Python is one of the most powerful and versatile programming languages available today. It is used in multiple fields, including web development, data science, artificial intelligence, and more.

As a result, Python practitioners need to have a broad range of skills to be successful. Here, we will discuss the top 10 skills to learn as a Python practitioner.

Note that I focused only on coding-related skills, not on soft skills such as communication or “agile software development“. These are vital but not part of this article.

Skill #1: Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)

Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that uses objects and classes to organize and manage code.

Recommended: Python Classes — An Introduction

OOP is a fundamental skill for Python practitioners, as it allows for the creation of efficient, robust, and reusable code. To be an effective Python programmer, you must understand the principles of OOP and be able to apply them in your code.

Specific subskills to master:

• Classes
• Objects
• Inheritance
• Polymorphism
• Abstraction
• Encapsulation
• Modularity

Skill #2: Data Structures and Algorithms

Data Structures and Algorithms are essential for any programmer. Data Structures are collections of data that are organized in a specific way, such as an array or linked list. Algorithms are sets of instructions used to solve specific problems. Knowing how to work with and optimize data structures and algorithms are essential for any Python practitioner.

Specific subskills to master:

• Lists
• Stacks
• Queues
• Trees
• Graphs
• Sorting
• Searching Algorithms

Skill #3: Web Development

Web Development is the process of building, creating, and maintaining websites and web applications. Python is a popular choice for web development, as it is relatively easy to learn and offers a wide range of tools and frameworks. Developing web applications with Python is a must-have skill for Python practitioners.

Recommended: Full-Stack Web Developer — Income and Opportunity

Specific subskills to master:

• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript
• jQuery
• Ajax
• Node.js
• React
• Angular

Skill #4: Machine Learning (ML)

Machine Learning (ML) is a subset of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that enables machines to learn from data and make predictions. Python has become the go-to language for ML due to its rich and powerful libraries. To be successful in ML, Python practitioners must understand the fundamentals of ML and be able to work with ML libraries and frameworks.

Specific subskills to master:

• Scikit-Learn
• TensorFlow
• Keras
• PyTorch
• NumPy
• Pandas

Skill #5: Data Analysis

Data Analysis is the process of gathering, cleaning, and interpreting data to generate insights and inform decisions. Python is an excellent language for data analysis due to its powerful libraries and tools. Knowing how to work with data in Python is an essential skill for any Python practitioner.

Specific subskills to master:

• Pandas
• NumPy
• Matplotlib
• Seaborn
• SciPy
• Jupyter Notebook

Skill #6: Automation

Automation is the process of using programming to automate mundane or repetitive tasks. Python is a popular choice for automation due to its easy-to-learn syntax and powerful libraries. Knowing how to use Python for automation can save time and allow for more efficient workflows.

Specific subskills to master:

• Bash
• Ansible
• Puppet
• Chef

Skill #7: GUI Development

GUI Development is the process of creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for applications. Python offers a wide range of GUI development frameworks and libraries, making it an excellent choice for GUI development. To be successful in GUI development, Python practitioners must know how to work with GUI frameworks and libraries.

Specific subskills to master:

• Tkinter
• PyQt
• PyGTK
• wxPython
• PyGUI

Skill #8: Web Scraping

Web Scraping is the process of extracting data from websites. Python is an excellent language for web scraping due to its powerful libraries and tools. Knowing how to scrape websites using Python is an essential skill for any Python practitioner.

Specific subskills to master:

• BeautifulSoup
• Scrapy
• Selenium

Skill #9: Scripting

Scripting is the process of writing scripts to automate mundane or repetitive tasks. Python is a popular language for scripting due to its easy-to-learn syntax and powerful libraries. Knowing how to script in Python can save time and allow for more efficient workflows.

Specific subskills to master:

• Bash
• Python One-Liners
• Ruby
• PowerShell

Skill #10: Data Visualization

Data Visualization is the process of creating visual representations of data. Python offers a wide range of data visualization libraries and tools, making it an excellent choice for data visualization. Knowing how to create effective visualizations with Python is an essential skill for any Python practitioner.

Specific subskills to master:

• Matplotlib
• Seaborn
• ggplot2
• Bokeh
• Plotly
• Dash

Further Learning: For a complete guide on how to build your beautiful dashboard app in pure Python, check out our best-selling book Python Dash with San Francisco Based publisher NoStarch.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the top 10 skills to learn as a Python practitioner are object-oriented programming, data structures and algorithms, web development, machine learning, data analysis, automation, GUI development, web scraping, scripting, and data visualization.

Each of these skills is essential for success as a Python practitioner and can help you create powerful and efficient applications.

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CHALLENGE OVERVIEW

• Link: https://tryhackme.com/room/road
• Difficulty: Medium
• Target: user/root flags
• Highlights: retrieving user credentials from a Mongo DB, privilege escalation by exploiting a glitch in the pkexec bin
• Tools used: nmap, dirb, burpsuite
• Tags: pentesting, security, mongoDB, SSH

BACKGROUND

What is black box pentesting?

The term black box refers to a challenge where only the target machine IP is known to the penetration tester. Nothing else about the server is disclosed to the attacker, so everything must be discovered during the enumeration stage.

On the other end of the spectrum is white box pentesting, where information about the internal workings of a server is shared with the pentester.

ENUMERATION/RECON

Let’s kick things off with some standard nmap and dirb scans.

sudo nmap -p- -A $targetIP -O -o /home/kalisurfer/THM/road-walkthrough/nmap.txt

It looks like they are running SSH and HTTP services. No surprises here!

dirb http://$targetIP

Our dirb scan sniffed out a few interesting directories: /assets /phpMyAdmin/ChangeLog and /v2. We’ll look into each of these in more detail.

INVESTIGATING /phpMyAdmin

We discover a login portal at /phpMyAdmin/index.php

INVESTIGATING /assets

When we browse the changelogs, we can identify the version number (5.1.0) for phpMyAdmin.

We also find a link to a Git repo with changelogs going back all the way to the year 2000!

This is a potential treasure trove of interesting information. We’ll check exploit-db to see if there are any known vulnerabilities. There are a bunch, but nothing for version 5.1.0.

For now, let’s move on.

INVESTIGATING /v2

We discover another login portal /v2/admin/login.html. This one has a register option, so we can go ahead and create a new user and see what else we can view from within a standard user account.

INITIAL FOOTHOLD

We pivoted from our new user to the admin account by intercepting the TCP request to change the password using burpsuite and modifying the parameters to the admin’s email address before forwarding the request.

After successfully changing it to the admin’s password, we can login as admin with our new password and upload a revshell via the profile pic upload option.

From our admin dashboard, let’s go ahead and upload a revshell (from PHP pentest monkey, naming it revshell.php), start up a netcat listener on the corresponding port, and finally trigger it by loading the following address in our browser.

http://10.10.154.107/v2/profileimages/revshell.php

We caught the revshell and now we have our initial foothold!

EXTRACTING USER CREDENTIALS FROM MONGO DB

And now we have user webdeveloper’s password in plaintext from Mongo DB! We can use “su webdeveloper” to switch users with our new password.

LOCAL RECON

We easily found our first flag, user.txt, in the /home/webdeveloper directory.

63—-omitted—---45

After uploading Linpeas to the target machine via a python3 simple HTTP server, let’s run it and analyze the results.

The first CVE is the one we will use to privesc. Instead of using the three file method that is outlined on exploit-db, we’ll do it manually using two terminals logged in as webuser.

Let’s also check sudo privileges.

The LD_PRELOAD and sky_backup_utility are both interesting findings. We’ll save these for later in case we hit a dead end with CVE 2021-4034.

PRIV-ESC

We’ll execute privilege escalation by exploiting a glitch in the pkexec bin (policykit vulnerability – cve-2021-4034). Open a second shell as webdeveloper.

Issue the following commands one-by-one in the corresponding terminals.

POST-EXPLOITATION

Let’s grab the root flag:

FINAL THOUGHTS

This box was fairly challenging and really pushed me to take careful notes about my findings during enumeration and also to thoughtfully plan my strategy for gaining the initial foothold and for the priv-esc stage.

These more advanced boxes are forcing me to start putting together longer sequences of hacking tricks that were used more in isolation on the easier boxes.