Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing - Final Project

 Final Project

     This project has been an eye-opening experience for me to understand the position of attackers and the importance of securing digital systems. Through this hands-on penetration testing, I gained practical knowledge in ethical hacking workflows, various tools, and the impacts of different vulnerabilities that are commonly overlooked by developers. 

        One of the things I learned is how important the information gathering phase is in penetration testing. Tools such as ffuf, Nmap, and WPScan are very helpful in finding out the overall structure of the WordPress site, finding exposed endpoints, and enumerating users. These steps act as the foundation or starting point in the penetration testing. The ability to utilize such small discoveries, such as usernames or outdated versions into bigger findings and exploitation is very important in penetration testing. 

        Furthermore, this project has led me to realize the importance of secure user credentials. Gaining access through the username 'kwheel' and exploiting the outdated WordPress version 5.0 sing the wp_crop_rce module in Metasploit showed how combining small vulnerabilities leads to major breaches. This highlights the importance of consistent patching and enforcing strong password policies.

        I also learned about privilege escalation techniques, especially the danger of insecure SUID binaries. By analyzing the /usr/sbin/checker binary, I was able to elevate privileges to root using an environment variable, which reinforced how misconfigured binaries can nullify even strong user-level security. This taught me the importance of secure coding practices and careful permission management.

        Furthermore, placing a backdoor in the WordPress theme highlights how attackers can maintain long-term access even after initial exploits are patched. This led me to understand the importance of continuous monitoring and regular integrity checks of system files.

        On a broader level, this project helped me think critically about real-world security systems and attacker strategies. It highlights the importance of identifying and documenting the process clearly for remediation. Writing the risk classification and recommendations sections improved my ability to communicate technical findings in a structured and actionable way.

        In conclusion, this project has greatly enhanced my technical, critical, problem-solving, and analytical skills, and it has deepened my understanding on penetration testing. I now feel more confident in assessing vulnerabilities and proposing mitigations, and I am interested in learning more things beyond what was learned in this course. 

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