During the exploitation phase of your penetration test, you will need to get code to run on your target system. This can be done via phishing emails, an exploit, or social engineering. The blocker that you will have is antivirus software (be it the traditional variant or the next-generation variant). The most effective way to bypass an antivirus is to create your own customized payload. Before we dive into creating the payloads, let's consider a few tips:

• Reconnaissance plays an important role in antivirus evasion. Knowing what your target has is key. If you feel that you want to have a customized payload that avoids all antivirus products, you are misleading yourself. The time spent to achieve this will be too long, and with every vendor actively making improvements to their products, your payload will be detectable in no time at all. Narrow...