CEHv7 the four-day journey

So, today was the first day of my Certified Ethical Hacker version 7 through one of the large training vendor's with three initials...

With all of the hacking attacks in the news as of late (Sony three times, Nintendo, RSA, the FBI affiliate, Nintendo, etc), I find the idea of the class interesting, as it will help a network administrator/engineer/sysadmin/NOC operator help think of different ways/ideas to lock down their networks and some of the simple network attack tool sets out there (obviously a seasoned and serious hacker is probably using personalized scripts, programs, an organized team, etc).

Going into the class, I knew four days would not be enough to learn everything for the exam. The instructor verified it when he said the class was a boot camp, and we probably wouldn't have enough time for lab.

Personally, I have the last Sybex CEH book, CEH CBT Nuggets and the recent Backtrackv4 book.

The materials the vendor provided were the official curriculum provided by EC Council. You get two full-color books and DVDs (with the tools). I have to admit they're lacking. It's just a nice colorful book with slides (probably two a page). There is no detailed information, so if you wanted exposition or more detailed info, you won't find it in the book.

Those without networking experience or haven't gotten their feet wet with Sec+, Net+, CCNA and some other courses, may have a hard time with the material.

All we did today was cover the first three modules. It all seemed to make sense. The only issue was just not getting a chance to play with the tools in the labs (which are also included in the curriculum).

I think I'll probably end up reading the Sybex book afterward and maybe setting up some VMs (XP, Ubuntu, Win7 Server 2003 and Backtrack 5). I'll probably update again on Friday after taking the test. Wish me luck.

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Comments

Asif Dasl

How current are the tools on the v7 course? I've heard that some of the tools covered on CEH are pretty old these days? Also how does the CBT Nuggets hold up, I think it covers v5, does it cover most of v7? I'd be pretty interested in covering this course someday, maybe not too soon, but it be cool to learn all those tools. Good luck with the rest of the course!

SephStorm

Last I heard the CBTNuggets CEH was crap, they only do a high level overview to prevent people from using the material for nefarious purposes. Not that the price they sell it for wouldnt do it anyway...

Actually I cant think of what vendor you could be talking about. I know Global Knowledge, Training Camp, Intense School and a few others, but none that go by initials. feel free to send me a PM if youd prefer not to say openly.

Question: what were you told about iLabs and Frankenstein? These are the big draws for v7 and yet I've found no one who has used them.

spiderjericho

Hmm.

You know. My eyes are completely open to how dangerous a hacker can be.

Our instructor demonstrated Armitage to us. It wasn't completely working right, but he wanted to display to us that he could capture http session information between two users and the internet.

The students were able to see, from an SSL connection, the username and password the users were providing.

Completely forgetting this, I came back from lunch and logged into my web mail. Next thing you know, one of the students yelled out who is user such and such. I was like me. Next thing you know, I walk over to his station and see my username and password. I was like woah.

Then he had some of the students fiddle around with a worm and virus maker.

He also showed how to make a trojan.

It is insane what kind of FREE tools are out there to jack up your network. And the amount of work a network administrator would have to do to mitigate it is quite substantial (like monitoring arp poisoning, DHCP requests, using NAC, implementing IDS, HBSS, anti-virus, etc).

The OFFICIAL curriculum sucks. Seriously, except for the labs, the actual information is pretty light. It literally is power point slides.

You'd need to read a supplemental book to delve deeper. I have not viewed the CBT to know which version it is. As I mentioned, I won't attempt to LEARN the materials until after the course is over (I'm also in the process of moving).

I did download a copy of the latest Ubuntu and Backtrack and will use some Windows in a internal VMnet to test the labs.

We did not get to use Frankenstein. I want to say the instructor said they have been unable to get it to work nor have we touched iLab.

Since I'm only being exposed to most of this for the first time, I have no clue on the age of the software. It probably is a bit behind (like they're using Backtrack 4r2).

spiderjericho

Well today was sort of a throw away day. We sped through like five modules in the curriculum (sniffing, social engineering, DOS, session hijacking and buffer over flow.

At this point, he's mainly covering the important topics needed for the test.

NickDog

I have not looked into the material as I am about 8 months away from considering CEH but I know that LabSim did a survey a few months ago asking which new certification people would like them to create material for. CEH was one of them.

SephStorm

Thanks for the info, it sounds like Ec-Council needs some work on its internals...

question, why is your camp 4 days? most are 5 days...

spiderjericho

SephStorm wrote: »

Thanks for the info, it sounds like Ec-Council needs some work on its internals...

question, why is your camp 4 days? most are 5 days...

Sorry for the delay. I was in the process of moving and have finally gotten an internet connection. I took the exam on June 10. I managed to pass it with a 77 percent. Normally, I'd be griping about the score, but giving the nature of the course, I was satisfied with my performance. The class is definitely anemic. If you're looking to learn the ins and outs and you're not there for the lulz (sec), then you're going to need supplemental material and a decent computer with VMworkstation 6/7 or Esxi (or Virtualbox or Xenserver). I started reading the Sybex book for v6, and it seems to expound and explain some of the holes I had. I think it's preferable to do the course self paced versus the boot camp. Oh, and you asked why the class was four days, it wasn't, but we spent the last day going over questions and taking the exam.

Destro_2000

I just received my material in the mail and I am going to work my way through them.

My question is how is the test. Are the questions straight forward, (Security+) are you situational (CCNA) or are they analytical (CISSP) Also have you taken both exams, CPT and CEH?

myworld

hi..quick question i am not sure i can ask here or not but...

which training provider did you use for your training for CEH?

thanks