Table of contents : Introduction Chapter One: Using Linux on Virtual Machines Installing a Workstation Player Choose the Correct Distro Linux Distros Setting Up the Virtual Machine Customizing Virtual Hardware Download and Install Tools Installing Linux on VMware Running Linux on a Virtual Machine Installing a Linux Distro on a Windows Virtual Machine Chapter Two: Securing User Accounts on Linux Don’t Login Using a Root Account Using Sudo Accounts Reducing the Damage Fine-Grained Permissions Managing User Account Security Adding New Users Disable Root Login Password Policies in Linux Restrict SSH Access Understanding Account Privileges Manage Linux User Accounts Reducing Privileges Managing Passwords Reduce the Use of Shared Accounts Control Access to Accounts Maintain Logs Record and Manage Privileged Activity Notify or Alert in Case of Suspicious Activity Unify and Centralize Chapter Three: Securing Servers Using Firewalls Ports Using the Firewall-cmd Interface Bock Everything Creating a Zone Removing or Adding Services Unblocking a Service Removing and Adding Ports Walls of Fire Chapter Four: Securing Your Server Updating Servers Regularly Creating a Secondary User Account Setting up SSH Keys Checking and Configuring the Firewall Limiting the Use of Open Ports Setting Up Live Kernel Patches Hardening the Kernel Hardening User Space Using Secure Boot Setting Up Two-Factor Authentication Step One Step Two Step Three Step Four Step Five Turning Off Internet Protocols Understanding the Applications/Tools before Installation Removing Unnecessary Startup Processes Reviewing Activities Regularly Start Backing Up Only Install the Things You Need Use SELinux Securing the Console Access Restricting the Use of Old Passwords Checking Listening Ports Disabling Login through the Root Change Ports Disabling Shortcuts Logging In Without Passwords Use fail2ban Creating a New Privileged Account Uploading the SSH Key Securing SSH Creating a Firewall Removing Unused Network Services Chapter Five: Password Encryption Methods in Linux Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) and Public-Key Cryptography S/MIME, SSL and S-HTTP S/MIME SSL S-HTTP Linux IPSEC Implementation Secure Telnet (stelnet) and Secure Shell (ssh) Pluggable Authentication Modules or PAM CIPE or Cryptographic IP Encapsulation Using Shadow Passwords John the Ripper and Crack Chapter Six: Tools to Encrypt and Decrypt Password Protected Files GNU Privacy Guard or GnuPG Bcrypt Ccrypt 4-Zip Openssl 7-Zip Nautilus Encryption Utility Encryption Decryption Chapter Seven: Using Tools to Encrypt Files on Linux Tomb Cryptmount CryFS GnuPG VeraCrypt EncFS 7-zip Dm-crypt eCryptfs Cryptsetup Chapter Eight: Using Cryptsetup to Setup Encrypted Filesystems and Swap Space Using a Drive, Loop Device, or Partition for Encryption Testing the Encryption Installing cryptsetup Setting the Encrypted Partition Testing Encryption Adding Additional Layers of Security Chapter Nine: Using Access Control Lists in Linux Introduction to Access Control Lists (ACL) Uses of ACL List of Commands to Set Up ACLs Adding Permissions to Users Adding Permissions to Groups Allowing Files and Directories to Inherit ACL Entries Removing a Specific Entry in the ACL Removing Entries in ACL Modifying the ACL Adding Permissions for Users Adding Permissions to Groups Allow Files or Directories to Inherit the ACL Entries Viewing ACL Removing ACL Using Default ACLs Chapter Ten: Downloading and Installing Kali Linux Downloading Kali Linux Hard Disk Installation Booting Kali Linux for the First Time Setting the Defaults Initial Network Setup Password System Clock Disk Partitioning Configuring the Packet Manager Installing the GRUB Loader Completing the Installation USB Drive Installation Windows Non-Persistent Installation Linux Persistent Installation Chapter Eleven: The Penetration Testing Life Cycle The Five Stages of the Penetration Testing Life Cycle Stage 1: Reconnaissance Stage 2: Scanning Stage 3: Exploitation Stage 4: Maintaining Access Stage 5: Reporting Chapter Twelve: Scanning Network Traffic Firewalls and Ports PING Traceroute Nmap: The King of Scanners Conclusion References