Windows Hacking Study Notes & Cheat Sheets
The Windows operating system lies at the heart of most corporate networks, making it one of the most targeted and studied platforms in cybersecurity. Windows Hacking is a field guide for ethical hackers, penetration testers, and red teamers who aim to understand, exploit, and defend the Windows ecosystem from a technical perspective.
This book takes a practical, command-driven approach, walking you through how attackers enumerate systems, abuse privileges, escalate access, and maintain persistence inside Windows environments. From token manipulation and access control lists to privilege escalation, credential harvesting, and lateral movement, you’ll find every major offensive technique explained through real-world commands and exploitation steps.
It also dives into modern Command and Control (C2) frameworks such as Cobalt Strike and Mythic, showing how professional red teams conduct post-exploitation operations while staying stealthy and avoiding detection.
Whether you’re learning for certification, preparing for a red team engagement, or building defenses against these attacks, this book provides a hands-on, raw technical foundation you can directly apply in the field.
Table of Contents
- Basics
- Windows Access Tokens
- Token Inspection and UAC
- Creating Logon Sessions
- Types of Tokens and Impersonation
- Access Control List (ACL)
- Windows Integrity Levels
- Windows Security Controls
- AppLocker and Policy Enumeration
- Windows Credentials Storage
- Encrypted File System (EFS)
- Group Managed Service Accounts (gMSA)
- Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS)
- PowerShell Constrained Language Mode
- Windows Authentication Handshake
- User Account Control (UAC) and Enumeration
- System Enumeration and Reconnaissance
- Manual Privilege Escalation Techniques
- Abusing Windows Groups and User Privileges
- Exploitation of Services and Scheduled Tasks
- Credential Hunting and Password Recovery
- Pass the Hash / Pass the Ticket Attacks
- DLL Hijacking and Injection
- Always Install Elevated Exploitation
- Automated Privilege Escalation Tools
- Windows Post-Exploitation
- Data Exfiltration Techniques
- Lateral Movement (RPC, WinRM, RDP, Socat, etc.)
- Hacking Windows with Cobalt Strike
- Hacking Windows with Mythic (Apollo Agent)
- Profile & Configuration Hardening
- In-Memory Evasion and Hook Bypassing
Who This Book Is For
This book is designed for cybersecurity professionals who want to master Windows exploitation and post-exploitation at a technical depth rarely covered in traditional training material. It’s suitable for:
- Penetration Testers & Red Teamers: looking for real-world privilege escalation and lateral movement playbooks.
- Blue Teamers & SOC Analysts: who want to understand attacker TTPs to better detect, contain, and mitigate intrusions.
- Students & Certification Candidates: preparing for OSCP, CRTP, CRTE, or other advanced cybersecurity exams.
- System Administrators & Security Engineers: aiming to harden their Windows environments by understanding exploitation from an attacker’s lens.
No prior red teaming experience is required , only a working knowledge of Windows command-line operations and a curiosity for how attackers think.
Page count: 157
Format: PDF
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