The word hacker itself has a negative impression. But there are people out there working upon finding security flaws and exploiting them in order to improve their security parameters. They are categorized as Ethical Hackers. For beginners, it is always difficult to find the starting point in order to learn ethical hacking. Experts always recommend us to read ethical hacking books initially to grasp the theoretical principles. These 5 best ethical hacking books mentioned below will get you started with very basics and move you towards actually performing ethical hacking tasks.
Also check our list of Best Linux Books for begginers.
Best ethical hacking books for advance and beginners
1. Metasploit: The penetration tester’s guide
First one on this list of best ethical hacking books is Metasploit: The penetration tester’s guide. This book offers Penetration testing guide by making use of the open source Metasploit Framework tool. It’s suitable for readers who have no prior knowledge of Metasploit. The tutorial-like type of this book teaches you things by making you do them. Metasploit is one of the best penetration choice of ethical hackers when it comes to testing a system for security weaknesses. Metasploit is not just a tool, it’s a framework which allows you to build your own exploits. Mastering Metasploit is mandatory for security researchers.
2. Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition
This ethical hacking book is the first stepping stone for people who are beginners in the filed of security research. This book focuses on many widespread obstacles people face through beginning of the ethical hacking job. This book will help beginners do their job extra efficiently. It is probably the easiest book to start with, but its still a bit steep. If you’ve got basic understanding of C and you are reasonably resourceful and know C, you should be fine. This book is easily the best intro for exploit development. That’s why Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition is second on the list of best ethical hacking books. I believe all hackers should read it, but again its steeped in C and ASM programming..
3. The Basics of hacking and Penetration Testing
The perfect thing about this book is that it covers all the fundamentals of penetration testing and hacking without assuming that the reader has any prior hacking skills and knowledge. The fact that it teaches the basics to pen-testing makes it a beginner cert. Now just because it’s beginner cert doesn’t mean it does not contain any useful information. It starts with zero pen-test experience and will give you a wholesome image of hacking.
4. CEH Certified Ethical Hackers All-in-one Exam Guide
It is a well written book. In order to take full advantage of the crisp and clear writing in this book, the reader must have some little knowledge of basic networking. This book deals with command line tool flags and a lot of regulation/compliance/framework information. This book features more than 400 accurate practice questions, including performance-based questions.
5. Black Hat Python: Python Programming for Hackers and pen-testers
Python is relatively easy and fast to learn and there are tons of libraries for it. Also, scripts and tools can be developed quite fast with it and its efficient enough, making it perfect for pen-testing-like hacking purposes. That’s why one of the most useful and essential language for hackers is python because whenever it comes to creating powerful hacking tools or scripts, Python is foremost. This book teaches you python programming and explores the darker side of its capabilities of python, like creating stealthy Trojans, extending Burp-Suite and escalating Windows privileges.
Will I become a Hacker after reading these ethical hacking books?
No, please don’t be in such misconception because reading is just knowing and to become a hacker you must strive to improve your skills by taking up challenges and practically doing what you learn. You just can’t read bunch of tutorial and call yourself a hacker, instead you need to be a little patient while learning and practice it with passion. In this field experience is more valuable than knowledge.
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