{"id":469,"date":"2025-12-10T05:33:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T05:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/?page_id=469"},"modified":"2025-12-10T07:08:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T07:08:42","slug":"labs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/labs\/","title":{"rendered":"Labs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Throughout this course, I completed a series of progressively advanced assignments designed to build my technical foundation in penetration testing, vulnerability analysis, and secure system evaluation. Each assignment introduced a new phase of the offensive security lifecycle and expanded my familiarity with industry-standard tools and methodologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Assignment 1: Vulnerability Scanning &amp; Linux Network Discovery<\/strong><br>The first assignment focused on the fundamentals of vulnerability scanning and basic network enumeration on Linux systems. I learned how to collect key network information, interpret system details, and establish a baseline understanding of target environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!selectors.core.file.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38352\/2025\/12\/Lab1pdf.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Lab1pdf.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-d4652824-69a3-4bef-a20f-ed4c2d7e1fb4\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38352\/2025\/12\/Lab1pdf.pdf\">Lab1pdf<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38352\/2025\/12\/Lab1pdf.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-d4652824-69a3-4bef-a20f-ed4c2d7e1fb4\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Assignment 2: Reconnaissance &amp; Advanced Scanning Techniques<\/strong><br>Building upon the first assignment, I explored the reconnaissance phase of penetration testing using both Linux command-line utilities and Nmap. This included host discovery, basic script utilization, and the analysis of service and port data to create an early attack profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!selectors.core.file.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38352\/2025\/12\/Lab2pdf_compressed.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Lab2pdf_compressed.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-b730ec2f-c25c-44b7-b11b-a695a79e944a\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38352\/2025\/12\/Lab2pdf_compressed.pdf\">Lab2pdf_compressed<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38352\/2025\/12\/Lab2pdf_compressed.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-b730ec2f-c25c-44b7-b11b-a695a79e944a\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Assignment 3: Malware Analysis Fundamentals<\/strong><br>This assignment introduced the core workflow of malware analysis. I studied how cybersecurity professionals dissect malicious files, analyze behavior, and document the impact and functionality of malware in a formal technical report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!selectors.core.file.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38352\/2025\/12\/Lab3pdf_compressed.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Lab3pdf_compressed.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-fedd369c-c381-4ac8-94a5-489dbd7f11a2\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38352\/2025\/12\/Lab3pdf_compressed.pdf\">Lab3pdf_compressed<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38352\/2025\/12\/Lab3pdf_compressed.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-fedd369c-c381-4ac8-94a5-489dbd7f11a2\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Assignment 4: Steganography &amp; Hidden Data Extraction<\/strong><br>Using steghide on Kali Linux, I learned how to embed and extract hidden information within images and other file types. This provided hands-on experience with covert data transfer techniques and detection methods relevant to forensic investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!selectors.core.file.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38352\/2025\/12\/Lab4pdf.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Lab4pdf.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-b5373812-6a7c-448f-8565-50a163136241\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38352\/2025\/12\/Lab4pdf.pdf\">Lab4pdf<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38352\/2025\/12\/Lab4pdf.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-b5373812-6a7c-448f-8565-50a163136241\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Assignment 5: SQL Injection &amp; Database Exploitation<\/strong><br>The final assignment focused on SQL injection vulnerabilities within a purposely weak virtual machine. I practiced crafting malicious SQL queries to enumerate database contents, extract sensitive information, and escalate to administrative access\u2014demonstrating how real-world application flaws can be exploited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!selectors.core.file.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38352\/2025\/12\/Lab5pdf.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Lab5pdf.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-f36d5ca1-d5a5-4fc7-af44-8827f17371d6\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38352\/2025\/12\/Lab5pdf.pdf\">Lab5pdf<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38352\/2025\/12\/Lab5pdf.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-f36d5ca1-d5a5-4fc7-af44-8827f17371d6\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Throughout this course, I completed a series of progressively advanced assignments designed to build my technical foundation in penetration testing, vulnerability analysis, and secure system evaluation. Each assignment introduced a new phase of the offensive security lifecycle and expanded my&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/labs\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30474,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/469"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":490,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/469\/revisions\/490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/georgesmith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}