What's better the GPEN or the OSCP?

TechGromitTechGromit Member Posts: 2,156 ■■■■■■■■■□
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?
Still searching for the corner in a round room.

Comments

  • LionelTeoLionelTeo Member Posts: 526 ■■■■■■■□□□
    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.
  • ErtazErtaz Member Posts: 934 ■■■■■□□□□□
    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.
  • 636-555-3226636-555-3226 Member Posts: 975 ■■■■■□□□□□
    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 UE Double U Member Posts: 2,228 ■■■■■■■■■■
    For 2017 I'm considering GPEN first for methodology and then OSCP for hands-on.
    Alphabet soup from (ISC)2, ISACA, GIAC, EC-Council, Microsoft, ITIL, Cisco, Scrum, CompTIA, AWS
  • quogue66quogue66 Member Posts: 193 ■■■■□□□□□□
    What does the OSCP run? I'm planning on starting the GPEN course (SEC560) in the next month and was thinking about OSCP afterwards.
  • OctalDumpOctalDump Member Posts: 1,722
    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.
    2017 Goals - Something Cisco, Something Linux, Agile PM
  • quogue66quogue66 Member Posts: 193 ■■■■□□□□□□
    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 UE Double U Member Posts: 2,228 ■■■■■■■■■■
    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/
    Alphabet soup from (ISC)2, ISACA, GIAC, EC-Council, Microsoft, ITIL, Cisco, Scrum, CompTIA, AWS
  • quogue66quogue66 Member Posts: 193 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Thank you...I'm not sure how I missed that
  • TechGromitTechGromit Member Posts: 2,156 ■■■■■■■■■□
    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?
    Still searching for the corner in a round room.
  • OctalDumpOctalDump Member Posts: 1,722
    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.
    2017 Goals - Something Cisco, Something Linux, Agile PM
  • BlackBeretBlackBeret Member Posts: 683 ■■■■■□□□□□
    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.
  • PhateonPhateon Member Posts: 14 ■□□□□□□□□□
    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.
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