PEN Testing Noob

Networking & Firewalls
1

Hey guys, I’m new to network security and working on my Network+. In my xcp-ng test lab I’m running pfsense and Win10 Pro VMs connected via an internal vm nic. pfsense WAN is actually leaving the host to my home network.

I want to test what I’ve learned so far, see how I am doing. What safely downloadable tools can I use to PEN test my setup? I know I can just google it but I don’t trust anyone. I’m not looking for complex, maybe port scans and what not. Maybe there’s some native commands I can use with the OS. I plan on using another windows machine to see if i can get into that WinPro VM but if I need to use linux then I’ll have to dual-boot or something.

Anyways, I’m rambling. I just want to run “scans” and learn how to read my logs. I’m sure I can learn alot by attacking myself LOL

Thank You!!

2

Install Kali Linux as one of your VMs. There are many tools on that distro you can utilize to conduct reconnaissance and attacks on the network.

Do your research. Get very comfortable with the command-line (bash).

You may want to also download a copy of Win XP, too; Win 10 is resilient unless you know what you are doing, so punching at XP should give you some positive results and not beat you down, which will make your learning experience positive.

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