15 Best Hacking Books for Hackers

I’ve always received questions about my recommendations for hacking books, specifically ethical hacking and penetration testing. Below, you’ll find a list of the books I recommend. Enjoy these hacking audiobooks.

Some of these books cater to beginners and intermediates and can be easily found on platforms like Amazon,
Flipkart, and other online sources. Today, I’ve curated a list of the top 13 hacking books that are perfect for those who are relatively new to this subject and are eager to get started.

I have assembled a diverse selection of hacking books that cater to individuals at all levels,
spanning from beginners to professionals. In compiling this list, I’ve considered various aspects that are instrumental in fostering your hacking skills, fueling your passion, and propelling your career forward.

The list will go from books for beginners to professionals in sequential order and some add-ons
in the middle for change of pace.

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1) Penetration Testing: A hands-on introduction to hacking

This book is the perfect way to take you baby-steps into the world of ethical hacking and penetration. The book Penetration Testing wrote by Georgia Weidman is a good book for anyone who is getting started with hacking or say a beginner. There are various topics covered in the book, like mobile hacking, penetration testing, and a lot more. The detailed explained steps for every method is precise and gives insight into the author’s own field experience, and that makes the excellent start of a long journey.

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2) The Web Application Hacker’s Handbook: Finding and Exploiting security flaws 2nd Edition

If you are interested in Web application penetration testing, then this book will serve its purpose as its big name. It covers everything you need to know about the topic with simple yet effective language. The author is the
founder of the company, which made the famous Security testing and scanning tool know as Burp Suite. This book gives a detail explanation of the steps required for web application penetration. The author explains different web technologies, how to exploit those technologies, and even how to counter those exploitations. You can simply download the hacking audiobook and listen while traveling or doing some chores.

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3) Advanced Penetration Testing: Hacking the World’s Most Secure Networks-

If you have finished the previous books, I mentioned the time to step-up your game and got this Advanced Penetration Testing Book by Will Allsopp. This book takes hacking far beyond Kali Linux and Metasploit to provide more complex methods for hacking secure networks. The techniques which are included in the book are not available in any online certification courses, and it focuses on the target’s vulnerabilities, exploitation, and compromisation.  The author also explains the industry’s assets, how they are protected, and finally, who protects them. The on-field experience of the author can be reflected in the examples and explanation given in the book. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

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4) The Shellcoder’s Handbook: Discovering & Exploiting Security holes 2nd Edition

This book is written by a bunch of experts who are the best in the field dealing with the security holes in the
operating system and its applications. With the start of the book, you will work with the basic building
blocks of an operating system like the stack, Queue, heap, assembler, and so on. If you are interested in the operating system on the basic level, have good knowledge of programming languages, then this book will serve you right.

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5) Red Team: How to Succeed By Thinking Like The Enemy-

The Book Red Team: How to Succeed By Thinking Like The Enemy is written by the USA Security expert Micah Zenko. This book will give you all the information related to the Red teams, how they operate, their practices, rules and much more. This book will guide you on how to think like an enemy to exploit the system and gain control, and you will be impressed to see the methods and explanation provided by the author. You can simply download the hacking audiobook and listen while traveling or doing some chores. The author also mentioned the useful and useless techniques for the Red team and how they affect the whole process or working environment. If you are interested in Red Teams, their history, their working, and much more about them, then your search for that bookends here.

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6) Web Hacking 101

Web Hacking 101 is written by Peter Yaworski. The book explains common vulnerabilities found in web applications using publicly disclosed vulnerability reports on bug bounty programs. The book covers vulnerability reports on Cross-site scripting (XSS), Cross-site request forgery (CSRF), Remote Code Execution (RCE), and many more vulnerability types. Each report is analyzed by the author and includes details about the vulnerability, a clear description, and the reward that was paid. With this book, you won’t just learn about the vulnerabilities and how they were exploited but also their context, the impact, and how to recognize them on your bug bounty hunts. Finally, the book also provides an overview of bug bounty platforms, tools, blogs, and some cheat sheets to get started with bug bounty hunting right away.

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7) Applied Network Security Monitoring-

The Applied Network Monitoring book is written by Chris Sanders and Jason Smith. This book deals with the Network Security Monitoring with a practical approach, which makes it stands out from the crowd. This book will be your best guide to becoming the Network Security Monitoring Analyst. You can simply download the hacking audiobook and listen while traveling or doing some chores. It also teaches the critical concepts of the topic and its related information. The author Chris and Jason are very excellent teachers when it comes to explaining any concept related to NSM. They keep the attention holding and natural language to understand completely. They almost make us believe that the NSM is as easy as nothing.

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Also, read: Top 25 hacking apps for android, Hack on the go

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8) Hacking: The Art of Exploitation 2nd Edition

The Book Hacking: The Art of Exploitation is written by Jon Erickson, comprises of all the hacking contents like from the basics of hacking concepts to the encryption bypass and other advanced tricks. This book will teach you how to Program computers using C, assembly language, and shell scripts, Corrupt system memory to run arbitrary code using buffer overflows and format strings, Inspect processor registers and system memory with a debugger to gain a real understanding of what is happening, Outsmart common security measures like nonexecutable stacks and intrusion detection systems, Gain access to a remote server using port-binding or connect-back shellcode, and alter a server’s logging behavior to hide your presence, Redirect network traffic, conceal open ports, and hijack TCP connections, Crack encrypted wireless traffic using the FMS attack, and speed up brute-force attacks using a password probability matrix.

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9) Kali Linux – An Ethical Hacker’s Cookbook

The Kali Linux- An Ethical Hacker’s Cookbook is a hacking book written by Himanshu Sharma in 2017. This book will quickly get started with Kali Linux (version 2016.2) according to your needs, and move on to core functionalities. This book will begin with the installation and configuration of Kali Linux so that you can perform your tests. You will learn how to plan attack strategies and execute web application exploitation using tools such as Burp and Jexboss. You will also learn how to perform network exploitation using Metasploit, Sparta, and Wireshark. By the end of this book, you will know how to conduct advanced penetration testing and many other hacking techniques. This book allows you to venture into some of the most cutting-edge practices and techniques to perform penetration testing with Kali Linux.

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10) Hacking for Beginners

The Hacking for Beginners book by Cooper Alvin is all about computer hacking, Ethical hacking, Black Hat, Penetration testing, and more. This book will serve as a guiding tool for you to understand the basics of the subject and slowly build up a base of the knowledge that you need to gain. You will be made aware of several aspects of hacking, and you will find the knowledge here fascinating. Therefore, put on your curious glasses and dive into the world of hacking with us now. It should be kept in mind that to understand the concept of ethical hacking, you should be able to know all about black hat hacking and how it is done. Only then is it imperative to understand what steps you could take to stop it?

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11) Gray Hat Hacking: The Ethical Hacker’s Handbook, 3rd Edition

The book titled ‘Gray Hat Hacking: The Ethical Hacker’s Handbook, 3rd Edition,’ authored by Allen Harper, Shon Harris, Jonathan Ness, Chris Eagle, Gideon Lenkey, and Terron Williams, provides an essential resource for understanding the latest strategies to uncover today’s most devastating cyberattacks. In this third edition, it not only details the most recent vulnerabilities and their remedies but also discusses legal disclosure methods. This comprehensive guide allows you to learn directly from experts in the field how hackers target systems, defeat protection schemes, write malicious code, and exploit vulnerabilities in both Windows and Linux systems. Additionally, it covers topics such as malware analysis, penetration testing, SCADA, VoIP, and web security, making it a valuable reference for staying updated on diverse aspects of information security.

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12) Hackers-

This edition of Steven Levy’s classic book traces the exploits of the computer revolution’s original hackers
those brilliant and eccentric nerds from the late 1950s through the early ’80s who took risks, bent the rules and pushed the world in a radical new direction. You can simply download the hacking audiobook and listen while traveling or doing some chores. With updated material from worldwide known tech talents and also hackers such as
Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Stallman, and Steve Wozniak, Hacker is a fascinating story that begins in early computer research labs and leads to the first home computers.

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13) You can Hack: The Art of Exploitation

You can hack the book which tells you the step-by-step hacking tutorials with a screenshot. This book is written in simple language which can be easily understood by anyone. This book is best for beginners to start a career in hacking. You can hack written differently in many books you found a lot of theory and concepts, and after
reading many pages, you understand a single step of hacking but here is different. If you can
hack all the hacking tutorials written with practical example screenshots and it tells you the fastest way to hack. If you are looking for a beginner’s guide to hacking, this is the book for you. Pankaj Patidar is a 17-year-old young hacker and school-going student pursuing the 12th class in New Look School.

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14) Software Hacking-

Ankit Fadia and Nishant Das Patnaik, two computer security hacking experts working in top MNCs, have
authored a remarkable book on software hacking. In today’s technology-driven world, safeguarding intellectual property rights holds immense importance. This book caters to individuals interested in countering “crackers” – those who attempt to breach encryption and copy protection systems. It empowers software developers to
fortify their programs against potential breaches by acquainting them with a range of tools and techniques that malicious individuals employ to dismantle even highly secure software.

Furthermore, the book provides valuable insights into the off-the-shelf programs available in the market, helping developers make informed choices. While emphasizing the importance of sharing knowledge with a broader audience, the authors also advocate responsible use of the information gained from the book, highlighting the need to prevent misuse.

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15) The Unrevealed Secrets of Hacking and Cracking – Hack Before You Get Cracked-

This book serves as a complete reference for information security, including IT security, data security,
network security, internet security, penetration testing, cryptography, and laws governing the industry.
The hacking books describes the tools and penetration testing methodologies used by ethical hackers and provides a
discussion of what and who an
ethical hacker is and what role he plays in protecting corporate and government data from cyber attacks. It also offers an understanding of how to effectively protect data and computer networks. Finally, it presents the subject in a
simplified manner so that even a beginner dealing in a security environment understands and
implements information security at personal and corporate levels.

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So these were the top 15 Ethical Hacking books, hacking audiobooks and Black hat hacking books
that we recommend to all audiences irrespective of your current knowledge, from beginners to advance hackers.
The books we recommend here are the ones which provide you with the knowledge from the basics of
hacking to the advance hacks like penetration, data security, cryptography and, also protection against various
types of cyberattacks.

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