Five Sentence Abstract:
The first part deals with identifying a target and then performing active and passive reconnaissance to lookup DNS records, conduct port scans, and utilize various open source intelligence techniques, among many other options. Next, vulnerability databases and tools, like Metasploit and Veil Evasion, that give easy access to potential access points to a system are covered alongside a lighter look at things like shellcode. Less technical attack vectors are explored when looking at social engineering attacks, like spoofing a website, that can be quickly created with tools like SET, the Social Engineers Toolkit. The ubiquitousness of wireless access demands its inclusion but is only touched upon as a general introduction to a potentially detailed topic. Lastly, web application vulnerabilities are tested with frameworks like Beef with some minor asides into some of the specific vulnerabilities - like SQL injection.
Thoughts:
A good general introduction to what you can do with Kali, for the most part out
of the box, but I'd have to say "Mastering" and "Advanced" is a bit of a
stretch. Given the breadth of topics covered, each of which can be explored in
books of their own, the information is, although sometimes dated, top-notch.
For example, something like nmap is covered only in the most basic how to use
sense. Although intrusion detection systems are mentioned, and the noisiness of
scans also mentioned, there is nothing that would be considered advanced. There
is a small library of books written on nmap alone while it is only one of
dozens of programs highlighted in this one.
