Frontmatter
Penetration Testers Open Source Toolkit
Third Edition
Jeremy Faircloth
Neil Fryer, Technical Editor
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Copyright
Acquiring Editor: Angelina Ward
Development Editor: Matt Cater
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Dedication
To my Mother-in-Law, Susan Gonzales
As an author, it is difficult to pick any one person to dedicate your work to as there are always so many people who have an impact on your life and deserve recognition. In my case, Id like to dedicate this book to someone who was always able to see the future.
I grew up in a small town in New Mexico where I attended school and became best friends with the girl who would later become my wife. Her mother was a teacher at our school and was always kind to the geeky kid hanging out with her daughter. I have many memories of catching a lift with my best friend Christina and her mom, Sue, when it was cold outside. Even then, Sue always told me that I should never give up on my dreams and never let anyone tell me that there is something that I cant accomplish. She told me that in time, I would always succeed (prediction #1).
Years later, I asked Christina if she would be my wife and she tearfully accepted my proposal. The next step, as it is for many engaged couples, is to tell our respective families about our decision. When we told my future mother-in-law Sue, she didnt react with surprise or anger. Instead, she said to my newly betrothed, I told you so. Apparently she had predicted to my future bride far in advance that I was the one she was destined to marry (prediction #2).
After our wedding, my mother-in-law continued to be a positive influence in our lives and was always a willing ear for my wife when I was working long hours or traveling for my job. She taught my wife independence when she was a child and as an adult helped her learn how to deal with the trials and tribulations of living with a professional geek. Without that, I dont know that my wife would be able to handle the unique lifestyle that comes with this type of work.
This week four years ago, my mother-in-law, Susan Gonzales passed away. She is no longer with us in body, but her legacy lives on in her daughter and through the lessons that she taught both of us. This book would not exist if Sue had not been in our lives, so I am proud to have this opportunity to dedicate it to her.
Mom, we love you and miss you very much.
Jeremy Faircloth
Acknowledgments
From start to finish, this book has taken a year of effort and has been built upon the death of two keyboards, a laptop, and various other hardware components. It also involved a tremendous amount of bandwidth and many late nights trying to get a tool to do exactly what its supposed to when the technology involved is conspiring to make things difficult.
All joking aside, no effort of this magnitude can be accomplished in a vacuum and I am very grateful to a number of people for making this possible. First and foremost to my family for putting up with me while Ive been working on this. My wife Christina and my son Austin are two of the most understanding people in the world and have immeasurable patience when it comes to putting up with me and my passion for technology and teaching. Christina and Austin, thank you for helping me make this a reality. The biggest sacrifice made to get this book done has been your time with me and I appreciate you both being willing to make that sacrifice so that this book could be written.
Thank you also to Matt Cater, Rachel Roumeliotis, and Angelina Ward with Syngress for giving me the opportunity to do this project and providing help, advice, feedback, and support throughout the entire process. This wouldnt be possible without publishers like Syngress who allow us technical authors the chance to get our words on paper and out to the world. I have been contributing to Syngress books since 2001 and the experiences Ive had doing this over the last decade have always been outstanding.
At its foundation, this book is about open source tools. A huge thank you has to go out to the open source community and the security researchers who contribute their knowledge and time to that community. In the distant past, security professionals held their secrets close to the chest and didnt share because they were afraid that theyd lose their technical edge if they disseminated their knowledge. Fortunately, as a community weve learned that sharing doesnt diminish us, but instead gives the opportunity for others to enhance what weve done and improve on our work. So to everyone in the open source community, thank you. This book wouldnt exist without you. The same applies to anyone who freely shares their knowledge and helps people to learn through their blog posts, newsgroup responses, and articles. The technical world is a better place because of you.
