Everything starts with a goal. In this chapter, we will discuss the importance of goal-based penetration testing with a set of objectives and discuss misconceptions and how a typical vulnerability scan, penetration testing, and red teaming exercise can fail without the importance of a goal. This chapter also provides an overview of security testing and setting up a verification lab and focuses on customizing Kali to support some advanced aspects of penetration testing. By the end of this chapter, you'll have learned the following:

• An overview of security testing
• Misconceptions of vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and red teaming exercises
• History and purpose of Kali Linux
• Updating and organizing Kali
• Setting up defined targets
• Building a verification lab