The notes bundled here will help you answer the following questions during almost any engagement:
- Who am I?
- Who else exists?
- What groups exist?
- What can I modify?
- What services exist?
- What sockets exist?
- What technologies exist?
- What databases exist?
- What credentials exist?
- What mail exists?
- What logs exist?
- What scheduled tasks exist?
- What protections exist?
- What capabilities exist?
- What SUID binaries exist?
- What filesystems exist?
- What shares exist?
- What kernel am I running?
- What custom software exists?
- What secrets exist?
- What containers exist?
You do not need to memorize everything at once. In fact, very few operators do.
You will likely revisit these notes repeatedly throughout your studies and future engagements. Over time, repeated exposure will naturally build familiarity with both the commands and the techniques.
The goal is not to memorize commands.
The goal is to develop the habit of asking the right questions. Once you know what information you are looking for, finding the exact command becomes a trivial problem.