-pentester Academy- Network Pentesting -2013- Eng- __exclusive__

Retrospective Review: Pentester Academy’s “Network Pentesting” (2013, ENG) Published by: The Cyber Security Archive Course Code: PA-NP-2013 Language: English Introduction: The Golden Era of Hands-On Pentesting In the contemporary cybersecurity landscape, we are spoiled by automated exploitation frameworks (Cobalt Strike, Sliver), AI-assisted reconnaissance, and cloud-native attack vectors. However, to understand the present , one must respect the past . The year 2013 was a watershed moment for offensive security. Tools like Metasploit were maturing, PowerShell had not yet become a living-off-the-land staple, and EternalBlue was still a secret held by the NSA. It was in this environment that Pentester Academy —then an emerging challenger to SANS and Offensive Security—released its seminal course: “Network Pentesting” (2013, ENG) . This article provides a comprehensive analysis of that course, its curriculum structure, its relevance to modern pentesting, and why security professionals are still searching for this specific 2013 version today.

Part 1: Why the 2013 Version? The Context of the Time To appreciate the course, we must first set the stage of 2013-era networking.

Operating Systems: Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 dominated enterprises. Linux was still a niche desktop, but dominated servers. Wireless Security: WPA2 was standard, but WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) was still widely enabled, making brute-force attacks (like Pixie Dust) highly effective. Protocols in Use: SMBv1 was still the default for file sharing. SNMP v1/v2c leaked community strings like water from a sieve. LLMNR and NetBIOS-NS were ripe for spoofing. Evasion Tactics: IDS/IPS systems were signature-heavy; obfuscation was simpler.

The 2013 version of Pentester Academy’s course was unique because it was released before the massive shift to HTTPS everywhere, before Let’s Encrypt, and before the widespread adoption of 802.1X port security. It taught "pure" network pentesting—the gritty, packet-level reality of legacy corporate networks that, surprisingly, still exist in 2025. -Pentester Academy- Network Pentesting -2013- ENG-

Part 2: Course Structure – A Modular Journey The course, presented entirely in English , was structured as a series of video modules and hands-on lab exercises within Pentester Academy’s browser-based virtual environment. Unlike the verbose SANS workbooks, Pentester Academy focused on brevity and action. Module 1: Pre-Connection Attacks & Reconnaissance

Topics: Passive OS fingerprinting (p0f), active scanning (Nmap scripting engine - NSE), and ARP scanning. Key Takeaway: Learning to map a network without triggering alarms. The 2013 course emphasized nmap -sS -sV -O as the gold standard, long before masscan became popular. Lab: Discovering hidden wireless networks and spoofing MAC addresses on Linux (BackTrack 5 R3, the predecessor to Kali).

Module 2: Gaining Access – The “GATE” Attacks This module focused on attacking authentication mechanisms. Tools like Metasploit were maturing, PowerShell had not

Password Attacks: Hydra, Medusa, and Ncrack against SSH, FTP, and Telnet. Notably, this course predated Kerberoasting, so focus was on SMB password spraying. SMB Relay Attacks: Using smbrelayx from the Impacket suite (which was brand new in 2013). MS08-067 EternalBlue Predecessor: The course covered the infamous MS08-067 NetAPI vulnerability , which was still laughably common in 2013 enterprise networks.

Module 3: Post-Exploitation on the Network Once a foothold was gained, the course taught pivoting before "pivoting" was a standard CTF term.

Port Forwarding: Using plink (PuTTY Link) and SSH dynamic tunnels. Pass-the-Hash: Mimikatz was relatively new; the course showed how to use Windows Credential Editor (WCE) to inject hashes directly into memory. Packet Crafting: Introduction to Scapy for creating custom probes. Part 1: Why the 2013 Version

Module 4: Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) Mastery The crown jewel of the 2013 course. Modern courses teach BetterCAP; this course taught the original Ettercap and arpspoof .

Techniques: ARP poisoning, DNS spoofing, and session hijacking (tcpkill & hunt). SSL Stripping: Before HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) became universal, SSLstrip was devastating. The course provided a full walkthrough of Moxie Marlinspike’s original tool.