Practical Linux for Pentesting & Bug Bounties 2025

Launch a Parrot OS virtual machine, open the terminal, and learn essential commands like ls, who am I, and hostname to see the user and machine information.

Learn how to install VirtualBox, set up a virtual machine, and configure basic settings (RAM, dynamically allocated storage, and an ISO) to run Windows 7 64-bit for pen testing practice.

Install and configure VMware Workstation Player on Windows or Linux, create a virtual machine, and explore basic settings to run Linux operating systems like Ubuntu or Kali Linux.

Download the 64-bit kali linux iso from kali.org, create a vmware workstation 16 player machine, attach the iso, and perform a graphical install with hostname hacktify, a user, partitioning, grub.

Install Kali Linux in VirtualBox on a Windows host by downloading the Kali ISO, configuring a Debian 64-bit VM, and booting to install.

download and unzip a ready-made kali linux vmware setup from kali.org, import the virtual machine, adjust memory to 4 gb, boot, and log in with username kali and password kali.

Install Kali Linux as a virtual machine in VirtualBox by importing the OVA file, then adjust memory and network settings and log in with Kali Kali.

Understand the Windows boot process from bios to the login screen. Examine the bootloader, boot files, kernel, services, and the SAM and LSA security checks.

Follow the Linux boot process from BIOS to run levels, detailing how BIOS loads the MBR, GRUB selects a kernel, the kernel starts init, and run levels launch startup scripts.

Discover how to reset the root password on Kali Linux using grub, from the boot menu to password management, for secure access recovery.

Learn to secure grub by generating a pbkdf2 hash with grub-mkpassword, then configure /etc/grub.d/40_custom with a root password and hash, refresh grub config, and reboot to prompt grub authentication.

Explore how package managers verify integrity with checksums and certificates, learn to install, upgrade, and remove packages with yum, apt, dpkg, brew, rpm, and Chocolatey on Red Hat, macOS, Windows.

Learn how yum, a rpm-based package manager, installs and removes packages on Red Hat based systems like CentOS, Red Hat, and Fedora, resolving dependencies automatically when using sudo.

Learn how to use homebrew, the brew package manager for macOS or Linux, to install, update, and verify packages like wget with automatic dependencies.

Learn how dpkg, a Debian-based package manager, handles manual installation and dependency resolution. Use apt-get install to automatically install dependencies for curl.

This lesson explains rpm, the Red Hat package manager, and how .rpm files require dependencies like glibc and libnettle, contrasting manual installs with automatic dependency resolution by package managers.

Discover how Chocolatey, a Windows package manager, simplifies installing, removing, upgrading, and updating software with a large repository of over 4,000 packages, including VLC and Python, via simple commands.

Master apt, the advanced package tool on Kali Linux, a command line package manager for installing, removing, updating, and upgrading software. Read the manual with man to understand commands.

Learn to search for packages by description when you don't know the name, using apt search and apt show to inspect details for a GUI FTP client.

Learn to install and remove packages on linux using apt, including apt install and apt remove. Verify tools with apt show and practice using filezilla for ftp transfers.

Update packages by running apt update to refresh repositories, check for newer versions, and upgrade 332 packages to the latest versions, addressing bugs and security fixes.

Learn how to upgrade all installed packages to their latest versions using apt update and upgrade, confirm prompts, and anticipate a 10 to 15 minute update process.

Add and manage custom repositories in Kali Linux by editing /etc/apt/sources.list and sources.list.d, updating apt, and installing tools such as Google Chrome, ProtonVPN, and Signal.

Explore how the Synaptic graphical package manager, based on GTK Plus and apt, lets you install and remove software via a simple GUI, illustrated with Cherry Tree.

Clone and install tools not in official repos using git clone from GitHub on kali linux. Demonstrate with sublistr, a python tool for subdomain enumeration, to show practical usage.

Explore essential Linux system information commands used in pentesting, including uname, uname -a, and cat /proc/version. Determine uptime, hostname, IP address with hostname -i, last reboot, date, cal, and w.

Learn essential linux hardware information commands, including dmesg, /proc/cpuinfo, free -h, lspci, lsusb, dmidecode, and df, to inspect kernel messages, cpu and memory details, peripherals, bios data, and disk usage.

Learn to monitor Linux performance using top and htop to view processes, memory, and CPU usage. Explore mpstat, vmstat, iostat, and syslog, including tailing logs for real-time insights.

Learn linux performance monitoring with lsof to list open files, free for memory, du and df for disk usage, and watch or top for real-time updates.

Learn to view user info and manage accounts in Linux using id, last, who, and w, and create, modify, and delete users and groups with groupadd, useradd, and userdel.