Books about Penetration Testing

Question

What are the books you advise describing methods or steps required to make a successful penetration test?

I have a base knowledge of common security checks, but it would be great if someone more experienced describes the full test.

It's not a book, but you may want to check out Offensive Security's online classes: http://www.offensive-security.com/online-information-security-training/penetration-testing-backtrack/ — Tate Hansen, Feb 06 '11 at 05:43
I *loved* that class. Compared to other security classes it's damn near free, and I certainly had a *great* time absorbing all that material. — Scott Pack, Feb 06 '11 at 14:35
@Tate: Actually, it is a book. There's a new book an Pen-testing with BackTrack, but I think it is unrelated to the class and OffSec — atdre, May 19 '11 at 06:18

atdre · Answer 1 · 2011-05-19T07:09:42.310

I am partial to the appsec side of penetration-testing.

Hunting Security Bugs
The Art of Software Security Assessment
Secure Programming with Static Analysis
Open-Source Fuzzing Tools
Fuzzing for Software Security Testing and Quality Assurance
Gray Hat Hacking, 3rd Edition
Advanced Windows Debugging
How to Break Software
Seven Deadliest Web Application Attacks
SQL Injection Attacks and Defense
Identifying Malicious Code through Reverse Engineering
The Shellcoder's Handbook (both 1st and 2nd Edition since they vary so greatly in content)
A Guide to Kernel Exploitation: Attacking the Core
Managed Code Rootkits
Mobile Application Security
Why Programs Fail, 2nd Edition
The Mac Hacker's Handbook
Gray Hat Python
The Software Vulnerability Guide
Hacking Exposed Linux, 3rd Edition
Code Reading: An Open-Souce Perspective

Most of the other answers seemed to be focused on web pen-testing or network pen-testing.

If you really want to learn network pen-testing, I'm surprised there has been no mention of:

Silence on the Wire
Network Security Assessment, 2nd Edition
Aggressive Network Self-Defense
Hacking Exposed Cisco Networks: Cisco Security Secrets & Solutions
Securing the Smart Grid: Next Generation Power Grid Security (useful for more than just Smart Grid stuff -- invaluable, and up-to-date resource for network, web, and app pen-testing)
Unauthorized Access: Physical Penetration-Testing for IT Security Teams
The Hacker's Handbook: The Strategy Behind Breaking Into and Defending Networks

If you want to learn the business process side of pen-testing, you'll have to check out Valsmith and H.D. Moore's work on Tactical Exploitation. I also recommend the Trace Security "Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking" book and the older "No Tech Hacking: A Guide to Social Engineering, Dumpster Diving, and Shoulder Surfing" from people who seem to have done PTES style pen-tests hundreds of times and let go with some practical knowledge of how to deal with situations instead of just technology.

You also may want to check out some fiction (e.g. Zero Day, Stealing the Network: The Complete Series Collector's Edition, Final Chapters) and some non-fiction (Zero Day Threat, Fatal System Error, No Place to Hide, etc). Yes, I've read all of this stuff except Zero Day: A Novel, which I just started. Haven't heard much about "The Lure" or Kingpin yet, but I plan on checking those out as well.

Oh, and just so that everyone knows -- the 2 books that got me into this stuff originally were 1) The Hacker Crackdown and 2) Practical Unix Security — atdre, May 19 '11 at 07:23
Really good list of books! Why no book on reversing engineering ? Ida guide and so on ? No windows internal ? BTW I know some author of this book and I think they are the most talented security people around since the 1990 ;) This one was the right answer of the question. — boos, Jul 23 '11 at 16:15

score 14 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 20 '11 at 14:05

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I really enjoyed

Erickson's Hacking: The Art of Exploitation
Fyodor's own Nmap Network Scanning

I have also heard heard great things about, but haven't read yet,

edited Dec 20 '11 at 14:05

dmitris

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answered Feb 05 '11 at 18:08

Scott Pack

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Hacking: The Art of Exploitation and Nmap Network Scanning: Yap, they might be a great books but they are mostly focused at some parts of attack. I would recommend following book: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596006112 but searching for another great books. Thanks anyway. Web app handbook looks really great. – Tornike Feb 05 '11 at 18:30
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I can vouch for The Web Application Hacker's Handbook. It's a really good book. – Chris Dale Feb 06 '11 at 10:37
Again, not a very impressive list. I never liked Erickson's book. The others are overall very cliche and don't answer the original question well. – atdre May 19 '11 at 07:11
@tokozedg Chris McNab's book is quite excellent. Good choice! – atdre May 19 '11 at 07:19
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The Web Application Hacker's Handbook is a wonderful, very detailed and thorough introduction to as well as reference for hacking web application and web application's security. Make sure to get the recently published second edition. There is also companion labs http://mdsec.net/labs/ (for an extra per-hour fee). – dmitris Dec 20 '11 at 14:45

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 16 '12 at 07:18

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You could do much worse than Hacking Exposed. It's a really good introduction to this side of things, along with the associated series like Hacking Linux Exposed and similar books on Windows, Wireless Security etc.

Update: Should have mentioned the OSSTMM as well - as far as general security testing methodology goes, it's not bad.

edited Aug 16 '12 at 07:18

Andrei Botalov

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answered Feb 05 '11 at 16:34

Rory Alsop

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-1 for mentioning Hacking Exposed, but +1 for OSSTMM. It evens out and you get no up or down vote from me. Of course you could do worse, there's always this guy: http://attrition.org/errata/charlatan/gregory_evans/ – atdre May 19 '11 at 07:13

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited May 17 '11 at 09:20

To an extent it varies depending on the types of testing that you're looking at. Here's some one's I've liked.

Infrastructure/General

Hacking Exposed 6 - canonical series on infrastructure hacking, and has some good information.
NMAP Network Scanning - If you use nmap (and if you're testing you will) this book is an excellent way to really get to understand nmap.

Wireless

Wi-Foo - getting a bit old now but a good book
Hacking Exposed - Wireless 2nd Edition - This ones more recent and also widens out the coverage beyond just 802.11 to bluetooth, zigbee and DECT

Web App

Web App Hackers Handbook -Definitive app testing book in my opinion and I believe that there's a second edition on the way
SQL Injection Attacks and Defense - Good in-depth coverage of SQL Injection
Professional Pen Testing For Web Applications - This one's getting a little old as well now, but had some good coverage of the process side of things as well as the purely technical aspects.

Other - slightly more specialist topics

The hackers handbook series is generally good (mac, database, oracle) the people writing them tend to be very good technically so they've got some good in-depth information)
Exploiting Software - Good look into the non-web applications hacking side of things.
Secure programming with static analysis - If you're interested in using static/code analysis as part of testing, this one's a good way to get an understanding of the topic.

Wow, besides the 2 that I listed -- this is overall a very bad list of books. I'd probably recommend "Hacking For Dummies" over this list and I'm not even joking! — atdre, May 19 '11 at 07:10
Seriously, you'd take hacking for dummies over the Web app hackers handbook?!? ahh well each to their own I guess — Rory McCune, May 19 '11 at 12:40

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited May 18 '11 at 14:29

My Pick:

Penetration Tester’s Open Source Toolkit, Vol. 2
Dissecting the Hack: The F0rb1dd3n Network, Revised Edition
Ninja Hacking: Unconventional Penetration Testing Tactics and Techniques
Hacking: The Next Generation (Animal Guide)
Gray Hat Hacking, Second Edition: The Ethical Hacker’s Handbook
Google Hacking for Penetration Testers
Professional Pen Testing for Web Applications (Programmer to Programmer)
WarDriving and Wireless Penetration Testing
The Hacker’s Handbook: The Strategy Behind Breaking into and Defending Networks

Get the list of other relevant pentesting books here: http://www.ivizsecurity.com/blog/security-books/

You do know that Gray Hat Hacking is in its 3rd Edition, right? — atdre, May 19 '11 at 07:14

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 21 '11 at 11:40

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I am missing the following excellent book from the list. Highly recommended

The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing: Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Made Easy

answered Dec 21 '11 at 11:40

Hans

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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 21 '11 at 13:51

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I personally recently bought Gray Hat Hacking, 3rd Edition. It's a pretty good book, but you must have a basis in the industry, which you have. I would also recommend a book on Metasploit, which is used in the Gray Hat book a bit.

answered Dec 21 '11 at 13:51

cutrightjm

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score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 08 '13 at 09:10

I will recommend a book for Wireless Pentesting is (Wireless Pentesting with Backtrack 5) This book is very good to learn Wireless Penetration testing and book is full with practicals.

BackTrack 5 Wireless Penetration Testing Beginner's Guide

And the book author also created a free video series on this book have a look:

Wireless Exploitation Video Series

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered May 24 '14 at 09:21

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Metasploit penetration testing cookbook is a good book to start learning penetration testing using Metasploit.

answered May 24 '14 at 09:21

abhinav singh

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Books about Penetration Testing

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