In this chapter, we began to build a solid foundation as you learned about penetration testing and how it differs from vulnerability and red team assessments. We defined the importance of leveraging a methodology or standard for penetration testing, such as the PTES standard and the various phases within it. Within each phase, we discussed what is involved and highlighted some important facets that should not be overlooked, such as the "get out of jail free card". Lastly, we looked at a lab environment, the various hypervisors that currently exist, and how to build a Metasploitable lab environment for future use.

In the next chapter (Chapter 2, Getting Started with Kali Linux), we will dive into Kali Linux to explore the different install options for Kali Linux and some initial configuration that is required. We will explore some of the essential tools within...