Practice your pen testing skills with the OWASP Juice Shop challenge
Juicy

© Lead image © artverau, 123RF.com
The OWASP Juice Shop has over 100 tasks that will get you up to speed on pen testing. This article guides you through your first steps.
You can quickly test whether your web server is an open door for attackers by breaking into your own system. All you need to do is … well, what actually? Isn't there this Metasploit tool that you can simply fire against the server? But before you point massive unknown weapons at your own server, you might want to take some time to familiarize yourself with the available tools and their purposes. And the best way to get started is to break into a test system.
The Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) makes its Juice Shop [1] available for starting pen testers. In addition to offering tasty fruit juices, the Juice Shop also deliberately contains a number of vulnerabilities, providing newcomers with an ideal target for hands-on pen testing practice. You can quickly set up the Juice Shop in a Docker container.
Open for Business
Because the Juice Shop has security vulnerabilities, you will not want to launch it on your own system. Instead, install your favorite distribution on a virtual machine (VM) or on an old laptop. Other services running in the background on your system will not interfere with the analysis. In principle, any distribution can serve as the underpinnings, but it should have the following tools in its repositories: Docker, Nmap, Dirb, and Base64. You can play it safe with Debian or go for the Kali Linux [2] pen testing distribution.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.