GIAC GPEN Exam

Delighted to announce that I am now certified GIAC Penetration Tester (GPEN)!

Here is my journey towards getting certified:

As you might know, each GIAC course comes with 2 online certification attempts. These can be done at any time prior the exam, which is a perfect way to determine how prepare you are. I decided to give myself 2 weeks to sit the exam (I like to work intensely in a short period of time).

Prior to the first online attempt, I prepared a “high-level” cheat sheet with roughly the subjects addressed in each books. Feeling ready, I sat the online exam to gauge my current skills and miserably failed with 64% (pass mark 74%).

This made me realised that the cheat sheet had to be a lot more detailed. I decided to tweak it by referencing the name of every single tool mentioned in the course books. The cheat sheet was now 3 pages long.

My second online attempt resulted in another fail, with 1% below the pass mark. Timing is crucial, I realised that I went way too fast (2hours instead of the allocated 3hours) which resulted in half a dozen mistakes. Therefore, I completed my cheat sheet with a time table to know roughly how long I could take for every 15 questions.

I also purchased the “Red Team Field Manual”, which I highly recommend. The book is constituted of 1 line commands for a broad range of tools used during the GPEN (and many more).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rtfm-Red-Team-Field-Manual/dp/1494295504

On the day of the exam, I brought to the test center all 5 GPEN books, my hand-made cheat sheet and the RTFM. After 2hours and 57minutes, I passed the certification with an 86% success rate. I have to say that the cheat-sheet was essential; to quickly search for commands/subjects and avoid making mistakes. In addition, I took my time to answer and didn’t rush through it, which resulted in a much higher score than online attempts.

In conclusion, the exam itself was very similar to the online attempts (but different questions). The cheat sheet is crucial, so please feel free to tweak yours using the above idea/tips and I wish you all the best for your exam!

GIAC GPEN - SANS SEC560 Course

Here is my journey towards the GPEN certification – starting with the SANS SEC560 course:

It all started while attending one of the SANS SEC560 class training in Munich. 

The training itself was brilliant, our instructor "Erik Van Buggenhout" was very interesting and we encompassed a broad range of tools used for everyday testing.

It is worth noting here that all SANS instructors are also professional, meaning that they carry pen-test engagements day in day out.

The course is for everyone, meaning that no previous pen-testing experience is required, as the course will start from scratch with the most basics techniques prior to getting any deeper in the exploitation/post exploitation phases.

The key benefit of attending a live class is to meet people. Meet your peers working in the same field, meet your SANS instructor and understand his/her career path, make contacts! Always keeping in mind that your career progress will be due not thanks to your technical skills, but mostly thanks to your sociable skills (who you know!).

The SANS course was running from 9.00AM until 5.30PM, with occasional conferences after hours or social gathering. At the end of the 5 days course, a Capture The Flag event is carried out by team of 3 to 5 peoples. That's where you technical skills (and obviously sociable skills to get into the right team) get to be tested.

The capture the flag event was brilliant, I felt like back in the days, while playing FPS games on the internet. After 4 hours of hard work with trance/drums'n bass music in the background (that's how hacker do it, right?!), my team managed to retrieve all the flags and won the SANS coin. Fantastic!

Would I recommend it? Of course I would. Having just moved into a penetration testing role, I felt this was the perfect course to get going, providing a wide range of methodologies and techniques to be applied into live environment. 

My CTF Team proudly showing the SANS coin:

Stay tuned as I will soon been posting about the GPEN certification attempt!

Welcome to my blog !

This blog describes my experience as a Penetration Tester. The aim is to keep notes of tips & tricks learnt, as well as providing an insight onto the life of a Penetration Tester / Security Consultant