Hard time choosing a direction

[Nedrin]

So, I've always been interested in hacking ever since I got in contact with computers as a child. I never followed up on it though.

Anyway, I've been following a course this year which included ccna 1-4, windows server, and some linux basics.

This just made it even harder for me to create a picture of what knowledge is needed to start pentesting, it seems like everything I come in contact with is something that you need knowledge of..

For example:

Linux,

Windows server,

Powershell,

Networking (cisco, citrix, ...)

A programming language, or multiple ones

Windows Clients,

Ive been following the CBT nuggets on Kali linux but it's ridiculous to just type over commands without exactly knowing what they are doing.

I guess my question is kind of what direction I should be going with the knowledge I have, what should I learn next, what kind of hacks should I attempt.

I am aware that my thread is all of the place, its just hard wanting to learn something but not knowing where to look.

So any tips are welcome, forums that I should join, websites, chatrooms, etc etc....

Thanks in advance!

[cooper]

Well, here's an easy place to start:

Ive been following the CBT nuggets on Kali linux but it's ridiculous to just type over commands without exactly knowing what they are doing.

Dissect those commands you're giving. Read the man pages of the program(s) used and learn what each part does and possibly also the other functions that program might have. Play around with it a little. Consider making a small lab for yourself to play around with. Doesn't have to be high-end. The ASRock E350M1 is readily available for about 55 euros. Add a few gigs of storage, some memory and a PSU, install Linux with Xen or regular Linux with a few VirtualBox instances on it and voila! You've got yourself a lab. Play around with that. Give yourself a task to perform and then follow through to the best of your abilities. Figure out what your perceived weaknesses are and work on those.

Subscribe to mailinglists like security focus and try to reproduce the results others have achieved. Look and understand what it is they're doing - their techniques might apply just as well to some other service you've set up on your lab and couldn't subvert to do your bidding.

Don't settle for 'close enough' - follow through and do what you do as best you can. Then see what you can do to make it even better (faster, less visible, using a different attack vector...). The most important part is to NEVER STOP LEARNING!

If you want to do this for a living, go through the job adverts and look at what they're asking. See how much of that you've got covered and what's lacking. Judge for yourself if that's something you want to work on yourself or if you feel it's sufficiently specific for this employer to say they should just send you on a course for that (which obviously implies that you score really well on the other things they want, otherwise you should just skip to the next one). Most of the recruitement people are on twitter and the like. Get in contact with them. Just ask straight up what you would need to have to be able to apply for a job with them. Chances are they'll be very helpful (note that your twitter feed should only contain stuff fit for public consumption). If they say "Follow course X" and you tweet some time later "I passed course X" it might just turn out they'll ask you in for an interview.

Bottom line here is that you should maneuver yourself into the focus of your prospective employer and work hard to show that you've got what it is they're looking for. And remember that for these kinds of gigs, it's not just technical - you need to be able to explain to a noob in a friendly, understanding and respectful manner what they're doing wrong. If you can do that, you're well on your way to a bright future.

[koolkarnt]

Ever heard of Atlantis? they say the true treasure of that fabled city was knowlage. And this my freind is what I would do if I were you - Learn it all!
I have been for the last four years mastering each system type - linux, mac os/ios, chrome os, windows os's (98 to current) andriods, and so on. My job is actualy end user problem support. thus I need to know how to support them all.

Practical applications and purpose, drive your direction until its exhausted - then along comes another problem - another practical application and another purpose.
Knowing all of this gives you a great understadning of end users, their habits, their preffered applications, preffered os's giving you further ideas.. you seeing where I am going?
Wireless is certainly the area Im working on at the moment as they say "by 2016 - the average office will be wireless" and they mean wireless hardware to wifi networks to bluetooth and so on.
The euro fellow who hacks porches and railway bill boards uses wireless to achive his cool tricks. - but keep up to speed with wired too. after all you have CCNA.
Hope that helps you some.

[i8igmac]

I would start with nmap. follow some irongeek nmap tutorials. Discover the devices on your network. find open ports on these devices and how to use the service.

As cooper said disect each command nmap -h

metasploit is also fun and will have u hooked. Install damn vulnerable os

iron geek also has some old videos on metasploit