Continuing the tour of my @github projects, the #TacticalExploitation toolkit deserves to be mentioned. It's now a bit old, but I believe the concept still applies, and very much so.
https://github.com/0xdea/tactical-exploitation
"The Other Way to Pen-Test" -- @hdm & @Valsmith
I've always been a big proponent of a tactical approach to #PenetrationTesting that doesn't focus on exploiting known software #vulnerabilities, but relies on #OldSchool techniques such as #InformationGathering and #BruteForce. While being able to appreciate the occasional usefulness of a well-timed 0day, as a veteran penetration tester I favor an exploit-less approach. Tactical exploitation provides a smoother and more reliable way of compromising targets by leveraging process vulnerabilities, while minimizing attack detection and other undesired side effects.
Since a few years, I've meant to give a talk on this very subject, with the working title of "Empty Phist Style - Hacking Without Tooling" (inspired by @thegrugq). Sooner or later it will happen.