BackTrack 4: Assuring Security by Penetration Testing

by Shakeel Ali, Tedi Heriyanto

Written as an interactive tutorial, this book covers the core of BackTrack with real-world examples and step-by-step instructions to provide professional guidelines and recommendations to you. The book is designed in a simple and intuitive manner, which allows you to explore the whole BackTrack testing process or study parts of it individually. If you are an IT security professional or network administrator who has a basic knowledge of Unix/Linux operating systems including awareness of information security factors, and you want to use BackTrack for penetration testing, then this book is for you.

Genres: Hackers

371 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2011

Reviews

[Judith Bogucki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who want to learn the hardcore skills required to become "Penetration Tester". I have seen many people in security industry opposing Backtrack just because in their eyes it is another security Linux distribution full of tools. This book has taken a practical approach about "how the actual pen-test should be conducted" and clarified the technical differences between vulnerability assessment and penetration testing. Keep up the good work authors!

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, BackTrack 5 is now out, shortly after this book hit the shelf. It was a little late in coming, but much of the knowledge still applies. This books walks through almost every tool in BT and how to effectively use it. Very informative and practical.

[Chris Hobbins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been working in a security industry for almost a decade now. The BT4 book covers all the core aspects of ethical hacking/penetration testing with systematic methodology which otherwise is hard to find elsewhere. The book contents are quite easy to understand and each exercise has been presented with a straight forward practical approach. Thus, I would highly recommend this book to the industry specialists and advanced BackTrack users. Great work!

[N Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book provides technical knowledge to assess the software systems and network security through "penetration testing". The authors also provided a brief overview of the security testing standards such as ISSAF, OSSTMM, OWASP and WASC-TC which helps in understanding the concepts in a better way.

[Russell Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I carry out various IT security operations on daily basis (e.g. network penetration testing, application security audits, etc) and this book has added an extra value to my knowledge desk. No doubt, it can still be usable with Backtrack 5 upto certain extent. Also, the series of recent incidents of high-profile data breaches and network DDoS attacks coming out of Anonymous and LulzSec group force us to understand the theme of BlackHat approach towards hacking into business websites and major corporate networks. This is where the "BackTrack 4: Assuring Security by Penetration Testing" plays an important role (e.g. tools for targeting SQL injection vulnerabilities). The authors have drawn the contents carefully and to the point describing the process of penetration testing with BackTrack. Understanding and practicing each selected tool has been made easier by providing right syntax, parameters, and description. This is definitely a right-turn to educate more security pros and other people with similar interests. One of the key benefits of this book is the cost concern when compared to SANS and other professional training courses. I wish the authors should keep updating this book to reflect any upcoming changes with latest Backtrack version.

[Abbott Donnelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of fantastic books I have came across recently. The book contents are properly structured and attentively reviewed to provide better understanding of "Pen-Testing". I have been in the IT security industry for more than 13 years and experienced several companies who perform "vulnerability assessment" in the name of "penetration testing". This book has clearly drawn the difference between two and provide methodological approach to perform pure pen-testing. No matter, either you are involved in application or network pen-testing, this book has covered all the necessary and up-to-date tools and techniques. The authors have carefully tackled the usage complexity of Backtrack operating system and explained critical bits which otherwise would have been difficult to interpret.

I am very much looking forward to its next release!!

[rahhmat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impressive, this "manual book" are really help me.

[Cat Machin · Rating 5 out of 5]

As many of us may know that BackTrack has emerged from the combination of WHAX and Auditor Security Collection. I had been attached to these distributions for a long period. The only thing that I never found, is a good reference material to operate Backtrack tools effectively. This book has opened a clear vision for people in penetration testing world to choose and utilize the best tools in a systematic order. All the chapters are driven by practical exercises to educate intermediate and advance users. I have been working as a senior penetration tester for 6 years but I still found some knowledge gaps which are covered by this wonderful and informative book. Excellent piece of work!

[Timo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've come to notice that the book was really nothing special and was missing significant content about specifics of pentesting. When I look at it now I just see a collection of commands and tools without any deeper coverage or explanation. Since you can read most of those from man pages there's not that many reasons why you might want to buy this book. There are better ones.

[عَبدُالكَرِيمْ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was craving all the time for a practical book like this. Although it is outdated now but still it was a good read. I highly recommend it for those who want to learn the tools that are included in backtrack.

[Johan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Made me feel mischievous ;-) , but I will have to know more about linux, operating systems in general, and networking to fully appreciate this book. For now I will focus on nginx and bash.

[Alex Levasseur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relatively better contents than the other similar books!