1. Penetration Testing
Karen Miller

2. Purpose Using a variety of tools and resources;
While acting as an attacker;
In order to test an organization’s defenses;

3. Steps
Define your scope and goal; why are you performing the penetration test?
Reconnaissance; gather information on target (open ports, operating system, IP addresses, etc.)
Enumeration; use gathered information to identify potential entry points
Vulnerability scanning/exploitation; discover and exploit vulnerabilities
Report findings including possible methods of strengthening defenses

4. Vulnerability Scanning
Finding weaknesses in computers, networks, and applications;
To find possible methods of strengthening the system;
Or to exploit the system in order to gain more information about weaknesses.

5. Vulnerability Scanning Tools
Nessus: network vulnerability scanner (Linux, OSX, Windows)
Nikto: web application security scanner (Linux, OSX, Windows)
OpenVAS: vulnerability scanning/management tools (Linux, Windows)
w3af: vulnerability scanner/exploitation tool (Linux, OSX, Windows)

6. Damn Vulnerable Web Application (DVWA)
PHP/MySQL web application
Variety of web app vulnerabilities to test your skills with
i.e. Command injection, SQL injection

7. Nikto
nikto –host
+ OSVDB-3268: /dvwa/config/: Directory indexing found. + /dvwa/config/: Configuration information may be available remotely. + OSVDB-12184: /dvwa/?=PHPB8B5F2A0-3C92-11d3-A3A9-4C7B08C10000: PHP reveals potentially sensitive information via certain HTTP requests that contain specific QUERY strings.
Go to: and search for “OSVDB-XXXX” for more information on the vulnerability
i.e. which shows details about the OSVDB-3268 vulnerability Nikto detected

8. OpenVAS
You can add targets by going to Configuration > Targets > New Target (star button)
To set up a scan, go to Scan Management > Tasks > New Task
Give your scan a name, select a target, and for “Scan Config” select “Full and very deep ultimate”
Create the task, then hit the green play button to start the scan

9. Sources
testing-assessing-security-attackers-34635
room/whitepapers/threats/vulnerabilities-vulnerability-scanning-1195
linux.html
vulnerability-scanner-how-to-use-openvas-on-kali-debian-linux/