Top 20 Linux Commands Every Pentester Should Know

Keypoints :

• Understanding system information using the command uname -a.
• Displaying network configurations with ifconfig or ip a.
• Identifying open ports and services via netstat -tulnp or ss -tulnp.
• Monitoring running processes using ps aux and top.
• Checking current user privileges with whoami and id.
• Viewing sudo permissions using sudo -l.
• Locating SUID binaries with find / -perm -4000 2>/dev/null.
• Listing files and their permissions with ls -la.
• Displaying file contents through cat, less, and head.
• Searching text in files with grep.
• Reviewing scheduled jobs using crontab -l and cat /etc/crontab.
• Accessing command history with history.
• Transferring files and communicating with web servers via wget and curl.
• Utilizing Netcat for networking tasks, including file transfers and reverse shells.
• Changing file permissions and ownership using chmod and chown.
• Checking disk usage with df -h and du -sh *.
• Finding file locations using locate and which.
• Using programming languages like bash, sh, python, and perl for shell spawning.
• Capturing network traffic with tcpdump.
• Compressing and transferring files using tar, gzip, and scp.