Coding for Penetration Testers

My Dear Reader, This wretched war, the gravest threat humankind has ever faced, is not going well at all. We have suffered major setbacks, as our ruthless adversary has conquered vast territories, leaving little ground controlled by our ragtag band of rebels. Our few surviving generals blame the lack of skills in our fighting forces, allowing the enemy to rout us in every hard-fought battle. Our situation is dire. Historians have traced this impossibly sad state of affairs to some crucial mistakes we made collectively in the 2012e2015 time frame. We had spent the prior 30 years building ever more powerful networked machines, including PCs, smartphones, and industrial control systems, all interconnected on that blasted Internet. At first, before 2012, the machines were our servants, mindless systems processing transactions, scurrying about vacuuming our floors, and otherwise making life more pleasant for humans. Then, in 2012, Moore’s relentless law kicked things into maximum overdrive. Within a decade, the machines had become sentient, matching the smartest humans on the planet. They quickly became our most trusted advisors and friends. We should have seen the warning signs and used that precious time to develop our skills. Instead, we stupidly let ourselves atrophy. As they surpassed humans, the machines began to view us as pets, but we rejected their control. Soon, they came to the conclusion that humans were a disease, a cancer of this planet, and they viewed themselves as the cure, tirelessly working for our eradication. The war began. We could hav