Back to basics of programming

[petar.pranic 2]

Hello everyone,

I'm following the PTS course, which my company is paying, and I almost finish the Python programming section.

My background is pretty easy and short, got my Cisco CCNA in June 2016 and doing networking job for about an year, before of that never study or work in technology field.

I learn pretty fast networking and systems topics but learn programming is really hard for me, cause i start to do that with ELS slides of C++ and Python.

The big issue rise when i need to do the exercises, i learn and understand the syntax but i lack of "programming logic" so going to create something from scratch become really impossible for me (as an example I try to do the Backdoor exercise without look at the solutions but it's a really dead end so i jump straight to the solutions and using theme as study materials, trying to understand the logic concepts behind the scripts)

 

 

I know the PTS exam doesn't require programming skills but i still think i need to go "back to basics" on that, because on the long term point of view of working as a penteser understand programming logic, be able to read code in different languages and to create scripts and tools from sracth would be at least the minimum to know for the job.

 

So, anyone have some books or online resources i can dive into for build my skills from the foundation?

I've read about "Head First Programming" and "Head First Python", they are good starting point?

 

Thank you very much to all

 

 

[BigSmileF 4]

On 23/10/2017 at 11:13 AM, petar.pranic said:

Hello everyone,

I'm following the PTS course, which my company is paying, and I almost finish the Python programming section.

My background is pretty easy and short, got my Cisco CCNA in June 2016 and doing networking job for about an year, before of that never study or work in technology field.

I learn pretty fast networking and systems topics but learn programming is really hard for me, cause i start to do that with ELS slides of C++ and Python.

The big issue rise when i need to do the exercises, i learn and understand the syntax but i lack of "programming logic" so going to create something from scratch become really impossible for me (as an example I try to do the Backdoor exercise without look at the solutions but it's a really dead end so i jump straight to the solutions and using theme as study materials, trying to understand the logic concepts behind the scripts)

 

 

I know the PTS exam doesn't require programming skills but i still think i need to go "back to basics" on that, because on the long term point of view of working as a penteser understand programming logic, be able to read code in different languages and to create scripts and tools from sracth would be at least the minimum to know for the job.

 

So, anyone have some books or online resources i can dive into for build my skills from the foundation?

I've read about "Head First Programming" and "Head First Python", they are good starting point?

 

Thank you very much to all

 

 

Hi! at the university the advice my teacher always gave me: "Understanding the concepts behind something, programming languages can be learned easily", try to study the basics of algorithms, and when studying the languages try to divide the problem in so many small problems, for example:

1) Have a clear idea of what the program should do.
2) Which input data to process.
3) Which result must give the program / script

write a kind of pseudo code like:

Enter target ip
request a resource through a http request
if the status code is 200 {
        printing: resource found
     }
  otherwise {
          do not do nothing
     }

return output.

 

you've made the backdoor example, I think you must first learn what it is and what it does to a backdoor, what components it is composed, make a high level scheme and then try writing something (including consulting online resources)

Backdoor high level overview:

Socket Connection

commands sent by the attacker

victim code contains the logic (for example)

if commandReceived == "ls":

     shell.exec('ls')

    sendOutput

end

https://www.learnpython.org/en/

I hope I was helpful.

[petar.pranic 2]

It's not the first time that i read to learn basic of algorithm cause they help to create a good mindset.

Do you have a good book to suggest? I read about the first volume of "The art of programming" written by Donald Knuth, is that good?

Thank you very much

[ZZBrandon 6]

I would take a look at the books by Syncfusion. No fluff and you can go through the ones on data structures. They even have a book on assembly programming or one on creating your own web server. Should really help you take a deep dive without spending hours upon hours on fluff.

https://www.syncfusion.com/resources/techportal/ebooks