I'm giving away my book.  I've been sitting on it for a few months and I honestly don't know what to do with it.  It wasn't anything more than an idea, then I started putting words to paper, and the next thing I knew, I had something that resembled a book.  Over the course of the last 10 years or so, I've often thought about writing a book but I'd hammer out a few pages, lose interest, and the idea would fade off.  But not with this one.  I conjured up a vulnerable server and in parallel, I wrote lessons on how to approach it, enumerate it, exploit it, and eventually root it.  It's essentially a vulnerable server with a lesson manual.

I didn't realize that's how it would end up, it just ended up that way.  And when it came time to decide what to do with it, printing didn't seem like a viable option.  Or should I say a cost-effective option.  Given that the pages should be rendered to something along the lines of 8.5x11 and in full color, the cost to print a single copy would near $50.  The goal was never to make money but it wasn't to lose money either.  So there it sat -- a completed book, copyrighted, and a vulnerable server, waiting for something to happen. 

It's yours, for free and honestly, that's how it should be.  The Internet has provided me with a ton of information, a never-ending selection of tools, and has helped me become a better hacker -- for free.  This is my contribution.

Some things I'd like to tell you:

1.  I'm not a writer. 
2.  The goal of the book is to lead you step by step through this vulnerable machine. 
3.  The examples in the lessons section are NOT necessarily the same syntax, names, IP's, etc.  You have to do a little bit of independent thinking.
4.  For some reason, no matter what font I use, a double dash ( -- ) appears as a single dash. If the command throws an error, double check the dash(es).
5.  Constructive feedback would be greatly appreciated. 
6.  There's a logical flow to the lessons, if you get stuck, there's a walk-through at the end.  Before you do that, you could also ask me for guidance.
7.  I've posted the Virtual Box OVA file on Google Drive.  I don't know if there's a limit on whatever.  If you run into issues getting the OVA, let me know and I can dump this up somewhere else.

Hacking 101 : A Beginner's Guide to Penetration Testing

pentest101_final.ova