Pentesting.Site

Useful ZSH shortcuts and setup commands for a faster pentesting shell.

Zsh (short for Z shell) is a powerful shell designed for interactive use, although it’s also a capable scripting language. Built on top of bash, it incorporates many features from ksh and tcsh while adding its own modern flair. If you’re still using the default terminal settings, you’re playing on “Hard Mode.” Switching to Zsh is like giving your command line a brain transplant; it becomes faster, smarter, and much more helpful.

If you want to skip the manual labour, install Oh My Zsh. It’s an open-source framework that manages your Zsh configuration for you. It comes with hundreds of plugins (like git, Docker, and Node) that provide even more shortcuts and tab-completion helpers.

ZSH Shortcuts

Here are some of the most useful ZSH shortcuts to improve your pentesting efficiency.

1
CTRL + A              # Move to the beginning of the line
2
CTRL + E              # Move to the end of the line
3
CTRL + [left arrow]   # Move one word backward (on some systems this is ALT + B)
4
CTRL + [right arrow]  # Move one word forward (on some systems this is ALT + F)
5
CTRL + U              # (bash) Clear the characters on the line before the current cursor position
6
CTRL + U              # (zsh) If you're using the zsh, this will clear the entire line
7
CTRL + K              # Clear the characters on the line after the current cursor position
8
ESC + [backspace]     # Delete the word in front of the cursor
9
CTRL + W              # Delete the word in front of the cursor
10
ALT + D               # Delete the word after the cursor
11
CTRL + R              # Search history
12
CTRL + G              # Escape from search mode
13
CTRL + -              # Undo the last change
14
CTRL + L              # Clear screen
15
CTRL + S              # Stop output to screen
16
CTRL + Q              # Re-enable screen output
17
CTRL + C              # Terminate/kill current foreground process
18
CTRL + Z              # Suspend/stop current foreground process
19
!!                    # Execute last command in history
20
!abc                  # Execute last command in history beginning with abc
21
!abc:p                # Print last command in history beginning with abc

Install ZSH and Powerlevel10K with syntax highlighting and zsh-autosuggestions

1
# Install
2
1. sudo apt-get update
3
2. sudo apt upgrade
4
3. sudo apt install zsh
5
4. sudo apt-get install powerline fonts-powerline
6
5. git clone https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh.git ~/.oh-my-zsh
7
6. cp ~/.oh-my-zsh/templates/zshrc.zsh-template ~/.zshrc
8
7. git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git "${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k"
9
8. Open ~/.zshrc, find the line that sets ZSH_THEME, and change its value to "powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k"

1
# Syntax Highlighting
2
9. git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git "$HOME/.zsh-syntax-highlighting" --depth 1
3
10. echo "source $HOME/.zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh" >> "$HOME/.zshrc"

1
# Auto suggestions based on history
2
11. sudo apt install zsh-autosuggestions
3
12. Paste the below into .zshrc
4

5
if [ -f /usr/share/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh ]; then
6
    . /usr/share/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh
7
    # change suggestion color
8
    ZSH_AUTOSUGGEST_HIGHLIGHT_STYLE='fg=#999'
9
fi

1
# Enable proper history (Across tabs and realtime etc. I use konsole so this works for me)
2
13. Copy the below to .zshrc
3

4
HISTFILE=~/.zsh_history
5
HISTSIZE=100000
6
SAVEHIST=100000
7
setopt INC_APPEND_HISTORY       # Immediately append commands to the history file
8
setopt SHARE_HISTORY            # Share history across all sessions
9
setopt HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS     # Don't record a command that's already in history
10
setopt HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS       # Remove superfluous blanks before recording
11
setopt HIST_SAVE_NO_DUPS        # Don't write duplicates to the history file
12
setopt EXTENDED_HISTORY         # Save timestamped entries
13
unsetopt EXTENDED_HISTORY

1
# Source .zshrc
2
source .zshrc

With the above, your terminal will look clean like mine below and have auto-suggestions with syntax highlighting.