Essential Linux Penetration Testing Cheat Sheet for Security Professionals
This cheat sheet compiles essential Linux commands for penetration testing, covering system enumeration, package management, user handling, compression, file operations, Samba access, shell tricks, Python tips, miscellaneous utilities, bash history clearing, filesystem permissions, and notable files for privilege escalation.
System Information Commands
Useful for local enumeration checks.
Based on Redhat / CentOS / RPM Distributions
YUM Commands
RPM‑based systems use the package manager; these commands retrieve information about installed packages and other useful details.
Based on Debian / Ubuntu / .deb Distributions
Linux User Management
Linux Decompression Commands
How to extract various archive formats (tar, zip, gzip, bzip2, etc.) and perform searches inside them.
Linux Compression Commands
Linux File Commands
Samba Commands
Connecting to Samba shares from Linux.
Breaking Shell Limitations
Thanks to G0tmi1k for the referenced techniques.
Python Tips
Miscellaneous Commands
Clearing Bash History
Linux Filesystem Permissions
Linux Filesystem Penetration Testing Memo
Interesting Linux Files/Directories
If you aim for privilege escalation or post‑exploitation, these commands are worth a look.
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