Beginning in ethical Hacking / pentest

[terro]

Hi All ,

First of all, i’m introducing myself : young IT enginneer working as developer for the moment and want to switch to security/pentest.

Thanks to this (wonderful) forum i discovered more certification in 1h than in the last month. 😀
And as far as i red it seems that this the eSCPPT is a good choice to begin. (and maybe continu with ceh or PWB).

And i was wondering if a newbe could achieve the eSCPPT …? And waht kind of amount of work is needed to finish it? I don’t have much time
Actually i’m reading hacking exposed – gray hat hacking (quite a good book!) and MISC, have some skills (various level ) in approximatively all languages, mid-skill in network, and know few trick like XSS, parameters poisonning, SQL injection etc… (that was for the background)

If any of you have advice or a better suggestion on how begin in the career i’ll take it 🙂

Btw, i’d like to say that this forum is GREAT , i bet i’m here for a while!

[KrisTeason]

Hey terro,

Welcome to the forums!

I think it’s definitely possible depending on how much time and effort you put into it! The course is aimed for audiences with 0-3 years penetration testing experience. Your given a good amount of time to go through the course material before you go for the certification challenge. I think it’s good you have the development background – it helps in the field. The certification challenge is a web-application pen-test and even if you didn’t have a few tricks up your sleeve like you mentioned, the Web-App Section in the course is explained in detail enough to where you’d be able to get there.

Your going to learn a lot of cool stuff, especially if your new. The hardest part of the challenge was the reporting! The Penetration Testing Reports thread will come in very handy here. eLearnSecurity has even recently released a Web Application Security Lab for their students and if you manage to complete those, you’ll feel prepared for the exam. Incase your ready to endure some more web-app hacking, test your skills against the Vulnerable Web-Applications here.

There’s tons of resources in the course including a forum area, and personal e-mailing (Armando e-mails back in a very timely manner). Plus there’s our board here where a few eCPPT certified folks + current eLS students participate and were glad to pitch in our 2 cents.

p.s – don’t forget the 5% discount ethicalhacker.net members get here

Kris

[lorddicranius]

First off, welcome to the forum 🙂

I haven’t taken a course from eLearnSecurity personally, but from what I’ve read it’s a great course.  eLearnSecurity actually just came out with a Student course that teaches the basic knowledge of what you’ll build upon in the Pro course.  There’s a form there on their homepage (http://www.elearnsecurity.com/index.php) that’ll allow you to get a free demo of one of their lessons.  Check it out and see what you think!

You’ll see Armando (founder of eLearnSecurity) poke his head into the forums here also.

**EDIT**
Looks like I was typing up my reply at the same time Kris was 😛

[terro]

Thank you for your answer !

I think that i’ll take a try so. It looks interesting and a good entry point to the world of pentest.

Do you think that i shall begin with student version or just go for the pro?

[rabray]

Also happy to give more info about the benefits I have personally gained from taking part in a challenging and interesting course.

[furytech]

I am also new to the security field and had a couple questions regarding certifications/employment.

To give a little background to help your decision making…

I currently have an associate’s degree in computer networking and will be done with my bachelor’s in security next year which includes (ccna, ccna-s, ciw database, ciw javascript, ciw web design still working on these) certifications.

I have 3+ years of help desk exp and about 6 months of work relating to IDSs. I also have the CEH, Sec+, Net+, A+ and will be taking the ECSA/LPT bootcamp next month.

As far as what knowledge I should already have or will obtain through the ECSA/LPT, what should I take next?

I am looking at the OSCP or the eCPPT. I noticed they are both almost the same price. Also if I would go for the eCPPT, would it be better to take the Student or the Pro with what I should already know?
Can someone please explain the main differences or which would be better to take first?

Thank you in advance.

[impelse]

For yout certifications, I think OSCP will be better

[SephStorm]

lol @furytech,

someones a future WGU student. 😀

just an interesting option for you, I see you’ve done the CEH and want to do the ECSA/LPT.

if youve never done a practical pentest, I would suggest the 10 day ethical haccking program offered by intense school. Yes, during the first 5 days, you will cover the CEH material, but if it is anything like the online course, you will have plenty of lab time.

In addition, not only do you get vouchers for the CEH/ECSA, but you can take the CPT/CEPT, which require practical exams, much more important to building a career, and experience.

if you can pass that, then I would look at eCPPT and OSCP.

[Author]

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