SEC660: Advanced Penetration Testing, Exploit Writing, and Ethical Hacking

GIAC Exploit Researcher and Advanced Penetration Tester (GXPN)
GIAC Exploit Researcher and Advanced Penetration Tester (GXPN)
  • In Person (6 days)
  • Online
46 CPEs
SEC660 is designed as a logical progression point for students who have completed SEC560: Network Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking , or for those with existing penetration testing experience. This course provides you with in-depth knowledge of the most prominent and powerful attack vectors and furnishes an environment to perform these attacks in numerous hands-on scenarios. The course goes far beyond simple scanning for low-hanging fruit and teaches you how to model the abilities of an advanced attacker to find significant flaws in a target environment and demonstrate the business risk associated with these flaws. 30+ Hands-on Labs

What You Will Learn

SEC660: Advanced Penetration Testing, Exploit Writing, and Ethical Hacking is designed as a logical progression point for those who have completed SANS SEC560: Network Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking, or for those with existing penetration testing experience. Students with the prerequisite knowledge to take this course will walk through dozens of real-world attacks used by the most seasoned penetration testers. The methodology of a given attack is discussed, followed by exercises in a hands-on lab to consolidate advanced concepts and facilitate the immediate application of techniques in the workplace. Each day of the course includes a two-hour evening boot camp to drive home additional mastery of the techniques discussed. A sample of topics covered includes weaponizing Python for penetration testers, attacks against network access control (NAC) and virtual local area network (VLAN) manipulation, network device exploitation, breaking out of Linux and Windows restricted environments, IPv6, Linux privilege escalation and exploit-writing, testing cryptographic implementations, fuzzing, defeating modern OS controls such as address space layout randomization (ASLR) and data execution prevention (DEP), return-oriented programming (ROP), Windows exploit-writing, and much more!

Attackers are becoming more clever and their attacks more complex. To keep up with the latest attack methods, you need a strong desire to learn, the support of others, and the opportunity to practice and build experience. This course provides attendees with in-depth knowledge of the most prominent and powerful attack vectors and furnishes an environment to perform these attacks in numerous hands-on scenarios. The course goes far beyond simple scanning for low-hanging fruit and shows penetration testers how to model the abilities of an advanced attacker to find significant flaws in a target environment and demonstrate the business risk associated with these flaws.

SEC660 starts off by introducing advanced penetration concepts and providing an overview to prepare students for what lies ahead. The focus of day one is on network attacks, especially the areas often left untouched by testers. Topics include accessing, manipulating, and exploiting the network. Attacks are performed against NAC, VLANs, OSPF, 802.1X, CDP, IPv6, SSL, ARP, and others. Day two starts with a technical module on performing penetration testing against various cryptographic implementations, then turns to network booting attacks, escaping Linux restricted environments such as chroot, and escaping Windows restricted desktop environments. Day three jumps into an introduction of Python for penetration testing, Scapy for packet crafting, product security testing, network and application fuzzing, and code coverage techniques. Days four and five are spent exploiting programs on the Linux and Windows operating systems. You will learn to identify privileged programs, redirect the execution of code, reverse-engineer programs to locate vulnerable code, obtain code execution for administrative shell access, and defeat modern operating system controls such as ASLR, canaries, and DEP using ROP and other techniques. Local and remote exploits as well as client-side exploitation techniques are covered. The final course day is devoted to numerous penetration testing challenges that require students to solve complex problems and capture flags.

Among the biggest benefits of SEC660 is the expert-level hands-on guidance provided through the labs and the additional time allotted each evening to reinforce daytime material and master the exercises.

Business Takeaways:

  • Perform penetration testing safely against network devices such as routers, switches, and NAC implementations.
  • Test cryptographic implementations.
  • Leverage an unprivileged foothold for post exploitation and escalation.
  • Fuzz network and stand-alone applications.
  • Write exploits against applications running on Linux and Windows systems.
  • Bypass exploit mitigations such as ASLR, DEP, and stack canaries.

You Will Be Able To

  • Perform fuzz testing to enhance your company's SDL process.
  • Exploit network devices and assess network application protocols.
  • Escape from restricted environments on Linux and Windows.
  • Test cryptographic implementations.
  • Model the techniques used by attackers to perform 0-day vulnerability discovery and exploit development.
  • Develop more accurate quantitative and qualitative risk assessments through validation.
  • Demonstrate the needs and effects of leveraging modern exploit mitigation controls.
  • Reverse-engineer vulnerable code to write custom exploits.

Hands-On Training

  • Exploit routing protocol implementations such as OSPF.
  • Bypass different types of NAC implementations.
  • Exploit patch updates.
  • Perform man-in-the-middle attacks to remove SSL.
  • Perform IPv6 attacks.
  • Exploit poor cryptographic implementations using CBC bit flipping attacks and hash length extension attacks.
  • Hijack network booting environments.
  • Exploit virtualization implementations.
  • Write Python scripts to automate testing.
  • Write fuzzers to trigger bugs in software.
  • Reverse-engineer applications to locate code paths and identify potential exploitable bugs.
  • Debug Linux applications.
  • Debug Windows applications.
  • Write exploits against buffer overflow vulnerabilities.
  • Bypass exploit mitigations such as ASLR, DEP, stack canaries, SafeSEH, etc.
  • Use ROP to bypass or disable security controls.

What You Will Receive

  • Access to the in-class Virtual Training Lab for over 30 in-depth labs.
  • A course USB with many tools used for all in-house labs.
  • Virtual machines full of penetration testing tools and specimens specially calibrated and tested to work with all our labs and optimized for use in your own penetration tests.
  • Access to recorded course audio to help hammer home important network penetration testing lessons.

Syllabus (46 CPEs)

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  • Overview

    Section one serves as an advanced network attack module, building on knowledge gained from SEC560: Network Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking. The focus will be on obtaining access to the network; manipulating the network to gain an attack position for eavesdropping and attacks, and for exploiting network devices; leveraging weaknesses in network infrastructure; and taking advantage of client frailty.

    Topics
    • Bypassing network access/admission control (NAC)
    • Impersonating devices with admission control policy exceptions
    • Custom network protocol manipulation with Ettercap and custom filters
    • Multiple techniques for performing network-based tampering
    • IPv6 for penetration testers
    • Exploiting OSPF authentication to inject malicious routing updates
    • Overcoming TLS/SSL transport encryption security with SSL-stripping
  • Overview

    Section two starts by taking a tactical look at techniques that penetration testers can use to investigate and exploit common cryptography mistakes. We begin by building some fundamental knowledge on how ciphers operate, without getting bogged down in complex mathematics. Then we move on to techniques for identifying, assessing, and attacking real-world crypto implementations. We finish the module with lab exercises that allow students to practice their newfound crypto attack skill set against reproduced real-world application vulnerabilities.

    The section continues with advanced techniques but focuses more on post exploitation tasks. We leverage an initial foothold to further exploit the rest of the network. We abuse allowed features to escape restricted environments. First we will build up knowledge of local restrictions on hosts. Once we establish a set of possible restrictions, we leverage that knowledge to circumvent them. We will cover the core components that restrict the desktop and a variety of escape possibilities. The Kiosk escape exercise is a perfect, real-world demonstration of the risks of relying on obfuscation and deny controls to thwart attacks.

    As a major factor in post exploitation, we cover both exploiting administrator's use of PowerShell and PowerShell attack tools. We'll use specialized and alternative tools to escalate privileges, pivot, and deliver additional payloads. The section ends with a challenging boot camp exercise against a full network environment comprised of a variety of modern, representative, and fully patched systems with no obvious remote vulnerabilities.

    Topics
    • Pen testing cryptographic implementations
    • Exploiting CBC bit flipping vulnerabilities
    • Exploiting hash length extension vulnerabilities
    • Delivering malicious operating systems to devices using network booting and PXE
    • PowerShell as a victim
    • PowerShell as an attacker
    • Post Exploitation with PowerShell and alternatives
    • Escaping Software Restrictions
    • Two-hour Capture the Flag exercise against an enterprise Data Loss Prevention solution
  • Overview

    Section 3 brings together the multiple skill sets needed for creative analysis in penetration testing. We start by discussing product security testing. The section continues with a focus on how to leverage Python as a penetration tester - the aim is to help students unfamiliar with Python start modifying scripts to add their own functionality, while also helping seasoned Python scripters improve their skills. Once we leverage the Python skills in creative lab exercises, we move on to leveraging Scapy for custom network targeting and protocol manipulation. Using Scapy, we examine techniques for transmitting and receiving network traffic beyond what canned tools can accomplish, including IPv6. Next, we take a look at network protocol and file format fuzzing. We leverage fuzzing to target both common network protocols and popular file formats for bug discovery. We use hands-on exercises to develop custom protocol fuzzing grammars to discover bugs in popular software. Finally, we carefully discuss the concept of code coverage and how it goes hand-in-hand with fuzzing. We will conduct a lab using the DynamRio instruction manipulation library and IDA Pro to demonstrate the techniques discussed.

    Topics
    • Becoming familiar with Python types
    • Leveraging Python modules for real-world pen tester tasks
    • Manipulating stateful protocols with Scapy
    • Using Scapy to create a custom wireless data leakage tool
    • Product security testing
    • Using Sulley for quick protocol mutation fuzzing
    • Optimizing your fuzzing time with smart target selection
    • Automating target monitoring while fuzzing with Sulley
    • Source code-assisted binary fuzzing and code coverage measurement using AFL++
    • Block-based code coverage techniques using DynamoRio
  • Overview

    Section four begins by walking through memory from an exploitation perspective as well as introducing x86 and x86-64 assembler and linking and loading. These topics are important for anyone performing penetration testing at an advanced level. Processor registers are directly manipulated by testers and must be intimately understood. Disassembly is a critical piece of testing and will be used throughout the remainder of the course. We will take a look at the Linux OS from an exploitation perspective and discuss privilege escalation. We continue by describing how to look for SUID programs and other likely points of vulnerabilities and misconfigurations. The material will focus on techniques that are critical to performing penetration testing on Linux applications.

    We then go heavily into stack overflows on Linux to gain privilege escalation and code execution. We will first cover using a debugger to expose weak passwords. Then we will go over redirection of program execution and, finally, code execution. Techniques such as return to buffer and return to C library (ret2libc) will be covered, as well as an introduction to return-oriented programming. The remainder of the section takes students through techniques used to defeat or bypass OS protections such as stack canaries and address space layout randomization (ASLR). The goal of this section is to expose students to common obstacles on modern Linux-based systems.

    Topics
    • Stack memory management and allocation on the Linux OS
    • Disassembling a binary and analyzing x86/x86-64 assembly code
    • Performing symbol resolution on the Linux OS
    • Identifying vulnerable programs
    • Code execution redirection
    • Identifying and analyzing stack-based overflows on the Linux OS
    • Performing return-to-libc (ret2libc) attacks on the stack
    • Return-oriented programming
    • Defeating stack protection on the Linux OS
    • Defeating ASLR on the Linux OS
  • Overview

    Section five starts off covering the OS security features (ASLR, DEP, etc.) added to the Windows OS over the years as well as Windows-specific constructs, such as the process environment block (PEB), structured exception handling (SEH), thread information block (TIB), and the Windows application programming interfaces (API). Differences between Linux and Windows will be covered. These topics are critical in assessing Windows-based applications. We then focus on stack-based attacks against programs running on the Windows OS. After finding a vulnerability in an application, the student will work with Immunity Debugger to turn the bug into an opportunity for code execution and privilege escalation. Advanced stack-based techniques such as disabling data execution prevention (DEP) are covered. Client-side exploitation will be introduced, as it is a highly common area of attack. We continue with the topic of return-oriented programming (ROP), demonstrating the technique against a vulnerable application, while looking at defeating hardware DEP and address space layout randomization (ASLR) and Windows 10. Finally, we will take a quick look at shellcode and the differences between shellcode on Linux and Windows, followed by a ROP challenge.

    Topics
    • The state of Windows OS protections on the Windows OS
    • Understanding common Windows constructs
    • Stack exploitation on Windows
    • Defeating OS protections added to Windows
    • Creating a Metasploit module
    • Advanced stack-smashing on Windows
    • Using ROP
    • Building ROP chains to defeat DEP and bypass ASLR
    • Windows 10 exploitation
    • Client-side exploitation
    • Windows Shellcode
  • Overview

    This section will serve as a real-world challenge for students by requiring them to utilize skills they have learned throughout the course, think outside the box, and solve a range of problems from simple to complex. A web server scoring system and Capture the Flag engine will be provided to score students as they capture flags. More difficult challenges will be worth more points. In this offensive exercise, challenges range from local privilege escalation to remote exploitation on both Linux and Windows systems, as well as networking attacks and other challenges related to the course material.

GIAC Exploit Researcher and Advanced Penetration Tester

The GIAC Exploit Researcher and Advanced Penetration Tester (GXPN) certification validates a practitioner's ability to find and mitigate significant security flaws in systems and networks. GXPN certification holders have the skills to conduct advanced penetration tests and model the behavior of attackers to improve system security, and the knowledge to demonstrate the business risk associated with these behaviors.

  • Network Attacks, Cryptography, and Restricted Environments
  • Python, Scapy, and Fuzzing
  • Exploiting Windows and Linux for Penetration Testers
More Certification Details

Prerequisites

This is a fast-paced, advanced course that requires a strong desire to learn advanced penetration testing and custom exploitation techniques. The following SANS courses are recommended either prior to or as a companion to taking this course:

Experience with programming in any language is highly recommended. At a minimum, students are advised to read up on basic programming concepts. Python is the primary language used during class exercises, while programs written in C and C++ code are the primary languages being reversed and exploited. The basics of programming will not be covered in this course, although there is an introductory module on Python.

You should also be well versed with the fundamentals of penetration testing prior to taking this course. Familiarity with Linux and Windows is mandatory. A solid understanding of TCP/IP and networking concepts is required. Please contact the author at stephen@deadlisting.com if you have any questions or concerns about the prerequisites.

Laptop Requirements

Important! Bring your own system configured according to these instructions.

A properly configured system is required to fully participate in this course. If you do not carefully read and follow these instructions, you will not be able to fully participate in hands-on exercises in your course. Therefore, please arrive with a system meeting all of the specified requirements.

Back up your system before class. Better yet, use a system without any sensitive/critical data. SANS is not responsible for your system or data.

MANDATORY SEC660 SYSTEM HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
  • CPU: 64-bit Intel i5/i7 (8th generation or newer), or AMD equivalent. A x64 bit, 2.0+ GHz or newer processor is mandatory for this class.
  • CRITICAL: Apple systems using the M1/M2 processor line cannot perform the necessary virtualization functionality and therefore cannot in any way be used for this course.
  • BIOS settings must be set to enable virtualization technology, such as "Intel-VTx" or "AMD-V" extensions. Be absolutely certain you can access your BIOS if it is password protected, in case changes are necessary.
  • 8GB of RAM or more is required.
  • 100GB of free storage space or more is required.
  • At least one available USB 3.0 Type-A port. A Type-C to Type-A adapter may be necessary for newer laptops. Some endpoint protection software prevents the use of USB devices, so test your system with a USB drive before class.
  • Wireless networking (802.11 standard) is required. There is no wired Internet access in the classroom.
MANDATORY SEC660 HOST CONFIGURATION AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
  • Your host operating system must be the latest version of Windows 10, Windows 11, or macOS 10.15.x or newer.
  • Fully update your host operating system prior to the class to ensure you have the right drivers and patches installed.
  • Linux hosts are not supported in the classroom due to their numerous variations. If you choose to use Linux as your host, you are solely responsible for configuring it to work with the course materials and/or VMs.
  • Local Administrator Access is required. (Yes, this is absolutely required. Don't let your IT team tell you otherwise.) If your company will not permit this access for the duration of the course, then you should make arrangements to bring a different laptop.
  • You should ensure that antivirus or endpoint protection software is disabled, fully removed, or that you have the administrative privileges to do so. Many of our courses require full administrative access to the operating system and these products can prevent you from accomplishing the labs.
  • Any filtering of egress traffic may prevent accomplishing the labs in your course. Firewalls should be disabled or you must have the administrative privileges to disable it.
  • Download and install VMware Workstation Pro 16.2.X+ or VMware Player 16.2.X+ (for Windows 10 hosts), VMware Workstation Pro 17.0.0+ or VMware Player 17.0.0+ (for Windows 11 hosts), or VMWare Fusion Pro 12.2+ or VMware Fusion Player 11.5+ (for macOS hosts) prior to class beginning. If you do not own a licensed copy of VMware Workstation Pro or VMware Fusion Pro, you can download a free 30-day trial copy from VMware. VMware will send you a time-limited serial number if you register for the trial at their website. Also note that VMware Workstation Player offers fewer features than VMware Workstation Pro. For those with Windows host systems, Workstation Pro is recommended for a more seamless student experience.
  • On Windows hosts, VMware products might not coexist with the Hyper-V hypervisor. For the best experience, ensure VMware can boot a virtual machine. This may require disabling Hyper-V. Instructions for disabling Hyper-V, Device Guard, and Credential Guard are contained in the setup documentation that accompanies your course materials.
  • Download and install 7-Zip (for Windows Hosts) or Keka (for macOS hosts). These tools are also included in your downloaded course materials.

Your course media is delivered via download. The media files for class can be large. Many are in the 40-50GB range, with some over 100GB. You need to allow plenty of time for the download to complete. Internet connections and speed vary greatly and are dependent on many different factors. Therefore, it is not possible to give an estimate of the length of time it will take to download your materials. Please start your course media downloads as soon as you get the link. You will need your course media immediately on the first day of class. Do not wait until the night before class to start downloading these files.

Your course materials include a "Setup Instructions" document that details important steps you must take before you travel to a live class event or start an online class. It may take 30 minutes or more to complete these instructions.

Your class uses an electronic workbook for its lab instructions. In this new environment, a second monitor and/or a tablet device can be useful for keeping class materials visible while you are working on your course's labs.

If you have additional questions about the laptop specifications, please contact support.

Author Statement

When conducting an in-depth penetration test, we are often faced with situations that require unique or complex solutions to successfully pull off an attack, mimicking the activities of increasingly sophisticated real-world attackers. Without the skills to identify and implement those solutions, you may miss a major vulnerability or not properly assess its business impact. Target system personnel are relying on you to tell them whether an environment is secured. Attackers are almost always one step ahead and are relying on our nature to become complacent, even with regard to the very controls we worked so hard to deploy. This course was written to keep you from making mistakes others have made, teach you cutting-edge tricks to thoroughly evaluate a target, and provide you with the skills to jump into exploit development. Contact me at stephen@deadlisting.com if you have any questions about the course!

- Stephen Sims (Lead Author)

Reviews

SEC660 has been nothing less than excellent. Both the instructor and assistant are subject-matter experts who have extensive knowledge covering all aspects of the topics covered and then some.
Brian Anderson
Northrop Grumman Corporation
No frills and goes right to the point. The first day alone is what other classes spend a full week on.
Michael Isbitski
Verizon Wireless
The quality of the labs and coursework in SEC660 showcases the value SANS training has over other providers. It was an excellent, challenging, and rewarding course."
Michael R.
U.S. Military

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