SECURITY 560

Network Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking

IMPORTANT NOTE: SANS Security 560 is one of the most technically rigorous courses offered by the SANS Institute. Attendees are expected to have a working knowledge of TCP/IP, cryptographic routines such as DES, AES, and MD5, and the Windows and Linux command lines before they step into class. Although SANS Security 401 (Security Essentials) and then next SANS Security 504 (Hacker Techniques, Exploits, and Incident Handling) are not pre-requisites for 560, these courses cover the groundwork that all 560 attendees are expected to know. While 560 is technically in-depth, it is important to note that programming knowledge is NOT required for the course.

Find Security Flaws Before the Bad Guys Do

Security vulnerabilities, such as weak configurations, unpatched systems, and botched architectures, continue to plague organizations. Enterprises need people who can find these flaws in a professional manner to help eradicate them from our infrastructures. Lots of people claim to have penetration testing, ethical hacking, and security assessment skills, but precious few can apply these skills in a methodical regimen of professional testing to help make an organization more secure. This class covers the ingredients for successful network penetration testing to help attendees improve their enterprise's security stance.

We address detailed pre-test planning, including setting up an effective penetration testing infrastructure and establishing ground rules with the target organization to avoid surprises and misunderstanding. Then, we discuss a time-tested methodology for penetration and ethical hacking across the network, evaluating the security of network services and the operating systems behind them.

Attendees will learn how to perform detailed reconnaissance, learning about a target's infrastructure by mining blogs, search engines, and social networking sites. We'll then turn our attention to scanning, experimenting with numerous tools in hands-on exercises. Our exploitation phase will include the use of exploitation frameworks, stand-alone exploits, and other valuable tactics, all with hands-on exercises in our lab environment. The class also discusses how to prepare a final report, tailored to maximize the value of the test from both a management and technical perspective. The final portion of the class includes a comprehensive hands-on exercise, conducting a penetration test against a hypothetical target organization, following all of the steps.

The course also describes the limitations of penetration testing techniques and other practices that can be used to augment penetration testing to find vulnerabilities in architecture, policies, and processes. We also address how penetration testing should be integrated as a piece of a comprehensive enterprise information security program.

Differentiators

This SANS course differs from other penetration testing and ethical hacking courses in several important ways:

• We get deep into the tools arsenal with numerous hands-on exercises that show subtle, less-well-known, and undocumented features that are incredibly useful for professional penetration testers and ethical hackers.
• The course discusses how the tools interrelate with each other in an overall testing process. Rather than just throwing up a bunch of tools and playing with them, we analyze how to leverage information from one tool to get the most bang out of the next tool.
• We focus on the workflow of professional penetration testers and ethical hackers, proceeding step-by-step discussing the most effective means for conducting projects.
• The sessions address common pitfalls that arise in penetration tests and ethical hacking projects, providing real-world strategies and tactics for avoiding these problems to maximize the quality of test results.
• We cover several timesaving tactics based on years of in-the-trenches experience from real penetration testers and ethical hackers, actions that might take hours or days unless you know the little secrets we'll cover that will let you surmount a problem in minutes.
• The course stresses the mind-set of successful penetration testers and ethical hackers, which involves balancing the often contravening forces of creative "outside-the-box" thinking, methodical trouble-shooting, carefully weighing risks, following a time-tested process, painstakingly documenting results, and creating a high quality final report that achieves management and technical buy-in.
• We also analyze how penetration testing and ethical hacking should fit into a comprehensive enterprise information security program.

If you sign up for SEC560 now or have already taken it in the past, check out this new perfect follow-on course to build your skills even further, taking your pen test regimen to a whole new level!

The Best Information Security conference I have attended yet.
-Chris Bimson, Compass Systems, Inc.

Author Statement

Successful penetration testers don't just throw a bunch of hacks against an organization and regurgitate the output of their tools. Instead, they need to understand how these tools work indepth, and conduct their test in a careful, professional manner. This course explains the inner workings of numerous tools and their use in effective network penetration testing and ethical hacking projects. When teaching the class, I particularly enjoy the numerous hands-on exercises culminated with a final pen-testing extravaganza lab.
- Ed Skoudis