Step 3 – Exploitation

This step exploits vulnerabilities found to verify if the vulnerabilities are real and what possible information or access can be obtained. Exploitation separates Penetration Testing services from passive services such as Vulnerability Assessments and Audits. Exploitation and all the following steps have legal ramifications without authorization from the asset owners of the target.

The success of this step is heavily dependent on previous efforts. Most exploits are developed for specific vulnerabilities and can cause undesired consequences if executed incorrectly. Best practice is identifying a handful of vulnerabilities and developing an attack strategy based on leading with the most vulnerable first.

Exploiting targets can be manual or automated depending on the end objective. Some examples are running SQL Injections to gain admin access to a web application or social engineering a Helpdesk person into providing admin login credentials.

Kali Linux offers a dedicated catalog of tools titled Exploitation Tools for exploiting targets that range from exploiting specific services to social engineering packages.

The following is the list of Exploitation goals:

• Exploit vulnerabilities
• Obtain foothold
• Capture unauthorized data
• Aggressively social engineer
• Attack other systems or applications
• Document findings