Finding Resources to Prepare for the Offensive Penetration Testing

Types of Resources

Hands-on Labs & Platforms

• Hack The Box (HTB)

  • Free & VIP subscription

  • Beginner content improving

  • Realistic machines; some harder than certs

  • Retired machines have walkthroughs

  • Recommended: IppSec YouTube channel

• VulnHub

  • Free downloadable VMs

  • Great for offline practice

  • User-submitted machines

  • Tedious setup sometimes (VirtualBox/VMWare)

  • Many walkthroughs on blogs & YouTube

• TryHackMe

  • Free & subscription options

  • Browser-based or OpenVPN access

  • Beginner-friendly with guided learning paths

  • Certifications like Jr. Penetration Tester (TryHackMe Red Team Path)

• Pentester Academy (now part of INE)

  • Paid (monthly)

  • Includes red team labs

  • Labs tell you what to look for (less realistic)

  • Comes with PDFs/videos

• OverTheWire Wargames

  • Free

  • Great for CLI basics, Linux, and web challenges

  • Start with Bandit → Narnia, Leviathan, etc.

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Books & Guides

• Red Team Field Manual – Ben Clark

• The Hacker Playbook 1 & 2 – Peter Kim

• Operator Handbook – NETMUX

• Penetration Testing – Georgia Weidman (Beginner must-read)

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Pre-Built Vulnerable Labs

• DVWA (Damn Vulnerable Web App)

• Metasploitable 1–3

• OWASP WebGoat

• bWAPP

• Can be run locally or in a VM; ideal for testing tools and scripts

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Useful Commands & Cheat Sheets

• pentestmonkey – Webshells, reverse shells, cheats

• g0tmi1k – Privilege escalation guides

• PayloadsAllTheThings (GitHub) – One of the best curated pentest repos

• HackTricks (GitHub) – In-depth on techniques, recon, post-exploitation

• GTFOBins – Unix privilege escalation via system binaries

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GitHub Repositories

• Search for OSCP, PNPT, eCPPT, or TryHackMe prep

• Repos with:

  • Notes

  • Cheatsheets

  • Custom scripts

  • Practice writeups

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Personal Blogs & Walkthroughs

• Great for learning and sharing your journey

• Start your own blog or GitBook!

• Examples:

  • 0xdf’s blog

  • IppSec’s writeups

  • s4vitar’s content for OSCP/PNPT

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Tips for Learning

• Document everything: Use Notion, Obsidian, or GitBook

• Follow learning paths: e.g., TryHackMe or HTB Academy

• Join Discord/Reddit communities:

  • r/HowToHack, r/OSCP, r/netsecstudents

  • TryHackMe and HTB Discords