// What to read next
What to read after Linux Basics for Hackers
Where to go after Linux Basics for Hackers, picked from our catalog. The next step up from beginner level, weighted toward the topics this book covers.
01 · 2018
Social Engineering
Christopher Hadnagy's broad procedural reference on social engineering as a discipline — recon, pretexting, elicitation, microexpressions, and the structured engagement model his consultancy operationalized.
Intermediate4/5Christopher Hadnagy02 · 2024
Black Hat Bash
Nick Aleks and Dolev Farhi on getting offensive work done with the shell: privilege escalation tooling, lateral movement, and pipelining bash with the rest of the toolkit.
Intermediate4/5Nick Aleks, Dolev Farhi03 · 2007
Linux Firewalls
Michael Rash, author of psad and fwsnort, on building and operating Linux-native packet filtering and intrusion-response tooling. Pre-nftables in detail but conceptually durable.
Intermediate4/5Michael Rash04 · 2025
Metasploit
The second edition of the definitive No Starch guide to the Metasploit Framework, updated by the project's original maintainers and newer contributors for the modern Framework.
Intermediate4/5David Kennedy, Mati Aharoni, Devon Kearns, Jim O'Gorman, Daniel G. Graham05 · 2021
Practical Linux Forensics
Bruce Nikkel's reference for forensic analysts working post-mortem on Linux images: filesystems, journaling, logs, persistence locations, and the chain of custody discipline around them.
Intermediate4/5Bruce Nikkel06 · 2022
Practical Social Engineering
Joe Gray's working manual for the social-engineering side of red team and threat intel: OSINT-driven recon, pretexting, phishing infrastructure, and the legal and ethical boundaries that separate professional work from criminal activity.
Intermediate4/5Joe Gray07 · 2018
The Hacker Playbook 3
Peter Kim's hands-on red-team field manual: assumed-breach scenarios, lateral movement, AV/EDR evasion, and the operational rhythm of a real engagement rather than a checklist of CVEs.
Intermediate4/5Peter Kim08 · 2018
Pentesting Azure Applications
Matt Burrough on attacker behaviour against Azure tenants: identity, storage, VMs, key material handling, and the recon paths that work against real subscriptions.
Intermediate3/5Matt Burrough