Penetration testing programming is an intrinsic part of any Black Hat event, but we might outdo ourselves at Black Hat USA 2015. Our pentest programming runneth so much over that it'll take several intel updates just to touch on it all. This is the first, with a focus on more beginner-oriented offerings.
We start with a known classic from SensePost (celebrating 15 years with Black Hat, by the way!), which you may remember under its previous moniker, Hacking by Numbers. Their newly updated 0x7df Basic Tools & Techniques for Hackers - Beginner Level is an introductory course designed for folks who have little hands-on hacking or security experience, but who want to get their feet wet and hands dirty. It aims to provide an ideal training ground for further hacking courses, and no doubt it will.
If you're looking to get some hands-on experience with the tools and techniques bad guys use, Abilities Inc - Metasploit Beginners Course might just be the ticket. Rob "mubix" Fuller and James "egypt" Lee will reshape fresh newbs from zeroes into heroes, using Metasploit to familiarize them with everything from getting the framework running to gaining persistence and owning a whole network. Two days of this and most folks'll be ready to take the Metasploit Mastery course, they reckon.
Finally, close the laptops and set down the tablets to consider an oft-overlooked component of data and system security: physical security. The most hardened servers and network won't make the slightest difference if someone can get to a keyboard or, worse yet, take the hardware for a walk. The CORE Group's Physical Penetration Testing will teach how to best protect buildings and grounds from unauthorized access, as well as how to compromise most existing physical security in order to gain illicit access. Look, you know a Training's gonna be fun when it asserts "No prior knowledge of lockpicking is necessary."
As ever, Black Hat USA 2015 will occur at the lovely Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas. It goes down August 1-6, so there's plenty of time to lock in those sweet early-bird discounts.