Ethical Hacking & Penetration Testing
Understanding Attacks, Testing Security, and Improving Defenses
What's Included:
Key Highlights
- Ethical and legal penetration testing focus
- Complete attack lifecycle explained
- Web and network attack fundamentals
- Professional reporting and remediation guidance
- Ideal foundation for cybersecurity careers
Overview
Learn ethical hacking and penetration testing fundamentals, understand real-world attacks, test security responsibly, and turn findings into stronger defenses.
The Problem
Organizations are attacked because defenders do not fully understand how attackers operate. Many security professionals lack structured penetration testing knowledge and ethical hacking methodology.
The Solution
This book teaches ethical hacking step by step, showing how attacks are planned, executed, and documented — always within legal and ethical boundaries — and how findings strengthen security defenses.
About This Book
Learn Ethical Hacking the Right Way
Ethical Hacking & Penetration Testing is a professional guide to understanding how modern attacks work, how penetration testing is performed responsibly, and how discovered vulnerabilities are transformed into real security improvements. Cybersecurity is one of the fastest-growing fields in technology, and ethical hacking skills are in high demand.
This book focuses on methodology, mindset, and ethics rather than illegal exploitation. You will learn how attackers think, how security weaknesses are discovered, and how organizations defend themselves using structured testing approaches.
What You Will Learn
- Ethical hacking principles, legal boundaries, and professional conduct
- Penetration testing methodology: planning, scoping, and rules of engagement
- Reconnaissance: passive and active information gathering
- Scanning and enumeration: discovering network services and vulnerabilities
- Web application security testing: OWASP Top 10 and common vulnerabilities
- Network attack surfaces: services, protocols, and misconfigurations
- Vulnerability analysis and exploitation concepts
- Post-exploitation: maintaining access and pivoting
- Privilege escalation techniques on Linux and Windows
- Password attacks: cracking, spraying, and credential theft
- Social engineering awareness
- Professional penetration testing reporting and remediation advice
Who Is This Book For?
This book is designed for anyone interested in cybersecurity careers. It is ideal for:
- IT professionals transitioning to security roles
- Aspiring penetration testers and red team members
- Security analysts who want to understand offensive techniques
- Students preparing for certifications like CEH, OSCP, or PenTest+
- Developers who want to understand how their code can be attacked
Why This Book?
This book builds a strong foundation for anyone pursuing a career in cybersecurity, penetration testing, or defensive security engineering.
Prerequisites
Basic networking and Linux knowledge is recommended. Familiarity with common security concepts is helpful.
Author: Ethan Marshall
Who Is This Book For?
- Cybersecurity beginners
- Ethical hacking and penetration testing students
- IT professionals moving into security roles
- Blue team members wanting attacker insight
- Security analysts and SOC professionals
Who Is This Book NOT For?
- Anyone seeking illegal hacking techniques
- Readers looking for exploit kits or attack scripts
- Advanced penetration testers seeking OSCP-level depth
Table of Contents
- What Ethical Hacking Really Is
- Penetration Testing Methodology
- Reconnaissance Fundamentals
- Network and Service Enumeration
- Understanding Vulnerabilities
- Exploitation Concepts
- Web Application Attack Surface
- Common Web Vulnerabilities
- Network-Level Attacks
- System-Level Weaknesses
- Post-Exploitation Concepts
- Privilege Escalation Basics
- Writing Penetration Testing Reports
- Turning Findings into Security Improvements
- Ethics, Law, and Responsibility
- Learning Path Beyond Ethical Hacking
Requirements
- Basic IT or networking knowledge
- Interest in cybersecurity and defense
- Understanding of operating systems is helpful
