Question about value of CEH training material

emore93

I am looking into the CEH certification and was curious as to whether or not the training material (thru EC Council or other is worth it).

My options are iLearn package or a cheaper EC Council approved training course (with on demand videos) and purchase the iLabs components separately.

My ultimate goal is to understand how to use the tools (not necessarily just to pass the test). I have used several of the tools back in the college days but it has been a few years and my current employer (or any employer for that matter) gets a little "nervous" when I suggest spinning up an VM for experimentation.

Background info: Currently working as a low level Security Engineer with UG degree in Cyber Security.

What do you think is the training worth it?

cyberguypr

Who's paying for it? That's a factor that will steer my recommendation.

If your employer gets nervous about you labbing that means one of two things: 1) they don't trust you or 2) people fear what they don't understand which means they have no idea what they are talking about. I work at a highly restricted environment and I have both an official hardware lab in the small room no one wants as well as a few isolated VMs on my machine that I use as needed for testing. No need for any management paranoia.

Speaking of VMs, is anything stopping you from labbing at home? It results extremely easy and cheap by spinning VMs.

JoJoCal19

Like cyberguypr said, if you're paying out of pocket, then wait until you have all of the required experience and self study for it, thus paying only the exam cost and $100 for them to verify your experience. Otherwise I don't think the $3k+ course is worth the money.

emore93

Thanks for the reply.

I will be picking up the bill for the training. They (the company) may pick it up after the fact but I am not waiting on their decision (it is a gov't agency and getting approval takes months).

I do have a home lab environment so that is not a problem.

I guess I am more interested in the labs. Can they be setup on a home lab or is there something special that EC Council does that is unique?

Thanks everyone for your help.

JoJoCal19

You're better off setting up your own lab. Start with a VM of Kali Linux and then load a VM of Metasploitable and one of Windows XP (preferably one without all the service packs).

cyberguypr

Please don't pay a cent for official training. The value is just not there. Coverage of the tools in the test is so superficial that you'll be able to pass just by playing with the basics. If you really want good understanding of the tools you are better off looking for YouTube tutorials. You'll get more out of those than any of the official training.

emore93

Thanks guys...that's what I needed to hear.

You guys saved me from wasting $$$.

BGraves

@emore93


I went through the official EC-Council training through my MS degree(like these other guys prob), can tell you that everything everyone else has said is correct. CEH training not worth it and in my opinion, the cert itself is not worth it.

If you're in a gov't agency, consider pursuing a cert from the IAT chart.
https://www.isc2.org/dodmandate/default.aspx

Doesn't look like CEH will get you a leg up unless you want to be an auditor or analyst. I'd go for something it IAT/IAM level 3 if I were you, give yourself a leg up professionally and learn about tools in your free time without paying a fortune for someone to tell you things you could easily google and learn/practice on your own.