Privilege Escalation Techniques

Escalate your privileges on Windows and Linux platforms with step-by-step instructions and deepen your theoretical foundations Key Features Book DescriptionPrivilege Escalation Techniques is a detailed guide to privilege escalation techniques and tools for both Windows and Linux systems. This is a one-of-a-kind resource that will deepen your understanding of both platforms and provide detailed, easy-to-follow instructions for your first foray into privilege escalation. The book uses virtual environments that you can download to test and run tools and techniques. After a refresher on gaining access and surveying systems, each chapter will feature an exploitation challenge in the form of pre-built virtual machines (VMs). As you progress, you will learn how to enumerate and exploit a target Linux or Windows system. You’ll then get a demonstration on how you can escalate your privileges to the highest level. By the end of this book, you will have gained all the knowledge and skills you need to be able to perform local kernel exploits, escalate privileges through vulnerabilities in services, maintain persistence, and enumerate information from the target such as passwords and password hashes.What you will learn Understand the privilege escalation process and set up a pentesting lab Gain an initial foothold on the system Perform local enumeration on target systems Exploit kernel vulnerabilities on Windows and Linux systems Perform privilege escalation through password looting and finding stored credentials Get to grips with performing impersonation attacks Exploit Windows services such as the secondary logon handle service to escalate Windows privileges Escalate Linux privileges by exploiting scheduled tasks and SUID binaries Who this book is forIf you’re a pentester or a cybersecurity student interested in learning how to perform various privilege escalation techniques on Windows and Linux systems – including exploiting bugs and design flaws – then this book is for you. You’ll need a solid grasp on how Windows and Linux systems work along with fundamental cybersecurity knowledge before you get started.

Alexis Ahmed is an experienced penetration tester and security researcher with over 7 years of experience in the cybersecurity industry. He started off his career as a Linux system administrator and soon discovered a passion and aptitude for security and transitioned into a junior penetration tester. In 2017, he founded HackerSploit, a cybersecurity consultancy that specializes in penetration testing and security training, where he currently works as a senior penetration tester and trainer. Alexis has multiple cybersecurity certifications, ranging from the CEH and Sec+ to OSCP, and is a certified ISO 27001 associate. He is also an experienced DevSecOps engineer and helps companies secure their Docker infrastructure.