections
In this book, you will find several headings that appear frequently (Getting ready, How to do it..., How it works..., There's more..., and See also).
To give clear instructions on how to complete a recipe, use these sections as follows:
Getting ready
This section tells you what to expect in the recipe and describes how to set up any software or any preliminary settings required for the recipe.
How to do it...
This section contains the steps required to follow the recipe.
How it works...
This section usually consists of a detailed explanation of what happened in the previous section.
There's more...
This section consists of additional information about the recipe in order to make you more knowledgeable about the recipe.
See also
This section provides helpful links to other useful information for the recipe.
Get in touch
Feedback from our readers is always welcome.
General feedback: Email [email protected] and mention the book title in the subject of your message. If you have questions about any aspect of this book, please email us at [email protected].
Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would report this to us. Please visit www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details.
Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the internet, we would be grateful if you would provide us with the location address or website name. Please contact us at [email protected] with a link to the material.
If you are interested in becoming an author: If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, please visit authors.packtpub.com.
Reviews
Please leave a review. Once you have read and used this book, why not leave a review on the site that you purchased it from? Potential readers can then see and use your unbiased opinion to make purchase decisions, we at Packt can understand what you think about our products, and our authors can see your feedback on their book. Thank you!
For more information about Packt, please visit packtpub.com.
Disclaimer
The information within this book is intended to be used only in an ethical manner. Do not use any information from the book if you do not have written permission from the owner of the equipment. If you perform illegal actions, you are likely to be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Packt Publishing does not take any responsibility if you misuse any of the information contained within the book. The information herein must only be used while testing environments with proper written authorizations from appropriate persons responsible.
Setting Up Kali Linux and the Testing Lab
In this chapter, we will cover:
Installing VirtualBox on Windows and Linux
Creating a Kali Linux virtual machine
Updating and upgrading Kali Linux
Configuring the web browser for penetration testing
Creating a vulnerable virtual machine
Creating a client virtual machine
Configuring virtual machines for correct communication
Getting to know web applications on a vulnerable virtual machine
Introduction
In this first chapter, we will cover how to prepare our Kali Linux installation to be able to follow all the recipes in the book and set up a laboratory with vulnerable web applications using virtual machines.
Installing VirtualBox on Windows and Linux
Virtualization is, perhaps, the most convenient tool when it comes to setting up testing laboratories or experimenting with different operating systems, since it allows us to run multiple virtual computers inside our own without the need for any additional hardware.
Throughout this book, we will use VirtualBox as a virtualization platform to create our testing targets as well as our Kali Linux attacking machine.
In this first recipe, we will show you how to install VirtualBox on Windows and on any Debian-based GNU/Linux operating system (for example, Ubuntu).
Getting ready
If we are using Linux as a base operating system, we will need to update our software repository's information before installing anything on it. Open a Terminal and issue the following command:
# sudo apt-get update
How to do it...
The following steps need to be performed for installing VirtualBox:
To install VirtualBox in any Debian-based Linux VirtualBox, we can just open a Terminal and enter the following command:
# sudo apt-get install virtualbox
After the installation finishes, we will find VirtualBox in the menu by navigating to
Applications
|
Accessories
|
VirtualBox
. Alternatively, we can call it from a Terminal:
# virtualbox
In Windows, we need to download the VirtualBox installer from
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
Once the file is downloaded we open it and start the installation process.
In the first dialog box, click
Next
and follow the installation process.
We may be asked about installing network adapters from the Oracle corporation; we need to install these for the network in the virtual machines to work properly:
After the installation finishes, we just open VirtualBox from the menu:
Now we have VirtualBox running and we are ready to set up the virtual machines to make our own testing laboratory.
How it works...
VirtualBox will allow us to run multiple machines inside our computer through virtualization. With this, we can mount a full laboratory with different computers using different operating systems and run them in parallel as far as the memory resources and processing power of our host allow us to.
There's more...
The VirtualBox extension pack gives the VirtualBox's virtual machine extra features, such as USB 2.0/3.0 support and remote desktop capabilities. It can be downloaded from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads. After it is downloaded, just double-click on it and VirtualBox will do the rest.
See also
There are some other virtualization options out there. If you don't feel comfortable using VirtualBox, you may want to try the following:
VMware Player/Workstation
QEMU
Xen
Kernel-based Virtual Machine
(
KVM
)
Creating a Kali Linux virtual machine
Kali is a GNU/Linux distribution built by Offensive Security that is focused on security and penetration testing. It comes with a multitude of tools preinstalled, including the most popular open source tools used by security professionals for reverse engineering, penetration testing, and forensic analysis.
We will use Kali Linux throughout this book as our attacking platform and we will create a virtual machine from scratch and install Kali Linux in it in this recipe.
Getting ready
Kali Linux can be obtained from its official download page https://www.kali.org/downloads/. For this recipe, we will use the 64-bit image (the first option on the page).
How to do it...
The process of creating a virtual machine in VirtualBox is pretty straightforward; let's look at this and perform the following steps:
To create a new virtual machine in VirtualBox, we can use the main menu,
Machine
|
New
, or click the
New
button.
New dialog will pop up; here, we choose a name for our virtual machine, the type, and the version of the operating system:
Next, we are asked about the memory size for this virtual machine. Kali Linux requires a minimum of 1 GB; we will set 2 GB for our virtual machine. This value depends on the resources of your system.
We click
Next
and get to the hard disk setup. Select
Create a virtual hard disk now
and click
Create
for VirtualBox to create a new virtual disk file in our host filesystem:
On the next screen, select these options:
Dynamically allocated
: This means the disk image for this virtual machine will be growing in size (in fact, it will be adding new virtual disk files) when we add or edit files in the virtual system.
For
Hard disk file type
, pick
VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image)
and click
Next
.
Next, we need to select where the files will be stored in our host filesystem and the maximum size they will have; this is the storage capacity for the virtual operating system. We leave the default location alone and select a
35.36 GB
size. This depends on your base machine's resources, but should be at least 20 GB in order to install the requisite tools. Now, click on
Create
:
Once the virtual machine is created, select it and click
Settings
, and then go to
Storage
and select the CD icon under
Controller: IDE
. In the
Attributes
panel, click on the CD icon and select
Choose Virtual Optical Disk File
and browse to the Kali image downloaded from the official page. Then click
OK
:
We have created a virtual machine, but we still need to install the operating system. Start the virtual machine and it will boot using the Kali image we configured as the virtual CD/DVD. Use the arrows to select
Graphical install
and hit
Enter
:
We are starting the installation process. On the next screens, select the language, keyboard distribution, hostname, and domain for the system.
After that, you will be asked for a
Root password
; root is the administrative, all-powerful user in Unix-based systems and, in Kali, it is the default login account. Set a password, confirm it, and click
Continue
:
Next, we need to select the time zone, followed by configuration of the hard disk; we will use guided setup using the entire disk:
Select the disk on which you want to install the system (there should only be one).
The next step is to select the partitioning options; we will use
All files in one partition
.
Next, we need to confirm the setup by selecting
Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
and clicking
Continue
. Then select
Yes
to write the changes and
Continue
again on the next screen. This will start the installation process:
When the installation is finished, the installer will ask you to configure the package manager. Answer
Yes
to
Use a network mirror
and set up your proxy configuration; leave it blank if you don't use a proxy to connect to the internet.
The final step is to configure the GRUB loader: just answer
Yes
and, on the next screen, select the hard disk from the list. Then, click
Continue
and the installation will be complete.
Click
Continue
in the
Installation complete
window to restart the VM.
When the VM restarts, it will ask for a username; type
root
and hit
Enter
. Then enter the password you set for the root user to log in. Now we have Kali Linux installed.
How it works...
In this recipe, we created our first virtual machine in VirtualBox, set the reserved amount of memory our base operating system will share with it, and created a new virtual hard disk file for the VM to use and set the maximum size. We also configured the VM to start with a CD/DVD image and, from there, installed Kali Linux the same way we would install it on a physical computer.
To install Kali Linux, we used the graphical installer and selected guided disk partitioning, this is, when we install an operating system, especially a Unix-based one, we need to define which parts of the system are installed (or mounted) in which partitions of the hard disk; luckily for us, Kali Linux's installation can take care of that and we only need to select the hard disk and confirm the proposed partitioning. We also configured Kali to use the network repositories for the package manager. This will allow us to install and update software from the internet and keep our system up to date.
There's more...
There are different (and easier) ways to get Kali Linux running in a virtual machine. For example, there are pre-built virtual machine images available to download from the Offensive Security site: https://www.offensive-security.com/kali-linux-vm-vmware-virtualbox-hyperv-image-download/. We chose this method as it involves the complete process of creating a virtual machine and installing Kali Linux from scratch.
Updating and upgrading Kali Linux
Before we start testing the security of our web application, we need to be sure that we have all the necessary up-to-date tools. This recipe covers the basic task of maintaining the most up-to-date Kali Linux tools and their most recent versions. We will also install the web applications testing meta-package.
How to do it...
Once you have a working instance of Kali Linux up and running, perform the following steps:
Log in as a root on Kali Linux; and open a Terminal.
Run the
apt-get update
command. This will download the updated list of packages (applications and tools) that are available to install:
Once the update is finished, run the
apt-get full-upgrade
command to update the system to the latest version:
When asked to continue, press
Y
and then press
Enter
.
Now, we have our Kali Linux up to date and ready to continue.
Although Kali comes with a good set of tools preinstalled, there are some others that are included in its software repositories but not installed by default. To be sure we have everything we need for web application penetration testing, we install the
kali-linux-web
meta-package by entering the
apt-get install kali-linux-web
command:
We can find the tools we have installed in the
Applications
menu under
03 - Web Applications Analysis
:
How it works...
In this recipe, we have covered a basic procedure for package updates in Debian-based systems (such as Kali Linux) by using the standard software manager, apt. The first call to apt-get with the update parameter downloaded the most recent list of packages available for our specific system in the configured repositories. As Kali Linux is now a rolling distribution, this means that it is constantly updated and that there are no breaks between one version and the next; the full-upgrade parameter downloads and installs system (such as kernel and kernel modules) and non-system packages up to their latest version. If no major changes have been made, or we are just trying to keep an already installed version up to date, we can use the upgrade parameter instead.
In the last part of this recipe, we installed the kali-linux-web meta-package. A meta-package for apt
