Anyone on the OSCP journey soon?

WilliamK99

I decided to bite the bullet and am enrolled in the OSCP course that starts on 26 April, is anyone else starting near that time? I find if I have someone studying with me, it helps keep us both honest and focused on the goal. I would hate to spend this much money and then let life overtake my goals of improving myself. Good luck to all taking this journey, it looks like a challenge!

mokaz

Hi all, two easy machines in the "COMPLETED" folder.. not much to whoopywhoop but I've learned a lot already..

videos = 50%
lab exercises = 20% i guess

mokaz

mokaz wrote: »

Hi all, two easy machines in the "COMPLETED" folder.. not much to whoopywhoop but I've learned a lot already..

videos = 50%
lab exercises = 20% i guess

So my full Friday eve and the whole of today and this makes it 3 systems owned. Learned a lot as well today...

impelse

Sometimes you move quickly, other is very slow, I did not hack one in 4 days

Blade3D

I should be starting in the next month or less, have to take OSWP again as I used the wrong password list.

ipp

Howdy. I found this thread looking for a Study Group on Google. Unfortunately, it looks like I can't send PM's until I reach X posts to see if people want to exchange contact information. Feel free to PM me or message me on freenode (ipp), if you want someone to bounce theories off and keep eachother motivated.

I've went through all the material, and have made decent progress in the labs.

MrAgent

Good luck to everyone currently in the course!

griffondg

Just purchased the course and start May 2nd! I bought 90 days of lab time.

Eric

ejg398

Need to finish GPEN , but as of this morning submitted my request for the 90 days of class plus exam. Last time took employer over 4 months to approve and pay for SANs, so I figure that will give me time to finish the GPEN then get started on OSCP.

Blade3D

Should be starting in the next week or so, should have passed OSWP yesterday. I just need to see if my company will front most or all of the cost cause I really don't have the money to.

EDIT: Seems the next start date is May 9th, count me in for that one.

Mike-Mike

I'm very interested in this, however I'm not sure there will be a ROI

JoJoCal19

Mike-Mike wrote: »

I'm very interested in this, however I'm not sure there will be a ROI

If you're wanting to work in pentesting, red-teaming, or the like, then yes the ROI is definitely there. OSCP may not be as big on HR filters as the more well known security certs (CISSP, CEH, CISM, etc), but when the hiring managers and team members that get the resumes see it, they will definitely be interested in at least speaking with you because they know what is involved with getting the OSCP and if you have it, that you at least have practically applied the requisite skills.

impelse

It is high ROI, yesterday I was reading a document for PCI DSS how to do a penetration testing and in the qualifications mention OSCP (like recommendation )

Means that the ROI will be higher than I was expecting

impelse

Guys

I am not sure if I am screwing up, I bought the lab the April 1, and I already put 27 hours in the lab, comparing with you guys is this low or normal?

mokaz

impelse wrote: »

I am not sure if I am screwing up, I bought the lab the April 1, and I already put 27 hours in the lab, comparing with you guys is this low or normal?

I've spent a minimum of 16 hours a week on it and peaked at 20-24 hours. I've had rough time at getting at it on the evenings (loads of travels these days) and therefore I've dedicated my weekends at it. When i can't be on the labs i'm reading the lab guide and watching the videos when time permits.

I've owned 4 systems yet but absolutely avoided metasploit.
Spent my last Saturday on windows priv escalations & C code adapting/compiling for Windows under Kali
Watched about 70% of the video contents
Went back and forth in the lab guide for roughly 50% of its content

Mike-Mike wrote: »

I'm very interested in this, however I'm not sure there will be a ROI

Personally i think that this certs actually will give me the best ROI possible which is tremendous knowledge and respect among the industry i'd say. Also, the people behind HR, the ones at the security teams - they sure know about it. And concerning price i think it's a really fair cert. For example, any OSCP exam retake is 60 US$, what about a CISSP retake or a CISM retake??

MrAgent

impelse wrote: »

Guys

I am not sure if I am screwing up, I bought the lab the April 1, and I already put 27 hours in the lab, comparing with you guys is this low or normal?

When I first started I was putting in a ton of time. It was almost a second full time job. I would easily put in 8 hours a night into it.
I slowed down considerably by the 2 month. Down to 2-3 hours a night.

impelse

I guess I need to put more effort, I only owned 3 machines.

I bought the book: Python for Pentesters, it is a good book, I am on chapter 2 and now I am experiment in the lab with my own scripts.

MrAgent

I would also suggest picking up the penetration testing book by Georgia Wiedman
Penetration Testing: A Hands-On Introduction to Hacking: Georgia Weidman: 9781593275648: Amazon.com: Books

As well as the Hacker Playbook
The Hacker Playbook: Practical Guide To Penetration Testing: Peter Kim: 9781494932633: Amazon.com: Books

Both good reading.

impelse

Yep, I bought The Hacker Playbook, good reading, I like the horizontal attack.

MrAgent

I paid particular attention to the buffer overflow section in the Georgia Wiedman book. It definitely helped me.

mokaz

so 5 systems owned.. booooh the last one was tough took me two days jjjeezzz...

as well I found some good reading:
Conquering the Command Line, Unix and Linux Commands for Developers - Mark Bates | Softcover.io

impelse

Good info, thanks

da_vato

Does anyone know of any other good external resources? I purchased the hackers playbook before I started the course and thought it was ok but not deep enough for me to tie to tactics... last night I purchased the RTFM (red team field manual) because I have heard good things... though that's why I purchased the last book, so we will see.

When doing research on specific exploits have any of you found other sources than the two recommended in the course?

JollyFrogs

Hi all, I'll be starting my OSCP journey soon. Have worked in IT for about 20 years and have had lots of exposure to many a field in IT from Networks to Systems, Databases, Security, VoIP and everything in between. I enjoy puzzles and will be paying for this course myself, thinking about getting the 90 days course with the goal of completing the labs 100% and completing the exam with a score of 100%. I know this is going to be difficult but I'm committed to doing it. I have no problem in the motto "Try Harder" and am fully aware that I will be humbled and perhaps even mentally broken by the experience.I look forward to starting soon :)The Frog

melvinfz

Hi what sort of information are you looking for ?

melvinfz

https://blog.g0tmi1k.com/2011/08/basic-linux-privilege-escalation/

MrAgent

JollyFrogs wrote: »

Hi all, I'll be starting my OSCP journey soon. Have worked in IT for about 20 years and have had lots of exposure to many a field in IT from Networks to Systems, Databases, Security, VoIP and everything in between. I enjoy puzzles and will be paying for this course myself, thinking about getting the 90 days course with the goal of completing the labs 100% and completing the exam with a score of 100%. I know this is going to be difficult but I'm committed to doing it. I have no problem in the motto "Try Harder" and am fully aware that I will be humbled and perhaps even mentally broken by the experience.I look forward to starting soon :)The Frog

I was only able to get into about 35 or so boxes by the end of my lab time. I did however compromise all 5 of the servers on the exam, with full control of 4/5. I think I scored 90/100 on the exam.

My point is, you don't necessarily need to get all boxes in the lab to do well on the exam. Just knowing the concepts, and where to look if you get stuck, and of course trying harder.

JollyFrogs

MrAgent wrote: »

My point is, you don't necessarily need to get all boxes in the lab to do well on the exam. Just knowing the concepts, and where to look if you get stuck, and of course trying harder.

I understand, the goal of getting 100% in the labs and in the exam is one that I set purely to challenge myself.

impelse

Me too, I will try to make it 100%

mokaz

da_vato wrote: »

Does anyone know of any other good external resources? I purchased the hackers playbook before I started the course and thought it was ok but not deep enough for me to tie to tactics... last night I purchased the RTFM (red team field manual) because I have heard good things... though that's why I purchased the last book, so we will see.

When doing research on specific exploits have any of you found other sources than the two recommended in the course?

These are my array of resources i'm currently using (in bold are my favorites):

Black Hat Python
Conquering The Command Line
Coding for Penetration Testers
Command Line Kung Fu
Counter Hack Reloaded, Second Edition
Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Guide
Google Hacking for Penetration Testers
Kali Linux Network Scanning Cookbook
Linux Pocket Guide, 2nd Edition
Mastering Kali Linux for Advanced Penetration Testing
Metasploit Penetration Testers Guide
Netcat Starter
Ninja Hacking - Unconventional Penetration Testing
Python Penetration Testing Essentials
Python for Secret Agents
Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters
Penetration Testing with the Bash shell
Penetration Testing - A Hands-On Introduction to Hacking
Professional Penetration Testing - Creating and Learning in a Hacking Lab
The Linux Command line - A Complete Introduction

Although after reading a lot, i understood that hacking is not really something a book can/will teach you, i mean for me the enumeration is not a problem but i tend to have issues at seeing clearly and rapidly enough "how" will I break in this system or "how" will I escalate privileges correctly and efficiently.

I think I've understood that books will give me a quick answer to this or that but the attack angle should be my own jiu jitsu, which can only come after failing for the 100 times hence the Try Harder i guess..

RTFM is really good as well and super handy to have on your desk everyday really...

On your last question, I've read somewhere that PWK/OSCP rely uniquely on exploit-db exploits. Which i think makes sense. So i guess that a correctly targeted searchsploit on your updated db should bring the goods to surface i'd say.

Last, i've made a statement not to touch metasploit (i mean as an automated point and shoot weapon) in the labs so i might move slowly but i'm moving manually hehe..

Cheers,
m.