Complete Ethical Hacking and Cybersecurity Course

Set up your learning environment and follow a practical, hands-on path from basics to advanced topics in ethical hacking and cybersecurity, tailored to your skill level.

Install VMware Workstation Player to create isolated virtual machines on a Windows host, allocating controlled RAM, CPU, and disk resources for safe malware analysis with Kali Linux.

Install and run Kali Linux as a virtual machine in VMware Workstation Player, import the prebuilt Kali VM, adjust keyboard layout, transfer files, and manage resources for ethical hacking practice.

Explore core methodologies for ethical hacking, learn why they matter, and begin applying them through concise, practical techniques, with short segments detailing each phase of the exercise.

Learn how ethical hacking methodologies structure every exercise—from scope and information gathering to vulnerability analysis, exploitation, post-exploitation, and reporting—and how to adapt them to your workflow.

Start the information gathering phase by collecting target data to feed later stages of the ethical hacking process. Explore passive information gathering as the first practical section of the course.

Master passive information gathering by using osint to collect data from public sources, enabling undetected insights for ethical hacking and the information gathering phase.

Explore Google hacking techniques for passive information gathering with Google dorks, site and filetype searches, and exact search queries to uncover exposed data in a Kali Linux lab.

Explore the Google Hacking Database and Google Docs queries to uncover publicly exposed information, such as AWS credentials, S3 buckets, and API keys.

Explore Shodan, a search engine that scans internet-connected devices by banners and ports to uncover exposed services like FTP and cameras, revealing vulnerabilities and possible entry points.

Learn how Censys offers internet-wide asset discovery alongside Shodan, using ZMap and grep for up-to-date indexing, with searches by services, ports, and organizations for cross-checking in passive information gathering.

Explore whois databases and why they're not centralized, use the Hoyes tool in Kali Linux to query domain and IP data, and learn how privacy laws like GDPR limit exposure.

Explore how archive.org's Wayback Machine captures web page snapshots over time, enabling historical searches of sites and GitHub repos to reveal changed or removed credentials and information.

Explore the harvester for passive information gathering across Baidu, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, and Shodan, and export results to HTML, XML, or JSON.

Install Maltego on Kali Linux, verify internet connection, configure network as anarchy mode, update repositories, install Maltego, register for the community edition, activate account, and check for updates.

Explore semi-passive information gathering, where study interactions with target systems mimic normal user activity—network traffic appears legitimate, using dns queries, web app access, and metadata analysis to collect data.

Learn to create a Windows 10 or 11 virtual machine with VMware Workstation, downloading the ISO image and configuring RAM, storage, and network sharing for secure testing.

Foca enables metadata extraction to reveal authors, emails, software, and internal folders from documents, guiding semi-passive information gathering and targeted analysis.

Compare metadata extraction tools like Foca and Metafile on Kali Linux, explore 11 Paths Meta Shield Analyzer for cleaning metadata, and use ExifTool to extract from PDF and DOC files.

Discover how the DNS protocol translates domain names to IP addresses, navigate DNS zones and record types, and apply semi-passive information gathering and DNS spoofing concepts for ethical hacking.

Use Central Ops and DNS dumpster to perform semi-passive DNS information gathering, extracting DNS records, name servers, and host mappings for domains.

Explore sniffers with Wireshark, a key semi-passive information gathering tool in Kali Linux. Visualize and interpret network packets across Ethernet, IP, DNS, and HTTP protocols, using filters.

Explore tcpdump, a command-line sniffer for semi-passive information gathering, and learn to capture and filter traffic on Kali Linux, save pcap files, and compare with Wireshark.

Explore active information gathering, where targeted network probes reveal hosts, ports, services, and operating systems, while noting its intrusive nature and the need for legal authorization and detection considerations.

Set up a local Metasploitable3 environment with two vulnerable servers, Ubuntu and Windows, to practice Metasploit exploits and active information gathering, while considering bug bounty programs as a legal alternative.

Install and configure Metasploitable3 using Rapid7 pre-built images for Ubuntu and Windows, bypassing Vagrant and ISO issues, and set up host-only networking for cross-machine connectivity.

Master active information gathering through DNS zone transfer, learn how misconfigured name servers reveal zone files, and use nslookup, DNS utils, dig, host, and DNS recon.

Explore host discovery with nmap in a lab setting, using arp-based identification and tcp syn techniques to detect active hosts on a network, while weighing intrusion risks.

Learn, using nmap, to identify hosts with arp discovery and tcp probes, compare no-sudo and sudo scans, and inspect open ports like 80 and 443.

Inspect port scanning with Nmap to identify open ports and running services, distinguish states such as open, closed, and filtered, and compare TCP and UDP techniques, including report export.

Use nmap for active service discovery, probing open ports to identify running services and versions, such as ftp and OpenSSH, and export results to xml for visualization.

Use amap as a secondary service discovery tool to verify nmap results and identify banners on open ports, revealing services such as OpenSSH 6.6.1 and IRC.

Use nmap to identify the operating system and version of a target by analyzing services. Observe the generated traffic with Wireshark to validate Linux or Windows details for ethical hacking.

Enumerate Windows resources with nmap using smb scripts to discover shared folders, users, and Windows Server 2008 R2 OS details via smb os discovery on a Windows target.

Explore how to enumerate SNMP on UDP port 161 with Nmap, using scripts to reveal software, users, processes, network connections, and system description for misconfigured servers.

Explore how to gather information about a target using passive or active methods, identify open ports and running services, and pinpoint vulnerabilities to exploit in the vulnerability analysis phase.

Leverage information gathered about targets to identify security flaws in exposed technologies, uncover vulnerabilities, and enable exploitation and post-exploitation, including lateral movement.

Explore manual vulnerability analysis using CVE, CVSS, and CPE to identify and assess risks from services like Proftpd 1.3.5, search exploits, and leverage Metasploit in exploitation.

Learn to perform vulnerability analysis with nmap and its script engine, running vulnerable scripts, exporting xml reports, and reviewing findings across tcp and udp hosts.

Learn Nessus essentials on Kali Linux, from download and activation code entry to starting the daemon and using the graphical interface to run scans.

Launch Nessus on Kali, perform basic vulnerability analysis via host discovery and service enumeration, using plugins and CVE databases to identify vulnerabilities on Metasploitable Windows and Ubuntu.

Master Nessus advanced vulnerability analysis with intrusive and dynamic scans, custom policies, and real-time plugin loading. Configure scans, run thorough assessments, and export clear audit reports.

Explore the landscape of vulnerability analysis tools and their similar functions. Focus on Nessus as the widely used option and note alternatives like Qualys, AppScan, Nikto, and Paris webapp.

Learn to manually exploit host vulnerabilities by analyzing maps and Nessus results, understanding exploits and payloads, and preparing reverse-shell payloads before leveraging Metasploit.

Metasploit offers a complete exploitation framework with modular exploits and payloads, enabling automated attacks, post-exploitation with Meterpreter, and the use of stagers and singles payloads.

Learn how to use Metasploit for basic exploitation: identify vulnerabilities with Nessus, select exploits, configure payloads, and establish reverse shell sessions on target machines.

Explore advanced exploitation of the bluekeep RDP vulnerability using metasploit, manual exploit tuning, and a meterpreter payload, including non-paged memory and registry key adjustments in virtualized environments.

Learn to generate and embed custom payloads with msfvenom, from simple reverse shells to meterpreter stages, and use handlers to manage multi-stage payloads in metasploit exploits.

Learn to integrate Nessus with Metasploit, import Nessus scan results into the Metasploit database, and inspect hosts and vulnerabilities for exploit opportunities.

Explore Armitage, the Metasploit graphical interface, to perform active reconnaissance, deploy exploits, and gain a shell, while setting up PostgreSQL and connecting to the local Metasploit database.

Set up a learning environment by installing Ubuntu in a virtual machine using VMware Workstation Player, with RAM and disk recommendations, and prepare to install a vulnerable web application.

Install and configure mutillidae ii on a local apache server with php and mysql, using manual setup and git clone, then explore sql injection and adjustable security levels.

Explore Burp Suite as an interception proxy between browser and web server. Configure the browser to use 127.0.0.1:8080 and learn to intercept and modify requests and responses.

Learn spidering and crawling for web app reconnaissance using Burp Suite and Skipfish, including passive and active spidering, page discovery, and result analysis for identifying potential vulnerabilities.

Explore how code and context injections exploit web vulnerabilities by identifying injection points in URLs, bodies, and cookies, using Burp Suite to test and reveal XSS and SQL injection risks.

Expose sql injection vulnerabilities in web apps, detect with error-based and blind techniques, exploit via union queries to extract data and read files when sanitization fails.

Explore how blind sql injection reveals data by using logical conditions, substring tricks, and timing methods to extract current user, table names, and other details, with and without sql map.

Learn how to use sqlmap to identify injection points from intercepted requests, perform time-based blind SQL injections, and enumerate databases, tables, and users in a MySQL backend.

Explore path traversal vulnerabilities in web apps, showing how a manipulated url parameter can influence the file system path and reveal files like etc/password.

Learn how web shells serve as payloads to gain remote command execution and persistence by exploiting web application vulnerabilities, including SQL injection and path traversal, with a PHP example.

Explore HTML injection and cross-site scripting (XSS), including reflected and persistent storage variants. See practical demonstrations with Burp Suite, payloads, and data capture to understand credential theft risks.

Explore cross-site request forgery (CSRF) and how a legitimate, logged-in user may perform actions without awareness, such as adding blog posts or creating accounts via injected payloads.

Explore cross-site scripting vulnerabilities with XSS strike, a Python tool generating payloads automatically. Learn setup on Kali Linux, pip, and host-only testing for ethical exploitation practices.

Explore common injection and cookie tampering vulnerabilities in web applications, showing how input can execute os commands and how forged cookies can impersonate users, with Burp Suite demonstrations.

Examine man-in-the-middle techniques rooted in ARP spoofing and IP-MAC address resolution, revealing how attackers intercept and manipulate traffic between routers and network nodes.

Explore bettercap, a go-based tool for network vulnerability and man-in-the-middle attacks, learn installation on Kali Linux, CLI and graphical interfaces, and ARP spoofing and DNS spoofing modules.

Learn how ARP spoofing creates a man-in-the-middle by poisoning ARP caches to intercept traffic, using bettercap with Kali Linux and Windows 10.

Demonstrates how dns spoofing works after arp spoofing to redirect domain requests to the attacker's web server, using Kali Linux and a spoofed dns reply.

Demonstrates the Social Engineering Toolkit (SET) in Kali Linux to combine ARP spoofing and DNS spoofing with website cloning, capturing user credentials on a spoofed page for ethical hacking practice.

Real time network traffic manipulation lets you modify original packets in transit, unlike DNS spoofing. Learn how polymorph on Kali Linux enables man-in-the-middle ARP spoofing and packet-level edits using Python.

Explore real-time network traffic manipulation by performing ARP spoofing and intercepting ICMP ping packets with Polymorph, then modify the ICMP data in transit to illustrate attack consequences.

Demonstrate real-time mqtt traffic manipulation with polymorph by intercepting and modifying mqtt publish messages in a broker-based setup, using temperature data example.

Explore real-time manipulation of the remote registry protocol on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2008, and learn how ARP spoofing and modifying set value packets alter remote registry keys.

Demonstrates advanced winreg exploitation via arp spoofing and man-in-the-middle tools to inject a run key payload into the registry and obtain a reverse shell from Windows 10.

Explore how the Windows remote registry protocol enables remote registry manipulation via packet interception, enabling code injection through RPC/SMB traffic and open key, set value, and create key operations.

Discover how the Winterman tool performs a man-in-the-middle interception of remote registry traffic, using netfilter, iptables, and scapy to modify packets and explore security risks.