What's better the GPEN or the OSCP?

TechGromit

I was wondering which has more value, the OSCP is highly respected and a lot cheaper than a SANS course, how does the material covered in the GPEN compare to the OSCP?

LionelTeo

GPEN is leaning towards a methodological approach in conducting a pentest, while OSCP was gearing up the candidate to adapt to different situations. In some ways both overlaps but is not the same. A methodological approach is useful in consulting where it can be consistently apply to multiple pentest and produce a consistent result, while being able to adapt is useful for handling different situations/boxes and new changes in the technical landscape.

Ertaz

TechGromit wrote: »

I was wondering which has more value, the OSCP is highly respected and a lot cheaper than a SANS course, how does the material covered in the GPEN compare to the OSCP?

I will finish GPEN this year(along with CCNA Security). OSCP is on the short list for 2017. Then CCNP Security.

636-555-3226

I consider GPEN to be more of an overall primer for pentesting and OSCP to be more of a technical hands-on hack-a-thon (not that GPEN isn't either). I'd recommend GPEN first then OSCP, but you could do vice versa with no issues.

E Double U

For 2017 I'm considering GPEN first for methodology and then OSCP for hands-on.

quogue66

What does the OSCP run? I'm planning on starting the GPEN course (SEC560) in the next month and was thinking about OSCP afterwards.

OctalDump

quogue66 wrote: »

What does the OSCP run? I'm planning on starting the GPEN course (SEC560) in the next month and was thinking about OSCP afterwards.

This is a good plan. The OSCP training is on demand and online. So you can start as soon as you feel comfortable.

quogue66

I meant cost. I looked around online and saw a price of $750 but that was a years years old. Is that still the current price?

E Double U

quogue66 wrote: »

I meant cost. I looked around online and saw a price of $750 but that was a years years old. Is that still the current price?

Prices are on their website:

https://www.offensive-security.com/information-security-training/penetration-testing-training-kali-linux/

quogue66

Thank you...I'm not sure how I missed that

TechGromit

Upgrade from PWB v.3.0 to PWK
Upgrade from PWB v.2.0 to PWK
Upgrade from PWB v.1.0 to PWK

I take it these are previous versions of the course and you can get current material for these prices?

OctalDump

quogue66 wrote: »

I meant cost. I looked around online and saw a price of $750 but that was a years years old. Is that still the current price?

Did you click the link in my post? It's at the bottom of that page. The cheapest option:

Penetration Testing with Kali + 30 days Lab access + Certification USD 800.00

You can get longer, and can extend, and can get more certification attempts.

BlackBeret

As far as a comparison if you want to pick only one, go with OSCP. I can tell you from personal experience that you can take the PWK course, spend two weeks in the labs, fail the OSCP exam, turn around challenge the GPEN and pass it with a 92% with no problems.

I can't speak for the GPEN course itself, but the test was a few questions on methodology and a lot of questions on what tool and switches to use in which situations. When I challenged it I wrote down all of the tools that showed up in the practice tests, printed out their man pages, and brought those in as my open book material. If the test was based on the course it was probably a bit more involved than CEH.

Phateon

After contemplating between OSCP & SANS courses, I feel that if you are ready then you can simply take up OSCP, which is way cheaper - $1150 for 3 months! Last I checked, you can get a "self-study" GPEN certification for $1149 - https://www.giac.org/registration/cert-attempt. Compare the two and then proceed.