- The Top 9 Books & PDFs Every Kali Linux User Must Read
- 1. Kali Linux Revealed – Mastering the Penetration Testing Distribution
- What we can learn from this book:
- 2. Mastering Kali Linux for Advanced Penetration Testing
- What we can learn from this book:
- 3. Kali Linux – An Ethical Hacker’s Cookbook
- What we can learn from this book:
- 4. Learning Kali Linux
- What we can learn from this book:
- 5. Kali Linux Wireless Penetration Testing
- What we can learn from this book:
- 6. Learn Kali Linux 2019
- What we can learn from this book:
- 7. Hacking with Kali Linux
- What we can learn from this book:
- 8. Kali Linux CTF Blueprints
- What we can learn from this book:
- 8. Linux Basics for Hackers
- What we can learn from this book:
- 9. Metasploit Bootcamp
- What we can learn from this book:
- Our Opinion
The Top 9 Books & PDFs Every Kali Linux User Must Read
There are so many ways to learn cybersecurity and Kali Linux. Practical learning is the most effective way, but beginners can’t learn practically because usually they don’t understand the cybersecurity terms and they don’t know how everything works.
The theoretical part should be clear then we can easily learn practical. By reading books and PDFs we can gain knowledge of how the thing works. Using a tool will not tell us how it’s working.
To be a successful ethical hacker we need to have a good knowledge in networking, web application and programming. We can gain good knowledge from the following study materials. Let’s start the list.
1. Kali Linux Revealed – Mastering the Penetration Testing Distribution
«Kali Linux Revealed – Mastering the Penetration Testing Distribution» is written by Raphaël Hertzog, JimO’Gorman, and Mati Aharoni. This book is the official Kali Linux guide book.
This book is very beginner friendly. We usually suggest complete beginners, who want to use Kali Linux. Kali Linux Revealed also covers Linux Fundamentals for new Linux users.
This book also covers the Debian package manager deeply so we can learn how to install and configure packages and how to update/upgrade our installation and also how to create our own custom Debian packages.
What we can learn from this book:
- Using Kali Linux as a Pro.
- Fundamentals of Linux.
- Automate, customize and pre-seed Kali Linux Installs.
- Create Kali appliances such as the Kali ISO of Doom.
- Build, modify and host Kali packages and repositories.
- Create, fork and modify simple Kali packages.
- And many more.
Now this book is much more about Kali Linux, not about cybersecurity. Today Kali Linux is the OS for penetration testers, so having a good knowledge of Kali Linux is a must. This book is not about tools and ethical hacking this book is totally dedicated to Kali Linux.
We can download the PDF copy of this book directly from the official website of Kali Linux or we can buy it’s paperback from Amazon.
2. Mastering Kali Linux for Advanced Penetration Testing
This book is (written by Vijay Kumar Velu) for penetration testers, IT professionals or security consultants who use Kali Linux to improve security. This book covers practical uses of Kali Linux tools for security purposes.
«Mastering Kali Linux for Advanced Penetration Testing» book takes a practical approach and follows genuine methods. This will help us to increase the security of our network system.
This book is very good for even cybersecurity students. Complete beginners may get a little bit trouble understanding this book.
What we can learn from this book:
- Provides a practical approach to ethical hacking.
- How to use and configure the most effective tools.
- How to avoid detection when testing networks.
- Learn how to deal with web-based applications.
- Separate chapter dedicated to physical security and social engineering.
3. Kali Linux – An Ethical Hacker’s Cookbook
Kali Linux — An Ethical Hacker’s Cookbook is a great choice for absolute newcomers in this field this book covers from installing Kali Linux. This book is written by Himanshu Sharma.
The language of this book is very beginner friendly. Who ever wants to explore the world of cybersecurity with Kali Linux can consider this book. This book also covers installing Kali Linux on Raspberry Pi & Nethunter.
What we can learn from this book:
- How to install and configure Kali Linux.
- How to plan attack strategies.
- Learn how to use tools such as Nmap, Burp Suite to exploit web applications.
- Some real life examples with real application.
- It also has a recipe to play with software defined radios.
- This book is full of pictures and screenshots, but some old techniques used in this book become very rare to find in real life.
4. Learning Kali Linux
This book is written by Ric Massier. This book covers Kali’s expansive security capabilities and helps you identify the tools we need to conduct a wide range of security tests and penetration tests. We’ll also explore the vulnerabilities that make those tests necessary.
What we can learn from this book:
- Learn tools for stress testing network stacks and applications.
- Perform network reconnaissance to determine what’s available to attackers.
- Execute penetration tests using automated exploit tools such as Metasploit.
- Use cracking tools to see if passwords meet complexity requirements.
- Test wireless capabilities by injecting frames and cracking passwords.
- Assess web application vulnerabilities with automated or proxy-based tools.
- Create advanced attack techniques by extending Kali tools or developing our own.
- Use Kali Linux to generate reports once testing is complete.
This book is available on Amazon and Google Books.
5. Kali Linux Wireless Penetration Testing
This book basically covers how we can perform penetration testing on Networks using Kali Linux. We’ll learn the basics of wireless technologies, wireless routing and encryption, how to sniff wireless packets and discover hidden networks and also how to capture and crack WPA-2 keys.
What we can learn from this book:
- Create a wireless lab for our experiments.
- Sniff out wireless packets and hidden networks.
- Capture and crack WPA-2 keys.
- Discover hidden SSIDs.
- Explore the ins and outs of wireless technologies.
- Sniff probe requests and track users through SSID history.
- Attack radius authentication systems.
- Sniff wireless traffic and collect interesting data.
- Decrypt encrypted traffic with stolen keys.
This book is available on Amazon. Oh yeah, both kindle and paperback edition.
6. Learn Kali Linux 2019
This book is written on Kali Linux 2019.2 version so we can see lots of new tools included in recent updates. By the end of this book, we’ll be able to use Kali Linux to detect vulnerabilities and secure our system by applying penetration testing techniques of varying complexity. This is written by Glen D. Singh.
What we can learn from this book:
- Explore the fundamentals of ethical hacking.
- Learn how to install and configure Kali Linux.
- Get up to speed with performing wireless network pentesting.
- Gain insights into passive and active information gathering.
- Understand web application pentesting.
- Decode WEP, WPA, and WPA2 encryptions using a variety of methods, such as the fake authentication attack, the ARP request replay attack, and the dictionary attack.
This book is available on Amazon . OH, yes, yes, in both editions (Kindle and Paperback). Also this book is available in Google books.
7. Hacking with Kali Linux
«Hacking with Kali Linux», this book is written by Peter Bradley. This book is targeted for those who haven’t any idea what Kali Linux is. This book contains the basics of cybersecurity and Kali Linux.
What we can learn from this book:
- The basics of hacking and using Kali Linux
- Penetration testing
- How to install Kali Linux
- Kali tools
- The process of ethical hacking
- Practical ethical hacking
This book is available on Amazon. It is available in three formats. Yes, Kindle, Paperback and Audible audio format. The best thing is this book is available free with Audible Trial.
8. Kali Linux CTF Blueprints
This book is written by Cameron Buchanan and this book especially focuses on CTF (Capture The Flag). CTF is a play for ethical hackers where hackers try to hack a system and find the hidden flag inside it.
What we can learn from this book:
- Set up vulnerable services for both Windows and Linux.
- Create dummy accounts for social engineering manipulation.
- Set up Heartbleed replication for vulnerable SSL servers.
- Develop full-size labs to challenge current and potential testers.
- Construct scenarios that can be applied to Capture the Flag style challenges.
This book is available on Amazon. Yes in both editions (Paperback & Kindle).
8. Linux Basics for Hackers
The full title of this book is «Linux Basics for Hackers: Getting Started with Networking, Scripting, and Security in Kali». This book is written by OccupyTheWeb.
This practical, tutorial-style book uses the Kali Linux distribution to teach Linux basics with a focus on how hackers would use them. Topics include Linux command line basics, filesystems, networking, BASH basics, package management, logging, and the Linux kernel & drivers.
What we can learn from this book:
- Write a tool to scan for network connections, and connect and listen to wireless networks.
- Keep our internet activity stealthy using Tor, proxy servers, VPNs, and encrypted email.
- Write a bash script to scan open ports for potential targets.
- Use and abuse services like MySQL, Apache web server, and OpenSSH.
- Build our own hacking tools, such as a remote video spy camera and a password cracker.
This book is also available in Amazon. In both Paperback and Kindle version.
9. Metasploit Bootcamp
We always believe that Metasploit is one the most powerful tools in the Kali Linux system. Having a good knowledge in Metasploit is very crucial for every penetration tester. We can get the Metasploit knowledge from this book, written by Nipun Jaswal.
What we can learn from this book:
- Get hands-on knowledge of Metasploit.
- Understand the benefits of using databases and workspaces in Metasploit.
- Perform penetration testing on services such as databases and VoIP.
- Understand how to customize Metasploit modules and modify existing exploitsWrite simple yet powerful Metasploit automation scripts.
- Explore the steps involved in post-exploitation on Android and mobile platforms.
This book is available on Amazon. Ohhh, Yes(Not again), in both formats Kindle and Paperback.
Our Opinion
Reading books and gaining theoretical knowledge will not make us a good penetration tester or ethical hacker. We must learn new attack techniques day by day. But our basics should be clear.
If we don’t know the theory parts and use some tools to do our jobs then we will be a script kiddie.
But why from books?The Internet has more knowledge freely available. But on the internet the knowledge is spread everywhere we need to search a lot to find them. In the book everything is under one cover.
In our website we have covered lots of Kali Linux tutorials for beginners with screenshots. Our tutorials are also genuine, please have a look on them.
Note: The mentioned books pirated copy might be available on the internet. But downloading a pirated copy will be illegal. So please buy an original copy. We are not making money from the Amazon links, these links are not affiliate links.
Liked our articles? Follow our website to get email notifications. Also follow us on Twitter and Medium.