Advanced Penetration Testing in Practice: The Code and Commands That Really Matter
Advanced Penetration Testing: The Essentials in One Article — Real Code, Diagrams, and Concrete Steps, Excerpts from a 45-Lesson Course.
No endless theory here: open the terminal and practice. Here's the essentials of Advanced Penetration Testing, extracted directly from a complete 45-lesson course — with real code you can copy-paste right now.
- Introduction and Legal Framework
- Advanced OSINT Reconnaissance
- Stealthy Scanning and Enumeration
- Advanced Exploitation
- Post-Exploitation and Pivoting
SMB, SNMP, LDAP, NFS Enumeration
Learning objectives
- Enumerate shares, sessions and users via SMB
- Extract the full MIB from a device via SNMP
- Query an LDAP directory anonymously
- Detect and mount misconfigured NFS exports
- Map the RPC services of a target
Core intuition: services talk too much
Enumeration is the art of listening to what a service willingly reveals. Many enterprise protocols were designed for convenience, not discretion. An SMB share with guest access, SNMP using the public community, an LDAP server that answers anonymous binds: all leaks that turn a blind pentester into an attacker who already knows account names, groups and topology.
Golden rule: enumeration always precedes exploitation. A single valid username harvested here can fuel a password spraying attack later. Take the time to note everything.
SMB: the often-open safe
SMB (ports 139 and 445) handles Windows file sharing. It is the most profitable target on an internal network. Start by listing accessible shares, sessions, and attempt a null session.
| SMB Information | Tool / command | Why it is useful |
|---|---|---|
| Accessible shares | smbclient -L, nxc --shares | Sensitive files, backups, scripts |
| Domain users | nxc --users, RID brute | Feeds password spraying |
| Password policy | nxc --pass-pol | Avoid locking accounts |
| OS version / signing | nxc smb <target> | Target exploits, NTLM relay |
SNMP: the chatty device
SNMP (UDP 161) is used to monitor routers, printers and servers. With the default public community, you can download the entire MIB: processes, interfaces, users, sometimes clear-text passwords.
LDAP and NFS: directory and files
LDAP (389 / 636)
The Active Directory directory. An anonymous bind often exposes the entire structure: accounts, groups, descriptions (sometimes passwords).
Persistence: tasks, services, autoruns, WMI
Learning objectives
- Choose a persistence mechanism suited to the desired stealth level
- Deploy a scheduled task, service or autorun
- Understand persistence via WMI subscription
- Know the Linux equivalents (cron, systemd, .bashrc)
- Document every artifact for final cleanup
Core intuition: survive a reboot without replaying the entire attack chain
Persistence avoids having to replay the entire exploitation chain on every target reboot. In Red Team, this is essential: an assessment lasts weeks, and a single reboot would lose access. The principle is to graft execution of your implant onto a legitimate system mechanism.
The trade-off is always the same: the more reliable and accessible it is (user Run key), the more easily detectable it becomes; the stealthier it is (WMI subscription), the more complex it is to deploy and clean up.
Windows persistence: from simplest to stealthiest
| Mechanism | Required level | Stealth |
|---|---|---|
| Run key (registry) | User | Low (Autoruns sees it) |
| Scheduled Task | User / Admin | Medium |
| Windows Service | Admin | Medium |
| WMI Subscription | Admin | High |
Persistence via WMI subscription
A permanent WMI subscription links a trigger event (e.g. every N seconds, or at startup) to an action (execute a command). It lives in the WMI repository, outside the visible file system, making it stealthy.
Caution: Only deploy persistence if the ROE explicitly authorizes it, and clean up EVERYTHING at the end of the engagement. Forgotten persistence becomes a real vulnerability exploitable by a genuine attacker.
Creating custom payloads with msfvenom
Learning objectives
- Generate a payload adapted to the OS and architecture
- Choose the output format (exe, elf, raw, python, dll)
- Exclude badchars and encode a payload
- List available payloads according to context
- Receive the callback with a properly configured handler
Core intuition: a payload = what to execute + how to package it
An msfvenom payload combines two decisions. First what to do on the target: open a meterpreter, launch a reverse shell, execute a command. Then how to deliver it: a .exe to drop, a Linux .elf, raw shellcode to inject into an exploit, a Python payload to paste.
msfvenom is the fusion of msfpayload and msfencode. Mastering its options lets you craft the right tool for each situation, rather than using a generic .exe that every antivirus knows.
Anatomy of an msfvenom command
Examples by context
Web (PHP / JSP)
Receiving the callback
A reverse payload is only useful if a handler is listening. Configure it with EXACTLY the same payload, LHOST and LPORT.
This article covers the most useful excerpts — the complete Advanced Penetration Testing course (11 chapters, 45 lessons, corrected exercises and final project) takes you all the way.
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