Here are a few books that I’ve found useful in my penetration testing career that I would highly recommend to anyone new to this area. At some point I will get round to writing up a proper review for each book. I have purchased many other penetration testing books however these are are the ones I go back to time after time. Like a lot of technical IT books I use these more as a reference guide than as a cover to cover sit down and read type book.

The Hackers Playbook 1

The Hackers playbook 2

Rtfm: Red Team Field Manual

Metasploit The penetration Testers Guide

Network Security Assessment: Know Your Network 2nd Edition

Network Security Assessment: Know Your Network 3rd Edition

Nmap Network Scanning: The Official Nmap Project Guide to Network Discovery and Security Scanning