Ethical Hacking with Python and Bash: Automate Recon, Exploits, and Post-Exploitation Tasks for Real-World Penetration Testing

Unlock industrial-grade penetration testing skills and accelerate every stage of your security assessments with Ethical Hacking with Python and Bash: Automate Recon, Exploits, and Post-Exploitation Tasks for Real-World Penetration Testing by Wills H. Holmes-a seasoned red-team consultant and open-source contributor with more than a decade of hands-on experience in offensive cybersecurity. Why This Book Stands Out End-to-End Automation: Build a complete pipeline that links reconnaissance, vulnerability scanning, exploit delivery, privilege escalation, persistence, and reporting-powered entirely by Python and Bash. Battle-Tested Tools & Frameworks: Master practical use of Nmap, Masscan, Shodan, Hydra, Hashcat, Metasploit RPC, WMI, ProxyChains, Burp Suite API, and more-exactly as professionals deploy them in Kali Linux and cloud-native labs. Modern Threat Scenarios: Replicate cutting-edge attacks such as SMB relay, pass-the-hash, DNS data exfiltration, and automated CSRF testing, then learn how to evade common EDR and SIEM controls. Actionable Code Samples: Every chapter provides fully documented scripts, configuration files, and lab walkthroughs so you can drop the code into your own workflow or continuous security pipeline. Reporting & Evidence Handling: Generate Markdown / HTML reports, build tamper-proof evidence packages with SHA-256 verification, and meet the logging standards auditors expect. Who Should Read This Book Penetration Testers & Red Team Operators looking to automate tedious tasks and scale their engagements. System Administrators & DevSecOps Engineers who must harden infrastructure by understanding real attacker playbooks. Cybersecurity Students & OSCP Candidates seeking hands-on projects that bridge theory and real-world toolchains. Inside You'll Learn to Conduct passive and active recon at scale with Python, Bash, and open-source APIs. Parse vulnerability scans automatically and launch context-aware exploits through Metasploit RPC. Crack NTLM, SHA-1, and SHA-256 hashes with Hashcat and John in scripted workflows. Escalate privileges and maintain persistence using cron, systemd, WMI, and SSH key injection. Exfiltrate data covertly over HTTPS and DNS while throttling traffic to bypass DLP controls. Package logs, screenshots, and payloads into encrypted archives with verifiable hashes. Wills H. Holmes (OSCP, CISSP) has led global red-team engagements for Fortune 500 enterprises, trained hundreds of security engineers on Python and Bash automation, and contributed modules to both the Metasploit Framework and the PEASS-NG project. His pragmatic teaching style bridges deep technical detail with clear, actionable guidance that readers can apply immediately.