An ongoing & curated collection of awesome software best practices and techniques, libraries and frameworks, E-books and videos, websites, blog posts, links to github Repositories, technical guidelines and important resources about Penetration Testing (Pentest) in Cybersecurity.

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Penetration testing, also known as pen testing, security pen testing, and security testing, is the process of identifying security vulnerabilities in an application by evaluating the system or network with various malicious techniques. The weak points of a system are exploited in this process through an authorized simulated attack.

• The purpose of this test is to secure important data from outsiders like hackers who can have unauthorized access to the system. Once the vulnerability is identified, it is used to exploit the system to gain access to sensitive information.

A penetration test is also known as a pen test and a penetration tester is also referred to as an ethical hacker.

There Are Several Types of Penetration Testing, however, the following are the ones most commonly performed by Penetration Tester, Here we discuss different types of Penetration testing. The methodology of penetration testing is split into Five types of testing.

• Network Penetration Testing
• Web Application Penetration Testing
• Mobile Application Penetration Testing
• Social Engineering Penetration Testing
• Physical Penetration Testing

In network Penetration Testing, you would be testing a network environment for potential security vulnerabilities and threats. This test is divide into two categories external and internal Penetration Testing.

External Penetration Testing would involve testing the public IP address, whereas, in an internal test, you can become part of an internal network and test that network. You can gain to the top VPN provides to the network we would have to physically go to the work environment for the penetration testing depending upon the engagement rules that were defined prior to conducting the testing.

Web Application Penetration testing is very common nowadays, since your application host critical data such as credit card number, username, and password; therefore this type of penetration test has become more common than network penetration testing.

Mobile Application Penetration testing is the newest type of penetration testing that has become common since almost every organization uses Android- and IOS-based mobile Applications to provide services to its customers. Therefore, organizations want to make sure that their mobile applications are secure enough for users to rely on when providing personal information when using such applications.

Social engineering penetration testing can be part of network penetration testing. In a social engineering penetration test, the organization may ask you to attack its users. This where your use a speared phishing attack and browser exploits to trick a user into doing things they did not intend to do. Remote testing where phishing techniques are used to steal confidential information through electronic means.

Physical Penetration Test is what you would rarely be doing in your career as a penetration tester. In a Physical penetration test. you would be asked to walk into the organization’s building physically and test physical security controls such as locks and RFID mechanisms.

• Wireshark
• Metasploit
• BurpSuite
• John The Piper
• Acunetix Scanner
• HashCat
• Aircrack
• Nessus
• SQLmap
• Nmap

• Kali Linux
• Parrot OS
• BlackArch
• Manjaro Linux
• Pentoo Linux
• BackBox
• Fedora Security Lab
• Bugtraq
• DEFT Linux
• ArchStrike
• Predator OS

• To determine the weakness in the infrastructure (hardware), application (software) and people in order to develop controls
• To ensure controls have been implemented and are effective – this provides assurance to information security and senior management
• To test applications that are often the avenues of attack (Applications are built by people who can make mistakes despite best practices in software development)
• To discover new bugs in existing software (patches and updates can fix existing vulnerabilities, but they can also introduce new vulnerabilities)

For best practices on vulnerability disclosure guidelines, please follow this guidance to report it responsibly.

• Introduction
• Online Resources
  • Penetration Testing Resources
  • Exploit development
  • Social Engineering Resources
  • Lock Picking Resources
• Tools
  • Penetration Testing Distributions
  • Basic Penetration Testing Tools
  • Docker for Penetration Testing
  • Vulnerability Scanners
  • Network Tools
  • Wireless Network Tools
  • SSL Analysis Tools
  • Web exploitation
  • Hex Editors
  • Crackers
  • Windows Utils
  • Linux Utils
  • DDoS Tools
  • Social Engineering Tools
  • OSInt Tools
  • Anonymity Tools
  • Reverse Engineering Tools
  • CTF Tools
• Books
  • Penetration Testing Books
  • Hackers Handbook Series
  • Network Analysis Books
  • Reverse Engineering Books
  • Malware Analysis Books
  • Windows Books
  • Social Engineering Books
  • Lock Picking Books
• Vulnerability Databases
• Security Courses
• Information Security Conferences
• Information Security Magazines
• Awesome Lists
• Contribution
• License

• Metasploit Unleashed - Free Offensive Security metasploit course
• PTES - Penetration Testing Execution Standard
• OWASP - Open Web Application Security Project

• Shellcode Tutorial - Tutorial on how to write shellcode
• Shellcode Examples - Shellcodes database
• Exploit Writing Tutorials - Tutorials on how to develop exploits
• GDB-peda - Python Exploit Development Assistance for GDB
• shellsploit - New Generation Exploit Development Kit

• Social Engineering Framework - An information resource for social engineers

• Schuyler Towne channel - Lockpicking videos and security talks
• /r/lockpicking - Resources for learning lockpicking, equipment recommendations.

• Kali - A Linux distribution designed for digital forensics and penetration testing
• BlackArch - Arch Linux-based distribution for penetration testers and security researchers
• NST - Network Security Toolkit distribution
• Pentoo - security-focused livecd based on Gentoo
• BackBox - Ubuntu-based distribution for penetration tests and security assessments
• Parrot - A distribution similar to Kali, with multiple architecture

• Metasploit Framework - World's most used penetration testing software
• Burp Suite - An integrated platform for performing security testing of web applications
• ExploitPack - Graphical tool for penetration testing with a bunch of exploits
• BeeF - The Browser Exploitation Framework Project
• faraday - Collaborative Penetration Test and Vulnerability Management Platform
• evilgrade - The update explotation framework
• commix - Automated All-in-One OS Command Injection and Exploitation Tool
• routersploit - Automated penetration testing software for router

• docker pull kalilinux/kali-linux-docker official Kali Linux
• docker pull owasp/zap2docker-stable - official OWASP ZAP
• docker pull wpscanteam/wpscan - official WPScan
• docker pull pandrew/metasploit - docker-metasploit
• docker pull citizenstig/dvwa - Damn Vulnerable Web Application (DVWA)
• docker pull wpscanteam/vulnerablewordpress - Vulnerable WordPress Installation
• docker pull hmlio/vaas-cve-2014-6271 - Vulnerability as a service: Shellshock
• docker pull hmlio/vaas-cve-2014-0160 - Vulnerability as a service: Heartbleed
• docker pull opendns/security-ninjas - Security Ninjas
• docker pull usertaken/archlinux-pentest-lxde - Arch Linux Penetration Tester
• docker pull diogomonica/docker-bench-security - Docker Bench for Security
• docker pull ismisepaul/securityshepherd - OWASP Security Shepherd
• docker pull danmx/docker-owasp-webgoat - OWASP WebGoat Project docker image
• docker pull citizenstig/nowasp - OWASP Mutillidae II Web Pen-Test Practice Application

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• Netsparker - Web Application Security Scanner
• Nexpose - Vulnerability Management & Risk Management Software
• Nessus - Vulnerability, configuration, and compliance assessment
• Nikto - Web application vulnerability scanner
• OpenVAS - Open Source vulnerability scanner and manager
• OWASP Zed Attack Proxy - Penetration testing tool for web applications
• Secapps - Integrated web application security testing environment
• w3af - Web application attack and audit framework
• Wapiti - Web application vulnerability scanner
• WebReaver - Web application vulnerability scanner for Mac OS X
• DVCS Ripper - Rip web accessible (distributed) version control systems: SVN/GIT/HG/BZR
• arachni - Web Application Security Scanner Framework

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• nmap - Free Security Scanner For Network Exploration & Security Audits
• pig - A Linux packet crafting tool
• tcpdump/libpcap - A common packet analyzer that runs under the command line
• Wireshark - A network protocol analyzer for Unix and Windows
• Network Tools - Different network tools: ping, lookup, whois, etc
• netsniff-ng - A Swiss army knife for for network sniffing
• Intercepter-NG - a multifunctional network toolkit
• SPARTA - Network Infrastructure Penetration Testing Tool
• DNSDumpster - Online DNS recond and search service
• Mass Scan - TCP port scanner, spews SYN packets asynchronously, scanning entire Internet in under 5 minutes.
• Zarp - Zarp is a network attack tool centered around the exploitation of local networks
• mitmproxy - An interactive SSL-capable intercepting HTTP proxy for penetration testers and software developers
• mallory - HTTP/HTTPS proxy over SSH
• DET - DET is a proof of concept to perform Data Exfiltration using either single or multiple channel(s) at the same time
• pwnat - punches holes in firewalls and NATs
• dsniff - a collection of tools for network auditing and pentesting
• tgcd - a simple Unix network utility to extend the accessibility of TCP/IP based network services beyond firewalls
• smbmap - a handy SMB enumeration tool

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• Aircrack-ng - a set of tools for auditing wireless network
• Kismet - Wireless network detector, sniffer, and IDS
• Reaver - Brute force attack against Wifi Protected Setup
• Wifite - Automated wireless attack tool
• wifiphisher - Automated phishing attacks against Wi-Fi networks

• SSLyze - SSL configuration scanner
• sslstrip - a demonstration of the HTTPS stripping attacks
• sslstrip2 - SSLStrip version to defeat HSTS
• tls_prober - fingerprint a server's SSL/TLS implementation

• WPScan - Black box WordPress vulnerability scanner
• SQLmap - Automatic SQL injection and database takeover tool
• weevely3 - Weaponized web shell
• Wappalyzer - Wappalyzer uncovers the technologies used on websites
• cms-explorer - CMS Explorer is designed to reveal the the specific modules, plugins, components and themes that various CMS driven web sites are running.
• joomscan - Joomla CMS scanner
• WhatWeb - Website Fingerprinter
• BlindElephant - Web Application Fingerprinter

• HexEdit.js - Browser-based hex editing
• Hexinator (commercial) - World's finest Hex Editor

• John the Ripper - Fast password cracker
• Online MD5 cracker - Online MD5 hash Cracker
• Hashcat - The more fast hash cracker

• Sysinternals Suite - The Sysinternals Troubleshooting Utilities
• Windows Credentials Editor - security tool to list logon sessions and add, change, list and delete associated credentials
• mimikatz - Credentials extraction tool for Windows OS
• PowerSploit - A PowerShell Post-Exploitation Framework
• Windows Exploit Suggester - Detects potential missing patches on the target
• Responder - A LLMNR, NBT-NS and MDNS poisoner
• Empire - Empire is a pure PowerShell post-exploitation agent
• Fibratus - Tool for exploration and tracing of the Windows kernel

• Linux Exploit Suggester - Linux Exploit Suggester; based on operating system release number.

• LOIC - An open source network stress tool for Windows
• JS LOIC - JavaScript in-browser version of LOIC
• T50 - The more fast network stress tool

• SET - The Social-Engineer Toolkit from TrustedSec

• Maltego - Proprietary software for open source intelligence and forensics, from Paterva.
• theHarvester - E-mail, subdomain and people names harvester
• creepy - A geolocation OSINT tool
• metagoofil - Metadata harvester
• Google Hacking Database - a database of Google dorks; can be used for recon
• Shodan - Shodan is the world's first search engine for Internet-connected devices
• recon-ng - A full-featured Web Reconnaissance framework written in Python
• github-dorks - CLI tool to scan github repos/organizations for potential sensitive information leak

• Tor - The free software for enabling onion routing online anonymity
• I2P - The Invisible Internet Project
• Nipe - Script to redirect all traffic from the machine to the Tor network.

• IDA Pro - A Windows, Linux or Mac OS X hosted multi-processor disassembler and debugger
• IDA Free - The freeware version of IDA v5.0
• WDK/WinDbg - Windows Driver Kit and WinDbg
• OllyDbg - An x86 debugger that emphasizes binary code analysis
• Radare2 - Opensource, crossplatform reverse engineering framework.
• x64_dbg - An open-source x64/x32 debugger for windows.
• Pyew - A Python tool for static malware analysis.
• Bokken - GUI for Pyew Radare2.
• Immunity Debugger - A powerful new way to write exploits and analyze malware
• Evan's Debugger - OllyDbg-like debugger for Linux
• Medusa disassembler - An open source interactive disassembler
• plasma - Interactive disassembler for x86/ARM/MIPS. Generates indented pseudo-code with colored syntax code.

• Pwntools - CTF framework for use in CTFs

• The Art of Exploitation by Jon Erickson, 2008
• Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide by David Kennedy et al., 2011
• Penetration Testing: A Hands-On Introduction to Hacking by Georgia Weidman, 2014
• Rtfm: Red Team Field Manual by Ben Clark, 2014
• The Hacker Playbook by Peter Kim, 2014
• The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing by Patrick Engebretson, 2013
• Professional Penetration Testing by Thomas Wilhelm, 2013
• Advanced Penetration Testing for Highly-Secured Environments by Lee Allen, 2012
• Violent Python by TJ O'Connor, 2012
• Fuzzing: Brute Force Vulnerability Discovery by Michael Sutton et al., 2007
• Black Hat Python: Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters by Justin Seitz, 2014
• Penetration Testing: Procedures & Methodologies by EC-Council, 2010
• Unauthorised Access: Physical Penetration Testing For IT Security Teams by Wil Allsopp, 2010
• Advanced Persistent Threat Hacking: The Art and Science of Hacking Any Organization by Tyler Wrightson, 2014
• Bug Hunter's Diary by Tobias Klein, 2011

• The Database Hacker's Handbook, David Litchfield et al., 2005
• The Shellcoders Handbook by Chris Anley et al., 2007
• The Mac Hacker's Handbook by Charlie Miller & Dino Dai Zovi, 2009
• The Web Application Hackers Handbook by D. Stuttard, M. Pinto, 2011
• iOS Hackers Handbook by Charlie Miller et al., 2012
• Android Hackers Handbook by Joshua J. Drake et al., 2014
• The Browser Hackers Handbook by Wade Alcorn et al., 2014
• The Mobile Application Hackers Handbook by Dominic Chell et al., 2015
• Car Hacker's Handbook by Craig Smith, 2016

• Nmap Network Scanning by Gordon Fyodor Lyon, 2009
• Practical Packet Analysis by Chris Sanders, 2011
• Wireshark Network Analysis by by Laura Chappell & Gerald Combs, 2012
• Network Forensics: Tracking Hackers through Cyberspace by Sherri Davidoff & Jonathan Ham, 2012

• Reverse Engineering for Beginners by Dennis Yurichev
• Hacking the Xbox by Andrew Huang, 2003
• The IDA Pro Book by Chris Eagle, 2011
• Practical Reverse Engineering by Bruce Dang et al., 2014
• Gray Hat Hacking The Ethical Hacker's Handbook by Daniel Regalado et al., 2015

• Practical Malware Analysis by Michael Sikorski & Andrew Honig, 2012
• The Art of Memory Forensics by Michael Hale Ligh et al., 2014
• Malware Analyst's Cookbook and DVD by Michael Hale Ligh et al., 2010

• Windows Internals by Mark Russinovich et al., 2012

• The Art of Deception by Kevin D. Mitnick & William L. Simon, 2002
• The Art of Intrusion by Kevin D. Mitnick & William L. Simon, 2005
• Ghost in the Wires by Kevin D. Mitnick & William L. Simon, 2011
• No Tech Hacking by Johnny Long & Jack Wiles, 2008
• Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking by Christopher Hadnagy, 2010
• Unmasking the Social Engineer: The Human Element of Security by Christopher Hadnagy, 2014
• Social Engineering in IT Security: Tools, Tactics, and Techniques by Sharon Conheady, 2014

• Practical Lock Picking by Deviant Ollam, 2012
• Keys to the Kingdom by Deviant Ollam, 2012
• CIA Lock Picking Field Operative Training Manual
• Lock Picking: Detail Overkill by Solomon
• Eddie the Wire books

• NVD - US National Vulnerability Database
• CERT - US Computer Emergency Readiness Team
• OSVDB - Open Sourced Vulnerability Database
• Bugtraq - Symantec SecurityFocus
• Exploit-DB - Offensive Security Exploit Database
• Fulldisclosure - Full Disclosure Mailing List
• MS Bulletin - Microsoft Security Bulletin
• MS Advisory - Microsoft Security Advisories
• Inj3ct0r - Inj3ct0r Exploit Database
• Packet Storm - Packet Storm Global Security Resource
• SecuriTeam - Securiteam Vulnerability Information
• CXSecurity - CSSecurity Bugtraq List
• Vulnerability Laboratory - Vulnerability Research Laboratory
• ZDI - Zero Day Initiative

• Offensive Security Training - Training from BackTrack/Kali developers
• SANS Security Training - Computer Security Training & Certification
• Open Security Training - Training material for computer security classes
• CTF Field Guide - everything you need to win your next CTF competition
• Cybrary - online IT and Cyber Security training platform

• DEF CON - An annual hacker convention in Las Vegas
• Black Hat - An annual security conference in Las Vegas
• BSides - A framework for organising and holding security conferences
• CCC - An annual meeting of the international hacker scene in Germany
• DerbyCon - An annual hacker conference based in Louisville
• PhreakNIC - A technology conference held annually in middle Tennessee
• ShmooCon - An annual US east coast hacker convention
• CarolinaCon - An infosec conference, held annually in North Carolina
• HOPE - A conference series sponsored by the hacker magazine 2600
• SummerCon - One of the oldest hacker conventions, held during Summer
• Hack.lu - An annual conference held in Luxembourg
• HITB - Deep-knowledge security conference held in Malaysia and The Netherlands
• Troopers - Annual international IT Security event with workshops held in Heidelberg, Germany
• Hack3rCon - An annual US hacker conference
• ThotCon - An annual US hacker conference held in Chicago
• LayerOne - An annual US security conference held every spring in Los Angeles
• DeepSec - Security Conference in Vienna, Austria
• SkyDogCon - A technology conference in Nashville
• SECUINSIDE - Security Conference in Seoul
• DefCamp - Largest Security Conference in Eastern Europe, held anually in Bucharest, Romania
• AppSecUSA - An annual conference organised by OWASP
• BruCON - An annual security conference in Belgium
• Infosecurity Europe - Europe's number one information security event, held in London, UK
• Nullcon - An annual conference in Delhi and Goa, India
• RSA Conference USA - An annual security conference in San Francisco, California, USA
• Swiss Cyber Storm - An annual security conference in Lucerne, Switzerland
• Virus Bulletin Conference - An annual conference going to be held in Denver, USA for 2016
• Ekoparty - Largest Security Conference in Latin America, held annually in Buenos Aires, Argentina
• 44Con - Annual Security Conference held in London
• BalCCon - Balkan Computer Congress, annualy held in Novi Sad, Serbia
• FSec - FSec - Croatian Information Security Gathering in Varaždin, Croatia

• 2600: The Hacker Quarterly - An American publication about technology and computer "underground"
• Phrack Magazine - By far the longest running hacker zine

• Kali Linux Tools - List of tools present in Kali Linux
• SecTools - Top 125 Network Security Tools
• C/C++ Programming - One of the main language for open source security tools
• .NET Programming - A software framework for Microsoft Windows platform development
• Shell Scripting - Command-line frameworks, toolkits, guides and gizmos
• Ruby Programming by @dreikanter - The de-facto language for writing exploits
• Ruby Programming by @markets - The de-facto language for writing exploits
• Ruby Programming by @Sdogruyol - The de-facto language for writing exploits
• JavaScript Programming - In-browser development and scripting
• Node.js Programming by @sindresorhus - JavaScript in command-line
• Node.js Programming by @vndmtrx - JavaScript in command-line
• Python tools for penetration testers - Lots of pentesting tools are written in Python
• Python Programming by @svaksha - General Python programming
• Python Programming by @vinta - General Python programming
• Android Security - A collection of android security related resources
• Awesome Awesomness - The List of the Lists
• AppSec - Resources for learning about application security
• CTFs - Capture The Flag frameworks, libraries, etc
• Hacking - Tutorials, tools, and resources
• Honeypots - Honeypots, tools, components, and more
• Infosec - Information security resources for pentesting, forensics, and more
• Malware Analysis - Tools and resources for analysts
• PCAP Tools - Tools for processing network traffic
• Security - Software, libraries, documents, and other resources
• Awesome List - A curated list of awesome lists
• SecLists - Collection of multiple types of lists used during security assessments
• Security Talks - A curated list of security conferences

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

To the extent possible under law, Paul Veillard has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.